The Present Truth, Vol. 12 (1896)

January 2, 1896

"The True Relation of the Church to the State" The Present Truth 12, 1.

E. J. Waggoner

RELATION OF THE CHURCH TO CHRIST

The church is the body of Christ. We read that God set Christ at His own right hand in the heavenly places, "and gave Him to be Head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all." Eph. i. 22, 23. "He is the Head of the body, the church." Col. i. 18.

The body that is severed from its head is a dead body. That body which has an outward connection with the head, but which does not respond to the thoughts of the head, and does not move in harmony with them, is paralysed, and is the same as dead. So that so-called church which is not prompted in all its acts by the thoughts and Spirit of Christ, is not the true, living church of Christ. It has a name to live, but is dead.

Christ is "the Head of the body, the church," "for it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell." Col. i. 18, 19. The fulness that dwells in Him is the fulness of God. Col. ii. 9. It is the fulness of grace and truth. John i. 14. "And of His fulness have all we received." John i. 16. The church, which is His body, is "the fulness of Him that filleth all and all." Eph. i. 22, 23. Both Christ and His true church have the same "fulness," namely, that of God. They are one. "As He is, so are we in this world." 1 John iv. 17. Therefore,

The relation of the church to the State is identical with the relation of Christ to the State. Of course speaking of "the church," we mean the church of the Bible, and nothing less. The professed church of Christ which presumes to assume a different relation to the State from that which He occupied when on earth, is false to Him and to its profession.

THE CHURCH AND ITS MEMBERS

But the church is composed of members, and the interests and duty of the whole body is the interest and duty of each individual member. "We are many members, yet one body in Christ, and every one members one of another." Rom. xii. 5. "Whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular." 1 Cor. xii. 26, 27. The church as a whole sustains the same relation to Christ that each individual member sustains. "The Head of every man is Christ." 1 Cor. xi. 3. "He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk even as He walked." 1 John ii. 6. Therefore we have the further unavoidable conclusion, that

The relation of each individual member of the church to the State is identical with the relation of the church itself to the State; and this, as we have seen, is identical with the relation of Christ Himself to the State. "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." Rom. viii. 9.

WHAT "THE STATE" IS

What now do we mean by "the State"? When we speak of "the State," without any qualifications expressed or implied, we do not refer to any particular State or form of government, but to earthly government, as distinct from the government of God. Neither do we mean law-makers and rulers alone, since they would be nothing without people under them. And since all the world is under some form or other of human government, the

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term "the State" is really synonymous with "the world." Therefore we have the final, unavoidable conclusion, that

The relation of the church and of each member of it, to the State, is simply the relation of Christ to the world. Our task then is to consider from the Bible what that relation is, and to apply it practically to ourselves.

CHRIST'S RELATION TO THE WORLD

In the first place, and including everything else, the relation of Christ to the world is one of love and sacrifice. "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John iii. 16. This is as true of Christ as of the Father, for He "loved us," and "gave Himself for us." See Gal. ii. 20; Rev. i. 5. He said, "The bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." John vi. 51.

This means that the attitude of the church and of each member of it, to the world and to each individual in the world, whether ruler or subject, whether official or private citizen, is to be one of salvation, and not of condemnation and reproach. "For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." John iii. 17. Christ said to the rebellious Jews, "Do not think that I will accuse you unto the Father." John v. 45. To His disciples He said, "Ye are the salt of the earth." "As My Father hath sent Me, so send I you." John xx. 21.

Another text which shows at the same time the relation both of Christ and of His true disciples to the world, is 2 Cor. v. 19, 20; "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. So then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, Be ye reconciled to God."

That is, we are now, as members of Christ's body, to do the same work that Christ did when He was on earth in the flesh. We are "in Christ's stead," "ambassadors for Christ." God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, and now He appeals to the world through the church of Christ, just as He did then through Christ Himself.

NOT LIKE THE WORLD

In order to save men, Christ came as one of them. He had all honour and authority, but He could not have reached men if He had come to them in the form of a king. It would have shut Him away from the common people, for however kind He might have been, they would have been diffident in His presence, because of His office. So He "emptied Himself," and "took upon Him the form of a servant." Phil. ii. 5-7. God says, "I have exalted One chosen out of the people." Ps. lxxxix. 19. Christ was one of the people, not above them, except in goodness and meekness. The poorest and humblest did not shrink from Him, because He was one of them. There was no barrier between Him and the common people. When one wished Him to assume a position of authority in worldly matters, He said, "Man, who made Me a judge or a divider over you?" Luke xii. 14.

We, as followers of Christ, are exhorted to let the same mind be in us that was in Him. Phil. ii. 5; 1 Peter iv. 1. When two disciples, thinking that Christ's kingdom was of this world, asked for places of honour and authority in it, He said to them all, and to us as well, "The princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you; but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant; even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many." Matt. xx. 25-28.

The disciples of Christ, therefore, cannot hold offices of power and authority in the governments of earth. The chief reason why not, and the one that is sufficient in our present study, is that such positions of authority are inconsistent with the character of servants. It is not difficult for anybody to see that it would have been incongruous for Christ to hold any office whatever under the government, or to have anything to do with politics. Now if a Christian at the present day is really like Christ it should be as incongruous for him to occupy such a position as it would have been for Christ. If it seems natural and right for professed Christians nowadays to be politicians, it is simply because the standard of Christianity has fallen below that of Christ.

Christ broke down every barrier that would separate the common people from Him. He was simply one of the common people, sympathising with them, and helping them in their needs. Whoever consents to occupy any position that is above that of the most common people, except as the meekness of the Spirit of Christ may elevate his character above theirs, is not a true representative of Christ, but is elevating himself above Christ in this world.

Again, Christ says: "My kingdom is not of this world." John xviii. 36. Therefore His people are not of this world, as He says, "If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." John xv. 19. In His prayer for them, and for us, He said, "The world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." John xvii. 14. How can a man be a part of the machinery of the world, to carry out the plans of the world, and not be "of the world"? It is impossible to be a part of the world, and still not be of the world.

CITIZENS OF HEAVEN

The force of Christ's statement that we are not of the world, in connection with the subject before us, is seen more clearly when we read the words penned by the Apostle Paul: "Our citizenship is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ." Phil. iii. 20. A man cannot consistently have an active citizenship in two countries at the same time. If we are citizens of heaven, then we are not of this world; if we choose to be known as citizens of this world, the same as those who do not profess to be "partakers of the heavenly calling," then we break off our allegiance to heaven.

STRANGERS AND PILGRIMS

Consider this point further. "If ye are Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Gal. iii. 29. If we are not Abraham's seed, then we are not Christ's. But if we are Abraham's seed, then we shall walk as Abraham walked. Read John viii. 39 and Rom. iv. 11, 12. Abraham and those who were heirs with him of the promise, "confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declared plainly that they seek a country. And truly,

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if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly; wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He hath prepared for them a city." Heb. xi. 13-16.

Note the statement, "They that say such things declared plainly that they seek a country." What things? Why, those who say that they are strangers and pilgrims on the earth, such ones declared plainly that they seek a country, that is, an heavenly. Their confession that they are strangers and pilgrims is the plainest declaration that could be made to that effect. But if they do not by their actions as well as their words confess that they are strangers and pilgrims, then of course they do not declare that they seek for any different country from this present world.

Christ, the Seed of Abraham, was likewise a stranger and a pilgrim on this earth. He was only a sojourner here; in the world, yet utterly separate from it. If we are not in the same position, then we are not Christ's. Why should Christians in this generation sustain any different relation to the world than in the days of Abraham and of Christ? The Spirit of God by Peter shows that they will not, for he exhorts them "as strangers and pilgrims." 1 Peter ii. 11.

Now this expression is not a mere form of words or figure of speech. It was strictly and literally true of Abraham, of Christ, and of the apostles. The words of the Bible are not used for sound, nor to fill up space, but mean just what they indicate. The terms "pilgrims and strangers," and "sojourners," when applied to Christians on this earth, and the statement that their citizenship is in heaven, mean that they occupied the same relation to the governments of this world that a citizen of any country on earth would occupy if he were travelling in a foreign country.

It needs no argument to show that it would be highly inconsistent for such a traveller to interfere with the affairs of the country where he might be sojourning for a short time. He could not expect to hold office. If he wished to, he could do so only by adopting it as his own country, and severing his connection with his former country.

An Englishman or an American travelling in Russia, Turkey, or China, would find himself subjected to many inconveniences. He would find many things not to his liking. He would be annoyed by laws and regulations which he might consider unjust; yet he would not think of trying to set those things right by seeking to amend or abolish the laws. Neither would he, if he were wise, make bitter comments upon the government. He would know that he had no business to interfere with the affairs of the country, and would quietly submit to the inconveniences, consoling himself with the thought that he was going to stay but a little while. Even so should Christians,-citizens of the heavenly country, and pilgrims and strangers on this earth,-do when subjected to the annoyances of unjust laws here below. They can be patient until the coming of the Lord, knowing that it will be but a little while till their travelling days are done, and they rest in a quiet habitation.

SEEKING THE PROTECTION OF EARTHLY GOVERNMENTS

"But," some one will ask, "If the stranger were grossly ill-treated, and especially if he were unlawfully dealt with, would he not be justified in appealing to his own government for protection?"

Certainly he would, and so the Christian stranger on this earth may do, even as Christ Himself left us an example, that we should follow in His steps; "who, when He was reviled, reviled not again, when He suffered, He threatened not, but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously." 1 Peter ii. 23. His disciples have the privilege of doing the same, with the assurance that they will not appeal in vain; for "I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and the right of the poor." Ps. cxl. 12.

Another thought in connection with seeking for or depending upon the protection of earthly governments. It is a fact that the protecting power of the State is simply its fighting power. The British government, which is always so prompt to protect British subjects in whatever part of the world they may be, and to demand instant apology or reparation for any insult or injury to one of them, does so only on the strength of its army and navy. If it were not for its powerful men-of-war, it would have no power whatever to protect its citizens. A mere request from the government, with no power back of the request to force compliance, would be unheeded.

Now if we as Christians ask for or depend upon the protection of the State, we are asking it to fight for us, if mere words do not suffice. But the servants of Christ cannot fight. He said, "If My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight." John xviii. 36. His kingdom is not of this world, and therefore they cannot fight, either in their own behalf or for somebody else. He is the Prince of peace, and His true servants are as He is. If therefore they may seek the protection of the State, they occupy the inconsistent position of saying to the State, "We cannot fight for ourselves, because that is wrong; will you not please fight for us? But bear in mind that we would not fight for you, if you should ask us to." It would not be simply inconsistent; it would be wicked.

But the best of all is that Christians do not need the protection of earthly governments. Their King will be their protection when all the governments of earth are arrayed against them. For them to ask the protection of the State, therefore, would be

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to distrust and dishonour the power and willingness of the Lord to protect them. See Ezra viii. 21-28.

AMBASSADORS OF PEACE

Christ's servants cannot fight, because their Master is the Prince of Peace, and they are sent in His stead to preach peace. They are ambassadors for Christ, to carry the message of the Gospel of peace to the world; not to a few people only, but to "all people" (Luke ii. 10), to "nations, and tongues, and kings." Rev. x. 11. As such they are not to ally themselves with earthly governments, nor in any way to interfere in their affairs, since those governments exist only by the power of the sword. To do so would be disloyalty to their King and country.

As ambassadors they have nothing to do with maintaining their own rights. They are charged only with the duty of maintaining the honour of their King and Government, and in upholding His rights. God has a right to every man's service, and His ambassadors are standing for His rights, when, in Christ's stead, they induce men to become reconciled to God. While they are doing this work, the strength of their home Government, that is, the Government of heaven, is pledged to their support and protection. Earthly governments can only avenge insults to their ambassadors after they are committed; but God is able not only to execute vengeance, but to restrain wrath. When the fathers, to whom the promises were made, and whose children we are if we are Christ's, "went from one nation to another, and from one kingdom to another people, He suffered no man to do them wrong, yea, He reproved kings for their sakes, saying, Touch not Mine anointed, and do My prophets no harm." Ps. cv. 13-15.

RELATION OF THE CHURCH TO THE STATE AS A PERSECUTOR

This is one of the most important features of the subject, and it is of the most practical interest to us at the present time and for the time to come. But the same principles with which we started will guide us here. The relation of the church to the persecuting State is identical with the relation of Christ to His persecutors; and the relation of each member of the church to the persecuting State is the same also.

The exhortation to us is, "Consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin." Heb. xii. 3, 4. Christ did resist unto blood, striving against sin, without thinking or becoming discouraged. It is when we fail to consider Him, that we become weary and faint, and in that condition we fret and give utterance to expressions that are not Christlike. Let us take a few moments to study Him as we are constantly to consider Him.

Consider Him in the Judgment hall, and on the cross. "He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth." Isa. liii. 7. "When He was reviled, He reviled not again." 1 Peter ii. 23. One of His revilers was so struck with His meekness and forbearance, that he was won even on the cross.

"He was taken from prison and from judgment." Isa. liii. 8. His trial and execution were wholly unjust and illegal, and He was convicted only on the testimony of hired, false witnesses. Read Matt. xxvi. 59-62. Yet not one word of "righteous indignation" or reproach did He utter, nor did He even "ask only for His rights;" and in this He "suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow His steps." 1 Peter ii. 21.

Some one may say, "But Christ knew that His hour had come, and that He must necessarily suffer at that time, or else He would have done differently." Yes, He did know that His hour had come. Before that His enemies had many times tried to seize Him and put Him to death, "but no man laid hands on Him, because His hour was not yet come." John vii. 30. When at last He was taken, and He said to Pilate, "Thou couldest have no power at all against Me, except it were given thee from above." John xix. 10. He came to this world to bear witness to the truth (John xviii. 37), and He witnessed a good confession before Pontius Pilate. 1 Tim. vi. 13. "As He is, so are we in this world." If we as Christians are called to bear witness before governors and kings, we may have the same assurance that Christ had, that they can have no power against us except what is given from above. So we need not worry about ourselves, but may give our whole attention to the Lord's business. If we are walking "in the light as He is in the light," we may know that no harm can come to us if our hour has not come; and if it has come, we may meet it even as He did.

Not only did no words of reproach against His persecutor fall from the lips of Christ, but none appear in the record of His sufferings. On the cross He prayed, "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do." Thus He illustrated His own words to us, "I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." Matt. v. 44.

Praying for our enemies is incompatible with holding them up to contempt and scorn, or seeking to have punishment executed on them for their misdeeds. The Lord has taught us to pray, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us." Now if we claim that we do pray for them that despitefully use us and persecute us, and at the same time publish them as dastardly miscreants, and hold them up to the indignation and scorn of others, and ask for the strength of a law to be visited on them, we virtually say that we wish the Lord to treat us in the same way.

But God does not do that way. He "upbraideth not." "He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities." Ps. ciii. 10. "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself," not doing or saying anything that would tend to drive the world from Him. He was drawing them; and this He did by "not imputing their trespasses unto them." 2 Cor. v. 19. Holding men up to scorn or reproach is not the way to draw them.

Of course this does not mean that we are to call evil good, or that we are not to show people their sins. We are sent to save them, and they cannot be saved from their sins if they do not know them. But this must be done in love, and with no other desire than to save their souls. Love will not lead to the saying of a word that will wound the feelings of any, or cause others to hold them in reprobation. When we have in our hearts the love for sinners that Christ had, we shall know very well how to deal tenderly with sinners without compromising the truth.

It may be thought that by setting forth in glaring colours the injustice

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and maliciousness of persecutors, we can excite in others such indignation that they will shun the same course, and be led to accept the truth. But we must remember, first, that the salvation of the persecutors is just as important as the salvation of anybody else, and, so far as we know, just as possible. And, second, that "the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God." James i. 20. Indignation and bitterness against persecutors has nothing in common with the Spirit of Christ, and can never lead one to Christ. Such a spirit is but a face of the spirit of persecution itself, and may easily develop into the same persecution.

LOVE AND TENDERNESS FOR THE ERRING

Let us go back of the trial and crucifixion of Christ, to consider a still greater manifestation of His love and tenderness for those who were seeking His life. In the washing of His disciples' feet, we have one of the most wonderful and touching exhibitions of the love of Christ for erring and malicious men. It shows us how He laboured to save them.

Before going further, read John xii. 1-8 together with Matt. xxvi. 6-16, and John xiii. 1-30. Read these scriptures carefully, and note the following points:-

Judas was angry because the woman used the ointment upon Jesus, instead of selling it and putting the money into the treasury. He even influenced the other disciples to protest against the "waste." But they did not know that Judas was a thief, and that he was angry because he could not get the money for himself. Jesus, however "needed not that any should testify of man, for He knew what was in man." John ii. 25. Therefore He knew that Judas was a thief, and that he had been stealing from the treasury. He knew also the hypocrisy of his pretended care for the poor.

Judas resented the gentle reproof of Jesus, and, in order to get revenge, and at the same time to satisfy his avarice, he went at once to the chief priests, and made a bargain to sell his Lord to them. Jesus also knew this.

Six days afterward came the passover, when Jesus washed the feet of the disciples, as told in John xiii. The devil had already put in the heart of Judas to betray Jesus (verse 2), who knew all about it, yet Jesus washed the feet of Judas with the rest; for we read that while He was washing their feet Jesus said, "Ye are clean, but not all. For He knew who should betray Him; therefore said He, Ye are not all clean." Verses 10, 11. Judas did not go out until after Jesus had finished washing their feet, and had sat down again to supper. See verses 21-30.

Think of it! Judas had already bargained away the Lord. To be sure he did not realise what would be the result, even as few men realise the end of their actions. But it is true that there was in his heart bitter envy and hatred against the Lord, and maliciousness which involved murder. Jesus knew all this, yet He washed his feet.

There was never on earth a baser deed than that of Judas. The Roman soldiers cruelly abused the Lord; but their trade was to shed blood, and they knew nothing of Jesus except that He was a condemned criminal. The priests and rulers were more wicked, for they had heard the gracious words of Christ, and had seen His mighty works of love and compassion. But their wickedness was not equal to that of Judas, for he had been the intimate "familiar friend" of Jesus. He had lived with Jesus, and had been the recipient of His goodness. He had had evidences of His Messiahship and of His goodness, that none other of His persecutors had. At the time of the Passover supper Judas was meditating the basest act of treachery ever known on this earth; yet Jesus, against whom it was directed, and who knew all about it, lovingly washed the feet of that, His cruellest enemy.

Why was it?-"For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you." In that He taught us not only to love the brethren, but also love for our enemies. Since Judas was the basest of all base men, there can be no question but that what Jesus did for him He would

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as readily have done for any other man in the world. He would as readily have washed the feet of the chief priests, or of Pilate, as of Judas. Therefore if we do not have such love in our hearts for all men, even those who may be seeking our life, as would lead us to wash their feet if occasion served, then washing the brethren's feet is but a form, and we are not following the example of Christ. It is a small thing to love the brethren, who loved us; but the example of Jesus teaches more than this. It teaches the tenderest love towards our bitterest and basest enemies.

THE FORBEARANCE OF JESUS

Note further that Jesus treated Judas just as He did the other disciples, although He knew his heart, and that he was planning to betray Him. There was not an act, not a gesture, not an expression, not a tone of voice, not even a look, that betrayed to the other disciples the fact that Judas was a traitor. Jesus knew that the devil had already put into the heart of Judas to betray Him, and that he had already made a bargain, yet He did not hold up his case for the indignation of the other disciples. There was no difference in His demeanour towards the sullen Judas and the loving John. In this Jesus was showing His method of dealing with the worst sinners. He was giving us an example.

What led Jesus to act in this way? Did He force Himself to it? Did He make a mighty effort to conceal His feelings? Certainly not. There was no guile in Him. He had nothing to conceal. There was nothing in His heart but love. He loved the erring Judas with the tenderest love. We have much to learn of the greatness and the tenderness of God's love for sinners, and we can learn it only as "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." Then we can labour for the salvation of our persecutors even as for that of our most devoted friends, having no thought of their unkind and unjust treatment of us. Then we shall occupy the same relation to the world that Christ did, who came not to condemn the world, but to save the world.

SEEKING TO SAVE

For remember that what Jesus did was for the sake of Judas himself, as well as for the sake of the other disciples and for us. He desired to save Judas. Up to the moment that Judas received the sop, and went out, there was a possibility of his repenting, and abandoning his wicked purpose. Look again at the narrative. Before the Passover the devil had put into the heart of Judas to betray Jesus. But Judas had not yet done it. Jesus was always loving and kind, seeking to save the lost, having "compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way." Heb. v. 2. What could more strongly tend to melt the heart than to see Jesus at one's feet to wash them? What a depth of kindness and tender love it revealed! What a desire to win the erring? How Judas must have had to steal his heart to resist it! At last the decisive moment came. Jesus said that the one to whom He should give a sop, should betray Him. Judas, in spite of the Divine love that had been manifested toward him, took the sop, thus finally committing himself to the awful deed; "and after the sop Satan entered into him." John xiii. 27. The die was cast. Even then Jesus had no harsh words for him. Knowing that there was now no hope that Judas would repent, He simply said, "That thou doest, do quickly." Then Judas went out from the presence of the One who loved him with an everlasting love, and who had been drawing him with lovingkindness. But the fact that he received the grace of God in vain does not in the least diminish the force of the example for us. May it not be lost upon us.

SAUL THE PERSECUTOR

We need not turn from this scene, when we consider the case of Saul of Tarsus, for it presents but a continuation of the same love of Jesus for His enemies. In Saul we have one to whom the grace of God was not applied in vain; yet most of us would have been likely to look upon him as a hopeless case. He "persecuted the church of God, and wasted it." Gal. i. 13. He was "exceedingly mad" against the disciples, persecuting them unto death, entering into houses to drag men and women to prison, pursuing them even to strange cities, and compelling many to blaspheme. See Acts viii. 3; xxii. 4, 19; xxvi. 9-11. No man could ever be a more persistent and bitter persecutor than Saul was.

And he had heard the truth, too. He had disputed with Stephen, and had heard his last, inspired testimony. If we should see such a man in these days, how ready we should be to post him as a hardened wretch, unworthy of the notice of honest, respectable people. How natural it would be to think that the only use he could be put to would be to point him out as a terrible example. And yet that very man was all the time "a chosen vessel" to carry the truth to people and kings. His labours in the cause were "more abundant" than those of all the rest of the apostles. 1 Cor. xv. 10. With such an example before us, how dare Christians ever regard any bitter persecutor as beyond the hope of salvation? And if there is a possibility of saving any man, how dare Christians do or say one thing that could have any other tendency than to win them to Christ? Much less, how could we desire that their lives should be taken in retaliation for their persecution? Think of the wicked inconsistency of professed followers of the Prince of Peace, who came to save life, not to destroy it, asking for the lives of their enemies! running the risk of cutting off men in their sins who might be saved.

Paul himself suffered the same treatment that he had dealt to the church. Talk about injustice! where will you find it, if not in the imprisonment of Paul? Every Roman governor before whom he appeared agreed that he had done "nothing worthy of death or of bonds," yet he was kept bound. For two years Felix kept him in prison simply in order to get a bribe from him, and finally left him in prison, to gratify the spite of the Jews. Acts xxiv. 26, 27. Yet even after the thing was done, we have only the barest statement of the fact, without one word of comment as to the meanness of the persecution against him. Why was this?-It was because the Spirit of Christ was in the men who wrote as well as in the men who suffered.

In the case of the apostles, as well as in that of Christ, we see the true relation of the church to the State, because "great grace was upon them all." Filled with the Spirit of Christ, they had no thought but of love for the souls even of their bitterest enemies, and an intense desire for their salvation. May God grant that the same "great grace" may not be received by us in vain, and that we may so "consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself,"

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that we may learn that "the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle and unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure would give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will." 2 Tim. ii. 24-26.

"What grace, O Lord, and duty alone
Around Thy steps below;
What patient love was seen in all
Thy life and death of woe.

"For, ever on Thy burdened heart
A weight of sorrow hung;
Yet no ungentle, murmuring word
Escaped Thy silent tongue.

"Thy foes might hate, despise, revile;
Thy friends unfaithful proof;
Unwearied in forgiveness still,
Thy heart could not only love.

"Oh, give us hearts to love like Thee!
Like Thee, O Lord, to grieve
Far more for others' sins than all
The wrongs that we received."

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 1.

E. J. Waggoner

-The latest photograph of the heavens shows 68,000,000 planets and stars.

-The silverware belonging to Queen Victoria's table is valued at ?2,500,000.

-The number of criminal convictions in Great Britain has declined 37 per cent. in the last 22 years.

-Ostrich-taming is a very profitable industry in Africa, where it is computed there are over 150,000 tame birds.

-South Africa's revenue is largely increased this year, and it is surmised that the surplus for the year will be a quarter of a million.

-The Kingstown, Ireland, lifeboat crew, numbering fifteen, lost their lives by the capsising of the lifeboat in the terrible gales of last week.

-It is stated that the number of horses and mules employed in army service at the present time is about 27,000, the number being somewhat in excess of the establishment.

-Latest statistics show than there are at present seventeen Roman Catholic diocesan bishops in England and Wales and seven in Scotland, in addition to one archbishop and two bishops of titular sees. The total number of priests in Great Britain is 3,014, and these serve 1,789 churches and missions.

-A Warsaw linguist has invented a new language, as a rival to Volapuk, which has made little progress. The latest attempt at a universal language professes to have made it possible to learn the grammar in a few hours and the vocabulary in a low days. The author says he has already 10,000 able to talk and write it.

-The United States has, in proportion to its population, the smallest standing army of any nation. It consists of 27,959 men. With a view, perhaps, to the spirit of war which seems to be working among the people the military authorities recently obtained returns of the men available in case of a forced enlistment. These same to 9,144,500.

-A French naval engineer, resident in Liverpool, claims to have discovered a means of solidifying petroleum. It can, he says, be made as hard as marble. Three cubic feet represent the bulk of a ton of coal, and will continue combustible as long as 50 tons. Atlantic-going steamers, which now require 5,000 or 6,000 tons of coal, will henceforth only require 2,000 tons of petroleum blocks, and at the same time will be able to do the voyage in four days.

-A concrete bridge, having a clear span of 164 feet and 26 feet wide, has been constructed over the river Danube, at Munderkingen, in Austria. It is stated that, while stone is scarce and costly there, good Portland cement is produced in large quantities. In building the bridge the centring was covered with oiled paper, on which was laid the concrete. Blocks of this concrete have shown a resistance of 187 tons per square foot in seven days, 235 tons in 28 days, and 308 tons in live months.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 1.

E. J. Waggoner

The Seventh-day Adventist printing and publishing house in Christiania, Norway, has been fined 100 kroner (about ?5 10s.), under the Factory Act, for Sunday labour. The technical offence with which they were charged was that of allowing persons to work on Sunday, who do not keep the Sabbath, a few being employed in the works who are not Sabbath-keepers.

The religious journals and the ministers, with very few exceptions, on both sides of the Atlantic deprecate the idea that there should ever be war between Great Britain and the United States of America, either over the Venezuelan boundaries or anything else. That is well, and is what ought to be expected; for the two nations are really but two sections of one nation, having a common language and common interests. Both countries would have everything to lose, and nothing to gain, by a war, no matter which gained the technical victory.

If this peaceful talk between the people of the two countries were the result of love for peace itself, and utter abhorrence of all war and strife, it would be a cause for rejoicing. But such is not the case. There has not been in the United States any expression of disapproval of the war in Cuba, but rather a hope that the Cubans may succeed. We have heard very little, if any, protest in England against the war with Ashanti. And, worse still, the ministers and the religious press in both England and the United States are loudly demanding that war, even to extermination, be made on Turkey.

The New York Independent complains bitterly that "our missionaries are not protected," and asks that "a strong detachment of marines, not less than four hundred," be sent to Marash, to protect missionaries and missionary property. At the West London Mission the statement was made on "Peace Sunday" that the time had come when "we should send word to the Sultan that unless murder and outrage are instantly stopped we would bombard Constantinople;" and the New York religious journal just mentioned asks, "How long shall such a government be endured?"

Yet these same people will sometimes quote, "The powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God; and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation." At the same time they are encouraging the Armenians to rise up against the Turkish power, and are demanding that it be overthrown by the bombardment of cities, by which not only property, but the lives of men, women, and innocent children may be destroyed.

When people read the thirteenth of Romans, they seem to think that it means simply that "Our Government" is ordained of God. The English Government being a good Government is of course ordained of God. But the Scripture makes no distinction. The Turkish Government, or even that of Ashanti, is as truly ordained of God as is the Government of England or the United States. When the Apostle Paul wrote, there was no such thing as a "Christian nation" on earth. The Emperor Nero was on the throne of the world, and Christians were slaughtered by him without mercy. It is doubtful if another such monster of cruelty ever lived before or since his day. Yet the power was "ordained of God."

Imagine the Apostle Paul calling for vengeance on Nero, and asking that Rome be assaulted with engines of war! Yet it would have been no worse than for ministers to call for the bombardment of Constantinople. For Christians to have resisted the Roman Government, because of the abominations of Nero, would have been to bring damnation upon themselves. What makes it any different now, when the provocation is not nearly so great as it was then?

We are not apologising for cruelty and wickedness; but wickedness on the part of a heathen or a Mohammedan cannot be made right by wickedness on the part of professed Christians. Revenge doesn't right a wrong. To resist the Government of Turkey is to resist the ordinance of God just as surely as it would be to resist the Government of England or the United States; and Christians will not resist or denounce even their worst enemies or bitterest persecutors. The time has come when Christ's professed followers must decide whether they will follow Him or not; whether His words are practical, everyday life, or not.

Our readers will remember that the PRESENT TRUTH of Dec. 5 contained a copy of a letter that had been sent to the Home Secretary, stating the result of the working of the Factory Sunday law. Following is a copy of the reply that was received, which many of our readers may have seen in the newspaper press:-

Whitehall, 13th. December 1895.

With reference to your letter of the 1st. instant, drawing attention to the operation of Section 21 of the Factory and Workshop Act, 1878, in as far as it affects the printing works of the International Tract Society at 451 Holloway Road, I am directed by the Secretary of State to acquaint you that the matter has received his very careful consideration; but, as the law at present stands, the Seventh-day Adventists cannot be exempted from the penalties consequent upon a breach of the Factory laws as to Sunday labour. The Secretary of State does not think that the number of the sect afford any hope or reason for legislation to alter their position. I am, sir, your obedient servant, KENELM E. DIGBY.

All that is necessary to be said about this reply is, that the letter to the Home Secretary was not an appeal for any exemption to Seventh-day Adventists. It was written for the sake of Her Majesty's Government, that they might, if they wished, free themselves from the responsibility of a wicked law-a law that is wicked, not because it oppresses Seventh-day Adventists, but because it defies the law of God. It is just as wicked to impose a Sunday law upon a non-Sabbath-keeper as to seek to enforce it upon a seventh-day observer. The wickedness is in the law, even if it be kept, and not in the fines which it imposes on those who disregard it.

At some other time we shall call attention more at length to the admission that numbers, and not considerations of right and justice, are what influence those who have the framing and administration of the laws.

January 9, 1896

"Front Page" The Present Truth 12, 2.

E. J. Waggoner

The Apostle Paul was in a Roman prison for preaching the Gospel. A Jewish mob had seized him, and Roman soldiers were guarding him.

Yet in an epistle to his brethren he refers to himself as "Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ." Eph. iii. 1. And so he was. The Roman Emperor thought that he had Paul in his power, and Roman soldiers thought that they were keeping him.

But he was in the power of the Lord, and angels of God were his keepers. He was in the hands of the Lord, who could let him out of prison in an instant, if He wished, just as He did Peter. And so Paul was content. Happy is the man, even though he be in a dungeon, who knows that he is "the prisoner of the Lord."

"The wisdom which is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated." James iii. 17. This is the wisdom which God gives, therefore it is characteristic of God. What a comfort it is to know that He is "easy to be entreated." We do not have to work hard to induce Him to be gracious to us, for "He delighteth in mercy." Micah vii. 18. Even when we have been foolish, disobedient, and hateful, breaking all His commandments, He is still "easy to be entreated."

For a man to be stern and unrelenting, standing stiffly for his "rights," and exacting from debtors or transgressors all that the law will possibly allow him, is evidence of a deplorable lack of wisdom. It shows that his wisdom is only of this world, which is foolishness with God, who is the source of all true wisdom. He who knows God and His ways, how that "He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities," will, like Him, be "easy to be entreated," and "gentle to all men."

"The Divinity of Our Lord Jesus Christ" The Present Truth 12, 2.

E. J. Waggoner

CHRIST IS CREATOR

Immediately following the familiar text which says that Christ, the word, is God, we read that "all things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made." John i. 3. Comment cannot make this statement any clearer than it is, therefore we pass to the words of Heb. i. 1-4: "God. . . hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; being made so much better than the angels, as He hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they."

Still more emphatic than this are the words of the Apostle Paul in the Colossians. Speaking of Christ as the One through whom we have redemption, He describes Him as the One "who is the image of the invisible God, the Firstborn of every creature; for by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by Him, and for Him; and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist." Col. i. 15-17.

This wonderful text should be carefully studied and often contemplated. It leaves not a thing in the universe that Christ did not create. He made everything in heaven, and everything on earth; He made everything that can be seen, and everything that cannot be seen; the thrones and dominions, and the principalities and the powers in heaven, all derive their existence from Him. And as He is before all things, and their Creator, so by Him do all things consist, or hold together. This is equivalent to what is said in Heb. i. 3, that He upholds all things by the word of His power. It was His word that made the heavens; and that same word holds them in their place, and preserves them from destruction.

We cannot possibly omit in this connection Isa. xl. 25, 26: "To whom then will ye liken Me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number; He calleth them all by names by the greatness of His might, for that He is strong in power; not one faileth." Or, as the Jewish translation more forcibly renders it, "from Him, who is great in might, and strong in power, not one escapeth." That Christ is the Holy One who thus calls the host of heaven by name, and holds them in their place, is evident from other portions of the same chapter. He is the One before whom it was said, "prepare ye the way of the Lord,

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make straight in the desert a highway for our God." He is the One who comes with a strong hand, having His reward with Him; the One who, like a shepherd, feed His flock, carrying the lambs in His bosom.

One more statement concerning Christ as Creator must suffice. It is the testimony of the Father Himself. In the first chapter of Hebrews, we read that God has spoken to us by His Son; that He said of Him, "Let all the angels of God worship Him;" that of the angels He saith, "Who maketh His angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire," but that He says to the Son, "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; a scepter of righteousness is the sceptre of Thy kingdom;" and God says further: "Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of Thine hands." Heb. i. 8-10. Here we find the Father addressing the Son as God, and saying to Him, Thou hast laid the foundations of the earth; and the heavens are the work of Thine hands. When the Father Himself gives this honour to the Son, what is man, that he should withhold it? With this we may well leave the direct testimony concerning the Divinity of Christ, and the fact that He is the Creator of all things.

Let no one imagine that we would exalt Christ at the expense of the Father, or would ignore the Father. That cannot be, for they are one, and their interests are identical. We honour the Father in honouring the Son. "He that honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father." Therefore no one can have a high conception of the Father unless he has a high conception of Christ. We are mindful of Paul's words, that "to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him" (1 Cor. viii. 6); just as we have already quoted, that it is by Him that God made the worlds. All things proceed ultimately from God, the Father; even Christ Himself proceeded and came forth from the Father; but it has pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell, and that He should be the direct, immediate Agent in every act of creation. Our object in this investigation is to set forth Christ's rightful position of equality with the Father, in order that His power to redeem may be better appreciated.

CHRIST NOT A CREATED BEING

Before passing to some of the practical lessons that are to be learned from these truths, we must dwell for a few moments upon an opinion that is honestly held by many who would not for any consideration willingly dishonour Christ, but who, through that erroneous opinion, do actually deny His Divinity. It is the idea that Christ is a created being, who, through the good pleasure of God, was elevated to His present lofty position. No one who holds this view can possibly have any just conception of the exalted position which Christ really occupies.

The view in question is built upon a misconception of a single text, Rev. iii. 14: "And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write: These things saith the Amen, the Faithful and true Witness, the beginning of the creation of God." This is wrongly interpreted to mean that Christ is the first being that God created; that God's work of creation began with Him. But this view antagonises the scripture which declares that Christ Himself created all things. To say that God began His work of creation by creating Christ is to leave Christ entirely out of the work of creation.

The word rendered "beginning" is arche, meaning, as well, "head" or "chief." It occurs in the name of the Greek ruler, Archon, in archbishop, and the word archangel. Take this last word. Christ is the Archangel. See Jude 9; 1 Thess. iv. 16; John v. 28, 29; Dan. x. 21. This does not mean that He is the first of the angels, for He is not an angel, but is above them. Heb. i. 4. It means that He is the chief or prince of the angels, just as an archbishop is the head of the bishops. Christ is the commander of the angels. See Rev. xix. 11-14. He created the angels. Col. i. 16. And so the statement that He is the beginning or head of the creation of God, means that in Him creation had its beginning; that, as He Himself says, He is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Rev. xxi. 6; xxii. 13. He is the source whence all things have their origin.

Neither should we imagine that Christ is a creature, because Paul calls him (Col. i. 15) "the Firstborn of every creature;" for the very next verses show Him to be Creator, and not a creature. "For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by Him, and for Him; and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist." Now if He created everything that was ever created, and existed before all created things, it is evident that He Himself is not among created things. He is above all creation, and not a part of it.

The Scriptures declare that Christ is "the only begotten Son of God." He is begotten, not created. As to when He was begotten, it is not for us to inquire, nor could our minds grasp it if we were told. The prophet Micah tells us all we can know about it, in these words: "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall be come forth unto Me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from the days of eternity." Micah v. 2, margin. There was a time when Christ proceeded forth and came from God, from the bosom of the Father (John viii. 42; i. 18), but that time was so far back in the days of eternity that to finite comprehension it is practically without beginning.

But the point is that Christ is a begotten Son, and not a created subject. He has by inheritance a more excellent name than the angels; He is "a Son over His own house." Heb. i. 4; iii. 6. And since He is the only begotten Son of God, He is of the very substance and nature of God, and possesses by birth all the attributes of God; for the Father was pleased that His Son should be the express image of His person, the brightness of His glory, and filled with all the fulness of the Godhead. So He has "life in Himself;" He possesses immortality in His own right, and can confer immortality upon others. Life inheres in Him, so that it cannot be taken from Him; but, having voluntarily laid it down, He can take it again. His words are these: "Therefore doth My Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of My Father." John x. 17, 18.

If anyone springs the old cavil, how Christ could be immortal and yet die, we have only to say that we do not know. We make no pretensions of fathoming infinity. We cannot understand how Christ could be God in the beginning, sharing equal glory with the

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Father, before the world was, and still be born a baby in Bethlehem. The mystery of the crucifixion and resurrection is but the mystery of the incarnation. We cannot understand how Christ could be God in the beginning, sharing equal glory with the Father, before the world was, and still be born a baby in Bethlehem. The mystery of the crucifixion and resurrection is but the mystery of the incarnation. We cannot understand how Christ could be God and still become man for our sake. We cannot understand how He could create the world from nothing, nor how He can raise the dead, nor yet how it is that He works by His Spirit in our own hearts; yet we believe and know these things. It should be sufficient for us to accept as true those things which God has revealed, without stumbling over things that the mind of an angel cannot fathom. So we delight in the infinite power and glory which the Scriptures declare belong to Christ, without worrying our finite minds in a vain attempt to explain the infinite.

Finally, we know the Divine unity of the Father and the Son from the fact that both have the same Spirit. Paul, after saying that they that are in the flesh cannot please God, continues: "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you, now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." Rom. viii. 9. Here we find that the Holy Spirit is both the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ. Christ "is in the bosom of the Father;" being by nature of the very substance of God, and having life in Himself, He is properly called Jehovah, the self-existent One, and is thus styled in Jer. xxiii. 56, where it is said that the righteous Branch, who shall execute judgment and justice in the earth, shall be known by the name of Jehovah-tsidkenu-THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

Let no one, therefore, who honours Christ at all, give Him less honour than He gives the Father, for this would be to dishonour the Father by just so much; but let all, with the angels in heaven, worship the Son, having no fear that they are worshipping and serving the creature instead of the Creator.

"For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that He through His poverty might be rich."

"'Separate from Sinners'" The Present Truth 12, 2.

E. J. Waggoner

When the leper came to Jesus, saying, "Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean," "Jesus put forth His hand and touched Him." The leper was an unclean being, and great was the fear of contagion; yet Jesus was not afraid to touch him, and he suffered no injury from the touch.

This is a likeness of Christ's connection with sin. He "bare our sins in His own body on the tree." 1 Pet. ii. 24. "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Isa. liii. 6. Yet although He was made to be sin for us, He "knew no sin." He "did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth." He could come into the closest contact with sin and not be defiled by it. He received sinners, and was their friend, associating freely with the worst of them, yet He was "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens." Heb. vii. 26.

So may it be with us, if Christ dwells in us. We may work for the degraded, coming in contact with them, and giving them the sympathetic touch, as He did, and not be defiled. We may be "unspotted from the world," while coming close to it as Christ did. It is possible that we may not be in high repute with the world for so doing; but that matters not if we have the mind that was in Christ, who "made Himself of no reputation."

"A Study of War" The Present Truth 12, 2.

E. J. Waggoner

A French writer has brought out a book on war from the point of view of a student of social history. There is no need of any special study of the history of war on the part of the Christian in order to know what it is. It can only come from lust and Satan. Two nations fight just as two men do, and the outcome is murder whether two or two million combatants engage. But it is interesting to see the plain terms in which the writer referred to sets down the results of his study of war from primitive lines and amongst all peoples. The Echo says of it:-

M. Letourneau's book is rich in documentary illustration of the diverse forms of cruelty born of war in all climes and ages, and he shows clearly that pillage is at the bottom of all war, whether ancient or modern. The booty may be crops, herds, flocks, women, slaves, or territory, but the determining cause is theft, brigandage, conquest, choose the name you will. Rapine is behind all war, and the philosophy of war is theft by violence. The footpad and conqueror occupy the same moral ground.

You may trick your thief out in scarlet and gold, and pin stars upon his breast; you may count the work of the assassin as glory, poets may hymn his praise, artists raise trophies in his honour, historians chronicle and commend his deeds, a stupid people applaud him, without thought of his victims. The atrocities he has committed may be made the occasion of Te Deums. But strip him of the glamour, the accessories with which war-worship has surrounded him, and he appears in his native verity, a robber and an assassin, whether decked with dangling scalps or glittering with stars and crosses.

Our age is full of contradictions, arising possibly from the new-born spirit of humanity asserting itself even more strongly against the old, and so we do not eat our slain, but by a sorry pleasantry pretend to respect their remains. We bury them, but we have slain them notwithstanding. Moreover, and this is a most significant fact, we make believe to be

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ashamed of war. It has no defenders. It is doubtful if we shall ever hear again from the lips of any weight the paradox dear to Joseph de Maistre and Count von Moltke, that war is of Divine origin. We are leaving the blasphemous appeal to the God of Battles to races on lower rungs of the ladder of human progress, like the fanatical sectaries of Allah. We proclaim war to be evil, and lament its necessity.

This may be hypocrisy; but if hypocrisy is a homage paid by vice to virtue, we may conclude that the detestation of the crime of war has grown strong enough in humanity to extort a semblance of respect from the old and savage Adam.

"The Facts and Hypotheses of Spiritualism" The Present Truth 12, 2.

E. J. Waggoner

The following paragraphs from a paper in the Wesleyan Methodist Magazine stated very plainly the facts regarding the growth of the doctrines of Spiritualism. The writer does not overstate them, but rather otherwise; for the principles underlying the cult are well nigh universally received. We know that the wonder-working power of Satan will increase as the end draws near, until the "great signs and wonders" will deceive all but the very elect, who know the keeping power of the Lord indeed, and know that His Word is true. When that Word declares that "the dead know not anything," and that only in the resurrection is there life to those who sleep in death, it may be known that these manifestations can only come from Satan. But the writer says:-

Probably the generality of our readers are little aware of the magnitude of the actual and potential importance of the questions which arise in connection with the subject indicated by the above title. If the matter is mentioned in the circles in which we generally move, it is usually received with more or less of derision, and the scoffers are often disposed to pride themselves on a scepticism which they euphemistically describe as common sense. They will admit, however, that facts are stubborn things. In saying this I by no means intend to imply the admission that all or any of the alleged phenomena asserted by professed Spiritualists do really occur; I will leave that for the present.

The stubborn fact to which I now refer is that millions of people in America and thousands around us at home do thoroughly believe in them, and, moreover, prove their faith, as all professed believers do not, by taking it with them as a factor in their practical life. Further, they not only believe in the occurrence of these phenomena as physical facts, but they fully accept the hypothesis which ascribes them to operation of discarnate spirits; or, rather, they do more than this-they regard this explanation as no longer of the nature of an hypothesis, and class it among the number of established facts.

Nor can it for a moment be said that those who entertain such convictions are gathered mainly from a class of less than average intelligence: quite the contrary is the case. You could easily fill the largest hall in London with holders of the faith of Spiritualism; and among them you would find Fellows of the Royal Society, university professors, literary men and women of the highest standing, and numerous members of every learned profession, not excluding the Church. For many years a Society has been growing and gathering strength in our midst, one of whose principal objects is to pursue and encourage the study of the whole subject. This Society, which though at first obstinately sceptical, has recently, in affect, endorsed many of the most astonishing assertions of the Spiritualists, numbers amongst its members scores of the most distinguished names of the day, and is represented in almost every civilised country.

It is true there are a few purists who profess to be exponents of the most rigid scientific orthodoxy, who persistently refuse to listen to or look at any evidence bearing on the question. On the other hand, after many years' acquaintance with the progress of this inquiry, I do not know of a single instance in which a man, of whatever capacity, has fairly faced the phenomena and honestly examined them, without being entirely convinced of their reality.

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 2.

E. J. Waggoner

-Queen Victoria as Empress of India rule over more Mohammedans than the Sultan.

-One-quarter of all the people born die before six years, and one-half before they are sixteen.

-The Queen of Portugal has successfully passed the examination for second year's medical students in Lisbon.

-A lady named Miss Aldrich-Blake has been the first of her sex to take the degree of Master of Surgery of Loudon University.

-Vesuvius now presents a magnificent spectacle. The lava is precipitated over a ravine, forming a cascade of fire 30ft. in height.

-The largest diamond ever found in Africa has been discovered in the Transvaal. It weighs 694 carats, and is valued at ?300,000.

-Technically, we are told, any inhabitant of the United Kingdom is liable to be called upon to undertake the uncongenial task of hangman. The salary is one pound a week as a retaining fee, and two pounds after an execution.

-About 85,000,000 Christmas letters and book packets passed through the General Post-office in London. In Manchester over three and a-half millions of Christmas letters passed through the post, half a million more than last year.

-The average wealth throughout the world, taking its population at fifteen hundred millions, is about sixty-five pounds per head, according to recent calculations. Russia, in spite of her natural resources, appears to be the poorest civilised nation on the face of the globe.

-It is estimated by the Poor-law Guardians that there are 4,000 more paupers in London this season than in the corresponding period of last year, the total now being 107,000. This is a greater number than the returns have shown for the past twenty-four years. Throughout the whole of 1895, pauperism maintained a high level, the worst month being February, when there were no less than 150,000 names on the poor-list.

-Farming, which was once practically the only industry in the kingdom, still remains the largest single industry, and agricultural capital still forms one-fourth of the whole wealth of the nation. The number of persons supported by it in the United Kingdom is estimated at 6,520,000, as against 9,108,400 by manufacturing and 19,182,000 by commerce. The number of persons actually employed in farming is estimated at 2,501,000 as against 5,189,000 in manufactures and 7,985,000 in commerce.

-The ordinary pension to the widow of a lieutenant in the English army is ?40, and ?10 for each child. A captain's widow has ?50, and ?12 for each child; a lieutenant-colonel's widow has ?90, and ?16 for each child; a general's widow ?120, and ?20 for each child. If death is directly traced to fatigue, privation or exposure, the pensions are increased by half as much again; if the officer is killed in action or dies of wounds within twelve mouths of the battle, the pensions are doubled.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 2.

E. J. Waggoner

Our mission ship, the Pitcairn, has just returned to San Francisco from its fourth cruise among the islands of the South Pacific, having left workers in various groups, preachers, teachers, and medical missionaries.

During the latter half of last year exceptionally heavy shipments of our books to foreign countries were made, and we are glad to say that the activity of the book canvassers promises a continuance of the demand. During the week cases of books have been sent to Singapore, Jamaica, Melbourne, Cape Town and Hamburg.

We are glad to learn from friends who have recently come from Constantinople, where they attended a general meeting of our brethren in Turkey, that our workers, most of whom are Armenians, find no great difficulty in carrying on their work in these troublous times in Turkey. Those who preach the Gospel of Christ, without vitiating their message by politics, are not persecuted, except by the Armenians.

In an interview after a recent address on the education question, in Hull, Cardinal Vaughan said: "I see in the distance a great drawing together of the two sections of the Christian faith. I see more-I see the time when there will be only the two great camps of Catholics and Rationalists." Protestants may know by this the position that is marked out for them.

One of the newspapers said the other day that not since Napoleon's day has the situation been so warlike as now. The suddenness with which events come and go is characteristic of the age of electricity and steam. The sensitiveness of the nations, which is but the aggregation of personal sensitiveness, which is but another name for sinful pride, finds more rapid means of expression than formerly, and from the Word Christians may know that these evils will "wax worse and worse." The world is rushing to destruction, and how great the need for earnest work on the part of every believer, from now on more than ever before.

He who begins by refusing to accept something which the Bible enjoins, will end by insisting upon doing something which the Bible forbids. In other words, he who is content with less than the Bible, will presently be found claiming a great deal more.

There is as much danger in attempting to do more than the Lord requires, as there is in refusing to do as much. When Lucifer determined to be above God, he fell to the depths of the bottomless pit. Men are to live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Now if we presume to add something to His Word we are separating from the life as surely as when we openly reject some of His words. In fact, adding to God's words is always connected with taking from them.

The Daily Chronicle of Monday, Dec. 23, contained the following editorial comment on the sermons of "Peace Sunday":-

For a Sunday dedicated to peace, yesterday may be reckoned as one of unusual interest. The Venezuelan question, of course, evoked hearty and spontaneous prayers for peace between "blood-tied" nations in all the churches, prayers which were further emphasised by vigorous appeals embodied in sermon or address. But the surprising thing was to hear, on such a day, more than one thoroughly belligerent address on the question of Armenian liberation. It is scarcely possible to recall a period when the Nonconformists of England assumed this attitude. The fact is significant, but the occasion arouses positive wonder. If on "Peace Sunday" the clarion of war may be sounded, it is evident that the spirit of Cromwell still survives in Protestant Nonconformity.

Without doubt; but where is the Spirit of Christ? Is the spirit of Cromwell supposed to be a sufficient substitute?

In expressing a doubt as to the world's readiness to substitute arbitration for war the Chronicle observes:-

It is the will and character of man that requires change, as well as the acts and deeds that are, after all, but the record of his passions and beliefs. Let us admit the sad truth that we are far from the ideal social state. Civilisation has brought no message of rest, no self-balanced and assured society, no reign of mildness or justice or truth. Poverty remains with us; or does not leave us; and though the race grows longer-lived and healthier, it is not appreciably happier or wiser.

Every believer in the Gospel knows that the heart of the difficulty is sin, and that nothing which fails to cleanse from sin can work reformation. Here all social reformers have failed. They have tried one form of government and another, one political party and then another. It is all the same the world over. It is not new constitutions, new rulers, new combinations that the world needs, but it needs to know the power that can change the heart and translate men from the kingdom of darkness into Christ's kingdom of light and peace.

The Pope has just "blessed" a shrine and picture which is said to be the earliest authentic picture of the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus. There is a third figure in the group, which with a delightful disregard for consistency is called Isaiah. The Pope has granted an indulgence of 300 days to all who shall visit this picture, which he has named "the Queen of the Prophets," and pray before it for the "conversion" of England.

Madame Novikoff, writing in praise of the Greek Church, says that in Russia there is perfect equality in the churches, no one having any claim to precedence, rich and poor alike standing together in the congregation. ("In Russian churches pews are unknown, and there are in general no chairs.") The equality in church is good, but the test of the matter is the situation outside of the church. The brotherhood of the Christian faith is not a thing for the congregation merely, but a relationship of service and helpfulness every day and everywhere.

It is a fact that the most logical disestablishment party is within the Church of England. The organ, The Church of To-Day, speaks straighter for the separation of religion and the State than any of the great Nonconformist organs. These, in fact, argue constantly for the union of religion and the State, missing the principle of the whole question entirely. It matters not a whit whether it is a Churchman, Nonconformist, or Catholic in possession of civil power. The church that accepts it forsakes the Lord, and the power will be used against the truth of God; for he who does not go with Christ will surely go against Him.

January 16, 1896

"Ample Protection" The Present Truth 12, 3.

E. J. Waggoner

"The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them." Ps. xxxiv. 7.

That this is not a mere figure of speech, but an actual fact, as shown by many instances in the Bible. Let us note a few illustrations.

Sennacherib, king of Assyria, had come up with a vast army against Jerusalem, and had written the most boastful and insulting letter to Hezekiah, the king. Hezekiah placed the matter before the Lord, and received this assurance concerning the king of Assyria, "He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, neither shall he come before it with a shield, nor cast a mount against it. By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and he shall not come unto this city, saith the Lord. For I will defend the city to save it."

That was a promise of complete deliverance, and here is the record of its fulfilment: "And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the Lord went forth, and smote the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand; and when men arose early in the morning, behold they were all dead corpses. So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and return, and dwelt in Nineveh." 2 Kings xix. 32-36.

There is no one who may not have as great protection, for the promise is, "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them." Ps. xxxiv. 7. And

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the Lord is not content with sending forth a single angel to protect His servants. When Elisha and his servant were surrounded by the Syrian army,-horses, and chariots, and a great host,-and the servant was terrified, the prophet assured him, "They that be with us are more than they that be with them." 2 Kings vi. 16. Elisha was sure of this, even though he could not see his protectors, but the servant had not so strong faith, and so the Lord mercifully opened his eyes; "and he saw; and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha." With their aid Elisha lead the whole Syrian army where he would.

When Christ was surrounded by the soldiers and the mob, with the traitor Judas at their head, and Peter offered forcible resistance, the Lord bade him put up his sword, and said, "Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He shall presently give Me more than twelve legions of angels." Matt. xxvi. 53.

We are assured that "as He is, so are we in this world." 1 John v. 17. The Father's love for us is equal to His love for Him. John xvii. 23. Therefore we know that in any time of need we could pray to the Father, and He would send to our aid "more than twelve legions of angels," if so many were necessary. There are "ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands" of them (Rev. v. 11), even "an innumerable company of angels" (Heb. xii. 22), and they are all "ministering spirits, sent forth to do service for them who shall be heirs of salvation." There is therefore no lack of their help.

Now let us make a little calculation. "The angel of the Lord," who came to the aid of Hezekiah, proved himself equal at the very least, to one hundred and eighty-five thousand men. We know full well that he could just as easily have turned back Sennacherib's army if it had been ten times as large; but we will take the number given, counting one angel equal in a contest to one hundred and eighty-five thousand men.

But the Lord has promised us "more than twelve legions of angels," if we need them. A Roman legion was about six thousand men. Twelve legions make seventy-two thousand men. One hundred and eighty-five thousand multiplied by seventy-two thousand, gives us more than thirteen thousand millions. That is, the "more than twelve legions of angels," which the Lord holds at the service of each of His children, are, at the very lowest calculation, equal in fighting power to about fourteen thousand millions of men, or ten times the population of the whole earth.

With such an overwhelming force at his disposal, the child of God is safe anywhere. He needs not the protection of earthly powers, for he has power with him infinitely greater than all theirs combined; so that he may say: "The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?" "Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war should rise against me in this will I be confident." Ps. xxvii. 1, 3. "Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid."

"The Social Current" The Present Truth 12, 3.

E. J. Waggoner

The wisdom which leaves God out can be only earthly and sensual. This is a wise age, after the standards of earthy wisdom, and pride of the intellect. Culture and civilisation is, without doubt, more marked in this generation than in any preceding. What is to be the end of it all? The same conditions of society, the Lord says, as existed in the days before the flood, and in the days of Sodom. "So shall it be in the days of the Son of man." Luke xvii. 26.

As we near those days the current runs more swiftly. A few years make great differences in the moral tone of society. Even society journals, which profess no desire to cry out against those evils which are symptoms of moral decay, cannot forbear expressing mild surprise at the changes. Here are two notes which show how the current is running. The Queen says:-

It is apparent to all in society that smoking among ladies is immensely on the increase. Husbands, men, friends, and even brothers say nothing against the practice, and, oftener than not, encourage it, unless extravagant indulgence is a result; then they put a limit to the number of cigarettes to be smoked by the wife during the day, if she has not sufficient strength of mind to do so for herself; and, indeed, most lady smokers make a point of limiting themselves to three cigarettes a day on an average.

Again, speaking of the conversation of polite society, the Graphic says:-

If one ever met one's grandmother out at dinner, I wonder what she would think of the talk of the intellectual people of 1895? Young ladies, under the circumstances, have been heard to murmur that they "were thankful their mothers were not there," and as for the very Young Person, she has long been left out in the cold as a killjoy at the feast. It will be noticed that, in these days, unless it be an entertainment arranged entirely on her account, the Young Person does not dine out. Up-to-date conversation which includes everything that would have made our immediate progenitors faint with horror, precludes her presence at the table, and, be she as beautiful as Hebe, she must languish in the cold shades of the drawing-room until the diners have done with their scabreux topics, their Appolinaris, and their cigarettes. It is curious that in an age of so high a standard of morality as ours the conversation between men and women should so often partake of the unseemly. The century of Swift was not a highly moral or squeamish one, neither was the Dean a man to spare the whip, and yet, in his lampoon, the "Art of Polite Conversation," makes his fops and fine ladies talk the language of the school-room or the nursery compared to what may be heard in the night this week at London dinner parties.

It is of no use to denounce those who do these things. The only thing to do is to preach the Gospel to them. But it is important that those who desire to know the truth should recognise the fact that the world is not grandly sweeping round toward the Gospel, as so popularly supposed. It is filling up the measure which the prophecies of the last days set forth. The "form of godliness," the formal profession of Christianity, deceives multitudes who partake of the spirit of the world without recognising the fact that they are being swept away from the life and power of the Word. This is what makes the last days "perilous." While moral decay is striking into the root of society, the great tendency in the world is to pass a little religious legislation, require conformity to certain standards which are set up by human authority, cover up their rottenness at the heart of the matter by loud professions of "civic righteousness" and "Christian civilisation," and then to cry peace and safety. It is not true. The only peace and safety is in following the Word.

"The Drawing Power" The Present Truth 12, 3.

E. J. Waggoner

"And all that dwelt at Lydda and Saron saw

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him, and turned to the Lord." Acts ix. 35. Whom did they see? They saw ?neas, who had kept his bed eight years, with the palsy, and who had been healed. Peter had seen him and said, "?neas, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole; arise, and make thy bed." And he arose immediately. What was the result? All that dwelt at Lydda and Saron saw him, and turned to the Lord. The most notable thing about this is not the great number that were converted. It is that they turned to the Lord, and not to Peter.

It is not always a cause of rejoicing when there are many conversions reported as a result of work done. The question is, Did they turn to the Lord, or to the minister? How can people be brought to turn to the Lord instead of to the minister? By doing as Peter did, making Christ prominent. Said he, "Jesus Christ maketh thee whole." Peter was not in the transaction. Christ did the work, and to Him was the glory given, and people turned to Him.

In the record of the healing of ?neas there is a great lesson for all ministers and teachers of the Word. If they turn people to themselves, it were better that they did not do anything. It is not always the case that those turn people who themselves instead of to the Lord, do so purposely. Men often in their zeal for the work give it their impress, instead of that of the Lord.

Can this be avoided? Only by letting the Word of God do the work. When the religious teacher tries to add to the force of the Word, he takes from it. It is quite natural to think that the simple setting forth of the Word alone will not make enough impression. Teachers feel it necessary to "stir up" the people. The desire to see the people stirred is a laudable one, but they should remember that "the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Open the Word; hold it up; and Christ, who is in the Word, will draw the people to Himself.

"Educated Heathen" The Present Truth 12, 3.

E. J. Waggoner

An evangelist who has just returned from a missionary tour, writes thus: "Most of the educated heathen with whom I have conversed, were educated in mission schools, and are now the more formidable opponents of Christianity because of the education we have given them." The only wonder in the case is that any missionary should ever have expected any different result. Only the Gospel of the cross of Christ can make Christians. An educated heathen is but a heathen still. Indeed, mere book learning without the imparting of the wisdom that comes from God only, will soon cause a Christian to degenerate into a heathen.

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 3.

E. J. Waggoner

-London's daily water supply is over two hundred million gallons.

-Last year no less than 430 tons of diseased meat were sent into London.

-Last year 6,516 books were published in this country, against 6,485 in 1894.

-Japan has established a steel foundry, and proposes to build its own ships.

-The Sultan's New Year present to the Czarina, a diamond necklace, is valued at ?35,000 (Turkish).

-The commerce of the United Kingdom this year shows an increase of over twenty millions over 1894.

-The emigrants who left England in twelve months numbered 271,854, South Africa being the favourite destination.

-In Berlin the penny-in-the-slot system has been successfully applied to the sale of rolls of bread and various kinds of drink.

-The Japanese are said to have evacuated Chinese territory, and the Chinese are again restoring and fortifying Port Arthur.

-During the recent hearing of a charge of stealing shirts in Manchester it was elicited that the workers were paid at the rate of 1? d. a shirt.

-Uncanned frozen salmon is now being brought to this country from Canada at the rate of fifty tons a month, and is selling at from 5d. to 8d. per pound.

-Sleighing and skating are the chief outdoor amusements at this season in Russia, whilst on the rivers and broad lagoons ice-yachting forms a favourite and exciting pastime.

-Some of the most successful fruit growers in California are women. Two women, mother and daughter, derive an income of ?600 a year by cultivating thirty acres of prime trees.

-The bananas which find their way to England come almost entirely from Madeira and the Canary Islands. Before long, however, the West Indian banana will enter the field as a powerful competitor.

-During the past twelve months 84,787 aliens arrived at ports in the United Kingdom, of whom 44,372 were stated to be on their way to the United States. This leaves about 40,000 who have this year come from the Continent to make their home in this country.

-The Church has in recent years, says a newspaper, been trying to use the world to accomplish its ends; now the world is turning the tables by using the Church. Mr. Wilson Barrett, during the provincial tour of "The Sign of the Cross," did his best to get up an ecclesiastical "boom" in his play. Tickets were scattered with lavish hand among the clergy in every town visited, and the clerics responded by going to witness the woes of Marcia. One well-known divine preached a sermon lauding Mr. Barrett's endeavour, and crowded houses rewarded the successful manager.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 3.

E. J. Waggoner

Owing to the threatened total destruction of some kinds of birds and the wanton mutilation and killing of nearly all kinds for the sake of wings and feathers "the Society for the Protection of Birds issues an urgent appeal to ladies to desist from wearing bird's feathers as an adornment."

"One of the questions which promises to be brought prominently forward in the forthcoming session of Parliament is," says the English Churchman, "that of a Roman Catholic University for Ireland, and it is high time the Protestants of the United Kingdom realised the danger which threatens them." But how much better would Protestants be equipped for the struggle had they not betrayed their own cause by continually working for the State support of the Protestant religion, as professed by them.

In the past twelve months the lifeboats around our coast were launched 427 times and rescued 519 mariners. Apart from the loss of the Kingstown lifeboat crew on Christmas eve, only one other lifeboatman perished during the year. It is impossible for one who realises what war means to feel thrilled at tales of daring and bravery in taking the lives of one's fellow-men in battle; but who does not feel a thrill of sympathy and admiration at the recital of the heroism of our lifeboatmen who battle with the elements and risk their lives for shipwrecked strangers, of whom their only knowledge is of their distress and need.

Commenting on the recent filibustering expedition into the Transvaal, and the punishment that shall be meted out to the officers accompanying it, the Chronicle says that they "must be credited with sufficient knowledge of life to know that if they were not authorised to try to kill Boers they were guilty of murder, or manslaughter at the least, in every case in which one was killed."

Very well, suppose they had been authorised by the Government to try to kill Boers, and suppose it be admitted that such authorisation would have relieved them of the responsibility of the crime of murder, it would, at the most, simply have transferred the responsibility to the shoulders of those issuing the order. But isn't it a strange idea, that when one man kills another man, it is not murder provided he has been told to do it by a company of other men?

Here is a brief picture of the early Christian, drawn by one who cannot be accused of partiality to Christianity, yet of whom Cardinal Newman said that he was the only Englishman who had any claim to be called an ecclesiastical historian, namely, Gibbon:-

The humble Christians were sent into the world as sheep among wolves; and since they were not permitted to employ force, even in defence of their religion, they should be still more criminal if they were prompted to shed the blood of their fellow-creatures in disputing the vain privileges or the assorted possession of this transitory life. Faithful to the doctrine of the Apostle who in the reign of Nero had preached the duty of unconditional submission, the Christians of the first three centuries preserved their conscience pure and innocent of the guilt of a secret conspiracy or open rebellion.-Decline and Fall, ch. 20, par. 2.

At the Dublin meeting of the Evangelical Alliance, last week, the Archbishop of Dublin said:-

There could be no heart there in which fears and forebodings did not find a place. Men's hearts were failing them for fear as to what might take place upon the earth, and as to what might befit their own British Empire.

There need be no question as to what awaits all the empires of the world. As the Archbishop said, we have entered the time when there is "upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity." The Lord plainly declared the course events would follow: "Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming upon the earth; for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of men coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." Luke xxi. 25-28. There is something more important for believers to do than to be fearing as to what is coming upon the earth. We are to "fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come."

"Preparing for War" The Present Truth 12, 3.

E. J. Waggoner

In these times of wars and rumors of wars, the British Government does not intend to be caught napping but is determined to be prepared for any emergency. A large number of battleships, cruisers, torpedo-boat destroyers, etc., have been put in commission, manned, and provisioned, ready to go to any part of the world at a moment's notice.

The newspaper report states that the "greatest activity prevails in the Royal Laboratory Department at Woolwich Arsenal, where the reserves of small-arm ammunition are being increased to 150,000,000, at which standard the ball cartridge will be maintained."

In the Royal Army Clothing Department, were under ordinary circumstances between 2,000 and 3,000 hands are regularly employed, arrangements exist whereby at very short notice the strength of the establishment can be practically trebled. One of the chief officials have stated that at the present moment the stock of uniforms represents a value of not less than ?1,000,000, and that upon the shortest notice the Department can clothe from 80,000 to 100,000 reserve men.

At the Devonport, dockyard 1,800 men are working overtime, and work is being pushed night and day in making the torpedo-boat destroyers ready for sea. One especially interesting item is the following from the Chronicle's report of the situation:-

Besides many machinery defects, there are a number of cabin fittings missing. A staff of joiners have already commenced to remedy this, and the men have been informed that they may be required to work all day on Sunday, and the Saturday half-holiday is not likely to be observed this week.

Even the Sunday may be set aside by the exigencies of possible war. This is in keeping with the spirit which originates Sunday laws, namely, the Spirit that "exalts itself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped." God never sets aside His own laws, for they are the manifestation of His life; but earthly powers presume not only to substitute laws of their own in place of His, but also to hold themselves above those substituted laws.

January 23, 1896

"'Wherefore Didst Thou Doubt?'" The Present Truth 12, 4.

E. J. Waggoner

The Bible sets forth Jesus as "upholding all things by the word of His power." Heb. i. 3.

That word not only has power to uphold, but "is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified." Acts xx. 32.

An instance of the upholding power of Christ's word is given in Matt. xiv. 25-32. The disciples were on the raging sea, when they were astonished by the appearance of Jesus walking on the water. When Jesus reassured them with, "Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid," Peter said, "Lord, if it be Thou, bid me come unto Thee on the water. And He said unto him, Come."

Peter at once responded to the word "Come," and "walked on the water to go to Jesus." Some might hastily suppose that it was the water that held Peter up; but a little reflection will show that it was not so. It is contrary to nature for water to hold a man up; and, moreover, we read that when Peter "saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me." Jesus caught him, saying, "O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?"

If it had been the water that was supporting him, he would not have begun to sink; for the water was just the same where he sunk as it was where he walked. So when we remember the words of Jesus, "Wherefore didst thou doubt?" We know that when Peter walked on the water, it was the word of Jesus that supported him. It was the word "Come" that brought him, and it was only when he distrusted that word that he began to go down.

The same word that held Peter on

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the top of the water, can hold a man up in the air. Elijah and Elisha were at one time walking along together when Elisha began to rise in the air. Why was it?-Because the Lord had said to Elijah, "Come;" and since the prophet had always obeyed the word of the Lord, he obeyed that one also.

We read that "by faith Enoch was translated." Heb. xi. 5. But "faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Rom. x. 17. So it was the word of the Lord that took Enoch as well as Elijah through the air to meet the Lord. But they were only forerunners of those who, being alive when the Lord descends from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise, shall be "caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air." 1 Thess. iv. 16, 17.

What is it that will support those favoured ones, and hold them up in the air? The same word that upheld Peter on the water. The Lord will say, "Come, ye blessed of My Father." Matt. xxv. 34. Those who have been accustomed to obey the word of the Lord, will respond at once, and will be taken; while those who have not obeyed every word of the Lord, will not obey that one, and will be left.

Those who have neglected to take the word of the Lord as applying to them personally, will not accept that word, "Come," as applying to them. Only those who recognise that every time the Lord speaks He speaks to them, will be able to take that word to themselves. The waiting ones will be those who have lived on the word of the Lord, so that at the word "Come," they will, as the most natural thing in the world, go to meet the Lord. Happy are they who know the sustaining power of the word, and to take it all to themselves.

"'A Warning to the Bishops'" The Present Truth 12, 4.

E. J. Waggoner

We are accustomed to see frequent warnings addressed to the Episcopal Bench by the Protestant organs of the Church of England. But it is something novel to see the Church Times, the organ of the Sacerdotal party, giving the bishops a thorough scolding. By one branch of the Church press they are scolded for going so near to Rome, and by the other for not going still nearer. We had supposed, with most Protestants, that as a body the Bishops were going as far as the most ardent Ritualist could expect of officials who have to do with two distinct branches in the Church. The following paragraph, with which the organ mentioned begins its warning, shows that the most active element in the Anglican body is far from satisfied with the present state of progress in Ritualism:-

The time has come when priests and laity of the Church of England should plainly speak their minds to the Bishops. Blind men do not fear serpents, and the Bishops can hardly know the strong feeling that the action of some of them in certain directions, and the inaction of all of them in others, is arousing far and wide. English Churchmen are a patient and longsuffering race, because they are trained in habits of obedience to authority, but when they see that authority running the ship on the rocks they would be faithless indeed if they let their patience degenerate into acquiescence. There is a time to keep silence, and there is a time to speak out, and in our judgment it is plain speech that the present juncture most demands.

"Native African Honesty" The Present Truth 12, 4.

E. J. Waggoner

The Chronicle's special correspondent in connection with the Ashanti Expedition, writing from Cape Coast Castle of the arrangements for transporting military stores, provision, etc., into the interior, incidentally gives the following tribute to the honesty of the natives. We are not informed whether or not the natives spoken of professed Christianity; but in any case it is enough out of the ordinary to be worthy of note:-

The more one sees of our coloured brethren of these parts, the more one is influenced in their favour. One could hardly meet a more amiable race to work with. Once satisfied that their pay was assured, and that the white officers were disposed to treat them with honesty and justice, difficulties immediately began to disappear. Now daily and hourly gangs leave the yard of the Castle under their headmen and gangers, bearing their various loads, and in no case, with the following exception, have they failed to deliver the loads at their destination. The exception, in my opinion, redounds rather than depreciates the credit due to this cheery race. In one of the gangs which left some days ago were two men who apparently on the journey up concluded that a life of freedom in their native wild was preferable to one of industry, with the necessary restrictions, under the fostering care of the Army Service Corps. They placed their loads on the side of the road, on the top of their loads they placed their numbered badges, and on the top of their badges they placed the amount of money which had been advanced to them for subsistence on the road. These little tributes to the African sense of honesty were brought back to Major Clayson, a couple of days ago, by two native policemen, who had found them while patrolling. During the time these little piles remained on the roadside many hundred carriers must have past and observed them. Yet not a penny of the subsistence money was deficient. It is a question for consideration whether in Christian England we could guarantee a similar condition of affairs. From many inquiries which I have made I have learnt that this is no exceptional case, and that it is a matter of the rarest occurrence for a carrier to make away with a load entrusted to his care.

"War and Murder" The Present Truth 12, 4.

E. J. Waggoner

"Wars and rumours of wars" are among the signs of the last days. In the last days perilous times shall come, because "men shall be lovers of their own selves," and will be fierce. "Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom." Matt. xxiv. 7. These things have always been, yet they are to increase as the end approaches; and the last great event of this world's history is to be the gathering of the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to "the battle of the great day of God Almighty." Rev. xvi. 14.

The end of that last great battle is thus described by the prophets: "All the armour of the armed men in the tumult, and the garments rolled in blood, shall even be for burning and, for fuel of fire." Isa. ix. 5, R.V. When the kings of the earth, and their armies, are gathered together for that last battle, it will be for their complete destruction, so that the fowls of the air will be filled with "the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great." Rev. xix. 17-21. Yet the men who march to that battle will do so with the same high spirits that they have had in previous fights, fired by "patriotic" feelings, and dreaming of victory and glory, without a thought that it is to end in the final utter destruction of all concerned in it.

It is very evident that not one of God's people will have any part in that battle. When the last fight is waged, not a Christian will be found in the ranks of any army on earth; although it is safe to say that there will be thousands who will imagine

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themselves to be good Christians, and who will think, as many do to-day, that there assurance of heavenly bliss will only be made the more sure if they fall with their face to the foe.

It is also evident that no professed Christian believes in murder. True, many of them think that it is quite right to take human life, but only in what is called "honourable warfare." They must not murder, and they must not be in the last battle. An important question, therefore, is, Where shall the line be drawn, so that Christians may be free from condemnation in anything that involves the taking of life? This question, like all others, is plainly answered by the Bible.

THE ORIGIN OF WAR

The question is asked by the Apostle James, "From whence come wars and fightings among you?" And the answer immediately follows: "Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not; ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain; ye fight and war, yet ye receive not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts." James iv. 1-3.

From the next verse we learn that these desires whence come wars and fightings, are worldly lusts, for the question is asked, "Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God."

Turn now to 1 John ii. 15-17, and we shall find a classification of these worldly lusts that lead to war: "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever."

Take a single instance of the working of this desire to have. Two men own adjoining fields, but there is a dispute as to the boundary line. The land is valuable, and that portion through which the dividing fence runs is the most valuable of all. A claims that there was a mistake in the survey, and that the fence ought to be moved ten yards in order to give him the land that belongs to him. But B insists that he has no more land than belongs to him, but that, on the contrary, a portion of what A claims really belongs to him, at any rate he will not yield an inch.

Each is determined to have his "rights." Besides the lust of the flesh, the pride of life comes in, and each man feels that it would be wholly inconsistent with his dignity to yield to the other. Moreover threats and insulting words have been used, such as "no man of proper spirit could be expected to stand." Each feels himself not only wronged, but abused, and each demands from the other an apology and reparation. But each one feels that his "honour" as well as his property is at stake, and is determined not to yield.

So the feud grows. From hard words the men come to blows. Finally each deliberately resolves to take the other's life. Then the disputed boundary will not only be settled, but the survivor can take as much more of the other's property as he wishes.

Accordingly they arm themselves with knives or guns, and meet and begin stabbing or shooting, until one of them is dead. Then what follows:-Why, the man who kills the other is called a murderer, and is hanged, denounced by all the neighbourhood.

But suppose now that instead of two farms we have two countries; instead of a few roods of land we have some thousands of square miles; and instead of two men involved, we have hundreds of thousands. There is a dispute as to the boundary line. Each nation feels that its rights are threatened; and, besides, undiplomatic language has been used, which must be resented. The "national honour" will not allow any concessions on either side. So armed bodies of men meet and shoot at each other. Instead of one man, thousands are killed. The conquerors take the disputed territory, and as much more as they wish, and the victorious army marches home. How are they regarded? Are they called murderers?-Oh, no; they are greeted with shouts and songs, and are lauded as patriots.

Where is the difference in the two cases?-It is only in the greater number of men killed in the second case. Therefore we must conclude that the sole difference between war and murder is in the extent of the interests and the number of people involved. If only one man is killed, it is murder. If one man kills four or five men, that is an aggravated case of murder. But if thousands fight, and hundreds are killed, that is "glorious war," although precisely the same passions lead to each result. The question is, Does God regard it as less sinful to kill a thousand men than to kill one? His Word answers: "Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished." Prov. xi. 21.

CHRISTIANS AND SELF-DEFENCE

Now we know why there will be no Christians in the army at the time of the last great battle. It will be because they will have learned that "the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle to all men." 2 Tim. ii. 24. Of course such a man has no place in an army organised to fight and kill.

Christ's followers are not allowed to fight even in defence of Him and His kingdom. John xviii. 36. Much less, then, can they fight in self-defence. It would be more proper to say that they cannot fight in defence of His kingdom, because it is a kingdom of peace, and to fight with earthly weapons would be to fight against it, instead of in its defence. "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal." If there were not in any person the passions which if cherished naturally lead to murder, there would never be any war on earth. Both come from the same source, so that war is nothing but wholesale murder.

It is commonly accepted that it is perfectly consistent with Christianity for both individuals and nations to fight in self-defence. Yet the words of Christ are very plain: "I say unto you that ye resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." Matt. v. 39. We make all sorts of excuses, and find all manner of difficulties in the way of obeying this commandment, just as we may with any commandment which we are not willing to obey. The only way to know how a commandment may be obeyed, is to accept it without question. It is by faith, not by unbelief, that we understand.

It is true that the different nations cannot retain their separate existence without armies and war. But this need not cause the Christian any uneasiness. His daily prayer to God is to be "Thy kingdom come." When that kingdom comes "the Lord shall be King over all the earth; in that day there shall be one Lord, and His name one." Zech. xiv. 9. His kingdom is

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a kingdom of peace. How then can men pray: "Thy kingdom come," and at the same time fight to maintain a condition of things contrary to that kingdom?

Suppose we give a little attention to this matter of self-defence. A man assaults another, and demands his money. Whether the man thus accosted has little money or much makes no difference; his first impulse is to defend himself, and save what he has. We will suppose that he has ten pounds in his possession. The thief is persistent in his demands, and he resists. The robber is determined, and uses violence, and the man is equally determined not to part with his money. The struggle is sharp, and the robber is killed. The man has acted only in self-defence, and public sentiment acquits him.

But suppose the robber succeeds in killing his victim, and takes the ten pounds. Then public sentiment condemns him. He has truly committed a wicked deed. He has murdered a man for the paltry sum of ten pounds. Yes; but why is it so much worse for the robber to kill a man for ten pounds than it would be for the man to kill the robber for the same amount? Since the man could have avoided all difficulty by giving up his money, is it not evident that he has killed his antagonist solely for the money?

Take a case where only life is involved. Suppose a man has a grudge against me, thinking that I stand in the way of the accomplishment of his ends. Or, perhaps he is actuated by pure hatred, and he seeks my life. Now if when he attacks me, I kill him to save my own life, how much better am I than he would have been if he had succeeded in killing me? Oh, I have saved my life! True, but at the loss of his; and what right have I to assume that my life is more valuable than his? It is only because it is mine. And so we see that self-defence, as the word implies, is nothing but selfishness. And this is the sole principle that moves either nations or men to fight.

"But it is natural to defend oneself. 'Self-preservation is the first law of nature.'" True; but it is spiritual to refrain from all violence, and self-sacrifice is the first and only law of grace. If self were dead, there would be no impulse to self-defence. If we can say, "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me" (Gal. ii. 20), we shall have no occasion to defend ourselves; but it is not I who am attacked, but Christ; and Christ does not ask us to fight in His defence.

The verse just quoted gives us the solution of the whole question. It is natural to fight to defend ourselves; but the cross of Christ delivers us from ourselves, and gives us the Divine nature. The natural man, the carnal mind, is enmity. But Christ is our peace, and He makes peace through the blood of His cross. Eph. ii. 14-17; Col. i. 20.

After nearly nineteen centuries of professed Christianity in the world, the cross of Christ is preached less than anything else. "Christ and Him crucified" is that which the professed Church of Christ stands most in need of to-day. If all professed Christians gloried only in the cross of Christ, not one of them would be found apologising for war of any kind, under any circumstances; for war and fightings come only from "this present evil world" (Gal. i. 4), from which the cross of Christ delivers us.

Let men of this world glory in this world; but let men of the world to come, whom God has translated into the kingdom of His dear Son, evermore say, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, whereby the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world."

"How the Lord Helps" The Present Truth 12, 4.

E. J. Waggoner

Where human wisdom and foresight can see nothing but failure, God can see success. "When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them."

When there is no water, how can thirst be satisfied? "I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys." The natural thing is to find rivers in the valleys and springs in high places, but the Lord is not dependent on the ordinary course of nature. He can do what men cannot.

Where the way of the Lord seems difficult, if not impassible, when it is a human impossibility to walk in the path in which the voice of the Lord directs, we are to remember that he who yields to the Lord unreservedly lays the burden of responsibility on One who is able to bear it. Another word in this forty-first of Isaiah, all of which is written to teach that God's power is for us, says, "I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee." That means you.

"Baby's Conversion" The Present Truth 12, 4.

E. J. Waggoner

"It is announced on the best authority," says a Sofia despatch, "that the Russian Ambassador to the Porte has intimated to the Exarch at Constantinople that, when the conversion of Prince Boris takes place, a special Envoy of the Russian Government will be present." The baby's "conversion" will take palce just at the hour set by the officials.

"The Spirit as Witness and Guide" The Present Truth 12, 4.

E. J. Waggoner

On all sides the Bible is being discredited. Of the attacks of professed infidels, and of the so-called Higher Critics, we need not speak, because they are so open and undisguised that people may be on their guard. But the most dangerous assault upon the Bible is that which makes it secondary to Christ or the Holy Spirit, so that people unconsciously set the Word of God aside while imagining that they are doing superior homage to Him who gave the Word.

An instance of this, which is becoming deplorably common among Christian people, is found in the reply of the New York Independent to the taunt of a Catholic paper in regard to its acceptance of the Bible as the only rule of faith. It said:-

When did the Independent ever say that the Bible is the sole and only rule of faith? We believe that our Lord said, that He would give His Spirit "which shall lead you into all truth." We regard the teaching of the Holy Spirit as a rule of faith.

Such is the looseness with which the Bible is now held, that most people would doubtless see in this only a tribute to the Holy Spirit instead of the disparagement of the Word of God. Let us see what the Bible says about the matter.

In the first place, it is positively stated that the Bible came only by the Spirit. "The prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." 2 Peter i. 21.

Not only so, but the Holy Spirit was in all cases the speaker, so that the Bible is the language of the Holy Spirit, and of none other. Thus the sweet Psalmist of Israel said, "The Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and His word was in my tongue." 2 Sam. xxiii. 2.

With this agrees the words of the Apostle Peter, when he spoke of the Scripture "which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas." Acts i. 16. Also the words of 1 Tim. iv. 1: "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith."

When Christ promised the disciples the Spirit in His absence, He said: "When He is come He will convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment." John xvi. 8, R.V. The first work of the Spirit is to convict of sin. But by what means?-By "the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God" (Eph. vi. 17); "For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart." Heb. iv. 12. "By the law is the knowledge of sin" (Rom. iii. 20), because "the law is spiritual." Rom. vii. 14.

Again, the promise of Christ is, "When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth." John xvi. 13. But the Saviour also said in praying to the Father for His disciples: "Sanctify them through Thy truth; Thy Word is truth." John xvii. 17. The Holy Spirit sanctifies because the Spirit uses the word of truth. So we read that "God has from the beginning chosen us unto salvation: through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth." 2 Thess. ii. 13.

Read onward in the Saviour's promise that the Spirit shall guide us into all truth: "For He shall not speak from Himself; but what things soever He shall hear, these shall He speak." "He shall glorify Me; for He shall receive of Mine and shall declare it unto you. All things whatsoever the Father hath are Mine; therefore said I, that He taketh of Mine and shall declare it unto you." John xvi. 13-15; R.V. The Spirit is sent to us by the Father, even as Christ was sent by the Father; so just as Christ spoke not His own words, but those which the Father gave Him, the Spirit does likewise. Here we have evidence not simply that the Word of God is the witness of the Spirit, but that the Spirit does not speak anything but what we find in the Word of God-the Bible. He is not independent of the Father, but speaks only the word of the Father.

We read, in harmony with Christ's promise, that the Spirit makes us know "

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the things that are freely given to us of God," and this is because "the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." 1 Cor. ii. 10, 12. The "deep things of God," which the Spirit shows us, are the great things of God's law (Hosea viii. 12); and so we are taught to pray, "Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law." Ps. cxix. 18. This opening of the eyes is the work of the Spirit-"the Spirit of wisdom and revelation."

"Well," someone may say, "I believe in the direct witness of the Spirit; I know that the Spirit witnesses to me that I am a child of God." The Holy Spirit does certainly witness with the spirits of some men, but not all. With whom does He witness? With those who believe; for none others are of God, and so none others can possibly have the witness.

This witness is direct too; but how is it? A witness testifies, and must testify in words. Now in what words does the Spirit testify? Why, manifestly in the words which are given Him to speak,-even the words of God. So we read: "He that believeth on the Son hath the witness in himself; he that believeth not God, hath made Him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son." 1 John v. 10.

"To Him give all the prophets witness." Acts x. 43. But we have already read that the prophets spoke only as the Spirit spoke through them. So we read in Hebrews of the offering of Christ, "whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness unto us" (Heb. x. 15), and then follow the words which He testified.

It is evident, therefore, that any disparagement of the Bible, even to the slightest degree, is a disparagement of the Holy Spirit. To ignore the Bible as a guide, and at the same time to profess to honour the Holy Spirit, is the same as professed great respect for a man, and at the same time to ignore or deny what he says.

It may be said that the Bible is not ignored, but that the Spirit is taken as an additional guide. But what then is the use of the Bible? If the Spirit testifies part of the time aside from the Bible, why not all the time? That this is an actual ignoring of the Bible, is proved by the results; for those who profess to believe that the Holy Spirit leads apart from the Word of God, inevitably come to trust wholly in that supposed guidance, even though it is contrary to the Word.

If it were true that the Spirit did testify to us, apart from the Bible, then we should have nothing but our own minds by which to determine whether or not any impression is really from the Spirit. And so it is, that they who think that the Spirit leads them, independently of God's Word, are simply following their own desires and imaginations. A complete demonstration of this is seen in the fact that those who follow such supposedly independent leading of the Spirit, invariably run into a direct violation of God's law.

Let no one think that he can exalt the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit at the expense of the Bible. Just as the Bible is honoured, will they be honoured. The Spirit of God is sufficient to guide us into all truth, and to make us perfect in it, because He guides humble, trusting ones into the full understanding of the Scripture, which is able to make a man "perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." 2 Tim. iii. 17.

"A Night on the Alps" The Present Truth 12, 4.

E. J. Waggoner

It is inexcusable for men to put their lives in jeopardy for no other purpose than the pleasure and satisfaction of seeing a beautiful sight. Not even this motive can explain all the recklessness of mountaineers, for which the native guides in some parts have a name signifying a malady. The feverish desire to do a reckless thing which few or none have dared to undertake is very often the explanation of undertakings which not infrequently end in disaster. The following description of a night on the Alps shows the difficulties often experienced:-

In August, 1890, three members of the Alpine Club, Messrs. Slingsby, Solly and Smith, had a thrilling night adventure on the Dent Blanche, one of the very difficult peaks of the Alps. The trio were all expert mountaineers, well aware of what they had undertaken, and neglected no precautions; but some things cannot be provided against. They spent the previous night in a ruined mountain cabin, whence they set forth a little before two o'clock in the morning on their long day's task. They had no certainty of success, but as the day wore on and one bad place after another was surmounted, their hopes rose, and finally, at four o'clock in the afternoon, they stood on the summit, in a little cloud.

At that hour, with the descent to be made before dark, they could not stay, and in less than a minute were on their return. By and by an occasional flash of lightning played about one of the distant peaks, and soon afterward a dark cloud crept up ominously behind another peak.

The men made such haste as they could, and at six o'clock were almost out of their difficulties. Before them was a bad stretch of only a hundred and fifty feet, beyond which they would have little trouble, no matter how the weather might turn.

Suddenly it grew dark. A dense cloud had fallen upon them. Their ice-axes and gloves emitted sparks, and their hair stood out straight. The sparks gave out no heat, nor was there any hissing, but one of the men, who wore spectacles, felt them vibrating in a way he did not like, and so tucked them under his hat.

Ordinarily the axes would have been put aside under such conditions, but now this was not to be thought of. The men must cross that one hundred and fifty feet without delay, and at all risks; and to that end the axes must be kept.

Steadily and carefully the men worked, every step requiring time and caution, when all at once the whold mountainside seemed to be ablaze, "and at the same time there was a muzzled, muffled, or suppressed peal of thunder, apparently coming out of the interior of the mountain."

Solly and Smith exclaimed in the same breath, "My axe is struck," and naturally each of them let his axe go.

With only one axe there was no going forward, and the trio waited for the storm to pass, while Smith asked his companions to look at his neck, exactly half-way round which the lightning had burned a dark band an inch and a quarter wide.

The storm lasted so long that it became hopeless to proceed, though, if the men could have crossed the next hundred and fifty feet, they could have gone down to the hut even in the dark. It was hard fortune, but there was no help for it.

They had warm clothing, plenty of food, and a lantern. Smith "managed to get a capital hitch" for the rope-for the party was of course roped together-and lashed them to the rock, where they were to pass the night on a steep ledge varying from a foot and a half to two feet in width.

Their situation may be appreciated from Mr. Slingsby's account of it. "Solly, who sat at the bottom, had a loose piece of friable rock which supported one foot. I was in the middle, with my knees up to my chin, on a steep slope, but was supported by Solly's back, and by a singularly sharp little stone on which I squatted. Smith leaned with his back against a corner, and with his knees against my back." Pretty narrow quarters for an all-night vigil!

Several brief showers of snow and hail fell, but happily there was no rain. The wind rose, and whistled through the crags above, but was partly shut off by a ledge. The men kept their hands and feet moving, especially after two o'clock, when the sky cleared and the cold became intense. Meanwhile, Smith imagined that Solly was a man of another name, and so addressed him all night long, an hallucination supposed to be the result of the electric shock.

At five o'clock they ate breakfast, and soon caught sight of the lost axes half embedded in hard snow at some distance below, and with some difficulty one of them was recovered by Solly, while his companions kept their perch till he returned.

It was still too cold for them to proceed safely, and they stayed upon the ledge till eight o'clock. Then, warmed and limbered by the sun, they entered upon the work of crossing the bad one hundred and fifty feet which had held them prisoners, and after much difficulty-cutting steps in the ice as they went-they found themselves safe and sound on the other side, where they made such haste as they could to the base, thinking especially of the alarm of their friends, some of whom they presently met coming up the mountain in search of them.

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 4.

E. J. Waggoner

-Of the population of India, 52,000,000 are engaged in agriculture.

-China raises a revenue of ?2,000,000 per year on opium imported from India.

-The hottest weather ever experienced in New South Wales was reported last week.

-The Transvaal contains about 300,000 inhabitants, of whom about 100,000 are whites.

-Over one thousand parsons lost their lives by an earthquake reported from Persia last week.

-As a result of the spring-like winter, primroses and other spring flowers are reported blooming.

-The active insurgents in the island of Cuba number some 25,000. Macao, the leader, is a mulatto,

-The number of men in the Navy last year was 88,850, an increase of 5,450. This year there is to be a greater increase.

-In case of war Germany is prepared to put 3,350,000 men in the field, fully armed. All Germany would be an armed camp.

-The estimated tonnage of the shipping now afloat is over twenty-five millions. Of this a little over half is under the British flag.

-It is estimated that the French colonies in Indo-China have cost France over ?50,000,000, and they do not now pay their way.

-The last census of India gives the following figures on religions: 207 million Hindus, 57 million Mohammedans, seven million Buddhists, two million Christians.

-The population of Ireland was highest in 1845, when it stood at 8,295,064. The potato famine followed for two years, and gave impulse to emigration, which has steadily continued. The latest census gives the population as 4,704,750. Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom where the population decreases. Emigration from Ireland during the past ten years has averaged about 62,000 per year, most of which has been to the United States.

-It appears from statistics given in one of the Reviews that there are 4,103,806 people of British birth residing in the United States, and 12,100,000 of British parentage. There were 26,000,000 native Americans, "mostly of British origin." The rest of the population, it appears, consisted of 7,500,000 coloured and 13,900,000 of various European nationalities. The fact is not pointed out, but the "British" section obviously includes all the American-Irish.

-In addition to the new Flying Squadron the Admiralty still have quite a list of vessels in reserve, available if required. There are also eight line of battleships of the first class either building or in the fitters hands. Most of these are of the heaviest type. Twenty-one cruisers are else under way, and twenty torpedo-boat destroyers have been ordered this year. When the work in hand is completed about fifty new ships will be added to the British Navy. Yet it is expected that the next estimate will provide for many more ships.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 4.

E. J. Waggoner

There is destitution even in the Diamond Fields of South Africa, as many find to their sorrow. As an aid to work among the destitute, our friends in South Africa have established the "Kimberley Benevolent Home."

The report of the eighth annual conference of our churches in Australia, recently held in Melbourne, shows an increase during the year of 322 in membership. The meeting was largely attended, and was a season of special spiritual profit as the Word was spoken and received.

It seems that blessings may be sent by telegraph. The Pope has telegraphed "the apostolic benediction" upon all present at the ceremony in Baltimore by which Mr. Satolli was made Cardinal. Among those present, who received this "blessing" there were, besides Catholic priests, bishops, and archbishops, members of Congress, senators, ministers of States, generals, ambassadors, and the Vice-President of the United States.

Of Italian finances "Whitaker's Almanac" says, "The nation is enthusiastic and united as to the necessity of having a strong army and navy, but objects to taxation, consequently there is an annual deficit, and the national debt is rapidly accumulating." So it comes that the interest on the debt is nearly half of the entire revenue of the country. But then, Italy can put an army of over two million men in the field, and has a navy of 269 ships.

When men get the idea that the responsibility of keeping the rest of the world in order rests upon them, and they think that they are in the place of God, to regulate other people according to their ways and thoughts, untold evil is sure to result, since the idea is a wicked one, and from evil only evil can come. This idea is becoming more and more prevalent in the world. A fresh instance of its working is reported by Brother Conradi, from Russia, as follows:-

One of our German churches in the south, of some forty members, has of late been forbidden to assemble on the Sabbath. As they persisted, the whole church was imprisoned twice, twenty-four hours each time, and then they have four times been fined fifty cents (2s.) each, and threatened that in case they do not pay their fine, everything they have will be sold; but their trust is in the Lord.

By replacing the engine, seized by the Government for violation of the Sunday clause of the Factory Act, we are able to run our presses, which remained after the seizure. Thus we are printing our paper again, getting the folding and other lines of work formerly performed by female employÈs done outside of our works. It was a wicked thing to shut these persons away from their work, to say in effect that from henceforth in this United Kingdom women cannot engage in manufacturing industries, so far as factories are concerned, unless they keep the Sunday. It was because the International Tract Society could not join in this exaltation of a papal institution that they could be no party to enforcing Sunday rest in their printing works on any portion of their employÈs. The Government having chosen to assume the sinful responsibility of shutting the factory in the process of exalting the Sunday, we leave the responsibility with them, having done all we can to keep them from it.

As this Sunday act is but a half-way measure, affecting females and persons under eighteen, we are able to resume a portion of our work without interference. To reinstate our full working outfit would, of course, be merely to buy in furnishings and machinery for the officers of the law to seize, and thus indirectly to pay fines as long as money lasted. Therefore we shall work our factory as we are able until the influence now working to secure the total prohibition of all Sunday work in factories closes our printing works entirely. Now, be it remembered, the Government of this United Kingdom has fully settled it that women cannot be factory operatives unless they regard the Sunday. When the logical end is attained it must apply to men as well as women. When that end is reached it will be impossible for us to operate a printing factory. In that case we would conform to no Sunday law in getting all our work done outside. In the present case we conform to no Sunday law in doing but a portion of our work ourselves. Such laws are wicked and only wicked, as exalting human against the Divine law. We may add that we have always had our heaviest work-the printing and binding of our larger books, sold by agents in the Kingdom and the colonies-done by the large printing houses in London. The work done in our own works is a printing of this paper, tracts, pamphlets, etc.

In its annual summary of the religious bodies in thr United States the New York Independent prints a report of the progress of our own work. The report states that during 1895 there were fifty-one prosecutions of Seventh-Adventists in the United States for Sunday work, and this too, was shown; without their having disturbed others. Thirty-nine convictions were secured, resulting in an aggregate of 1,161 days of confinement in jail, 541 days in the chain-gang, and in fines imposed amounting to more than 1,500 dollars.

By this very effort to obstruct, the Sabbath truth has been preached in America as never before. The report also states that during the year ninety-nine workers were sent abroad to twenty-six localities in other lands.

The Pope has offered to act as arbitrator between England and the United States. The Chronicle says that the Pope's suggestion "cannot be called impertinent." He has already acted as arbitrator in international disputes, and, whether he is accepted in the present instance or not, the time is not far distant when the inhabitants of the Vatican will be recognised as the final court of appeal in all great national affairs. Christ refused to be a judge and a divider in the affairs of men; but the man who claims to be His vicar only thrusts himself into the position, thus again exalting himself above God.

In Canada the school question is a pressing one. The Dominion Government has ordered Manitoba to provide separate schools for Roman Catholics, which that province refuses to do. The religious census of Canada shows 1,992,017 Roman Catholics, 839,815 Methodists, 754,193 Presbyterians, and 649,059 Church of England. In Manitoba the Protestant majority is large, and in recent elections, in which the school question was the main issue, the party against State-supported Catholic schools was returned to power with increased majorities.

January 30, 1896

"Enduring Hardness" The Present Truth 12, 5.

E. J. Waggoner

The unbeliever never can understand the motives which lead the missionary into danger from violence and deathly climates. Now and then some secular paper condemns such recklessness. But the same paper has nothing but praise for the soldier who goes into the same regions for a salary of so much a day, or perhaps from the motive of extending the power of his country. What is sometimes required men in serving their country is shown by the following words, descriptive of the work of the Chinese marines in the naval battle of the Yalu:-

Bravest of all were the engineers working below in darkness, the battle going on overhead, the ship on fire also, and the ventilators stopped while the flames were fought. Prisoned as they were in the stoke-hold they received orders only by speaking-tube, yet stood faithfully to their posts, continuing their labours in a temperature bordering on two hundred degrees. After several hours the fire was extinguished and they were relieved. Every man of them was found to be terribly burned and disfigured, and several were blinded for life.

Such is life below decks in the modern battleships when in action. These heathen fought for merely worldly gain, should the Christian shrink from enduring hardness and suffering, or from death itself in serving the Lord?

"Church and State in France" The Present Truth 12, 5.

E. J. Waggoner

Church and State in France.-In France all recognised religions, Catholic, professed Protestant and Jewish, are patronised by the State, the regular clergy being paid from the civil funds, like any other civil officers. This arrangement was made in order that the clergy might be servants of the State. Even Robespierre, in the days of the Revolution, argued for paying the clergy in order to control religion, or philosophical superstition. In organising France, after the Revolution, Napoleon established the system which has continued to this day. It has made the recognised religions in France mere parts of the political machine. Now, it is said, the French Cabinet is proposing to bring about the severance of these relations. It mainly concerns the Church of Rome, and already the Vatican is chiding France for its unfaithfulness, thus proclaiming itself in illicit connection with the powers of earth. The Church of Christ never could accept such relations. She is married to another. But Rome consistently maintains the character described in Revelation xvii. and xviii.

"Profitable in This World" The Present Truth 12, 5.

E. J. Waggoner

The worldling suspects that Bible maxims are not practical in common worldly affairs. But he does not know that godliness is profitable in "the life that now is" as well as in "that which is to come."

For instance, how many people have learned to their sorrow that it is better to agree with the adversary quickly, rather than to fight over petty questions of rights in the courts. It would be interesting to see statistics showing who gets the most money out of the courts, litigants or lawyers.

Then, too, when Christ's words regarding resistance are spoken of, one frequently hears all kinds of suppositions as to what would become of a man who would not fight to defend himself. This of course leaves out altogether any account of the Lord's protection, and overlooks the fact that the Christian doesn't lose his life if he is killed, while he does lose his life if he takes the life of another. But leaving this out, who does not know that even in a rough country the peaceable man who has no idea of fighting anybody is in far less danger of dying a violent death than the man who goes about armed, ready to "defend himself"?

"The Cleansing Touch, and Word" The Present Truth 12, 5.

E. J. Waggoner

"And it came to pass, when He was in a certain city, behold a man full of leprosy; who seeing Jesus, fell on his face, and besought Him, saying, Lord, if Thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And He put forth His hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him." Luke v. 12, 13. This is one of the things that are written that we might know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and it is a forcible illustration of how if we believe we may have life through His name.

Such a wonderful cure had never been performed before since the world began. From that day to this, medical science has been impotent in the presence of the dreaded disease, leprosy. It was a most loathsome disease. The one who had it was shut off from human society, except from those who had the same disease. They were regarded as in the highest degree unclean. As the disease progressed, the different members of the body dropped off. It was actually a living death. The man could look on and see the death preying upon him, ever advancing, and had the certainty before him of final, complete death. For him there was no hope.

FULL OF LEPROSY

This man was "full of leprosy." He was evidently in the last stages of the disease. It had begun to prey upon his vitals, and in a short time he would drop into the grave. It was then that he saw Jesus; and when we consider his condition, we can appreciate the wonderful faith shown by the words, "Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean." There was not the slightest doubt of Christ's power to save. Jesus immediately responded to the cry of faith, saying, "I will; be thou clean." And immediately the leprosy departed from him.

THE LEPROSY OF SIN

Sin is a sore disease that is preying upon the vitals of every man. Like the leper, men are filled with it. "Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil-doers, children that deal corruptly; they have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are estranged, and gone backward. Why will ye be still stricken, that ye revolt more and more? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and festering sores; they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with oil." Isa. i. 4-6, R.V.

SURE DEATH

Like the leprosy, sin is progressive death. "The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law." 1 Cor. xv. 56. "Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." James i. 15. "For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Rom. viii. 6, 7. "For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing; for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good, I find not." "O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Rom. vii. 18, 24.

SEPARATED BECAUSE OF SIN

The leprous person was separated. So the sinful person is separated from God. He is unclean. "Your iniquities have separated between you and your God." "This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness." Eph. iv. 17-19.

"MADE NIGH"

But although the sinner is by his very uncleanness separated from God, yet God is not afraid to come near and touch him. Jesus was moved with compassion as He saw the poor leper, and He is the same now. "For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." Heb. iv. 15. Therefore, like the leper, we may come with boldness to a throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. For there is a "fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness." Zech. xiii. 1. And though the person be full of sin and uncleanness, our High Priest "is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him."

CLEANSED BY THE WORD

Jesus not only has the healing touch, but His words have power to heal. The Psalmist says concerning His dealing with His people of old that "He sent His word, and healed them." Ps. cvii. 20. Mark, recording the healing of the leper, says that Jesus touched him, saying, "And as soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed." Mark i. 42. The word of Christ also cleanses from sin, and it was to make us realise this fact that the healing of the leper was recorded. Said the Saviour: "I am the true Vine, and My Father is the husbandman. Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit He taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you." John xv. 1-3. Eph. v. 25, 26 is rendered very strikingly in some versions that "Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it by a water bath in the word."

DO YOU BELIEVE?

Do we believe that the word and touch of Jesus made the leper clean? Then we may know that the same word and touch will make us clean from sin. He who does not believe that the Lord can cleanse him from sin, no matter how vile he may be, does not believe the Bible record of the miracles of Christ. But merely saying that we believe does not answer the purpose; we must accept the cleansing. There is another important truth taught in this lesson.

FULL ASSURANCE OF FAITH

Jesus said, "I will; be thou clean." Read these words of inspiration: "Grace be to you, and peace, from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father." Gal. i. 3, 4. "It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." "It is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish." Matt. xviii. 14. So we ought to come to the Lord with a great deal more boldness and confidence than the leper did. He knew that the Master had the power to heal him, but he said, "If Thou wilt." God has given us such abundant evidence of His willingness to save us from our sins that it would be casting discredit on His word if we should say, "Lord, if Thou wilt, thou canst save me." "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John iii. 16. Thus has He shown not only His willingness, but His longing desire, to save men. He has left nothing undone, and has kept nothing back. "What could have been done more to My vineyard, that I have not done in it?" Isa. v. 4.

"What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" Rom. viii. 31, 32. He who doubts the willingness of God to hear and save those who wish salvation, must doubt the very existence of God. God Himself invites us to draw near in full assurance of faith. The "full assurance" is grounded on His Word and His oath.

OUR CONFIDENCE

Well, then, what is the final lesson?-Just this: "And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask any thing according to His will, He heareth us." 1 John v. 14. Now we have learned that it is the will of God to save people from sin. That is why Christ came to earth to die. There can be no question that it is the will of God to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Therefore we know that whenever we come and ask for cleansing, that moment He hears us. But this is not all. "And if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him." Verse 15. So, as soon as we ask in faith, the work is done.

THE WORD HAS BEEN SPOKEN

The word of salvation has already gone forth. "To you is the word of this salvation sent." The word is full of healing power. We come to the Lord, saying, "Lord, I know that Thou hast the power to cleanse me, and I know that Thou wilt." We know then that He hears us. We do not then have to wait for the word to come to us, "I will; be thou clean," for it has already been spoken. So, when we know that He hears us, we know that we have the things that we desired of Him. Our faith appropriates the power of the word, and its righteousness is ours.

Who is there that does not need freedom from sin? It is ours, if we will but receive it. Thousands say that they believe, and yet they find no relief. To such the miracles of Christ

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are not a reality. They are but as idle tales. When they receive the word as it is indeed, the living word of God, then they will believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and, believing, they will have life through His name.

"Theory, Not Life" The Present Truth 12, 5.

E. J. Waggoner

The Leipsic Chrisliche Welt has printed a paper on the "odd combination of elements" in the religion of the average peasant of the Russian Church. It is merely an extraordinary development of perfectly natural formalism. And it is not so extraordinary either, nor is it peculiarly Russian, save in the mode of manifesting itself. The bane of religion everywhere is that so many see in it only a question for discussion, some doctrinal definitions to be accepted or controverted, missing the fact that the Word is the truth and life, not to be discussed and argued about, but to be lived.

But here is a paragraph showing the darkness overshadowing multitudes in Russia, for trying to dispel which so many Protestants are being punished by the State authorities:-

"The Russian will not pass by a beggar without having either given him alms, or having excused himself for not doing so. The duty of charity has found an entrance into his very marrow and bones. The hard-hearted in his eyes is no Christian. Yet this same man will go to his house, cross himself in front of the ikon, or saint's image, in the right corner of his room, hang a piece of cloth before it, so that his patron saint cannot see what he is doing, and then enter upon a carousal that would disgrace a beast. Again, this typical Russian will on another day go to his church, strike the floor fifty times with his forehead, and two hundred times repeat the words: 'O Lord, have mercy on me!' and then depart and as a witness take a false oath before the courts because his friend the day before had secured his promise to do so for a drink of voska, and considers himself satisfactorily justified when he tells the judge that 'even God Himself will accept a bribe,' meaning by this His accepting so many wax candles and paternosters for certain sins. What can be said of such a view of matters? The man himself is not conscious of his self-contradiction, and it would be useless to try to demonstrate this to him. His conduct is typical of the religiousness of the average peasant in Russia."

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 5.

E. J. Waggoner

-Almost five-eighths of the steamers in the world are under the British flag.

-About 3,000 camels are employed in the traffic to the mines in West Australia.

-The wealth; classes of Japan regard it as undignified to ride a horse faster than a walk.

-The port of Odessa, on the Black Sea, is blockaded by ice, which extends seaward nearly ten miles.

-The total number of new books and new editions issued in Great Britain in 1895 was 6,616, a considerable increase war 1894.

-Out of 54,000 newspapers published in the world, the English language claims 16,000, the German 7,800, the French 3,850, and the Spanish 1,000.

-We see by Indian papers that in December winter had already set in in Kashmir "with great severity." Yet we in London were having spring-like weather.

-A census of the gipsies in Hungary shows that they number 274,940 in that country. About half are constant wanderers, of whom, again, half speak only their vernacular Asiatic language.

-It is the age for doing foolish things. Men are walking, riding, and trundling wheelbarrows round the world, and now a Norwegian is about to start from Copenhagen on snow-shoes for the United States, expecting to Cross Behring Straits on floating ice.

-A Japanese syndicate has just purchased 50,000 bales of American cotton, and promise to take twice as much next year. This is Japan's first year in the work of really competing with Lancashire in the markets of the East.

-The Czarina, unlike most Russian grand dames, it is said, objects to smoking. She asks her ladies in waiting not to come near her If there is an odour of tobacco about their clothe. Cigarette smoking is very common in "high society" in Russia, as it is becoming in London.

-The latest estimate of the national earnings per annum Domes out as follows:-Agriculture, ?226,000,000; mining, ?58,001.000; manufactures, ?492,000,000; internal transport, ?113,000,000; commerce, ?74,000,000; shipping, ?30,000,000; banking, ?45,000,000; and professions, ?117,600,000.

-The long continuance of great heat in New South Wales has put the residents in a state of panic. The average temperature during the fortnight ending January 22 was 118 degrees in the shade. Thirty-five deaths from heat had occurred in one district, and hundreds were leaving for a cooler climate.

-It looks as though China was at last to be opened up by railways. The Russians have one planned through northern China, the French have concessions to construct one from Tonquin into the southern provinces, and China is planning one from Pekin into the heart of the empire. English engineers are proposing a line from Burmah into the Chinese empire.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 5.

E. J. Waggoner

"If any man who will do His will he shall know the doctrine." The way to understand the Scriptures is to begin to practise them. "Light is sown for the righteous."

The man who conscientiously follows the Lord in Russia, rather than the Greek Church, at once becomes the mark of persecution. Is it a fact, then, that all who are not Christians of this kind are earnest in the rites of the Greek religion? Not at all. Some time ago a leading Russian official, Prince Tscherkassy, described himself as an "orthodox atheist." He has no faith in anything, but he was "orthodox."

A good work is being done by our brethren in the islands of the Pacific Ocean. Companies are engaged in preaching the Word, teaching, and in medical mission work in the Society Islands, Friendly Islands, Fiji, Raratonga, Rurutu, Norfolk Island, Samoa, Hawaii, and on Pitcairn Island a training school for these island fields has recently been built. "He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till He have set judgment in the earth; and the isles shall wait for His law."

There is never more than a momentary lull in the controversy over the subject of religion in the Board Schools of London. All those who engage in the controversy are agreed that religion should be taught, the only point of difference being as to whose religion it shall be. It is now proposed by one party, which really has a majority on the Board, that the following test question shall be put to teachers: "Do you regularly attend a place of worship on Sundays?" A prominent member of the "Liberal" party is said to approve this, arguing that "teachers ought to observe the decencies of life." When one who does not attend church on Sundays is considered to be lacking in common decency, what will be thought of one who devotes the day wholly to secular employments? The time seems to be rapidly approaching when to follow the teachings of the Bible strictly will be considered by those in authority an evidence of atheism or insanity.

Someone having said that "if Jesus lived to-day He would turn London upside down in three months, and that it would not take Him three years to shake England into shape," the Echo replies, with truth:-

Judging from the manner in which Jesus Christ was received eighteen and a-half centuries since, and also judging from the manner in which His teachings are received and His conduct imitated in London and in the world generally to-day, He would more likely, should He re-appear, be reviled, despised, and persecuted by professing Christians, as He was by the Jews. Instead of turning London upside down, the mass of Londoners would not permit Him to appear in their churches, and would turn a deaf ear to His words. He would, however, be listened to gladly by a faithful few, who would take up His cross and follow Him.

The Christian World notices a recently published book of Spurgeon's sermons, and offers the criticism that their range is too narrow, and that they contain too much repetition. It says:-

You may read the sermons through and find no reference to current events. Of all the incidents of 1887 you will gain no information here. This preacher could forget all but one fact. Here is a sinner; here is a God who can save him; this God has one Plan of Salvation by which He saves. And the whole effort of the sermon is to draw or drive this sinner to accept this Plan of Salvation. That was the sole object which Mr. Spurgeon proposed to himself as a Christian minister. And that sole object he certainly attained.

What more could any true minister of the Gospel desire than that such things could be truthfully said of him?

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom." "Let the peace of God rule in your hearts." Col. iii. 15, 16. "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory." "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." Phil. ii. 3, 5. "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice." Eph. iv. 31.

This is all the word of the Lord. It is the creative word; for in the beginning God said, "Let there be light;" "Let there be a firmament;" "Let the earth bring forth grass," etc.; and in every instance the result is recorded, "And it was so." Moreover, it was all good. Therefore when God speaks to us as in the words just quoted, we have only to say, "Amen," that is, "so let it be," and so it will surely be. Only we must continue responding and yielding as long as His word speaks, which is without ceasing. Thus shall God's will be done on earth, even in us, as it is done in heaven.

"Straws show which way the wind blows;" and the following item from the Chronicle registers the direction very accurately:-

Nice points of precedence are always arising in colonial functions, and it is said that one such point over which there has been some soreness in Australia has only been settled by the intervention of the Colonial Office. When Viscount Hampden entertained his Ministers at Sydney the other day, it was noted that Cardinal Moran was given precedence over the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Dr. Saumarez Smith. The Archbishop has hitherto had precedence over the Cardinal, and the change is said to be the result of an appeal to Downing-street.

An American correspondent writes us from Washington:-

It is easy to see that in this country the lines are being drawn more and more closely and the cause of the Sunday institution is gaining ground. Within the last month twenty services were held in this city on one Sunday, in which the preservation of the Sunday institution was the subject of discourse. In some cases members of Congress, members of the Supreme Court, men in prominent government positions in nearly all departments, took part in the religious services, occupy places upon the platforms, presided over meetings, and delivered addresses. The National Reform conventions have been attended by ministers of the Baptist denomination, by Methodists, and in fact by all the leading denominations of this country. And persons who have heretofore advocated principles of liberty, have joined hands with the Sunday movement and are lending their influence toward the securing of more rigid Sunday laws in the States, and the enactment of a Sunday law by Congress. While all this is true, it is also true that persons who have heretofore been careless in reference to this question are becoming aroused to a sense of the danger that threatens our country and are beginning to investigate to know where the truth lies.

In past centuries it was not possible to speak of current affairs which simultaneously engrossed the attention of the whole world. But now what is even whispered in one country in a time of crisis is commented on within a few hours in all lands. The facilities for rapid communication greatly alter the conditions of political life and when the current of feeling and passion is set running in the direction in which Scripture testifies that it will turn in the last days-and it is so turning already-it cannot take long to accomplish startling changes, and bring in the scenes of the very end of time.

The Sultan of Turkey has made a New Year's gift of ?400 (Turkish) to the Armenian Patriarchate. This does not indicate a desire on the part of the Sultan to crush out the Armenian religion.

February 6, 1896

"Front Page" The Present Truth 12, 6.

E. J. Waggoner

"I will show him how great things he must suffer for My name's sake." Acts ix. 16.

That was what the Lord said of Saul of Tarsus, when He sent Ananias to baptize him. But that was the secret of Paul's boldness to preach the truth in the face of threatened death. He entered the work expecting hardship, and he was not taken by surprise when it came.

After he had been years in the work, Paul said: "The Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the Gospel of the grace of God." Acts xx. 23, 24.

The trouble with the most of those who hear the Gospel is that they want an easy time. They have been educated to believe that the duty of Government is "to make it as easy as possible to do right, and as difficult as possible to do wrong." Professed ministers of the Gospel have appealed to the State to remove the difficulties in the way of the Gospel, until people have come to think that the Lord doesn't expect them to take any step in His service that will involve serious inconvenience or loss of position.

This is why so many people hesitate about keeping the Sabbath of the Lord. It is not popular, Government does not favour it, and they fear the reproach or possible loss of position that may follow. We often hear the statement, "I would keep the Sabbath, if everybody else did." Well, that does not require much courage. He who says that he would do right if everybody else did right really says that he will do wrong as long as anybody else does wrong.

Now the Lord does not deceive people. He does not seek to induce them to serve Him by false representation, or by concealing any fact. He tells us, "In the world ye shall have tribulation." John xvi. 33. "Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." 2 Tim. iii. 12. He does not set before men the prospect that they will have an easy time in His service, but in His invitation to them shows them how great things they must suffer for His name's sake.

Is it not a risky thing to set forth the difficulties so plainly?-Certainly not; for difficulties will not affright those who have "respect unto the recompense of the reward," which is the Lord Himself. Moses cast his lot with the people of God, in the face of fierce opposition, and the certain loss of all worldly honour and position, "esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt." Heb. xi. 26.

And why?-Because God "comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ." 2 Cor. i. 4, 5. "Therefore," says the apostle, "I take pleasure in infirmities, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong." He gloried in infirmities, because then the power of Christ rested on him. 2 Cor. xii. 9, 10.

Shall we then wish that the way were easier, and that we could assure the people of a good situation and plenty of admiring friends if they will only accept Christ and His truth?-Not by any means. We will rather rejoice that this Gospel of the grace of God is so wonderful and glorious in its power that it can irresistibly attract people even by the presentation of the cross.

"Look Forward, Not Backward" The Present Truth 12, 6.

E. J. Waggoner

"Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Phil. iii. 13, 14. Looking forward, and not backward, is the only way to advance. "Forgetting those things which are behind." What things?-Everything that is behind. There is no exception. Is it a record of sin? Then forget it. God has said that He will forget it; why then should we try to remember it. From evil only evil can come. We can get no more good from looking at our own sins than we can from looking at those of others. Association with our own evil past will as surely work harm to us as association with some other person's evil present. When God says that He puts our sins away, let us not

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waste time wondering if He has really done it, speculating as to where He has put them.

But what about "the good things that we have done it"? Forget them, by all means. Nothing is more deadly than to dwell upon them. If they were the good things that we have done, then we may know that "all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags," and are to be shunned as evil. If they were really good deeds which God wrought in us, thank Him for it, and look forward to the "much more" which lies beyond.

Very dangerous it is also to be looking backward to the place where the light of truth first shone upon us. That is the great trouble with the mass of professed Christians to-day. They look back to the time when they were first converted, fearful lest they should lose just that phase of it that appeared to them then. Consequently they do not make any advancement.

We need not disparage either the truth, or the measure of it, which we first received; nevertheless we are to look forward, and not backward. We need not be afraid of losing anything of real truth that we ever had, if we look forward to those things which are before; for it is only more light and truth that we shall find ahead, and truth is one. The fact is, truth is always ahead of us. That truth which we first saw was not the whole of some truth, but only a glimpse of the great truth in the distance. If we look ahead, and steadfastly press forward, we shall see that same truth only in a larger measure, and much more clearly. Looking backward is simply to turn our backs on the truth, to gaze at a shadow.

He who looks backward is sure to go backward; for a man cannot walk in one direction while continually looking in another. And God's word to His people is, "Go forward!"

"Making Nominal Christians" The Present Truth 12, 6.

E. J. Waggoner

A Japanese missionary, discussing the influence of missions in that country, says that the recent war with China has been the occasion of great changes in the general sentiment. Anxious to show that in their idea following the Lord does not in any wise hinder men from fighting and killing their neighbours, the natives themselves in the field, and the old dislike to "Christianity" has so "broken down the whole army has been thrown open to Christian influences."

The missionary hopes that the Educational Department will be influenced to take the same course, in which case he sees a rosy future before Japan.

It would not then be impossible that Christianity might take on the form called political, in which the upper classes would profess it and thus hasten the day when Japan would become nominally a Christian nation.

It is plain that the same danger that is before the churches in professedly Christian nations is before missionaries in these great heathen lands which are coming under Western influences. It is the temptation to make Christians in some easier way than by the preaching of the Cross. The missionaries who first went to these lands had no arm of flesh to rely upon, and in the face of the keenest opposition of the powers that be they proved the higher power of the Cross of Christ. As the primitive church endured the opposition of the Roman world and grew stronger under it, but fell before the friendship of that world, so now in these older mission fields a greater danger confronts the Gospel than the hostility of earthly powers.

This growing dependence on political influence for doing a religious work is a sign of the times. It is at the root of the Sunday-law movement and all the religio-political controversies continually agitating churches and legislative bodies. It is a sign of a weakening hold on Gospel principles here, as it is in Japan. Indeed, the missionary whom we quote says that the life of the Japanese churches is not seen in large additions, "nor in any special activity in creating a Christian literature." They "are suffering from the same world-causes that affect church attendance in our own land." This explains the readiness with which an easier way of making nominal professors is welcomed. It is one of the dreams of the last days that all the world is to be Christianised. The prophet predicted this in the words:-

"And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many people shall go out and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob." Isa. ii. 2, 3.

The "many people" make fair professions,-they will walk in the Lord's ways, and beat their swords into ploughshares, and learn war no more. But while the nominal profession is made, and they say one to another, "Come ye, and do these things," we know from the Word that none of them will take the Lord's way, nor give up swords and spears, however much they may cry peace. The actual practice will be directly contrary to the profession, and, as Joel says, the ploughshares will be turned into swords, until the coming of the Lord brings His wrath upon the angry nations.

When it is shown that the warning messages of Revelation xiv. are directed against the principles of the Papacy, it is sometimes asked how that can be when these great Eastern nations are professedly non-Christian. Really, the principles of the Papacy are but borrowed from the Oriental religions, and there is a striking similarity in doctrines and practices. But aside from this, every year sees these countries brought nearer the formal recognition of nominal Christianity. The studies on the growth of the Papacy, now appearing in these columns, have shown how naturally nominal Christianity fused with pagan philosophy to make the papal religion. Now we see a like movement, by which Christianity is toned down to a mere philosophy, and it is considered a mark of breadth of view to be able to recognise points of contact between Christianity and the Oriental religions. A Sunday law passed in Korea at once leads religious journals to the conclusion that Korea is nearly a Christian country. Thus European Governments are made nominally Christian, and it is perhaps not unreasonably supposed that the nations of the East will yet follow in the same way.

But it will still be the work of the missionary with Christ's message to teach that no nominal profession can save from unrighteousness. All the Governments may unite to make it easy for the people to be nominal Christians, but only in the preaching of the Cross, with its denial of self and its crucifixion unto the world, will be found the power that actually saves from sin. And the world will always make it as difficult as possible to be this kind of Christian.

"Religion does not consist in occasionally doing religious things. It consists rather in doing everything religiously."

"Christ the Liberator" The Present Truth 12, 6.

E. J. Waggoner

"And He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was about together, and could in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from the thine infirmity. And He laid His hands on her; and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God." Luke xiii. 10-13. In the verses following we find the statement made by Christ, that the woman had been bound all those years by Satan. Christ loosing her, was therefore a direct evidence of His power over Satan.

In this miracle we have an illustration of the loosing of men from the bondage of sin. Sin binds its victims. "His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins." Prov. v. 22. "Everyone that committeth sin is the bondservant of sin." John viii. 34. "Sin is the transgression of the law" (1 John iii. 4); therefore the bondage is that of a law-breaker. "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Rom. viii. 7.

So the poor woman with the spirit of infirmity accurately illustrates the condition of the sinner. She was bound down; so is the sinner. She was bowed together so that she could not lift herself up. She was obliged to go looking down toward the earth. So the Psalmist, describing his sinful condition, says, "Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up." Ps. xl. 12. The woman would fain have walked upright, but she could in no wise lift up herself. So the sinner would often gladly do that which is right, but he is not able. "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would." Gal. v. 17.

Nevertheless the sinner's case is not hopeless. "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." This being the case, we may come "boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." Heb. iv. 15, 16. Christ said that this scripture applies to Him, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised." Luke iv. 18.

To the woman that was bound Christ said, "Thou art loosed from thine infirmity." So it is with His word that He loses men from the bondage of sin. "Then said Jesus to those Jews which had believed Him, If ye abide in My word, then are ye truly My disciples; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John viii. 31, 32. The Jews boasted that they were not in bondage, but Jesus showed that they were, by saying, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Every one that committeth sin is the bondservant of sin. And the bondservant abideth not in the house for ever; the Son abideth for ever. If therefore the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." Verses 34-36. The bondage, therefore, is the bondage of sin, and the freedom which Christ gives is the freedom from sin.

Christ said that it was by the Spirit that He gave liberty. So we read that "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." 2 Cor. iii. 17. The Spirit gives liberty, because it is righteousness; it is the source of the law, for "the law is spiritual." Rom. vii. 14. The fruit of the Spirit is obedience to the law. For "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; against such there is no law." Gal. v. 22, 23. Those who have this Spirit, and are led by it, are free, because they keep the law; for the Psalmist said, "I will walk at liberty; for I seek Thy precepts." Ps. cxix. 45.

As Christ healed the poor, infirm woman by His word, so He sets sinners free by His word. His word is law; He speaks the words of the

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Father; and the commandment of God is life everlasting (John xii. 50), because it is His own life. The words that Christ speaks are Spirit and life; and since it is the Spirit that makes free, it is evident that the reception of the words of Christ will make the sinner free. As the bondage is the bondage of sin, and the words of Christ are the words of righteousness, the receiving of those words is in itself the freedom from bondage. Simple faith in the word of Christ is sufficient to give the sinner his liberty; but to every one who has thus been made free, the words of inspiration come, "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made a free."

"Palestine 3,500 Years Ago" The Present Truth 12, 6.

E. J. Waggoner

The following from the Edinburg Review give some instructive facts gleaned from recent discoveries in the East, showing the literary life of the days of Moses and before. Incidentally the writer rebukes the Higher Critics, who, years ago, before these bricks and tablets were dug up, refused to believe that Moses could have written anything in his uncivilised day. The rebuke is useless. The critics believe the tablets, of course, but now the theory is that the Scripture record of the creation and later history is from the tablets. Well, Christians can only preach the Word, knowing that it convicts the sinner, and that sinful departure from God is the source of infidelity. Here are the paragraphs referred to:-

"We have become possessed of certain very important indications as to the early civilisation of Palestine by means of clay tablets. Not that the knowledge so attained is altogether new, or that it conflicts with that which has been deduced from yet earlier Egyptian records. It is well known to scholars that Thothmes III., when he defeated the league of Hittites of Phoenicians at Megiddo, in 1600 B.C. (a century before Amenophis III. acceded), reaped a spoil which indicates the advanced civilisation of Syria, including not only the precious metals and chariots painted and plated, but also objects of art having a high ?sthetic value, and that he found corn, wine, and oil abundant in the country, and many hundreds of walled towns, in which there were already temples of the gods. Such evidence has, however, been slighted by those who regard the early Hebrews as savages, and who think that, though placed in the very centre of the ancient civilised world between the Egyptians and the Assyrians, they were, nevertheless, unacquainted with any arts and uninfluenced by surrounding culture.

"The new discoveries insist on quite another understanding of their ancient history. It is surely a lesson of humility that the modern student should learn from such discoveries. Voltaire was no doubt a writer of great originality and acumen, though, from our present standpoint, wonderfully ignorant of antiquity. He finds it hard to believe that Homer's poems could have been written down before 500 B.C., and asserts that papyrus had not been invented in Egypt in the time of Moses, though we now possess in the maxims of Ptah-hotep a manuscript as old as the pyramids. We find, on the contrary, that not only in Egypt or in Mesopotamia was the art of writing known in the time of Moses, but that the inhabitants of Palestine also could pen a brick epistle, which in the space of a few inches contained as much information as can now be condensed into a sheet of notepaper. Such letters were neither heavy nor bulky, and could be carried in the turban or in the folds of the shirt-bosom just as easily as paper letters are now carried, with the additional advantage that they were imperishable, as is witnessed by the fact that they are now being read three thousand five hundred years after they were written."

"Among French Spiritualists" The Present Truth 12, 6.

E. J. Waggoner

Not long ago one of the London organs of Spiritualism, boasting of the power of the cult, said that Spiritualists never had apostasies from their ranks. It is a fact that Spiritualism has a powerful hold upon all who get fairly entangled in its meshes. Beginning by willingly, and perhaps curiously, tampering with it, ignorant of the fact that it is the Devil's manifest working, they end by being "taken captive by him at his will." When one submits to God his will is set free and continues free; but when to Satan the will is enslaved, the great slave master does not willingly release it.

But the power of truth can save to the uttermost, and bring every honest soul out of the snare. We have known of more than one Spiritualist who, on learning that the manifestations which deceived him were Satanic, has turned to the truth. And one of our American papers just at hand contains the following report of the work of one of our French ministers in the West, whose meetings the Spiritualists had evidently thought to break up:-

"One French Spiritualist family had already embraced the truth, which had greatly aroused the other members of the circle to which they had belonged for four years. Wonders had been performed among them, such as speaking in tongues and in trances, and healing the sick under the influence and through the power of pretended spirits of the departed. We knew of no alternative except either to let the enemy have the ground and still control those he had bound in darkness, or with love, prudence, the sword of the Spirit, and reliance on the mighty One, break into the Spiritualistic ring. The latter we decided to do. We have had three encounters with them, one of which held us one day and part of one night, the other two a half day each.

"It was hard to keep unruly spirits at bay while we set forth man's nature, his state in death, the two kinds of angels, the Holy Spirit and its operations. But God gave us wonderful victories. At the close of our last interview, as we were giving the benediction, the Spirit of God came in with such power that one who had been a leading medium and speaker was overpowered, and under the influence of the Holy Spirit, vindicated the truth before a room filled with Spiritualists, and in the presence of a trance speaker who had come from Green Bay to oppose us, and in the effort had barely managed to manifest a faint outburst of imprecations, and of self-laudation in the matter of healing the sick.

"That one of their number should be thus overpowered, and vindicate the truth under such circumstances, was indeed wonderful. It remains to be seen what the outcome of all this will be. Some of the Spiritualists are turning away from us; a few are under conviction, and we pray that the spell of the enemy may be entirely broken, and that the captives may be wholly set free."

"Church Growth" The Present Truth 12, 6.

E. J. Waggoner

"And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved." Acts ii. 47. Whether we follow this or the rendering of the Revised Version,-"And the Lord added to them day by day those that were being saved,"-a wonderful condition of things is revealed. There were no hypocrites in the church at that time. None joined except those who were in the way of salvation. Why was this?-Because the Lord added the people to the church. It was not the work of men. It is a good deal better that the Lord should bring additions to the church than that new members should be brought in by this or that minister. That which the Lord does is done right.

What were the believers doing?-They were praising God, not alone

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with their voices, but by their lives. They were, with voice and life, showing the power and goodness of God. This is the way that God wants His people to work for Him. David said: "I waited patiently for the Lord; and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And He hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God; many shall see it and fear, and trust in the Lord." Ps. xl. 1-3.

"The Secret of Reformation" The Present Truth 12, 6.

E. J. Waggoner

When Wycliffe was translating, or was about to translate, the Bible into the English language, he wrote these words:-

As the faith of the church is contained in the Scriptures, the more these are known in their true meaning the better; and inasmuch as secular men should assuredly understand the faith they profess, that faith should be taught them in whatever language may be best known to them. Forasmuch, also, as the doctrines of our faith are more clearly and exactly expressed in the Scriptures, than they may probably be by priests,-seeing, if I may so speak, that many prelates are but too ignorant of Holy Scripture, while others conceal many parts of it; and as verbal instructions of priests have many other defects,-the conclusion is abundantly manifest that the leadership ascertain for themselves what are the true matters of their faith, by having the Scriptures in the language which they fully understand. For the laws made by prelates are not to be received as matters of faith, nor are we to confide in their public instruction, nor in any of their words, but as they are founded in Holy Writ,-since the Scriptures contain the whole truth.

The work of translating the Scriptures into the language of the people has now been almost completed. Still the work of the Reformation is not complete. It is not enough that the Bible should be furnished in the language of the people; it must be read and studied by the people. It is of little use to have the Bible, if the words of man are to be taken as to what it means, instead of reading it for one's self. To too great an extent at the present day, as in the days of Christ, when the people had the Bible in their own tongue, the fear of God is taught by the commandments of men, rather than by the Word of God. So the work of the true teacher is to take the Bible which the people have already to their hand, and bring them to face to face with it.

To be a follower of the Reformers does not mean to believe just what they believe, and nothing more. To be a worthy follower of the Reformers is to be actuated by the same spirit that moved them. That was loyalty to the Word of God. Their principle was that the Bible should settle all questions; that it, and it alone, was the truth. They did not know all that the Bible teaches. No man has ever yet known it all. Sometimes, also, they were mistaken in their views of Scripture, and made the common mistake of teaching what they thought instead of what they knew. Whether a man is right or wrong, if we follow the man we shall surely go wrong; for at the best we shall get only partial truth; but if we follow the Scriptures we cannot make a mistake. Only they are true followers of the Reformers, who have the same loyalty to the Word they had, regardless of what they thought about certain points.

"Peace" The Present Truth 12, 6.

E. J. Waggoner

"Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you," said the Lord. That perfect peace in which He continually lived is ours, therefore, and we have to make use of it, to know its greatness. He has given it to us, whether we accept it or not. If we have once had it, and have thrown it away, still it is ours. He has not withdrawn it, for He said, "My peace I leave with you." So then in the place where we rejected or lost the peace, there we may always find it.

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 6.

E. J. Waggoner

-The Turkish army is nearly three-quarters of a million strong.

-Locomotives and steamship engines use a third of the coal mined in England.

-Ocean steamers of the first class each consume from 800 to 400 tons of coal a day.

-During the year just closed the services of about 35,000 men were accepted for the army.

-Queen Ranavalona, of Madagascar, has signed away the last shred of independence in a new treaty, and France takes over the complete administration of the island.

-Companies have been formed in America for the manufacture of acetylene, a gas said to possess forty times the brilliancy of ordinary illuminating gas. It is a product of coal drat and lime dust, treated in an electric furnace.

-Another terrible mining disaster in South Wales, by which fifty-seven miners lost their lives last week, reminds us that those who dig out our coals are daily in peril of their lives. Had this last explosion occurred an hour later 2,000 men would have been in the mine.

-The Duke of Bedford expressed the general apprehension in a speech last week when he said "he could not detect the least harmony in the concert of Europe against Turkey, but it appeared as very likely that harmony would be shown in the concert of Europe against England."

-Reports from the naval stations of all the great powers of Europe state that unusual activity is seen. The Russians are putting their Black Sea fleet in order, and Turkey is completing the armament of its cruisers. Rumours of alliance between Russia and Turkey are taken seriously.

-The photographic discovery by which, with the aid of electricity, a bullet or a fracture may be located, is to be utilised in hospital practice. The rays of light are shown to penetrate flesh, but not bones or metal bodies, so that the surgeon can determine from the photograph the nature of the difficulty with which he has to deal.

-The Yellow River is styled the "Sorrow of China." During the last century it has changed its course twenty-two times, and now flows into the sea through a mouth three hundred miles distant from that of a hundred years ago. It is estimated that its floods in the present century have cost China something like eleven millions of lives.

-A workman in the alkali works at Widnes was overcome by gas and fell into a sewer. A companion rushed to his rescue and also fell, and another who tried to rescue them was also overcome." These brave men knew the danger, and knew that if they waited for a rope it would be too late, though with a rope under their arms they would have run no risk themselves. They faced the risk, and lost their lives in the attempt. When a descent was made, later on, all three were found dead. Greater love hath no man than this."

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 6.

E. J. Waggoner

Grumbling is only bad. The man who grumbles that the thing that is wrong does not right the wrong, but only puts himself in the wrong.

Anti-slavery workers are still agitating in behalf of the slaves in Zanzibar and Pemba, of whom there are at least 200,000, held under law and administered by the British Consul-General.

The saddest of all the pitiful sorrows of Armenia is that the truly Christian and peaceable Armenians, of whom there are many, are made to suffer innocently along with those who, under the mask of Christianity, have unsuccessfully worked for political revolution, and prove the truth of the scripture, "All they that take the sword shall perish with the sword."

The Bookman says that the recently published life of the late Cardinal Manning is gravely disapproved of by influential Roman Catholics, and there is talk of legal proceedings. The biographer to whom the late cardinal committed all his papers published too much, and gave a sorry picture of ecclesiastical intriguing and rivalry.

As the result of circulating literature in Iceland our friends in Scandinavia report good interest in that island. One Lutheran preacher there has, with his family, been led to accept the Bible Sabbath and desires to fully co-operate with our Danish brethren in the work. Iceland is a Danish possession and has a population of nearly 71,000, mostly of the Lutheran Church.

Ritualism is apparently as flourishing in the Disestablished Church in Ireland as in the Establishment in England. This month a primate is to be selected, and a stiff fight is to be made by Protestants against the election of an archbishop who is a Sacerdotalist. But the latter party appeared to be the stronger. No church can hold the leaven of Sacerdotalism, and insisting upon observances contrary to the Word, and at the same time keep the leaven from affecting the whole lump.

The spirit of militarism is rising everywhere, and no one knows how soon the accursed forced conscription of the Continent may come upon us. The Sydney correspondent of the London journal says:-

The Government of South Australia is pushing forward a Defence Forces Bill. This divides the forces into two-active force and reserve. If there are not sufficient Volunteers, the Government is empowered to declare military districts, in which all men between eighteen and forty-five are liable to be called upon to serve, the unmarried men being taken first.

And the newspaper publishing this note adds: "It is high time some similar steps should be taken in England."

An order of monks is invited by the French Resident to colonise Madagascar. Free passages and other inducements are offered. Of course, as in other French colonies, they will represent the official religion which will attract natives who desire to stand well with the ruling power. In former times Protestantism was the official religion of the Court, and this patronage made the cause of genuine Protestantism languish. Perhaps now, under Catholic opposition, the Protestant missions will gain new life.

"Put on the whole armour of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not with flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, again spiritual wickedness in high places." Eph. vi. 11, 12. Since it is only by the strength of God that we can win in this wrestling contest, how pertinent the prayer, "Let not the foot of pride come against me, and let not the hand of the wicked remove me." Ps. xxxvi. 11.

The annual conference of our friends in South Africa has just been held as a camp-meeting in the Cape Town suburbs. The Cape Times of Jan. 8, just received, makes the following reference to the preparations of the meetings:-

Quite a cotton city has been springing up near Mowbray railway station within the past two days. The Seventh-day Adventists have over forty tents erected, which are being fitted up for temporary homes for families in attendance from various parts of the Colony. The public services are to be held in a pavilion 50x70, which can be enlarged by another twenty feet if the occasion requires. A fifty-foot circular tent is erected in which the children's and youths' meetings will be held. A specially constructed tent is to be used as a dining tent, in which meals are to be furnished for all the campers who wish to avail themselves of such accommodation.

Bishop Hendrix, of the American Methodist Episcopal Church, writes as follows of an interview recently had with Li Hung Chang, which shows that the Chinese statesman does not share in the popular hostility to the "foreign teachers" which led to the recent riots:-

He spoke at some length of the great service which both the schools and hospitals of the missionaries had been to China, and how much they needed yet more. Having twice asked: "Can't you persuade the American people to send over more teachers and physicians?" I replied: "If all were like your Excellency, it would be much easier to send over more." The great Viceroy then said, with much emphasis: "Say to the American people for me to send over more for the schools and hospitals, and I hope to be in a position both to aid them and to protect them."

The "conversion" of the infant heir to the Bulgarian throne continues to agitate cabinets. The Governments of earth patronise religion because it is useful in carrying out their political aims. Could anything more plainly show how completely religion is officially identified with politics than the following from a St. Petersburg journal:-

The latest information from Bulgaria causes a serious belief to be entertained here that Prince Ferdinand can no longer delay the baptism of Prince Boris in the Orthodox faith without compromising the security of his throne. The baptism would be hailed here with great satisfaction as a moral victory for Russia and the Orthodox Church.

"A Place for Safety" The Present Truth 12, 6.

E. J. Waggoner

A Place for Safety.-"The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous runneth into it and is safe." Prov. xviii. 10. And what is the name of the Lord? Let the Lord Himself answer. "And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty." Ex. xxxiv. 5-7. This is the strong tower of safety, and so the Psalmist said, "I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in Thy salvation;" and, "I will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever."

February 13, 1896

"A Lesson from the Birds" The Present Truth 12, 7.

E. J. Waggoner

From the living creatures around us, as well as from inanimate nature, God designs that we shall learn lessons concerning Him and His love.

But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee;
And the fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee;
Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee;
And the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee.
Who knoweth not in all these
That the hand of the Lord hath wrought this?
In whose hand is the soul of every living thing,
And the breath of all mankind.
Job xii. 7-10, R.V.

The great lesson that we are to learn from the lower orders of creation is the care that God has for all His creatures, and to be sure that since God cares for the lowest, He will much more care for man, whom He has made in His own image, and placed over the works of His hands.

The Saviour said, "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father." Matt. x. 29. Still stronger: "Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows." Luke xii. 6, 7.

Again the Lord says, "Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns: yet your Heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?" Matt. vi. 26. In the care of God for the birds we have the assurance that He will care for us; and as they do not spend time in anxious thought and worry, much less need we. Surely God will take as much better care of men than He does of birds, as the needs and the value of men are greater than those of the birds.

But the care of God for the birds does more than assure us of His care for our physical wants. The life is more than meat. God's care assures us that He will supply all our need, "according to His riches in glory." Phil. iv. 19. He who cares for that which is least, will not forget that which is the greatest.

God's care for the wants of the smallest of His creatures should be taken by us as comfort when we appear before the throne of grace to ask for mercy, and grace to help in time of need. Here is our warrant:-

The Lord is gracious, and full of compassion;
Slow to anger, and of great mercy.
The Lord is good to all;
And His tender mercies are over all His works.
All Thy work shall give thanks unto Thee, O Lord;
And Thy saints shall bless Thee.
They shall speak of the glory of
Thy kingdom, And talk of Thy power;
To make known to the sons of men His mighty acts,
And the glory of the Majesty of His kingdom.
Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
And Thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.
The Lord upholdeth all that fall,
And raiseth up all those that be bowed down.
The eyes of all wait upon Thee;
And Thou givest them their meat in due season.
Thou openest Thine hand,
And satisfieth the desire of every living thing.
The Lord is righteous in all His ways,
And gracious in all His works.
The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon Him,
To all that call upon Him in truth.
He will fulfil the desire of them that fear Him;
He also will hear their cry, and will save them.
Ps. cxlv. 8-19, R.V.

But the fact that God cares for all His creatures, and that all get their supplies from His open hand, does not

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imply that they are to sit still and wait for the food to drop into their mouths. He provides food for all, and expects them to take it.

These wait call upon Thee,
That Thou mayest give them their meat in due season.
That Thou givest unto them they gather;
Thou openest Thine hand, they are satisfied with good.
Ps. clv. 27, 28, R.V.

The birds fly about, and gather that which the Lord has provided for them; but that does not indicate that they do not receive it direct from the hand of God. So the fact that man works for his living is no sign that he does not receive it direct from the Lord. Man is actually as much depended on the Lord for his daily bread as the birds are for their food. But for God's provident care there would be nothing to gather, and but for the same care there would be no ability on the part of men to gather it.

"When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which He hath given thee. Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, in not keeping His commandments, and His judgments, and His statutes, which I command thee this day; lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; . . . then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God, . . . and thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth." Deut. viii. 10-18.

From the physical we are to learn lessons concerning the spiritual. God has provided every spiritual blessing that man needs, and more than he can realise. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places [things] in Christ." Eph. i. 3. A man to whom this was quoted once asked, "If this is so, why do I not have all spiritual blessings? Why is it that I lack so much, and have so little enjoyment in the Christian life?"

The answer ran thus: "What would you say of a man who should come to your house nearly starved, if, when you have loaded the table with the best that your house affords, he still rings his hands, and moans, 'Oh, I am so hungry; how I wish I had something to eat!' You would say, that if he is hungry the fault is all his own; that plenty has been given him, and that all he has to do is to take hold and eat. The fact that he is still starving does not prove that you have not given him everything he needs. Thus it is with the gracious gift of God. He has given you all spiritual blessings, and if you lack it is because you will not take that which He has so richly provided."

The man insisted that this was not a fair illustration, for, said he, "the beggar can see the food before him on the table, but I cannot see the blessings of God." True, we cannot see them, but we may be more sure of them than if we could see them. We have the assurance of the Word of God that they have been given to us, and there can be no doubt about it. Our eyes often deceive us, but the Word of the Lord never does. "The things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen our eternal." 2 Cor. iv. 18. God's Word makes thing so that did not exist before; therefore we may rest assured that all things that we need for this life, as well as for that which is to come, have been freely given to us, and that we have only to appropriate them.

"Unwise Caution" The Present Truth 12, 7.

E. J. Waggoner

There is such a thing as being too cautious. This is the case when men hesitate to act upon the Word of the Lord. How often it happens that people will acknowledge the clearness of the Word of God, and still hesitate to let themselves rest upon it. "I know that the Bible says so, but I believe in being cautious. I do not believe in moving too hastily." Such caution is sin. It is simply unbelief. How differently Mary did when the angels announced to her the birth of a son. "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to Thy word." And the Holy Ghost, by the mouth of Elizabeth, pronounced a blessing upon her for her ready belief. See Luke i. 45.

Note also the ready belief of the shepherds when the birth of Jesus was announced to them. As soon as the angels departed, they said one to another: "Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us." Luke ii. 15. The people who are too wise to take things hastily would have said, "Let us go to Bethlehem and see if this thing is so." But those shepherds were just simple enough to believe the word of the Lord without any questioning. That is the kind of faith with which the Lord is pleased.

"Church Attendance" The Present Truth 12, 7.

E. J. Waggoner

Church Attendance.-A Bolton man had a census of the attendance in all the places of worship in Bolton taken Sunday evening, Dec. 22, the evening when there would likely be the largest attendance of the year. Deducting the aged, sick, etc., estimated at 45,000, there were left 80,000 able to attend services. The figures showed that 13,214 were present at all of the sixty-one places of worship. During the time of services 10,000 people were passing along the main streets. The figures are of interest as showing about the proportion of church-goers in the average town.

"A Discontented World in Arms" The Present Truth 12, 7.

E. J. Waggoner

The signs by which it may be known that we are living in the last days multiply about us with startling rapidity. Some are written so plainly across the current history of the world that men of the world are forced to observe them with misgivings. The meaning of these things and the lesson to every soul are apparent to those who look at them in the light of the Word. Unfortunately the great mass of the world never has read the signs of the times which God in mercy has always hung out before them. So trifling a thing as reading the face of the sky to determine the weather on the morrow is not beyond the worldling, but he fails to discern the signs of his times, and so fails to prepare for duty in the crisis.

The "distress of nations, with perplexity," that fearful "looking after those things which are coming on the earth" which the Lord forecast in describing the condition of the world at His second coming, are signs that must be seen by all, whether all read the lesson or not. A few days ago the Spectator, a cautious and conservative review, not given to "alarmist" tendencies, gave a survey of the great Powers which is worth reproducing in part. This is the age of boasted enlightenment and progress, and of marvellous increase of wealth (and of want to), yet the journal

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mentioned gives its review of nations under the title which best expresses the condition of the world, "The Dissatisfaction of Nations."

"The century has been," it says, "one of almost continuous progress, but it's close is being marked by a singular epidemic of restlessness among the nations. They all say they are powerful and prosperous and advancing, but they all give signs of deep dissatisfaction with their position."

FRANCE

"In France, where population does not increase, large divisions of the people declare the social system a mere source of misery, while the whole community restlessly desire to change the external position of their country. They are thirsty for more glory, more excitement, more "position" among the nations of the world. They are afraid of war, yet hunger for war, and would risk almost anything if they could only be sure of striking some grand coup which would live in history and increase the world's perception that the French are a great people. It is not only their provinces they want, but what Byron styled 'the earthquake voice of victory.' No statesmen even professes to know what France in her feverish discontent with men, institutions, events, and above all, rivals, may be impelled to do."

GERMANY

"In Germany discontent is actually burning, and is fed every day by an Emperor who cannot be quiet, and who dreams dreams of a Germany grown suddenly rich, and of an empire as great in the world as it is now in Europe, wherein he shall be recognised as the "mighty" child of the centuries. There the unrest is deepened by an economic situation which, if it continues, will produce the greatest results. The people increase yearly in numbers, their industrial activity goes on ever developing; but their physical comfort does not increase in the same proportion. The spread of material civilisation makes them feel their poverty in a new way, and they are positively raging with desire for changes, which, nevertheless, they see no way to realise at once. . . . With more than two millions of soldiers, they number more than two millions of active Socialists; and the Emperor, whom no one opposes, speaks always as if he expected one day to meet his people in arms. . . . There are signs in Germany which are ominous of coming trouble in the world."

THE REST OF EUROPE

"The situation in Austria is little better, with these differences, that there is deep liking for the Emperor, that the people do not think of colonies, and though over-governed, it is by men who, at bottom, are carelessly good-natured. In Russia, though nothing stirs, there is yet no content; the population increases like that of Germany, and with it the feverishness for more room and freer access to the sea, while the people show in the outbreaks against the Jews, in the new agitation against corporal punishment, and in the local displays of resistance to the payment of arrears of taxes, a sense that they are administratively overpressed. In Italy no one is happy, and in Turkey the dominant race is so stirred by fears and furies, that it is deliberately threatening all its Christian subjects, and extirpating one ancient people with horrid incidents of cruelty and lust."

UNITED STATES

"In the United States the unrest is as great, but it comes from a different origin. There is economic trouble produced by the great change in the value of silver, but the unrest in the main is that of the peasant, who has become a great man, and longs not only for a larger sphere, but for a higher place among mankind. Ever growing larger, richer, and more active, never meeting with neighbours as strong as itself, and tormented by unsatisfied pride, the American nation is half-tempted to forgo old policies, and declare itself sole arbiter and mistress of two great Continents. That would be rank in the world, and to the prosperous and the strong rank always seems the next thing to be sought."

GREAT BRITAIN

"Even in England, with all her external calm, there are great signs of restlessness. An uneasy idea that the world is hostile, and a pessimist idea that the people multiply too fast to be easily provided with hot suppers, having taken hold of the ruling classes and ruling men, and while the country under both parties has been silently arming, those classes have also been straining themselves to acquire more wealth, wider estates. . . . We also are troubled, uncertain of our way, ready for war, yet hating war, straining all of us in a leash, yet with no clear perception of the quarry we wish to strike. Even economically nothing is settled. We say in economics that we only desire justice, and never settle what justice is. In foreign politics we say we only desire to be let alone, but we mean in our hearts that we only desire to increase in peace-and that aspiration excites in the remainder of mankind a keen resentment."

THE WORLD A POWDER MAGAZINE

"The civilised world, in truth, which for nearly a century has advanced so rapidly on the path of material progress, is at this point of its strenuous labours seething with discontent, ready to risk all it has attained in an outburst of furious wars, intended to secure objects which it only half perceives in the distance, and is by no means certain that it really at heart desires. . . . A very small match just now would fire the magazine, and we feel no confidence, as we did five years ago, that all the matches are in safe hands. It is useless to say that the extent of the armaments is a guarantee of security, or that the people's will not permit war, or that war is too wicked for the sensitive consciences of the modern nations."

Such a waking up of nations the world has never seen before. And this review of the situation leaves out the populous countries of the East which are learning the arts of war from the Western and professedly Christian nations. Yet the match is not dropped. The dogs of war, straining at their leashes, are not loosed. There is nearly always a little conflict on somewhere, but the death grapple is delayed, all the preparations for it, so long continued, are increasing discontent and exhausting resources.

What holds back the tempest? It is not statesmanship alone, as statesmen are responsible for the preparations for strife. It is not the pulpit of popular Christendom; for it is a lamentable fact that during the critical times of the last few months the pulpits which have made their voice most heard have called for war with Turkey. The hand that holds the winds of strife in check is the Divine hand, for before the battle of the last day the everlasting Gospel is to be proclaimed in every nation and kingdom. There are to be wars and rumours of wars, but not until the Gospel is preached as a witness unto all nations will the end come. Matt. xxiv. 14. John saw in vision the angry nations gathering, and he saw also the hand of God restraining the tempest of hate until His work was done. Rev. vii. 1-3.

Then as the signs multiply that show that in this our day the coming of the Lord is at hand every believer is to remember that "it is high time to wake out of sleep." What is the message to the world? "The everlasting Gospel" (Rev. xiv. 6-14), with its final call to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people to worship God and give glory to Him. Now is the time to give that message, as every year and every month but increases the difficulty of carrying it to the world. Now, as never before, let

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believers proclaim it by the life and by the Word; for the world is worshipping Mars, the god of war, it is worshipping the Papacy, it is serving self, and needs to be brought face to face with the Word of "Him that made heaven, and earth." There is a surer foundation to build upon than this discontented, unstable earth, and that foundation is the everlasting Word.

"Making a Way" The Present Truth 12, 7.

E. J. Waggoner

Many hesitate about giving themselves to serving the Lord in His own way because they concede no way to get on if they do so. The blessed thing about it is that even where there is no way the Lord can make one.

When the children of Israel were before the sea, with the Egyptians behind them, they distrusted the Lord and thought there was no way out of their trouble. But the Lord made a way. Isaiah puts into the mouth of those who are surrounded by the trials of the last days the appeal: "Art Thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the deep of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over." Isa. li. 10.

It would have been just as easy for Him to have made a way over the surface of the sea, as when Jesus called Peter out to meet Him on the waves. The Lord makes ways for those who believe. But men are so slow to believe the Lord and trust Him.

"The Jesuits" The Present Truth 12, 7.

E. J. Waggoner

The Jesuits.-It was inevitable that such a body as the Jesuits should spring from the Papal system. Its organisation is so strong that successive popes have tried in vain to free themselves from its grasp, and now and then something is made public showing that the Jesuits still know how to gain their ends in spite of the popes and cardinals, who dare not break with them. "We are informed on good authority," says the Chronicle, "that Cardinal Manning left papers containing an important statement dealing with the Society of Jesuits and their policy, with distinct directions for the publication of the statement after his death. This came to the knowledge of the Jesuits, who made extraordinary efforts for the suppression of the papers in question, and with success. Thus it has come about that a solemn message which the Cardinal designed to reach the ears of Christendom has been deliberately and secretly suppressed."

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 7.

E. J. Waggoner

-The boy King of Spain has commenced smoking.

-Besides her plague of rabbits Australia is now threatened with a plague of foxes.

-France has decided to form a new army Corps, which will increase her standing army by 30,000 men.

-Great Britain owns 2,570,000 square miles of territory in Africa, an area almost equal to that of the United States.

-British troops last week twice defeated the Arab slave-raiding chiefs in the British Central African Protectorate.

-Over 30,000,000 pairs of gloves are used in England every year, and of these fully three-quarters are worn by ladies.

-Discontent in Portugal manifested itself in a bomb explosion in Lisbon the other day. Numerous arrests of anarchists were made.

-Great preparations are being made at Moscow for the coronation of the Czar, enormous sums having been voted for decorations and illuminations.

-In the Italian army the pay of the private is one penny per day, with rations. Yet its army costs Italy so much that the country is poverty-stricken.

-It is said that the widowed Princess Beatrice will make her home on the Isle of Weight, the Queen having given her Osborne Cottage as a life residence.

-After suffering from a drought Australia has been visited by a tornado in Queensland. The wind and rain destroyed immense property, and many were drowned by the floods.

-The Medical Society of Berne advises the passing of a law prohibiting the publication of suicides, on the ground that the reading of such accounts suggests suicide to certain people.

-Newspaper correspondents report that Russia is massing troops along the Armenian frontier, and it is expected that the understanding between Russia and Turkey will lead to Russia's co-operation in pacifying disturbed districts the spring if necessary

-In Saxony no one is permitted to shoe horses unless he has passed a public examination, and is properly qualified. A great school at Dresden has students from all parts of the world studying "farriery." This includes not only shoeing horses, but their care and treatment.

-A company has been formed to put autocars on the streets of Paris in competition with the cabs. This auto-cab is to seat three passengers inside and one by the side of the driver. It will be driven by means of a petroleum motor, and in winter will be warmed by the vapour and water used to cool the cylinders. A French journal humorously suggests that perambulators shall be fitted with motors so that the nurse can ride as well as the child.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 7.

E. J. Waggoner

It is only about a year since any public effort was begun by Seventh-day Adventists in Jamaica, West Indies, following the interest awakened by the canvassers who sold our literature throughout the island. Yet we see by a recent report that there are now about 200 observers of the Sabbath in the island.

Italy has now over 30,000 Italian troops in Africa, prosecuting her Abyssinian campaign. "This is the largest European force," says a newspaper, "ever gathered in Africa since Napoleon's time." Italy is "advancing civilisation" in Africa. The usual term "Christian civilization" would hardly be used in this case, as the Abyssinians also proclaim themselves "Christians."

It is now given out that the British navy is to be augmented by seventy-four new vessels, namely four battleships, four first-class cruisers, six third-class cruisers, and sixty torpedo destroyers. This increase will involve an outlay of nearly ?10,000,000 sterling, and it is possible that the number of third-class cruisers may be still further increased. Weapons and engines of war, like everything else, are made for use; and so, however much people may talk about peace and arbitration, it is evident that there will be some terrible fighting sometime.

A reliable journal states that Mrs. Cleveland, the wife of the President of the United States, and the sister of the Secretary of Agriculture, are leaders in a movement among religious women, especially those connected with the Administration, to promote Sunday observance in the city of Washington. It is expected that this movement will meet with a large measure of success, for, as the paper says, "the example of the fashionable world pressure to be followed, in a measure, by the community at large." But let them not forget that "the friendship of the world is enmity with God." Such a means of promoting Sunday observance, is of itself sufficient to show that it has no Divine authority.

The Christian truly says that "the recent display of temper in three great nations nearly all allied in blood and interest, over what, in other and calmer times, would pass without arousing any comment, is an ominous symptom of the unrest of the uncivilised world." It is a sign that we are nearing the time thus described in Rev. xi. 18: "And the nations were angry, and Thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that Thou shouldest give reward unto Thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and to them that fear Thy name, small and great; and that Thou shouldest destroy them that destroy the earth."

We learn from the papers that many who have hitherto avoided the theatre are enthusiastic in praise of a play now running in London which depicts the sufferings of the early martyrs, the whole pivoting upon the usual love story which must, we suppose, be a part of every stage play. People feel deeply impressed, and some even "feel" as though converted by the exhibition. What shall be said of a spiritual temperament that does not feel nauseated at the thought of mimicking on the stage at so much a night to a gallery of staring and emotional people the sufferings of those who died for the faith of Jesus?

The only thing that need be said of it all is that those early Christians who endured martyrdom for the love of Jesus at the hands of the Roman mob were not playing a part. They were not thinking of dramatic effects. Nor can anyone who enters into the Spirit of Christ which constrains them to follow Him find any profit in the attempt to dramatise spiritual things, making them clumsily profane. The temper of a society that can do such a thing, or applaud it, is not the temper that endured the sufferings. It is rather that of the gay world that sat in the amphitheatres of Rome and witnessed the sufferings of the dying and heard their moans of agony, finding it as interesting as a play. Nor was it by any "sign of the cross" that men were drawn out from that pleasure-loving world to a life of holiness, but by the lifting up of the cross indeed in the preaching of the Word.

One of the prominent Sunday-law advocates of America, Mr. Morse, of Massachusetts, introduced a Bill into the House of Representatives, advocating the "abolition" of the Sultan, and the transformation of the provinces of Turkey into "a Christian federation to be headed by a Christian President, under the control of the International Commission." This proposition is quite "up to date" in the line of "Christian Statesmanship;" but like all other plans with regard to Turkey, it will probably lie dormant for a while.

"The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." Yet the light itself ever remains the same. The light that shines from God was as great and as bright in the beginning as it is now, or as it will ever be. How then is it that the path of the just becomes brighter and brighter?-Evidently because he keeps advancing, walking in the light. The only way to get more light is to walk in the light that we now have. He who stands still, waiting for the light to become brighter, before he will take a step, is in danger of losing that which he has. "Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you."

"The Majority" The Present Truth 12, 7.

E. J. Waggoner

The Majority.-Many say of various duties which would lead them aside from the easy path of human tradition, "Yes, that is plainly the thing to do; but it does not seem necessary, and the great majority have followed the other way for centuries." They forget that one who would go with the multitude need not profess Christianity. A German statistician has just published figures putting down all professedly Christian people (and counting whole populations as Christians) 500,000,000. The number of heathen, Mohammedans, and Jews is just twice that. And aside from this everybody knows that the majority, in every country, are indifferent to real religious life. We are to follow the Lord and not the crowd.

February 20, 1896

"'The New Light'" The Present Truth 12, 8.

E. J. Waggoner

All over the civilised world people are now discussing a new discovery and photography, a specimen of which we present on this page. A few words may suffice to give the reader some idea of what the discovery is.

It is well known that ordinary light consists of different rays, which may be separated by the spectrum. The rainbow is proof that there are different colours in sunlight. Some of the rays of light may be seen, and others are invisible to the eye.

The rays of light with which we are familiar will pass through a glass, but not through wood, paper, etc. Consequently we see through a glass, but not through wood. The new ray which has been discovered in the course of electrical experiments, will not pass through a glass, but will pass through wood, paper, and sheets of aluminum. So although the human eye cannot see through those substances, since it cannot perceive the light that penetrates them, a sensitive plate upon which those peculiar rays of light are gathered up, reveals the fact that those substances which we have named are not really opaque after all. Coins and metals have been photographed through wood, so that in the photograph you can, as it were, see through the box that incloses them.

This is very wonderful, but something more wonderful still, and which promises to be very practical, is that the newly-discovered light will pass through flesh, but not bone. Consequently the skeleton of a living man may be photographed. In the photograph of a man's hand, shown in the cut, we see all the bones distinctly through the flesh, which appears only in outline as a shadow.

This discovery promises to be, and has already proved, of practical benefit in surgery, enabling the surgeon to locate a bullet or piece of steel in the body, or to detect the exact nature of any disease or malformation of bone. The exact nature of a fracture, or the progress of repair of bone, may be clearly seen by the aid of the new light.

But it is to the Christian Bible student that this discovery is the most interesting, since it is full of suggestion and illustration of spiritual truths. Remember that this so-called "new light" is not new at all, but has only newly come to the knowledge of man. It has been from the beginning. Remember also that God "is in the light," and that He "is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." These rays, as others of which we know nothing, and which doubtless have still greater power of penetration, have always been visible to His all-seeing eye. And, lastly, remember that His Word produces light; because His Word is light.

With all this in mind, and this picture before us, with what new force and reality the scripture comes to us: "The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight; but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." Heb. iv. 12, 13. How much more real the truth is that He can see through every substance.

The Psalmist prayed, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know My thought; and see if there be any wicked way in me." Ps. cxxxix. 23, 24. This prayer was inspired by the Spirit of God, and therefore shows what God really does. So in the same psalm we read, "O Lord, Thou hast searched me, and known me. . . . Thou understandest my thought afar off." Verses 1, 2.

Again we are told, "All things that are reproved are made manifest by the light; for that which does make manifest is light." Eph. v. 13. God holds us up to the pure light of His Word,

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which penetrates not only flesh and bone, but soul and spirit. Sin only is dark and opaque. That light will reveal the cherished sin, just as this new light will reveal the leaden bullet embedded in the flesh. If the soul loves the light, he becomes "light in the Lord" (Eph. v. 8), and so he "cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God." John iii. 21. The light shines through him, and reveals no foreign substance. He is then "sincere, and without offence."

Jesus has said that "there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed: and hid, that shall not be known." Matt. x. 26. The day of the Lord will declare it. When He comes, His glory shall fill the earth, and He "will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts."

When a man first sees his own sinful condition, he imagines that God is as much surprised at the discovery as he is, and that God must abhor him as much as he does himself. He forgets that what is newly revealed to him was perfectly plain to God from the beginning, and that it was only the hitherto-undiscovered rays of the light of God's Word that enabled him to see it. But the same light that reveals the sin will remove it if we acknowledge it. If not, in the last day when every hidden sin will stand revealed as clearly to every eye as are the bones in the photograph, by Him whose eyes are as a flame of fire, the light will remove the sinner with his sin; "for our God is a consuming fire."

God gives evidence, not explanation. He lets us know facts, but does not attempt to make our finite minds comprehend how they are accomplished. But He illustrates. We now know the fact that light will penetrate substances hitherto considered impervious to its rays. We cannot tell how it is; and a few weeks ago if anybody had said that it is possible to see through a board, and through human flesh, everybody would have said, "It is impossible; I don't believe it." Yet now we know it to be a fact. Is not this discovery granted for the purpose of confounding those who say that they do not believe that Christ can dwell in the heart, because they do not see how it can be done? He is the Light of the world, and His representative is the Spirit of light. What matters it that we do not know how it can be? His Word assures us that it is even so; and if we will but believe it we shall know the truth of it, "because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth."

"Preserved from All Evil" The Present Truth 12, 8.

E. J. Waggoner

The Apostle Paul wrote in his last epistle, "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." 2 Tim. iv. 6, 7.

He was about to suffer death, but he did not regard that as a calamitous ending of his life's work. With his head almost under the executioner's sword, and knowing that it must fall, he said, "And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto His heavenly kingdom." Verse 18.

They could take off his head but they could not force him into evil. Naturally we should regard the execution, and even the imprisonment before it, as a great evil that had befallen us and was hanging over us. We sometimes confound trial with evil, and pray the Lord to deliver from the trial instead of maintaining our faith in God's power to deliver from all evil in the trial. Paul, "the prisoner of the Lord" knew that he was in the hands of the Lord, and that all the power of the Roman Empire could not separate him from God's care.

"War Without the Glory" The Present Truth 12, 8.

E. J. Waggoner

What would be thought of a man who should go in amongst a drove of fine horses in a pasture and hack them in pieces with a cutlass? What man would do it? But this is what is done in a war, and while horses are cut down by artillery, it is men who go in among their fellow-men, shooting, hacking, stabbing, disemboweling, braining, cursing-men transformed into very demons in their work of death and mutilation. Words could never picture the gruesome horrors of a hard-fought battle-field. Anyone who allows himself to think of it can easily understand what ghastly mutilations are wrought in the fury of a contest; not many who have written of them have dared to do more than hint at the awful sights. Not many readers are so morbid as to care to read detailed descriptions of the sights of a slaughter pen, where animals are prepared for food; still less would they wish it of a human slaughter pen.

Why speak of it, then, at all? Because that is what war is. Because it is to this work that "Christian nations" send their armies, and call it glory and honour for men to engage in it. And, too, because it is rare to find even a religious paper in any country to-day which does not favour a resort to war if necessary to sustain national "honour" and "dignity," just as formerly gentlemen thought that their honour could be sustained by a chance at killing or being killed in a duel.

This is the kind of moral code which ordains that if political leaders of two countries fall out and declare war the question of one country must kill his brother Christian of the other, instead of meeting him as a brother. The word kill has received a conventional gloss which does not express the thought. He might shoot him as he wouldn't shoot a horse. He must stick a bayonet through him, and see his blood flow, and hear his gasps for breath. What ghoulish work!

"An Old Error" The Present Truth 12, 8.

E. J. Waggoner

Some are saying that Christ has already come, and that we are now living in the new earth. One wonders how anyone believing the theory could advocate it, but all winds of doctrine are blowing and there is no knowing what strange idea will be met next. However, this is not a new thing. Paul once said, warning against strife about words and theories, and the increase of them, "Of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus; who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is passed already; and overthrow the faith of some." 2 Tim. ii. 17, 18. The first resurrection takes place when the Lord comes (2 Thess. iv. 15-17) and therefore to say that the Lord has come is to ignore all the Scriptures which describe His second advent and the attendant events, and to revive the old error to which Paul referred. The commonly held ideas that the dead go to their reward at death, and that Christ's coming will be secret, have paved the way for just such errors. "For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." Matt. xxiv. 27.

"Creation and Redemption" The Present Truth 12, 8.

E. J. Waggoner

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." Gen. i. 1. In this brief sentence we have the whole of the truth of the Gospel summed up. He who reads aright, may derive a world of comfort from it.

In the first place, let us consider who it was that created the heaven and earth. "God created." But Christ is God, the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of His person. Heb. i. 3. He Himself said, "I and My Father are one." John x. 30. He it was too, representing the Father, created the heaven and earth. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made." John i. 1-3. And again we read of Christ, that "by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities or powers; all things were created by Him and for Him; and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist." Col. i. 16, 17.

The Father Himself addresses the Son as God, and as Creator. The first chapter of Hebrews says that God has not at any time said to any of the angels, "Thou art My Son, this day and have high begotten Thee;" "but unto the Son He saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever; a sceptre of Thy righteousness is the sceptre of Thy kingdom." And He has also said to the Son, "Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the work of Thy hands." Heb. i. 5, 8, 10. So we are well assured that when we read in the first chapter of Genesis, "in the beginning God created the heavens and earth," it refers to God in Christ.

Creative power is the distinguishing mark of Divinity. The Spirit of the Lord through the prophet Jeremiah describes the vanity of idols, and then continues: "But the Lord is the true God, He is the living God, and an everlasting King; at His wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide His indignation. Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens. He hath made the earth by His power, He hath established the world by His wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by His discretion." Jer. x. 10-12. The earth was made by His power, and established by His wisdom. But Christ is "The power of God, and the wisdom of God." So here again we find Christ inseparably connected with creation as the Creator. Only as we acknowledge and worship Christ as the Creator, do we acknowledge His Divinity.

Christ is Redeemer by virtue of His power as Creator. We read that "we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins," because that "by Him were all things created." Col. i. 14, 16. If He were not Creator, He could not be Redeemer. This is shown in the statement of the apostle but the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, which statement is immediately followed by another to the effect that the power of God is seen by means of the things that have been made. Rom. i. 16, 20. When we consider the works of creation, and think of the power manifested in them, we are contemplating the power of redemption.

There has been a great deal of idle speculation as to which is greater, redemption or creation. Many have thought that redemption is a greater work than creation. Such speculation is idle, because only infinite power could perform either work, and infinite power cannot be measured by human minds. But while we cannot measure the power, we can easily settle the question about which is the greater, because the Scriptures give us the information. Neither is greater than the other, for both are the same. Redemption is creation. Redemption is the same power that was put forth in the beginning to create the world and all that is in it, now put forth to save men and the earth from the curse of sin.

The Scriptures are very clear on this point. The Psalmist prayed, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." Ps. li. 10. The apostle says that "if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature," or a new creation. 2 Cor. v. 17. And again we read: "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." Eph. ii. 8-10.

Compared with God, "man is less than nothing, and vanity." In him "dwelleth no good thing." But the same power that in the beginning made the earth from nothing, can take every one who is willing, and make of him that which is "to the praise and glory of His grace."

"The Education Question in West Australia" The Present Truth 12, 8.

E. J. Waggoner

The crusade which is now going forward in demand of State aid to Roman Catholic, Anglican, and all voluntary schools adds an interest to the following account of Rome's tactics in West Australia. It is furnished to the organ of our Society in Melbourne, the Bible Echo, by a West Australian correspondent:-

Just now the education question is being threshed out in Parliament. The Government party, which in reality is the Roman Catholic party, were forced to introduce a bill for the abolition of the assisted-school system; but the bill was prepared in such a way that instead of abolishing the State aid to the Roman Catholic schools, it will really perpetuate them. During the last twenty-three years Roman Catholics have received from the State for their schools ?34,559, an annual average of ?1,500; and during that

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time they have, by reason of this grant, acquired school property to the extent of ?37,000. The bill now before the House of Parliament proposes to give them an additional ?20,000. This invested at the rate of 7 per cent. (and that is the rate at which money can be invested on mortgage in the colony), will give them an annual income of ?1,400, whereas the average grant for twenty-three years has been only ?100 more.

Thus it will be seen that instead of Catholicism suffering a defeat, it is really gaining a great advantage; for under the present system they have to submit to Government inspection, as well as to restriction as to books used in the school; but when this bill is passed (and it no doubt will be, as the Government have a large majority), then they will not only have the same amount of money annually, but, free from all restraint, they will be better able to make their schools what they are intended for, a means of propagating Roman dogmas, and by doing that, cementing their political influence.

That which, twenty-three years ago, here in West Australia was granted to Rome as a charity, is to-day demanded, and in no uncertain way, by the Pope's representative, Bishop Gibney, as a right. The work "Great Controversy" has well said: "The Roman Church is far-reaching in her plans and modes of operation. She is employing every device to extend her influence and increase her powers, in preparation for a fierce and determined conflict to regain control of the world." And what a close observer sees enacted here in West Australia is but an illustration of what she is accomplishing throughout the world.

"An Unclean Beast" The Present Truth 12, 8.

E. J. Waggoner

Anyone who will look at the list of clean and unclean animals and fowls as given by the Lord through Moses (Lev. xi. and Deut. xiv.) will see that the distinction was not an arbitrary or ceremonial one. Some animals were called clean, others unclean. Amongst the former were the ox, goat, sheep, etc. The list of clean fowls is not given, but the list of unclean fowls shows the distinction. Some unclean beasts were named, as the camel, the swine, etc., while the unclean fowls named are the eagle, the vulture, the owl, and others.

When the Lord says the vulture, the mouse, the lizard; the camel, and (by the descriptions given) the dog, the horse, the rat, and each like are not good for food, that they are unclean, who in ordinary communities does not naturally recognise the fact that such things are unclean for food? Yet when the Lord included the swine in the list, along with the camel, the vulture and the mouse, what reason is there to suppose that He made a mistake?

Some time ago, before a medical congress, a sanitary authority gave the following description of the habits of the swine from ancient times to the present. It shows why the swine is physically unfit for human consumption:-

The most careful diet and thorough breeding has failed to eliminate certain disorders which are a constant menace to good health to consumers of pork; of these disorders we will mention two-scrofula and trichinosis.

From remotest antiquity the unclean habits of the hog have challenged man's aversion and disgust. The Egyptians, the Ethiopians, the Libyan, the Comani, the Scythians, the Galatians, the Zabbi, the Hindus, and the Phoenicians abominated and detested the dirty, mire-loving swine. Mohammed denounced its use as food, and the Bedouins consider it the only object whose touch is pollution. The Egyptian priests inveighed against it declaring that it engenders many superfluous humours. The Talmud, or general code of Jewish laws, states that "ten measures of pestilential sickness were spread over the earth, and nine of them fell to the share of pigs."

Plutarch and Tacitus speak of the detestation in which the hog was held by the people of their time on account of the "leprous emanations appearing upon his belly." Herodotus and a host of more recent chroniclers unite in ascribing various disorders to the use of pork as food. What the hog was 2,000 years ago he is to-day. No animal has such filthy habits. No place exists so foul and loathsome that will exclude him. Animal carcasses, undergoing decomposition and filling the air with pestilential odours, are sought after by trim with epicurean gusto. He will leave a repast of nuts in the Southern woods to dispute with the buzzard the possession of the putrid remains of a defunct mule. He is the scavenger of the shambles. He is voted the freedom of our village streets, to act as a sanitarian in removing the filth and garbage therefrom.

These filthy habits are natural, not acquired, and no amount of careful breeding will ever modify them. Is it, then, surprising that among all nations and in all ages the flesh of the hog has been supposed to "engender many superfluous disorders"? The derivation of the terms "scrofula," and choiras," applied to a disease alarmingly frequent-the former from the Latin scrofula, meaning a "breeding sow," the latter from the Greek-indicated that the ancients had good reasons for excluding the flesh of the hog from their dietary regime.

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 8.

E. J. Waggoner

-The average yearly worth of articles left in cabs in London is put down at ?20,000.

-The Congo River has with its tributaries, navigable waterways of more than 6,000 miles.

-There are in Wales about 910,289 Welsh speakers, and about 236,000 outside the Principality.

-Since its inauguration in 1866, the Guion Line claims to have conveyed over one million passengers across the Atlantic without the loss of a single life.

-In 1801 less than 2 per cent. of mankind spoke English, while 2? per cent, spoke French. Now there are over 8 per cent, who speak English, and less than 2? per cent. who speak French.

-Only seventy years have elapsed since the first railway in the world was finished. During that comparatively brief period 400,000 miles have been constructed, the British Empire accounting for about a sixth.

-Ecuador, the equator country, for that is what the name means, has no Protestant missionary, and never has had. Its area is twice as great as that of Great Britain and Ireland. It has a population of 1,220,000.

-In Great Britain the average output of books is-sermons, one volume a day; novels, five a day; educational hooks, two a day; art and science, two each every week; histories or biographies, six a week; and law, one every two weeks.

-A Parish Council in the Thrapston district has been so economical in its administration that its whole expenditure for the first financial year amounted to the modest sum of one shilling. The account, however, had to be officially audited, and to complete this process it was necessary to affix an audit stamp of five shillings.

-Paper is now being used for building. An American has perfected a paper pulp substitute for building stone, which casts into perfect slabs. It is light, hard, a non-conductor of sound and heat, and non-porous. In Norway there are two mills turning out roofing tiles of paper. We are, in short, entering on a paper age.

-This year is a leap-year, and the 20th of February will make it possible for those both on that date to celebrate their birthday this year it they desire to. But they will not be able to celebrate another birthday for eight years, or til 1904, if time continues so long. By the Gregorian calendar a leap-year is dropped at the end of three centuries after four, so that 1900 will not be a leap-year.

-M. Borchgrevink, the Antarctic explorer, says that in his last expedition he and his party wrote a letter, all signed it, and then it was placed in a small bladder which had been given him for the purpose by the Norwegian Consul in Melbourne. Then they threw it overboard, and watched to see their mail depart. To their chagrin, before the bladder had gone many yards, a large albatross hove in sight, pounced on it, and gobbled it all up.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 8.

E. J. Waggoner

A ship mission has recently been opened by our friends in South-eastern Europe in Galatz, for the Danube and the Black Sea. Publications in the Balkan languages are being increased.

Letters from our workers on the African Gold Coast show that they are finding much to do. Some of them have suffered severely from the climate, which, as shown by the fatalities in connection with the Ashantee expedition, is no friend to the white man.

The French religious budget for this year is 45,000,000 francs. This is paid to the clergy and for repairs and care of churches. The French Catholic missionaries in the East are also paid by the State, as they are regarded as representing French political interests.

Sicily is poverty-stricken, but the Sicilian idea of paying homage to Mary may be inferred from the report that thieves recently entered a Palermo church and stripped a statute of her twenty pairs of diamond earrings, dozens of valuable bracelets, and her robe, which was ablaze with precious stones.

The Little Prince Boris, aged two, about whose religion the cabinets of Europe have been exercised for so long, was last week received into the Greek Church. The ceremony being concluded, "Prince Boris, amidst the thunder of guns and the acclamations of the multitude, was taken back to the Palace."

It having been finally decided that the baby Prince Boris of Bulgaria was to be "converted" to the Greek Church, the Roman Catholic authorities at once showed . . . hostility to his father. The Chronicle's Vienna correspondent wrote on Monday, Feb. 10, "Yesterday, for the first time, there were no prayers for Prince Ferdinand in the Roman Church of Sofia." When Rome thought that Ferdinand was all right, she prayed for him; now that she thinks he is going wrong, she will pray for him no more. That shows that Romanism is the religion of human nature: blessings for its followers, curses for those who act contrary to its wishes. But how different from the example and teaching of Christ.

In one of the provincial towns, but a few days ago, a young woman died in giving birth to her first child. The child itself did not live to see the light. The husband naturally desired to bury both mother and child together, and arrangements were made accordingly. He then visited a church official with the title of "Canon," requesting him to conduct the funeral. On learning the facts, the Canon refused to officiate if the mother and child were to be buried together, since "the child, not having been baptized, was not a Christian like its mother, and could not be buried in the same grave with her." The husband yielded to the demand of the priest, and the infant was taken from the arms of its mother in the coffin, and was buried in another place.

We give the simple facts, without names, since we desire the attention of the readers to be fixed solely upon the foolishness, to say nothing of the wickedness, of that which by "the Church" is called baptism. The callousness of the priest was but the natural product of ecclesiasticism, which always exalts ceremony above humanity or even Divinity. But that may be passed by in this case, since the one whose feelings were most concerned acquiesced, and no harm was done to the dead, since the "unconsecrated ground" in which the child was buried is every whit as sacred as that which had been presumptuously "consecrated" by some bishop.

But this case sets forth the doctrine of so-called infant "baptism" in all its ridiculous wickedness. If the child had lived but two minutes, long enough merely to draw a few unconscious breaths, and somebody had placed his moist fingers upon its forehead and mumbled a formula, it would have been a Christian, according to Church teaching; but for lack of that, it was a heathen. The bear statement of the doctrine should be sufficient to cause it to die of its own inherent absurdity.

It is almost incredible that any person of intelligence should ever seriously believe any such nonsense; yet we are sure that to many it is sober reality. Why?-Simply because being accustomed to follow the teachings of men instead of that of the Bible, they have no conception of what constitutes Christianity. Christ and the loving-kindness and tender mercy of God are left out, and religion is wholly from men and under human control. And herein lies the essential wickedness of infant "baptism," which is not baptism at all: it makes a person's salvation or damnation entirely independent of either himself or the Lord, and subject wholly to accident or to the will of man. Surely, "the customs of the people are vain."

"The War Spirit" The Present Truth 12, 8.

E. J. Waggoner

The War Spirit.-"The 'war spirit,' as it is called," says a London newspaper, "is more common just now than it has been since the Crimean days." One symptom of it is seen in the demand for war histories and literature, which publishers are ready to supply, thus increasing the demand by cultivation of the spirit which glorifies deeds of blood and daring. Not only in this country but in America and elsewhere it is the same. School histories are very much to blame for stimulating the natural spirit of combativeness in the youth, and more than one recent writer on the serious outlook for the peace of nations has called attention to this propaganda of "patriotism," which gives the child immoral ideas of what is glorious and honourable that bear evil fruit in after life.

"Sunday In Scotland" The Present Truth 12, 8.

E. J. Waggoner

Sunday In Scotland.-Reports of deputations and frequent correspondence on the Sunday question find place in the newspapers of Scotland, showing that the question is being agitated in that part of Britain. Now and then some friends of the Sabbath in Scotland find opportunity to call attention to the mistake of applying the name Sabbath to Sunday. Scotland has long called the Sunday by this name, but it is a fact that it was the last part of Britain to keep Sunday. Not until Queen Margaret's day, and then by virtue of the command of "the blessed Pope Gregory," was Sunday rest generally observed in Scotland. The demand for stricter Sunday legislation in Scotland, and elsewhere, is of itself a confession of the human origin of the observance, which must be sustained by human laws. Sabbath observance cannot be enforced by human laws, nor can Sunday laws blot out the Sabbath.

February 27, 1896

"Front Page" The Present Truth 12, 9.

E. J. Waggoner

Thus the Psalmist David wrote: "Lord, remember David, and all his afflictions; how he sware unto the Lord, and vowed unto the mighty God of Jacob: Surely I will not come into the tabernacle of my house, nor go up into my bed; I will not give sleep to mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place for the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob." Ps. cxxxii. 1-5.

Yet David never built the house for the Lord. He "found favour before God, and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob. But Solomon built Him an house." Acts vii. 46, 47. Moreover, David surely knew that it would be impossible for him to build the temple that he desired to build for the Lord, or any kind of habitation, before he should go into his own house or close his eyes to sleep. Yet he deliberately made the vow that we have just read.

And why?-Because he knew that "the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands." Solomon, who built the temple, understood that well, as we learn in his prayer at its dedication. See 2 Kings viii. 27. Heaven is His throne, and the earth is His footstool. David knew that the only real dwelling-place he could find for the mighty God of Jacob was a humble and a contrite heart.

"For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones." Isa. lvii. 15.

"Know ye not that ye are the temple of God?" 1 Cor. iii. 16. Jesus Christ is the chief corner-stone, "in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord; in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit." Eph. ii. 20-22.

This is the habitation that every soul may find for the Lord, in which He will dwell in all His fulness. Eph. iii. 19. And there need be no delay, because He is waiting to enter. He says, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me." Rev. iii. 20. "To-day, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts." It is every reader's blessed privilege to find such an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob before he sleeps. Shall it not be done?

"The Final Cleansing" The Present Truth 12, 9.

E. J. Waggoner

As before the close of His earthly ministry the Lord cleansed the temple, so before He closes His heavenly ministry and comes to take His own He cleanses His temple, the church, that it may meet Him without guile at His coming. A few Scriptures show this.

"But who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth? for He is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap; and He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness." Mal. 3, 2, 3.

The falling away and the great apostasy have left traces which the Lord must purge away. The eighteenth of Revelation shows the desperate condition of the religious world just before the Lord comes, and the call from God is, "Come out of her, My people." It is a call to reformation of life, to forsake sin and self and to take the salvation of God.

It is by the Word that the sinner is cleansed (John xv. 3) and that the Gospel is preached (1 Pet. i. 25), and in Rev. xiv. 6-14 the Lord has given an outline of the message which is to go to every creature with the power to cleanse all who would be living stones in the living temple of God. It is the work in which every believer should now be engaged, for the day of the Lord is surely at hand and His Word is to be set before the people to prepare them to abide the day of His coming.

"Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in My holy mountain; let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand." Joel ii. 1. "Be ye clean that bear the vessels of the Lord."

"Fighting the Drink" The Present Truth 12, 9.

E. J. Waggoner

THE ONE POWERFUL WEAPON

There are very many good people who are solicitous for the progress of the Gospel, and who show their interest by attempts to remove the "obstacles that are in the way of its progress." One great obstacle is intemperance, and therefore these good people are using all the means in their power to make people temperate, so that the Gospel may have a fair chance with them.

Now there is not the least question that intemperance is a gigantic evil, but it is not the only evil in the world. It is true that no drunkard shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but it is just as true that no covetous man, no railer, no blasphemer, no deceiver, no impure person, no envious person, no thinker of evil, shall have any inheritance therein. Impatience will shut a person out of heaven as surely as intemperance; and it is very certain that there are many more impatient people than there are drunkards. Pride is an abomination in the sight of the Lord, and will shut one out of heaven as surely as intemperance; and while the number of drinkers is legion, the number of those who are filled with pride is vastly greater. These are obstacles to the spread of the Gospel, as well as is intemperance.

VARIOUS KINDS OF SLAVERY

"But it is easier to get rid of these things than it is to get rid of intemperance." Then why are they not diminishing? It is very common to hear of the ineffectual attempts of the drunkard to overcome his appetite for drink. Broken temperance pledges are so numerous that some people are even beginning to have doubts about the power of the pledge to save a man. The idea quite generally obtains that there is a peculiar untrustworthiness about a drunkard. It is thought that his word is not so good as that of other men. Suppose the matter be tested. Let it become as popular to sign pledges to abstain from impatient speech, from talking about one's neighbours, or from thinking evil, and it would be seen that the promises of other people besides the drunkards are not good for much. There would be such a host of broken pledges as was never dreamed of in all the efforts to reclaim drunkards.

It is also quite common to speak of the slavery of drink. The drunkard is pitied or despised as a slave, but those who never in their lives had any desire to use strong drink, but who had been bound as with fetters of steel by pride, selfishness, lust, impatience, covetousness, deceit, envy, evil speaking, or evil thinking. These people will make the same excuses for themselves that the drunkard does. They have tried many times to overcome their evil habits, but in vain. They have never put a pledge upon paper, but they have promised themselves and others times without number, that they will reform. Yet they never have. And so they have fallen back upon the old excuse that some allowance must be made for their peculiar natures. No; all the slaves are not found in the public-houses.

We are not by any means seeking to belittle the evil of intemperance. But we are trying to help somebody to look at things with a better sense of their proportion. It seems as though anyone who stops to think over the matter will be convinced that it is just as easy for the drunkard to stop his drinking as it is for the covetous man to overcome his love for money, or for the impatient man to master his temper. Therefore these, and other things that have been mentioned, are as much obstacles in the way of the Gospel as intemperance is.

The trouble is that some things show off more than others, and look worse. Fashion, which in such matters as denominated "public sentiment," regard some kinds of sin as much worse than others. A man could not be admitted into the "best society" if he were a common drunkard, whereas impatience at home and with his employÈs, such love of money as would lead him through his agent to wring the last penny from a widow; ambition, lust, and pride, would none of them affect his standing in the least. Indeed, pride is quite generally counted as a virtue, although there is no other sin that finds such hearty condemnation in the Bible. A person may even be a church member "in good and regular standing," who is impatient, covetous, lustful, envious, given somewhat to gossip,

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and very much to evil thinking; but not if he is a drunkard, because drunkenness "brings a reproach upon the church." We do not say this to apologise for the drunkard, but to set sharply before the reader the unequal way which people have of looking at things.

REMOVING THE OBSTACLES

Well, what shall be done? How shall all these obstacles be removed from the way of the Gospel? Just give the Gospel a chance, and it will show you how to remove obstacles. Quit trying to remove obstacles from the way of the Gospel, and turn your attention to the Gospel itself. Preach the Word without apology or compromise, and see what it can do. The only thing that the Gospel is in the world for us is to remove obstacles. Drunkenness is a sin, just the same as hosts of other things, and the Gospel is for the purpose of saving men from sin. Moreover, it is the power of God unto salvation. And it does thorough work upon a man. It saves him from intemperance, but it does more. It makes him an entirely new man. It does not save him from drinking habits, to let him go to perdition through pride. It makes him complete, after the image of Him who created him.

Christ is able to save to the uttermost them that come to God by Him. There is no soul so low that Christ will not stop to touch him, and He is able to raise up every one whom He reaches. Then let Him work. Hold Him up before the world. Do not think to accomplish with the power of man, that which can be accomplished only with the power of God. Remember that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but spiritual, and that they are "mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." 2 Cor. x. 4, 5.

Therefore let no one who loves his fellow-men, and who would do them good, waste his time in anything less than making known to them "the riches of the glory of this mystery," "which is Christ in you the hope of glory," and let us preach Him, "warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." Col. i. 27, 28.

"The Gods of the Nations" The Present Truth 12, 9.

E. J. Waggoner

The gods of the nations in ancient times were expected to fight for those who made them. They were the deifications of human character, sharing the passions and ambitions of those whose fancy created them. "They that make them are like unto them," said the Psalmist.

Nor was it necessary in this apostasy to make images or multiply gods. Those who knew of the true God could put away His revelation of Himself and make of Him, by their own conception, a strange god. "Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself," the Lord said to sinful Israel, and still says to every sinful man who thinks God's ways must be as his ways, and God's thoughts as his thoughts.

The Jews thought God was like themselves because they did not know Him. They were not worshipping the true God; for they regarded the object of their worship as their national possession solely, and crucified Christ who manifested God. Not even the destruction of Jerusalem could subdue their stubborn fancy that God must belong to them, subject to their own lusts and devices.

It is human nature to deify one's own way and desires, and so it is as natural for nations to make gods after their own imaginations now as it was in ancient times. The Daily News, in a leading article a little time ago, hit off this notion very aptly:-

The universal Deity is still tribal in our most secret thoughts. There is a strong disposition to regard Him as a good American or a good Englishman, according to longitude. . . . To this day, the masters of Cuba believe that their Maker is, above all, a good Spaniard. When the first levies started for the suppression of the insurrection of Cuba they had a "send-off" in a public blessing on their enterprise, with book and candle and all the pomp of ecclesiastical pageantry. The same Maker would certainly be invoked for aid in their discomfiture by the insurrectionary bands. Where are we to stop? There is no stopping. It is so well-known that the Ruler of the Universe is, at heart, a thorough Englishman that no one thinks it worth while to labour the point. That He may be relied on to "protect France" is conclusively demonstrated by the invocation around the rim of the five-franc pieces. We shape the Celestial Powers according to our material rather than our spiritual needs.

What says the Lord Himself? "The Lord looketh from heaven; He beholdeth all the sons of men. From the place of His habitation He looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth. He fashioneth their hearts all alike; He considereth all their works." Ps. xxxiii. 13-15. Men cannot draw Him into their national rivalries. From the height of His habitation what matters difference of speech or colour of skin, when all are perishing in sin? So the Gospel goes alike to every tongue and tribe, saving all who believe; and when the witness is borne to all nations "then shall the end come," and all the kingdoms of this world shall be dashed in pieces as a potter's vessel. What a very paltry thing is all the pomp and pride of earthly powers.

"A Matter of Creation" The Present Truth 12, 9.

E. J. Waggoner

"It is of no use; there is not enough in me for the Lord to make a Christian of me," says one.

Many more think it than say it. They see duties which the Lord calls upon them to take up, but shrink from them, as they are so far beyond their strength. And then they get discouraged, and think it impossible for the Lord to make them Christians indeed.

Now this is not self-depreciation. It is sincerely thought to be such, but that is a mistake. It comes from the idea that the Lord must have something to work upon in order to make Christians; and they haven't, they think, enough material to give any hope for good results.

This is to estimate oneself too highly altogether. There is not merely nothing for the Lord to work upon, but man is "less than nothing and vanity." Making Christians is a work of creation, and creation signifies the making of things which had no existence before.

"We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works." Eph. ii. 10. No one has any material to offer the Lord for the process. That is the basis of the hope. God creates all that is. No one can say he has not enough strength to do the good works. God makes the machine or instrument to do the works, and for man to say that he cannot do them is to say that God cannot create an instrument to do His will.

To begin right is to know that we have less than nothing for the Lord to begin with. To end right is to hold fast to that, and to know that God can create what He pleases.

"A Record of Blood" The Present Truth 12, 9.

E. J. Waggoner

The Apostle Paul wrote by inspiration of the Holy Ghost: "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come." 2 Tim. iii. 1. The following from the San Francisco Examiner shows that in one part of the world, at least, there is no lack of proof that the time of which the Apostle prophesied has come:-

"The rapid increase of murder in the United States is one of the most distressing facts in our history. The figures are worthy of deep consideration by every man who is interested in the welfare of the country and his own safety. The recorded homicides for ten years run:-

1886. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,449

1887. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,335

1888. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,184

1889. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,567

1890. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,290

1891. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5,906

1892. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6,791

1893. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6,615

1894. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9,800

1895. . . . . . . . . . . . . 10,500

"This awful record of slaughter, a record that shows an annual loss of life by knife and pistol equal to the loss by almost any of the great battles of history, is an indictment of our civilisation. It is a record that cannot be matched out of America or the brutalised regions of Darkest Africa. There is no part of the civilised globe in which human life is so little regarded, and the taking of it so lightly condoned, as in the United States of America. Besides the annual murder record of 150 to 200 that is found in England, or even the 2,500 to 3,000 murders that are found in Italy, the record of the United States is a national disgrace and humiliation."

Before the flood "the earth was filled with violence." This wonderful increase of crime can be accounted for in no other way than that men are rejecting the strivings of the Spirit of God, and that in proportion as they do that a Satanic spirit is taking possession of them, thus preparing the earth for final judgment.

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 9.

E. J. Waggoner

-Russia is actively interfering in Korean affairs.

-Building sites in the City of London sell at prices representing a value of nearly ?2,000,000 per acre.

-Keen interest in scientific circles has been aroused by the report, as yet unverified, that Dr. Nansen has reached the North Pole.

-A squadron of German soldiers, Alsatians, deserted to France last week, marching across the line in company order with their arms.

-The prohibition of the sale of oil lamps with glass reservoirs is seriously talked of, owing to the frequent accidents occasioned by the breaking of them.

-Every day the Thames scoops out of its banks 1,500 tons of matter, or half-a-million tons a year. All the rivers of the world are doing a similar work; the Mississippi at the rate of 360,000,000 tons a year.

-Paris, ever on the outlook for novelties, has found a new food. Arrangements have been made with Algerian butchers to supply that city with camel's flesh for consumption. There is no accounting for taste. The cats and dogs of Paris may go into the pot next.

-The foolish revels of Carnival week, by which the continental pleasure-seekers prepare for the pretended abstinence of Lent, were responsible for the death of forty persons in Portugal last week, who perished by the burning of the hall in which a masked ball was in progress.

-Japan can boast of nearly 40,000 doctors, of whom over two-thirds are physicians of the old school, who heal by the old Chinese system of charms and incantations. Many of these old doctors, however, while publicly professing the old plan, have privately studied the European methods, and take advantage of them in their work.

-Horse shooting has lately been developed into a profitable branch of sport in some parts of Queensland. On one station near Bundaberg, over 3,000 "brambies" have been shot during the past couple of years, there being a keen demand down in Sydney for horse-skins for the London market. Four hundred wild horses were shot in the course of a couple of days recently by a sporting party in the neighbourhood of Bundaberg.

-The famous German "war treasure," kept on hand to provide against invasion by a foreign country or other emergency, is said to be stored at present in the Julius Tower of the great Fortress of Spandau. The money is all in 10 or 20 mark gold pieces, and is kept in bags, 10,000 marks to a bag. These bags are stored in wooden boxes, held together by screws. The official seal is placed over the head of each screw, to anyone tampering with the boxes could be readily detected. The gold in the boxes is not counted, but is weighed periodically as a precaution against possible loss. The store of gold amounts to 120,000,000 marks.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 9.

E. J. Waggoner

A Swiss journal states that the Portuguese local government have expelled the Protestant missionaries from Delagoa Bay.

Navies increase every year as a matter of course, but this year it is stated that, as one of the results of the course of recent events, the navies of England, the United States, and Germany are to be specially augmented.

The Echo says: "Father Black states that the number of the Anglican clergy in England and Scotland now engaged in hearing confessions is between 1,200, and 1,506; while the number so engaged fifty years ago might safely be reckoned under a score."

The study of the Papacy shows it to be the development and systemisation of the religion of the natural heart-self instead of Christ being manifested. The call to "Come out of her" means, then, a call to come away not merely from an organisation but from a principle; a call to separation from all that is of self and sin.

What strange and wicked use of the word Christian is being made. A despatch tells this news of a disturbance in Crete. Some Christians murdered two Turks. In revenge some Turks murdered two Christian families. "As soon as the news was known the Christians of neighbouring villages assembled and attacked the Turks."

The terrible disaster at Johannesburg, by the explosion of over 100,000 pounds of dynamite, shows what a fearfully destructive power the world now has in the high explosives. Whole families were wiped out and hundreds killed or injured. The gold-fields of the Rand are the richest in the world, but the trouble and the suffering which have come because of them within a few weeks past show how far short of a paradise the richest gold-fields are.

The poor Emperor of Austria has many ordeals to pass through in the course of the year, prescribed by his ecclesiastics. A newspaper correspondent gives this description of the ceremony he took part in on the day called Ash Wednesday;-

The Emperor sat in his private curtained seat. Afterwards he descended into the church and knelt upon a red velvet stool in front of the high altar, where the Palace chaplain strewed ashes upon his grey hair, taking them from a golden cup handed to him on a silver tray by an assistant. The Emperor then withdrew to his apartments with the ashes still in his hair.

One of our workers in British Guiana, who has recently been up in the interior, along the Demerara River, says that interest in the truth presented seems to be extending rapidly in the river district, where our publications have gone far beyond the living missionary. One church of believers was organised at Bootooba. "Three of these," he says, "are Indians, the first-fruits of our work among the aboriginal tribes."

Controversy is not the element in which the Christian thrives. His work is to speak the words of God, to tell what God says. He will always find honest truth-seeking souls who want help. He will also find many who want controversy and strife. In that element one may neither learn or teach the truth. Therefore he can simply pass on to others who are waiting to know what the Lord says. There is the Word. Give to the people to eat. No one can make those eat it who do not want it. One can only invite men to "taste and see that the Lord is good."

"The French Conscript" The Present Truth 12, 9.

E. J. Waggoner

The French Conscript.-Some weeks ago we printed a note from the newspapers stating that a young Frenchman, said to be a Seventh-day Adventist, had been imprisoned in France for refusing to serve in the military, on the ground that as a Christian he could not take part in fratricidal contests. The young man was not known to our Continental brethren. It now transpires that he had only recently arrived in France from South America. He has written as follows to one of our friends in Argentina:-

I am now in France, imprisoned for not choosing to do military service. Although through weakness and fear of men I obeyed, formerly, the human law and transgressed God's law, at the end of two months the Lord gave me strength to obey Him. Finally I am imprisoned. I pass my Sabbaths very happily, thanks be to God. I cannot write what I would like because my letters are read by the Governor. I am at present in the hospital, not on account of sickness, but because I am under observation, that they may see if I have all my mental faculties. Thanks be to God, I have. The Lord is with me with power, and sustains me in all my tribulations. I have faith in Him, that He will make me conqueror. I have been imprisoned about three weeks, and do not know whether I will ever get out; but my faith and confidence are in the Strength of Israel.

"He Was a Barbarian" The Present Truth 12, 9.

E. J. Waggoner

He Was a Barbarian.-When King Prempeh came to submit to the British resident his yellow face glistened with oil, and "his somewhat stupid expression," was, says the Chronicle correspondent, "rendered more idiotic by his sucking a large nut like a fat cigar." Prempeh is a barbarian who sucks a nut, a stupid thing, certainly; but really why should it make a man look worse to gravely suck a nut than to suck a roll of tobacco leaves? It is merely a question of artistic taste. Of course it would look very funny to see a man walking London streets seriously sucking a nut, or even a lead-pencil but we very commonly see all sorts and conditions of men so walking, with a roll of tobacco leaves or a pipe, unconscious of the fact that it is all very ludicrous. It has taken some centuries for the civilised world to get fairly accustomed to seeing this no longer novel sight, which struck the early discoverers of America with dismay when, for the first time, they saw the aboriginal natives puffing smoke from the rolls of tobacco. But then, those natives, like King Prempeh, were barbarians.

"Missionaries of Islam" The Present Truth 12, 9.

E. J. Waggoner

Missionaries of Islam.-Ever since Mohammed's day Islamism has not lacked for missionaries. It has been propagated by the sword and by the Koran, and with a zeal which has dared and endured everything. There is more organisation and system in the propagation of the creed than is popularly supposed. Of the great educational centre of Islam the Regions Beyond says:-

The Azhar at Cairo is the great university of the Mohammedan faith. It was founded A.D. 1,000, and from 10,000 to 12,000 students are always in attendance, gathered from various parts of Africa. There are 321 sheikhs, or instructors. The instruction is very superficial, and consists largely of committing to memory and reciting, the subject being the Koran and the traditions founded on it. When their education is finished, some of the students return home, while others, who are to be missionaries, join a caravan, and soon disappear into the heart of Africa. These thousands of students become the active propagators of the creed of Islam.

March 5, 1896

"The Joyful Sound" The Present Truth 12, 10.

E. J. Waggoner

"The heavens are Thine, the earth also is Thine; as for the world and the fulness thereof, Thou hast founded them. The north and the south Thou hast created them; Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in Thy name. Thou hast a mighty arm; strong is Thy hand, and high is Thy right hand. Justice and judgment are the habitation of Thy throne; mercy and truth shall go before Thy face. Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound; they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy countenance. In Thy name shall they rejoice all the day; and in Thy righteousness shall they be exalted." Ps. lxxxix. 11-16.

It is thus that the Psalmist sings of the mercies of the Lord, and makes known His faithfulness. See verse 1. The "joyful sound" which is to be proclaimed "to all generations" is none other than the "good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people." Luke ii. 10. It is the Gospel, that we have before us, for it alone is the theme of the whole Bible, from Genesis to Revelation.

Let us fix our attention especially upon verses 14 and 15 of the Psalm from which we have quoted: "Justice and judgment are the habitation of Thy throne; mercy and truth shall go before Thy face. Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound; they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy countenance."

First note the words "justice" and "habitation." The first is rendered from the Hebrew word for "righteousness." Righteousness is God's character, which is His law; for He rules by Himself; His own being is the law of the universe. Of this righteousness the law of ten commandments is the summary. "All Thy commandments are righteousness." Ps. cxix. 172. "All unrighteousness is sin" (1 John v. 17), and "sin is the transgression of the law." 1 John iii. 4. Therefore all righteousness is obedience to the law. So we may read that righteousness, or law, is the habitation of God's throne.

But if we look at the margin we shall find "establishment" given as an alternative reading for "habitation." This brings us a little closer to the idea of the original Hebrew word, which means, "basis" or "foundation," which

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is the word given in the Revision. So the sum of the first part of Ps. lxxxix. 14 is that God's righteousness, or His law, is the foundation of His throne. His kingdom is established upon and by righteousness.

From this throne of righteousness or law the "joyful sound" proceeds. It is the "throne of grace" to which we are exhorted to "come boldly," "that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." Heb. iv. 16. It is there that "mercy and truth are met together," and "righteousness and peace have kissed each other." Ps. lxxxv. 10.

But if we should let the story rest here, some sincere souls would be sure to get frightened later on, and others would accuse God of not being equal in all His ways, even as they have already done. So let us read further about this same throne of grace, whence the joyful sound of the Gospel of grace proceeds.

The Apostle John was permitted to see this throne in heaven. That it was the throne of grace, we may be sure from the fact that in the midst of it "stood a Lamb as it had been slain," and also that at the very time he saw it songs of thanksgiving for redemption through His blood were being sung. See Rev. v. 6, 9. Now read: "And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thundering and voices." Rev. iv. 5.

Is that "the joyful sound" of which the Psalmist speaks? Can there be any joyful sound in the thunderings?-It is even so. Examine the Revised Version, and you will see that "the joyful sound" is really "the trumpet sound." The "everlasting Gospel" of peace is proclaimed "with a loud voice." See Rev. xiv. 6, 7. An incident in the life of Christ on earth may help to make it clear. When the hour had come that He should be glorified, He prayed, "Father, glorify Thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. The people therefore, that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered; others said, An angel spake to Him. Jesus answered and said, This voice came not because of Me, but for your sakes." John xii. 28-30.

Jesus did not need that assurance from heaven; but the people did. Was it not a joyful sound? Can there be any more joyful news than that God is glorified in the man Christ Jesus? That is salvation for mankind. Yet the people at that time did not know the joyful sound. Some were discerning enough to perceive that it was an articulate voice from heaven; but to the most of them it was ordinary thunder. They did not know the day of their visitation.

"The God of glory thundereth." "The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty." Ps. xxix. 3, 4. "God thundereth marvellously with His voice; great things doeth He which we cannot comprehend." Job xxxvii. 5. The terrible voice of reproof with which God makes "the pillars of heaven tremble," is but a small whisper of His greatness. What wonder, then, that no soul could comprehend if He should thunder with all His power. See Job xxvi. 11, 14, R.V.

But "blessed is the people that know the joyful sound" of the thunderings that come from His throne of righteousness and grace. They who do, will be able to say, "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever; the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them is Thy servant warned; and in keeping of them there is great reward." Ps. xix. 7-11. For let it not be forgotten that the joyful sound that proceeds from the throne of God is but the voice of His law. To the unbeliever is a thunder of wrath; to the believer it is the voice of mercy and peace, for God speaks only peace to His people. Ps. lxxxv. 8.

When God came from Sinai, and from His right hand a fiery law went forth for His saints, it was because "He loved the people." Deut. xxxiii. 2, 3. "Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." Rom. v. 20. "By the law is the knowledge of sin." Rom. iii. 20. Therefore it was that the entering of the law made the offence to abound, or be seen to be "exceeding sinful." Rom. vii. 13. At Sinai the law appeared in its greatest majesty and awfulness; therefore it is at Sinai that the awful and deadly nature of sin is seen. "But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." Therefore the greatest exhibition of the grace of God is to be seen at Sinai.

Yet it was there that the God of glory thundered. "There were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled." "And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice." Ex. xix. 16, 19. Mount Sinai was a representation of God's throne, and indeed, it was for the time His throne; because "the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mount" (Ex. xix. 20), and it was the embodiment of His law.

"And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off. And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die. And Moses said unto the people, Fear not; for God is come to prove you, and that His fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not. And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was."

Notice that while the people "removed and stood afar off" as God thundered forth His law, "Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was." God did not want the people to be afraid of Him. Moses told them not to fear, because God had come only to prove them. What had He come to prove?-Their faith and trust; for that is what God always tries. He proved Abraham as to his faith, and then confirmed His promise to him with an oath. That test and that oath were for the benefit of all people after him, including us and those who stood at the base of Sinai. They, as well as we, had the history of Abraham and of God's dealings with him. If they had fully trusted God, and relied upon His oath, nothing

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could have made them afraid, for they would have known that "He cannot deny Himself." His oath pledged Himself and His existence to save them and us by His righteousness. It was a token of "His great love wherewith He loved us." So then though we hear the thunders of His righteousness, we need but nestle the closer to Him in loving confidence.

If we have a friend and protector, the more powerful he is the more we can trust him. Every fresh evidence of his power is but an additional cause for us to rejoice in it. So when God at Sinai showed the might of His terrible acts, and the glorious majesty of His kingdom, it was that the people might know how secure they are when trusting in Him.

The law is not against the promises of God. Gal. iii. 21. On the contrary, it is in full harmony with them, since it is a part of them. "I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts." Therefore however great and terrible its requirements, we may "know that His commandment is life everlasting." John xii. 50. Though its righteousness be so great that it can be fitly expressed only in a voice of thunder that shakes the earth, it is to all who believe His Word and His oath but a "joyful sound," because it makes known to us what great things God does for us. The Holy Spirit comes first with strong conviction of sin by the law, but even so He is only a comforter.

"Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound; they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy countenance." Moses knew the joyful sound. To him the things of God were not idle tales, but they were realities. "He endured as seeing Him who is invisible." So, trusting in God's promise and oath, he knew that no matter with how great a voice God spoke, He could speak only peace to His people. Therefore He drew near to the secret place of God, and was shut in with His glory. The Lord talked with him to face to face.

"And it came to pass, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tables of the testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shown by reason of His speaking with him." Ex. xxxiv. 29, R.V. He was walking in the light of God's countenance, because he knew the joyful sound of the Gospel. He knew that in the Gospel the righteousness of God is revealed to those who believe (Rom. i. 16, 17), and so he found the thundering mount to be a mount of blessing; the throne of glory was a throne of grace; the thunder of the law is but a joyful sound to those who accept the Gospel of the grace of God.

It was better that the people should have God speak to them through Moses, than that He should not speak to them at all. It was better that they should get some idea of the glory of God's face, by the reflection of it in the face of Moses, than that they should see no glory at all. But it would have been much the best if they had been able to listen to God's own voice, and look upon His glory with unveiled face. And this would have been their privilege, if they had but believed as Moses did; for "God is no respecter of persons." Instead of that, they could not endure even the glory that shown from the face of Moses, because "their minds were blinded."

God's glory is His character. This is true in every sense of the word. The exceeding brightness that surrounds Him, and proceeds from Him, is from His righteousness. Man was "crowned with glory and honour" until he sinned, and then he came short of the glory of God. Rom. iii. 2, 3. The glory of the saints in the world to come will be but the shining forth of the righteousness of God which is in them by faith.

This glory, which is but "the light of His countenance," is for all those who by faith in God's promise hear only a joyful sound even in the thunders of His law. It is to such a joyful sound, because they know that it does not tell them what God requires them to try to do, but what He has sworn to do in them. "Hear, and your soul shall live." Hearing the law in that way, they are able to behold the glory of the Lord, "with unveiled face," and so, "reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit."

"Increasing in Knowledge" The Present Truth 12, 10.

E. J. Waggoner

Although we may be filled with the knowledge of the will of God, that does not mean that there will ever come a time when we may not learn more. In the very next verse to the one in which the apostle prays that we may be "filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding," He also prays that we may "walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God." Col. i. 9, 10. How can we be filled with knowledge, and at the same time be increasing in knowledge? We could not, if it were our own wisdom with which we were filled. When one is filled with his own wisdom, that effectually shuts him off from learning any more.

But the wisdom of God, like His love, "is broader than the measure of man's mind." While a man may be filled with that wisdom, he never exhausts the measure of it. He may know nothing but the wisdom of God, but yet there will be infinite depths of Divine wisdom of which he is ignorant. When God gave wisdom and understanding to Solomon, He also gave him "largeness of heart." The mind will expand, as it receives the wisdom that comes from God, so it can increase in knowledge. This keeps the men whom God instructs from becoming vain and haughty. The balance keeps even all the time. He who has become acquainted with God, knows that to all eternity he will be infinitely inferior to God, and so the knowledge of God produces humility.

"Despair" The Present Truth 12, 10.

E. J. Waggoner

Despair.-The military system of Europe, with its mechanical crushing out of personal freedom and its drilling to take life, leads those who are swept into it to put little value upon their own lives, if we may judge by statistics which show that the proportion of suicides is far higher in the army than in civil life. Late statistics show that from 1881 to 1893 no fewer than 105,327 persons in Germany violently terminated their own existence. In all countries, it is true, the rate of suicides is increasing. It is one of Satan's ways of making sure of his harvest. He lures men away from God and hope, and then leaves them to despair as a reward for serving him. The only bright and hopeful thing in this world is the true Light that shines for all who will walk in it.

"Filled with Knowledge" The Present Truth 12, 10.

E. J. Waggoner

The Apostle Paul's prayer for the Colossians, and for us as well, was that they might be filled with the knowledge of the will of God, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Col. i. 9. It is a wonderful prayer, but it was written by inspiration, and therefore it is possible for one to have that amount of knowledge. How many mistakes it would save us. How may we acquire it? Well, one of the first requisites is patience. We are usually in too great a hurry to learn from the Lord. It takes a little time to go and ask the Lord for wisdom, or if we do go and ask, it takes a little time for us to receive it, sometimes. The Lord does not always tell us things in a minute.

But we must have the thing settled at once, and so we do not wait for the wisdom that comes from above, and which would guide us right, but we dash ahead, acting, as we say, "according to the best light that we have." But as that "light" is what we derived from ourselves, it is only darkness. God has promised wisdom to all who ask Him. If we come to a difficult place, and the matter seems urgent, and we ask the Lord for wisdom and do not see the answer at once, that should be an indication that the Lord is not in so great a hurry as we are. He sees that it will be better for us to wait awhile. If we could but learn how to "wait on the Lord," we should know much more of His will.

"Business Success" The Present Truth 12, 10.

E. J. Waggoner

It is the very common mistake of youth to expect a royal road to success, and of this age, perhaps more than any before it, it is a characteristic to want to be at the top without waiting to climb up. Archdeacon Farrar writes as follows in giving some qualifications necessary to success in any line of work:-

A very rich man, who died with a title, once said to me, "Because I have been successful in life, many young men come to me and ask me to give them a start. But they all want to begin more or less where and how I end, not where and how I began. My own history was this: I was the son of poor parents; the only education I ever got was at a free school, which I left at the age of fourteen. I was then put into an office, I did my very best there; but, as I was determined to get on, I looked out for the most eminent man in my profession, went to him, and asked him to let me work for him gratuitously when my business hours were over, simply that I might thoroughly understand the conditions of the business to which I had been apprenticed. He allowed me to come and work in the evening in his office with no salary. I worked hard. By the end of the year I had learned what I wished, but I had also made myself indispensable; and the great man pressed me to enter his service with a good and increasing salary. That was the foundation of my present fortune." "Yes," he said, "there is a cheque for a hundred pounds for your church. Don't thank me! I really shall not miss it in the slightest degree at the end of the year. It makes no difference to me."

His remarks were only an illustration of the proverb that the crowd is all at the bottom. "There's plenty of room at the top."

"Note" The Present Truth 12, 10.

E. J. Waggoner

The Chronicle last week called attention to the horrors of the Australian live cattle trade in rough weather, citing a case in which of a cargo of 381 cattle shipped from Queensland but thirty-two were landed here this month, the rest having died on the voyage. One of the crew kept a diary of the voyage, and the following is one day's record:-

"Slaughtered five dying cattle; one of those only in fit condition for corning, two dreadfully cruised and ruptured, one with hip bones knocked into a jelly, one badly bruised and cancered. Have now two very sick cattle; many are suffering from bruises."

We need not emphasise the importance of care in buying prepared meats after such a revelation of the ways of the meat trade.

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 10.

E. J. Waggoner

-In one season the rice yield in the Rangoon province of India has exceeded 1,000,000 tons.

-There were 11,800 persons in penal servitude in Great Britain and Australia in 1870, and only 4,345 in 1895.

-France, with a population of 39,000,000, has a fighting force of 2,000,000 men able to appear in the field at very short notice.

-The number of horses killed for food in Paris last year was 23,186. Besides this there were 43 mules and 383 donkeys consumed.

-Last year the voluntary contributions to the support of the Established Church were larger than ever before, nearly six millions.

-Vienna has established a circulating library for the blind, for which 400 volumes of German works have been prepared in raised type.

-One item in the list of out-of-season novelties this winter is that ripe strawberries were recently gathered in the open air in the Isle of Man.

-The annual slaughter of larks on the Dunstable Downs for the London markets is close upon 50,000, but the supply this year has shown a falling off.

-A new order has been issued from Scotland Yard to the effect that if a constable sees a drunken man approach a public-house he is to prevent his entrance; and if a drunken man gets inside, to warn the landlord of his condition.

-The British troops in East Africa recently defeated a slave-raiding chief who had taken 600 women and children into slavery. In the autumn of last year 1,184 slaves were freed in the region, provision being made for their independent living.

-Thirty tons of flowers left the Scilly Isles in one day for the English markets. Acres of flowers cut one day are in bloom again in three days, so mild has the weather been. The weather in the Isle of Man has also been phenomenal. Fruit trees are not only in blossom, but apples are actually ripening in the sun.

-It is said that Russia is quietly collecting troops on the northern borders of Korea. Japan and Russia are struggling for supremacy in that country, and the latter power seems to be gaining upon the former in the diplomatic contest. Russian authorities already congratulate themselves on having a southern terminus to the Trans-Siberian railway under complete Russian control. Japan defeated China, but Russia reaps the fruits of the victory.

-A writer in one of the Reviews urges the storing of a vast quantity of corn, under Government control, so that in case of a great war the population of the cities and towns might have food. "Other nations accumulate gold for use in war-time," he says; "we should have a war-chest of corn." The plan has been seriously discussed of late, as it is said that interruption of commerce would find the great towns with but a fortnight's supply.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 10.

E. J. Waggoner

The more Protestant organs in the Church of England regret, and the Catholic organs approve, the election of the Bishop of Derry to the Primacy of the Irish Church. He is said to be the most Ritualistic of the Irish bishops.

The paper on the Eastern Question in this number will be followed by three or four more in succeeding issues. We print some extra copies of this number in order to supply this first of the series to those who desire it later. Agents desiring them should order early.

While the Eastern Question is not so prominently brought before the public in the newspaper press now as it was a few weeks ago, the solution of it is still pending, and the subject cannot fail to be of vital interest to every believer. As the writer of the series was in Constantinople during the riots there, he will be able to speak from personal observation of the situation.

On the occasion of the eighteenth anniversary of the Pope's election, recently celebrated in Rome, we are told that he received "telegrams from all the sovereigns and heads of Governments in the world, congratulating him upon the anniversary, and expressing sincere admiration for the truly marvellous manner in which he has directed the Church in this most troubled, and yet, perhaps, most glorious epoch. These telegrams, be it observed," continues the Catholic Times, "came from Catholic and Protestant alike, for admiration for Leo XIII. is universal."

This expression of admiration on the part of the rulers of earth is due solely to the fact that the Roman Church has political influence, and that this influence which is courted by all centres in the Pope. Let no one fail to remark the significance of these complementary attentions on the part of earthly powers whenever some date occurs that can be made use of for the purpose. It must remind the Papacy of those old times when she was courted by all the world and was able to demand her own price for her influence. The old power is being recovered in such measure that none can fail to see that it may not be long before she can say again, "I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow." But then it is that her destruction comes, "for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her." Rev. xviii.

A chaplain in the United States army has been corresponding with other chaplains, with the view of learning the religious condition of the army. The first item in the synopsis which he gives is striking. He says:-

The responses show that the officers are, in the main, indifferent upon the subject of personal religion, some holding the view that war and active Christianity are incompatible.

That shows that those unbelieving officers have a better conception of what "active Christianity" is than the chaplains have. Of course the only thing that the chaplains can do to get those officers interested in religion is to make them believe that war is consistent with "active Christianity," and that is what the majority of the professed church of Christ now holds. What a travesty upon the Gospel it is to teach that the active service of the Prince of Peace is compatible with the trade of killing one's fellow-men.

It is held by many people that the appointment of chaplains in the army and navy, by the various Governments, is evidence that those Governments are favourable to Christianity, or rather, that they are Christian Governments. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Christianity is the religion and teaching of Jesus Christ. He taught that men should not resist evil, should not take the sword, and should do no violence to anybody. Christianity is "Peace on earth, good will to men." To preach the Gospel is to preach peace. Now it is certain that there is not a nation on earth that would pay a man to go into its army and teach the men that it is wicked to fight. On the contrary, they would not allow a man to teach such doctrines to their soldiers, even at his own expense. That is to say that, instead of favouring Christianity by the appointment of chaplains to their armies, the Governments of the earth, without exception, would probably discharge and punish any chaplain who should presume to teach the pure Christianity of Jesus Christ in their armies.

We are informed that the organ of our society in Germany, the Herold der Wahrheit, published in Hamburg, has been prohibited in Russia, the authorities thus cutting it off from circulation among the many thousands of German colonists in that empire. Our contemporary is devoted simply to Bible study, and makes no comments whatever on political affairs; so that the prohibition means that Russia does not propose to allow its people to hear Bible teaching if it can be hindered. Of course this cannot hinder it. No more remarkable progress has been seen in the history of our work than that in Russia, where, in spite of imprisonment and exile the Word had free course and believers have multiplied.

In an article concerning mission work in Armenia, the New York Independent, which is probably the leading religious paper in the United States, and which has been most vehement in calling for vengeance against Turkey, says, in the issue of Feb. 20:-

The work of missions among the Armenians, Greeks, and Jacobites of Turkey is not so much for the purpose of converting them as building them up into a Christian power which shall in due time overpower Islam.

That is frank. It is self-evident that the natural result of such mission work must be the production of revolutionists, and not of Christians. Let our readers bear this in mind in the perusal of the articles on the Eastern Question. We believe, however, that there are true missionaries in Turkey, who really preach the Gospel, who are misrepresented by the Independent's note.

"The laity, as a whole," says the Church Times, "have no desire to dabble in matters of doctrine and worship, and are content to leave them where they always have been left, in the hands of the clergy." It is apparently thought that it is the province of the "clergy" alone to "dabble" in doctrine and worship. It is an open confession that what the "clergy" called doctrine and worship are no part of the Christian religion, else why should not the "laity" be as much interested in them as anyone? Do all not need to know the truth and to worship the Lord?

March 12, 1896

"The Good Shepherd" The Present Truth 12, 11.

E. J. Waggoner

"I am the Good Shepherd; the Good Shepherd giveth His life for the sheep." John x. 11.

Christ occupies a multitude of relations to His people. He is "The Everlasting Father," yet He is our Brother. So He is not only the Good Shepherd, but He is also the door into the sheepfold, and even the fold itself. Every good thing is found in Him.

The Good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep; and He gives it not in vain, as is indicated by the parable in Luke xv. 3-7. "What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance."

This teaches that the lost sheep will certainly be found, which means that God's people will be saved; for His sheep are His people. "O come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker. For He is our God; and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand." Ps. xcv. 6, 7.

When the heathen Canaanitish woman besought Jesus to heal her daughter He said, "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Matt. xv. 24. Yet He listened to her prayer, and healed her daughter, thus showing that that poor Gentile was one of the lost sheep of the house of Israel. She was one whom He came to save.

Further assurance is found in these words of Christ: "All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me; and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me. And this is the Father's will which hath sent Me, that of all which He hath given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day." John vi. 37-39.

He will therefore surely find all of His own, and He will keep all that He finds; for He says further: "My sheep

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hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. My Father, which gave them Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand." John x. 27-29. Surely, then, the "little flock" need not fear, even though the devil does go about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

But the Lord said, "And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd." John x. 16. Some people quote this text to justify the numerous divisions in the professed church of Christ; but they certainly do not read it thoughtfully. It is true that the Lord has other sheep-sheep that are wandering in the desert, and that are even in the jaws of a lion. But He will gather them, for His mission is to the lost, and then there will be "one fold, and one Shepherd." Unity is the perfection of God's plan. His desire for His people is "that they all may be one." John xvii. 21. It is only "in the unity of the faith" that they come "unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ." Eph. iv. 13.

There is but one fold, although the sheep are scattered in many places. The church is the body of Christ (Eph. i. 21, 23), and "there is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all." Eph. v. 4-6.

Are not all men on the earth the lost sheep of the house of Israel? No; for all the sheep are to be saved; and but few men will be saved, compared with the multitudes that have lived on earth. See Matt. vii. 13, 14. At the last day mankind will be found divided into two classes, the sheep and the goats,-and they will be separated, the one from the other. "And He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." "Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." Matt. xxv. 31-41.

Then did not Christ die for all? Most certainly; for the Scriptures so declare. And He does not arbitrarily divide mankind into two classes-sheep and goats. Men themselves make that division; the Lord only separates the two classes when He comes. Each individual has it wholly in his own power to decide in which of the two classes He will be. A very few words more will show how this is.

Read these verses in the tenth chapter of John. Verse 4: "And when He putteth forth His own sheep, He goeth before them, and the sheep follow Him; for they know His voice."

Verse 16: "Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice."

Verse 27: "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me."

There you have the whole story. Anyone who hears the voice of Jesus, and follows Him, is His sheep. To hear is to obey. The Word of God is the test. They who, when it comes to them, reject it, in whole or in part, or straightway begin to contradict it, or to attempt to pervert it from its plain sense, or to excuse themselves for not obeying it, are marking themselves as goats. The sheep hear the voice, and follow it. No matter where they are, nor how wholly lost they are, if they hear indeed, then they are sheep, and their salvation is as sure as God's existence. "Incline your ear, and come unto Me; hear, and your soul shall live." Isa. lv. 3. "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." "We are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand. To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts."

"Human Wolves" The Present Truth 12, 11.

E. J. Waggoner

Impossible as it may seem, it is certified on good authority that the adoption of children by wolves is not merely an ancient myth, but that instances have actually occurred. A writer in the Badminton Magazine tells of the carrying off of native infants in India, and their occasional adoption into the wolf family. How any of the children thus captured escape being devoured, is of course a matter of conjecture; but the interesting and instructive feature of the case is the after result. The writer says:-

Some of these poor waifs have been recovered after spending ten or more years in the fellowship of wolves, and though wild and savage at first, have in time become tractable in some degree. They are rarely seen to stand upright, unless to look around, and they gnaw bones in the manner of a dog, holding one end between the forearms and hands, while snarling and snapping at anybody who approaches too near. The wolf-child has little except its outward form to show that it is a human being with a soul. It is a fearful and terrible thing, and hard to understand, that the mere fact of a child's complete isolation from its own kind should bring it to such a state of absolute degradation. Of course, they speak no language, though some in time have learned to make known their wants by a few signs. When first taken they fear the approach of adults, and, if possible, will slink out of sight; but should a child of their size, or smaller, come near, they will growl, and even snap and bite at it.

The same results would be seen if it were the child of the most cultured family in the world. Why?-Because the hearts of all men are fashioned alike, and all naturally tend to evil. Hatred, wrath, variance, strife, uncleaness, etc., are natural to every human being. The Apostle Paul, writing to Titus, said, "We ourselves were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another." Titus iii. 3.

In other words, the unregenerate human nature is very wolfish. Let any child be left utterly destitute of training, and the wolfish disposition will surely develop. Whatever good traits anybody possesses are the result, either directly or indirectly, of the grace of God. "Every good gift, and every perfect gift is from above." James i. 17.

All this only emphasises the necessity of the early, careful, and continuous training of children in the right way. Two declarations of the sure Word of God should ever be present in the minds of parents, as a warning and an encouragement: "A child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame." "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is told he will not depart from it."

"The Unpardonable Sin" The Present Truth 12, 11.

E. J. Waggoner

The Unpardonable Sin.-Faith is the only means of salvation. There is no sin that cannot be forgiven the one who believes, for "with the heart man believeth unto righteousness." But he who refuses to believe shuts himself off from life and righteousness. In short, the unpardonable sin is the sin that rejects pardon.

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 11.

E. J. Waggoner

-Queen Victoria owns ?400,000 worth of china.

-English shipbuilders have orders from Japan for five new warships.

-Central America has a little war on hand between factions in Nicaragua.

-The best corks come from Algeria. There are 2,500,000 acres of cork forests in that country.

-More eyes must be damaged or lost than most people suppose. Two million glass eyes are manufactured every year in Germany and Switzerland.

-Desultory fighting is still going on in Cuba. The insurgents are avoiding general engagements, and are expecting the wet season, with its fevers, to be a formidable ally.

-Possibly the largest experimental orchard of apples in the world is owned by Benjamin Buckman, of Farmingdale, Illinois. His collection embraces over 550 named varieties.

-It is said that China and Russia have an understanding by which Russia secures full use of Chinese harbours and arsenals in return for money lent and aid rendered in making terms with Japan last year.

-By means of the new ray of light Berlin surgeons the other day located a piece of needle in a woman's hand, which had been in the hand for two months. The photograph showed it plainly, and it was extacted.

-The Japanese Government has just placed orders for 18,000 machine-made watches to be distributed among the officers and men who distinguished themselves in the late war. The watches are to take the place of medals.

-This year is the 100th anniversary of the introduction of the potato into England, and also of tobacco. In 1506 Sir Walter Raleigh first brought potatoes and tobacco from America to England. For some time potatoes were it luxury of the rich alone, costing 2s. per lb.

-A member of the Royal Geological Society shows that no less than 20,000,000 square miles of the earth's surface yet remain unexplored. The largest unexplored area is in Africa, 6,500,000 square miles, but even North America contains 1,500,000 square miles of virgin territory.

-Germany has 856 naval officers and 18,830 sailors; Austria, 611 officers and 11,897 sailors; Great Britain, 2,379 officers and 51,995 sailors; the United States, 1,031 officers and 11,000 sailors France, 2,020 officers and 42,205 sailors; Italy, 800 officers and 33,415 sailors; and Russia, 1,249 officers and 38,000 sailors.

-Owing to the overwhelming defeat of the Italian troops in Abyssinia last week the Italian Government has trouble on hand at home. Discontent always brewing in Italy, is manifesting itself in hostile demonstrations. There is a strong movement against the monarchy, and in Sicily the people are ready to revolt. Italy is paying a heavy price for glory in Africa, and has so far failed to get the glory.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 11.

E. J. Waggoner

A friend in India sends us an Indian paper of recent date, from which it appears that the Roman Catholics are especially active just now in sending missionaries to that country.

The number of papers devoted to the cause in which PRESENT TRUTH is engaged, is increasing. An edition of Tidens Tecken, of Stockholm, is now published in Helsingfors, Finland. A paper has also been started in Mexico.

It is stated that the recent defeat of the Italians in Abyssinia is already lowering the prestige of all Europeans on the African continent. This is why all the Powers are anxious that Italy should ultimately win, no matter at what sacrifice of men and money.

Owing to the increase of betting and gambling an influentially signed appeal has been addressed to the nation on the subject, declaring that the evil "is assuming the proportions of a grave social and national peril," affecting every class of society.

There is little question but that Italy has no rightful claim to Abyssinia, and there seems to be no question that the possession of it would be no benefit to her, but rather a damage. Yet there is quite a general agreement that the "honour" of Italy demands that she now continue the war of aggression until a free people are finally despoiled of their territory. That is the National and International idea of "honour." Can anybody claim that a nation, any more than a man, with such an idea is Christian?

Ever since Malta became a Crown colony the Roman Church has controlled the local authorities to maintain her declaration that all marriages not celebrated by the Church are invalid. It has long been a subject of agitation and inquiry, and at last the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council has decided that marriages by other than the priests of the Roman Church should be considered legally valid in Malta.

The Times' correspondent reports the visit of Bishop Wilkinson to the Metropolitan of St. Petersburg, as the representative of the Bishop of London, bearing a message of good will from the English to the Russian Church. This is how he exhibited the cordial feeling:-

Bishop Wilkinson in Convocation robes, with his episcopal staff, knelt in prayer at the altar and kissed the holy image of the Saviour with which he was blessed by the Metropolitan Paliadius. The Bishop also did reverence to the relics of St. Alexander Nevsky, and at parting exchanged kisses three times with the Metropolitan.

The old Sunday law of Charles II. is now and then revived in various parts of the country to satisfy some person's idea of making his fellows religious. The following is sent us by a correspondent, who took it from an Ilfracombe paper:-

At Sevenoaks, Mary Livett, widow, who gets her living by keeping a small sweets-shop, was summoned for selling sweets, nuts, and other articles on the Lord's Day, "the same not being a work of necessity." It was proved that on Sunday, January 12th, a defendant had sold things to children, and a fine of 1s. with 9s. costs was imposed. Defendant, who said she was unable to pay, was allowed a week.

This is a fair sample of the inhumanity, to say nothing of the religion, of religious laws. It shows, too, that the old law has life, and only waits for the old sentiment to become more general in order to have far more general application.

"An era of colossal naval in addition to huge military forces looms out before the world," says the Chronicle, "thus ending for a long time the generous dreams of those who, half a century ago, believed that the war-drum would soon throb no longer, and that the battle-flags would be furled."

More and more clearly it is being shown how small the world has become. Questions and controversies that agitate Europe spring from the most unexpected quarters of the world. Now it is Venezuela, then the Transvaal, and again Abyssinia, that suddenly spring upon Europe the gravest crises. It is no longer the cock-pit of Europe, of which we used to read, but of the whole world. "The nations are angry."

"The Eastern Question" The Present Truth 12, 11.

E. J. Waggoner

The Eastern Question.-The two following numbers on this subject will deal more particularly with the situation in Turkey, as observed by the writer during a recent visit. As the articles which have now appeared (last week and this) make a complete presentation, though brief, of the scriptural side of the question, we are preparing to reprint them from the standing type in the form of a 16-page tract, large size, which will be ready in a few days. Illustrated. Price, 1d. The question is one of the deepest importance, and we know our friends will be glad to call attention to it by giving this tract a wide circulation.

"In Samoa" The Present Truth 12, 11.

E. J. Waggoner

In Samoa.-One of the medical missionaries sent by our society to the South Seas makes the following report, in appealing for increased facilities in Samoa:-

We began medical work November 15, and by December 31 had given over eleven hundred treatments, filled forty-five teeth, extracted thirty-two, made several plates, and performed seven surgical operations. People are coming to us from islands seventy miles away. What can we do with them? They cannot stay out-of-doors, and if they could, we could not treat them there.

"Not Accidental" The Present Truth 12, 11.

E. J. Waggoner

Not Accidental.-Among the treasures of King Pempeh brought to London are many symbols of the Ashanti fetish worship. A newspaper says:-

Another interesting trophy is an incense cup of pure gold, which has been made in exactly the same form as those used in Roman Catholic churches, with roses and thistles around the bowl.

It is only another instance of the similarity between Catholic and pagan rites, so common in the East that the dullest observer can see that it is no accidental similarity. When the "falling away" came the Catholic Church copied the rites of the heathen to win converts.

"Established Religion" The Present Truth 12, 11.

E. J. Waggoner

Established Religion.-We believe thoroughly in the establishment of religion. The only way, however, in which the religion of Christ can be established is declared by the Apostle Paul in Rom. iii. 31, "Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law." This is the establishment of the Protestant religion, too; for the whole controversy between Protestantism and the Papacy is whether God's government and law is supreme or whether the Papacy has power to change the law of the Most High, as it has "thought" to do. Dan. vii. 25. The Gospel calls upon all men to accept the righteousness of God as by faith established.

March 19, 1896

"Believing and Knowing" The Present Truth 12, 12.

E. J. Waggoner

When Jesus was betrayed into the hands of men, knowing that His hour was come, it is written of His disciples that they forsook Him and fled.

And the crucifixion and death of Christ came as such an overwhelming surprise to His most intimate followers that their hopes were buried with Him, and the world was dark and deep.

There is a very common misapprehension of the evidence which the disciples had to help them through this hour of darkness. One writer says: "Jesus made many allusions to His death, but so vaguely that they were not understood, and His disciples were wholly unprepared for the event."

This misapprehension robs one of the important and helpful lesson that is taught in the story of this disappointment. The fact is, that the disciples need not have been plunged into a hopeless sorrow even for those few hours, had they but believed the words of the Lord, as plainly appears from a few texts.

Christ made many allusions to His approaching death, and on three occasions, recorded by Mark in consecutive order, He distinctly told His disciples exactly what was to occur. First, when they were in C?sarea Philippi:-

"And He began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again." Chapter viii. 31.

Next, as they had come into Galilee, He said to the disciples, "The Son of man is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill Him; and after that He is killed, He shall rise the third day." Chap. ix. 31.

And again, as they were going up to Jerusalem to the cross, "He took again the twelve, and began to tell them what things should happen unto Him, saying, Behold we go up to

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Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be delivered unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes; and they shall condemn Him to death, and shall deliver Him to the Gentiles; and they shall mock Him, and shall scourge Him, and shall spit upon Him, and shall kill Him, and the third day He shall rise again." Chap. x. 32-34.

Now, reading the statements, it must be acknowledged that language could not more plainly state the facts. Three times over the Lord told them, and yet it is written, "But they understood not that saying, and were afraid to ask Him." Why did they not understand? Not because it was not said plainly, assuredly, but because they did not believe what was said.

And just here comes the lesson for us. They did not listen, nor believe the plain declarations of the Lord. Their minds were so full of their own ideas of how it was all coming out that when the Lord spoke His thoughts they even rebuked Him for saying such a thing as that He should suffer and die. They did not see how these things could be, and they could not see how simply because they did not believe His words. And so they were wholly unprepared to go through the trial without wavering.

Just so to-day many read over the plainest declarations of the Word with minds so full of their own thoughts and conceptions that they do not understand what the Lord says. They seek the written words or hear the sound of them, but they only suggest the thoughts that have possession of the mind. God's thoughts are not as our thoughts, and the way to learn His thoughts is to listen to what He says and believe it exactly as He says it. The disciples did not understand Christ's words, but if they had believed the words they would have understood. When we believe the words of the Lord we begin to understand them, but no one can understand so long as he puts the words away without listing to them and believing that God means what He says.

We need to learn this lesson now, and for our instruction it is recorded. The disciples needed the lesson to keep them in the hour of the power of darkness. Luke xxii. 53. Before us is another hour of the power of darkness that will try men's souls. Of that coming hour the promise is given, "Because thou hast kept the word of My patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth." Rev. iii. 10. To keep it is to receive it, to believe it. Let us, then, be warned by the lesson of the disciples' failure, that we may not fail to understand the words which the Holy Spirit speaks by Scripture to prepare men to stand in the hour final trial.

"Paganism in Civilisation" The Present Truth 12, 12.

E. J. Waggoner

It is a horrible thing to think of thousands of men slaughtered in a single battle,-shot down and tumbled into holes, as though they were dogs, or left to rot on the ground. But there is another side to the matter than that which usually engages the attention of the few who do have a thought of pity for the victims of war. Of all the papers that we have seen, only one paper, and that a secular journal,-the Echo,-has spoken out without partiality in consideration of the natives who are slaughtered in these African wars. It speaks thus strongly and pointedly:-

For the moment the incontinent ambition of European nations has met with a paralysing repulse in Africa. And what do our readers consider is a consolation to the Italians in the present crisis of their history? They console themselves with the thought that, though they have received a crushing defeat themselves, they managed to kill many thousands of native Africans. And even papers in this country harp on the same string. It is said that the Pope, when he heard of several thousands of his countrymen killed, was much affected; and well he should be. But neither he nor we believe any other nominally Christian bishop in Christendom would have been particularly moved if ten times the number of native Africans had been slaughtered. We have not seen a word of regret, or heard of a single sigh of sorrow at the killing of thousands of native Africans. And these men were fighting for their country and their homes, and were animated by purer motives than the invading soldiers.

The Pope and other Christian bishops, in speaking of the glories and the conquests of Christianity, say that men all over the world are members of the same family and children of the same God. But when the Christian members of the family from Europe go to smite and to slaughter their weaker brethren in Africa, we hear of no Papal or patristic condemnation. The fact is that European nations, in their greedy scramble in Africa for Africa, their scientific methods of killing the populations of Africa, and their hypocritical cant about spreading the blessings of civilisation are as pagan as the Romans before Christ came on the earth; and Italy, the home of the Papacy, and the inheritor of nearly two thousand years of Christian teaching and experience, appears to be the most pagan of all.

It should be remembered, however, in reading this, that nothing is Christianity except that which is like Christ, no matter what the profession may be. The Papacy is not, and never was, Christianity, or any part of it; and the Pope is not a Christian bishop. Genuine coin of the realm is not blamed for the counterfeits that exist; and so Christianity must not be charged with the false profession thereof.

"A Fair Sample" The Present Truth 12, 12.

E. J. Waggoner

A Fair Sample.-The Roman Catholic Church uses force to suppress the preaching of the Gospel wherever it has control of the civil power. Just now the Portuguese authorities are threatening the Swiss missionaries in Delagoa Bay with expulsion, as they are charged by the Catholic clergy with making proselytes from the Roman Church. The Swiss missionaries rather weakly, it seems, protest that they have never tried to convert Roman Catholics, and appeal to the Swiss Government for protection in their work. That is not a defence that commends itself to the principles of Gospel mission work, but the circumstance shows how little sincerity there is in the modern profession of the Catholic Church to be the friend of religious liberty. What it does in Delagoa Bay, South America, and in other Catholic countries it would do in every land it had the power. But power belongs unto God, and as He has a people amongst Roman Catholics we know that in His own way the call will go to them, "Come out of her, My people."

"French Reformed Church" The Present Truth 12, 12.

E. J. Waggoner

The French Reformed churches are considering a revised liturgy which includes a prayer for the success of the nation's arms. M. Monod, one of the family which has had so wide an influence in Evangelical work in France, has put before the churches the suggestion that in view of the evils of militarism and war and the contrast between these and the works of peace and love, "our prayer should be confined to commending to Divine mercy such as are at war, whoever they may be."

"Catholic Success" The Present Truth 12, 12.

E. J. Waggoner

The Catholic Times thinks that the success of the Catholic Church in the United States is "sufficient to enable the American Church to keep Catholicity alive were the enemies of our religion to crush it out of existence in all the other countries of the globe."

"Church Reunion" The Present Truth 12, 12.

E. J. Waggoner

The Church Times, which is one of the leading organs of the Church of England, closes a review of the recently issued biography of Cardinal Manning in these words:-

As to its bearing on reunion, we are the last to press home this book unfairly on our Roman brethren. We, with them, respect Cardinal Manning's memory and work, and believe these volumes, however unintentionally, to give a distorted presentment of his character. But if it would induce them to cease throwing stones, and to respect, with at least ordinary courtesy, our religious position, we should be grateful indeed. Reunion has not a fair chance, while the approaches are all on one side, and the coolness on the other; which, whatever we may say of foreign Roman Catholic opinion, seems to be the case in England.

That is strong testimony as to the attitude of the Church of England in relation to the Roman Catholic Church. But the Church Times has only to be patient, and it will see its desires accomplished. The Church of Rome is as anxious for reunion as the Church of England is, but it knows that there is no need of urging that which is inevitably coming. Rome's coolness is only for the purpose of stimulating the Church of England's ardour, so that

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the reunion may be a perfect one, namely, with the Pope supreme, as of old.

"Preaching and Living Lawlessness" The Present Truth 12, 12.

E. J. Waggoner

The article, "Not Under the Law," which appeared in PRESENT TRUTH some time ago, has fallen into the hands of a man who takes exception to it as follows:-

But, says the editor of PRESENT TRUTH, "we do not teach nor believe that Christians are under the law." If then we are not under the law, on what ground does he urge us to keep the Sabbath? The law says, "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." Is there any other instruction or precepts or command to keep the Sabbath found in God's Word, except in the law? None whatever. If then we are not under the law, the command does not apply to us.

The idea that this man has is one that is held by very many people, namely, that to keep the law is to be under it, and that since Christians are not under the law, therefore they must not by any means keep the Sabbath. But mark, now, what is involved in this idea.

The law of God is not a collection of disconnected precepts, but is a unit. This is clearly shown by the words of the Apostle James: "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For He that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law." James ii. 10, 11. Whatever therefore is or may be said about one part of the law, applies equally to the whole of it.

Now that same law which says, "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy," says also, "Do not commit adultery." One commandment has just as much force as the other, and no more. The man, therefore, who says that the fourth commandment does not apply to him, because he thinks he is not under the law, virtually says the same of the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, and all the others. There are many well-meaning and sincere people who have been led by this sophistry of men, and the "cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive," to think that the apostle's statement, "Ye are not under the law, but under grace," is a warrant, if not a command, for them not to keep the Sabbath, but who do not realise that the whole law is involved. For the benefit of such we write. We would open their eyes to the fact that rejection of the Sabbath inevitably involves rejection of the whole law.

If adultery were as popular as Sabbath-breaking, then we should find men, claiming to be Christians, who would say, "Christians are not under the law; why, then, do you urge us to keep the seventh commandment?" And they would have as much reason and religion on their side as those who talk in the same way about the fourth commandment. Let it not be forgotten that the rejection of the Sabbath involves the rejection of all morality. The Sabbath is that which makes known the true God who sanctifies. Eze. xx. 12. When men reject that, they by that very act reject sanctification itself.

We have said that the deliberate rejection of the Sabbath means a rejection of all morality. This is evident from the fact that it means a rejection of the law of God, which is "holy, and just, and good." Rom. vii. 12. But it is more apparent from the plain fact that it means a rejection of Christ. The man from whose letter we have quoted says, referring to the editor of PRESENT TRUTH:-

He says further, "The fact that Jesus kept the Sabbath is the strongest reason why Christians should keep it also." Does he not know, and let it be reverently spoken, that the Lord Jesus was not a Christian, but a Jew, which we are not.

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The Apostle John says, "He that saith he abideth in Him, ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked." 1 John ii. 6. But He kept the Sabbath, as indeed He kept all the commandments (John xv. 10; Ps. xl. 8); and in order to evade that, some men are willing to repudiate His whole life; for He was a Jew all His earthly life.

Jesus Christ is "the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever." Heb. xiii. 8. He did not come to the earth to act a part, but to show us just what He is. Therefore whoever casts away His life on earth, or any part of it, no matter for what reason, rejects Jesus as He is to-day in heaven, and thus casts away salvation. Even "salvation is of the Jews." John iv. 22.

Since Jesus kept the Sabbath on earth, and is always the same, it follows that the Sabbath is as much a part of His life now as it ever was. It was but a short time ago that a man, a professed minister of the Gospel, to whom the writer presented this thought, boldly declared that Jesus is not the same now that He was; that He has changed. To such straits are men driven in order to evade the Sabbath! They must either reject Christ utterly, or else accept a Christ that is unknown to the Bible, that is, a false Christ.

Some one will say, "You believe, then, in sanctification and salvation by works." Oh, no; not at all. Do you not see any difference between working and resting? The Sabbath is not work, it is rest. Sabbath means rest. Salvation is by faith; and we are assured that "we which have believed do enter into rest;" and this is spoken with direct reference to the seventh day, the Sabbath of the Lord. Heb. iv. 3, 4. The Sabbath is a sign of sanctification and redemption by faith. True Sabbath-keeping is perfect rest in God through Christ the Creator and Redeemer. "He that is entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His." Heb. iv. 10. Surely anybody, especially if he be a labouring man, ought to be able to see a wide difference between works and rest. Sabbath rest is not salvation by works.

And for this reason no one can say of the Sabbath of the Lord, "You shall not put it upon me." No; hard work and heavy burdens may be bound upon men; but not the Sabbath, which is rest. Sabbath-keeping is not a grievous task put upon men whether they will or not, but a glorious privilege to which none can be admitted except those who humbly believe God. That means that they believe all His word. Instead of thrusting the Sabbath upon an unwilling people, God says of those who do not believe Him, "they shall not enter into My rest." He does not arbitrarily exclude any; all are welcome to come and share His rest, and all are invited; but faith alone can give the rest; and those who do not believe exclude themselves. To keep the Sabbath indeed is not to confer a favour on the Lord, but to rest in His love, to dwell in His presence, and to drink of the rivers of His pleasure. It is to be "under grace" in the fullest sense, namely, to "receive not the grace of God in vain."

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 12.

E. J. Waggoner

-The mines of South Africa now produce one-fifth of the world's supply of gold.

-A meteor which fell in Australia recently had a large mass of pure copper embedded in one side.

-A colliery strike now in progress in Austria is said to be the largest strike ever witnessed in that country.

-The Russian press is jubilant over the defeat of the Italians, and has opened subscriptions to aid the wounded Abyssinians.

-Mr. Ballington Booth has tally embarked on the organisation of a new Salvation Army in America, and is said to be enrolling recruits rapidly, most of them coming from the old army.

-The proposal of the United States to intervene in behalf of the Cuban insurgents has roused strong feeling in Spain, where the authorities have had difficulty in suppressing attacks on American consulates.

-The past year has witnessed a great famine in Africa, north of the Zambesi. Locusts have appeared in clouds and eaten everything off the face of the country. Sufferings of the most harrowing nature are reported.

-Sixteen thousand pounds is the figure that it is approximated the Pope's pearl would bring. One of Leo's predecessors became possessed of it in a manner which has not been told, and it has descended in a regular course.

-In view of the effort of an explorer to reach the North Pole by balloon next summer, the Hudson's Bay Company has sent word to its stations to inform Indians and Esquimaux to be on the lookout to render assistance in case the balloonists should come down in North American territory.

-The pilgrimage to Mecca began this year, as usual, towards the end of January, and early in February several shiploads of pilgrims had started for Jeddah. It is understood that all the Egyptian pilgrims will be kept for several days in quarantine at El Tor before being allowed to go on to Mecca.

-Lord Kelvin has been making experiments to discover what the effect of a cannonade of quick-firing guns would be on board the vessel firing and the ship subject to the fire. He believes shat after fifteen minutes' firing the survivors of the crews of both vessels would be reduced to a state of mental, if not physical incapacity, owing to the concussion of the projectiles on the sides of the vessel and the noise of the guns.

-Writing on the food question in England in war time Mr. R. B. Marston says: "Our annual bill for foreign corn amounts roughly to about ?30,000,000, and produces roughly about three thousand million loaves of foreign bread at 2nd. each, which we eat and pay for yearly in addition to little more than a quarter as much more grown at home." He seriously presses a scheme for storing a year's provision of corn under Government control.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 12.

E. J. Waggoner

There are now seventeen colporteurs in Finland engaged in the work of spreading the knowledge of the truth of the Sabbath of the Lord, and of His soon coming.

We learn that the workmen have begun work on the sanatorium building in Guadalajara, Mexico, which will provide the necessary accommodation for the medical mission which our friends there have been carrying on for two years with most encouraging results.

The following item shows how vast a portion of the means of this professedly Christian nation is expended in preparation for killing people:-

This year's Budget is the largest ever produced. It reaches the enormous total of a hundred millions; and of every hundred pounds in this total, forty pounds are put down for powder and shot, ironclads, and men to fight them.

Last week the House of Commons voted, "That, in the opinion of this House, it is desirable that the National Museums and Art Galleries in London should be open for a limited number of hours on Sundays, after 2 P.M., upon condition that no officer shall be required to attend on more than six days per week, and that any who may have conscientious objections shall be exempt from Sunday duty."

The vote was preceded by a long discussion, and by the introduction and rejection of an amendment to the effect that those institutions "should be open from 10 A.M. to 10:00 P.M. on at least three week-day evenings in each week," instead of on Sundays.

Of course there was some opposition, on the ground that to open the museums would secularise the Sunday, and that the State should set the example of Sunday observance. It is worthy of note, however, that all who spoke in favour of the motion, declared themselves in favour of the preservation of the Sunday as a religious institution, and maintained that the proposed Sunday opening would in no way interfere with the religious observance of the day. Some of the statements made by those who favour the motion are significant.

The mover of the motion said that the principal obstacle was "a mistaken feeling that the opening of museums on Sundays might in some way infringe the sanctity of the Sabbath. In his opinion it would tend very much to sanctify it, and in proof of this he pointed to the testimony of many leaders of the church, and to the experience of large towns, such as Birmingham, where museums were already open on Sundays." He also called special attention to the fact that this resolution could not possibly interfere with religious services, since it was proposed that the museums should be open only from two to six.

Mr. Goschen said that there was "a strong desire, shared by every class, that the sanctity of the British Sunday should be maintained in all its essential conditions," and that "if they were to say that a certain motion, if carried, would tend to make Sunday a day of labour, or that it would involve the sacrifice of rest on that day, there was scarcely a member of that House who would not vote against such a motion." On the ground, however, that the workingmen appealed for the opportunity to visit the one day in the week, and that "the influence of the labour leaders would be so great as to prevent the breaking down of the Sabbath," he favoured the motion.

Only one speaker, Sir G. Trevelyan, took a simple, unbiased view of the motion. While some claim that the working people favoured the opening, and others claimed that they were opposed to it, he was inclined to leave all such appeals to popular feeling entirely out of the question. He said that "they did not want to force any man to think or do wrong, but rather to enable every man to do what he thought right. It was no measure of local option that was proposed, but of personal option. It would enable any man to act as his conscience dictated-either to go or to stay away from the museums."

If that reasoning could only be applied to the whole Sunday question, it would be a blessing. Officials in general have become so infatuated with the notion that "the business of the State is to make it as easy as possible to do right, and as difficult as possible to do wrong," and that their ideas of right and wrong must be accepted as the standard, that the idea that people have any individual, personal responsibility to God have been almost forgotten. Although in this matter of visiting museums on Sundays the people may now have an opportunity to exercise their own judgment and conscience, there is no hope that the State will cease to act in the place of God to the people in the matter of Sunday observance in general.

Addressing those members of the House of Commons who objected to the opening of museums on Sundays on the ground that it would "tend to break down the sanctity of the Sabbath," the Daily News reminded them that "the Sabbath is the seventh day of the week, and not the first."

We have received from workers in Calcutta the announcement (in Bengali script which we cannot read) of a school for girls which they were preparing to open the second of this month in that city.

The Catholic Times attributes the recent defeat of the Italians in Abyssinia to the fact that the guns with which the Shoans mowed down the Italian troops, were the same weapons that were taken from the Papal troops in 1870. The Italian Government had presented them to the Abyssinians, and now, according to the Times, it is suffering retribution for the sacrilege of despoiling the Pope's servants of their carnal weapons.

There are many ways in which Sabbath-keeping may bring one before the courts in Switzerland. Some are arrested for Sunday work, others for not serving in the fire department on the Sabbath, and still others have been prosecuted in some cantons for not sending their children to school on the Sabbath. It is highly suggestive that the two countries which have distinguished themselves in the prosecution of Sabbath-keepers are republics which are sometimes supposed to be models of popular government, Switzerland and the United States.

March 26, 1896

"What to Answer" The Present Truth 12, 13.

E. J. Waggoner

"Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts; and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear." 1 Peter iii. 15.

This text is often misunderstood, simply because it is not carefully read. Many take it as though it said, "Be ready to argue and dispute with every man you meet, whether he asks you any question or not."

Others do not pervert it quite so much, but take it for granted that it means to be ready to try to convince a man by argument, and by the presentation of Scripture texts.

But what we are told to do is to be ready to give a reason of the hope that is in us, that is, to tell why we have a hope. In other words it is to give our personal experience in the things of God.

This means, of course, that one should have a clear and living hope. It must be in us and not merely in the Bible. Many a man can present a clear and logical scriptural argument concerning the Gospel, who knows nothing of it by personal experience. It is said that in some of the schools held by missionaries in India, the Hindu students, who have no faith in Christ or His Word, will often present better theses on the evidences of Christianity, than the Christian students do. Such ones tell what they have heard, and not what they know.

The word that is in the Bible alone will do no one any good. Anyone can see that if the Bible were never opened and read, no one would ever be benefitted by it. Even so, though it be read, yet if its words do not come into the heart and life, there is no profit.

Now it is given to Christians to open and present this Word to the world. The men of the world will not do it for themselves. But it must be the living Word that we give them. It is the Word made flesh that saves men. The only argument that the world cannot gainsay or resist, is the argument of living Christianity. The Gospel of Christ is not a theory or a creed, but a life, even the life of Christ Himself.

The Word, just as it stands in the Bible, is to be presented to the world, but it must come as the living Word, through a living channel. "Sanctify the Lord in your hearts." Let the Word become flesh in you, and then the words of Scripture will come, not as if quoted from a book, but with authority, as from the mouth of the Lord Himself. The only real hope that a man can have, is "Christ in you, the hope of glory." Therefore to give the reason for the hope in us, is simply to give the grounds of our personal acquaintance with Christ. When we have that acquaintance, the answer will be with meekness and fear, because those who learn of Him learn meekness and lowliness, for He is "meek and lowly in heart." Matt. xi. 29.

"What Militarism Does" The Present Truth 12, 13.

E. J. Waggoner

The true nature of the spirit of militarism is little suspected by many whose thoughts and lives are under its influence. It must be so else kindly people could not speak as lightly as they do of the accidents and horrors of war. As an illustration of the spirit which militarism engenders even outside of the ranks of active fighters, and as a suggestion of the need that exists for the preaching of the Gospel of peace in all circles, take the following report of an interview with one of the nursing sisters who accompanied the Ashanti expedition:-

"It must have been a relief to have no fighting?"

"It was the bitterest disappointment to the soldiers. At first the hope of fight kept them from feeling the effects of the climate, but the sick list became very heavy when the depressing certainty of a 'bloodless' victory was faced. And the sisters, too, wanted a few broken bones to bind up! Almost to the last the soldiers hoped an attempt would be made by the natives to rescue King Prempeh. But after the Sacred River was passed their spirits went down to zero-in spite of the climate."

Those who express such ideas, and the world is full of the spirit, do not need denunciation, but they do need the Gospel.

"The Blessed People and the Blessed Day" The Present Truth 12, 13.

E. J. Waggoner

Following is the main portion of a letter recently received from an interested reader. We quote it because the question is one which puzzles others, who will be equally interested in the answer.

For some time I have perused your publication, PRESENT TRUTH, and have been attracted to the question which is brought so prominently to the front there, namely, Which day should we observe as the day of rest? For my part I am almost persuaded that the majority are wrong. Searching the Scriptures on the subject, I found everything in your favour (in favour of the Sabbath); but there is one text which puzzles me. That is, John xx. 19. There we find that the disciples were gathered together on the first day of the week, and Jesus appeared unto them, and said, "Peace be unto you." Now if the disciples were resting on the wrong day, one would think that Jesus would have reproved them. But instead of that we find that He blessed them; and a person can scarcely conceive of Jesus blessing them if they were doing wrong. Then we have the same thing taking place in the 26th verse.

Now I do not draw attention to these for the purpose of upholding the first day of the week as the day of rest, but merely with the humble desire to get your opinion of them. For, truly, they seem to be the only passages which deter me from being a Seventh-day Adventist. I should be much obliged if you could aid me in this.

We are most happy to give the desired aid, which we shall do, not by giving our opinion, but by pointing out just what those texts do, and do not, say. Our friend's difficulty lies in reading into the texts more than they actually say.

HOW READEST THOU?

Notice that the texts referred to do not say that the disciples were holding a religious service, or that they were engaged in the act of worship, or that they were in any way whatever observing the day. There is not the slightest hint that they were regarding the day as a day of rest. It is true that this is purely negative, but that is really all that is needed in this case. When a man is deterred from keeping the Sabbath only by two texts which he thinks teach that some of Christ's disciples kept Sunday, all that he needs is to see that those texts make no shadow of a reference to Sunday rest; and this he can see simply by carefully reading them again.

First, we read John xx. 19, 20: "Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. And when He had so said, He showed unto them His hands and His side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord."

Not a hint is there here about either rest or worship. Therefore this text has no more to do with teaching the observance of Sunday than has the fact that on the same day two of the disciples walked from Jerusalem to their home, about seven and a half miles distant. See Luke xxiv. 13, 28, 29.

But let us see, just for the sake of gratifying our curiosity, if we can find out what the disciples were doing together that night. In the last chapter of Luke we are told how Jesus appeared to the disciples on their way to Emmaus, and was made known to them as they began to eat supper, and how the two immediately returned to Jerusalem and made known the fact to the assembled disciples.

"And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And He said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I myself; handle Me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see Me have. And when He had thus spoken, He showed them His hands and His feet. And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, He said unto them, Have ye here any meat? And they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. And He took it, and did eat before them." Verses 36-42.

This was the same occasion as that recorded in John xx. 19. In this account some additional particulars are given, noticeably the one that Jesus asked for and ate some food before them, to convince them that He was a real being.

THE HOME CIRCLE

But how did it happen that the disciples could so readily offer Him something to eat? The answer is found in the account given by Mark. He speaks of the appearance of Jesus to the two who were going into the country, which is recorded at length in Luke xxiv., and then continues:-

"Afterward He appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen Him after He was risen." Mark xvi. 14.

But is it not strange that the disciples should be sitting at meat in a place of worship? It would have been a strange thing if they had been doing so; but they were not in a place of worship. By referring to Acts i. 12, 13, we learn that the eleven disciples had one common dwelling-place in Jerusalem.

So the supposed religious service of the disciples on the first day of the week, when Jesus came and blessed them, resolves itself into this: They were all, with the exception of Thomas, at home, with the doors securely fastened for fear of the Jews, and were quietly eating their supper when Jesus appeared and said, "Peace be unto you," which was the common form of salutation. There was nothing wrong in their partaking of a common meal, and so there was nothing

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for which He could reprove them.

As to the appearance recorded in John xx. 26, it is only necessary to point out that it was "after eight days." That is, it was more than eight days after the appearance on the Sunday night after the resurrection. If it had been only eight days after, it would have been on Monday at the very earliest. So we have in John xx. 26 neither a religious meeting nor a Sunday. The disciples were simply again "within," that is, at home, and Jesus again visited them.

And now that it clearly appears that there is not the slightest intimation of rest or religious observance of any kind on that day, it may be stated that if the Scriptures plainly said that the disciples were holding a prayer meeting that night when Jesus appeared to them, that would not be the slightest proof that Sunday is the Sabbath. The holding of a meeting on a day does not signify that it is the Sabbath. When the fourth commandment plainly sets apart the seventh day as the Sabbath, and Jesus says that not one jot or one tittle can by any means pass from the law, it needs something more than the bare record of even a religious meeting on another day to establish that day as the Sabbath.

THE BLESSING

One thing is almost always strangely overlooked by those who think to find grounds for Sunday observance in that appearance of Jesus to His disciples. It is this, that the blessing which Jesus pronounced was upon the disciples, and not upon the day. He blessed them, just as He had often done before, and as He did afterwards on the day of His ascension, which was Thursday. There was no reason why He should not bless them, because, as we have seen, they were innocently eating their evening meal. But the blessedness which He imparted to them, had no effect whatever on the day.

The Lord blesses His people every day of the week,-His blessing is upon His people, Ps. iii. 8,-but that does not make every day the Sabbath. But in the beginning, at the close of the creation week, "God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it; because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made." Gen. ii. 3.

The seventh day was blessed in the beginning, and that blessing has never been removed from it. The seventh day is still the Sabbath day, and is a blessed day. Consequently it always brings a blessing. Those who observe that day "according to the commandment," have a blessing from it, which can be gained nowhere else. God blesses them on other days,-days which are not blessed,-but the Sabbath day brings a blessing of its own with it, besides the ordinary daily blessing. The fact that God blesses us on the Sabbath day does not lend any additional sanctity to the day; but the fact that the Sabbath-the seventh day-is itself blessed, confers a special blessing upon those who keep it. The day is blessed, and always will remain blessed, whether people receive the blessing or not.

NO BLESSING FOR SIN

God does not bless sin, but he does bless sinners. He blesses sinners in order that by the blessing of His grace they may cease from sin. Thus we read, "Unto you first God, having raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities." Acts iii. 26.

It cannot be denied that God has blessed people on the first day of the week. Not only so, but He has blessed them when they were met together for religious worship on that day, and when they supposed that it was the Sabbath day. So likewise He has most signally blessed people on every day in the week, both when they were engaged in religious services, and when they were not.

But nobody ever yet got any blessing from the first day of the week, because it never received any blessing from God, and, consequently it has no blessing to impart. Only one day-the seventh-did God ever bless; and only that one day can impart blessing.

Moreover, nobody was ever yet blessed because he regarded the Sunday as the Sabbath, although many people have been blessed while so regarding it. Wherefore? For this reason:-

1. "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Rom. x. 17.

2. But there is no word of God concerning the observance of Sunday. The seventh day only is the Sabbath; the other days of the week, including Sunday, are called by the Lord "the six working days." Eze. xlvi. 1. Therefore since there is no word of God requiring Sunday observance, but the contrary, there can be no faith exercised in the keeping of it.

3. But "whatsoever is not of faith is sin." Rom. xiv. 23. Therefore the keeping of Sunday is a sin, to be repented of the same as any other sin. This is very evident from the fact that the keeping of Sunday involves the breaking of the Sabbath.

There are none of God's people who have yet come to the perfect knowledge of all the truth; yet God blesses them. Why does He bless them?-In order that they may "grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ," who is the Truth. He blesses the sinner, in order that by that blessing he may turn from his iniquities. He richly blesses the man who has just yielded to Him; but that blessing by no means indicates that the new convert has nothing more to learn, and must never advance beyond where he now stands. Let it be understood that God does not give us His blessing as a reward for doing right,-He does not pay us for our service,-but He blesses us in order that we may do right. We experience an increase of blessing in proportion as we yield ourselves to His will; but our best service does not merit pay.

For we are never to assume because God blesses us that we are doing all the will of God, or that we have no ways that ought to be forsaken. So when God blesses men who observe Sunday in all sincerity, supposing it to be the Sabbath, that is not to be taken as indicating that He does not wish them ever to make any further amendment of their ways. The blessing is not for Sunday keeping, which in itself is sin, but to lead them to more intelligence service. God blesses sinners, but not sin.

In like manner, we do not think of citing the fact that God blesses us, as proof that the seventh day is the Sabbath. That is shown by the fact that God rested on it, and blessed it and sanctified it. And because it is thus blessed, we know that it can impart to those who keep it a blessing which can be obtained nowhere else.

"Supplanting Puritanism" The Present Truth 12, 13.

E. J. Waggoner

Under the heading, "Supplanting Puritanism," the Catholic Times calls attention to the fact that, in the portion of the United States known as New England, where 1746 Catholics were not permitted to dwell, there are now more than two hundred thousand more Catholics than there are Protestants of all denominations combined. The United States has certainly proved to be most congenial soil for the growth of Roman Catholicism.

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 13.

E. J. Waggoner

-Fresh gold discoveries are drawing people to West Australia.

-Floods have been doing immense damage along the Danube.

-The capital invested in railways in the United Kingdom is ?1,000,000,000.

-No fewer than 1,000,000 of men, women, and children, it is said, die yearly in India from starvation.

-It is said that the Dervishes have a force of 10,000 men in Dongola, toward which the Egyptian expedition is proceeding.

-Newfoundland has had a terrible winter, snow piling up ten or fifteen feet in some parts, blocking roads and causing much suffering.

-Throughout Chili, despatches say, a series of earthquakes has spread terror and dismay. The shocks have been the longest and strongest felt for years.

-When the Negus of Abyssinia reviewed his troops in the presence of the Italian envoy, who visited his camp after the battle, over 100,000 men marched past.

-During a recent snowstorm which swept over the Russian province of Orel, 130 persons were frozen to death in one night, while numbers of cattle and horses perished.

-The British Empire now embraces an area of 8,500,000 square miles, and contains a population of some 350,000,000 people. Nearly one person out of every four on the earth owes allegiance directly or indirectly to the Queen.

-Some time ago the deepest sounding in the ocean was that of 27,930 feet off the Japanese coast. Recently, however, a depth of 29,409 feet was measured near the Friendly Islands, when the sounding wire gave out before the lead touched the bottom.

-In Hungary a Jewish gentleman owns an entire district, and thus has the livings of sixty Christian churches in his gift. In Austria, Germany, and France Jewish financiers are buying up estates and becoming the greatest landholders. And it is asserted that two-thirds of the whole press of these countries are controlled by Jews.

-Doctor Bell, of the Canadian Geographical Survey, has recently reported the discovery of a previously unknown river emptying into the southern extremity of Hudson Bay. The river flows through a densely wooded country, about two hundred and fifty miles in a north-northwesterly direction, and for a considerable distance is deep enough to be navigable for steamers.

-The hatred between Moslem and the population falsely called "Christian" in Syria is stirring up trouble. A despatch says: Serious disturbances are occurring daily at Beyrouth, and 15,000 armed Christians have paraded the streets as a warning to the Moslems that they are ready to protect themselves if the latter mean mischief. The Sultan has himself sent a telegram to the Vail of Syria requesting him to preserve order.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 13.

E. J. Waggoner

The Japanese purpose erecting a gigantic statue of Buddha at Kyoto, to commemorate their victory over the Chinese, who, by the way, are also Buddhists.

Eastern Question.-This number closes the series on "The Eastern Question." We will again remind our readers of the fact that the first two papers in the series are reprinted in pamphlet form at one penny.

News from Malta states that the Papal authorities are strongly protesting against the decision of the Privy Council recognising the validity of marriages not celebrated by the Church of Rome in that island.

There are two publishing houses devoted to the work of our Society in the United States, one in Michigan, the other in California. At the annual meeting of the Michigan house it reported sales of publications during the year over ?60,000, at retail value.

A newspaper says that the two great elements of disturbance in Italy are the Republicans and the Clericalists. The appointment of a great friend of the Pope as Minister of Justice is looked upon as a step to reconcile the Vatican to the Government. What a change in the situation since the days when Paul exhorted the church in Rome to be subject unto the powers that be. But that was before bishops forsook the power of the Word and aspired to earthly power.

The Canadian House of Commons has passed the second reading of the Bill for restoring the Catholic schools in Manitoba. As Manitoba is strongly opposed to maintaining separate Catholic schools at public expense and has once refused to yield to the orders of the Dominion Government, the persistence in the demands may very likely lead to trouble. The Roman Catholics hold the balance of power in the Eastern provinces, while Protestants are strong in the West, and at the last Manitoban election, which turned on the school question, they pronounced emphatically against maintaining Catholic schools.

The last days are described in Scripture as "perilous." A time of special trial and tribulation, and yet we are told that "the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion." They sing because the Lord gives joy and gladness even amidst trial.

A new feature in the work of our Society in Italy is the opening of a ship mission in Genoa. The workers represent the Italian, French, German, and English languages, and hope to do good amongst the sailors of this large port, and amongst immigrants, many of whom are constantly leaving Italy for North and South America.

No one can fail to remark the fact that in all the world councils of State are being forced to give more and more attention to religious questions. In school questions and general politics religious feeling and rivalry is a factor that frequently demands more consideration than any other. It is an evil omen, and nothing adds such rancour and passion to political life as religious controversy, and nothing causes religion to degenerate so rapidly as making it a subject for majorities and political controversy.

"Ye have shamed the counsel of the poor, because the Lord is his refuge." Ps. xiv. 6. Thus it is with the majority of men. To trust one's case wholly to the Lord, seems to them the height of folly. So the Jews mocked Christ, saying, "He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now." And God did deliver Him, for His soul was not left in the grave, and His flesh did not see corruption. Then let the unbelievers scoff; "the Lord redeemeth the soul of His servant; and none of them that trust in Him shall be desolate."

It is pitiful to read of the efforts of the seceding portion of the Salvation Army in America, under Ballington Booth, to curry favour with the thoughtless masses by waving the American flag and appealing to national prejudices. So also the old Army, which remains loyal to headquarters, waves the flag to show its loyalty to American institutions. No spiritual life can come from such appeals. The lifting up of Christ is the only thing that can draw men to Him. What have national flags, symbols of war and earthly powers, to do with the Gospel of salvation which recognises neither Jew nor Greek, bond or free, barbarian or Scythian, male or female?

When in trial the Lord often seems to a weakened faith to be far away, and the enemy close at hand. But in trial Christ said, "He is near that justifieth Me; who will contend with Me." Isa. l. 8. With Jesus' faith and trust, which we are told to "keep," we shall know that God is near in trouble to deliver.

The South African Sentinel says that encouraging reports are heard from our mission in Matabeleland. The mission farm is about thirty miles from Buluwayo. The company of workers include one minister, a competent physician, and several farmers and their families.

Catholic members of Parliament are continually pressing Catholic claims. It is for Catholic chaplains, in army or navy, one day, and something else another. A Protestant Church of England paper says, "Protestant M.P.'s would do well to take a leaf out of Mr. Dillon's book in matters concerning their religion." It is precisely because professed Protestants have consented to rest their case on Parliamentary power in the past that Catholics are able to press their demands so successfully. Why will not Protestants acknowledge Gospel principles, and put away the temptation to appeal to earthly powers?

The Wesleyan London Quarterly declares that "what is dearest to the hearts of Christian Englishmen, the opportunity to give all the world the Gospel," depends "upon our maritime supremacy." "The best ally," it says, is the "Almighty arm," "and after that," the navy. The Church Quarterly also declares that in the superiority of the navy lies the hope of doing the work "God has given us to do." As political maxims these would not be surprising, but when even the churches identify Gospel work and its necessities with the exigencies of political and commercial enterprise, what wonder that "the nations are angry."

April 2, 1896

"Front Page" The Present Truth 12, 14.

E. J. Waggoner

"All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Isa. liii. 6.

We have turned every one to his own way, because we regarded our way as better than the Lord's way. The fact shows that we have regarded our own judgment as better than the Lord's judgment.

Thus we find it to be a fact that every man naturally thinks himself above and better than the Lord. So "that man of sin," "the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped" (2 Thess. ii. 3, 4), is simply the full development of human nature.

Our turning to our own way is therefore a direct insult to the Lord. "He is despised and rejected of men." Isa. liii. 3. By what men is He despised?-By all men-by us; for "we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not."

We ourselves have done this. The insults that were heaped on Christ in Herod's judgment hall; the crown of thorns; the spitting and the blows in the face; and the cross itself, are all chargeable to us. "The Lord hath laid upon Him the iniquity of us all."

When we remember this, we may begin to appreciate the wonderful goodness and forbearance and love of the Lord in giving Himself for us. Forgetting all the insults that we have heaped upon Him, His hand is stretched out still, and His gentle voice pleads, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

But how shall we come to Him? We all like sheep have gone astray; we have wandered far away from the fold; how shall we know how and where to find Him? Well, in the first place, we must settle it that we cannot, except as lost sheep. Christ came to save the lost, and He accepts us in our lost condition.

"Just as I am, without one plea
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bidst me come to Thee,-
O, Lamb of God, I come."

"Just as I am, Thou wilt receive,
Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve,
Because Thy promise I believe;
O Lamb of God, I come."

Yet still the despairing cry is uttered, "Oh that I knew where I might find Him!" Our minds may at once be set at rest concerning that. "He is not far from every one of us." He does not stand in His comfortable home, and call us, but He seeks us until He finds us. "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock." We have not to hunt for Him; He comes to us, and we have only to accept the salvation that He brings us.

For let it never be forgotten that in Him is all fulness. He is not only the Shepherd seeking the lost sheep, but He is the door into the fold, and the fold itself. So, no matter how far away we have wandered, the very moment we yield to the call which He utters close beside us, we are at home. The Shepherd and the fold come to find the sheep; and from lost wanderers, we find ourselves at once in our Father's house. What a blessed encouragement that Jesus has brought heaven itself down to earth for us.

"God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ (by grace ye are saved), and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Eph. ii. 4-7.

"Ecclesiasticism" The Present Truth 12, 14.

E. J. Waggoner

Ecclesiasticism.-Hungary is about to celebrate the thousandth year of her existence as a nation. Therefore the Primate has granted special privileges during Lent. "Meat may be cooked with adjuncts as ordinarily during the forty days, and in towns associated with the memory of St. Stephen it is permissible to eat meat during Holy

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Week, with the exception of Wednesday and Friday." Ecclesiasticism delights in binding rules of its own devising upon men, and then to release their stringency temporarily, just to show that it is itself above its rules, and that whatever the people get comes of the great power of the clergy.

"Casting the Shadow" The Present Truth 12, 14.

E. J. Waggoner

Many persons think so much of the influence they are going to exert that they become vain and self-conscious, and merely exhibit self. The man who must needs assume a weighty and ponderous manner in order to make himself impressive only gives an impression of himself. Spiritual egotism is the most painful thing in the world. Let the man walk with God, with eyes fixed upon him, and the influence of the life will care for itself-the less one is conscious of it the better. Some one has truly said-

"A growing tree is not thinking of the shadow it will cast. It is growing to bear its fruit or furnish the timber of its being. The shadow grows in consequence. And it is so with an honest, good life. The inspiration of it is not the desire of others' applause, or the growth of personal influence, but the wish to do the duty of the day because it is duty. It is not by mere brains that good, enduring influence is secured, which inspires confidence, wins respect, and by the very laws of life tells on others-this is the force which a good man directs. But self-conceit, a personal vanity, and over-confidence in one's self are not consistent with this character."

"Refusing to Worship Mars" The Present Truth 12, 14.

E. J. Waggoner

It is a simple thing. A man says, "I am a Christian. I love my fellowmen. I am commissioned by Jesus Christ to do them good, without respect of race or nation. All are my brethren, and I am debtor to give to all the Gospel of life." But the modern military power says, "No; you must take up the weapons of war, and prepare yourself to kill your fellowmen." And all the time the Powers talk of God and Christianity and the Gospel! An evening newspaper, the Echo, says:-

The German Government has caught a veritable modern George Fox in the person of the Alsatian soldier Thornev. He is a member of "The League of Evangelical Baptized Believers," a sect which split off some time ago from the old German Mennonites on the question of the lawfulness of war. Thornev has been twice punished already for refusing to take his gun, though he has quietly submitted to wearing the military uniform. On his first insubordination he was condemned to two months' imprisonment; then, upon a second refusal, he was sent to jail for a whole year.

A few days ago, upon the expiration of his long arrest, Thornev was sent to join his troop, and his gun was again offered to him. He persistently declared that his conscience would not allow him to use it, or, as George Fox used to say, "to learn the postures of war." He is now locked up for the third time, and the authorities are considerably perplexed how to deal with so incorrigible a trouper, who seems to be a man of irreproachably good character, and not in any respect a fit inmate for a prison.

"How Tradition Makes Void the Word" The Present Truth 12, 14.

E. J. Waggoner

In the days of Christ the Jewish teachers had set the traditions of the elders before the Word of God. They professed to take the Word, and read and expound it to the people, but it was the Word as interpreted by the elders. To justify their course and give a semblance of Divine authority to their traditions this theory was invented.

ORAL TRADITION

They held that when Moses was called into the mount to receive the instruction which he wrote in the "Book of the Law," he had also important teaching concerning the law committed to him which was not written. This he transmitted orally to Joshua, and Joshua in turn to the elders, and they passed it down to the men of the Great Synagogue, the doctors of the law.

By this theory the rabbis sought to give Divine sanction to the oral traditions which had accumulated from generation to generation. By degrees these traditions were given equal place with the Scriptures, and by the time of Christ they had displaced the Word of God. Thus the teachers were able to claim to be the sole guardians of truth, and the people were not supposed to know anything except as a priest taught them. "This people who knoweth not the law are cursed," said the Pharisees when the common people gladly heard the Gospel.

The Jews had reached the point of apostasy which the Lord rebuked through Isaiah, saying, they "have removed their heart far from Me, and their fear toward Me is taught by precept of men." Isa. xxix. 13. For this Christ repeatedly reproved the scribes and teachers. The whole point of their opposition was that He did not follow tradition. He set free the word and taught the people to follow the Lord. When the Pharisees complained to Him, that His disciples transgressed the tradition of the elders, He replied, "Why do ye also transgress the commandments of God by your tradition?" "Full well ye reject the commandment of God that ye may keep your own tradition."

THE SAME THING OVER AGAIN

Since the days of Christ we have had a perfect parallel to the story. Again the religious world is full of practices received by tradition and not founded on the Word. The Spirit of God, the Author of all truth, declared by the apostle that the Holy Scriptures were able to make the man "perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works." 2 Tim. iii. 17. Yet when doctrine and ritual are tested by the word and found wanting, the reply is that these things are established by tradition and the Church Councils.

In order to explain certain practices the Catholic Church has invented the theory of apostolic tradition. The apostles, it is said, received instruction which is not recorded, which they passed down to their successors, and so it comes down through the centuries. True to its very nature, the tradition makes void the Word, and hence the people are taught not to follow the Word but to come to the teachers who are able to interpret it by the aid of the traditions of men.

And not Roman Catholics alone, but the greater part of the professedly Protestant peoples, in some particulars cling tenaciously to practices which are unknown to the Scriptures. In the matter of Sunday observance, almost the whole of Christendom follows the path of tradition, which fully makes void the Sabbath commandment. It is often said that this is one of the things that Christ said, the which, if they were written, "the world itself could not contain the books that should be written." One grave Protestant Bishop says that Christ instructed the disciples to change the day and for some wise reason told them not to say anything about it. It is the old story of Moses and Joshua and the elders over again, and again it is shown that the Catholic rule of faith, "The Bible and tradition" inevitably becomes, "Tradition instead of the Bible."

But it is the Word alone that is a light and a lamp to the feet. Let all believers hold it forth.

"Not of the Will of Man" The Present Truth 12, 14.

E. J. Waggoner

PARLIAMENTARY RELIGION

Religion is not a form. It does not consist in forms. Neither is it a theory. It is a life. To be sure, forms appear in the exercise of religious practices, for whatever exists necessarily has some form; but all people do not necessarily have the same forms. But these forms, whatever they may be, are not religion. That is, they are not the Christian religion. All other religions than the Christian religion consist wholly of forms. And herein Christianity may be distinguished from all false religions. They are dead forms; it is a living thing.

Any other religion than the Christian religion may be changed at the pleasure of those in power. It may be regulated by Act of Parliament, at the same as the tax on tobacco. People may not like to change their religious forms at the command of the State; but when their religion consists in forms, and the right of the Government to interfere in matters of religion is granted, they have no more reason to complain of any change that may be made, than they have to complain of any other political action. They must submit to it till they can induce the law-makers to make another change.

But the case is far different with the Christian religion. No man can accept or reject that at the wish or command of another. It is the very life of the man. A man cannot change the colour of his skin, or the state of his health, at the decree of a court. An Act of Parliament cannot remove

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poison from the blood; and a man who is burning up with fever cannot cool his blood and diminish the rapidity of its flow, at the command even of the king. Even so cannot the real religion of Jesus Christ be changed at the will of another.

"The Sign of the Cross" The Present Truth 12, 14.

E. J. Waggoner

As long as the early believers kept the faith and preached the Word they could well call the heathen world to come away from the elaborate ritual of the false worship to the simplicity of the life of faith. The mystery of the Gospel was altogether the mystery of a Divine power working in the life, and not in mysterious ceremonies.

But just as soon as there came the falling away, and the Word was first taken by the multitude of professed teachers and believers, there began to come in those adaptations of the pagan forms which are apparent to this day. Cardinal Newman, speaking of these times, said:-

The rulers of the Church from early times were prepared, should the occasion arise, to adopt, or imitate, or sanction the existing rites and customs of the populace, as well as the philosophy of the educated classes. . . . We are told in various ways by Eusebius that Constantine, in order to recommend the new religion to the heathen, transferred into it the outward ornaments to which they had been accustomed in their own.

The use which the Catholic Church has made of the sign of the cross is supposed by many to have originated in a pious commemoration of the Saviour's death. It is far otherwise, however, and hence it has been that where the wooden cross and the sign of the cross are most in evidence, the preaching of the Cross indeed is unknown. This Catholic use of the emblem is one of the things which were adopted to please the heathen, as the Cardinal says. A work entitled "Paganism Surviving in Christianity," by Dr. A. H. Lewis, gives the following sketch of the use of the sign of the cross in ancient times:-

A PAGAN SURVIVAL

Comparatively few readers realise that the cross was of heathen origin, and a religious symbol of the lowest order, and that it was not adopted as the symbol of Christianity until the Church was well paganised. Its origin lies in the shadows of the prehistoric period. It was a religious symbol in the Asiatic, Egyptian, Grecian, Roman, Druidic, and Central American heathenism. It originated in the lowest department of sun-worship cultus. Ishtar, the Assyrian Venus, was represented as holding a staff, the upper end of which was in the form of a Latin cross. The worship of Ishtar was one of the darkest features of the Babylonian religion. It was conducted with lacivious rites which may not be named. It corrupted the Hebrews on every side. We find it with other forms of sun-worship, polluting the temple itself, and sharply condemned by the prophet of Jehovah. See Eze. viii. 14-18.

Tammuz was the young and beautiful sun-god, the bridegroom of Ishtar who bore the cross-crowned sceptre; and this mourning for him was associated with gross obscenity.

Another form of this same worship is condemned by Jeremiah thus:-

"Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings to other gods, that they may provoke me to anger."

There is evidence to show that these cakes were marked with one form of the cross, the Greek tau (T). In later times the Greeks offered cakes thus marked to Bacchus, in connection with the vilest orgies. Specimens of these are found at Herculaneum. Similar ones have been found in the catacombs. The "hot cross-bun" is the lineal descendant of the tau (T)-marked cakes of the obscene sun-worship cultus. Its association with Friday-day of Ishtar, and Venus, Frega-is a remnant of paganism, although later efforts to Christianise it have associated it with "Good Friday."

The cross appears in the Assyrian history, worn as a religious emblem by the priest-king, Samsi-lul, son of Shalamanezar, and also by Assur-Nazir-Pal. The specimens may be seen in the British Museum. It is the Greek cross, and identical with the "pectoral cross" worn by the Pope, and seen on altar-cloths at the present day. Priority of possession is several thousand years in favour of the Assyrian. The same style of crosses are found in the Etruscan Department of the Vatican Museum at Rome. They are on the breasts-painted-of certain large Etruscan male figures, and are taken from mural decorations in ancient Etruscan burial-places. Similar "pectoral" crosses may be seen also in the British Museum on two figures from Thebes, in the Egyptian Hail. They date from about 1100 B.C., and represent men of Asia bringing tribute. In Wilkinson's Ancient Egypt the same cross may be seen on the breast of two warriors. There is a figure of the youthful Bacchus, taken from an ancient vase, with which antiquarians are familiar, holding a cup and fennel branch-a figure of much beauty. The head-dress is a band with crosses as of Horus. A portion of the band falls from the head, and with its fringe and single cross, if lengthened, would form a modern "stole."

The cross is also found on a Greek pottery, dating from 700 to 500 B.C. It appears in relics of the Latin people of the same period. It was used as a symbol in Buddhism in India long before the time of Christ. It is also found in Thibet, Scandinavia, and other parts of northern Europe.

That the cross was extensively known and used before the Christian era is shown by an admirable article in the Edinburg Review of October, 1870, on the Pre-Christian Cross. The author of the article claims to have collected nearly two hundred varieties of the cross, in its heathen form. He speaks of it as follows:-

From the dawn of organised paganism in the Eastern world, to the final establishment of Christianity in the Western, the cross was undoubtedly the commonest and most sacred of symbolical monuments, and to a remarkable extent it is so still in almost every land where that of Calvary is unrecognised or unknown. Apart from any distinctions or social or intellectual superiority of caste, colour, nationality, or location in either hemisphere it appears to have been the aboriginal possession of every people of antiquity-the elastic girdle, so to say, which embraced the most widely separated heathen communities, the most significant token of universal brotherhood, the principal point of contact in every system of pagan mythology, to which all the families of mankind were severally and irresistibly drawn, and by which their common descent was emphatically expressed. . . . Of the several varieties of the Cross still in vogue as national or ecclesiastical emblems in this and other European States, and distinguished by the familiar appellations of St. George, St. Andrew, the Maltese, the Greek, the Latin, etc., there is not one amongst them the existence of which may not be traced to the remotest antiquity.

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 14.

E. J. Waggoner

-Nearly 10,000 dogs have been removed from the London streets within a month.

-To add to the general reign of violence in Africa the Matabele's have revolted and massacred a number of whites.

-During the year the lifeboats saved 533 lives, or 39,354 since the foundation of the institution seventy-two years ago.

-Messrs. Cook, the tourist company, are trans-porting the troops of the Soudan expedition as far as they go by the Nile.

-Punctuation was first used in literature in the year 1520. Before that time wordsandsentenceswereputtogetherlikethis.

-Twice within a month the Spanish troops have fought each other in the Cuban campaign, each troop mistaking the other for the insurgents.

-Some of the Arab sheiks in the Upper Nile region are volunteering to form their tribesmen into auxiliary corps to assist the Egyptian batallions who are moving upon Dongola.

-It is reported that several coal mines in the North of England will be shut down soon. In one large mine, whose workings affect 5,000 people the loss for the year is stated at $15,000.

-The Chinese are said to be swarming into Manchuria and Central Asia, clearing forest lands and reducing the wilderness to cultivation. On all this Russia is keeping its eye, and pressing the Siberian railway on to meet it.

-Some of the new photographs now published show the whole of the body of a child, in which all the bones appear in clear relief. The use which such photographs will be in case of fracture or malformation is at once apparent.

-An order has been promulgated in Korea that all queues must be cut. The people object, says a newspaper, and the curious spectacle is being displayed of policemen with scissors catching people in the streets and cutting off their pig-tails.

-The Emperor and Empress of Russia will make their State entry into Moscow on May 22, and the coronation will take place four days later. The first three days will be spent by the Czar and Czarina in the veneration of relics and icons, the offering of prayers at the tombs of imperial ancestors, and the reception of ambassadors. Thousands of soldiers are under orders to take part in the Moscow celebrations, and to guard against possible Nihilist attacks.

-A list of the books condemned by the college for examining new publications throughout Christendom would be a strange catalogue. The best and worst books of the world appear side by side in the Index. The following is the clause in the Papal rescript on this subject. "Wherefore let no one henceforward, of whatever rank or condition, venture to publish in any place or language, or to read if published, the aforesaid works thus condemned and proscribed, but let him be bound to hand them over to the ordinaries of the place, or to the inquisitors of Heresy, under the penalties laid down in the Index of Forbidden Books."

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 14.

E. J. Waggoner

A Norwich clergyman says that among the working people in the towns "not one woman of them in ten ever goes to church, and not one man in fifty."

"The whole nation of England," says a Church paper, "spends less in the year on Foreign Missions than it takes to build one ironclad."

A morning paper the other day referred to the present time as "these exciting and adventurous days when each morning brings a fresh international sensation."

It is stated that Catholic dealers have imported a larger number of palms this year than usual, owing to the general observance of "Palm Sunday" by the churches of the Establishment.

The Church Times reproaches the Roman Catholics with lack of ardour in reciprocating the advances of the Church of England. "Reunion has not a fair chance," it says, "while the approaches are all on one side, and the coolness on the other."

"A great stir has been caused in Kent, especially among tobacconists, news-venders, and keepers of sweet shops," according to the newspapers, "by the issue of an order by the chief constable to enforce the old Lord's Day Observance Act, passed in the reign of Charles II."

In the House of Lords last week the Archbishop of York moved the second reading of a bill regulating the opening of public-houses on Sunday. In his speech he said that previous measures had provided for the total closing of public-houses on "the Lord's day," as he called it; but he said that he could not in conscience support such a measure, so long as he could obtain for himself and family, on the previous day, the stimulants they required. His bill provided for one hour's opening in the day-time, but he expressed himself as willing to insert a provision enabling public-houses to open an hour in the evening also. The Bishop of Manchester said that he could vote for the bill only on the ground that the houses should be open for an hour on Sunday evening. It is evident that these Church dignitaries do not believe that there is any real sacredness about the Sunday. They well know that it is not the Sabbath of the Lord.

"We don't wonder," says the Chronicle, "that the Peace Society has issued an 'appeal to the people of the United Kingdom' in face of the war estimates of this country and of Europe. Here are some of the facts it sets forth:-

ANNUAL COST OF THE ARMIES AND NAVIES OF EUROPE
1869. 1896.
£116,000,000 £230,000,000
NATIONAL DEBTS OF EUROPE
1872. 1896.
£4,680,000,000 £6,000,000,000
OUR NAVAL ESTIMATES
1881. 1896.
£10,500,000 £21,800,000

"As the peace Society points out, all the nations concerned in this reckless race of armaments are relatively in the same position as they were before it began."

The chairman at the recent annual meeting of the "Workingmen's Lord's Day Rest Association," a member of Parliament, said that "Sunday came not from Governments or Parliament, but was a Divine institution." If they really believe this, why do these societies not preach the Word which they say establishes the institution instead of spending their strength trying to get courts and Parliament to enforce its observance?

"It is seventy years since the first railway in the world was finished," says a newspaper, "and now some 400,000 miles are in existence, enough to make a dozen girdles round the earth, with a few to spare." The world makes history rapidly in these days. Everything is going at railway speed. But there is something quicker than that, and that is the power of God; and when the Lord says of the final calling of His people that "He will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness; because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth," we may know that He will hasten forward the Gospel of His kingdom that is to be preached as a witness to all nations ere the end comes. Let no one join in the cry of the evil servant, "My Lord delayeth His coming."

In the beginning man was crowned king of this earth, with all things subject to him. "But now we see not yet all things put under him." Heb. ii. 8. Statistics for the year 1894 indicate that in India in that year 21,538 human beings were destroyed by snakes, and 2,893 more by wild beasts.

From Tidernes Tegn (The Signs of the Times) published in Christiania, we learn that during the last year canvassers for Seventh-day Adventist publications delivered books in Scandinavia to the value of Kr. 114,700, or more than ?6,350 one of the principal books sold was, Den Store Strid, ("The Great Controversy"), by Mrs. E. G. White. Let the good work go on.

"In a report presented to our Parliament in 1874," says the English Churchman, "it was shown that in every country in Europe monastic and conventual establishments are subjected to restriction and supervision, with the exception of Great Britain. Consequently, in no country in the world, probably, have convents more rapidly multiplied than in this; so much so, that during the past forty years they have increased from fifty to sixty to over 500."

A newspaper says that Emperor Menelik, of Abyssinia, "anxious to introduce all the latest resources of civilisation into his country," has "European artillery and rifles, European drill instructors and gunners." Europe stands for civilisation, and all the Powers profess a desire to see civilisation introduced into Africa. Who shall say that the Abyssinians have not proved themselves apt pupils?

"What to Follow" The Present Truth 12, 14.

E. J. Waggoner

What to Follow.-"Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." Heb. xii. 14. "Follow after charity." 1 Cor. xiv. 1. "Be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises." Heb. vi. 12. "Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children." Eph. v. 1.

April 9, 1896

"Front Page" The Present Truth 12, 15.

E. J. Waggoner

"By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth. . . . For He spake, and it was; He commanded, and it stood fast." Ps. xxxiii. 6-9.

It is very simple, and most wonderful because of its very simplicity. Well may we all exclaim, "What a word is this!"

"Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." Heb. xi. 3. How do we know how the worlds were made? By faith. Faith gives knowledge. That is its special work.

Knowledge gained by faith is not vague and uncertain, but is the most absolutely certain of any knowledge. In fact, there is no real knowledge that does not spring from faith. Knowledge that comes in any other way is speculation. The unbelieving soul regards faith as folly, but the faithful soul knows that faith makes for it a solid foundation. Whoever will believe may know.

The knowledge of the alphabet is one of the most common things in the world. It lies at the very foundation of all learning. No one ridicules the child for saying that he knows the letters of the alphabet, and for declaring most positively, in spite of all contradiction, that "A" is "A." And yet he knows that only by faith. He has never investigated the subject for himself; he has accepted the statement of his teacher.

The teacher himself had to learn the alphabet in the same way-by faith. It was not demonstrated to him that "A" is "A." It could not have been. If he had refused to believe the fact till it was demonstrated to him, he never would have learned to read. He had to accept the fact by faith, and then it would prove itself true under every circumstance. There is nothing of which people are more absolutely sure than they are of the letters of the alphabet, and there is nothing for which they are more absolutely dependent on faith.

Now, just as the child learns the alphabet, so we learn the truth of God. Whoever receives the kingdom of heaven must receive it as a little child. By faith we learn to know Jesus Christ, who is the Alpha and the Omega-the entire alphabet of God.

He who believes the simple statement of the Bible, concerning creation, may know for a certainty that God did create the heaven and earth by the power of His Word. The fact that some unbeliever doubts this, and thinks that it is foolish, does not shake his knowledge, nor prove that he does not know it, any more than our knowledge of the alphabet is shaken or disproved by some other person's ignorance of it.

"By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth." During recent years some very interesting experiments have been made, showing one of the properties of vocal sounds in the production of voice pictures.

In a magazine article a lady vocalist described her discovery of this power of the voice a few years ago. She had employed a simple device to test the intensities of vocal sounds. It was

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an elastic membrane stretched over the mouth of a receiver, into which receiver the voice was introduced by the means of a wide-mouthed tube. On this membrane sand or fine powder was sprinkled.

It was found that upon singing into the tube the powder was gently agitated by the vibrations of the membrane, which vibrations corresponded to those of the voice, differing according to the pitch and intensity of the sound. This, of course, was what might be expected. But the wonder was that in every instance the agitation produced the shape of some plant or flower, or even of the lower forms of animal life. Something similar to this may be seen when one breathes upon the window pane in frosty weather.

VOICE FORMS

It was found that when the powder was dry it would not retain the form after the vibration of the voice had ceased. So the expedient was adopted of slightly moistening it, when the various shapes could be retained and photographed. Specimens of these voice forms may be seen on the preceding page.

This shows that the breath, as it comes from the lungs, has the shape of living things, and to the singer suggested a thought which he thus expresses:-

Closing now my brief sketch of these voice-figures, as I have observed them, I would add that my experiments have been made as a vocalist, using my own voice as the instrument of investigation; and I must leave it for others more acquainted with natural science to adjust the accordance of these appearances with facts and laws already known. Yet, passing from one stage to another of these inquiries, question after question has presented itself to me, until I have continually felt myself standing before mystery, in great part hidden, although some glimpses seem revealed. And I must say, besides, that as day by day I have gone singing into shape these peculiar forms, and, stepping out of doors, have seen their parallels living in the flowers, ferns, and trees around me; and, again, as I have watched the little heaps in the formation of the floral figures gather themselves up, and then shoot out their petals, just as a flower springs from the swollen bud-the hope has come to me that these humble experiments may afford some suggestions in regard to Nature's production of her own beautiful forms, and may thereby aid, in some slight degree, the revelation of yet another link in the great chain of the organised universe that, we are told in Holy Writ, took its shape at the voice of God.

This is not given as an example of how the Lord spoke the earth into existence in the beginning, for we cannot know how He did it, but it will serve to help us to grasp the fact. Man is made in the image of God, but he has no creative power. In his breath there can be only the forms of living things; but in the breath of God there are not only the forms, but the very living things themselves, for He is the living God, and with Him is "the fountain of life." When He speaks, the word which names the thing contains the very thing itself. Whatever the word describes exists in living form in that word.

THE THING SPOKEN IN THE WORD ITSELF

This is indicated by the words of the Apostle Paul concerning God, that He "calleth those things which be not as though they were." This is an attribute of Divinity alone. If a man calls a thing that is not as though it were, it is a lie. But God does so, and He cannot lie. How is this? Simply because that when He calls a thing by name, or says that a thing will be, it already exists, even though it cannot be seen. The thing is in His word. When He names a thing that previously had no existence, that instant the thing exists, for His word forms it as it names it.

Now see how firm a foundation is given the believing one who knows that all things were created by the word of God, and that when God speaks the thing named exists, full of life. The Psalmist says, "I will hear what God the Lord will speak; for He will speak peace unto His people, and to His saints." Ps. lxxxv. 8. He speaks peace through the Divine word, "For He is our peace." Eph. ii. 14. But peace means righteousness, for we read, "Great peace have they which love Thy law: and nothing shall offend them," Ps. cxix. 165, or cause them to stumble. And again, "O that thou hadst hearkened to My commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea." Isa. xlviii. 18.

Then it must be that God speaks righteousness when He speaks peace. And so it is, for again we read:-

"But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe; for there is no difference; for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time His righteousness; that He might be just, and the Justifier of Him which believeth in Jesus." Rom. iii. 21-26.

Notice that man is declared to have no righteousness. "There is none that doeth good, no, not one." Rom. iii. 12. No one has anything in him out of which righteousness can be made. Then the righteousness of God is put, literally, into and upon all that believe. And how is this accomplished? God declares His righteousness upon the one who believes.

The word of God which speaks righteousness has the righteousness itself in it, and as soon as the sinner believes, and receives that word into his own heart by faith, that moment he has the righteousness of God in his heart; and since out of the heart are the issues of life, it follows that a new life is thus begun in him; and that life is a life of obedience to the commandments of God. Thus faith is indeed the substance of things hoped for; because faith appropriates the word of God, and the word of God is substance.

"The True Reformation Spirit" The Present Truth 12, 15.

E. J. Waggoner

Writing of Martin Luther, and the mighty reformation of which he was the instrument through his preaching of the truth that "the just shall live by faith," Prof. Adolph Harnack, of Berlin, says:-

But we must not forget that it was four hundred years ago when Luther taught. The convenient belief that he thought out everything for us, and that we can rest on his teaching, is a foolish one. The greatest hero is always only a finisher for the past; as regards the future he is but a beginner. He who does not understand Luther so that he learns from him the spirit with which to solve the problems and lessons, and so that he endeavours to continue the Reformer's work, understands him falsely. The prophets have given to us, not that we should build their graves, but that we should inflame our hearts through their faith and their courage.

And the same is true of every reformer. The best of men are fallible; therefore he who copies any man, is sure to fall into error. Luther was a reformer only as he preached the Word. The true followers of the reformers are those who are loyal to that Word, even though it lead them as far in advance of the reformers as the reformers were in advance of the mass of men in their day.

"Human Nature's Code of Morality" The Present Truth 12, 15.

E. J. Waggoner

To the superior person the faults of another are unpardonable, while the same vices in himself are quite excusable. So it very often happens that the morality of an act is made to depend altogether upon whether it was committed by a "Christian" or a heathen, a white or a black man.

An amusing instance of this fictitious distinction so commonly made appears in an illustrated weekly journal, in the accounts of the experiences of two travellers who were ascending the Tigris in a steam launch and exploring the ruins of Nineveh. They found a delightful stretch of country along the Tigris, and one enthusiastically proposed forming a colony of friends and making the region their home.

"But the Turk," said I. "You forget the Turk."

"Well, the Turk isn't going to stay here much longer," Cardoner rejoined. "His betters will want this fine country, and take it, too, without asking his leave."

A few days after, they are discussing the ancient dwellers in this land of dead empires, and the same one who approves of making the present dwellers give way to their "betters" thus moralises on the superior peoples of distant days, who took what they wanted, without asking leave:-

"Those old kings were simply splendid fighting brutes! Their expeditions and conquests were merely raids in quest of plunder. Nineveh and Babylon were built upon spoils of other countries and the unpaid labour of captives. The world would despise and condemn such conquests now. . . . As for military power-why, one brigand of English infantry would have routed Sargon's whole army!"

"Europe To-day" The Present Truth 12, 15.

E. J. Waggoner

In the current Pearson's Magazine, Mr. Archibald Forbes, the war correspondent, has an article on the way in which the frontiers of European countries are guarded. Each country keeps armed patrols watching day and night, and the boundary lines in some parts are a little less than continuous fortifications. Thus it is that "Christian" nations in these times show that they have no confidence in one another's talk of peace and friendship. Mr. Forbes says:-

To-day the dullest ear cannot but hear the brooding muttering of the impending rupture of the world's peace. Everywhere the earth sullenly echoes to the tramp of armed men. These millions of soldiers belonging to the five great Powers of Continental Europe are standing at attention, while the inevitable stroke of war lowers nearer and more near.

And this vast mass of men, with weapons in their hands, is but what, surely in grim mockery, is termed the "peace strength" of the armies of the five great Powers. In less than a month devoted to mobilisation those three millions constituting the so-called "peace strength" of the armament of the Powers, can swell into a "war strength" amounting to the stupendous total of ten and a half millions of armed men, with the terrible complement of nearly 18,000 guns.

Aside from this the lesser Powers would put in another million men. War is the great thought before all of Europe. May the Lord hasten the proclamation of the Gospel amongst the people while yet there is peace. For this the winds of strife are being held in check (Rev. vii. 1-3). The situation ought to arouse every believer to work while it is yet day.

"God's Foreknowledge" The Present Truth 12, 15.

E. J. Waggoner

Many refuse to take the gift of salvation, making the excuse that God knows whether they will be lost or saved, and so no choice of theirs can alter their destiny. But in that attitude they do the very thing they profess they are not doing-they choose not to be saved, and frustrate the grace of God. The only way in which men can be lost is to refuse to let the Lord save them, as He willeth not that any

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should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

If a man were famishing, and I should set food before him, it would be no excuse for his refusing it to plead that I knew or did not know he would accept it. I knew he was hungry, and offered the food and even pressed him to take it; but he refused it because I knew he wouldn't take it! Even if I could have foreknowledge of his extraordinary behaviour my knowledge would not be responsible for the failure to save the man's life, but his own refusal to eat.

God knows whether or not a man will accept the bread of heaven. But He constantly presses all men to eat of it. He tells them how good it is to awaken a desire for it, and He even plants the desire for good in every heart; so that in order not to be drawn round the Lord's table men must fight against Him. All may eat, He invites all, and if one does not eat it is because he, of his own choice, refuses to take what God presses upon him.

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 15.

E. J. Waggoner

-A Gatling gun fires 5,000 shots a minute.

-The expenses of the Vatican are estimated at ?1,000 per day.

-It is asserted that two-thirds of the grown male population of the globe either smoke or chew tobacco.

-It is stated that only twenty-five of the scores of companies formed to mine gold in South Africa have yet paid dividends.

-Italy had another earthquake shock last week, as though to remind the proud "Eternal City" that this earth is a very unstable foundation.

-The total increase of population in Europe during the last ten years is 29,922,800! This is an explanation of the "scramble for Africa."

-The firemen of the Vienna brigade struck last week, being dissatisfied with their low wage. About 300 struck, and their places were taken by soldiers.

-In Austria the appeal for the higher education of woman has been denied, while in Hungary they have been given free admission to the highest institutions of learning.

-In France, hospitals for infectious diseases are furnished with telephones, so that the sick may converse with their friends without danger of communicating disease.

-The oldest medical recipe known was lately published by a French paper. It was in use four thousand years ago, and was prepared for an Egyptian queen. The ingredients were dogs' paws and asses' hoofs, boiled with dates in olive oil.

-The Russian press is somewhat exercised in mind over the strides which Roumania is taking in becoming a military and naval power. Large orders have been given by this little Balkan State few gunboats, and a naval station is being equipped on the Black Sea.

-The Abyssinian Emperor retired to his capital to spend Easter. His army are going into quarters for the rainy season, and it is said the Italians will be obliged to withdraw to Massowah, on the coast, until the wet season is over. The Abyssinians still hold over 2,000 Italians as prisoners.

-The brother of Lobengula, the late Matabele chief, is believed to have been active in stirring up the Matabele rising. The savages see their lands being settled by the whites, and doubtless have planned one last effort to beat back the tide of immigration. The Transvaal authorities have offered to supply men to aid in putting down the rising.

-The Khalifa, the successor of the Mahdi, has proclaimed a "holy war" against infidels, and the Dervishers are gathering to resist the Nile expedition. It is thought probable that inter-tribal troubles and dissatisfaction with the Khalifa's despotic rule will be forgotten, and the whole strength of the Soudan will rally to the conflict. By the end of this week the expedition is expected to reach Wady Haifa, 800 miles from Cairo.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 15.

E. J. Waggoner

It is significant of the militarism of the age that the highest income in all Prussia should be that of Herr Krupp, the great gun-maker of Essen.

Every Easter season sees more and more attention being given in Protestant churches generally to celebrations that imitate more or less the Roman Catholic ceremonials. The leaven of Romanism is leavening the whole lump.

The anti-Semitic party in Austria, of whose doings we so often read in the newspapers, demand that Jewish children shall be excluded from all the public schools, and that no Protestant shall be allowed as teachers. They demand that the school shall be put in the hands of the Roman Catholic clergy. The party is a very strong one.

Lord Halifax, president of the English Church Union, declares in the current Pall Mall Magazine that affairs are making for reunion, and that the Papacy is the natural leader of the religious world. The Papacy is certainly ready to lead, and greater willingness to follow is manifested in many quarters than in former times.

According to the editor of South Africa, the drink supplied to the natives in the canteens of the Transvaal, and doubtless in many other parts, is very largely a compound of bluestone, cayenne pepper, tobacco-juice, and other ingredients. This soon ruins those who consume it, and is responsible for most of the crimes they commit. Perverted nature has taught nearly every native tribe how to make some intoxicating drink, but it takes a civilised depravity to devise the most desperately wicked concoctions.

One of our American exchanges brings the news that five Seventh-day Adventists were recently tried in Tennessee for working on their farms on Sunday. One was sentenced to just over eight months' imprisonment, the cases of the others being adjourned. In Ontario, Canada, three others of our friends have been convicted of violating the Sunday law, and are doubtless now serving their terms of imprisonment, which run from forty to sixty days. Is it not time that those who love the Word should understand what these things mean?

For many years a strong religious organisation in the United States has been working for an amendment to the national constitution recognising "the Lord Jesus Christ as the ruler of nations, and His revealed will as authority in civil affairs." Many favour it as a pious thing to work for, seemingly ignorant of the desperate wickedness involved in it. Recently the party had a hearing before a Congressional committee in Washington, and found the congressmen scarcely ready to turn the Congress into a theological debating club, with power to enforce the doctrinal decisions of the majority. But by combining to drive Congress into all manner of Sunday legislation the ecclesiastical leaders in the movement are bringing the Government nearer and nearer to the point where it will be under the full control of these short-sighted and ambitious clergy, who are doing Rome's work in the very spirit of the bishops of the fourth century.

A recent decision of a Justice in Canada declares that Sunday street cars are lawful in every city, and that railways, both electric and steam, in all parts of the province of Ontario, may carry passengers any distance for any purpose on Sunday, on the ground of their being travellers. The Ontario "Lord's Day Alliance" regards this threatened Sunday railway traffic as a grave danger, and fears that the decision will open the door to many other forms of Sunday "desecration." It requests the earnest support of all Christian men, both to reverse the decision, and to secure additional and more complete legislation for the protection of Sunday. They are not satisfied with what they now have, although three ministers of the Gospel are even now in gaol for keeping the Sabbath day according to the commandment, and doing quiet labour on Sunday. One would think that the most devoted worshipper of "the venerable day of the sun" ought to be content.

A few weeks ago we stated that the organ of our Society in Germany had been prohibited from entering Russia, thus being shut away from the many Germans in the Czar's empire. It now transpires that the prohibition was secured, not by the State Church authorities, but by the efforts of the Lutheran Church officials, who thus appeal to the very power from which they themselves have suffered in order to shut away from this people the Bible truths presented in the literature. It shows how widely those bearing the Protestant name may depart from Protestant principles. But the effort will fail of its purpose; for some other way will be found to do the work, and those Lutheran Germans who want to follow the Word will be brought to its light.

"I couldn't live if I should do it," is a very common saying of those who are convinced of their duty to serve the Lord, and keep His Sabbath. And they really think so, forgetting that they have lived all their lives thus far, only by the mercy of the Lord. Everybody is wholly dependent on the Lord for life; now if the Lord keeps us alive when we are ignoring Him, isn't it reasonable to suppose that He will continue His care of us when we acknowledge Him, and give ourselves to His service? Here is the promise: "The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish." Prov. x. 3.

The Secretary of the United Kingdom alliance has demonstrated from the Inland Revenue returns that from to 15 to 20 per cent. more alcohol is consumed per head now than in the "heavy drinking days" of fifty years ago. It is doubtless a fact that people who never get drunk are injured by intoxicating liquors fully as much as those who are known as drunkards.

"Christ Is Risen" The Present Truth 12, 15.

E. J. Waggoner

Christ Is Risen.-Paul tells how he counted all things as nothing in order that he might be found in Christ and "know Him, and the power of His resurrection." That is how Paul knew that Jesus was alive from the dead-the power that raised Jesus from the tomb was working in the apostle's life day by day. "If the Spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you." Rom. viii. 11. This is the continual memorial of the resurrection.

April 16, 1896

"Front Page" The Present Truth 12, 16.

E. J. Waggoner

"Finally, brethren, pray for us, . . . that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked man; for all men have not faith." 2 Thess. iii. 1, 2.

From this we learn that the unreasonable man is the man who has not faith. He is both unreasonable and wicked; for "whatsoever is not of faith is sin." Sin is unreasonable. In the Bible sinners are characterised as foolish persons. "The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding." Job xxviii. 28.

"With the heart man believeth unto righteousness." Rom. x. 10. The heart, therefore, and not the head merely, determines whether one is or is not reasonable. Foolishness is more a matter of the heart than of the head. Some of the most foolish people have very good intellectual faculties, but a depraved heart deceives them.

"Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." Rom. x. 17. The connection between faith and the Word is shown in the text first quoted. "Pray for us, that the Word of God may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you; and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men; for all men have not faith."

The unreasonable and wicked man is the man who has not faith; and the man who has not faith is the man who does not accept God's Word without question. The really reasonable man is not the one who can argue every point, and can answer every question out of his own head, but the man who believes God. An unlettered ploughboy may thus have more right reason than a cultured philosopher.

"Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord." Isa. i. 18. How often that text is used to justify strife and debate and quibbling over the Word of God. Many people take it as though it read, "Come now, and let us argue together, saith the Lord."

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No; it says, "Let us reason together;" and when the Lord begins to talk, the most reasonable thing for men to do is to keep still, except as he responds, Amen.

The remaining portion of the text shows that this is all that is expected of man in reasoning with the Lord. He continues, "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land; but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." Isa. i. 18-20.

Now what can anybody say to that?-Only that he believes and accepts it, or that he does not. To say the latter is to say that God is a liar, and that is the height of folly. Manifestly, therefore, when the Lord calls us to come and reason together with Him, He means us to listen with reverent humility, and to except what He says without any gainsaying.

Mind that it is not our conception of what God means, that we are to accept. That would be simply to set up our wisdom in opposition to God's, which is the height of presumptuous folly. It is to say that we cannot venture to accept anything from the Lord without first submitting it to the test of our superior judgment. But God's mind is not to be measured by man's. He is "able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think." Eph. iii. 20. What God is able to do, that He does. He is infinite, and there is not a word or an act of God that does not contain more than the mind of the wisest man can fathom. What impudent folly, then, to presume to pass God's word through the sieve of our feeble intellect before accepting it!

Nicodemus started in on that line with the Lord. When Jesus spoke about the new birth, he asked, "How can these things be?" and endeavoured to show that the thing was impossible. He afterwards, however, learned wisdom by attending to the Word. When Jesus spoke about the necessity of eating His flesh, the Jews asked, "How can this man give us His flesh to eat?" They thought that that question settled the matter.

Notice that pure human reasoning, as expressed in the preceding questions, is doubt. It is negative. It does not build up anything, but only endeavours to tear down and obstruct. It tends to make more narrow field of vision that one already has. But God's thoughts are infinite, and when they are received in simple faith, without any attempt to dissect and analyse them, they expand the mind. There is no limit to the development of the mind that reasons according to the Lord's plan.

The Word is given to all; it carries its own credentials, so that faith comes by it; therefore faith is given to all. The only reason why any men have not faith is that they have not kept it. It is both sword and shield-a mighty weapon. "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; casting down imaginations (or reasonings, margin), and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." 2 Cor. x. 4, 5.

"Germany and the Vatican" The Present Truth 12, 16.

E. J. Waggoner

It is interesting to note the workings of the Papacy and its increasing influence in the councils of the nations which at one time were supposed to have broken for ever from alliance with Rome. Rome has merely bided her time, and the natural workings of human nature have been bringing back the world to that system which stands as the representative of the religion of self and self-salvation. Describing the system under the figure of a woman intriguing with the kings and rulers of the earth, the prophet says the woman represents "the great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth."

Germany was at one time supposed to have for ever broken with the Vatican. But Germany forgot that it was the power of the Word that dealt the Papacy such a blow in Luther's day, and that what was set free by the Word could not be kept free by any political power. The Reformation in Germany received its fatal check for the time when the princes thought to "protect" the evangelical faith, and when, in order to know what that faith was, it was drawn up according to human interpretations and established in lifeless creeds or confessions. From that time on, the leaven of papal principles has been working in Germany, and the Vatican now has a very tender regard for the erstwhile rebellious land of Luther.

Years ago Prince Bismarck declared that he would never "go to Canossa," referring to the humiliating submission of Henry IV. to the Vatican. But not many years after his boast he made his submission, after the fashion of modern diplomacy, and the present rulers of Germany are being drawn into still closer relations with "that great city." Last week the Chronicle's Rome correspondent said:-

I understand that the members of the Triple Alliance, and Germany in particular, are making every effort to bring about a good understanding with the Vatican, with a view to counterbalancing French and Russian influence. It is believed that Germany, in view of the approaching conclave, wishes to prepare for the election of a Pope favourable to her interests. The meeting of the Kaiser at Naples with Cardinal San Felice, and the visit of Prince Henry to the Vatican are regarded as signifying that the Pope is much more disposed for a rapprochement with Germany, and is greatly irritated by the anti-clerical attitude of the Bourgeois Cabinet.

"Coming Because He Loves" The Present Truth 12, 16.

E. J. Waggoner

"Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that His hour was come that He should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end." John xiii. 1. The same chapter recounts how He showed His loved by washing the disciples' feet, and a few hours later He showed it by His death on the cross.

When one loves others so much that it is a joy to serve them and to die for them, one would desire above all things to be with those beloved. And so it is with our Lord. He said to these simple men whom He had just served, "I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." And He says it to "all them also that love His appearing." He wants us to be with Him, and He is hastening the time of His coming. How this wonderful love should purify and lead to the obedience of faith. See 1 John iii. 1-5.

"Diamonds Cut Out of Stone" The Present Truth 12, 16.

E. J. Waggoner

As in nature, as in art, so in grace; it is rough treatment that gives souls, as well as stones, their luster. The more the diamond is cut, the brighter it sparkles; and in what seems hard dealing, there God has no end in view but to perfect His people.

"Forgetting Facts" The Present Truth 12, 16.

E. J. Waggoner

The general talk about courts of arbitration has led Cardinals Vaughan, Logue, and Gibbons, representing England, Ireland, and the United States, to issue an appeal in favour of such a court to settle quarrels among English-speaking races. They delicately hint that the Pope is already quite prepared to undertake the work of arbitrating, if the nations would only allow him to do so. "Such a court," the cardinals said, "existed for centuries, when the nations of Christendom were united in one faith. And have we not seen nations appeal to that same court for its judgment in our own day?"

We can well believe that the Papacy would like to umpire again. When one reads the history of those centuries during which that "court" existed its scarcely occurs to one that it was anything that made for peace. It was peace so long as the Papacy had its way over the souls of men, but war to the death whenever the sword and the torch and rack could be invoked against peoples who did not acknowledge the Papacy. And in present-day political affairs the influence of the Papacy has never been for peace whenever there was a chance to intrigue for the return of the temporal power. The Vatican still wants to be able to arm her papal troops, which were deprived of their arms when the Italians made Rome a part of United Italy.

It is astounding with what confidence modern Roman authorities-and often professedly Protestant writers as well-take it for granted that the world has forgotten all the bitter record of the Dark Ages, when the Church of Rome flourished with her own way. And it must be confessed that they are not without reason for their confidence. The great masses of the world give so little thought to principles of truth that they fail to understand that evil principles must always bear evil fruits. Just so, when the Papacy speaks for peace, we may know that it can only work for war, as it is itself a revolt against the Gospel of the Prince of Peace. It is because the nations have drank in of its spirit that "the nations are angry."

"Letter and Spirit" The Present Truth 12, 16.

E. J. Waggoner

"But now we are delivered from the law, being dead to that wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter." Rom. vii. 6, margin.

What is the thing in which we were held, and to which we are now dead?-The seventh chapter of Romans is but an expansion of the sixth chapter, where we read that we are "dead to sin" (verse 2), and that "he that is dead is freed from sin" (verse 7). "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Verse 11.

We are dead unto the sin which held us, because sin also is dead by Christ. "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, and that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin." Rom. vi. 6. And so "we are delivered from the law." It had been transgressed, and therefore it demanded our death; "for the wages of sin is death." Rom. vi. 23. But now that we are dead, it pursues us no further; it has executed the penalty on us, in Christ. "The law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth." When he is dead, there is nothing more that it can do to him.

"I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless, I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." Gal. ii. 20. That is a good reason why the vengeance of the law no longer pursues us. The man who committed the sin is dead, and the man who now lives is a "new man," walking "in newness of life." The old life was a life of sin; the "new man" is after God "created in righteousness and true holiness." Eph. iv. 22-24. Since "the new man has not transgressed the law, he is as a matter of course free.

But the law is not dead. It is as much alive as it ever was. The new man is free from it simply because he is walking in harmony with it. The new man is under as much obligation to keep the law as the old man was; the difference between them is that the new man does his duty, while the old man did not, and could not. The old man was "not subject to the law of God," being opposed to the Holy Spirit. The new man is alive through Christ, who died "that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Rom. viii. 4.

"If ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law." Gal. v. 18. But the verse last quoted tells us that "the righteousness of the law is fulfilled" in those who walk after the Spirit. Therefore we are taught most plainly that the only ones who are "not under the law" are those in whom the righteousness of the law is fulfilled. The transgressors of the law are the only ones who are "under the law." Those who are "delivered from the law" are the ones who are keeping it "in spirit and in truth."

This is shown in the statement that we are delivered from the law, in order "that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter." We still serve, but as free men, and not as slaves. It is a spiritual service, that is, a real service; for only that which is spiritual is real.

"For we know that the law is spiritual." Rom. vii. 14. It follows, therefore, that when we were serving in oldness of the letter, we were not really keeping the law; for since the law is spiritual, it necessarily requires spiritual service. So it is only when we are delivered from the law that we keep it.

UNLIKE HUMAN LAW

The common opinion in regard to the letter and the spirit of the law, is most erroneous. The error arises from supposing that the law of God is similar to human laws. It is quite common to speak of the spirit of a law made by man, when all that is meant is the intent of the law. Thus: No human law is perfect; its framers can not possibly foresee all the circumstances that may arise to be judged by it. Then, too, the language of the law may be obscure. So the judge often finds it necessary to decide what was the intent of the lawmakers. A man might be technically or literally a violator of a law, while still acting fully in harmony with the intent of its framers. This is what is meant by the mistaken use of the term "letter and spirit," as applied to human laws.

Now the great difference between the nature of human laws and the divine law is that there is no spirit to the former, while the latter is wholly spiritual. Spirit is life; but there is no life in human laws. They can not give life. No man can get anything more out of a human law than he puts into it. If men ignore any human law, then it is said to be "a dead letter." But it has no more life in itself when it is obeyed than when it is disregarded; the life is in the people, who make their acts conform to the words of the law.

The law of God is wholly different. It is alive whether people regard it or not. It is alive because it is spiritual. The man who serves in "the oldness of the letter" does not really serve at all, because, no matter how good his purpose, or how strong his endeavours, to keep the law, he is simply reproducing himself, and not the law. In trying to do what the law tells him to

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do, he is merely doing what his own nature allows him to do. While in a carnal state, he is "not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Rom. viii. 7.

"THE LAW IS LIFE"

But "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" (Rom. viii. 2) gives freedom from this bondage, so that "the righteousness of the law may be fulfilled in us." The real law is the life of God in Christ, and that gives life. What is termed "the letter" of the law of God is the verbal statement of the law. This is not the law itself, but only the form of it, as the apostle said the Jews had "the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law." Rom. ii. 20. The verbal statement of the law bears the same relation to the law itself that the photograph of a man has to the man himself. It is but the shadow.

A shadow is the exact image of the substance. The words of the Divine law, being "the form of knowledge and of the truth," might be compared to a statue, rather than to a photograph. It has the form and features, and differs from the reality only in having no life. So when we speak of the spirit of God's law, we mean the law itself, and not merely the intent of the law. The intent of the law may be learned from the words, since God is not subject to human limitations, but knows what is needed, and can say just what He means.

From the words of the law of God we may know exactly what we should do, for it is a perfect form. But it is only in Christ that we find the living substance. The law in Christ is not only living, but it gives life. It performs itself in those who submit to it, because it is God's own life. It is not less than the letter; it is not something different from the letter; but it is simply the living thing which the letter perfectly describes.

"In Australia" The Present Truth 12, 16.

E. J. Waggoner

The report of the late general meeting of the churches represented by our Society in Australia shows that a vigorous growth attends the work there. Formerly associated together under one Conference organisation, the field is now divided into three districts for better convenience in carrying on the evangelistic work in the various colonies. Not far from Sydney, New South Wales, a school is being built for the teaching and training of the youth and workers in Australia and New Zealand. And from Queensland in the north right round to West Australia workers and churches are scattered.

The book canvassers and colporteurs have had remarkable success in selling literature notwithstanding the "hard times" through which the colonies have passed during the past year or two. Our larger works, such as "Bible Readings," "Patriarchs and Prophets," and "Great Controversy" are sent out from our London house, but the smaller literature is printed in the field. We give herewith a cut of the printing-house in Melbourne, where the publications are prepared. Our friends publish two periodicals, the Bible Echo, weekly, and the Sentinel, monthly, the latter being specially devoted to the religious liberty issue, the demand for Sunday laws and other religious legislation being one of the signs of the times in Australia as in all the world.

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 16.

E. J. Waggoner

-The latest census gives Ireland a population of 4,704,750.

-It is said that the Government is building barracks at Malta for 30,000 men, in anticipation of events in the Mediterranean.

-During the recent drought in Australia it is said that over ten million sheep, 300,000 cattle, and 20,000 horses perished in New South Wales alone. The value of this stock is estimated at ?3,000,000.

-English bankers have offered the Italian Government ?20,000,000 sterling, which is said to be three times as much as is necessary to meet the expense of the Abyssinian campaign. As long as Italy can borrow she will be likely to continue spending money in her African venture.

-The Russian authorities are planning to spend ?4,000,000 sterling on the display in connection with the coronation of the Czar at Moscow next month. The riches and colour of the East and West are to unite in making it a display surpassing anything beheld in modern times.

-Recent statistics of Europe show that during the ten years past the population has increased by 30,000,000. Russia has added the most, 12 millions, in round numbers. Germany added 4? millions; Austria-Hungary, 3? millions Great Britain, 2? millions; Turkey, 1 million; while France has increased but 67,100. This increase which is crowding Europe accounts for the great demand for colonial expansion.

-In commercial circles the development of Japan's manufacturing power is watched with deep interest. Already she is beginning to export many things which she imported a few years ago, and with cheap labour and intelligent adaptation of Western machinery she promises to get a large share of the trade of the Orient. Wages run from nine to eighteen pence a day. Farm labourers get ninepence, women being paid the same as men.

-The Khalifa, the leader of the Dervishes, has issued a call for the massing of his tribesmen, and he expects to have 50,000 men ready for action when the time comes. Pilgrimages have been stopped and a war tax levied. He declares that he has no quarrel with the Egyptians, but with the "infidels" who are directing Egyptian all airs. Meanwhile the Egyptian forces are fortifying Akasheh and establishing stations along the lines of communication, getting ready for an advance in force after the hot season is past.

-A disease has been spreading among the cattle in Rhodesia, and it has been found necessary to kill large numbers to keep the pest from spreading. Some native hords have been killed, and it is thought that this is one of the causes of the Matabele rising. Some of the leading chiefs of the Matabele, and many friendly natives have come into the towns. The old chiefs say the young men could not be restrained. About eighty whites are reported to have been killed by attacking parties before the facts of the rising were known and they could seek shelter in the towns.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 16.

E. J. Waggoner

The Czar's present to the Shah of Persia-a field battery of Krupp guns, with ammunition-is very significant in view of Russia's increasing influence in the Near East.

Last week the Pope broke all papal precedents and traditions by addressing a letter to the Daily Chronicle in favour of courts of arbitration. We wonder if he would submit his claims to temporal sovereignty to impartial arbitration, and cease to endanger the peace of Europe by intrigues against the Italian Government in case the decision were against him.

"According to the census of the German Empire," says a newspaper, "the number of clergymen in the whole country is 30,250. Of these exactly 15,000 are Protestant and 15,250 are Catholic. These figures are remarkable, as the Protestants constitute two-thirds of the entire population." It means that the Roman Church is sparing no effort in the work of bringing back the land of Luther to the Catholic fold.

"The largest family of young people on earth," says a writer, "is Dr. Barnardo's. It is remarkable not only for quantity, but its peculiar quality. It is composed of five thousand 'nobody's children,' who stray from garrets and gutters into this family fold in London, Edinburgh, Ontario and Manitoba."

Very much attention is being given by Continental rulers to the next Papal Conclave, which must inevitably come erelong, as the present Pope is aging. We hear of various eligible cardinals being sounded as to their views politically, and France is showing some irritation at the keen interest which Germany is manifesting in the choice of a successor to Leo XIII. The next Pope, whoever he is, will be chosen not for any religious qualifications, but for his political influence. The whole thing is an intrigue for power, and out of it the Papacy will come with a firmer hold than ever upon the nations for the accomplishment of its own purpose of self-exaltation.

The Catholics say that they regard the aid to their schools proposed by the Government's Education Bill as a mere first instalment, and will not rest until their full demands are met. Like every attempt to settle religious controversy in the arena of politics-where such questions should never come-the present effort will settle nothing, and religious the education battle will continue to rage more fiercely than ever-all because Nonconformists, Anglican, and Catholic churches generally insist upon making the State a teacher of religion.

The Editor of the Christian writes to that paper from South Africa:-

In Cape Town the Seventh-day Adventists are actively propagating their doctrine, the tendency of which is to rob men of the Sabbath which God made for him, and to leave him without a day of rest, either first or seventh. I saw this to be actually the case at a town in America a few years ago.

It is strange how thoughtlessly the mind that looks at truth through ecclesiastical tradition puts darkness for light. To call the attention of men to the Word, and show that they have been robbed by the Papacy of "the Sabbath of the Lord," and the rest of the Lord, and the blessing which God put upon it for man, is said to be taking the Sabbath from men. It must have been a strange town where so many kept the Sabbath that there was no day of rest!

The Editor of our contemporary finds fault with the argument that many are forced to devise to escape the Sabbath truth, saying that it "would surely prove too much" and abolish the Sabbath altogether. So he attempts to give a by no means new or original argument to show that somehow the blessing that the Lord put upon the seventh day has got over to the first. It is the usual weak mystical argument, lacking the one thing needful, a "thus saith the Lord." The trouble with all of these efforts to account for the substitution of the first day of the week for the seventh is that-no matter how much mystical interpretations may be resorted to obscure the issue-the Word of God still says, "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." After all the sermons preached and books written to show that it is not, the Word still repeats, "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God."

Two great movements in the world are to be watched, the progress of each marking the approach of the end. When the Gospel of the kingdom shall have been preached as a witness to all nations the end will come. Matt. xxiv. 14. And when the revival of the Papacy shall enable her to say again as of old, "I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow," then "shall her plagues come in one day. . . for strong is the Lord that judgeth her." Rev. xviii. 7, 8. One is the "mystery of godliness" the other the "mystery of lawlessness." The latter perverts the law God in intrigues with the powers of earth to bring the people to its standard of lawlessness, while the former warns all peoples against worshipping the lawless one, and calls them to allegiance to the law of God.

In the general uprising in Matabeleland missionaries as well as others have been compelled to go into the towns. The press despatches from Buluwayo last week announced that "the members of the Adventist Mission, for whom some anxiety was felt, have now all been saved." Doubtless those fields of corn which the leader of the industrial Mission described in our columns last week will not be gathered. One cannot but feel sorry for the misguided natives engaged in the rising, who of course know nothing of the Gospel, and are fighting to drive back the white man who is coming into their land, and who too frequently does not come to do the native good.

The Lord gave some very simple directions about titles and precedence among His followers. But ecclesiasticism has so far changed the Divine order that a learned Catholic writer takes three columns of a newspaper to explain the ecclesiastical law of precedence in church ceremonies and social gatherings. There are sixteen grades of officers to be arranged after their order, and the ecclesiastical law seems to leave no room for the modest dignitary to take the lowest seat and wait for someone to invite him to "come up higher."

April 23, 1896

"The Man with a Grievance" The Present Truth 12, 17.

E. J. Waggoner

We all meet him now and then. He has a carefully compiled list of slights and grievances. Other peoples' faults are as personal affronts, whether they affect him directly or not, so fully has he become the embodiment of the aggrieved. Sometimes we cannot escape hearing portions of the list, and as his fond fancy lingers over details we seem to remember having heard the same thing years before. But the man with a grievance has a good memory-for small things, and a vivid imagination, which strengthens the evidence as the story is retold.

But it is of no use to suggest that imagination is a factor in the matter; it is all so real that he can appeal to his sincerity with perfect assurance, and the list has been so often repeated that he honestly believes it all. He lives by calling upon it. But what a death is the life! It is the law of nature that the vulture that lives on carrion becomes an unclean bird, and the mind that lives on grievances, real or imaginary, and on the sins of others, becomes a hold of evil and unhealthy thoughts. And the vision sees things distorted and inverted.

Whenever we meet an extreme example of this, we ought to learn a lesson; for this is what we are by nature. "We ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, . . . living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared" something better to think about was revealed. Yet the self is of sin, and sensitiveness which is sin. As Professor Drummond says, sensitiveness is "conceit with a hair-trigger," and is sprung on the slightest occasions if self is not continually crucified. Let us remember, then, that the feeling of sensitiveness is but the signal that self is not dead, and take warning before we, too, have a grievance.

"The All-Sufficient Life" The Present Truth 12, 17.

E. J. Waggoner

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ; even as He chose as in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before Him in love; having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved; in whom we have our redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace." Eph. i. 3-7, R.V.

"In Him."-Notice that everything is in Christ. In Him we have "all spiritual blessings." "For how many soever be the promises of God, in Him is the yea; wherefore also through Him is the Amen, unto the glory of God through us." 2 Cor. i. 20, R.V. In Him we were chosen, and in Him we are accepted. In Him we have forgiveness of sins. In Him we become sons, and in Him we are made "holy and without blame." "For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him." Col. ii. 9, 10.

"In Him was Life."-According to the most critical Greek text, John i. 3, 4 reads, as is indicated in the margin of the Revised Version, "All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made. That which hath been made was life in Him; and the life was the light of men." That is to say, everything exists by virtue of His life. "In Him were all things created; . . . and in Him all things consist." Col. i. 16, 17. "As the Father hath life in Himself, so hath

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He given to the Son to have life in Himself." John v. 26. That is why He is the "wisdom of God, and the power of God."

"Saved by His Life."-Christ is, by virtue of His kinship with men, "a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people." Heb. ii. 17. But He is made priest according to "the power of an endless life." Heb. vii. 16. He is "the Author of life" (Acts iii. 15, R.V., margin), and therefore He is "the Author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him." Heb. v. 9. "If, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." Rom. v. 10. Here is continuation, not contrast. In His death, Christ gives His life to us. The reception of that life reconciles us to God. If the reception of that life reconciles us when we were enemies, much more will the holding fast the life save us now that we have become friends.

The Redemption In Christ Jesus.-"All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past." Rom. iii. 23-25. This is the same as the text first quoted: "In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins." "The redemption that is in Christ Jesus," is "the remission of sins that are past," or the forgiveness of sins. And this is accomplished by His blood.

Forgiveness by His Life.-The blood is the life. "Flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat." Gen. ix. 4. "For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls." Lev. xvii. 11. Therefore when we read that we have redemption, or the forgiveness of sins, through the blood of Christ, we know that it means that we have forgiveness through His life. "The redemption that is in Christ Jesus," is the life that is in Him. He "was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification." Rom. iv. 25.

"The Lord Our Righteousness."-In the days to come, when Christ shall be King over all the earth, "This is His name whereby He shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS." Jer. xxiii. 6. This righteousness is His life: "for as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous." Rom. v. 18, 19. His obedience and righteousness become ours when we receive His life.

Justification Is Righteousness.-A friend has forwarded to me a severe condemnation of a statement made some time ago, to the effect that to justify means to make righteous. The criticism was based on the fact that "Grove's Greek Lexicon" does not so define the Greek word from which justify is translated. Opening Liddell and Scott's Greek Lexicon, I find the very first definition of the word in question is "to make righteous." But that is only by the way. Appeals to Greek Lexicons do not edify people. It was stated that "being justified" means "being made righteous," because that definition is patent from the reading of the English Bible. In addition to what has already been presented, read the following:-

"Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Rom. v. 1. But peace is for those only who love and keep the commandments, which are righteousness. See Isa. xlviii. 18; Ps. cxix. 165, 172. Moreover, "with the heart man believeth unto righteousness." Rom. x. 10.

We are "justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus," through faith in His blood, because His righteousness is declared "for the remission of sins that are past." Justification is therefore the forgiveness of sins.

Forgiveness Makes Righteous.-But to be forgiven is to be made righteous. Forgiveness is not an imaginary thing, but is real. If I forgive a fellow-man, it makes no difference in him; the effect is only upon himself. But when God forgives us, He continues the same, but the forgiveness effects a change in us. It takes away the sin. But when sin is taken away, righteousness must take its place. A new life-the righteous life of Christ-is given in place of the old life of sin.

Forgiveness and Cleansing.-The same precious truth is taught in the oft-quoted words of John: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John i. 9. Note that the forgiveness and the cleansing are immediately consequent upon the confession. When we confess we are forgiven and cleansed. We have already seen that we have forgiveness of sins through the blood of Christ (Col. i. 14), and we read also that "the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." 1 John i. 7. So we find that forgiveness and cleansing are really one and the same thing, wrought by the appropriation of the life of Christ. The life of Christ is all righteousness, and so its reception cleanses from all sin; but nothing less than the life of Christ can cleanse a single sin.

One, Undivided Life.-Christ has but one life. He needs but one, for the one is so infinite that it comprehends everything. "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" Rom. viii. 32. He laid down His life, and He took it again, because it was a perfect life. He needed not, as we do, to change His life. One life such as His is all-sufficient, and that is why we exchanged our life for His. Having it, we are saved by it.

And Christ's life is undivided. He is not parcelled out into fractions, so much to each believer. Each believer receives the whole of Christ. "Of His fulness have all we received." John i. 16. "Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ." Eph. iv. 7. And since a single sin cannot be removed from the soul except by the life of Christ, it follows that in the forgiveness of sins we have the richest gift that heaven can bestow,-the gift by grace, "the gift of righteousness." Rom. v. 15, 17. Being made righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

"Grow In Grace."-"What!" exclaims one, in astonishment, "do you mean to say that there is no 'higher life,' no 'second blessing'? Is a man never to advance beyond the point where his sins are first forgiven?"

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Yes; most certainly. But the "higher life" is the life in Christ, and there is none higher, and this life is given to us in the forgiveness of sins. To be blessed with "all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus," and to be raised to "sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Eph. i. 3; ii. 6) is as high a life as a man can aspire to.

As to a "second blessing," the man who is content with it is as much to be pitied as is the man who is content with a first. Rather accept the continuous blessing of the endless life of our Lord. "Of His fulness have all we received, and grace for (or upon) grace." He adds grace to grace in endless succession. But all comes from the one life, which, received by faith, cleanses from sin.

So a man is certain to advance beyond the point where he was "first forgiven," but it is continual forgiveness-continual righteousness applied-by the one life. Growth is the law of the Christian life. But we are to grow in grace, not grow into grace. Grace is the only soil which promotes spiritual growth.

Notice the statement, "Being justified by faith we have peace with God." It is not enough that we were at one time justified, but it must be kept up. The blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin. It is not momentary, but continuous.

"The Knowledge of Christ."-"But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." 2 Peter iii. 18. The trouble with so many people is "that they do not know the value of the treasure which they have received. They receive Christ, and are blessed; then, by reason of not increasing in the knowledge of Him, they are conscious of a great lack, and so hastily conclude that the gift which they have received is not great enough, and that God must have another in reserve for them. As though God had any greater gift than Christ, or that when He gave Christ, He made some reservation. No; with Him He freely gives us "all things." If we have received Christ, our part is to study Him, that we may know that in Him all our wants are supplied.

"Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him; the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places." Eph. i. 15-20.

"The Papacy's Growing Power" The Present Truth 12, 17.

E. J. Waggoner

The Chronicle's special correspondent from Rome continues to mingle with his eloquent description of the Papal pomp and circumstance of the events, at the Vatican and St. Peter's, much that is of great political significance. He refers to the old contest between the Vatican and the Quirinal and dubs it "a controversy which goes down to the roots of the European situation, which troubles the peace of king and cardinals, and affects the alliances and estrangements of the great States of the world."

After enumerating various local incidents which have caused friction between the representatives of the Papal court and the State, and have given some new prominence, within the very precincts of Rome itself, to the persistent seclusion of the "Prisoner of the Vatican," he says:-

And above all the crushing blow which the House of Savoy has received in Africa, the relations of Italy to the Triple Alliance, the Pope's leaning toward France-all the pressing problems which during the last few weeks have centred in Rome and made her the "hub" of diplomatic Europe, the centre of the modern as she was of the ancient world-have swept this "Roman question" to the front.

And yet, he asked himself, why should there be any desire to see this question raised at this time?-for, "Not for years-I had almost said for centuries-has the moral and political influence of the Vatican stood at so high a level." In his view too the very disabilities under which the Pope has chafed so impatiently have been to the advantage of the Papacy, "and the Holy See has gained enormously by its dissociation from the responsibilities of secular power." So that now it is a fact that the Papal chair is raised in the eyes of the Roman Catholic world above the throne of Kaiser and Czar and King, that it is in a sense protected and guaranteed by Europe, that it has founded a new empire in the new world, that it is sustained by an acute and active diplomacy, and yet is free from actual responsibility, and, like Hamlet's Ghost, possesses a certain majestical invulnerability of its own.

Yes, all this is true,-the Papal power is a creature of destiny and of prophecy. Until that destiny and that prophecy are fulfilled it does possess a certain invulnerability. But when that time has come when she shall feel no longer these disabilities and shall say, "I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow,"-then, "shall her plagues come in one day, death and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire; for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her."

"As God Is" The Present Truth 12, 17.

E. J. Waggoner

"God was in Christ." Jesus manifested the Father. When Jesus went about among the lowly homes of Judea and Galilee, associating with the simple people who loved Him for His kindness and homeliness, He was showing what God is. There was no barrier of reserve or haughtiness to repel, but an air of gentle refinement that drew the common people to Him. Even the children felt no timidity in coming to Him, and He found time to give attention to the simplest details of the life of the people.

This was showing what God was. And what He was He is-the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever. To-day, then, God finds delight in drawing the humblest to Himself. There is no barrier on His side to make any afraid of trusting and confiding in Him as a friend. What Jesus was, He is, the friend of those who need Him, gentle, patient, finding joy in companionship with the lowly and the humble. He was all that before Jesus came in the flesh (Isa. lxvi. 1, 2); but when we see it in the life of Jesus, we can see it as in other ages it "was not made known unto the sons of men." God wants us to know Him, and in Jesus we see Him as He is.

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 17.

E. J. Waggoner

-The population of Greater London is now considerably more than 6,000,000.

-The German Emperor has recently met the Emperor of Austria and the King of Italy and it is said that the Triple Alliance is renewed.

-A phenomenal dust storm has occurred in Australia. At Broken Hill the sun was obscured for twenty minutes, the town being in perfect darkness.

-It is expected that a large force of British troops will be sent to Egypt in the autumn to take part in the Soudan campaign; 10,000 is the number that has been named.

-An unprecedented feat is to be attempted this spring in towing an oil-laden barge across the Atlantic. The towing steamer and the barge together will carry about 2,500,000 gallons of oil.

-The Russian Red Cross Society expedition to Abyssinia is said to number over eighty. Military officers accompany it to protect it, and many are taking the expedition to mean that Russia proposes to have a hand in the African question on her own account.

-Mail advices show that an order to cut off their queues led the Koreans to revolt against the administration. Great changes, even the murder of their Queen, were accepted calmly, but at the regulation affecting their hair they rose in rebellion.

-Before the Matabele rising the transport was so interfered with by the cattle plague in Rhodesia that the bakers in Buluwayo had given notice of an advance from 6d. to 1s. in the price of a loaf of bread. The rising will make provisions still more scarce. The natives have risen more generally than was at first apprehended, though many friendly chiefs have come into Buluwayo. The authorities are expecting that it will require a hard struggle to subdue the revolt.

-Some idea of the terrors of a bursting volcano, says a despatch, may be gained from the account of the last eruption in Hawaii. The crater of the volcano was filled from 600 to 1,000 feet deep with molten lava, which finally forced its way through a subterranean passage. It was 40 miles from there to the sea, yet this avalanche of molten rocks reached the waters in less than two days, destroying everything in its track. It continued flowing for three weeks, heating the sea water 20 miles out from shore.

-Li Hung Chang, the greatest of the Chinese, who has come West to attend the coronation of the Czar, will, it is said, visit the principal capitals of the Continent, and London, returning to China by way of New York. Thus he and his large suite will see a good deal of that western world which the patriotic Chinese of the interior regard as but a small outlying province of the Middle Kingdom. But Li Hung Chang has done his best to break down the stolid prejudice of his countrymen, and has accomplished many great changes. His wife was, it is said, a woman of high ability, educated in the United States, and has seconded his efforts.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 17.

E. J. Waggoner

The Vatican is speaking of peace and arbitration, but it is a fact that the French arms had the blessing of the Catholic Church in the Madagascar campaign, and the Italian arms in the Abyssinian expedition.

The Dominion Parliament has failed to pass the Bill to establish Catholic schools in Manitoba. The opposition wore out the House, and after two continuous sittings of 120 and eighty hours respectively, the Government decided to appeal to the constituencies.

Our mission ship Pitcairn is reported about to sail from San Francisco for, we believe, its fourth cruise in the South Pacific. Pitcairn Island has built a school building, and it is expected that it will become a training centre for workers in the surrounding islands.

We are glad to learn that the late interference of the Swiss authorities with the Imprimerie Polyglotte, of Basel, our Central European publishing house, which made our friends acquainted with the rigours of factory Sunday laws, has in no wise hindered the work. On the contrary, it has distinctly furthered the work, the changes made necessary having led to a very large increase in the volume of business done. Thus again it is demonstrated that man "can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth."

From some of the reports from Turkey one would almost think that we were back in the Dark Ages, in the days of the Crusades. We read of Christians fighting against Moslem armies, and of Moslems forcing men to profess the faith of Islam. On the other side, the Christian World prints an interview with several leading Armenian revolutionists who described how, when the Turkish garrison at Zeiboun surrendered to the Armenian forces in the recent uprising, the Turks were compelled to pass under daggers held aloft, while "the Archbishop held a cross, which they all had to kiss in token of submission." There is little to choose between the two. These leaders say that "the revolutionary movement will not be stopped," but they will educate the people to demand independence, and "when the time comes to rise successfully they will rise"-and then will come more horrors. They say that the revolutionary movement "has received a great impetus from the massacres."

Among other items of interest in a recent report from one of our workers in Turkey, himself an Armenian, is the following:-

While I was there, one of the brethren had gone to a village near by with several Armenian tracts. As soon as a priest of the village learned that his brother was there, he took a stick, and ran to the place where the brother was, and suddenly attacked him. The spirit of the priest manifests the spirit of the times when Armenians shall have their own kingdom. Never believe that Armenians do not persecute; they do, as severely as they are persecuted. The want of opportunity is what makes the difference.

It is these violent and murderous elements that bring down upon the quiet and peace-loving Armenians the awful calamities which attend insurrection and revolution.

The Olympian games have been received and successfully celebrated. It was from them that Paul took that forcible illustration in the ninth chapter of first Corinthians, when he said: "Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible." The world has no especial need of a renewal of the Olympic games, but it does need a revival Paul's religious life.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer presented a Budget last week which indicates a prosperous year. The revenues increased all round. What most of our readers will regret is that the most remarkable increase, apparently, should be in that derived from the consumption of spirits and other stimulants and narcotics. The amount of money spent on "that which is not bread" is enormous. The Chancellor gave the following very good lecture to smokers:-

In my humble opinion, everything that is spent on tobacco by those who have enough to eat is waste. I am quite aware that that may be a matter of ignorance or prejudice, and I would only appeal to smokers whether this is not waste; it is calculated by the Customs authorities that no less a value than ?1,000,000-a year is literally thrown into the gutter in the shape of ends of cigarettes and cigars. It is all the better for the revenue, but I think it may be a subject of consideration for smokers.

Almost as much as Great Britain spends on Foreign Missions is thrown into the gutter in this way. Of course it is much better thrown away than smoked, but the figures bring vividly before the mind the enormous sums spent in injurious indulgences.

Geneva, so long the field of Calvin's labours, and the birthplace and earthly home of that religious system which owed its origin to him, and has taken his name, has been for more than a hundred years cursed with that strange blot upon civilisation, state regulated vice. On Sunday, March 22, the question of the continuation of such regulation was before the people to be decided by popular vote. A majority of more than two to one voted for the maintenance of the system.

In the annual report of the Russian Procurator of the Holy Synod, published in one of the official journals of St. Petersburg, this watchful official gives statistics of those provinces "infested by sectarianism," and first in his list he mentions Seventh-day Adventists as "a very peculiar apparition." The Russian officials keep close watch over "sectarians," who are constantly being made to feel the wrath of the authorities.

"His Way of Saying It" The Present Truth 12, 17.

E. J. Waggoner

His Way of Saying It.-It is a freak of human nature to ascribe very unworthy motives to those who disagree with us, says the Review and Herald. Differences of opinion frequently lead to violent animosities, when there is really no ground for such animosities at all. It is related that a celebrated Frenchman, having been recently assailed with great bitterness by a French professor, quietly remarked: "I fancy he must be vexed. He called me a Jacobin, rebel, plagiarist, thief, poisoner, forger, leper, madman, imposter, libeller, a grimacing ragpicker. I gather what he wants to say. He means that he and I are not of the same opinion, and that is his only way of putting it." There is in this little instance a very gentle reproof to many of us who are prone to attribute ulterior your motives to those who hold differing opinions from our own.

April 30, 1896

"Giving Praise" The Present Truth 12, 18.

E. J. Waggoner

The Divine injunction is, "Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord." Ps. cl. 6.

This is without qualification. Rich and poor, high and low, the prosperous and the afflicted, the good and bad,-all are called upon to praise the Lord.

There is no reason in the world why all men should not praise Him. "He is good;" and "His mercy endureth for ever." Ps. cxxxvii. 1. "The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord." Ps. xxxiii. 5. "He is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil." Luke vi. 35. "God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Rom. v. 8

But some will say, "I don't see how it is possible for the wicked to praise the Lord; for when I am conscious of having sinned, my mouth is closed, and I cannot praise Him." There are very many professed Christians whose experience is the same. They praise the Lord when they feel in good case, and not otherwise.

That which such ones call praising the Lord is really praise of themselves. The Pharisee doubtless thought he was praising the Lord when he said, "God, I thank thee that I am not as other men." He had no consciousness of sin, he felt good, and so he praised-himself. The fact that so many persons do not think that they can praise the Lord except when they feel in the best condition, is evidence that their praise is not for what the Lord is but for what they are, or what they think they are.

True praise to God is that which arises solely from a sense of His goodness. The highest angel in heaven would find nothing for which to praise the Lord, if he looked to himself. We can praise only the object that we are looking at and thinking about. Praise

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to God is for what He is, and not for what we are. Now God is always the same, no matter what our condition. Therefore He is always worthy of praise. Out of the depths we may praise the Lord, and thereby be lifted up into the presence of His glory; for He says, "Whoso offereth praise, glorifieth Me." If the wicked would begin to praise the Lord, they would cease to be wicked. In our greatest sinfulness we may praise the Lord for His love and mercy to sinners. The goodness of God leads to repentance, and the continual recognition of that goodness keeps the soul in dependence upon it. So let all say in sincerity: "I will extol Thee, my God, O King; and I will bless Thy name for ever and ever. Every day will I bless Thee; and I will praise Thy name for ever and ever."

"Essaying the Impossible" The Present Truth 12, 18.

E. J. Waggoner

"Without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better," says the Scripture. That is the reason why the greatest human intellect is misdirected when it essays to defend or vindicate the Bible. The Word of God requires no vindication. No great man can do anything for the Word, save to speak it, and to believe it.

The other day a newspaper described an introduction which Mr. Gladstone has written for a new Bible History, as "a masterpiece of vindication." The notion that the Bible is a book which a great man and a scholar can vindicate springs from the impression that it is more or less a product of human thought, capable of being strengthened by superior human intellect. Hence it is not surprising that the reviewer quotes, as worthy "to be written up in letters of gold":-

It is not the Bible that produced religion and morals, but religion and morals that produce the Bible.

Every one knows that Mr. Gladstone thinks to commend the Bible, and he says many things in a beautiful way of it, but when the finite attempts to measure the infinite and apologise for God's own Word, the result is sure to be a pitiful failure. So subtle is the spirit of scepticism that the work of tearing down the foundations of belief goes on even in literature professing to speak for the Bible. It is because Mr. Gladstone rejects-by interpreting-the matter-of-fact statements of the creation, and is willing to submit other portions to "critical and corrective judgment" that a newspaper that is always reviewing with favour the work of the most advanced "higher critics" hails his contribution as a "masterpiece of vindication." But "the foundation of God standeth sure."

"'Who Is My Neighbour?'" The Present Truth 12, 18.

E. J. Waggoner

Politeness and courtesy should be the habit of our lives. Tenderness, thoughtfulness, kindness, should so invariably characterise every thought and word and act as to leave no room for a suspicion of roughness, thoughtlessness, or unkindness.

There is an unlimited breadth of consideration for others in the injunction: "Whatsoever ye would that others should do unto you, do ye even so unto them." The surly question, "Am I my brother's keeper?" was the impulsive reply elicited by the preliminary examination in the first murder trial.

Was it not a certain lawyer who asked the Master what he should do to inherit eternal life?-and the Master replied by asking him how he read the law, and what he found written there. He answered that he found there the injunction to love God, and to love his neighbour as himself. But when he was commended for this he asked again-"And who is my neighbour?"

Yes, who is my brother and neighbour? Who is this man to whom I should ever be polite, and courteous, tender, thoughtful, and kind, whom I should love as myself? Who is he indeed, and how shall I be able always to recognise him? Shall I know him by his fair skin and the cut of his clothing,-because he is dressed in a scarlet uniform, and carries a saber or a Maxim gun? Who is my neighbour and my brother? "But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?" Did the question justify him? If not, then we are not justified in our caste prejudice, or our racial favouritisms.

Mr. D. L. Moody, the Evangelist, has expressed himself with characteristic plainness upon some of the race and caste animosities which have come within his own experience and observation:-

Down South you tell a white man that the negro is his neighbour and his brother, and he has got through all dealings with you. You cannot preach to him any more. It is the same in California. It will not do to tell the white man in California that the Chinaman is his neighbour and brother, or he will get mad at you. I was going down a street in San Francisco when a white hoodlum rushed out and seized a Chinaman by the queue and pulled him over flat on the walk. I interfered on behalf of the Chinaman; the hoodlum was mad at me, said he didn't think so much of me as he did of the Chinaman; he drew a knife, and I came near losing my life, just because I didn't want to see the Chinaman abused.

We are no better than the Jews who despised the Samaritans. We are a mean lot, the whole of us. It is so easy to be a priest or a Levite. Tell a high-toned man that the reeling drunkard in the city streets is his neighbour, and he will be indignant at you. We do not get acquainted with ourselves. If we did we should come closer to the knowledge of who our neighbour is.

We should become acquainted with Christ and He will show us ourselves.

The time is past in which we can have any doubt as to who is our neighbour and our brother, and as to what our duty is toward him. We know that to love the Lord, and thy neighbour as thyself, is written in the law, and that the reply of Jesus to the lawyer was, "This do and thou shalt live."

"On the Mount of Transfiguration" The Present Truth 12, 18.

E. J. Waggoner

MOSES AND ELIAS

When Christ comes on His throne of glory, with a cloud of angels, to give reward to the righteous, there will be two great classes of them: those who shall be translated without seeing death, and those who shall be raised from the dead. These, when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, shall also appear with Him in glory. Col. iii. 4. Now representatives of these two classes were with Him on the mount of transfiguration. If they had not been, it would not have been a true representation of the "power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ," as Peter says it was. All Bible readers are familiar with the fact that Elijah (the Hebrew form of the name which in Greek is Elias) was translated without seeing death. See 2 Kings ii. 1-11. The record says that as he and Elisha went on, and talked, "behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder: and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven." So Elijah was there with Christ in the mount, as a representative of those who, when Christ comes, shall be caught up to meet the Lord without tasting death.

Concerning Moses, we have the record: "So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord. And He [the Lord] buried him in a

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valley in the land of Moab, over against Beth-peor; but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day." Deut. xxxiv. 5, 6. Turn to Jude 9, where we read: "Yet Michael the Archangel, when contending with the devil He disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuked thee." What could cause a dispute between Christ (who is Michael) and the devil, concerning the body of Moses? Only this one thing, that the devil has the power of death (Heb. ii. 14); he brought sin into the world, and death comes by sin; those who die he considers his lawful prey, and he refuses to open the house of his prisoners (Isa. xiv. 16, 17), which is the grave. He is the strong man keeping guard over his house; but Christ is the stronger than he, who has entered into his house, overpowering him (Luke xi. 21, 22), and who now has the keys of death and the grave. Rev. i. 18.

This power Christ gained by virtue of His death (Heb. ii. 14); but long before His death and resurrection He had this power through the promise and the oath of God, which were the surety that He would be offered. Knowing these facts, and reading that Christ contended with the devil over the body of Moses, we are forced to the conclusion that their dispute was concerning the resurrection of Moses, Satan claiming that Christ had no right to take him. But in every contest with Satan, Christ has come off victorious, and so Moses was raised from the dead, and appeared with Christ on the holy mount, as a representative of those who, at the second coming of Christ, shall be brought from their graves to ever be with the Lord.

If there should still be a lingering doubt in the minds of any that Moses was really raised from the dead, and they should think that it was only his disembodied spirit that appeared on the mount, we will state (1) that the transfiguration is expressly declared by Peter to have been a representation of "the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ," and that at that time he and James and John were "eye-witnesses of His majesty," which shows that it was a view of Christ in His kingly glory; (2) it is absolutely certain that when Christ comes there will be no such thing as disembodied spirits, because, says Paul, he "shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body" (Phil. iii. 21), and this change is performed for both the living and the dead. 1 Cor. xv. 51. When the saints are caught up to meet the Lord in the air, it is with their own bodies glorified like the body of Christ. Therefore, (3) since the transfiguration was a representation, on a small scale, of this glorious event, it is certain that Moses must have been there in person, and not in shadow.

"Christ the Lawgiver" The Present Truth 12, 18.

E. J. Waggoner

"For the Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord is our King; He will save us." Isa. xxxiii. 22.

In Num. xx. 4-6, we have the partial record of an incident that took place while the children of Israel were in the wilderness:-

"And they journeyed from mount Hor by the way of the Red sea, to compass the land of Edom; and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way. And the people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neither is there any water; and our soul loatheth this light bread. And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died."

The people spoke against God and against Moses, saying, Why have ye brought us up into the wilderness? They found fault with their Leader. This is why they were destroyed by serpents. Now read the words of the Apostle Paul concerning this same event: "Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents." 1 Cor. x. 9.

What does this prove? That the Leader against whom they were murmuring was Christ. This is further proved by the fact that, when Moses cast in his lot with Israel, refusing to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, he esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. Heb. xi. 26. Paul says that the Fathers "did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ." 1 Cor. x. 4. And in the third of Hebrews it is again shown that it was Christ who was "grieved forty years" in the wilderness. So, then, Christ was the Leader of Israel from Egypt. Moses, the visible leader, "endured as seeing Him who is invisible."

Now read Ex. xx. 1-3:-

"And God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me."

Who spoke these words? The One who brought them from Egypt. And who was the Leader of Israel from Egypt? It was Christ. Then who spoke the law from Mount Sinai? It was Christ, the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of His Person, who is the manifestation of God to man. It was the Creator of all created things, and the One to whom all judgment has been committed.

THE VOICE THAT SPAKE THE LAW

This point may be proved in another way. When the Lord comes, it will be with a shout (1 Thess. iv. 16), which will pierce the tombs and arouse the dead. John v. 28, 29. "The Lord shall roar from on high, and utter His voice from His holy habitation; He shall mightily roar upon His habitation; He shall give a shout, as they that tread the grapes, against all the inhabitants of the earth. A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth; for the Lord hath a controversy with the nations, He will plead with all flesh; He will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the Lord." Jer. xxv. 30, 31. Comparing this with Rev. xix. 11-1, where Christ, as the Leader of the armies of heaven, the Word of God, King of kings, and Lord of lords, goes forth to tread the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God, destroying all the wicked, we find that it is Christ who roars from His habitation against all the inhabitants of the earth, when He has His controversy with the nations. Joel adds another point, when he says, "The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake." Joel iii. 16.

From these texts, to which others might be added, we learn that, in connection with the coming of the Lord to deliver His people, He speaks with a voice that shakes the earth and the heavens,-"The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage." 2 Pet. iii. 10. Now read Heb. xii. 25, 26:-

"See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused Him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven: whose voice then shook the earth: but

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now He hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven."

The time when the Voice speaking on earth shook the earth was when the law was spoken from Sinai (Ex. xix. 18-20; Heb. xii. 18-20), an event that for awfulness has never had a parallel, and never will have until the Lord comes, with all the angels of heaven, to save His people. But note: the same Voice that then shook the earth will, in the coming time, shake not only earth, but heaven also; and we have seen that it is the voice of Christ that will sound with such volume as to shake heaven and earth, when He has His controversy with the nations. Therefore it is demonstrated that it was the voice of Christ that was heard from Sinai, proclaiming the ten commandments.

Is it asked how Christ could be the Mediator between God and man, and also the Lawgiver? We have not to explain how it can be, but only to accept the Scripture record that it is so; and the fact that it is so is that which gives strength to the doctrine of the atonement. The sinner's surety of full and free pardon lies in the fact that the Lawgiver himself, the One against whom he has rebelled and whom he has defied, is the One who gave Himself for us. How is it possible for anyone to doubt the honesty of God's purpose, or His perfect goodwill to men, when He gave Himself for their redemption? For let it not be imagined that the Father and Son were separated in this transaction: They were one in this, as in everything else. The counsel of peace was between them both (Zech. vi. 12, 13); and, even while here on earth, the only begotten Son was in the bosom of the Father.

What a wonderful manifestation of love! The innocent suffered for the guilty; the Just, for the unjust; the Creator, for the creature; the Maker of the law, for the transgressors of the law; the King, for His rebellious subjects. Since God spared not His own Son, but freely delivered Him up for us all; since Christ voluntarily gave Himself for us,-how shall He not with Him freely give us all things? Infinite love could find no greater manifestation of itself. Well may the Lord say, "What could have been done more to My vineyard that I have not done in it?"

"Be not conformed to this world; but be ye transformed."

"The Child-Mirror" The Present Truth 12, 18.

E. J. Waggoner

In the National Review is a paper on the sayings of children, showing the quaint philosophy of childhood. The writer says:-

Very charming in this way are the half disclosures of the natural egoism of the first attempt at politeness and kindness. A wee maiden who was enjoying a swing cast a half pitiful glance at her unlucky comrade who was standing and looking on with big and admiring eyes, and observed, "I wish I wasn't so fond of swinging, then I would get out and let you swing." With this may be compared the following mal apropos. A little girl on taking her toy from another child who was playing with it said, by way of explanation, "You know we can't both enjoy it."

Grown-up selfishness may see itself as in a mirror here. Though experience and pride may teach the adult not to avow the selfishness so frankly, how often he uses the same infantile logic to excuse his faults. Thus one excuses his irritation by pleading an irritable disposition; it is "his way." But this is precisely the difficulty. Like the child who thought she wished to let her playmate swing, many people say they wish they were rid of bad habits and yet cling to them. The fact is, we can do as we wish. If we wish to drop the sin that besets us, there is strength enough from heaven to enable us to be free. If we cling to the sin and selfishness it is because we love it. It is important that we should recognise this fact. The Lord is no more deceived by the reasoning with which we are prone to satisfy conscience for having our own way than we are by the transparent excuses of these very natural little girls.

"An 'Easter Symposium'" The Present Truth 12, 18.

E. J. Waggoner

In its Easter number the New York Independent publishes twenty-four columns from twelve different writers, prominent in religion, literature, and education, upon the subject of Easter day and immortality. This is a religious subject; the Independent is a religious paper, the majority of the writers contributing to this "Easter Symposium," belong to the ministerial profession; the question is one upon which the Bible is the only sufficient authority,-yet, in the whole twenty-four columns, containing nearly twenty-seven thousand words, there are to be found but twelve references to Scripture texts, while even these are not all relevant to the subject,-certainly not as understood by the writer,-and all are to be found in three of the articles, leaving nine without even an attempt at Scriptural substantiation of the views presented, or expression of Biblical foundation for the thoughts they embody. The treatment accorded the subject of the day, Easter, and its celebration, is superficial and purely sentimental,-scarcely excepting, even, one historical article entitled, "Easter Holidays in Old England," in which the author in one of his first paragraphs destroys the religious significance of the festival, to those who profess Christianity, by the source from which he draws the origin of the day and its observance. He says:-

The celebration of Easter is of very ancient origin. Some authorities derive the name from the Saxon Oster (to rise). Others trace it to Eoster, or Easter, a Saxon goddess, whose rites were kept at the opening of spring. Sloane suggests that the Saxon Eoster, the English Star and the Hebrew Ashtaroth, all came from a long-forgotten original-perhaps Phoenician-signifying fire.

A very old English Easter custom was the extinguishing of all the household fires toward the end of Passion Week, to be relit on Easter Even from consecrated flints preserved in the churches especially for the purpose; from regard to the popular belief that holy fire thus obtained would avert the evil effects of tempests, thunder-storms, etc.-the flint signifying Christ and the fire the Holy Ghost. In this connection was the invarable

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custom of extinguishing the fires in the old baronial halls.

The Festival, a publication dating as far back as 1511, says of the latter domestic usage:

"This day [Easter] is called in many places Goddes Sondaye; ye know well that it is the matter at this daye to the fyre out of the hall, and black Wynter brandes, and all thynges that is foul with fume and smoke shall be done awaye, and there the fyre was, shall be gayly arrayed with fayer flowers, and strewed with grene rysshes all aboute."

The article makes reference to various ancient customs more or less puerile and ridiculous and illustrates them by antiquarian excerpts from records in the Tower and writings of early English Churchmen, and closes with a reference to the poetry of Easter, giving several quotations from Dean Milman, Matthew Bridges, Mrs. Hemans, and others.

All this, from the standpoint of literary interest and curiosity is quite interesting and delightful. The same thing can be said of the columns of dissertation upon the subject of "Immortality" when viewed as an exhibition of able and subtle intellectual gymnastics, the futility of which is so well understood that there is no attempt on the part of the reader to take it seriously. Yet the thoughtful reader, who possesses a true Biblical intelligence upon the subject, cannot but be impressed with a profound sadness at so much earnest feeling, capacity of thought and expression, and mental ability dissipated upon things which, so far as the eternities are concerned, are more baseless than the fabric of a dream.

Is it not time to call a halt on such investigations in the realm of theory and philosophy so called, however beautifully rounded the phrases, and powerful the rhetoric in which they are embodied, when the result is nothing more reassuring than such statements as this:-

On every side, from beginning to end, this subject is beset with difficulties; but altogether I am of the opinion that there is scientific warrant for the assertion of post-mortem personal self-consciousness in identity with ante-mortem self-consciousness.

Or this from another article:-

There is no conclusive evidence of the truth of the doctrine of immortality. . . . There is no conclusive evidence that the doctrine of immortality is false. We must then deal with the doctrine as an unverified hypothesis.

Or this from yet another, which clearly expresses the error into which the religious mind must fall when it gives itself to the guidance of human philosophy on this subject.

Death, then, is the transition from a life in God here to a better and purer life in God. It is birth rather than death.

So philosophy ever reverses Biblical teaching, continually reiterating in varied form that early falsehood of the father of lies, "Thou shalt not surely die." Through belief in this came sin, sorrow, and death into the world. An error which has been fraught with such results is not, then, likely to be harmless now.

A very few scriptures decide the question,-and decide it fully, definitely, without leaving room for quibble or question.

Immortality can only come from its possessor, Him "who only hath immortality" (1 Tim. vi. 16); it is the gift of God, and man can attain to it only through Christ: "He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." 1 John v. 12.

"For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order; Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at His coming." 1 Cor. xv. 22, 23.

"Behold I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: . . . So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory." Verses 52-54.

"A Scandinavian School" The Present Truth 12, 18.

E. J. Waggoner

The neede of providing better facilities for training workers in the Scandinavian countries-better than could be provided in local church schools-led our friends in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark to build and equip a school in Frederikshav, Denmar. The school has been running nearly two years and is filling a deeply felt want, enjoying a patronage nearly equal to its capacity to accommodate.

The following statement by one who has visited the place will interest those who are interested in seeing the Gospel of the Kingdom making progress in Northern Europe; for the special work of the Frederikshavn institute is, under God, to qualify labourers for the various branches of Gospel work carried forward by Seventh-day Adventists:-

"Frederikshavn is situation on the northern point of Denmark, and has good steamer connections with both Norway and Sweden. This makes it a favourite point for the location of a school which looks for its patronage to all three Scandinavian countries. Of the five thousand or more inhabitants of Frederikshavn, the largest number look to the sea for their living, and the harbour usually presents a scene of considerable acvtivity. However, the outlying district forms a good farming community, and along the smooth, hard roads, which branch out in various directions as they leave the city, are many well-filled farms and substantial farm buildings.

"A brisk wall of ten or twelve minutes from the post-office brings one to the High School, which is built on seashore, only a few rods from the waters of the Cattegat. There is a garden and grove of small trees in the rear of the school, and tastefully-laidout grounds in front.

"The faculty is composed largely of persons who have studied at the University of Copenhagen, and who are thus well qualified to do thorough work in their respective branches. Considerable stress is laid upon Bible and history, and the courses in the Scandinavian languages are thorough and satisfactory."

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 18.

E. J. Waggoner

-Great Britain's territory in Africa amounts to 2,570,000 square miles.

-The combined capital of the Rothschilds is estimated at two hundred millions sterling.

-The Dutch are having hard fighting with native rebels in one of their East Indian possessions.

-Korea is said to be trying to negotiate a loan in Russia, offering as security one of its largest provinces.

-It is estimated that not less than 180,000,000 African slaves have perished to glut the avarice of slave-traders.

-Japan has sixty-one cotton mills in operation, and manufacturing plants of many kinds are being established in the island.

-The German army corps are each to have a portable crematory, looking like a large oven, for the cremation of the dead after a battle.

-Since the Franco-Prussian war, twenty-five years ago, Germany has added 11,000,000 to her population, while France has added but 2,000,000.

-Great Britain's African territories are supposed to have a population of 80,000,000. Closely following comes the French possessions, and then the Portuguese.

-Travellers may now go round the world from London, by way of Suez, Bombay, Yokohama, and New York, in sixty-four days, travelling by the regular lines.

-The Emperor of Abyssinia has made overtures for peace after his triumph over the Italian army, but the Italians are not at all for peace, and the preparations for war continue.

-It is said that the war it Cuba is costing Spain twelve million dollars monthly. One can see from this what a crushing expense a great war would be under modern conditions.

-Operations have begun in Dover for mining coal. It is expected that paying coal seams abound in Kent, and so great changes are regarded as likely to take place in the county.

-The Far North is not so unhealthful as we might suppose. Lung diseases are said to be rare in the Arctic regions, and in Greenland infectious diseases are said to be unknown. Disease germs do not thrive in those high latitudes.

-A German paper shows that in ten years the debts of European States have increased by ?850,000,000. England, Spain, Denmark, and Luxemburg have reduced their debts. Militarism is mainly responsible for all of those debts.

-In a fight between the Arabs and the Soudanese composing the body-guard of the Kalifs, several hundreds were killed, it is said. While dissension is thus breaking out among the dervishes, the Egyptian force is advancing. The railway up the Nile is being laid at the rate of 800 yards per day.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 18.

E. J. Waggoner

The organ of the Bible Society says that it is fair to assume that the Bible in whole or in part, is now translated into 400 languages and dialects.

Build your house airy and roomy and bright,-and then dwell there. Conceive your deals fair, and large, and beautiful,-and then live them.

The sceptic is a man who closes the windows of his soul, and then either denies that there is a world outside of himself, or else blames his Creator because he has no spiritual outlook.

Since the beginning of the year, the Speaker says, it has been made "increasingly evident that the country is suffering from a violent recrudescence of the war feeling." This is true not only of this country but of every nation, and the feeling is a striking sign of the times.

According to the well-informed German papers the Vatican was strongly in favour of the Italian campaign against the Abyssinians, who lean toward the Greek Church and have for years resisted the efforts of Rome to bring them over. The Vatican, it is said, had a large number of Roman Catholic missionaries ready to follow the Italian army if the latter had been victorious.

In British Guiana the Anglican and the Scotch churches are concurrently endowed, each having a territorial status, while the Roman Catholic and Wesleyan churches are also assisted by grants from the public purse.

When plague or war sweeps away thousands suddenly the calamity is impressed upon the public mind; but all the time the drink curse and the allied evils are sweeping men away day after day. The opium curse in the East is as bad as the drink demon in the West. Anti-opium workers are reviving the agitation against the State fostering of the evil in the Indian Empire. At a meeting the other day the Rev. F. B. Meyer aptly said:-

We have been lifting our hands in pious horror at the Turkish atrocities in Armenia. Let us look at home, and consider how many Chinamen are being continually done to death through our national action in supplying them with the fatal drug.

A report of the Registrar General of the Army in the East Indies, made many years ago, showed that of the military who abstained entirely from intoxicating liquors but three per cent. had been on the sick list during the course of a year, while of men of the same regiments, subjected to the same duties and to precisely the same mode of life with only the addition of the regular rations of alcoholic drinks, an average of more than ten per cent. were on the sick list in the same time. Similar observations in other tropical countries have shown the same thing to be true elsewhere.

"There is a lesson," says a Transatlantic journal, "in the show-window of a St. Louis druggist. The window is advertised as containing nothing but poisons. Among its contents are paris green, arsenic, morphine, laudanum, face-powder, playing-cards, cigarettes and whisky."

Character is what a man is; reputation is what others think he is. The man who, like the Apostle Paul, is zealous always to maintain a conscience void of offence toward God and man, may be and must be content, though he has no reputation at all. Such a man has no time to think about his reputation. But the man whose great ambition is to maintain a good reputation, must of necessity be more or less of a hypocrite; because while he is zealous to maintain a good outward appearance, he neglects to preserve his heart right with God.

The Odessa correspondent of a newspaper says:-

The South Russian Press is again urging the Government to take speedy measures to prevent the growth of Stundism in the southern and western provinces. It is stated that this great movement among the peasants has not been destroyed by the severe enactments directed against it, that the efforts of its leaders have been only diverted into secret channels, and that unless instant steps are taken to counteract it the movement is certain to spread to the large towns, and to Great Russia, where it will be almost impossible to grapple with it.

Stundism stands for Protestantism and Bible only, and by it a Reformation is going forward in Russia which no human power can suppress.

One of the great religious journals has been printing a series of papers from representative men on "The Bible and the Child." The general tone of them has been that the child cannot understand Genesis, and other portions, as he is unable to understand the arguments by which it is the fashion now to show that Moses did not know what he was writing about. That is the reason why children can learn more of the things of God than the learned critics. The child can believe what God says, while too many who pride themselves in their wisdom are unwilling to receive the Word of the Kingdom "as a little child."

"The Flowing Tide" The Present Truth 12, 18.

E. J. Waggoner

The Flowing Tide.-Sacerdotalism is sweeping over the Church of England like a flowing tide. "As each year revolves," says the English Churchman, "we are able to mark a distinct growth in the development of the theatrical and sensational aspects of Anglican Romanism in our parish churches. . . The decay of spiritual religion may be calculated as being in inverse ratio to the increase of ecclesiastical display and priestly officialism." The standard to be lifted up, "when the enemy comes in like a flood," is the Word of God. Let our Protestant friends in Establishment forsake political effort and appeals to human laws, ecclesiastical or political, and hold forth the Word alone, and follow where it leads; it is the one rallying point in the conflict.

"An Aged Bible Student" The Present Truth 12, 18.

E. J. Waggoner

An Aged Bible Student.-The French organ of our Society, Les Signes des Temps, of Basel, publishes the following item:-

One of our brethren in the United States writes that he has had the privilege of holding Bible studies with a lady of one hundred and twenty-two years of age. She appreciates the present truth and esteems herself fortunate to be able to walk in its light. The youngest of her children, a daughter, is now more than seventy years of age. This is a case of longevity sufficiently rare to merit special mention, particularly when one takes into consideration the fact that she is yet in the full enjoyment of her faculties.

Such an incident as this is a happy illustration of the fact that great age should be and need be no barrier to the appreciation and full acceptance of Divine truth.

May 5, 1896

"Learning with the Heart" The Present Truth 12, 19.

E. J. Waggoner

"With the heart man believeth unto righteousness." Rom. x. 10. The things of God are revealed not to the head but to the heart. Belief is not a mere intellectual assent to what God says, it is the acceptance of what He says in the heart-the seat of life. It is true that the mind of the man who believes with the heart will actively grasp the truths of the Word-for the mind of Christ is an active mind-but he who thinks to study into the mystery of God just as he would apply the mind to any problem within the range of human knowledge will fail.

The knowledge of God is salvation; it is a matter of a new life, and it is with the heart that every man must believe his way into its mysteries,-mysterious only as the finite mind attempts to state them in human language, but simplicity itself as received into the life by the working of the mighty power of God. "Behold, God exalteth by His power; who teacheth like Him?" Job xxxi. 22. He teaches His ways by living His way in the heart that yields to Him.

When one is ill and weak, so that the mind is unable to think clearly, even then may he know in his heart that God is good. And he who is blessed with the strongest mind will find his perception of Divine truth growing keener just in proportion as He recognises the fact, that as all truth is in Jesus Christ, so it is revealed only as the heart receives them into the life. "With the heart man believeth."

May 7, 1896

"When the Messiah Came" The Present Truth 12, 19.

E. J. Waggoner

"But thou, Bethlehem Euphratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto Me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." Micah v. 2.

This was the stately language of the prophet, foretelling the coming of the Messiah. This was the passage to which the chief priests and scribes turned, when Herod called them together and demanded of them where Christ was to be born.

"And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judea: for thus it is written by the prophets, And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda, for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule My people Israel." Matt. ii. 5, 6.

They did not quote the last clause-"whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." Why not? Their "higher criticism," no doubt, had explained away those words so fraught with the breath of eternity, and so full of spiritual meaning. To them perhaps that was but a bit of mystical poetry, which, according to their interpretation, the prophet had seen fit to attach to the weightier matters of practical prophecy.

That a ruler should arise, who would expel the Roman governor, soldiers, and tax-gatherers, and re-establish the glories of King David and Solomon was something that they believed, and looked forward to. They felt that to be practical. It was something which their minds could grasp and they could look forward to with a feeling of its possibilities. They felt such a consummation was conceivable, and was something to which men of the practical trained intelligence that they felt they had attained, might look forward with some assurance of its realisation.

As for the rest, however,-that was but the mystic veil thrown round a core of reality: just the rhetorical dress in which the fact of the coming Jewish supremacy was set forth,-that was all.

Yet, did it enter the minds of any of them that He who should be ruler in Israel was that little babe in Bethlehem? Who can tell? Perhaps. But if it did they had no thought of emulating the wise men in their adoration of an infant. Indeed, they felt it would not do for them to commit themselves to anything so unreasonable. It would be quite time enough to acknowledge allegiance when he had come to years of maturity, when he had donned his armour, and summoned his men-at-arms about him, and there was a reasonable certainty that he was about to drive the foreigner from the sacred soil of Palestine, and set up his kingdom.

When that time should arrive, and

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all this should be assured, then it would be time enough for them to take action. In the meantime it would be the part of wisdom for them to stand, calmly by-entirely neutral-and await the progress and development of events. They did so, and the outcome was such as to convince them of the entire wisdom of their policy. If they had any hopes they were literally destroyed in the bud by the severe measures which Herod took. The incident of the quest of the wise men, the examination of the chief priests and scribes by Herod, his alarm and the cruel act in which his jealous fear resulted, passed from the minds of men, and became but an episode in the uncertain records of a troublous time.

It is thus, in centuries past, that men have ignored the accepted time, and so they do still. The Word of God is spread abroad now as never in the previous history of mankind. All the accessories which fulfil, explain, and illustrate the Scriptures are published in the view of men as never before; they are multiplying rapidly within the possible observation of all men. And yet there are chief priests, scribes, and Herods, to-day as there were eighteen hundred years ago. It is no less evident now than then that not all learned men are wise. Then the wise men worshipped in humility and faith, but the learned gave information to the enemy. Wisdom will be justified of her children no less to-day than then.

"Speaking and Living" The Present Truth 12, 19.

E. J. Waggoner

It requires the wisdom and prudence which only God can give to know how to speak the truths of the Word, and to remain silent when silence is more golden than speech. No rule can be stated to govern it, as the Holy Spirit must be the teacher in every occasion of need. However, merely as a suggestion of a very common danger, the following words by one writer are worth thinking of:-

I have known pious persons, rich in good works outside the home, who yet dare those with whom they live into various stages of indignation, revolt and unbelief by their well-meant homilies. Generally speaking, our religion is best shown by words to strangers and chance acquaintances, but by our lives to those who are always with us. If we live aright in the home our words are unnecessary, if not they are hurtful.

While it is by no means the case that one should be silent about Divine truth before those daily associated with, who may not be alive to its importance, it is a fact that the danger is that one may give more attention to talking than to living. And if the life be hid with Christ, the words will spring from the abundance of the life within, and will not so often take the form of "homilies," distasteful to those who do not relish spiritual things. Such persons very often repel the wisest words, and then special wisdom is needed to know when to speak and when to remain silent, committing the case to God in prayer. Christ's life and His own ways are to be studied for wisdom to know how to speak a word in season.

"The State as a Religious Teacher" The Present Truth 12, 19.

E. J. Waggoner

The dullest observer of events in the religious education controversy can now see very plainly why the Roman Catholic Church has always favored compulsory religious teaching in the Board schools, even when they had the greatest objection to what was taught. The great thing with Rome was to have the principle of State-taught religion maintained, trusting in its own power to turn the principle to the direct advantage of the Roman church.

We remember commenting on this seven or eight years ago in these columns, quoting from the chief organ of the Catholic Church in England to show that, while they held the religion taught to be little better than heathenism, still they regarded those who were insisting that the Board schools should give religious instruction as "doing the work of the Pope as surely as if they were his hired emissaries." They said:-

Every year that passes sees a widening of the circle to which Catholic influences extend in this country. The day will certainly come when the true religion will be placed before the common people of England as it has not been placed before them since the time of Henry VIII.

At that time it was perhaps hardly supposed, even by them, that by 1896 they would be working in the lobbies of the House of Commons, with fair promise of success, in favour of a Bill practically establishing their own schools. The Bill does not go far enough to suit them, it is true, but the Pope, according to the recent despatch, says that it is possible to tolerate the Bill, and so it is accepted as a further confirmation of the purely papal principle that the State should be the servant of the Church, do as it is told, and pay the bills. So the hierarchy in England has issued an episcopal message favouring the partial endowment of their schools:-

The Education Bill now before Parliament has our goodwill and approval, because it proposes to recognise by statute Voluntary and Christian schools as an integral part of the national system of elementary education. It embodies a Christian principle which, as Catholic Bishops, we must ever assert and maintain. That principle is that Christian parents possess an indefeasible natural right to have their children taught catechetically by approved teachers the definite doctrines of Christian faith and morals.

Those who have all along insisted on having a little religion made compulsory in the Board schools now find themselves prepared to struggle against this direct establishment of State-paid Catholic teaching. The Catholics, Roman and Anglican, both retort that the Protestant element has always wanted compulsory religious teaching, and they can say that the objectors to the proposed scheme differ only in degree and not in principle. Everything is working out in Rome's favour simply because the papal principle of advancing religion by human authority and political scheming will always work out in favour of the papal religion. The preaching of the Word-not by the State, but by those who believe-is the only thing that succeeds against Rome.

"Foundations Breaking Up" The Present Truth 12, 19.

E. J. Waggoner

There seems to be a breaking up of the fixed social and political conditions which from time immemorial have ruled the East. From the war between China and Japan, as the starting point, great changes are taking place. In the propagation of the Gospel the Lord is making the wrath of man to praise Him. During the war more than 120,000 Testaments or portions of Scripture were distributed among the Japanese soldiers.

Since the war there has been evidence that this sowing of the seed has borne fruit. The Japanese authorities have allowed the inmates of all the military hospitals to be furnished with Testaments. The police at Tokio and Yokohama have also each been supplied with a copy. In fact it may be said that general Bible distribution is now possible in Japan. Another result of the war is likely to be the introduction into China of modern facilities for travelling and transportation. This means that the Bible and Bible teachers will then go throughout the length and breadth of that benighted land.

It may also be said that a great change in the map of Asia is about to

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be made by the cession of territory by China to Russia, in return for protection and favours past and to come. With the results of such a change as that might be time only would develop. Certain it is that the foundations of the great East are breaking up. Ancient paganism must give way, to be succeeded by modern paganism and Christianity.

"A Sign of the Times" The Present Truth 12, 19.

E. J. Waggoner

It is not impossible that the introduction into the eastern world of the machinery and appliances of modern western civilisation may be the means of working a great revolution in industrial matters, not unattended with privation and suffering for the labouring classes of western Europe and America, who are dependent upon manufacturing interests for their support.

Japan, China, and India possess multitudes of skilled hand-workers,-patient, painstaking, and intelligent artists. What will be the result when all the latest and highest achievements, in the way of labor-saving mechanical appliances, are put into those skillful and patient hands? Chinese cheap labour has been excluded from the United States. But what is to hinder the progressive Oriental, or any American, or European for that matter, from taking the latest approved and perfected machinery, in any branch of manufacture, to Japan, or China, and there utilising this cheap labour in its own home?

The Japanese are an enterprising people. They are already awake to the possibilities open to them. Machinery has been imported from Europe and America; and manufactured products from Japan, equal in quality to anything that can be produced in the United States, have already, says a London journal, been offered in San Francisco at from thirty to fifty per cent. less than the prices made to dealers by American manufacturers. If Japan can undersell the United States with so wide a margin to spare as that, it can also compete with Great Britain and Europe in their own markets. Thus it will be found that there are more ways than one in which Oriental cheap labour can be brought to the doors of the western world.

As for the Chinese, they have learned more in the last two years than in the preceding twenty centuries. If they put their new-fledged acquirements into practice they will soon be close on the heels of Japan. What is to hinder Japan and China from producing useful goods cheaper than Continental, British, or American manufacturers? Unskilled labour is a drug in the market,-neither do they lack for those who have intelligence and whose brains are in their fingers. All that they lack is machinery,-this the forges, foundaries, and machine-shops of Europe and America are ready to furnish them. Skilled workmen will not be lacking to go with the machinery and furnish all the expert training needed. Experience has already shown in Japan and China that such assistance is not needed long.

With cheap transportation by sea, and rapid communication by direct transcontinental railroad lines, every facility is within their reach to render them able to create a revolution in trade and manufactures. Such a possibility,-no, such a probability-as this adds another, and a striking factor, to the signs the times which are multiplying all around us.

"Official Religion" The Present Truth 12, 19.

E. J. Waggoner

The Russian law forbids any member of the State Church withdrawing from it. The religion is officially called Christianity, and "Christians" the people must be, whether they will or no. The following paragraph from a newspaper shows how the scheme works out:-

Just what the Russian State and Church think of religious liberty can be learned from the court proceedings at Ufa, where recently fourteen young people were charged with having denied the Orthodox faith and become Mohammedans. The defence declared that they had never been Christians and did not want to be, and the investigations of the officials showed that their parents had indeed, many years ago, submitted to forced baptism and were entered in the Church records as converts, but that the accused had been reared as Mohammedans. On the basis of existing laws as the Church declared that they had been guilty of a denial of Christianity, and decreed that they should be put into a cloister, and that their property should be confiscated until they would return to the Christian religion. Essentially the same principles of procedure and laws are in vogue in the dealings of the Orthodox Church with the Protestants of the three Baltic provinces.

Anyone can see that the logic of the law is to make the heathen a "Christian" against his will-and that is the logic of every human religious law. Thus it is apparent that the whole system by which it is thought to make men Christians by human power and authority is itself absolute heathenism. As the Gospel goes to the world to-day it is again the light shining in gross darkness.

"Like Themselves" The Present Truth 12, 19.

E. J. Waggoner

Like Themselves.-It is very apparent in the case of the Russian officials who would force Mohammedans to be "Christians" in spite of themselves that these officials have no idea of religion other than that a man may be forced into it. They know nothing of genuine religious conviction, and as they profess without conviction so they would force others to do the same. Error deceives men thus, but truth never. No one with an apprehension of spiritual truth can for a moment take pleasure in the thought of forcing an unwilling profession of it. The lesson applies to the Sunday-law movement in professedly Protestant countries as well as to Russian religious laws.

"The Everlasting Gospel. The Gospel Message" The Present Truth 12, 19.

E. J. Waggoner

When the humble shepherds on the plains of Bethlehem were astonished by the shining of the glory of the Lord round about them, as they watched their flocks by night, their fears were quieted by the voice of the angel of the Lord, who said, "Fear not; for, 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 ii. 10, 11.

The words, "good tidings," are from the one Greek word which elsewhere is rendered "Gospel;" so that we might properly read the message of the angel thus: "Behold, I bring you the Gospel of great joy, which shall be to all people." In that announcement to the shepherds, therefore, we learn several important things.

1. That the Gospel is a message that brings joy. "The kingdom of God is. . . righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." Christ is anointed "with the oil of gladness," and He gives "the oil of joy for mourning."

2. It is a message of salvation from sin. For before this time the same angels had foretold to Joseph the birth of this infant, and had said, "Thou shalt call his name Jesus; for He shall save His people from their sins." Matt. i. 21.

3. It is something which concerns everybody,-"which shall be to all people." "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John iii. 16.

This is assurance enough for everybody; but as if to emphasise the fact that the poor have equal rights in the Gospel with the rich, the first announcement of the birth of Christ was to men in the humblest walks of life. It was not to the chief priests and scribes, nor to the nobles, but to shepherds, that the joyful news was first told. So the Gospel is not beyond the understanding of the uneducated. Christ Himself was born and brought up in deep poverty; He preached the Gospel to the poor, and "the common people heard Him gladly." Mark xii. 37. Since it is thus presented to the common people, who form the bulk of the whole world, there is no doubt about its being a world message.

"THE DESIRE OF ALL NATIONS"

But although the Gospel is first of all to the poor, it is not something mean and ignoble. Christ became poor that we might become rich. The great apostle who was chosen to give the message to kings, and to the great men of the earth, said in view of His hoped-for visit to the capital of the world, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." Rom. i. 16. The one thing that all the world is seeking after is power. Some seek it by means of wealth, others through politics, others through learning, and still others in various other ways; but in whatever enterprise men engage, the object is the same,-power of some kind. There is in the heart of every man an unrest, an unsatisfied longing, placed there by God Himself. The mad ambition that drives some to trample on scores of their fellow-creatures, the unceasing struggle for wealth, and the reckless round of pleasures into which many plunge, are all vain endeavours to satisfy this longing.

God has not placed in the human heart a longing for any of these things; but the quest for them is a perversion of that desire which He has implanted in the human breast. He desires that man should have His power; but none of the things which men ordinarily seek, give the power of God. Consequently none of these things satisfy man. Men set a limit to the amount of wealth which they will amass, because they think that when that limit is reached they will be satisfied; but when the fixed amount has been gained, they are as unsatisfied as ever; and so they go on seeking for satisfaction by piling up wealth, not realising that the desire of the heart cannot be met in that manner. He who implanted that desire is the only one who can satisfy it. God is manifested in Christ, and Christ is indeed "the desire of all nations" (Haggai 2:7), although there are so few who will believe that in Him alone is their perfect rest and satisfaction. To every unsatisfied mortal the invitation is given, "O taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man that trusteth in Him. O fear the Lord, ye His saints; for there is no want to them that fear Him." Ps. xxxiv. 8, 9. "How precious is Thy loving-kindness, O God! and the children of men take refuge under the shadow of Thy wings. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy house; and Thou shalt make them drink of the river of Thy pleasures." Ps. xxxvi. 7, 8, R.V.

Power is what men desire in this world, and power is what the Lord wants them to have. But the power which they are seeking would ruin them, and the power which He desires them to have is power that will save them. The Gospel brings to all men this power, and it is nothing less than the power of God. It is for everybody, if they will accept it. Let us for a while study the nature of this power, for when we have discovered it, we shall have before us the whole Gospel.

THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL

In the vision which the beloved disciple had of the time just preceding the coming of the Lord, the Gospel message which prepares men for that event is thus described:-

"And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach to them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the power of His judgment is come; and worship Him that made heaven and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." Rev. xiv. 6, 7.

Here we have plainly set before us the fact that the preaching of the

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Gospel consists in preaching God as the Creator of all things, and calling on men to worship Him as such. This corresponds to what we have read in the Epistle to the Romans, that the Gospel "is the power of God unto salvation." What the power of God is we learn a little farther on, where the apostle, speaking of the heathen, says:-

"That which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead." Rom. i. 19, 20. That is to say, ever since the creation of the world, men have been able to see the power of God, if they would use their senses, for it is clearly to be discerned in the things which He has made. Creation shows the power of God. So the power of God is creative power. And since the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, it follows that the Gospel is the manifestation of creative power to save men from sin.

But we have learned that the Gospel is the good news of salvation through Christ. The Gospel consists in the preaching of Christ and Him crucified. The apostle says: "For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the Gospel; not with wisdom of words, lest the preaching of the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God." 1 Cor. i. 17, 18.

And still further: "We preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God." 1 Cor. i. 23, 24. And this is why the apostle said, "And I brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." 1 Cor. ii. 1, 2.

The preaching of Christ and Him crucified is the preaching of the power of God, and therefore it is the preaching of the Gospel, for the Gospel is the power of God. And this is exactly in harmony with the thought that the preaching of the Gospel is the setting forth of God as the Creator; for the power of God is creative power, and Christ is the one by whom all things were created. No one can preach Christ without preaching Him as the Creator. All are to honour the Son even as they honour the Father. Whatever preaching fails to make prominent the fact that Jesus Christ is the Creator of all things, is not the preaching of the Gospel.

CREATION AND REDEMPTION

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. . . . All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made. . . . And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us full of grace and truth." John i. 1-14. "By Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by Him, and for Him; and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist." Col. i. 16, 17.

Let us give more careful attention to the last text, and see how creation and redemption meet in Christ. In verses thirteen and fourteen we read that God "hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son, in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins." And then, after a parenthetical remark as to who Christ is, the apostle tells us how it is that we have redemption through His blood. This is the reason: "For by Him were all things created," etc. The Revised Version, and others also, give the more literal rendering, "For in Him were all things created, . . . and He is before all things, and in Him all things consist."

So the preaching of the everlasting Gospel is the preaching of Christ the creative power of God, through whom alone salvation can come. And the power by which Christ saves men from sin is the power by which He created the worlds. We have redemption through His blood; the preaching of the cross is the preaching of the power of God; and the power of God is the power that creates; therefore the cross of Christ has in it creative power. Surely that is power enough for anybody. No wonder that the apostle exclaimed, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." Gal. vi. 14.

THE MYSTERY OF GOD

To some it may be a new thought that creation and redemption are the same power; to all it is and must ever be a mystery. The Gospel itself is a mystery. The Apostle Paul desired the prayers of the brethren, that utterance might be given him, "to make known the mystery of the Gospel." Eph. vi. 19. Elsewhere he says that he was made a minister of the Gospel, according to the gift of the grace of God, given unto him by the effectual working of His power, that he "should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world have been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ." Eph. iii. 8, 9. Here again we see the mystery of the Gospel to be the mystery of creation.

This mystery was made known to the apostle by revelation. How the revelation was made known to him we learn in his Epistle to the Galatians, where he says, "But I certify you, brethren, that the Gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." And then he makes the matter still more definite, by saying, "But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen, immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood." Gal. i. 11, 12, 15, 16.

Let us sum up the last few points. 1. The Gospel is a mystery. 2. It is a mystery that is made known by revelation of Jesus Christ. 3. It was not merely that Jesus Christ revealed it to him, but that he was made to know the mystery by the revelation of Jesus Christ in him. Paul had to know the Gospel first, before he could preach it to others; and the only way in which he could be made to know it was to have Christ revealed in him. The conclusion therefore is that the Gospel is the revelation of Jesus Christ in men.

This conclusion is plainly stated by the apostle in another place, where he says that he was made a minister "according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God; even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to His saints; to whom God would make known what is the riches

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of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you the hope of glory." Col. i. 25-27. So we are fully assured that the Gospel is the making known of Christ in men. Or rather, the Gospel is Christ in men, and the preaching of it is the making known to men of the possibility of Christ dwelling in them. And this agrees with the statement of the angel, that they should call the name of Jesus Emmanuel, "which, being interpreted, is God with us" (Matt. i. 23); and also with the statement by the apostle that the mystery of God is God manifest in the flesh. When the angels made known to the shepherds the birth of Jesus, it was the announcement that God had come to men in the flesh; and when it was said that this good news should be to all people, it was revealed that the mystery of God dwelling in human flesh was to be declared to all men, and repeated in all who should believe Him.

And now let us briefly sum up all that we have thus far learned.

1. The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Salvation is only by the power of God, and wherever the power of God is, there is salvation.

2. Christ is the power of God.

3. But Christ's salvation comes through the cross; therefore the cross of Christ is the power of God.

4. So the preaching of Christ and Him crucified is the preaching of the Gospel.

5. The power of God is the power that creates all things. Therefore the preaching of Christ and Him crucified, as the power of God, is the preaching of the creative power of God put forth for the salvation of men.

6. This is so, because Christ is the Creator of all things.

7. Not only so, but in Him all things were created. He is the first-born of all creation; when He was begotten, "in the days of eternity," all things were virtually created, because all creation is in Him. The substance of all creation, and the power by which all things should be made to appear, were in Christ. This is simply a statement of the mystery that only the mind of God can comprehend.

8. The mystery of the Gospel is God manifest in human flesh. Christ on earth is "God with us." So Christ dwelling in the hearts of men by faith is all the fulness of God in them.

9. And this means nothing less than the creative energy in God working in men through Jesus Christ, for their salvation. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature." 2 Cor. v. 17. "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works." Eph. ii. 10.

All this is indicated by the apostle when he says that to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ is to make all see "what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world have been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ."

A SUMMARY

In the following portion of Scripture we have the details of this mystery well summarized:-

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ; according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love; having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace; wherein He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself; that in the dispensation of the fulness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in Him; in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will; that we should be to the praise of His glory, who first trusted in Christ. In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation; in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of His glory. Wherefore I . . . cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him; the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places." Eph. i. 3-20.

Now we will note the different points of this statement. 1. All blessings are given to us in Christ. "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things." Rom. viii. 32.

2. This gift of all things in Christ is in accordance with the fact that He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that in Him we might obtain holiness. "For God hath not appointed us unto wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Thess, v. 9.

3. In that choice the destiny determined for us was that we should be sons.

4. Accordingly He accepts us in the Beloved.

5. In the Beloved we have redemption through His blood.

6. All this is the making known to us of the mystery, namely, that in the fulness of times He will gather together in one household all things in Jesus Christ, both things in the heaven and things on the earth.

7. This being the fixed purpose of God, it follows that in Christ we have already obtained an inheritance; for God makes all things work out the purpose of His own will.

8. All who believe in Christ are sealed with the Holy Spirit, which is called the Holy Spirit of promise, because it is the surety of the promised inheritance.

9. This seal of the Holy Spirit is the pledge of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession. "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." Eph. iv. 30.

10. Those who have the Spirit as the seal, know what is the riches of the glory of the inheritance; that is, the glory of the future inheritance becomes theirs now, through the Spirit.

In this we see that the Gospel involves an inheritance; in fact, the mystery of the Gospel is really the possession of the inheritance, because in Him we have obtained an inheritance. Now let us see how the matter is stated in the eighth of Romans. We shall not quote the Scripture entire, but simply summarise it.

Those who have the Holy Spirit of promise are the sons of God; "for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." If we are children we are necessarily heirs; heirs of God because sons of God. And if heirs of God, we are joint heirs with Jesus Christ. The one thing above all others that Christ is desirous that we should know is that the Father has loved us even as He loved Him.

But of what are we heirs together with Christ?-Why, of all creation, because the Father has constituted Him "heir all things" (Hebrews 1:2), and has said that "he that overcometh shall inherit all things." Rev. xxi. 7. And this is shown by what follows in the eighth of Romans. We are now sons of God, but the glory of the sons of God doth not yet appear. Christ was the Son of God, yet He was not recognised as such by the world; "therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not." 1 John iii. 1. In possessing the Spirit we are in possession of "the riches of the glory of the inheritance;" and that glory will in due time be revealed in us, in a measure far exceeding all present sufferings.

"For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but by reason of Him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only so, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." Rom. viii. 19-23.

Man by creation was a son of God; but through sin he became a child of wrath, even a child of Satan, to whom He rendered obedience, instead of to God. But through the grace of God in Christ those who believe are made sons of God, and receive the Holy Spirit. Thus they are sealed as heirs until the redemption of the purchased possession, that is, of the whole creation, which is waiting for its redemption when the glory shall be revealed in the sons of God.

Next week we shall continue the study of the Gospel, specially considering what is included in the "purchased possession."

"Plain Bread for Hungry Men" The Present Truth 12, 19.

E. J. Waggoner

That veteran preacher and writer, Dr. Theodore L. Cuyler, celebrated his fiftieth year in the ministry the other day. Speaking of his early years as a preacher he said:-

"My congregation was small, and mostly composed of shoemakers, coachmen, gardeners, and plain folk-just the best sort of material for a young beginner. I aimed my sermons at the coachmen and gardeners, and by that style of gunnery reached the whole of my little congregation. One thing I soon discovered, and that was that the half-dozen highly cultured families in the parish relished simple, spiritual, and earnest sermons quite as much as the gardeners and the shoemakers. The Gospel of Christianity is not a delicate dainty for the fastidious few, or a difficult enigma for acute intellects alone to solve. It is God's simple bread of life for the hungering masses of humanity. There is no greater delusion than the idea that highly-educated parishioners hanker after severely intellectual or abstruse preaching."

"'Just as I Am'" The Present Truth 12, 19.

E. J. Waggoner

It is but a step into the kingdom. The decision may be made by any man and the step be taken within a moment-the step from the kingdom of darkness and unrest into that of light and peace. The following incident is an illustration of this:-

At a mission service held at a seaside place by an earnest servant of God, this familiar hymn was given out to be sung. Before it was begun, the gentleman who weas conducting the meeting urged very solemnly that none should join in singing the words without really meaning them.

Thus cautioned, an officer who was sitting in one of the rows cast his eye down the verses, and thinking them over, he came to the determination that he could not stand up and sing, "O Lamb of God, I come." He had never really meant anything by it when he had sung it before, and decided not to sing a lie again.

A moment more, and the sudden blessed thought came, "I must come now!" He did not hesitate because his life had been careless before, or because his life might in future be one of difficulty or temptation. He just closed with the loving Saviour's free offer of salvation, and trusted Him for the rest. He sprang to his feet and sang, meaning it, "O Lamb of God, I come!"

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 19.

E. J. Waggoner

-Strikes and rumours of strikes are abounding in the labour world just now.

-Seventy lives were reported lost in a colliery disaster in Yorkshire last week.

-The trans-Siberian railway is expected to be completed in 1900, when one can girdle the earth in thirty days.

-The ravages of the rinderpest in South Africa are said to be very serious indeed, many natives in the affected districts having lost all their cattle.

-The military authorities have provided for the use of the new X-ray photography in the Soudan expedition for the purpose of locating bullets in the body.

-Spain has been suffering from a severe drought, and the Government has had to organise public works to give employment to farm labourers who are unable to work on the land.

-Typhus and cholera are said to be breaking out in the districts lately desolated in Turkey. The pestilence may, with the approach of warm weather, prove more deadly even than the sword.

-Japan has always prohibited the opium traffic, and now that the great island of Formosa has come into Japanese hands the drug is excluded, save as a medicine. In this respect Japan rises to a higher standard than Western nations.

-Osman Digna, the leader of the Dervish column that went against the Italians at Kassala, is retreating, and the Italian forces are acting on the offensive. The Italian Government is preparing to prosecute the campaign against the Abyssinians, the latter terms of peace having been rejected.

-Crown-making is one of Birmingham's industries. The trade is principally with Africa. It is said that a very serviceable crown for the African king can be had for a sovereign, and they are taking the place of the silk hat, formerly the mark of lank amongst the small potentates of the Dark Continent.

-The funeral of Miss Ellen Richardson took place in Newcastle on April 29. It was she and her sister Anne who purchased the freedom of the slave Frederick Douglass, and thus liberated him to the work which he accomplished for his race, and in the pursuance of which he made for himself a name among the brilliant orators of his time.

-The Maxim guns employed in the defence of Buluwayo are described as doing terrible execution. The waters of the Umgnza, says one report of an engagement, were dyed red with blood. Thus far every attack of the Matabeles has been repelled with severe loss to the natives. The relief forces are nearing Buluwayo, and soon the Matabeles will be put on the defensive, and then it will only be a question of a little time when the rising will be ended and the white man will be in possession of the field.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 19.

E. J. Waggoner

The spiritual bankrupt is never the man who has been a factor for the Lord.

To die for principle is but the struggle of a moment. To live for principle is the ceaseless battle of a lifetime.

The old "Hall of Science," for many years the centre of the atheistical propaganda in London, will now be known as the "Hall of Mercy," having been purchased by the Salvation Army for a shelter for women.

A correspondent who is engaged in evangelistic work in the Midlands writes us:-

It is astonishing to see how Spiritualism is spreading in the Midlands. Liecester and Northampton seem to be permeated with it.

Doubtless the same thing might be said of many parts, at home and abroad.

This season of the annual "May Meetings" of the various religious societies has begun, and reports of missionary operations tell of many advances with the Word into hitherto unentered fields. And wherever the Word goes there the Lord is at work, saving from sin and preparing hearts for His coming. Godspeed every man who is feeding hungry souls with the Word of Life indeed.

There is a fable of a fox who was about to enter the mouth of the cave where it was evident from the multitude of footprints that many of his own kind had preceded him. But when just at the entrance he noticed that all the tracks pointed in one direction,-all were entering, not returning. He stopped, meditated, turned away. Wise fox!

Many and various are the dens, caves, yes, palaces of iniquity frequented by multitudes of men and women. But the steps point all onward and downward.-the returning are so few that their footprints are obliterated by the hurrying feet of the great onrushing majority. The wise man says: "Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it and pass away. . . . The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble. But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more under the perfect day."

Satan is responsible for Sunday enforcement and yet himself observes no Sunday rest, and keeps no holidays.

A Calcutta correspondent says that the drying up of the water supplies over the country is causing apprehension. He writes:-

Just now the cholera is quite prevalent here in the city. The death rate is above fifty per thousand, and the municipality have received a request from the natives asking that they be allowed to hold a particular pooja, day and night, for three days, on account of the cholera epidemic. This, they say, is necessary because the goddess Kahli is angry and has sent the cholera, and they must do something to appease her wrath. This pooja means that they will keep up the most hideous noise without any interruption. They sing and play and dance and yell like demons, and keep it up all night. Of course the natural consequence is that the more they go on in that way the less powers they have to resist disease, and so the disease goes on from bad to worse, and they think that they must put forth greater efforts to appease their goddess. How like some Christians in their supposed worship of the true God!

"In Austria" The Present Truth 12, 19.

E. J. Waggoner

In Austria.-One of our Society's workers writes as follows of influences which have to be met in Vienna and other parts of Austria, where the circulation of literature and the Bible is hindered, as far as they are able, by the priests:-

Rome still shuts out God's Word wherever she can. At the same time the Virgin Mary is found in every nook and corner, worshipped under every colour and name. There are white and black statutes of Mary; each neighborhood has its particular Mary; but it is the "holy" Mary all the same. Any book with her picture and some story about her miraculous power is sold by the thousand; but the word of God is shut out, and darkness and superstition reign supreme. The only hope is that from the great centres the light will radiate to the remote country places; but it will cost money and hard labour, and perhaps many a fine, before we gain a good foothold in these large cities.

"Hunger for Power" The Present Truth 12, 19.

E. J. Waggoner

Hunger for Power.-The President of the Baptist Union devoted his annual address to the subject of authority and power in the church. Of the hunger for civil authority he said:-

The Roman Church was not alone in affording historical examples of the evils of power. Every Church which has sought or accepted political power as an instrument for the furtherance of religious plans has been a partaker of her fault, and in some measure of her plagues. Luther erred when he yoked the German Princes to his Reformation chariot, and the Church which bears his name has paid for that error by Erastian stripes and by widespread unbelief. Calvin made a similar mistake when he entangled the relations of ministers and magistrates in republican Geneva. The great English reformer, Henry VIII. did not make this mistake himself, but he forced it on the Anglican Church, and that church is weaker than she ought to be to-day because her clergy stand to minister as privileged officials of the State.

He might have gone further, and pointed out the fact that whenever Nonconformity as well as secured political power to a degree the result has been the same. The Gospel is says "the power of God," and with that as a living principle there is no hunger for the earth-power-the Word is the sole reliance. But when the Word is set aside, then comes the desire for civil power and political influence. The revival of the Sunday-law movement all over the world is bringing to all again the test on the principle of religious liberty. The sentiment of the religious world which aims at making Sunday rest compulsory, and the history of the prosecution of Sabbath-keepers, during the last year or two, in many parts, show that a hunger for civil power is a rising passion in the religious world to-day.

"The Missionary as Pioneer" The Present Truth 12, 19.

E. J. Waggoner

The Missionary as Pioneer.-The idea that the missionary is unable to go forward until civilisation-meaning the trader and the soldier-has prepared the way is based on ignorance of the history of Christian missions. It has, on the contrary, often proved to be the case that the advance of civilisation has been the signal of trouble for the missionary. Such a case is described by a Dalziel's despatch, sent from Bulawayo last week.

The mission station belonging to the London Missionary Society at Hope Fountain-a fine place established many years before the Chartered Company came upon the scene-was looted and burned by the Matabeles on Friday, everything belonging to the missionaries being destroyed.

It is useless to attempt to apportion blame or to condemn, but war is the common history of the subjugation of a new country. Livingstone and other missionaries have laboured in Africa unmolested; while now in some of those same districts the white is regarded as an enemy irrespective of his motives. It makes every difference whether barbarous tribes are impressed by the gun or the Gospel.

May 14, 1896

"The First Dominion. The Purchased Possession" The Present Truth 12, 20.

E. J. Waggoner

Redemption means to buy back. And what is to be bought back? Evidently that which was lost; for that is what the Lord came to save. And what was lost? Man, for one thing; "for thus saith the Lord, ye have sold yourselves for naught; and ye shall be redeemed without money." Isa. lii. 3. What else was lost? Necessarily all that man had. And what was that?

"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." Gen. i. 26-28.

The Psalmist says of men: "Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands; Thou hast put all things under his feet; all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas." Ps. viii. 5-8.

This was man's original dominion, but it was not retained. In the Epistle to the Hebrews we have these words of the Psalmist quoted in the following passage:-

"For not unto angels did He [God] subject the world to come, whereof we speak. But one hath somewhere testified, saying, what is man, that Thou art mindful of him? Or the son of man, that Thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower [or, "for a little while lower"] than the angels; thou crownest him with glory and honor, and didst set him over the works of Thy hands. Thou put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that He subjected all things unto him, He left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we see not yet all things subjected to him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower [for, "for a little while lower"] than the angels, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor; that by the grace of God, He should taste death for every man." Hebrews 2:5-9, R.V.

A wonderful picture is in these words opened to our view. God has put the earth, and all that pertains to it, under the rule of man. But that is not the case now. "We see not yet all things put under him." Why not? Because man lost everything by the fall. But we see that Jesus, who was made "lower than the angels," that is, was made man, so that all who will believe may be restored to the lost inheritance. So that just as surely as Jesus died and rose again, and just as surely as by His death and resurrection those who believe in Him shall be saved, so surely will the lost inheritance be restored to those who are redeemed.

This is indicated in the first words of the passage quoted from the Book of Hebrews: "Unto the angels had He not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak." Well, has He put the world to come in subjection to man? Yes; for when the earth was created He put it in subjection to man, and Christ has taken man's fallen state in order to redeem both him and his lost possession, for He came to save that which is lost; and since in Him we have obtained an inheritance it is clear that in Christ we have in subjection the world to come, which is nothing less than the earth renewed as it was before the fall.

This is shown also by the words of the prophet Isaiah: "They shall go to confusion together that are makers of idols. But Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation; ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end. For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God Himself that formed the earth and made it; He hath established it, He created it not in vain, He formed it to be inhabited; I am the Lord; and there is none else. I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth; I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye Me in vain; I the Lord speak righteousness, I declare things that are right." Isa. xlv. 16-19.

The Lord formed the earth to be inhabited, and since He works all things after the counsel of His own will, it is certain that His design will be carried out. But when He had made the earth, the sea, and all things that are in them, and man upon the earth, He "saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good." Gen. i. 31. Then since God's plan is to be carried out, it is evident that the earth is yet to be inhabited by people who are very good, and that it is to be at that time in a perfect condition.

When God made man, He "crowned him with glory and honor," and gave him "dominion over the works of His hands." He was therefore king, and as his crown indicates, his kingdom was one of glory. By sin he lost the kingdom and the glory, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Rom. iii. 23. Then Jesus stepped into his place, and through death, which He tasted for every man, He became "crowned with glory and honour." It is the man Christ Jesus, (1 Tim. ii. 5) who has thus won back the dominion that the first man Adam lost. He did this in order that He might bring many sons to glory. In Him we have obtained an inheritance; and since it is "the man Christ Jesus" who is now "in the presence of God for us," it is plain that the world to come, of which is the new earth,-"the first dominion,"-is still man's portion.

The following text also makes this clear: "Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation." Heb. ix. 28. When He was offered He bore the curse, in order that the curse might be removed. "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." Gal. iii. 13. But when the curse of sin came upon man, it came also upon the earth; for the Lord said to Adam: "Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it; cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth unto thee." Gen. iii. 17, 18. When Christ had been betrayed into the hands of sinful men, "when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put upon His head, and a reed in His right hand; and they bowed the knee before Him, and mocked Him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews! And they spit upon Him, and took the reed, and smote Him on the head." Thus when Christ bore the curse that came on man, He at the same time bore the curse of the earth. So when He comes to save those who have accepted His sacrifice, He comes to renew the earth as well.

THE TIME OF RESTITUTION

Therefore it is that the Apostle Peter said: "And He shall send Jesus Christ which before was preached unto you; whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began." Acts iii. 21. And so we have the words of Christ: "When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory; and before Him shall be gathered all nations; and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth His sheep from the goats; and He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." Matt. xxv. 31-34. This will be the consummation of the work of the Gospel.

Now let us return to the words of the apostle in the first chapter of Ephesians. There we learned that in Christ we are predestinated to the adoption of sons; and as we learned in another place, if we are sons we are heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ. Therefore it is that in Christ we have obtained an inheritance, for He has gained the victory, and is set down at the right hand of the Father, awaiting the time when His foes shall be made His footstool, and all things be put in subjection under Him. This is as sure as that He overcame. As the pledge of this inheritance which we have in Him, He has given the Holy Spirit. It is of the nature of the inheritance, and therefore makes known what is the riches of His glory of the inheritance. In other words, the fellowship of the Spirit makes known the fellowship of the mystery.

The Spirit is the representative of Christ. Therefore the Spirit dwelling in men is Christ in men the hope of glory. And Christ in men is creative power in men, creating them new creatures. The Spirit is given "according to the riches of His glory," and that is the measure of the power by which we are to be strengthened. So the riches of the glory of the inheritance, made known through the Spirit, is nothing less than the power by which God will create all things new by Jesus Christ, as in the beginning, and by which He will create man anew, so that he may be fitted for that glorious inheritance. Thus it is that when the Spirit is given in the fullest measure, those to whom it is given taste "the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come." Heb. vi. 5.

So the Gospel does not deal exclusively in the future. It is present and personal. It is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, or that is believing. While we believe we have the power, and that power is the power by which the world to come is to be made ready for us, even as it was made in the beginning. Therefore in studying the promise of the inheritance we are simply studying the power of the Gospel to save us in this present evil world.

WHO ARE HEIRS?

"And if ye are Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Gal. iii. 29.

Of what are we heirs if we are Abraham's seed? Why, evidently of the promise to Abraham. If we are Christ's, then we are heirs with Him; for they are Christ's who have the Spirit, and they who have the Spirit are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ. So to be a joint-heir with Christ is to be an heir of Abraham."

Heirs according to the promise. "What promise? The promise to Abraham, as a matter of course. And what was that promise? Read Rom. iv. 13, for an answer: "For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith." So then, they who are Christ's are heirs of the world. We have already learned this from many texts, but now we see it connected definitely with the promise to Abraham.

We have also learned that the inheritance is to be bestowed at the coming of the Lord, for it is when the

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Lord comes in His glory that He says to the righteous, "Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." When the world was created it was designed for the habitation of man, and was given to him. But that dominion was lost. True, men now live on the earth, but they do not enjoy the inheritance that God originally gave to men. That was the possession of a perfect creation by perfect beings. Nay, they do not even possess it; for "one generation passeth away, and another generation cometh; but the earth abideth for ever." Eccl. i. 4. While the earth abideth for ever, "Our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding." 1 Chron. xxix. 15. No one really possesses anything of this world. Men labour and fight to amass wealth, and then they "perish, and leave their wealth to others." Ps. xlix. 10. But God works all things after the counsel of His own will; not one of His purposes will fail; and so as soon as man had sinned and lost his inheritance, a restoration was promised through Christ, in these words: "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between by seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Gen. iii. 15. In these words the destruction of Satan and all his work was foretold. The "great salvation" "at the first began to be spoken by the Lord." Thus "the first dominion" (Micah iv. 8), even "the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom." Daniel vii. 27. That will be real possession, for it will be everlasting.

THE PROMISE OF HIS COMING

But all this is to be consummated at the coming of the Lord in glory, "Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began." Acts iii. 21. Therefore the coming of the Lord to restore all things has been the grand hope set before the church ever since the fall of man. The faithful have always looked forward to that event, and although the time has seemed long, and the majority of people doubt the promise, it is as sure as the word of the Lord. The promise, the doubts of the unbelieving, and the certainty of the fulfilment of the promise are vividly set forth in the following portion of Scripture:-

"This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance; that ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour; knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water [compacted out of water and amidst water, R.V.]; whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished; but the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness, looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." 2 Pet. iii. 1-13.

Now read the passage again, and note the following points: Those who scoff at the promise of the coming of the Lord our willingly ignorant of some of the plainest and most important events recorded in the Bible, namely the creation and the flood. The word of the Lord created the heavens and the earth in the beginning. "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth." Ps. xxxiii. 6. By the same word the earth was covered with water, the water with which the earth was stored being made to contribute to its destruction. By the flood the earth "perished;" the earth in its present condition bears scarcely any resemblance to that which existed before the flood. By the same word by which the earth was created and destroyed, the earth which is now is kept until the time of the perdition of ungodly men, when it will be overwhelmed by a lake of fire instead of a flood of water. "Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." The same word accomplishes it all.

THE GRAND CLIMAX

To us it appears that the coming of the Lord has been the one grand event toward which everything has been tending ever since the fall. The "promise of His coming" is the same as the promise of a new heavens and a new earth. This was the promise to the "fathers." Those who scoff at it cannot deny that the Bible contains the promise, but as no change has appeared since the fathers fell asleep, they think that there is no probability of its fulfilment. They ignore the fact that things have changed much since the beginning of creation; and they have forgot that the word of the Lord endureth for ever. "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise." Notice that it is the singular, not the plural form of the word. It is not promises, but promise. It is a fact that the Lord does not forget any of His promises, but the apostle Peter is here speaking of a definite promise, namely, the promise of the coming of the Lord, and the restoration of the earth. It will be a "new earth" in very fact, because it will be restored to the condition in which it was when it was first made.

Now although it has been a long time, as man counts, since the promise was made, "the Lord is not slack concerning His promise," because He has all time for His own. A thousand years are with Him as one day. So then it has been scarcely a week since the promise was first made, at the

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time of the fall. Only about half a week has elapsed since the "fathers fell asleep." The passage of a few thousand years does not abate one jot of the promise of God. It is as sure as when it was first made. He has not forgotten. The only reason why He has delayed thus long, is that "He is long-suffering to usward; not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." So we should "account that the long-suffering of the Lord is salvation," and should gratefully accept the kindness thus graciously offered, instead of taking His merciful delay as an evidence of lack of good faith on His part.

It should not be forgot that while a thousand years is with Lord as one day, one day is with Him also as a thousand years. What does that mean? Simply that while the Lord may wait a long time as man counts, before carrying out His plans, that should not be taken as evidence at any stage that to do a given amount of work will necessarily take as great a length of time as has been taken for the same amount of work in the past. One day is just as good as a thousand years with the Lord, whenever He chooses to have the work of a thousand years done in a single day. And this will yet be seen. "For He will finish the work, and cut it short in righteousness; because a short work will the Lord make in the earth." One day will suffice for the work of a thousand years. The day of Pentecost was but a sample of the power with which the work of the Gospel is yet to go.

And now that we have had this summary of what the Gospel of the kingdom really is, and have been referred to the promise to the fathers as the foundation for our faith, we may next take up the study of that promise, beginning with Abraham, whose children we must be if we are to be heirs with Christ.

"Christianity Is a Promise" The Present Truth 12, 20.

E. J. Waggoner

Paganism is a threat, Christianity is a promise. Paganism is essentially pessimistic. Christianity is essentially optimistic. The heathen knows no future, has no assured hope. But the Christian is a man with more than a hope,-with a Gospel, with a faith, with an inheritance unfailing and eternal. This Gospel, this faith, this inheritance is offered without money and without price. Whosoever will, let him come and take it. Why then should he who knows the Christian promises remain in heathen fear, trembling under the threats of Satan instead of rejoicing in the promises of Christ?

"The Test of Christian Character" The Present Truth 12, 20.

E. J. Waggoner

A series of articles on "Sabbath and Sunday," which first appeared in the Bibliotheca Sacra Magazine, 1870-1881, has lately been published in book form. In the introduction to the work this sentence is found:-

The disciples of the Seventh-day Sabbath have been increasing; and this has brought disesteem of the Christian Sabbath or Lord's day, even among some who do not embrace their Sabbatarian views.

This is a statement which is not original with that writer,-it has frequently been made of late. It may be true,-yet there is no positive evidence of its truth. But whether true or not, what does it signify? If true it simply means that professing Christians are being tried as to the character of the profession which they make. It means that a knowledge of the Sabbath question has proved a test and touch-stone by which the various church organisations to which those persons belong have been able to discover their unworthy members.

The Christian who has never seen, and does not understand, the contradiction and antagonism between the fourth commandment and Sunday observance will look upon Sunday as the Sabbath, and so observe it. When such an one discovers his error and learns that Sunday is the Sabbath, and learns that it is not, he will of course no longer respect Sunday as the Sabbath. But that is the moment in which the test comes as to whether he has ever really-though mistakenly-respected Sunday as the Sabbath or not. If he has, it will be the Sabbath and the Sabbath commandment that He will still respect. If he has not had respect for Sunday as the Sabbath the fact will now be apparent, and, the formality of his religious profession being shown, it will be evident that his church's membership was no eternal value to himself, and but an element of weakness to the denomination to which he belongs.

Why should anyone disapprove of the practical application of the commandment of God to life and habits of a man as a proof of his Christian or unchristian character? No one could properly object to the use of the acid test upon a gold piece to prove its genuineness. If he did the supposition would be that he either knew or feared that it was counterfeit, and did not wish the fact made known. If anyone is disinclined to subject professed Christianity to the test of obedience to any one of the commandments, does it not lay that profession open to a similar supposition?

The acid shows the pure gold, and under its biting, cleansing test, the true metals shine bright and unmistakable. Thus obedience to the commandments makes known true Christian character. It is an acid test under which Christianity shines clear and radiant. Why hesitate to apply it? The acid does not destroy the pure gold,-it only makes its presence known. Obedience to all the ten commandments does not destroy or bring "disesteem" upon Christianity, it only brings true Christianity to the proof and shows its reality.

Counterfeit currency is always necessarily in disesteem. It is of the utmost importance to the commercial world that it should be subjected to such tests as should cause it to be withdrawn from circulation. A large amount of it in the channels of trade would be disastrous to the interests of the business world. Any religious counterfeit should also be held in similar disesteem, for it is equally dangerous to the best interests of the Christian world.

"Buying the Kingdom" The Present Truth 12, 20.

E. J. Waggoner

A lady of means, who was asked for a contribution for the assistance of a mission to convert the Jews, is said to have refused on the ground that the Jews were rich enough, so she understood, to convert themselves. It was certainly an epigrammatic speech, and a unique application of worldly wisdom. The suggestions which it conveys are worthy of being weighed. Rich enough to convert themselves! What are the riches necessary to conversion, and who possesses that wealth? What is conversion? Can a man convert himself? Can a man's money convert him? Can a man convert others with his money?

The answers to these questions

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show how subordinate a part it is that money really plays in the furtherance of the Gospel and the conversion of souls. The reliance upon the money power is responsible for much of the failure registered against missionary efforts in all parts of the world. It is largely responsible for the worldliness found among professed religionists everywhere.

If that man who trusts in riches for worldly successes so often finds his trust unwisely placed, how much more shall it be true of him who hopes with gold to buy eternity for himself or others. The comparative part which money plays is indeed very small. Yet money must be used,-but a consecrated pound, put in the hands of God, will bring a knowledge of truth to more souls than an unconsecrated million in the hands of those who put their faith in the power of money.

"Fighting the Jesuits" The Present Truth 12, 20.

E. J. Waggoner

Ever since the children of the flesh began to war against the children of the Spirit it has been constantly shown that no human power can quench the shining of the true Light. The light shines from the Word, and so, while error may resort to force and persecution, the truth only shines on, delivering men who receive it from the darkness of error. And it is a truth-which all who would resist Rome in these days need to know-that error is not to be crushed by force. Darkness is dispelled only by the shining of the light.

Of course in the end Divine power will destroy all the works of the devil, but for men it is only to hold forth the Word of life. No better illustration of the futility of trying to suppress error by force could be given than is found in the history of the Jesuits. Rising at a time when Rome sadly needed some new force in order to regain her feet after the shock of the Reformation, the society established by Loyola fully deserves the discredit of setting up the counter movement to the Reformation which kept the light from entering Latin Europe. But it was at the same time setting up a rival authority in the Church of Rome, and the struggle began which was to decide whether the Jesuit society should manage the Church or the Church manage the society. Then began the efforts to suppress Loyola's followers, the most determined opposition coming from purely Catholic communities. They were expelled-

From Saragossa in 1555, La Palintine 1558, Vienna 1566, Avignon 1570, Antwerp, Portugal, and Sagovia 1578, England 1579, England again 1581, England again 1586, Japan 1887, Hungary and Transylvania 1588, Bordeaux 1589, the whole of France 1594, Holland 1596, the city of Tournon and Berne 1597, England 1602, England again 1604, Denmark, Thorn, and Venice 1606, Venice again 1612, the kingdom of Amura in Japan 1613, Bohemia 1618, Moravia, 1619, Naples and the Netherlands 1622, China and India 1623, Malta 1634, Russia 1723, Savoy 1729, Paraguay 1733, Portugal 1759, France again 1764, Spain and the two Slollies 1767, the Duchy of Parma and Malta 1768, from all Christendom by the Bull of Clement XIV. in 1773.

In his famous document against them, Clement first sketched their history and then declared them "suppressed, extinguished, abolished, and abrogated forever." But the society would not be extinguished and abolished forever, nor for a year. Under various names, and in non-Catholic countries, it continued its work, and has cut back its old power and its recognition of the Church. Many countries have since tried to legislate to prevent its agents from working, but in vain. Now and then some Protestant calls attention to the Act making their presence illegal in England, but it is not surprising that such a purely Romanist statute as a law against religious opinions and orders should fail to shut out the Romanist society.

Now and then, when the veil is lifted, we see how the Jesuits hold the Church of Rome in their hands, sometimes in spite of the efforts of those who writhe under their tyranny. The late Cardinal Manning left certain documents relating to the society with his biographer. The Catholic Times shows how the Jesuits moved everything to get possession of them:-

Cardinal Manning's papers and correspondence-including the famous memorandum about Jesuits-have, it is stated, been obtained from Mr. Purcell, his executors took legal proceedings, with a double object of recovering the documents and restraining Mr. Purcell from publishing anything more.

Everywhere they are at work, and everywhere the leaven of Romanism is working. This history shows, as we

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have said, the utter uselessness of trying forcibly to suppress principles of error which find their spring in the natural heart. The cry for laws and the use of force which finds expression in some professedly Protestant circles betrays an ignorance of the true nature of error, and of the power of the Word. When the Princes thought to stay up the Reformation by the sword they well-nigh brought it to its end: and when Catholic and Protestant sovereigns alike tried to suppress Jesuitism by force they failed utterly. But through it all the Word has been the one thing which Jesuitism could not face.

"A Canadian Sunday Law" The Present Truth 12, 20.

E. J. Waggoner

ITS ANIMUS FRANKLY AVOWED

The Sunday law of Ontario, Canada, has not, heretofore, included farm labour within its prohibitions. Lately a considerable number of farmers in that province have become Seventh-day Adventists, and, of course, observing the seventh day of the week

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according to the commandment they pursue their regular farm labour on the first day. The result of the opposition which this developed is thus told in the American Sentinel, of New York:-

The following, recently printed in the Leamington Post, a paper published in Essex County, Ontario, shows very plainly the purpose of the amendment to the so-called "Lord's day Act of that Province:-

Speaker's Chamber,
Legislative Assembly.
Toronto, April 3rd, 1896.

To ---, Esq., Blytheswood:
MY DEAR SIR,-I have been finally enabled to get a bill through the legislature prohibiting farmers from working on the sabbath day. I trust this will have the effect desired in regard to the second Adventists who have been giving some annoyance in your neighbourhood.
Yours respectfully,
W. D. BALFOUR.

As "the intent of the law-makers is the law," there can be no question as to the "law" for Sabbatarians in Ontario. They must observe the legal "sabbath" or suffer for it.

Certainly, upon this evidence, it could be pleaded in good faith that it was not the intention of the amendment to apply its prohibition to other than Seventh-day Adventist farmers, and that therefore all others were free from its restrictions. The previous attempted application of the law has already shown this to be the true interpretation of its animus.

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 20.

E. J. Waggoner

-Hungary is celebrating its millennium as a nation.

-The Abyssinian king has been making peace proposals to Italy, which are not accepted.

-The rebellion in Cuba still continues with much bloodshed and destruction of property.

-London last week opened the largest hotel in Europe. It has accommodation for 1,500 guests.

-The Egyptian expedition had its first encounter with the Dervishes last week. The latter were repulsed.

-The seventy-two races inhabiting the world communicate with each other in 3,004 different tongues, and confess to about 1,000 religions.

-Telegrams from Buluwayo last week declared the place "as safe as London." It is said that the hostile Matabele are talking of making off into the region north of the Zambesia to get away from the punishment which is preparing for them when the troops arrive.

-The total population of the earth is estimated at about 1,200,000,000 souls, of whom 82,214,000 die annually- i.e., an average of 98,848 a day, 4,020 an hour, and 67 a minute. The annual number of births, on the other hand, is estimated at 36,792,000, that is an average of 100,800 a day, 4,200 an hour, and 70 a minute.

-The number of men and women is very nearly equal, the average longevity of both sexes being only 38 years, about one-third of the population dying before the age of 17. Moreover, according to the most careful computations, only one person in 100,000 of both sexes attains the age of 100 years, and only six to seven in 100 the age of 60.

-The assassination of the Shah of Persia has led to a fresh discussion as to the future of that country. Russian influence is very strong in the northern part, and that Power is credited with designs of annexation; while in southern Persia sympathies are said to be in favour of British administration. The history of the royal Persian house has been one of assassination and violence for centuries.

-In getting Moscow ready for the Czar's coronation the police have been busy sending off or locking up all persons not giving satisfactory account of themselves. The whole city has had every nook and corner investigated. Many students in the city have been warned to leave until the festivities are over. Thousands of soldiers will line the ways to protect the Czar from possible violence.

-The moment the House of Commons is adjourned, messengers and policemen shout out in lobbies and corridors, "Who goes home?" These mysterious words have sounded through the Palace of Westminster every night for centuries. This strange custom dates from a time when it was necessary for members to go home in parties, accompanied by linksman, let common protection against footpads who infested the streets of London.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 20.

E. J. Waggoner

France is just completing a new battleship called the Galilee.

Napoleon said, "A man is not a soldier," and a military journal insists that it is still a true saying. He must be drilled into a fighting machine.

The Bishop of Peterborough has been deputed to represent the Church of England at the Moscow Coronation ceremonies. There are many signs of closer relations being established between the Roman, Greek, and Anglican churches.

At the annual meeting of the Bible Society it was stated that in "Mohammedan lands an unaccustomed readiness to read the Bible was seen; in Roman countries counter-activities have a not unwelcome significance, and Eastern wars have improved the prospects of Bible distribution."

"The masterpiece of human wisdom" is what Macaulay called the Papacy. It is such indeed-the masterpiece of that wisdom which is from beneath. With a machinery of organisation in touch with all the world, with a policy of craft and foresight, the legacy of centuries of intrigue, and with a principle as a basis that meets a response in every natural heart, the principle of self-exaltation and self-salvation,-with all of this it stands as the representative of the religion of human nature.

The stars have their known orbits and are invariably in their places. We see them nightly in the heavens, as a matter of course, without astonishment. A vagrant meteor, crashing lawlessly through space, blazing up in the instant of its destruction, passes momentarily athwart our vision and we are astonished and wonder. But men see the star for ever,-the meteor they forget. Why be the meteor, when we might be the star?

The persecuted Dukhobortsi in the Caucuses have no easy life, says the Christian World. They are still being shamefully treated for their refusal to bear arms for Russia. A letter just received by an English sympathiser relates some of the methods of punishment adopted.

The soldiers take bundles of prickly rods, cause our brethren to lie upon the ground, give them about thirty strokes and lead them out into a cold prison. Next day they give them guns and lead them out to drill. The sufferers say, "We cannot do what is not in accordance with the will of God." The soldiers scourge them again, and order them to climb ropes, jump over racks, etc.

With this continued punishment and torment the prisoners receive no more nourishment than will just keep them alive. Russia does not believe in conscientious scruples of any kind.

An ancient manuscript Gospel has recently been found in Asia Minor. Representatives of an English and of an American university have been treating with the authorities of the little village church in the neighbourhood of C?sarea, in whose possession this valuable manuscript has been. The Czar of Russia has, however, purchased it at the price, as it is stated, of one thousand pounds. The writing is described as being upon delicately thin purple vellum, and the letters in silver and gold. Hopes are expressed that it may prove to be the remainder of the famous purple Codex, parts of which are in the Vatican, the British Museum, Vienna, and the island of Patmos, but the major portion of which is missing.

The steady increase in the habitual use of liquors, tobacco, and poisonous drugs is continually emphasised by statistics and items which appear in the daily press. One of the latest news paragraphs relates to the use of tobacco, and says:-

Society in St. Petersburg is considerably agitated over a Court prohibiting her ladies and female servants from using tobacco in or about the Palace. Those who have lived in Russia will understand and appreciate the importance of such a prohibition to women who are rarely without a cigarette between their lips.

If the use of tobacco is as general among women in Russia as the paragraph would suggest, it is to be hoped that this court regulation will act as an effective example.

"An Apparition" The Present Truth 12, 20.

E. J. Waggoner

An Apparition.-Great excitement is reported from a French village over the alleged appearance of the Virgin Mary in a tree. To show that the priests did not stir up the sensation the Catholic papers are careful to say that the clergy adopt an attitude of reserve in the matter. But they are directly responsible for these outbreaks of fanaticism, which are due to the Catholic teaching regarding the worship of the dead. Rome has always fostered this form of Spiritualism. It is but a continuation of the old pagan demon worship, "the very instruments and appendages" of which, as Cardinal Newman says, were adopted and adapted by the apostate church leaders in the third century.

"Violence and Lawlessness" The Present Truth 12, 20.

E. J. Waggoner

Violence and Lawlessness.-The Lord said that the last days would be as the days of Noah. In those days men had perverted "His way upon the earth"-had turned from His way and law to their own ways-and in consequence "the earth was filled with violence." The earth at the present day appears to be rapidly filling with the spirit of violence. There have been wars before, long ones, and in the old feudal days nearly every man was a warrior, but never before has the world seen such universal preparation for violent strife as we see to-day. New conditions make possible preparations and combinations impossible before, and the temper abroad in the world is decidedly not of peace. While that spirit of war is stirring the hearts of men to race hatred it is for Christians to preach peace, and while lawlessness is abroad it is for believers to emphasise the claims of God's law.

"A Companion" The Present Truth 12, 20.

E. J. Waggoner

A Companion.-The two disciples on the road to Emmaus talked together of Christ. As they went, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. It is just as true to-day that wherever two commune together of Jesus He is there between them. He expounded to those two disciples all the Scriptures concerning Himself, beginning even with Moses and the prophets. He is just as ready to do this to-day as He was then. He tarried with them, He blessed their bread, and ate with them,-He opened their eyes to His presence and they knew Him. All this is not impossible now-for He said, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."

May 21, 1896

"The Desire of All" The Present Truth 12, 21.

E. J. Waggoner

The Desire of All.-Jesus Christ is "the Desire of all nations." Haggai ii. 7.

"The Devil's Work" The Present Truth 12, 21.

E. J. Waggoner

The Devil's Work.-It is to try to persuade people that satisfaction can be found in some other way than by the possession of Jesus Christ.

"Unsatisfied" The Present Truth 12, 21.

E. J. Waggoner

Unsatisfied.-The drunkard drinks to satisfy a craving that is never satisfied. The vicious man, in common with the miser, finds no satisfaction in the gratification of his passion.

"God's Invitation" The Present Truth 12, 21.

E. J. Waggoner

God's Invitation.-"Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto Me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness."

What to Eat.-The flesh of Christ-His Word. Of those who eat of His fullness it is said:-"They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy house; and Thou shalt make them drink of the river of Thy pleasures." The wonderful God has so made man that he cannot find satisfaction outside of Himself. Rest in Him and be satisfied.

"O Christ, in Thee my soul hath found,
And found in Thee alone,
The peace, the joy, I sought so long,
The bliss till now unknown.

"Now none but Christ can satisfy;
None other name for me;
There's love, and life, and lasting joy,
Lord Jesus, found in Thee."

"The Call of Abraham. The Promise to Abraham" The Present Truth 12, 21.

E. J. Waggoner

In studying this promise, two portions of Scripture must ever be kept in mind. The first is in the words of Jesus: "Ye search the Scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal life; and these are they which bear witness of Me." "If ye believed Moses, ye would believe Me; for He wrote of Me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe My words?" John v. 39, 46, 47, R.V.

The only Scriptures in the days of Christ were the books now known as the Old Testament; these testify of Him. They were given for no other purpose. The Apostle Paul wrote that they are able to make men wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus (2 Tim. iii. 15); and among those writings the books of Moses are specially pointed out by the Lord as revealing Him. He who reads the writings of Moses, and the entire Old Testament, with any other expectation than to find Christ, and the way of life through Him, will utterly fail of understanding them. His reading will be in vain.

The other text is 2 Cor. i. 19, 20: "For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Sylvanus and Timothy, was not yea and nay, but in Him is yea. For how many soever be the promises of God, in Him is the yea; wherefore also through Him is the Amen, unto the glory of God through us." No promise of God has ever been given to man except through Christ. Personal faith in Christ is the one thing necessary in order to receive whatever God has promised, God is no respecter of persons: He offers His riches freely to everybody; but no one can have any part in them except as he receives Christ. This is perfectly fair, since Christ is given to all if they will but have Him.

With these principles in mind, we read the first account of the promise of God to Abraham. "Now the Lord said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto the land that I will show thee; and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and be thou a blessing; and I will bless them that bless thee, and him that

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curseth thee will I curse; and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed." Gen. xii. 1-3. R.V.

At the very outset we may see that this promise to Abraham was a promise in Christ. The Apostle Paul writes: "The scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached beforehand the Gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all the nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with the faithful Abraham." Gal. iii. 8, 9. R.V. From this we learn that when God said that in Abraham all the families of the earth should be blessed, He was preaching the Gospel to him. The blessing that was to come upon the people of the earth through him could be enjoyed only through faith.

ABRAHAM AND THE CROSS

The preaching of the Gospel is the cross of Christ. Thus the Apostle Paul says that he was sent to preach the Gospel, but not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. And then he adds that the preaching of the cross is the power of God to them that are saved. 1 Cor. i. 17, 18. And this is but another way of saying that it is the Gospel, for the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Therefore since the preaching of the Gospel is the preaching of the cross of Christ (and there is no salvation by any other means), and God preached the Gospel to Abraham when He said, "In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed," it is very clear that in that promise the cross of Christ was made known to Abraham, and that the promise thus made was one that could be gained only through the cross.

This fact is made very clear in the third chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians. Following the statement that the promise of blessing is to all the nations of the earth through Abraham, and that they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham, are the words, "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree; that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." 2 Gal. iii. 13, 14. Here we have it stated in the most explicit terms that the blessing of Abraham, which was to come on all the families of the earth, was to come only through the cross of Christ.

This is a point that needs to be well fixed in the mind at the very beginning. All the misunderstandings of the promises of God to Abraham and his seed have arisen through a failure to see the Gospel of the cross of Christ in them. If it be continually remembered that all the promises of God are in Christ, to be enjoyed only through His cross, and that consequently they are spiritual and eternal in their nature, there will be no difficulty, and the study of the promise to the fathers will be a delight and a blessing.

We read that Abraham, in obedience to the call of the Lord, went forth from his father's house, and from his native land. "And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came. And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem, unto the plain of Moreh. And the Canaanite was then in the land. And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land; and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him. And he removed from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having Bethel on the west, and Hai on the east; and there he builded an altar unto the Lord, and called on the name of the Lord." Gen. xii. 5-8.

It is best for us to perceive the real meaning of God's promises and dealings with Abraham from the very start, and then our subsequent study will be easy, since it will be but the application of these principles. In this last scripture there are a few subjects introduced, which occupy a very prominent place in this study, and so we will note them here. First,

THE SEED

The Lord said to Abraham, after he had reached the land of Canaan, "Unto thy seed will I give this land." If we but hold to the Scriptures we shall not have a moment's difficulty in ascertaining who the seed is. "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ." Gal. iii. 16. This ought for ever to settle the matter, so that there could be no dispute about it. The seed of Abraham, to whom the promise was made is Christ. He is the heir.

But we also may be joint-heirs with Christ. "For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Gal. iii. 27-29.

Those who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ, and are therefore one in Him. So when it is said that Christ is the seed of Abraham, to whom the promises were made, all who are in Christ are included. But nothing outside of Christ is included in the promise. To say that the inheritance promised to the seed of Abraham could be possessed by any except those who were Christ's through faith in Him, is to ignore the Gospel, and to deny the word of God. "If any man be in Christ he is a new creature." 2 Cor. v. 17. Therefore since the promise of the land was to Abraham and His seed, which is Christ and those who have put Him on by baptism, and who are therefore new creatures, it follows that the promise of the land was only to those who were new creatures in Christ-children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. This again is additional evidence that all the promises of God are in Christ, and that the promises to Abraham can be shared only through the cross of Christ.

Let this principle, therefore, never for a moment be forgotten in reading about Abraham and the promise to him and his seed,-that the seed is Christ and those who are in Him. This and nothing besides.

THE LAND

Abraham was in the land of Canaan when God said to him, "Unto thy seed will I give this land." Turn now to the words which the martyr Stephen, full of the Holy Ghost, his face shining like that of an angel, said to his persecutors: "The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he dwelt in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, and said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the

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land which I shall show thee. Then came he out of the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Charran;¹1 and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land wherein ye now dwell." Acts vii. 2-4.

This is but a repetition of what we have already read in the twelfth chapter of Genesis. Now read the next verse: "And He gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on; yet He promised that He would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child."

We learn here that although it is sometimes merely stated, "Unto thy seed will I give this land," Abraham himself was always included in the promise. This is made very evident in the repetitions of the promise that follow in the book of Genesis.

But we learn more, and that is that Abraham actually received no inheritance of land. He had not so much of the land as to set his foot on; yet God had promised it to him and to his seed after him. What shall we say to this?-That the promise of God failed?-Not by any means. God "cannot lie." "He abideth faithful." Abraham died without having received the promised inheritance, yet he died in faith. We must therefore learn from this the lesson that the Holy Spirit wished the Jews to learn, namely, that the promised inheritance could be received only through Jesus and the resurrection. This also is made very clear by the words of the Apostle Peter:-

"Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Unto you first God, having raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities." Acts iii, 25, 26.

The blessing of Abraham, as we have learned, comes on the Gentiles, or all the families of the earth, through Jesus Christ and His cross; but the blessing of Abraham is connected with the promise of the land of Canaan. That also was to be possessed only through Christ and the resurrection. If it had been otherwise, Abraham would have been disappointed, instead of dying in full faith of the promise. But this also will appear more plainly as we proceed.

"The Stundist and His Bible" The Present Truth 12, 21.

E. J. Waggoner

The Sundist movement in Russia, and the East,-for the influence of this religious awakening is felt in Eastern countries outside of Russia,-is one which should awaken serious thought, and prayerful self-examination in missionary boards, societies, and church organisations.

The work of one of these simple men in Persia,-self-supporting and backed up by no human influence and power whatever,-has been declared, by a recent writer from there, to have been of greater value to the cause of the Gospel than the efforts of numerous foreign missions supported and furnished with many facilities by organised religion at home.

What is the reason of such a thing as this, and what is the secret of this Stundist movement? It is contained in the word "Stundist." Who is the Stundist? His name describes him. He is the man who takes an hour with his Bible. The word Stunde is German, and means an hour. Stundists, then, are only people who make a practice of coming together for an hour to study the Bible. This it is, and nothing more, which is troubling the whole Russian Empire from centre to circumference, as Herod and Jerusalem were troubled when the wise men from the East dismounted from their camels at the gates of Jerusalem and simply asked-"Where is He that is born King of the Jews?" The wise men were men of peace who came only with the Word of God in their mouths, and yet, without any thought on their part of such a result, their quiet coming and plain question aroused the nation and caused the king himself to tremble upon his throne.

The Stundists are simple, peaceful men-they are not even wise men,-but what a spectacle it is,-a great nation, gigantic among nations,-shivers and rages at the sight of a few peasants gathering regularly with their Bibles in their hands to spend an hour together in the study of the Word of God.

It is not the wise men whom Herod feared. It is not the unlettered Russian peasants who are frightening and angering the Russian bear. Indeed no, they are helpless and harmless, the whole world knows that! It is the Bible in their hearts, and the Word of God in their mouths, which disturbs all Russia, until the attention of the world is drawn to its trembling, its fears, and its Herodian measures to suppress the Stundist's power with his Bible and his God. Thus it is that these unlearned peasants preach the Gospel not only at home, but the living and speaking knowledge of the power of their faithful, personal sacrifice and consecration has gone throughout the world. Wherever the Bible is read it speaks to-day of those who read it in Russia and suffer because they read.

It is the Bible which speaks. This is the lesson which Mission Boards should learn-that it is the Bible which speaks;-not man. It is Divine omnipotence which is at the head of true religious work upon earth; not man, not churches, not missionary societies,-but God.

"Working in the Dark" The Present Truth 12, 21.

E. J. Waggoner

The death of Mr. W. Q. Judge, the president of the Theosophical Society, and the election of some one to fill his place has occupied the attention of the Theosophists in America of late. At a recent general meeting in New York a London gentleman was elected to fill the presidential chair vacated by the departed theosoph. England and Ireland are said to have been largely represented at the meeting. Many very mystical things were said about the dead president,-difficult of comprehension, or of credence, by the non-theosophical mind.

The tendency seemed to be to elevate Mr. Judge, now that he is gone, to a higher theosophical pedestal, even, than that upon which stands the memory of Madame Blavatsky. At the unveiling of a bust of Mr. Judge, during this meeting, one of the speakers said, among other things, the following:-

The examination of the advanced theories of modern science shows that while the scientists have examined the phenomena of life, there is one thing lacking, and that is to be found in the ancient teachings which advanced under the name of theosophy. That one thing is what we call the Principle, and this is its character-it is present everywhere; if it is eternal-without beginning and without end; it is boundless-without limitations of space. It is immutable. While in the working of this principle we find the forms in which it is manifest constantly under-going change, the essence is immutable. We find here the law of periodicity. It is under this law that the universe came into existence. It is the manifestation of consciousness. It is the natural

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law of cycles, and out of this great consciousness evolves the universe.

And this "Principle" is what? The creative power of God, of course; then why not say so in the first place-acknowledge it, and have done with it? But Theosophy and Spiritualism-the same thing, with variations to suit different minds-are not searching for the power of God; they spring from the power of darkness, and the ruler of the world of darkness works with too great success to blind the eyes of those who believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel should shine into their hearts.

"A Missionary Object Lesson" The Present Truth 12, 21.

E. J. Waggoner

The history of the Hawaiian Islands has been a remarkable one. It should be a missionary object lesson. Here modern missionary methods may be said to have reached their highest development and success. When Captain Cook discovered these islands, in 1778, idolatry prevailed. He was himself mistaken for a divinity and worshipped. But when he returned the following year some scepticism had developed. They put him to the test at the point of the spear. When he shrank from its touch they knew he was not a god, and put him to death immediately. Notwithstanding this, however, his bones were preserved and remained objects of adoration until the abolition of idolatry in 1819. This most surprisingly, was brought about without the intervention of any outside influence. The yoke of formal idolatry was broken, without the Gospel to take its place.

They had not long to wait, however. In 1820, only one year after idolatry had been done away with, Congregational missionaries from Boston, U.S.A., arrived and began their work in Honolulu. At this time the native population was one hundred and forty thousand. In 1832, but twelve years after, a census showed a decrease of ten thousand. Now, after the lapse of seventy-five years, there remain less than forty thousand native inhabitants. During all this time they have lived in undisturbed peace, until the late bloodless revolution in which Queen Liliuokalani was deposed. No wars have decimated their numbers. They have simply perished from the destructive effects of specific diseases introduced among them by vicious whites who followed in the train of the missionaries. The descendants of the missionaries remained in the islands, and giving themselves to business and commerce, have become wealthy, and now constitute the ruling class. In the revolution of 1893, whatever might have been the real merits of the case, the foreign Anglo-Saxon element actually usurped the government and established a Hawaiian republic, after annexation to the United Sates had been refused through the earnest opposition of President Cleveland. At the present time the entire government is in the hands of the missionary element and the descendants of the earlier missionaries.

From a practical point of view there has been some serious mistakes here. When civilised men establish themselves in these islands, they were thickly inhabited by a race of people who were as near physical perfection as any on record within historical time. In four-fifths of a century four-fifths of these inhabitants have been swept away, by causes directly attributable to the customs and vices of the civilisation which was introduced among them. This civilisation was either introduced by, or followed in the wake of, the missionaries. Now that the missionaries and their descendants have become numerous, wealthy, and powerful, the few remaining natives naturally see and appreciate these serious facts. It is not surprising that they revolt from the white man, and his civilisation, and look longingly back to their primitive state.

What is the secret of this condition, and what has the mistake been? A true civilisation, born and developed under Divine blessing, could not have contributed to so unfortunate a denouement. It is evident that those who carried the Gospel to these islands carried at the same time an impure civilisation and unhygienic habits of life. Theoretically they brought to these healthy, happy, human animals, living in an earthly paradise, the message of eternal life,-practically they brought to them disease and speedy death. Nothing could demonstrate more forcibly than this that true

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religion is not a theory but a life, and that the Gospel of bodily health, purity and hygiene, is a sacredly essential part of the practice, example, and teaching, of the consecrated missionary.

"Printing the Truth" The Present Truth 12, 21.

E. J. Waggoner

One of the earliest uses of the printing press was to print the Scriptures and those little tracts of Luther's, and other reformers, by which the Gospel of the Reformation was published far and wide in the sixteenth century. The time had come for the Word to go, and we can see the hand of Providence in the development of the printing press to supply the need of the time. And from that day to this-whilst the power of the press has been sadly used in the interests of the god of this world-the art of printing has supplied a powerful auxiliary for spreading Gospel truth.

In carrying forward the work to which the PRESENT TRUTH is devoted, the sound of the Gospel of Christ's coming kingdom, very great use has been made of the printed page. The appeal is not to the emotions or to a passing sentiment, but to the understanding. The Gospel is not a theory but a life, and if one is to cease drifting with the current of the world he needs the everlasting Word beneath his feet. Therefore the literature designed to lead the people to study the Word is being scattered throughout the world in ever-increasing volume.

Great Britain and the colonial fields are supplied from our London house. The Scandinavian countries-Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland-are supplied by the well-equipped printing house owned by our society in Christiania, Norway. Since the printing house in Basel, Switzerland, was closed by the working of the Swiss Sunday laws the literature for the other European fields has been printed by various firms in Germany and Switzerland, the Basel building having been converted into a sanatorium. A few weeks ago we printed a picture of the Australasian publishing house, in Melbourne, and this week we reproduce a photograph of the main building of the Michigan printing works, the central house in the United States. In California is another establishment, doing the same work in the far west.

A few lines from the recent annual report of the Michigan printing works will show the amount of work being done there.

At no time during the year just past have the works been running less than ten hours a day in any of the departments, while in some departments, notably the press room and the bindery, it has been found necessary to keep all hands at work from twelve to fourteen hours a day for weeks at a time in order to keep up with the influx of business. The total number of persons employed at the present time is nearly two hundred and sixty, or about fifty more than last year. Of this number about forty per cent. are women. The retail value of publications sold during 1895 was about ?60,000, or nearly ?2,000 more than during the preceding year.

Besides bringing out books (and doing some general commercial printing) the Michigan house publishes several periodicals in English, and one each in the German, Danish, Swedish, and Holland languages, all being devoted to Bible teaching, and circulating amongst these nationalities in the United States.

"This Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations," said Christ, "and then shall the end come." Wherever the Word goes the Gospel is preached; and the burden of that Gospel in the last days is outlined by the apostle in Rev. xiv. It is a message to "every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people," calling upon men to worship God; "for the hour of His judgment is come." Then follows the warning against the perversions of the truth by the papal beast of prophecy, and the results of heeding the message are seen and the gathering out of a body of whom the prophet says: "Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus." Then follows the coming of the Lord to reap the harvest of the earth.

Even the most cursory reading of

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the chapter must convince the reader that the special work in the final proclamation of the Gospel is to set before the world the commandments of God-including the Sabbath commandment-and the faith of Jesus, that same faith which works by love the obedience to the Law of God. It is to call attention to the claims of this everlasting Gospel, and to get people to study the Word of life indeed that the printing machines are running in the various publishing branches of the Seventh-day Adventists.

"How Not to Govern" The Present Truth 12, 21.

E. J. Waggoner

Kings and mighty men from all time have known and acknowledged the power of God. But intellectual perception of the Divine attributes is one thing while obedience and worship is quite another.

Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Darius, all knew and acknowledged Jehovah to be the true God, but they failed to follow in practice what they knew to be truth.

The Bible is filled with examples of how not to govern. It is a veritable mine of information as to what rulers should not be. What a valuable Bible lesson might be compiled, especially adapted to the use of princes and presidents, emperors and empresses, kings and queens!

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 21.

E. J. Waggoner

-The cholera is appearing in Egypt.

-It is said that in India only one woman in 250 can read.

-The order for a large body of Indian troops to assist in the Egyptian campaign is a new departure.

-The latest returns of the regular Army show that its strength on January 1 was 222,194 officers and men.

-The late Shah of Persia was, it is said, the eighteenth head of a State assassinated during the century.

-In the Transvaal all citizens from eighteen to sixty years of age are liable to be called to military service. Each soldier provides his own horse and outfit.

-The Khalifs is reported to be forcing men into the ranks to fight against the Egyptian expedition, and is preparing to flee at the news of a decided reverse to his arms.

-It appears that only seventeen out of every 100 Russians know how to read. For the 125,000,000 of Russians there are but 900 newspapers, and their circulation is small.

-The natives of one of the Solomon Islands rose recently and massacred traders and missionaries, afterward eating some of the victims. Cannibalism still survives in Africa, also, back from the West Coast.

-Japanese merchants are sending representatives to Europe to find markets for their goods. It is said that certain chemicals which sell well in India can be made in Japan for half the price charged in Glasgow, and Japan is going to essay the experiment.

-At the opening of an electric exhibition in New York, the Governor pressed a golden key which fired cannons in New York, San Francisco, and New Orleans, by power furnished by Niagara. The roar of Niagara was transmitted by telephone to New York, and made audible in the exhibition.

-It is estimated that in Great Britain and Ireland there are thirty million fowls, which lay one thousand million eggs a year. But over twice that number are eaten, the greater quantity being imported. It is difficult to understand why the whole supply needed cannot be produced in the country.

-Stanley says that certain portions of Africa will always be worthless on account of the ravages of the grasshoppers. In one instance he saw a column of young grasshoppers ten miles broad by thirty long marching down a valley, and when the grass was fired against them they were think enough to smother the flames.

-The Russian Steam Navigation Company wanted land for docks at Chefoo, which was claimed by a British firm. The Chinese authorities sided with the Russian company, and the latter took the land. No immediate trouble is anticipated over the matter but It is taken as showing how persistently Russia is advancing her interests in China and the Far East. China has now become very much as Africa, free plunder for all the Powers.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 21.

E. J. Waggoner

The Free Church Monthly says that the practice of auricular confession in the Scotch Episcopal Church is on the increase in Scotland.

Armenia, Africa, and Cuba still continue to be centres of social and political disturbance. Rumours of war, also, are not wanting. The shrewdest statesmen seem in these times utterly unable to forecast events, and are sailing the political seas by dead reckoning.

Speaking of the influence of the vices of civilisation upon the natives who come into the Rand district to work in the mines of Johannesburg, a correspondent says in the Christian that it has been aptly said that "they come to us savages and go back devils." Civilisation without the Gospel falls lower than barbarism.

All the public museums of London are now open on Sunday. The British Museum was opened Sunday, May 17, being the first time, it is said, in its existence that the public have had the opportunity of entering it upon that day. The unanimity of this change in the regulations of museums and exhibitions is drawing attention to the Sunday question in general.

The New York Independent, of May 7, publishes a "symposium" in which it takes up for consideration the question of international arbitration. Among a number of men of legal, political, and educational prominence in the United States, who contribute their views on this subject, are names well known on this side of the Atlantic, such as Dean Farrar, Hugh Price Hughes, Prof. Goldwin Smith, and H. M. Stanley. The views of fifteen different contributors occupy thirty-nine solid columns of the paper. The subject is for the most part treated very ably and candidly. Noble feelings are expressed which do honour to the writers. No little skilful ability is shown in some of the suggestions made. Yet, after all, they only serve to emphasise the fact that prophecy must and will be fulfilled, and that even when men cry, "Peace, peace," wars and rumors of wars will continue to plague the world until the end.

The Commission on Anglican orders, sitting at Rome, has made its report to the Congregation of the Inquisition, we are told. Those clergy of the Establishment who wish someone to tell them whether they are qualified to preach the Gospel will no doubt await with great interest the word from this body with fearsome name. The name suggests a time when an adverse decision was often followed by the rack or flames.

Making allowance for the usual tone of statesmen in opposition, it is nevertheless doubtless a fact that Sir William Harcourt expressed the feeling of public men very generally when he said the other day:-

We are getting surrounded by troubles of all kinds to a degree that I never recollect in my political experience before. I have never known England in trouble, and so great trouble, in so many parts of the world.

It is but the storing up of those elements which will in the end bring upon the world that "time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation." Dan. xii. 1.

The London Catholic Times says that arrangements are in progress in America for "the most remarkable religious conference ever held in the United States."

Fifteen priests and laymen of the Catholic Church and the same number of Protestant ministers and laymen will shortly meet in Pittsburgh for a friendly conference in regard to the obstacles which lie in the way of Christian union and will formulate plans, if possible, for their removal.

It is not without significance that the place of meeting, Pittsburgh, has for many years been the centre of the Sunday law crusade in America, the professedly Protestant movers in which have long courted the favour of the Catholics.

A missionary met a man at a Chinese inn who many years before had found a copy of the Scriptures and secretly retained it. He said that he had never been able to understand it, but thought it a most wonderful book. "What do you think the most wonderful thing in it?" was asked him. "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son" was the answer. Truly this seed of the Gospel will germinate wherever it falls.

There is a better way of dealing with the theological fighter than by partaking of his controversial spirit and "having it out" with him. It is not an argument he needs but the Lord. If he does not like to talk of personal experience with the Lord, it is better to leave him with the Word, until he can be approached in a different frame of mind.

"Not In Russia but America" The Present Truth 12, 21.

E. J. Waggoner

Not In Russia but America.-Somewhere, in the United States or Canada, the Sunday laws have had some of our friends before the courts or in prison very nearly all the time for months. One of our American exchanges just received gives the following newspaper press despatch from Arkansas, which we may quote as a sample:-

Chester Gordon and his wife, two intelligent and respectable citizens of Eagle township, in this county, were convicted this week in the court presided over by Albert Desha, a justice of the peace, of Sabbath-breaking, and were fined five dollars each. It was proved (and no attempt was made to deny the charge) that they are Adventists, and in accordance with the tenets of the faith are accustomed to rest on Saturday, which they consider their Sabbath, and to labour on Sunday. They refused to pay the fines, although able to do so, and by order of the court were remanded to the county jail, where they now are. Husband and wife were handcuffed together when brought into town by a deputy constable.

The work done, it is stated, was on a farm more than a mile from any habitation. The prosecution was at the instance of a church in the place, which appointed a committee to attend to the matter. This is the argument by which the churches are preparing to meet the Lord's declaration that "the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." But it is not an argument that will satisfy those who want to know the truth.

"The Babi Sect" The Present Truth 12, 21.

E. J. Waggoner

The Babi Sect.-The assassin of the late Shah of Persia was a member of a Mohammedan sect of religionists, whose influence is said to be quite extensive in Persia and the Orient generally. The movement is described as somewhat Socialistic, and the Babis forty years ago attempted the life of the Shah. Mohammedism is honey-combed by the sects, each with its own peculiar fancies, but all alike true followers of Mohammed in propagating their principles by the sword.

May 28, 1896

"The Divinity of Labour" The Present Truth 12, 22.

E. J. Waggoner

It was never intended that man should be without occupation. In Eden Adam was given his task:-

"And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to address it and keep it." Gen. ii. 15. He was directed by the Almighty to subdue the earth, and to exercise dominion over all living creatures upon the earth. His gift of language and facility of expression were exercised to give names to all the beasts of the field and every fowl of the air, as the Lord brought them to him "to see what he would call them." The requirement of mental and physical effort was not lacking for man in the very first days of his existence on earth.

Indeed if man were created in the image of his Maker why should he not work? Work is divine! We are told in the second verse of the second chapter of Genesis, of God Himself. "And He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made." And Christ Himself said: "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." If God works, it is God-like to work,-and he who would be godly must work.

"Why Men Love the Lark" The Present Truth 12, 22.

E. J. Waggoner

The lark is happy in singing, and winging his way toward heaven, but just as happy, when, weary, he closes his pinions and drops to his lowly nest in the greensward.

There is an ecstasy in all high endeavour and great achievement,-a certain rapture of lofty loneliness in the altitude which removes the heroic actor in exceptional scenes, from the humdrum daily life of the ordinary multitude. Yet, after all, the test comes to him who has borne his part in great enterprises when he returns again to the common level of home life. It is the petty details of every day existence that try men's souls, and prove their metal.

The exultant cloud-song of the lark does not detract in the least from the sweetness of his roundelay by the side of his mate in the heather. So it happens that the plain little bird, which is equally at home in the sky or on the meadow, appeals to the heart of the world. The skylark's ambition to pour out his morning song at the very doors of the sun, as they open to its earliest beams, does not lead him to forget that the gates of heaven are just as near his own home nest. And so mankind loves the lark.

But men love the lark not because, in its ambitious flight, it loses is joyous voice and tiny form in the far blue heavens, but because, in the midst of its wildest enthusiasm of song, and from its loftiest heights, it drops with plummet swiftness to the level of home cares and domestic life. And because it brings to its home, and to us, the song of the sky with all its brightness, and purity, and sweetness. If every

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morning the lark climbs above to renew its song and fill its heart anew at the fount of heavenly melody, it is with the intent to return and bless the work-a-day world all the day long with its mission of heavenly music.

So the value of lofty impulses and heroic deeds is proved by their application to the affairs of daily life, on the common level, and among the multitude. The poet who sings only in the sky has no vocation either for man or angels. The hero whose noble deeds are done only among the clouds, and who never imprisons his lightning and brings it down to serve his fellow man, is only a tinseled hero after all. Our great Example brought Godhood, and the angelic, from heaven to earth, to the service of man. In following Him, though the path be very humble, is the highest and divinest heroism known to man. But he who brings the message of heaven to man must mount daily to heaven's gate in prayer and song, and return with joy-filled heart to live and work among his fellows as the singing, soaring lark returns to the meadows and to his mate.

"'Civic Righteousness'" The Present Truth 12, 22.

E. J. Waggoner

The expression "civic righteousness" is one which is not infrequently used of late. What is the meaning of the term? In the second chapter of Proverbs the wise man has said:-

"My son, if thou wilt receive My words, and hide My commandments with thee; so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding: . . . Then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find knowledge of God. Then shalt thou understand righteousness."

It is, then, through the fear and knowledge of God that an understanding of righteousness is to be gained. Very possibly the thought of Solomon, in writing these words, was directed to the language of the inspired poet, his father, where, in the one hundred and seventy-second verse of the one hundred and nineteenth psalm, he says:-"My tongue shall speak of Thy Word: for all Thy commandments are righteousness."

So it is the commandments of God, which, being themselves an epitome of righteousness, are the test and measure of all righteousness. But the commandments of God apply to the whole circle of human relations; not only to the social and civil side of life, but to the moral and spiritual existence as well. They regulate, not only the exigencies of civic life and a man's association with his neighbour, but also the inner thought of his mind, inclination of his heart, an attitude of feeling toward his neighbour and toward his God,-things which none can know except the man himself and the omniscient God. To fulfil the requirements of this universal law, and satisfy the omniscient Judge, is to possess righteousness.

It is within the power of God, as an omniscient Judge, to measure and test every man by this law and enforce the fulfilment of its requirements. The commandments of God are righteousness. They are Divine law. "Civic righteousness," then, would be civil law. Civil law is human law. There is no such thing as "civic righteousness." It is a figure of speech in which poor, feeble, fallible human justice has attempted to array itself in the judicial robes of omnipotent and omniscient Divinity.

The law of righteousness God alone can administer. Civic justice, according to its human law, man may administer. But when the human agent for the administration of civic justice thinks, or attempts, to administer the Divine law of righteousness, he becomes the most pitifully incompetent usurper in all God's infinite universe.

"The Church and War" The Present Truth 12, 22.

E. J. Waggoner

Christ's life and teaching are so directly opposed to strife and war that it has exceedingly perplexed the religious world to know how to justify the general teaching of Christendom that a Christian may slaughter his fellow-men and still be a follower of the Lord, who commissioned His disciples to preach the Gospel to every creature-not to kill. A Church paper argues thus:-

Christian peoples have followed Christian kings to battle from Constantine's time to the present, and Christian bishops have solemnly besought the blessing of the God of Battles, while the solemn Te Deum has filled Christian Cathedrals with the exultant strains of victorious rejoicing over the defeated. Are we to say that the whole history of Christendom has been a hideous travesty of the evangelical precept: "I say unto you, resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek turn to him the other also"?

So, because professedly Christian people have died since Constantine's day, the conclusion is that it must be right, and that because the "church" since his day has blessed war is entirely in harmony with Christ's commission to His church to bless the sword and the battleship, and pray for Divine assistance in prosecuting national and commercial quarrels. And the churches that happen to live on the other side of an imaginary boundary line are in turn supposed to pray to the same God for help to slaughter their fellows, whom, in ordinary times, they profess to regard as brethren in the Lord.

The mere statement of the case shows how abhorrent it is to every principle of the Gospel for Christians to have part in strife and bloodshed. Christians do not kill one another, neither do Christians kill unbelieving heathen, to whom the Lord has commissioned His servants to preach the Gospel of life. The error, into which the journal from which we quote falls, is the common mistake of confounding the worldly system, which arose in the great apostasy, with Christianity. It was not Christianity. It was heathenism, masquerading in the name of Christ. Constantine, who is accepted as the first and pattern "Christian" leading "Christian" followers to battle, was the murderer of his own wife, and other members of his family, besides the many treacherously put to death to secure his own aims and the multitudes slaughtered in his wars to secure the throne for himself alone. And the "Christian" bishops who championed his cause for the patronage he gave the "church" were almost as pagan as Himself.

The Christianity of Jesus Christ was not this hideous substitution; and to-day it is the same Christianity as in Christ's day-a life which does not insist even upon its own-which knows no racial or geographical distinctions, and which can take no part in depriving of life the man for whom Christ gave His life. Is it not time to preach peace? And should not Christians decide whether Christ's life and teachings are the standard for Christians, or whether some other standard of living has been found, adapted to the needs of professedly Christian Powers which are arming for the slaughter, setting the example even to the great "heathen" nations; and teaching those who make no profession about a Prince of Peace how to destroy life in the most expeditious manner?

"The Call of Abraham. Building an Altar" The Present Truth 12, 22.

E. J. Waggoner

Everywhere Abraham went, he built an altar to the Lord. As you read this, remember that the promise that all nations should be blessed in Abraham, specified families. The religion of Abraham was a family religion. The "family altar" was never neglected in his household. This is not an empty figure of speech, but comes from the practice of the fathers to whom the promise was made, and of which we are partakers if we are of their faith and practice.

AN EXAMPLE FOR PARENTS

God said of Abraham, "I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which He hath spoken of him." Gen. xviii. 19.

Note the words, "He will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment." He would not simply command them to do it, and there let the matter rest; but He would command them, and the result would be that they would keep the way of the Lord. His teaching would be effective.

We may be sure that the commands of Abraham to his children and his household were not harsh and arbitrary. We shall understand them better if we consider the nature of the commandments of God. They "are not grievous." "His commandment is life everlasting." He who thinks to follow the example of Abraham in commanding his family, by harsh, arbitrary rules, and by acting the part of a stern judge, or a tyrant, making threats of what he will do if his commands are not obeyed, and enforcing his commands, not in the spirit of love, because they are right, but because he is stronger than his children, and has them in his power, has much need to learn of the God of Abraham. "And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath; but bring them up in the nature and admonition of the Lord." Eph. vi. 4.

At the same time we may be sure that the commands of Abraham were not like Eli's, weak and querulous reproofs to his wicked and worthless sons: "Why do ye such things? For I hear of your evil dealings by all this people. Nay, my sons; for it is no good report that I hear." 1 Sam. ii. 23, 24. On the other hand, Abraham transmitted a blessing to all eternity, because the commands which he gave to his children had restraining power.

Abraham was to be a blessing to all people. Wherever he went he was a blessing. But this blessing began in his family. This was the centre. From the family circle the heavenly influence went out to the neighbours. And now we may well notice more closely the statement that when Abraham built an altar, he "called upon the name of the Lord." Gen. xii. 8; xiii. 4. In Dr. Young's translation this is rendered, "He preached in the name of Jehovah." Without calling attention to the various places where the same expression is found, it is worth while to note that the Hebrew words are identical with those used in Exodus xxxiv. 5, where we read that the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood by Moses, "and proclaimed the name of the Lord." We may therefore understand that when Abraham erected the family altar he not only taught his immediate family but he "proclaimed the name of the Lord" to all around him. Like Noah, Abraham was a preacher of righteousness. As God preached the Gospel to Abraham, so Abraham preached the Gospel to others.

ABRAHAM AND LOT

"And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold." "And Lot also, which went with Abram, had flocks, and herds, and tents. And the land was not able to bear them, that they might dwell together; for their substance was great, so that they could not dwell together. And there was a strife between the herdmen of Abram's cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle; and the Canaanite and the Perizzite dwelled then in the land. And Abram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdmen and thy herdmen; for we be brethren. Is not the whole land before thee? Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me; if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to the left." Gen. xiii. 2, 5-8.

When we understand the nature of the promise of God to Abraham, we can understand the secret of his generosity. Suppose Lot should choose the best part of the country; that could make no difference with Abraham's inheritance. Having Christ, he had all things. He did not look for his possessions in this present life, but in the life to come. He would accept with thankfulness whatever prosperity the Lord might send him; but if his riches in this life should be small, that would not diminish the inheritance that was promised him.

There is nothing like the presence and blessing of Christ to settle all disputes, or to prevent them. In the course taken by Abraham, we have a true Christian example. As the eldest he might have stood upon his dignity, and have claimed his "rights." But he could not have done so as a Christian. Love "seeketh not its own." Abraham manifested the true Spirit of Christ. When professed Christians are eager to grasp the things of this world, and are troubled lest they shall be deprived of some of their rights, they show that they are unmindful of the enduring inheritance which Christ offers.

THE PROMISE REPEATED

Abraham's Christian courtesy, which was the result of his faith in the promise through Christ, was not unrecognised by the Lord. We read:-

"And the Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward; for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth; so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee." Gen. xiii. 14-17.

We will not forget that "to Abraham and his seed were the promises made; He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy Seed, which is Christ." There is no other seed of Abraham except Christ and those who are His. Therefore this innumerable posterity which was promised to Abraham, is identical with that spoken of in the following scripture:-

"After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb." "And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said unto me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb." Rev. vii. 9, 10, 13, 14.

We have already learned that the blessing of Abraham comes on all nations through the cross of Christ, so that in the statement that this innumerable company have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, we see the fulfillment of the promise to Abraham, of an innumerable seed. "If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Gal. iii. 29.

The reader should not fail to notice in the repetition of the promise in the thirteenth chapter of Genesis, that the land figures very prominently. We found it in the preceding chapters, and shall find it as the central feature of the promise wherever it occurs.

ABRAHAM AND MELCHIZEDEK

The brief story of Melchizedek forms a link which unites us and our times most closely with Abraham and his times, and shows that the "Christian dispensation," so called, existed in the days of Abraham as well as now.

The fourteenth chapter of Genesis tells us all that we know of Melchizedek. The seventh chapter of Hebrews repeats the story, and makes some comments upon it. Besides this we have references to Melchizedek in the sixth chapter, and in Psalms cx. 4.

The story is this: Abraham was returning from an expedition against the enemies that had carried away Lot, when Melchizedek met him, bringing bread and wine. Melchizedek was king of Salem, and priest of the Most High God. In this capacity he blessed Abraham, and to him Abraham gave a tenth part of the spoil which he had recovered. That is the story, but from it there are some very important lessons drawn.

In the first place we learn that Melchizedek was a greater man than Abraham, because, "without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better," (Heb. vii. 7), and because Abraham gave him the tenth part of all.

He was a type of Christ, and was like Him: "Made like unto the Son of God." He was a type of Christ in that he was both king and priest. His name signifies, "king of righteousness;" and Salem, of which he was king, means "peace;" so that he was not only priest, but king of righteousness and king of peace. So of Christ it is said: "The Lord said unto My Lord, Sit Thou at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool." "The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek." Ps. cx. 1, 4. And the name whereby He shall be called is "The Lord our Righteousness." Jer. xxiii. 6.

Christ's kingly priesthood is thus set forth in the Scriptures: "Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH; and He shall grow up out of His place, and He shall build the temple of the Lord; even He shall build the temple of the Lord; and He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon His throne; and He shall be a priest upon His throne; and the counsel of peace shall be between them both." Zech. vi. 12, 13. The power by which Christ as priest makes reconciliation for the sins of the people, is the power of the throne of God, upon which He sits.

But the main thing with reference to Melchizedek, is that Abraham lived under the same "dispensation" that we do. The priesthood was the same then as now. Not only are we the children of Abraham, if we are of faith, but our great High Priest, who is passed into the heavens, is by the oath of God made a High Priest for ever, "after the order of Melchizedek." Thus in a double sense it is shown that "if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day; and he saw it, and was glad." John viii. 56.

Abraham therefore was a Christian as much as any one who has ever lived since the crucifixion of Christ. "The disciples were called Christians first in Antioch." But the disciples were no different after they were called Christians from what they were before. When they were known only as Jews, they were Christians just as much as they were after they were called such. The name is of but little account. The name "Christians" was given them because they were followers of Christ; but they were followers of Christ before they were called Christians, just as much as they were afterwards, Abraham, hundreds of years before the days of Jesus of Nazareth, was just what the disciples were who in Antioch were called Christians; he was a follower of Christ. Therefore he was in the fullest sense of the word a Christian. All Christians, and none others, are children of Abraham.

The reader will notice that in the seventh of Hebrews we are referred to the case of Abraham and Melchizedek for proof that the paying of tithes is not a Levitical ordinance. Long before Levi was born, Abraham paid tithes. And he paid them, too, to Melchizedek, whose priesthood is the Christian priesthood. Therefore those who are Christ's and thus children of Abraham, will also give tithes of all.

It will be noticed that the tithe was a well known thing in the days of Abraham. He gave tithes to God's priest as a matter of course. He recognised the fact that the tithe is the Lord's. That record in Leviticus

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is not the origin of the tithing system, but is simply a statement of a fact. Even the Levitical order "paid tithes in Abraham." We are not told when it was first made known to men, but we see that it was well known in the days of Abraham. In the book of Malachi which is specially addressed to those living just before "the great and terrible day of the Lord," we are told that those who withhold the tithe are robbing God.²1

The argument is very simple: Abraham gave tithes to Melchizedek; the Melchizedek priesthood is a priesthood by which righteousness and peace come; it is the priesthood by which we are saved. Abraham gave tithes to Melchizedek, because Melchizedek was the representative of the Most High God, and the tithe is the Lord's. If we are Christ's then we are children of Abraham; and therefore if we are not children of Abraham, then we are not Christ's. But if we are Abraham's children, we shall do the works of Abraham. Whose are we?

One other item should not be overlooked in passing. It is the fact that Melchizedek who was king of righteousness and peace, and priest of the Most High God, brought out to Abraham bread and wine, of which Christ said, "This is my body," and "this is my blood." It may be said that the bread and wine were for the refreshment of Abraham and his followers. Very true; but that does not in the least detract from the significance of the fact, for we are continually to eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ. Melchizedek came out in his capacity of king and priest, and Abraham recognised him as such. Note the connection in Gen. xiv. 18, 19: "And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine; and he was the priest of the Most High God. And he blessed him and said, Blessed be Abram, of the Most High God, possessor of heaven and earth." It is quite evident that the bread and wine which Melchizedek brought forth acquired special significance from the fact that he was the priest of the Most High God. The Jews in the days of Christ scoffed at the statement that Abraham rejoiced to see His day. They could see no evidence of the fact. May we not see in this transaction one evidence that Abraham saw Christ's day, which is the day of salvation?

"Crumbs from the Bread of Life" The Present Truth 12, 22.

E. J. Waggoner

A missionary of the Pacific Islands has related a touching and suggestive story. As he passed along the road a poor crippled leper, from whom both hands and feet were gone, raised himself on his knees, and, reaching his mutilated arms toward him,-instead of begging, blessed him that he had brought the light of the Word of God to that dark island. The missionary, surprised, and confident that he had never seen the man before, stopped and talked with him. He found the poor man knew the story of Christ well, and understood perfectly the saving power of Divine grace. More astonished still, he said to the poor fellow, "But where have you learned this? I have never seen you at My preaching, and besides it would be too far for you to go who can only creep on your knees."

"Ah," said he, "when the people come from your preaching, I sit on the side of the road and say, 'Please, give me a word that the teacher has said,'-and one tells me one little thing and another tells me another, and then God who told you to come and tell it to us helps me to put the little stories altogether, and so I know."

Thus this poor, helpless beggar had fed from the crumbs which fell from the Master's table. Of what value may be the least morsel when it falls in the reach of a hungry soul! Who knows but that the tiniest crumb may feed and nourish a soul for eternity, as did this;-or perhaps it may fall into the Master's hands and, like the loaves, be broken to many thousands.

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 22.

E. J. Waggoner

-A reform of military criminal procedure is promised in Germany.

-Hong Kong is suffering from a recurrence of the plague that raged last summer in that place.

-Buluwayo is reported out of danger, and looking forward to an immediate resumption of business.

-The cost of the Russian coronation ceremonies is estimated at 22,400,000, this the amount of State expense alone.

-Herr Liebknecht declares that the 5,000,000 peasant proprietors in Germany "are all going to ruin as fast as they can."

-The Germans have been engaged in fighting African natives in Damaraland, considerable losses being sustained on both sides.

-It is estimated that the amount spent in England on sports, racing, cricketing, etc., is over 288,000,000 annually, or about 21 per head of the whole population.

-Great damage to property has been done,-during the first half of the month of May,-by local tornadoes in America, accompanied by the loss of from one hundred and fifty to two hundred lives.

-Spain is said to be preparing to send 60,000 troops to Cuba in the autumn to subdue the rebellion. Meanwhile the insurgent forces are receiving arms and men from Florida, and are pre-paring for a desperate attack upon the Spanish forces.

-The Empress of Russia has been appointed Honorary Colonel of the Second Regiment of Prussian Dragoon Guards. In Prance, the practical employment of women in the army has been under discussion. It was even proposed, in good faith, to make certain forks of military service compulsory upon all women without distinction of rank or position.

-The developments of the London horseless carriage exhibition go to show the probability of the speedy adoption of motor vehicles in the streets, and the consequent removal of horses from the thoroughfares, at least in a large degree. The cabmen have expressed anxiety lest their occupation be taken from them. This fear is groundless. Fares will be reduced. Many more will ride. The result will be more cabs, and occupation for a greater number of cab-drivers.

-Detailed accounts of the Armenian massacres come in very slowly. Reuter's from Constantinople, May 18, gives details of the terrible deeds done at Ourfa in the autumn of last year. Out of a population of 20,000 Armenians at least one-half seems to have been put to the sword or burned alive in the cathedral where they had gathered for protection. The report states that the attack was made solely upon Armenians, no distinction being made between Gregorians, Protestants, and Roman Catholics,-professed Christians of other nationalities being unmolested.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 22.

E. J. Waggoner

Medical Missions are doing great good in China, in the way of breaking down prejudiced and getting the Word before the people. The various missionary societies are increasing this line of work.

Whilst "godliness is profitable," the man who tries to serve the Lord as a business investment is bound to be disappointed. His thinking of what he can get for self out of the work of the Lord shows that he has never surrendered himself to God, and his lack of faith closes the avenues to which God so much desires to send him help.

The annual report of the Peace Society, which held its meeting last week, expressed regret at "the revival of Jingoism." The Chairman said that in 1869 the armies and navies of Europe cost ?116,000,000, and now they cost ?230,000,000 per year; while the national debts of the European nations have risen from 4,680 to 6,000 millions.

The Roman Catholic "Guild of Our Lady of Ransom, for the conversion of England" paraded the streets of London in picturesque procession last Sunday week. The Daily Chronicle gives a detailed description of the spectacle, and says:-

The procession was a mile and a-half in length. From altar to altar it occupied nearly two hours. Nothing of the kind has been seen in England since the period known to Englishmen as the Reformation. Not many, perhaps, but some who witnessed it, might have remembered the "Surplice riots" of St. George's in the East, or the disorderly scenes at St. James's, Hatcham, or the threatenings at St. Alban's, Holborn. How many of these could have supposed that within twenty years a Roman Catholic procession, accompanied by all the paraphernalia of Roman ritual, might pass through crowded London streets on a Sunday afternoon not merely without provoking disturbance, but amid undoubted manifestations of respect? Few of the Catholic cities of Europe could be expected to offer a more decorous welcome. . . . Father Whelan in his sermon at Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament afterwards described the procession as a glorious witness of the progress which the Church had made towards winning back the place which it had held in England for a thousand years. Ritualism, he added, was only a preparatory school towards the great consummation.

This procession in London streets is worthy of note as marking an epoch. These gorgeous and picturesque parades are effective object lessons in Roman Catholicism. They are Roman Catholic street preaching.

Some have hastily assumed from the Pope's recent letter that he really disapproves of war. The Catholic order of England, however, assures us that he does not "shut his eyes to the fact that there are occasions when war is an inevitable necessity." It is what the world generally believes. "Don't fight unless necessary in order to get what you want" is a maxim which a man need not be a professor of religion to approve.

In Alabama a Seventh-day Adventist was arrested under a law enacted to prevent an employer compelling a minor to work on Sunday. The man's son, of eighteen, who worked on the farm, testified that he worked of his own free will, being himself a member of a Seventh-day Adventist Church; but the father was convicted and removed to prison. Friends of justice in the place paid the fine and secured their neighbour's release. Such are the Sunday laws in the United States, where church organisations are working as never before to get control of legislative bodies to secure more stringent enforcement of Sunday observance.

The riots in Cornwall, requiring the presence of gunboats and soldiers to keep the fishermen of Newlyn, who do not want to fish on Sunday, from maiming or killing those fishermen who do want to fish on Sunday, is a new development in the Sunday controversy. The appeal to force in behalf of Sunday observance is no new thing; but magistrates and courts are usually used instead of sticks and stones. Both methods show the wickedness and folly of trying to compel the recognition of Sunday, or of any other religious institution. It shows how religious sentiment is appealed to to cover prejudice or some other unworthy motive. The competition in trade is supposed to be as strong a factor as a religious sentiment in the fishing riots.

It was Matthew Arnold who said that two things govern the world, Force and Right-Force till Right is ready. In saying that he was only expressing what Zoroaster had said before him. And before that the Word of God had said the same thing. Force and right, Ormuzd and Ahriman, good and evil, God and Satan. Brought down to its original terms it simply means, then, that Satan rules this world, and will until such time as God is ready, to take His kingdom. This corresponds with the teachings of Christ, and for this reason He taught us to pray, "Thy kingdom come."

The Pope is figuring largely, at present, as a promoter of "religious liberty"-in Russia. The representative of the Vatican at Moscow is said to have been charged with a mission, and provided with a letter on this subject, from the Pope to the Czar. When Rome and Russia become promoters, defenders, and exponents, of religious liberty, that which will be granted will no doubt be of a distinctly Russo-Roman type. However, the world looks to the new Czar with hope for the amelioration of the condition of Russian political prisoners and exiles.

"In Chile" The Present Truth 12, 22.

E. J. Waggoner

In Chile.-One of our workers in Chile, writing from Valparaiso, reports progress there, success attending the work of preacher and colporteur. Of the general situation he says:-

Our city and state are much concerned over the increasing prospects of war with Argentina. The two countries are vying with each other in preparations. Those who know, say that no such depression of business generally, has prevailed here within the last fifteen years, and all seem to feel that a terrible struggle for the mastery is inevitable. And, as if to add immediate consternation to gloomy forebodings, the severest earthquake shocks that have been experienced for twenty-five years were felt here last Friday night at about nine o'clock. Many buildings were thrown down, while the earth groaned. There were thirty-two shocks felt during that night. The people who live in high houses take their beds and sleep in the streets. I am informed that the Grand Avenue, which is more than a mile long, was, and is yet, every night almost one continuous bed. It seems to me they are unnecessarily alarmed; but they say I am a "gringo," which means that I am unsophisticated.

"The Call of Abraham. The Covenant Sealed" The Present Truth 12, 22.

E. J. Waggoner

Now we come to a record which opens up the promise in a most wonderful manner. More than twenty-five years had passed since God first made the promise to Abraham.³1 Doubtless the time had been prolonged by the false step that Abraham took through listening to the reasoning of his wife. More than thirteen years had elapsed since that time. But Abraham had learned the lesson, and so God could lead him again.

"And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before Me, and be thou perfect." Gen. xvii. 1. The margin has it, "upright, or sincere." As in I Chron. xii. 33,38, the meaning is, single-hearted. God told Abraham to be sincere before Him, and not double-hearted. When we recall the story recorded in the preceding chapter, we see the force of this injunction. We see also the force of the statement, "I am the Almighty God." God would let him know that He was fully able to perform His promise, and that therefore he should trust Him with a perfect or an undivided heart.

A NEW NAME

"And Abram fell on his face; and God talked with him, saying, As for Me, behold, My covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee." Gen. xvii. 3-5.

The name Abram signifies "Father of height." Abram's father was a heathen, and the name may have had some reference to heathen worship in high places. But now his name becomes Abraham, "Father of many peoples." In the change of name in the cases of Abraham and Jacob, we have a hint of the new name which the Lord gives to all who are His. See Rev. ii. 17; iii. 12. "And thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name."

This giving to Abraham a new name did not indicate any change in the promise, but was simply a token to Abraham that God meant what He said. His name should ever afterward be a reminder to him of the promise. Some have thought that the giving of this new name marked a change in the nature of the promise to him; but a careful consideration of the promise as previously recorded will show that this cannot be. Abraham was just the same after his new name that he was before. It was while his name was still Abram that he believed God, and his faith in the promise was counted for righteousness. It was while His name was Abram that God preached the Gospel to him, saying, "In thee shall all families of the earth be blessed."

We may not make any distinction in the promises of God to Abraham, saying that some of them were temporal, and only for the fleshly seed, and that others were spiritual and eternal. "For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, . . . was not yea and nay, but in Him is yea. For how many soever be the promises of God, in Him is the yea; wherefore also through Him is the Amen, unto the glory of God through us." 2 Cor. i. 19, 20, R.V. "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ." Note that the promises, no matter how many they are, all come through Christ. Note also that the apostle speaks of Abraham and not of Abram. He does not say that some were made to Abram, and some to Abraham. And this point is still more emphatic when we read the words of Stephen, "The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran." Acts vii. 2. Although he was then known as Abram, the promise was the same as when he was known as Abraham. Every subsequent reference to him in the Bible, even to the first promises, uses the name Abraham. This is why we have referred to him only as Abraham.

The Lord continued, after telling Abraham of the change in his name, "And I will establish My covenant between Me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God." Gen. xvii. 7, 8.

Let us take up the different parts of this covenant in detail. The central part of it is the promised land, the land of Canaan. It is the same as in the fifteenth chapter. The promise is to give it to Abraham and his seed. The covenant is the same that was made there; but here we have it sealed.

Notice that it is

AN "EVERLASTING COVENANT"

that the Lord made with him. It is the one everlasting covenant, which is so often spoken of in the Bible. It is "through the blood of the everlasting covenant" that men are made perfect in every good work to do the will of God. Heb. xiii. 20. Moreover, the land promised in this everlasting covenant, was to be

"AN EVERLASTING POSSESSION,"

for both Abraham and his seed. Mark well that Abraham himself, as well as his seed, was promised the land for an everlasting possession. It is not an inheritance that is simply to be the possession of his family for ever, but both Abraham and his seed together were to have it for an everlasting possession.

But a land can be held for an everlasting possession only by those who have

EVERLASTING LIFE

Therefore in this covenant we find the promise of everlasting life. It could not be otherwise, because when the covenant was first made, as recorded in the fifteenth chapter, Abraham was told that he should die before the land should be given for a possession; and Stephen said that God did not give him so much as to set his foot on. Therefore it could be his only through the resurrection; and when the resurrection takes place, then there will be no more death. For "we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." 1 Cor. xv. 51-53.

So we see that the making of this everlasting covenant with Abraham was simply the preaching of the everlasting Gospel of the kingdom, and the assuring to him of a part in its blessings. The promise to Abraham was a Gospel promise, and nothing else, and the covenant was the everlasting covenant, of which Christ is Mediator. Its scope is identical with that of the new covenant, in which God says, "I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be My people." Heb. viii. 10. But this will appear more plainly as we proceed.

A COVENANT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

The Lord said to Abraham after this restatement of the covenant with him and his seed, "And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt Me and thee." Gen. xvii. 11. Now if we turn to the Epistle to the Romans we shall learn much more of the meaning of this transaction. We must have the Scripture before us in order that we may consider it understandingly, and so we will quote it at length.

"What shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the Scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also described the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? for we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. How then was it reckoned? when he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision, and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised; that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also; and the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised. For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith." Rom. iv. 1-13.

The subject of the entire chapter is Abraham and justification by faith. The apostle takes the case of Abraham as an illustration of the truth presented in the preceding chapter, namely, that a man is made righteous by faith. The blessing that Abraham received is the blessing of sins forgiven, through the righteousness of Jesus Christ. See verses 6-9. Therefore when we read in Gen. xii. 2, 3, that in Abraham all the families of the earth should be blessed, we know that the blessing referred to is the forgiveness of sins.This is positively proved by Acts iii. 25, 26: "Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Unto you first God, having raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities."

This blessing came to Abraham through Jesus Christ and His cross, even as it comes to us. For "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; . . . that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." Gal. iii. 13, 14. So we find that the blessings of the covenant with Abraham are simply the blessings of the Gospel, and they are brought to us through the cross of Christ. Nothing was promised in that covenant except that which comes through the Gospel; and everything that the Gospel contains was in it.

Circumcision was given as the seal of this covenant. But the promise, the covenant, the blessing, and everything, came to Abraham before he was circumcised. Hence he is the father of the uncircumcised as well as of the circumcised. Jews and Gentiles are alike sharers in the covenant and its blessings, provided they have the faith that Abraham had.

In Gen. xvii. 11 we are told that circumcision was given as the sign of the covenant that God made with Abraham. But in Rom. iv. 11 we are told that it was given him as a seal of the righteousness which he had by faith. In other words it was the assurance and seal of the forgiveness of sins through the righteousness of Christ. Therefore we know that the covenant, of which circumcision was the seal, was a covenant of righteousness by faith; that all the blessings promised in it are on the basis of righteousness through Jesus Christ. This again shows us that the covenant made with Abraham was the Gospel and that only.

A GRANT OF LAND

But in this covenant the central promise was concerning land. All the land of Canaan was promised to Abraham and his seed for an everlasting possession. And then the seal of the covenant-circumcision-was given-a seal of the righteousness which he had by faith. This shows that the land of Canaan was to be possessed only by faith. And here we have a practical lesson as to the possession of things by faith. Many people think that a thing that is possessed by faith is only possessed in imagination. But the land of Canaan was a real country, and was to be actually possessed. Possession of it was to be gained however, only through faith. That is, faith was to give them the possession of it. This was indeed the case. By faith the people crossed the river Jordan, and "by faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days." But of this we shall have more hereafter.

The land of Canaan, which was promised in the covenant, was to be had through the righteousness of faith, which was sealed by circumcision, the seal of the covenant. Read now Rom. iv. 13 once more, and we shall see how much was involved in this promise. "For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith." This righteousness of faith we are told in verse eleven was sealed by circumcision; and circumcision was the seal of the covenant which we have recorded in Gen. xvii. Therefore we know that the promise of land, which the covenant with Abraham contained, was nothing less than the promise of the whole earth. As we come to the fulfilment of the promise, we shall see more plainly how it can be that the promise of the land of Canaan included the possession of the whole earth; but the fact may be briefly indicated here.

The covenant in which that land was promised, was, as we have seen, a covenant of righteousness. Its basis was the righteousness of faith. It was an everlasting covenant, promising an everlasting inheritance to both Abraham and his seed, which meant for them everlasting life. But grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life only through Jesus Christ our Lord. Eternal life can be had only in righteousness. Moreover, since the promise was to Abraham, as well as to his seed, and Abraham was assured that he should die long before the inheritance was bestowed, it is evident that it could be gained only through the resurrection, which takes place at the coming of the Lord, when immortality is bestowed. But the coming of Christ is at "the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began." Acts iii. 21. Therefore we are shut up to the fact that the inheritance of righteousness, which was promised to Abraham for an everlasting possession, to be had through the resurrection, at the coming of the Lord, was the "new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness," for which we look according to the promise of God.

June 4, 1896

"A Call to Praise" The Present Truth 12, 23.

E. J. Waggoner

A Call to Praise .-"Praise ye Him, sun and moon: praise Him, all ye stars of light. Praise Him, ye heavens of heavens." Ps. cxlviii. 3, 4.

The Heavens Respond .-"The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth His handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge." Ps. xix. 1, 2.

What They Tell .-They declare the brightness of God's glory-which is but the shining forth of His infinite goodness and truth. Ex. xxxiii. 18, 19. "God is light," because "God is love." They show His power; for they are His own handiwork. They teach knowledge-the knowledge of God, the Creator.

Starry Preachers .-But the goodness of God leadeth to repentance; the power of God is revealed in saving men-the Gospel "is the power of God unto salvation;" and the knowledge of God is "life eternal." So the Apostle Paul shows (in Rom. x.) by quoting from this Psalm that the heavens are preaching the Gospel to men day and night.

In Every Tongue .-They speak to benighted savage in the heart of Africa as well as the highest intellect in civilisation, in a tongue understood by each-if the ear were but open to hear. "There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world."

"What though no real voice nor sound,
Amid their radiant orbs be found;
In reason's ear they all rejoice,
And utter forth a glorious voice,
For ever singing as they shine-
The hand that made us is Divine."

"Life Up Your Eyes." -The Psalmist says that God has set His faithfulness in the heavens, and to every one who is tempted to think God has forgotten him amidst the multitude of people the Lord says: "Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: He calleth them all by names by the greatness of His might, for that He is strong in power; not one faileth." Isa. xl. 26.

His Care for One .-It is because He is strong in power and infinite in goodness that He cares for the one weak soul, ready to perish. "He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might He increaseth strength." If ready to perish in weakness and discouraged, "lift up your eyes on high"-God tells you to-and see that the stars are shining still. The same Divine power and care that keeps them-every one-is for you.

Christ's Power to Save .-The power displayed in the heavens is the power of God in Jesus Christ, "by whom also He made the worlds." Christ now upholds "all things by the word of His power," men and women as well as stars.

To Show His Praises .-We are called also to join with the stars in declaring God's praises-"That ye should shew forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous light." They do it by reflecting the light of God's glory: "Let your light so shine." The firmament witnesses to His wonderful handiwork: "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works." They manifest His glory: "The Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee." Let it be so.

Greater Glory .-The telescope and photography have exhibited details not visible to the naked eye, multiplying the numbers of the starry worlds, and revealing distinctive beauties and marvels of design. But who can conceive of the glories of the universe of God which shall burst upon immortal eyes when earth's sin-tainted atmosphere is cleansed-when "the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be seven-fold, as the light of seven days." And outshining and dimming all, "the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory." "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father."

"God Is a Sun" The Present Truth 12, 23.

E. J. Waggoner

"For the Lord God is a sun and a shield." Ps. lxxxiv. 11. As the sun gives light and heat to the earth, so the Lord is the light of men, and warms them by His grace. All the heat and light that the earth receives, in whatever form, comes from the sun. The light by means of which we find our way at night through the crowded streets of the city, or by which we read in our study, comes from

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the sun. So with the cheerful wood blaze, or the glowing coals that warm our rooms in dreary winter; all the heat comes from the sun.

The sun gives light, and light is life. All the plants turn to the sun! Who has not noticed a plant growing in a dark cellar? Its life is very feeble. In the darkness it is almost dead. But let an opening be made, so that a ray of light can shine through, and at once it revives. It will begin to grow in the direction of the light. Without the light that the sun furnishes to the earth there could be no plant life, nor animal life either.

But life means growth. As the light of the sun is the life of plants, so it is the cause of their growth. As the plant grows, it is by storing up the light and heat of the sun. Those plants that grow very quickly, that come to maturity from the seed in a few weeks or months, have in them but very little heat. They are worthless for fuel. But the sturdy oak, that is centuries in growing,-which grows so slowly that in a year no difference can be detected in its size,-stores up immense quantities of the sun's heat. Other trees are of even slower growth, and store up more heat.

These woods become buried in the ground, and in the course of centuries are transformed in the coal. Then it is used as fuel, and gives to us the heat which it has stored up from the sun. The reason why we get so much more heat from the coal than from the direct rays of the sun is, that in the coal we have the concentrated heat of the sun's rays for years.

What the sun is to the earth, and to plant-life, that God is to His people. "The Lord God is a sun." As the sun, by its light, gives physical life to the plants, so God gives spiritual life-the only real life-to His people. Christ's life is the light of the world. As the oak tree stores up the heat of the sun, so the one who lives in the light of God stores up that light, which is His life. That light and life that are the life and growth of the Christian are to be given out for the enlightenment and warmth of others.

Some one may say, that in order to carry out the figure completely, it ought to be that the Christian of the slowest growth should have the most of the life of God to give out. But let it not be forgotten that the just live by faith. The Christian's life is not measured by years, but by the faith manifested. The more faith, which means humility and trust, the more of the life of God is appropriated. And the more life appropriated, the more will be given out to others, for the life of God cannot be hidden.

"Confessing Christ" The Present Truth 12, 23.

E. J. Waggoner

It is by our lives that we confess or deny Christ. To confess Christ is to confess that He is the Saviour of the world, and specifically that He is our individual Saviour; and this can only be done by manifesting that He is our Saviour, in the fact that we are saved by Him from our sins. Anything less than this would afford no evidence that Jesus is the Saviour of men.

When we choose our own way in preference to His, that is, when we do not let Him have His way in us, we deny that He is our Saviour, for we thereby virtually say that our way is better than His, and if that were true He would not be our Saviour, for we could better save ourselves. So it is by our life, and not by empty words, that we confess or deny Him, and determine whether He, before His Father and the angels, will confess or deny us.

"Coronation Scenes" The Present Truth 12, 23.

E. J. Waggoner

Correspondents have vied with one another in trying to describe the brilliant effects of the Moscow coronation. Russia is a perfect example of the religious State, and religious ceremonial dominated even the civil and military rites. But there was nothing in it all to rouse the enthusiasm of those Russian subjects who suffer under the lash of ecclesiasticism because they prefer the simplicity of Christ and the Word to all this gorgeous ritual, borrowed from heathenism. The amnesties proclaimed contained no hint of any lessening of the rigour of religious laws.

Here is a description of the coronation scene:-

The scene was now one of great splendour. The sun was pouring into the southern windows, lighting up with dazzling effect the gold Iconostasis, the pillars, the walls and shrines, the jewels and dresses of the ladies and the brilliant uniforms of the men. The scene, moreover, now became almost oppressive in its splendid solemnity, as the Metropolitan laid on the golden cushion before his Majesty his Majesty the magnificent Imperial crown of diamonds surmounted by the ruby cross, which the Emperor kissed as he took the crown in his hands, and, amid breathless silence, placed it with dignity on his own head. The Metropolitan then addressed to his Majesty an earnest allocution, advising him to wear the Imperial crown wisely for the benefit of the Church and his subjects.

We know well that there are many in Russia, under the frown of the authorities for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus-who will never be found amongst political offenders, but will ever be an offence because of following the Lord instead of the Greek Church-who, as they hear of the splendid functions, will think lovingly and longingly of that other coronation soon to come, described by the prophets:-

"I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought Him near before Him. And there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom." Dan. vii. 13, 14.

"And I saw heaven open, and behold a white horse; and He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. . . . And His name is called the Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed Him. . . . And He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS." Rev. xix. 11-16.

In that day of glory and power, when all the kings of the earth and their armies are destroyed "with the brightness of His coming," it will be worth something to be a Royal guest.

"Revival of Race Prejudice" The Present Truth 12, 23.

E. J. Waggoner

Race prejudice in the southern United States has recently had a very pronounced expression in the so-called "Sheats' Law," of Florida, which forbids the co-education of blacks and whites in all schools in the State, whether private or public. A successful school carried on by the American Missionary Association, at Orange Park, Florida, has been compelled, by the action of the authorities under this law, to dismiss its pupils and close its doors. The law has temporarily triumphed.

The teachers were arrested, bail was given, and the school continued, awaiting the settlement of the case. But the sheriff appeared again and showed his instructions to rearrest as long as the school remained open. By the terms of the law it seems, also, that the parents of the pupils in such a school are made equally liable with the teachers. Under these circumstances it became necessary to close the school.

This is a remarkable outburst of the old slave-holding spirit, to have occurred so many years after the freeing of the blacks and their admission to civil rights. The "Sheats' Law" will, no doubt, be eventually declared unconstitutional. Some of the Southern religious papers openly uphold the law, as they formerly sustained slavery. Such principles cannot be reconciled with Christ's teaching. He was no respecter of persons.

"The Sword and the LawóOr the Gospel and the Bible" The Present Truth 12, 23.

E. J. Waggoner

Many men have done those things which seem right in their own eyes, but they were not right in the eyes of God. When Solomon said, "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man; but the end thereof are the ways of death" (Prov. xvi. 25), he was stating something which would always be true, until death should be done away with for ever at the second death of the wicked and the destruction of Satan, by whom death came into the world.

In every age there have been those who were zealous to persecute. By this they have thought that they were serving God. Paul, before he became an apostle, was one of these. It seemed right to him to persecute. But was it right? Did he do right when he helped stone Stephen? Did he do right when he went into the houses and took out Christian men and women, and committed them to prison? With what bitter repentance he afterwards acknowledges his error.

Yet, although Stephen died, and many were put in prison, still even this did not suppress the Gospel, but it spread it the more, for many, being scattered abroad, went everywhere preaching the Word. In the condemnation and crucifixion of Christ a certain semblance to the fixed forms of law was followed, though so palpably insufficient as to be a mockery. In the stoning of Stephen legal regulations

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were observed. In the Roman persecutions of the Christians which followed, the forms of law were invoked. All the unnumbered millions whose lives have been taken by the Inquisition and in the persecutions of the Roman Catholic Church, have met their death for conscience sake, but according to the law. There have been Protestant persecutions, and in them also the law served the same purpose.

Is it not time that history taught intelligent men a few lessons? It is time for those who would be Christians to know that neither the sword nor the law are Gospel missionaries, acceptable to God. And still more,-those who use them must yet repent, and suffer under the forces which they themselves have started, as did Paul, or take their place before the judgment seat at last, with Pilate and the priests, the Pharisees, and the soldiers who crucified Christ, the young men who stoned Stephen, and the informers, the inquisitors, and the executioners who have put to death their millions since, because they would not deny Him who Himself died upon the cross.

It is indeed time that men read and understood their histories and their Bibles.

"Ecclesiasticism and Civilised Paganism" The Present Truth 12, 23.

E. J. Waggoner

Ecclesiasticism is the human substitute for the Divine government of the Church. The history of ecclesiasticism is the history of heresy and schisms, of persecution and intolerance, of the rack and the stake. It is a tale of the dungeon, of blood, of fire, and the sword. It is a story of the satiated frenzy of human diabolism on the one side, and the patient suffering of the direst agonies of which the human frame and mind are capable, on the other.

Paganism is the epitome of earthly and infernal evil as expressed through humanity. It is the religion of devil worship, which has fed itself on human lives here that it may feast on eternal death hereafter. Paganism is a lie. It is false throughout. It is the worship of the father of lies. There is in it no foundation of truth, as there is in him no truth, for he is all of falsehood and evil personified, and his subjects are himself incarnate.

How then do paganism and ecclesiasticism differ? If it is true that everything shall bear fruit after its kind, and that we may know them by their fruits, and the product of the one is similar to the product of the other, differing only in the degree of development, then we may justly draw the conclusion that both are from the same source, the fruits of the same spirit.

Envying and strife, war and slaughter, the desire to conquer and to kill, and to take the conquered and his possessions as booty due the victor,-these are not the fruits of righteousness; for the fruit of righteousness is peace, "sown in peace of them that make peace." That which counsels to such deeds is not the wisdom from above; for that is peaceable, gentle, and full of mercy, long suffering and kind. But that wisdom which is not from above is earthly and devilish. Of all these crimes against man and sins against God paganism is guilty; and so also have they all been done in the name and by the order of ecclesiasticism.

In paganism Satan rules without an intermediary; in ecclesiasticism he rules by that human agency, which he has found so traitorous to its kind and to its God as to accept His delegated authority and undertake to be second in that dominion in which Christ refused to be first. In either case, then, the ruler is the same, and that being so, the government must be similar; the requirements of allegiance, the oaths of office cannot be different. They are not different; they are the same. They only vary as the varying development of the intellectual and social life requires, and that variation is equally true of either form of satanic government.

The rule of Satan in the pagan world is supreme, his subjects render him a terror-stricken and unquestioning obedience. It is his aim to seek absolutism everywhere; thus he is always a usurper, and hence it is that ecclesiasticism is never content until it has enthroned itself in a despotism. All forms of ecclesiasticism are from the same original stock, and they will again merge into one common type, which, whether the name of the original be retained or not, will be the same antichrist. He who has staked an eternity and the third place in heaven upon his effort to win eternal supremacy will brook no rival and grant no equal. He, and no other, will rule his own.

It is the ultimate philosophy of every people that all things resolve themselves finally into either good or evil, that there is in the last event no other contest than that between the forces of right and wrong. This is a legitimate deduction. There is also Divine authority for it, for He Himself has said that they who are not for Him are against Him. If this be true, as the human mind has acknowledged from all time, it is inevitable that the discrimination must be made. Each factor in the fight must be called up and the "shibboleth" put to him, "What say ye of Christ, whom say ye that He is?" By this and by their

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fruits must all be proved, that that which is good may be held fast.

As in the ultimate event there can be put two principles, good and evil, so there are but two supreme representatives of these antagonisms, and these two beings are God and Satan. From the beginning the fiat has gone forth, "Choose ye this day whom ye will serve." The necessity for this choice devolves upon a humanity none the less now that in these last days man has found out for himself so many evil devices, and Satan, having developed all his supernatural subtleties, is coming down with all deceivableness such as might lead astray the very elect themselves. It behooves every man then to ask, "Where is peace"? For God is the God of peace, and Satan is the God of strife. "Where is equal justice to all men without respect of persons?" For God is no respecter of persons, but Satan is the God of envy as he is of strife. "Where are they that confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, for the salvation of souls?" for they are of God, but they that deny him are of the spirit of antichrist. "Where are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus?" For at the last day they shall stand on the sea of glass, and sing the song of Moses and the Lamb; but as for the ungodly and the wicked what shall their end be?

There is but one name by which men may be saved. It is not the name of any sect or denomination. It is not by protesting against the errors committed under the name and authority of any hierarchy, while neglecting to pick the beam from their own eyes. It is not by declaring loudly against the errors of others, while failing themselves to walk with humility and meekness in the steps of the Master. If this be so-as it is-where will they be who are striving among themselves for the mastery?-who are organising to combat one another,-not going forth two by two to preach the Word, to warn the world, to heal the sick, and bring the Gospel to them that hunger for God's last message of joy to the world. The inner purpose of every human organisation is known to God. It can not be concealed from Him,-nor from those who serve Him in truth,-if their purpose is not to serve God: and, whatever their purpose, they cannot by the use of legal and military force serve the God of peace. It makes no difference what these organisations may call themselves; whether they be professedly religious, civil, or military,-if their methods and purposes are not those of the God of peace and justice, they are the final expression of a civilised paganism, or a highly developed ecclesiasticism, or a combination of both, in a last desperate allegiance to fight the battles of Satan against God and His goodness.

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 23.

E. J. Waggoner

-The population of Paris has increased 87,250 in flee years,-and during the same time London has gained 200,528 in numbers.

-A mysterious ringing of electrical bells in a house in Switzerland was traced to a spider whose web had connected two wires.

-The London census, taken in March last, shows the population of the Metropolitan registration district to be 4,411,271.

-An insurrection in Crete is again causing anxiety in the Near East. The population of the island Is 250,000, of which 40,000 are Mohammedans.

-A tower is in process of erection at Wembley Park, London, the base of which covers an area of one acre, and which, when completed, will be 1,150 feet high.

-Locusts, rinderpest, drought, and war are devastating a considerable portion of Africa. At the present rate, by the time it comes to be divided, it will not be a land of milk and honey.

-The women and girls employed in the straw-plaiting industry in Tuscany, Italy, are striking against a reduction in wages, which now enable them to earn a trifle over one penny per day.

-Contrary to general belief, the Sahara is not a barren and worthless waste. Some time ago there were nine million sheep in the Algerian Sahara alone, Insides two million goats, and two hundred and sixty thousand camels. On the cases there are one million five hundred thousand date palms.

-Living is dear in South Africa. A. workman writes from Cape Town warning against emigration to that land of sun and diamonds. He says that the necessaries of life are from forty to sixty per cent. higher than in Great Britain, and house rent from one hundred to one hundred and fifty per cent. higher, while situations are difficult to obtain, and wages extremely low.

-M. Cartuyvets last week called the attention of the Belgian House to the importation into Belgium of old horses from England to be converted into tinned meat. No fewer than 8,000 horses had, he said, thus entered Belgium in the course of last year. The Minister of Agriculture admitted the fact, and stated that he would shortly take measures to stop the practice complained of. Horses destined to be utilised as tinned meat should be specially branded.

-At a late session of the Co-operative Congress, at Woolwich,-a representative body of the greatest influence among English artisans,-a strong resolution was passed that for the sake of humanity, conscience, and the cause of commerce, a permanent tribunal for the maintenance of peace between English speaking nations should be established. At the Congress of the Chambers of Commerce, representing the interests of British commerce throughout the world, to be held in London on June 9, Sir John Lubbock will introduce a resolution favouring a reduction of military expenditures and the settlement of international differences by diplomacy and arbitration.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 23.

E. J. Waggoner

The question of religion and the schools is stirring up more bitterness of feeling in England and in Canada just now than any other public question.

As though to remind us at home that the earth is waxing old, two slight earthquake shocks were felt last week, one in Cornwall, the other in Scotland.

"In some parts of Germany," writes one of our German brethren, "the police already visit the houses to see whether the Sundays laws are strictly carried out, and these laws are becoming more and more severe."

The sanitary authorities in Egypt find Mohammedan fatalism a formidable obstacle to their efforts to restrict the cholera epidemic. If Allah wills that they shall have the cholera, then they must have it, argue the ignorant people, and they resist all suggestions of sanitary precautions.

The terrible disaster at Moscow shows for how small a thing the thoughtless will put life in jeopardy. Hundreds were crushed to death in the mad struggle-for a free meal and a souvenir mug. The free banquet on the Khodynskoa plain was the scene of greater loss of life, apparently, than the tornado in St. Louis. So closely does calamity overhang festivity.

The Times correspondent says that the vestments of the ecclesiastics who assisted in the coronation service cost 10,000 roubles each-?1,416. These sixty priests, wearing ?84,960 worth of dresses, looked "very impressive," it is said.

The following words concerning Japan are a sufficient answer to those who think idolatry and superstition could not endure alongside modern civilisation:-

The worshippers in many of the temples of Kioto go on electric cars, and pilgrims to sacred Chikko or Isa go by railroad. Costly shrines are to be found in the homes or business houses of the wealthy merchants or manufacturers in the treaty ports. Children from the public schools are none the less attendants at the temples. Official Japan, with all its wonderful progress, has not overthrown a single altar or destroyed a single heathen temple.

Nor do we need to go so far afield as Japan to see that enlightenment without God is but gross darkness. By the Bible rule which makes all covetousness, there is little difference between East and West in the matter of idolatry.

In the preface to her new history of the Jesuits, Miss Cusak gives the following definition of Jesuitism:-

A religious order which prides itself in being called by the name of the Saviour of mankind, and yet has made the practice of untruth a fine art, and reduced the practice of lying to a science.

"'Put up Thy Sword'" The Present Truth 12, 23.

E. J. Waggoner

"Put up Thy Sword." -A despatch from Odessa announces that about five thousand Russian Christians have been obliged to leave their homes, near Kars, because of their refusal to carry arms. During the early life of Jesus of Nazareth the chief priest and Pharisees said, "If we let Him thus alone, all men will believe on Him; and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation." This fear in regard to the result of a belief in Christ, and a practical application of the precepts which He taught, has been shared by the authorities of all governments ever since. There is no Biblical teaching more pronounced, clear, and definite, than that for which these five thousand people suffer banishment. Such an incident as this is a significant companion-piece to the religious ceremonials and protestations of the Russian coronation which have just taken place. That bejeweled copy of the Bible which the Czar, the Czarina, and the Empress Dowager, so reverently kissed should have lain open at certain marked passages which those exiles could have designated.

"National Irritability" The Present Truth 12, 23.

E. J. Waggoner

National Irritability .-"The nations were angry," or irritable says the prophet, describing last-day conditions. The newspapers bear witness to the prevalence of the evil temper day by day. The Spectator says this condition is getting chronic:-

France on the Niger, Germany in the Camerons, Russia in Bokhara and Eastern China, not a Power can stir a foot even on the most legitimate business of its own without our getting into a fever of irritability. . . . It is the carelessness of children, not the caution of grown men, which they display, and they succeed in producing a chronic irritation, from which some day we shall reap most evil effects. . . . The other Powers suspect us at least as hotly as we suspect them.

"A Great Wind" The Present Truth 12, 23.

E. J. Waggoner

A Great Wind .-The tragic destruction which has fallen upon a portion of the great city of St. Louis, with the loss of so many hundreds of lives and so many millions of property, should convey a lesson, not only to those living within the tornado belt of the United States, between the Rocky and Allegheny mountains, but to all the world, of the increase of the irremediable dangers to human life. This was not an unusual storm,-it was by no means of unprecedented violence. Great numbers of similar tornadoes have swept across the prairies and cut through the forests of Western and Central United States, but this is the first time that one has passed through a populous city.

Many conversant with these tornadoes and their irresistible force, have felt for years that it was the restraining hand of Providence which prevented just such catastrophes as this which has now happened. The marvellous freaks of the terrible forces engaged in the storms, in which heretofore human life seemed to have been played with and not taken, have been noticed and often even made a subject of newspaper comment. It has also been noticed that within the last few years loss of life and injury to persons have been made more frequent than heretofore.

It was when the restraining hand of God was withdrawn that a tornado came up out of the wilderness "and smote the four corners of the house" where the sons and daughters of Job were gathered, and it fell, and but one escaped to tell the story.

"The Inevitable Crucifix" The Present Truth 12, 23.

E. J. Waggoner

The Inevitable Crucifix .-The educational power of pictures is undoubtedly great, and ecclesiastical art so often falsely represents the apostles as typical priests, with a pastoral staff, strange garments, and crosses that it is not surprising that many ignorant people are deceived as to the apostolic simplicity of the early church. A magazine writer, discussing stained-glass windows, describes a window in an Irish convent, representing the women accompanying Christ to Calvary:-

Everything in the window when finished was correct except one figure, which was very much out of place. That figure represented one of the nuns of the modern convent, standing amid a crowd of sad women, and, yet more strange, from her neck hung a crucifix. She was actually wearing the emblem before the event took place.

Such a detail, however, is scarcely worth noticing, as to represent the apostles and early disciples with crucifixes after the crucifixion is as false as to put the inevitable crucifix upon them before the event. It was not until the cross of Christ was lost sight of that the apostasy began to manufacture crucifixes.

June 11, 1896

"God's Works" The Present Truth 12, 24.

E. J. Waggoner

"Whatsoever is not of faith is sin." Rom. xiv. 23.

Therefore it is that "being justified"-made righteous-"by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Rom. v. 1.

Faith, not works, is that through which men are saved. "For by grace are ye saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast." Eph. ii. 8, 9.

"Where is boasting, then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay; but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law." Rom. iii. 27, 28.

The Gospel excludes boasting, and boasting is a natural consequence of all attempts at justification by works; and yet the Gospel does not exclude works. On the contrary, works-good works-are the one grand object of the Gospel. "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before prepared that we should walk in them." Eph. ii. 10, with margin.

There is not the slightest contradiction here. The difference is between our works and God's works. Our works are always faulty; God's works are always perfect; therefore it is God's works that we need in order to be perfect. But we are not able to do God's works, for He is infinite, and we are nothing. For a man to think himself able to do God's works is the highest presumption. We laugh when a five-year-old boy imagines that he can do his father's work; how much more foolish for puny man to imagine that he can do the works of the Almighty.

Goodness is not an abstract thing; it is action, and action is found only in living beings. And since God alone is good, only His works are of any account. Only the man who has God's works is righteous. But since no man can do God's works, it necessarily follows that God must give them to us, if we are saved. This is just what He does for all who believe.

When the Jews in their self-sufficiency asked, "What shall we do that we might work the works of God?" Jesus replied, "This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent." John vi. 28, 29. Faith works. Gal. v. 6; 1 Thess. i. 3. It brings God's works into the believing one, since it brings Christ into the heart (Eph. iii. 17), and in Him is all the fulness of God. Col. ii. 9. Jesus Christ is "the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever" (Heb. xiii. 8), and therefore God not only was but is in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. So if Christ dwells in the heart by faith, the works of God will be manifest in the life; "for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." Phil. ii. 13.

How this is done, is not within the range of our comprehension. We do not need to know how it is done, since we do not have to do it. The fact is enough for us. We can no more understand how God does His works, than we can do those works. So the Christian life is always a mystery, even to the Christian himself. It is a life hidden with Christ in God. Col. iii. 3. It is hidden even from the Christian's own sight. Christ in men, the hope of glory, is the mystery of the Gospel. Col. i. 27.

In Christ we are created unto good works which God has already prepared for us. We have only to accept them by faith. The acceptance of those good works is the acceptance of Christ. How long "before" did God prepare those good works for us?-"The works were finished from the foundation of the world. For He spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all His works. And in this place again, If they shall"-i.e. they, the unbelieving, shall not-"enter into my rest." Heb. iv. 3-5. But "we which have believed do enter into rest."

The Sabbath, therefore,-the seventh day of the week,-is God's rest. God gave the Sabbath as a sign by which men might know that He is God, and that He sanctifies. Eze. xx. 12, 20. Sabbath-keeping has nothing whatever to do with

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justification by works, but is, on the contrary, the sign and seal of justification by faith; it is a sign that man gives up his own sinful works and accepts God's perfect works. Since the Sabbath is not work, but a rest, it is the mark of rest in God through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

No other day than the seventh day of the week can stand as the mark of perfect rest in God, because on that day alone did God rest from all His works. It is the rest of the seventh day, into which He says the unbelieving cannot enter. It alone of all the days of the week is the rest day, and it is inseparably connected with God's perfect work.

On the other six days, including the first day of the week, God worked. On those days we also may and ought to work. Yet on every one of them we also may and ought to rest in God. This will be the case if our works are "wrought in God." John iii. 21. So man should rest in God every day in the week; but the seventh day alone can be the sign of that rest.

Two things may be noted as self-evident conclusions of the truths already set forth. One is that the setting apart of another day than the seventh, as a sign of acceptance of Christ and of rest in God through Him, is in reality a sign of rejection of Him. Since it is the substitution of man's way for God's way, it is in reality the sign of man's assumption of superiority above God, and of the idea that man can save himself by his own works. Not every one who observes another day has that assumption, by any means. There are many who love the Lord in sincerity and do accept Him in humility, who observe another day than that which God has given as the sign of rest in Him. They simply have not learned the full and proper expression of faith. But their sincerity, and the fact that God accepts their unfeigned faith, does not alter the fact that the day which they observe is the sign of exaltation above God. When such hear God's gracious warning they will forsake the side of apostasy as they would a plague-stricken house.

The other point is that people cannot be forced to keep the Sabbath, inasmuch as it is the sign of faith, and no man can be forced to believe. Faith comes spontaneously as a result of hearing God's Word. No man can even force himself to believe, much less can he compel somebody else. By force a man's fears may be so wrought upon that he may say he believes, and he may act as though he believed. That is to say, a man who fears man rather than God may be forced to lie. But "no lie is of the truth." Therefore since the Sabbath is the sign of perfect faith, it is the sign of perfect liberty-"the glorious liberty of the children of God"-the liberty which the Spirit gives; for the Sabbath, as a part of God's law, is spiritual. And so, finally, let no one deceive himself with the thought that an outward observance of even God's appointed rest-day-the seventh day-without faith and trust in God's Word alone, is the keeping of God's Sabbath. "For whatsoever is not a faith is sin."

"Does the World Grow Better?" The Present Truth 12, 24.

E. J. Waggoner

Is the world growing better, and will it continue to improve? There are men who profess what they think to be a happy Christian optimism, who think and teach that this is so. They make a mistake in the fact, and they are in error, too, in thinking their view the highest optimism. To prove them wrong in the fact, it is only necessary to go to the Scriptures and the sure Word of prophecy. Here we are assured that the wheat and tears shall grow together until the end, and that "evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse."

This, in itself, is enough to show that men will not become better as the world grows older. Wickedness will not only exist, and continue to exist, but it will increase, and continue to increase until the end. Where there are wicked men and seducers there will necessarily be violence and conflict,-those, then, who look for universal peace are indulging a futile hope. To know that this is so they need only to read the prophecies of the wars that are to come in the last days.

But Scripture is corroborated by history and by facts. The evidence to be drawn from the present facts in the light of the past history of man shows conclusively, that, in the natural order of things, nothing else can be true as regards the condition of man, than just that which the Bible predicts. Men indulge more and more in the pleasures of the senses. Right reason is lost through intemperance and excess of sensual indulgences. The gratification of personal desire is made the aim and end of existence. Increased facilities for worldly enjoyment multiply the numbers of the devotees and slaves of pleasure. Mental balance is lost, selfishness rules, inordinate desires fill the mind and occupy the ambition, insanity develops.

But it is not in the last development of actual insanity where the greatest and most widespread harm is done,-it is in the intermediate stages of selfish lives, hardened hearts, and the drying of the very sources of the milk of human kindness, so that a man's foes are found to be those of his own household. Thus the corrupt nature of man conspires with the originator of all evil to dethrone human reason, and bring about the eternal destruction of as many of the human race as will yield themselves servants to sin and Satan.

In the nature of things the continuance of this is unavoidable so long as Satan lives and the nature of man remains corrupt. Man has made every possible preparation for continuing his part of the Satanic work. Will Satan himself be behind man in the furthering of his own purposes? Certainly not. The only escape, then, from the continued development of evil is the divine intervention. God will intervene. He has said so. He will remove all evil and the author of all evil out of existence. Righteousness will reign. It is the highest optimism to believe this as God has said it, and to do His will awaiting that glorious consummation.

"Priests In Politics" The Present Truth 12, 24.

E. J. Waggoner

Priests In Politics .-The Roman Catholic Church has a hold upon the politics of her subjects such as must be a cause of envy to those Protestants who are beginning to rival Rome itself in forcing religion into the political arena. In Canada the Catholics are determined to secure State-supported Catholic schools for Manitoba, and the bishops have issued an order to their flocks to vote only for candidates who are pledged to their cause. They say that a Catholic "is not permitted" "to have two lines of conduct in a religious point of view-one for private and one for public life." The introduction of these questions into the State is sure to lead to bloodshed one of these days. Protestants do not want the Catholic "religious State," and Catholics do not want the Protestant variety. It is a fight for the supremacy.

"Achievement" The Present Truth 12, 24.

E. J. Waggoner

Without devotion to something nobler and more abiding than the present no great achievement is possible, no lofty thought attainable. One must think and work in the present but for the future. That is the whole purpose of our possession of the present.

"The Call of Abraham. The Flesh Against the Spirit" The Present Truth 12, 24.

E. J. Waggoner

"Now Sarai Abram's wife bare him no children; and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said unto Abram, behold now, the Lord hath restrained me from bearing; I pray thee go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened unto the voice of Sarai."

This was the great mistake of Abraham's life; but he learned a lesson from his mistake, and it was recorded for the purpose of teaching that lesson to all. We will presume that the reader is acquainted with the sequel-how the Lord told Abraham that Ishmael, the son of Hagar was not the heir that He had promised, but that Sarah his wife should bear him a son, and how Hagar and Ishmael were sent away, after Isaac was born. So we may proceed at once to some of the important lessons that are suggested by this transaction.

In the first place, we should learn the folly of man's trying to fulfil the promises of God. God had promised to Abraham an innumerable seed. When the promise was made, it was beyond all human possibility that Abraham should have a son by his wife, but he accepted the word of the Lord, and his faith was counted to him for righteousness. This in itself was evidence that the seed was not to be an ordinary seed, but that it was to be a seed of faith.

But his wife had not the faith that he had. Yet she thought that she had faith, and even Abraham doubtless thought that in carrying out her advice he was working in harmony with the word of the Lord. The mistake was in harkening to the voice of his wife, instead of to the Lord. They reasoned that God had promised them a large family, but that since it was impossible for her to have children, it was very evident that He intended that they should devise some other means of bringing it about. Thus it is that human reason deals with the promises of God.

Yet how short-sighted the whole thing was. God had made the promise; therefore He alone could fulfil it. If a man makes a promise, the thing promised may be performed by another, but in that case the one who made the promise fails to carry out his word. So even though that which the Lord had promised could have been gained by the device which was adopted, the result would have been to shut the Lord out from fulfilling His word. They were therefore working against God. But His promises cannot be performed by man. In Christ alone can they be performed. It is easy enough for us all to see this in the case before us; yet how often, in our own experience, instead of waiting for the Lord to do what He has promised, we become tired of waiting, and try to do it for Him, and thus make failures.

SPIRITUAL AND LITERAL

Years afterwards the promise was fulfilled in God's own way, but it was not until both Abraham and his wife fully believed the Lord. "Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised." Heb. xi. 11. Isaac was the fruit of faith. "For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise."

Many people overlook this fact. They forget that Abraham had two sons, one by a bondwoman, and the other by a freewoman; one born after the flesh, and the other born after the Spirit. Hence the confusion with respect to the "literal" and the "spiritual" seed of Abraham. People talk as though the word "spiritual" were opposed to "literal." But this is not the case. "Spiritual" is opposed only to "fleshly," or carnal.

Isaac was born after the Spirit, yet he was as real and literal a child as Ishmael was. So the true seed of Abraham are only those who are spiritual, but that does not make them any the less real. God is Spirit, yet He is a real God. Christ had a spiritual body after His resurrection, yet He was a real, literal being, and could be handled the same as other bodies. So the bodies of the saints after the resurrection will be spiritual, yet they will be real. Spiritual things are not imaginary things. Indeed, that which is spiritual is more real than that which is fleshly, because only that which is spiritual will endure for ever.

From this case, therefore, we learn most conclusively that the seed which God promised to Abraham, which should be as the sand of the sea and the stars of heaven for number, and which should inherit the land, is a spiritual seed. That is, it is a seed which comes through the agency of the Spirit of God. The birth of Isaac, like that of the Lord Jesus, was miraculous. It was supernatural. Both were brought about through the agency of the Spirit. In both we have an illustration of the power by which we are to become sons of God, and thus heirs of the promise.

The seed of Abraham after the flesh are Ishmaelites. He was a wild man, or, as the Revised Version has it, "A wild ass among men." Gen. xvi. 12. Moreover, he was the son of a bondwoman, and therefore not a freeborn son. Now the Lord had already signified, when speaking of Eliezer, Abraham's servant, that the seed of Abraham were to be free. Therefore if Abraham had only remembered the words of the Lord, instead of harkening to the voice of his wife, he would have been saved much trouble.

It is worth while to dwell at length upon this phase of the subject, for it will save much confusion as to the true seed of Abraham, and the true Israel. Let the points be stated once more.

Ishmael was born after the flesh, and could not be the seed. Therefore those who are only of the flesh cannot be the children of Abraham, and heirs according to the promise.

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Isaac was born after the Spirit, and was the true seed. "In Isaac shall thy seed be called." Therefore all the children of Abraham are they alone who are born of the Spirit. "We, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise." Gal. iv. 28.

Isaac was freeborn; and none but those who are free are the children of Abraham, "So, then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free." Gal. iv. 31. What this freedom is, the Lord showed in His talk to the Jews, recorded in the eighth of John. "If ye abide in My word, then are ye truly My disciples; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. They answered unto Him, We are Abraham's seed, and have never yet been in bondage to any man; how sayest Thou, Ye shall be made free? Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Every one that committeth sin is the bondservant of sin. And the bondservant abideth not in the house for ever; but the Son abideth for ever. If therefore the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." Verses 31-36, R.V. And later He declared to them that if they were really the children of Abraham, they would do the works of Abraham. Verse 39.

Here again we see that which we learned from the promise in the fifteenth chapter of Genesis, that the promise seed was to be a righteous seed, since it was promised only through Christ, and was sure to Abraham only through his faith.

The sum of the whole matter is that in the promise to Abraham there is the Gospel, and only the Gospel; and any attempt to make the promises apply to any other than those who are Christ's through the Spirit, is an attempt to nullify the promises of the Gospel of God. "If ye are Christ's then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Gal. iii. 29. "Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." Rom. viii. 9. So if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit by which Isaac was born, he is not a child of Abraham, and has no claim to any part of the promise.

"The Work of the Destroyer" The Present Truth 12, 24.

E. J. Waggoner

"And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights." Luke xxi. 11.

He who calls attention to existing facts does not deserve to be called an alarmist, although it may be a very serious condition which he points out. The physician who candidly gives his patient a truthful statement of his case is not an alarmist. It may be that the symptoms are alarming, yet for all that very likely it is the wisest possible thing to state them frankly to the patient, that, if possible, he may be warned in time. The Great Physician was not an alarmist, and took no pessimistic view of the final outcome of all things, yet the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew contains the skeleton of what must have been a most dramatic narration indeed of events which were, and are, to befall the world.

In the beginning God saw that all created nature which He had made was very good. This unqualified approval must have been fully deserved. To have been worthy of this expression of Divine satisfaction it must have been free from all natural convulsions and displays of destructive forces. In the day when the Creator looked upon the work of His hands and found it all very good, all the natural forces were in their proper equilibrium, and there was no possibility, under the then existing conditions, of their breaking forth in violent and disastrous exhibitions of their irresistible power. But sin made its appearance and the evenly-balanced adjustment of natural forces became more and more disturbed until at last "the earth was filled with violence,"-the earth was corrupt and man was corrupt. At last the disorder, moral and physical, culminated in that great storm of all the ages in which the vast flood of waters swept the whole earth and destroyed all life except that of the one just man and those with him.

This was a logical result. As in greater and greater degree the laws which the Creator had established were ignored, defied, and violated,-so it might be expected that His beneficent controlling influence over the forces of nature would be proportionately withdrawn. Such was the result, and the climax swept the whole world clean with the besom of destruction.

For many years Noah was occupied in building the ark, and in explaining its purpose to men and warning them to repent from their wickedness and escape the destruction which was to come. No doubt Noah was called a foolish and fanatical alarmist;-but was he? Was he not, rather, the calmest-minded and clearest-headed man of his time? The event, though seemingly long delayed, proved him to have been wise and the others foolish. It is not unwise to depend upon the sure Word of prophecy. It is not folly to repeat its warnings.

Again, for thousands of years man has corrupted himself and the earth. Through systematic disobedience to the law of God, and obedience to Satan, he has caused the Creator and Preserver to withdraw more and more His beneficent influence and control; and has placed himself and all things in increasing degree under the control of the destroyer-the "prince of the power of the air." And now the most casual observer-if he only will-may realise the truth of this which a writer upon this subject some years ago put with so much directness and force⁴1 :-

Satan works through the elements also to garner his harvest of unprepared souls. He has studied the secrets of the laboratories of nature, and he uses all his power to control the elements as far as God allows. When he was suffered to afflict Job, how quickly flocks and herds, servants, houses, children, were swept away, one trouble succeeding another as in a moment. It is God that shields His creatures and hedges them in from the power of the destroyer. But the Christian world have shown contempt for the law of Jehovah, and the Lord will do just what He has declared that He would-He will withdraw His blessings from the earth and remove His protecting care from those who are rebelling against His law and teaching and forcing others to do the same. Satan has control of all whom God does not especially guard. He will favor and prosper some, in order to further his own designs; and he will bring trouble upon others and lead men to believe that it is God who is afflicting them.

While appearing to the children of men as a great physician who can heal all their maladies, he will bring disease and disaster, until populous cities are reduced to ruin and desolation. Even now he is at work. In accidents and calamities by sea and by land, in great conflagrations, in fierce tornadoes and terrific hailstorms, in tempests, floods, cyclones, tidal waves, and earthquakes, in every place and in a thousand forms, Satan is exercising his power. He sweeps away the ripening harvest, and famine and distress follow. He imparts to the air a deadly taint, and thousands perish by the pestilence. These visitations are to become more and more frequent and disastrous. Destruction will be upon both man and beast. "The earth mourneth and fadeth away," "the haughty people . . . do languish. The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant." Isaiah 24:4, 5.

The end and outcome of this which must shortly come to pass is revealed in "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to show unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass; and He sent and signified it by His angel unto His servants John: who bear record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw. Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand." Rev. i. 1, 2, 3.

"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; . . . Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And He said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end." Rev. xxi. 1, 3-6.

"The 'Regenerated' State" The Present Truth 12, 24.

E. J. Waggoner

The bishops in the fourth century conceived the idea of regenerating the State by gaining control in political affairs. They thought great things would come of it; but it led to the darkness and immorality of the Dark Ages. When the Church forsook the power of God and the Word for political power there was left nothing to hold back the elements of evil. Now again a large portion of the religious world is infatuated with the same idea-they will bring the nations to righteousness by securing control of politics in the interests of a religiously ordered State.

The Methodist Times reports the annual meeting of the great Methodist body in America, and enthusiastically welcomes that portion of the Address which revives this fourth-century programme. It says:-

"The purpose of Christ in this world," adds the Address, "is not merely the regeneration of the individual. He also desires the regeneration of the State. The State is as truly Divine as the Church. Nay, the State is the designed outcome of the perfected Church. A man may be as much a missionary of God in the politics of America as in the forests of Africa." This is first rate, and shows that the detestable doctrine, which has scarcely any religious supporter left in England except Dr. Parker, that the State is purely secular, is now being rejected by the adherents of all great Churches even in America.

When men wanted to make Christ king by force, He eluded them; for His kingdom is not of the world. When men now try to enthrone Him king of an earthly kingdom it is only their own perverse wills that they enthrone; and that has meant tyranny, and woe, and wickedness throughout all history. It is of the Papacy, through and through; but men get so intoxicated with the wine of the papal Babylon, and so fascinated by the idea of getting power to "run things" according to their own way, that they forget Divine principles, and the power of the Gospel, and the nature of true morality, and the loud cry of history and of prophecy. Under the plea of saving the State, Christ's death was decided upon (John xi. 49, 50), and He has been crucified afresh and put to shame whenever His professed followers have sought earthly power with which to honour Him.

NONCONFORMITY'S ERROR

Dr. Parker has lately been pointing out to Nonconformists the fatal error they have made in insisting that religion, as they define it, should be taught by the State. How they have thus helped Rome and Ritualism into power is a matter of recent history. If Dr. Parker's is the only voice in popular Nonconformity that is raised against the "regenerated" State theory in England, it is so much the worse for both religion and the State in England. When the fourth-century bishops, losing confidence in the power of the Gospel to save sinners, turned to what they thought would be a short way of saving the State, they ruined both Church and State. And they began-just as Methodism and other religious bodies in America have done-by getting the State committed to Sunday laws, and pushing it on deeper and deeper into religious controversy and strife. When modern States are made "Christian" after this plan, the hardest place in this world for citizens of the kingdom of heaven will be in "Christendom," even as it was in the Dark Ages. And the whole current is setting in that direction.

History furnishes many examples of the religious-State theory in practice. Even now we have only to look to Russia, or Austria, or some of the South American States to see the Roman Catholic ideal of a religious State. "But these," our Protestant champions would say, "are but examples of States with the wrong religion. Let us make the State religious after the proper religion, and all will be well." That is just where they have always erred. The sin is in turning aside from the preaching of the Gospel of the kingdom of heaven to trying to manage the kingdoms of this world, and to make people religious by law. Whether priest or presbyter has mattered not a whit; when churches want civil power, they want it to use, and they have always used it as the world uses power.

When the Puritans fled to America to escape Episcopacy in power, they founded a State "regenerated" after their ideal; but they soon made it worse for the Quaker and the Baptist than it had been for themselves under Episcopacy, and their severity in the New England shocked their former persecutors in Old England. Religion in power in the State never can be the religion of Jesus Christ; for His kingdom is not of this world, nor do His servants fight. But the moment the State is made religious that moment religious power seizes the sword, and sooner or later the logic of events will bring the use of it. Even now, in America, the professedly Protestant churches-misguided, and ignorant of what they are doing, we must allow-have made such malignant use of Sunday laws against

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Sabbath-keepers that even Roman Catholic journals have protested.

AN IMAGE TO THE PAPACY

The moment a people determine to make a State policy religious, that moment, in a mixed population, begins the struggle to see whose religion shall be supreme. This very struggle that is now attending the world-wide revival of the religio-political question, is adding bitterness to public life day by day. Compromises only hold the elements in check temporarily, and when next the strife breaks out it is harsher than ever. Cannot every one see that the result will be strife and bitterness to the end? In Catholic countries the question is settled; in professedly Protestant countries the strife is but beginning, so far as the modern development of the idea is concerned. The religious State that will suit one section will not please another. And even though compromising Protestantism were able to settle some basis for the religious State, what would it be but a very likeness of the Papacy? It will be human law in place of God's law, and man enthroned in the place of God. It will be but the image to the papal beast of prophecy (Rev. xiii.), itself the triumph of papal principles over the grand old Protestant doctrine of the non-interference of the magistrate and the State in the realm of religion. And that doctrine is the doctrine of Jesus Christ, who when He was offered all the kingdoms of this world and the glory of them by the god of this world, refused the gift, leaving an example of loyalty to the kingdom of heaven which His followers must imitate.

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 24.

E. J. Waggoner

-The Pope has written a letter to the King of Abyssinia asking for the release of the Italian soldiers held prisoners by him.

-The Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States is taking steps to establish a similar organisation to the Church Army in this country.

-The temples of India are to be lighted with electricity, the example having been set by the great shrine of Siva, at Kochioaddie, near Mutwal, in Ceylon.

-The German universities are producing graduates in lam in such numbers that it bas been found necessary to discourage professional study in this direction.

-Russia has a standing army of 1,698,000 men always under arms, with field reserves of 1,124,000 first reserves amounting to 1,191,800 men, 4,000,000 in the second reserve, and a total of 7,914,000.

-It is understood that the Government of Now Zealand will introduce a measure for the exclusion of consumptive persons on the same lines as that dealing with small-pox, making masters of ships liable.

-Following immediately upon the terrible disaster at Moscow came the round of balls and banquets, the festivities beginning on the very field of slaughter before all the bodies were removed.

-The Swod, or Russian code, describes the Czar as an autocrat whose power is without limit: while in the Russian catechism, drawn up for schools, it is said that every one of his subjects owes him "adoration."

-Only one railway passenger among 28,000,000 is annually killed in England; in France it is one in 19,000,000; in Germany, one in 10,000,000; Italy, one in 6,000,000; America, one in 2,000,000 to 8,000,000; and Russia, one in 1,000,000.

-A recent scientific traveller in Palestine says that the Sea of Galilee is fast booming like the Dead Sea, with dense water and salt formations on its banks, He believes that the bottom of the sea is sinking, and that greater changes in it are impending.

-There are large districts in China where labour is so cheap that it can hardly be reckoned on a money standard. Thousands of Chinese labourers live on little more than a handful of rice or so s day, and yet even then there are thousands of unemployed practically starving.

-The Czar has no Civil List, but draws at discretion upon the Imperial Treasury, every rouble in which is supposed to be absolutely at his own disposal, so that his resources are practically inexhaustible. He is also the owner of immense estates in various parts of Russia.

-The Bill for the consolidation of the city of New York with its suburbs to constitute what has been called "The Greater New York," has now become a law, and will go into effect on Jan. 1, 1898. The area of the city will then be three hundred square miles, or about twice that of London. I may lay claim to the title of the Venice of the West, for within its limits it win number forty-five islands.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 24.

E. J. Waggoner

A Roman Catholic paper says that the nuns of a certain order have been praying "to Cardinal Manning himself," and they obtained their request!

The leaders of the Catholic party in Germany are preparing a Bill to repeal the anti-Jesuit laws, and they are hopeful of success. The Socialists promise to vote for the Bill.

A sentence in a late report of the British consul at Foochow is an unlooked-for corroboration of the fruitfulness of the blood of the martyrs. He says: "The result of the massacre, strange to say, has been to bring a large number of converts into the churches and to stimulate missionary effort in the province." Thus, in far away China, the wrath of the heathen is being made to praise God.

Mr. Gladstone's declaration in favour of reunion with Rome, if the Vatican will please recognise what is called the validity of Anglican "orders," probably surprised few. "The first Bishop of Christendom" is the title which she gives the Pope, and if that be the mind of that larger portion of the Church of England which Mr. Gladstone represents, it is surely inconsistent on their part not to submit themselves to him.

The chief end of man's life and labour is not bread, and house, and property. If these things come to a man, plenteously, in the line of his duty-well and good-if not, there are higher and nobler emoluments which await him who faithfully serves till the Lord of the vineyard returns.

It seems that the seal of the corporation of Southampton, now in use, still bears the ancient Latin inscription to the Virgin with which it was impressed before the time of the reformation, "Virgo Mater Dei, misere nobis." This survival of Roman Catholicism, having been retained so long, will no doubt now remain until it will be no longer an incongruity.

"The Eastward Position" The Present Truth 12, 24.

E. J. Waggoner

The Eastward Position .-When the Lord showed the prophet Ezekiel the abominations committed by the priests in the temple, he said, "Thou shalt see greater abominations," and showed him the priests "with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east." Ezek. viii. 16. They had adopted this from the sun-worshipping nations about them. To guard against seeming to participate in this custom of turning toward the east, the tabernacle in the wilderness, and afterward the temple in Jerusalem, were set facing the east so that the priests administering before the Lord should face the west, with backs to the east. And when the children of the captivity were scattered among the sun-worshipping nations of the East they were to turn toward Jerusalem-to the west-in their worship. But the priests in Ezekiel's day had adopted the eastward position, just as in this century after the apostles the corrupted church leaders again adopted it, from the same heathen source.

"The eastward position is now adopted," says a newspaper, "in nearly 6,000 churches, an increase of nearly 1,000 since 1894, and 3,500 use altar lights, more than three times as many as ten years ago, and an increase of nearly 1,000 in two years. In 1,632 churches the chasuble is used, against 509 in 1886, and 307 churches in the Church of England use incense."

"All the Angels" The Present Truth 12, 24.

E. J. Waggoner

All the Angels .-The most important work in the eyes of all heaven is the work of saving men; for do we not read: "Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?" Not an angel in heaven, then, but is engaged in rescuing the lost in this sinful world. What a scene of activity must be the courts of heaven! the more so as the end draws nearer, and the forces of good and evil prepare for the final conflict. What a marvel that so many of the perishing are themselves careless and indifferent to salvation, when all heaven is astir in their behalf! There is not one unemployed angel; they are all swift to "do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His word."

"A Protest on Principle" The Present Truth 12, 24.

E. J. Waggoner

A Protest on Principle .-At a large meeting, held at the City Temple last week, for the purpose of voicing organised opposition to the Education Bill, Dr. Joseph Parker expressed some sound principles in most unmistakable terms. He said:-

The Bill must be so got rid of that it will never come back again,-and so must be fought with the central, vital, unchangeable principle that it is no business of the State to provide religious teaching for old or young. If they did not believe that fundamental doctrine they were by so much not Nonconformists. I can understand a man being a total abstainer; but I defy him to be both. If I read my New Testament aright, I cannot believe that Jesus Christ would ever say, "Support My religion by taxation, and make My kingdom a branch of the civil service," and turn over His Cross to be a suppliant in the court of C?sar.

In the expression of these and similar sentiments the Doctor did not shrink, as far as he went, from the logical principles to be deduced from these expressions. He seemed to carry with him the entire audience; yet when others followed who were ready to palter and compromise in fact, though dealing in brave words, and whose opposition was mainly selfish bluster, the applause was equally as great. It would seem that Dr. Parker has a great educational task on his hands to bring his confreres to a comprehension of the principles which he enunciates.

"The Popular Taste" The Present Truth 12, 24.

E. J. Waggoner

The Popular Taste .-"However we may regard it, there is no denying the fact," says the Chronicle, "that the most popular achievement of any man in this country is to secure for himself the three-year-old horse that can run a mile and a half in the shortest time."

"The Sunday Law in Action" The Present Truth 12, 24.

E. J. Waggoner

The Sunday Law in Action .-One of our brethren in Canada is now serving a forty-day's sentence for not keeping Sunday. A Sunday-school committee visited the place where he was quietly working and secured his conviction under the "Lord's Day Act." In a private letter to a friend, written from Chatham gaol, Ontario, he gives the following report of his first experience with the gaoler:-

"You teach the people that Saturday is Sunday." "No, sir," I said, "we do not teach that Saturday is Sunday, for it is not." This rather surprised him, for he was sure that we did, and he said, "Don't you?" "No," I replied, "we teach just what the Bible teaches,-that the seventh day of the week, and not the first, is the Sabbath." "To - with the Bible," he said; "you've got to be subject to the law of the land." "I am subject to the law of the land in civil matters, but it is impossible to make men religious by the law of the land," I said. The search over, he commanded me to follow him. Coming to a heavy iron door, which he unlocked and swung open, he said, "Get in there, now, and we'll see if you won't keep Sunday."

The birds are a great comfort to me. I throw out bread to them through the bars. . . . I am not lonely; for the most precious experiences of my life have been while locked in my cell. Instead of being shut in by bare walls, it seems like being shut in with Jesus. His presence cheers the gloomy hours. After communing with Him, the hard bed seems soft, and my sleep is sweet; and when I awake, it is with fresh praise upon my lips for all His blessings, and I feel a greater determination to serve Him, even unto death.

June 18, 1896

"The Court of Heaven" The Present Truth 12, 25.

E. J. Waggoner

The Court of Heaven .-"And I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head like the pure wool: His throne was like the fiery flame, and His wheels as burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him: thousand thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened." Dan. vii. 9, 10.

"The Judgment" The Present Truth 12, 25.

E. J. Waggoner

Felix, himself Paul's judge, trembled as the apostle preached to him of "righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come." Just for a moment the doctrine of the judgment was pressed so closely home to his calloused senses that he trembled as he thought of appearing himself before the Judge of all.

One may take a live coal from the fire and by handling it lightly, toss it from hand to hand without scorching the fingers. But let it be firmly grasped and it burns its way into the flesh. Multitudes hold the doctrine of the judgment so lightly that it has little effect upon the daily life. In a general way they believe in a day of reckoning, but it is not held firmly enough to burn its way into the heart and life.

Men readily comprehend the truth that the world will be judged. They may even feel the satisfaction which the Psalmist expressed when he saw that evil would not always triumph, and that workers of iniquity would not be able to corrupt judgment in the day of God. But our thoughts must bring the matter nearer to ourselves than that.

"Every one of us shall give account of himself to God." Not the world in general, merely, and not solely the wicked who have lived in wantoness, but "every one of us." Not as churches, or as families,

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but singly and alone each one meets the account. The accounts are kept in heaven's books. What men will say often makes a great difference in this world. People fear to follow the Lord because of the reproach of Christ. But of what value is the record that the world may write when the books of heaven are recording the story of each life?

Three things make up our lives-deeds, words, thoughts

1. Our Deeds.-God "will render to every man according to his deeds." Rom. ii. 6. None need deceive themselves by a fair profession. "He that doeth righteousness is righteous." The apostle writes of those who "profess that they know God; but in works they deny Him." Titus i. 16. Not the profession, but the deed determines the destiny of man.

2. Our Words.-"But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment." Matt. xii. 36. "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." Therefore it is fair that the life should be judged by the words. Foolish frivolity in the heart will manifest itself in lightness of speech. Vanity within flows forth in "great swelling words of vanity." Hatred of God's law and lawlessness within the heart will lead to words against the Divine standard of righteousness. When one realises that even the chance and idle words-much more the words uttered with determination and forethought-are recorded, he may well pray the Psalmist's prayer: "Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips."

3. Our Thoughts.-The deeds and the words are seen and heard of men, and may be controlled so that the true condition of the heart is not always manifest. But the judgment will not be according to the world's standards. "He said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God." Luke xvi. 15. "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." Heb. iv. 12, 13.

The law of God is spiritual, and by it every secret sin will be revealed. "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments; for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil." Eccl. xii. 13, 14.

The whole aim of the Gospel is to teach men how the righteousness of that holy and perfect law may be fulfilled in men,-by Jesus Christ the righteous One. The judgment will reveal all the works of self, and blessed is that man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered in that day. Since it is the law of God that is to be the standard of judgment, it is not strange that Satan should seek to lead men to despise the law, and to continue in sin. Lawlessness is a special mark of the last days in prophecy. In the same last days, when the "hour of His judgment is come" (Rev. xiv. 6, 7), none need be surprised that the message of the Gospel is in a special sense a call to loyalty and obedience. Men face to face with the judgment cannot afford to treat with contempt the law which places all under sin. Now, when not only in the professedly godless world men are rushing on in sin, but when even in the pulpits and the religious world the law of God is being treated as an outward thing, the time has come that the Gospel calls in a "loud voice," "Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come."

"God, Or Cesar" The Present Truth 12, 25.

E. J. Waggoner

The history of religion, and of the world, proves that it is impossible for a spiritual cause to triumph through civil and political means. In every case, without exception, when this has been tried, the greater the political and material triumph for success achieved, the deeper has been the spiritual degradation which resulted.

That this has been so requires no demonstration. Every schoolboy knows the facts which show it to be true beyond the possibility of denial. It is true that not every schoolboy makes a practical application of the facts which he so industriously memorises, and realises the lesson which they should teach. But legislators and statesmen have reached the period of life, and the place, where they must not only remember and apply the facts, but create more history on the lines of the philosophy of past history.

The things necessary for their guidance are not only narrated in the histories, but the knowledge of them is also stored up in the mind of every educated person throughout the world. All rulers, and men possessing governmental power and influence, everywhere, are conversant with the general incidents of history. These men accept the teachings of history and other things, and profit by them. Why do they not accept this also and profit by it as well?

It would be an insult to the intelligence of the rulers and civil authorities of the earth to suppose that they are unable to comprehend the fact, over and over shown to be true in history, that a spiritual cause is destroyed by governmental championship. But if history were silent upon this, or if it be a closed book, ordinary intelligence, assisted by the very least Biblical truth, would lead any man to the understanding of the fact that civil interference is fatal to religious belief and faith,-that it removes man from his dependence upon the Eternal Rock, and places him upon the shifting sands of human authority.

What, then, is the unavoidable conclusion? It is that earthly rulers are not striving to uphold a heavenly kingdom, but to defend and build up an earthly. They do not pray, "Thy kingdom come,"-but, "My kingdom come." And that they may see their desire fulfilled, they are ready, not only to lay all other kingdoms of this world under tribute, but also the spiritual kingdom as well.

Therefore religious domination is used as an instrument for the attainment and maintenance of civil power; and so it is true that the political cause triumphs at the expense of the spiritual. That which was sought is achieved, but it is temporal success, and all things temporal are but temporary after all. The time hastens when his kingdom will come. What, then, will be the fate of those who have sought to triumph politically by the blasphemous use of spiritual agencies?

"Belshazzar's Feast" The Present Truth 12, 25.

E. J. Waggoner

Belshazzar's Feast .-Daniel describes the fall of Babylon on the night of Belshazzar's impious feast, when the hand came forth and wrote the Divine judgment upon the great city. The critics long made this description one point of objection to the Book of Daniel, as women are not usually present at Oriental feasts. After twenty-five centuries, however, a tablet was dug up, containing Cyrus' own description of his attack. As one writer says:-

In it he declares that Babylon was captured "without fighting" on the fourteenth day of the month Tammuz. Now the month Tammuz was named in honour of the god Tammus, the Babylonian Adonis, who married their Venus or Ishtar; and the fourteenth of Tammuz was a regular time to celebrate their union, with lascivious orgies. On this day of all others, the women took part in the horrible rites; and it was in this feast of kings, princes, wives, and concubines, that Babylon was taken and Belshazzar slain.

"The Spirit's Witness" The Present Truth 12, 25.

E. J. Waggoner

"The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God." How does the Spirit witness? This is answered in Heb. x. 14-17. The apostle says that by one offering He has perfected them that are sanctified, and then says that the Holy Ghost is a witness to this fact, when He says, "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." That is to say, The Spirit's witness is the Word. We know that we are children of God, because the Spirit assures us of the fact in the Bible. The witness of the Spirit is not a certain ecstatic feeling, but a tangible statement. We are not children of God because we feel that we are, neither do we know that we are sons because of any feeling, but because the Lord tells us so. He who believes has the word abiding in him, and that is how "he that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself." 1 John v. 10.

"Be of One Mind" The Present Truth 12, 25.

E. J. Waggoner

The apostle, in his second Epistle to the Corinthians, as his last earnest injunction to them, says: "Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you." These are the final words of encouragement, warning, exhortation, with which he closes this epistle.

He urges the church, while joyously striving for perfection, to be of the same mind one toward another, that they may live in peace, and thus the God of love and peace may be with them. If they are not of the same mind they cannot live in peace. There will be contention.

Where there is contention there can be no joyousness or comfort, and certainly the striving of those who are divided in thought, and purpose, and mind, is far from a struggle after perfection. And, moreover, it is certain that the God of love, and peace, and perfection, will never be with those who do not strive to be perfect. The heart of the apostle was deeply stirred for the brethren of the church at Corinth when he so urgently desired them to "be of one mind."

Again in another place, in the Epistle to the Romans, the apostle dwells upon the same subject, with similar earnestness, but more fully. "Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another; not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer; distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality. Bless them which persecute you; bless, and curse not. Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep. Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits. Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath; for it is written, Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink; for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." Rom. xii. 9-21.

And still in another epistle the same apostle breaks into a personal entreaty. He mentions two of the church at Philippi by name, and begs that their differences be smoothed away, and that they become of the same mind. "I beseech Euodias, and beseech Syntyche, that they be of the same mind in the Lord." Phil. iv. 2. This earnestness of the apostle and exhorting to be single-minded in the things of God, and to have no differences and contention, arose from the vivid realisation of the fact that all those in whom Christ dwells must be as one man in mind and heart, and that man Christ Jesus.

He who is at variance with the brethren may test himself by that sign, and by that may know that he has not wholly given his heart and his life to God, and that Christ has not entered into his heart and made His abode there.

"Boys' Brigades" The Present Truth 12, 25.

E. J. Waggoner

Boys' Brigades .-Those who protest that the organising of the youth for military drill will not encourage the war spirit fail to take account of human nature. That many who favour these organisations have a distinct idea of turning them to military account is evident. At the anniversary demonstration of the Church Lads' Brigade in Birmingham some time ago the presiding officer, appropriately enough an officer in the Army, repudiated in the strongest manner possible that they had any idea of trying to recruit the ranks of the regular service from the Church Lads Brigade. (Applause.) He sincerely trusted, however, that the lads, when they became too old to remain in the Brigade, would see that it was desirable to join the Volunteer force. (Hear, hear.)

In the same number of the Brigade which prints this direct encouragement to military service, a correspondent writes favouring a proposal that the country should give prizes to the lads of these brigades. He says:-

The effect would be considerable. Without conscription our young men would be trained in drill, and be seen fit to join the Volunteers, or line regiments if required. . . It would be an English modification of the Swiss team of making drill a part of elementary education, as indeed it ought to be.

When religion-professedly the religion of Jesus Christ-encourages the war spirit,

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and putting the youth in training for war, none need wonder that the spirit of war is abroad in the earth.

"A Lesson in Bird-Shooting" The Present Truth 12, 25.

E. J. Waggoner

One spring we boys were having a splendid time with our rubber shooters; every boy in the neighbourhood had one or more.

One day I was wandering about the lower end of our garden with my shooter. There were plenty of birds all round, but I did not want to shoot at them, if I could find anything else to shoot at. I got over the fence into another lot, but still there were birds everywhere.

I shot a few times, just to frighten them a little. Then I heard one singing beautifully right over my head. I couldn't see it very plainly, and I don't believe I meant to hit it at all, and I was frightened when it came falling down at my feet, with a sad kind of little scream. I picked it up and tried to make it fly, or walk, but it would not; its pretty eyes were half shut, and it kept panting with its bill. It was a bluebird.

I knew I never could keep it from mother; for when I have been doing anything dreadful, I always feel as if I was lost till I have told her. As I carried the poor bird through the garden, a drop of blood fell from its mouth, right on a great white lily that seemed looking up to ask me what I had been doing. Mother was standing near the back door; as I laid the bird on her hand, it stopped panting, and was still.

Mother said, "What is the matter?" But there was such a lump in my throat, I couldn't speak a word. Then she saw the shooter in my hand, and she said:-

"Did you kill that little bird?"

I tell you it scared me, the way she spoke. I never heard her speak in such an awful voice before.

Then she said: "You have stolen away its little life-it was all the life it had. The Lord loves His helpless little creatures; He gave them to us to make us happy, and He will never bless those who are cruel to them."

Then she put the little bird up to her cheek, and I saw her tears come. She took the shooter, and laid it on the kitchen fire, and then she said:-

"You may go to your room."

I would rather have been whipped than to have to go there and just have to keep thinking. I thought of all the beautiful days of sunshine I had taken away from that poor little bird, and how it would never fly through the air, nor sing in the trees, nor see the flowers and the grass any more. And I wondered if it had a nest and little birds, and what would become of them.

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 25.

E. J. Waggoner

-Matches have not yet displaced the tinder-box in certain rural districts of Spain and Italy.

-The new British Army magazine rifle will throw a bullet to the distance of over 4,000 yards.

-France boast; of a navy of 408 ships of 621,000 horse-power, and eighty others in process of construction.

-The total membership of the Boy's Brigade for the United Kingdom is 95,000 lads, with 2,800 officers.

-Glasgow receives its water supply by means of an aqueduct from Loch Katrina, thirty-four miles distant.

-It is estimated that there are in Wales about 910,000 Welsh speakers, and about 240,000 outside the Principality.

-Emigration statistics show that during May nearly 19,000 British subjects emigrated to America and the Colonies.

-Every ton of Atlantic water when evaporated yields 81lb. of salt; a ton of Pacific water, 79lb.; Arctic and Antarctic waters yield 85lb. to the ton, and Dead Sea water 187lb.

-Anarchists are again active in Spain, two bombs having been thrown last week. One at Barcelona killed and injured a number of people, mostly women and children.

-The pay of the Russian soldier is about a farthing a day, with keep. His food is a bit of meat and vegetable soup with brown bread, and he rats two meals a day, and is able to work hard.

-About a thousand miners are killed every year by accidents in the mines of the Kingdom. Explosions account for a large proportion of deaths. It is estimated that 100 men are injured for every one killed.

-The shipbuilding yards of the Clyde number about thirty, and for miles down the great water-way the ear filled with the ringing noise of the hammers at work on every kind of matt, from pleasure yacht to battleship.

-The shreds of silk and cotton, and the dustings from the cloth which is cut up into uniforms, are saved in the Royal Army Clothing Department factories in Pimlico, and these waste odds and ends sell for about ?55,000 every year.

-Cape Colony has a surplus this year of ?1,250,000, due largely to the railway receipts having exceeded the estimates by nearly a million sterling. Cape stock stands higher in the market than any except that of Great Britain.

-Last week it was reported that ten suicides had occurred amongst soldiers in the army within seven days. The large proportion of suicides amongst soldiers on the Continent goes to allow that the effect of military service is demoralising.

-Algeria is suffering from a plague of locusts, the most serious ever remembered. Nothing can impede their progress, and they pass along in a compact mass several inches deep. The decaying bodies of the dead insects have become it serious danger to the community.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 25.

E. J. Waggoner

The mission ship Pitcairn, engaged in the work of our Society in the South Pacific, left San Francisco last month on its fifth cruise, carrying workers for various island groups.

To make the worse appear the better reason is writing the ineffaceable evidences of one's intellectual folly on the walls of eternity. To stand for the wrong and the intruders against the right and the truth, however much the wrong and the untruth seem to be for the time in the ascendancy, is but repeating the strange infatuation of Eve, who was willing to barter the untellable and infinite joys of an eternal existence for the momentary sweetness in the mouth of one apple.

The leader of our mission in Matabeleland reports that the workers left everything at the station in charge of friendly natives on going into Buluwayo. He says:-

The natives on the farm were very friendly, and I feel confident will have nothing to do with the rebellion, unless forced to do so by the Matabeles. The natives did not like to see us go, and said to us, "Who will protect us now, when you are away?" They had learned to come to us with their grievances, and we have assisted them to get their rights; hence they look upon us as their protectors.

It is said that three Buddhist priests from Japan are visiting Russia to study "the details of the system under which the Church militant in Russia is affiliated to the army of the Czar." It is remarkable that the nations should be learning the arts of war from professedly Christian nations, and that heathen religions should be coming to professedly Christian systems to learn how best to unite ecclesiasticism and the forces of war.

The Pope is about to issue an encyclical. The document, it is said, will be long and is written with the purpose to bring about Church unity, that is, the union of the different Churches with Rome. That which is sought is of course nothing but the supremacy of the See of Rome. This forthcoming encyclical will be, no doubt, a masterpiece of rhetorical skill, which will reassert all his claims in such smoothly flowing phrases that few will take offence, and none feel alarmed. Yet it is evident that the Roman Catholic Church is making great encroachments upon that part of the religious world which calls itself Protestant.

The Sunday-law crusade in which the churches of America are engaged has gone so far that candidates for the presidency of the United States are pressed to declare their position on Sunday legislation. It is, of course, a partial return to the old religious test for aspirants to political office, and will bring with it the same disastrous results.

The American Sentinel reports that the Presbyterian General Assembly, which recently met in New York, rejected a resolution introduced by one member disavowing sympathy with the persecution of Seventh-day Adventists under the Sunday laws, rejecting it on the ground that "the Assembly had no control over criminal law." But the Assembly passed a resolution commending those religious organisations which are working night and day to secure and enforce the same laws.

Let it never be snowy nor wintery within. Carry ever in your heart and mind and memory the summer sunbeams, and not singly but bound in sheaves, that, filled with their garnered warmth and light, their brightness may gleam from every act, and be comfort and joy and warmth and life to all that see you. Carry in your thoughts the carols of all the birds, and the grand orchestral voice of all nature, harmonised and softened into one sweet choral which shall be the song of your life to all that have known you.

"A Boon for Chinese" The Present Truth 12, 25.

E. J. Waggoner

A Boon for Chinese .-The Chinese written language has so many characters that it is a very difficult one. And to represent it in the ordinary characters in a raised type for the many blind of the Middle Kingdom was a hopeless task. But a missionary, Mr. W. A. Murray, of Peking, has invented a system by which he expresses the 408 sounds of Mandarin Chinese by figures. He was able by this numeral type to teach the blind to read very readily, and it is now said that the system has a much wider field of usefulness than was anticipated; for it has been demonstrated in recent years that the illiterate Chinese who have never learned the written language, of whom there are millions, can be taught the new system in a few months, and can thus read and write. This enables the missionaries to teach illiterate converts to read the Scriptures for themselves, and the inventor of the system seems to have conferred a great boon upon the mission work in China.

"The Power of the Pope" The Present Truth 12, 25.

E. J. Waggoner

The Power of the Pope .-Mr. Justin McCarthy has written a book on the Pope as a Statesman. In it he styles the Pope a universal ruler, and says that we talk about great empires, but that the empire of the Pope is far vaster than any, as well as far stronger, needing no armies and navies to defend it; for it is an invisible empire enthroned in human hearts.

Except as a matter of news in the daily papers, says he, as an illustration, the people of the United States do not care, and have no need to care, three straws about what England and France and Germany and Russia are doing. But the Papacy is an influence everywhere, and it has to look after everything. Its dominion is seated in the consciences of men-of its followers, to be sure, but then its followers are everywhere.

Mr. McCarthy is right in saying that the Papacy is an influence everywhere, and that its followers are nearly everywhere is also true,-and it is none the less true that it is both willing and anxious to undertake to look after the whole earth. To acquire this universal paternal control the Papacy systematically puts forth every effort and exercises every subtlety of diplomacy and statecraft. Men of affairs and writers are beginning, especially of late, to comprehend the truth of these facts, and state them publicly.

"Friends of Peace" The Present Truth 12, 25.

E. J. Waggoner

Friends of Peace .-The Society of Friends stands for the principles of peace. The following extract from one of their documents well states the incongruity of professing the name of Christ, whilst having anything to do with war:-

Can it be still necessary, after more than 1,800 years have elapsed since the advent of the Prince of Peace, to explain the ground of our testimony against war? Rather let us leave it to other Christian Churches to tell us how they can reconcile "garments rolled in blood," the carnage of the battle-field, the outrage and barbarity resulting from it, and the untold misery of innocent victims, with the pure and peaceable character of Him whose whole conduct, as well as His teaching, breathed forgiveness of injuries, love to His enemies, and tender compassion to all; who told the impetuous Peter to put up his sword into its sheath, and who expressly said, "My kingdom is not of this world; if My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight, . . . but now is My kingdom not from hence;" and again, "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you."

"The Fountain Head" The Present Truth 12, 25.

E. J. Waggoner

The fountainhead of all knowledge of the truth is the Word. Therefore it is worse than useless for men to spend their time discussing decrees of councils and the voluminous vagaries of the Fathers of the Catholic Church to find truth. All that they or any ecclesiastical historians can know of the teaching of Christ and the apostles is in the Word, and anybody who will read the Scriptures and believe them can find the truth. Dr. Killen, of the Irish Presbyterian Church, in his "Ancient Church," wrote the following wise words:-

"There are many who imagine that had they lived in the days of Tertullian or of Origen, they would have enjoyed spiritual advantages far higher than any to which they now have access. But a more minute acquaintance with the ecclesiastical history of the third century might convince them that they have no reason to complain of their present privileges. The amount of material light which surrounds us does not depend on our proximity to the sun. When our planet is most remote from its great luminary, we may bask in the splendour of his effulgence; and, when it approaches nearer, we may be involved in thick darkness. So it is with the church. The amount of our religious knowledge does not depend on our proximity to the days of primitive Christianity. The Bible is the sun of the spiritual firmament; and this Divine illuminator, like the glorious orb of day, pours forth its light with equal brilliancy from generation to generation. The church may retire into 'chambers of imagery' erected by her own folly; and there, with the light shut out from her, may sink into a slumber disturbed only, now and then, by some dream of superstition; or, with the light still shining on her, her eye may be dim or disordered, and she may stumble at noon-day. But the light is as pure as in the days of the apostles; and, if we have eyes to profit by it, we may 'understand more than the ancients.' The art of printing has supplied us with facilities for the study of the Scriptures which were denied to the fathers of the second century; and teach the ecclesiastical documents, relative to that age, which have been transmitted to us from antiquity, contain, perhaps, the greater part of the traditional information which was preserved in the church. If we are only 'taught of God,' we are in as good a position for acquiring a correct acquaintance with the way of salvation as was Polycarp or Justin Martyr. What an encouragement for every one to pray-'Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law. I am a stranger in the earth; hide not Thy commandments from me.'"

"The Government of Israel" The Present Truth 12, 25.

E. J. Waggoner

The government of ancient Israel, when it came up out of Egypt, was a theocracy, that is, a government directly ordered by God. There was no legislative department. There were even no legislators. Moses himself, their chief and leader, was not a legislator. Moses never made a law. The so-called "Laws of Moses" were received by him directly from God. Moses had no voice in making them. He had no option as to the enforcement of them. Moses was not a "law-giver," he was a receiver of the law, and that only. God alone was the Law-giver.

The seventy elders were not a legislature. They never made any laws. Moses and the seventy elders were commanded to administer and enforce only the laws which God had given them for Israel. As regards this the directions were explicit to add nothing to them and to take nothing from them.

The history of the appointment of Moses is given with unmistakable clearness in the third chapter of Exodus. "I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth My people the children of Israel out of Egypt. And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is His name? what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM; and He said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you; this is My name for ever, and this is My memorial unto all generations." Exodus iii. 6, 10, 13-15.

This leaves no room to mistake by whose appointment Moses came to occupy the position which he did in reference to the Jewish people.

But later there were associated with Moses the seventy "elders." Who were they? They were actually the elders,-the aged men,-those who by patriarchal right were of authority and their families. From among these the Seventy were chosen. Remember it was not the selection which made them "elders." They were selected from those who were already the elders,-made so by the course of years, not by election.

But by the authority of whose word, and how, were they chosen? To learn this definitely read Numbers xi. 16, 17, 25. "And the Lord said unto Moses, Gather unto Me seventy men of the elders of Israel, whom thou knowest to be the elders of the people, and officers over them; and bring them unto the tabernacle of the congregation, that they may stand there with thee. And I will come down and talk with thee there: and I will take of the spirit which is upon thee, and will put it upon them; and they shall bear the burden of the people with thee, that thou bear it not thyself alone. And the Lord came down in a cloud, and spake unto him, and took of the spirit that was upon him, and gave it unto the seventy elders; and it came to pass, that, when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, and did not cease."

Now in all this neither Moses, nor the Seventy, nor the people, had any sovereignty whatever. None of them had any part in enacting the laws. They were not consulted in the least as to what should be enacted or how they should be enforced. The sole part which they played was to promise to obey. This was just as true of Moses and the Seventy as of the people at large. The legislative power centred in God alone. In the latter period of the history of Israel, when they were given kings, it was not the people who chose their king. God Himself elected, crowned, and deposed the man who ruled over Israel.

Under the theocracy, however, the management of civil and religious affairs was kept entirely separate. God chose the priest himself, and cut them off entirely from any authority or influence or participation in the affairs of civil government. So, now, if those who would imitate a theocracy in these days would strive to be at all true to their copy, they should separate entirely the religious from the secular, in their governmental methods.

But the first essential would be for all who rule in the name of God to be appointed directly by Him, and not by their own ambition, or by birth, or by the voice of the people. Then it is also just as essential that they should not be lordly men of haughtiness and might, but meek, and humble, and obedient servants of their Lord and His people. Such was the government of Israel as anciently established. Where is the possibility for such another on the earth? There is no such possibility, and there will not be until Revelation is fulfilled and "all things are made new." That Christ himself will reign and our daily prayer be answered, "Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven."

June 25, 1896

"Inconsistency of Enforced Religion" The Present Truth 12, 26.

E. J. Waggoner

Is it right that every man should worship God? Certainly! Then it is right that every man that wills to worship should do so. But if he does not choose to worship God, what then? Perhaps he prefers to do homage to an image of his own making. Or what if he does not choose to revere and obey any deity whatever? It may be ignorance which knows not the true God, or it may be a rebellious nature which refuses allegiance, or even denies the existence of Deity.

It is true all men ought to worship the one only and true God, and obey Him alone. But ask men, "Who is God?"-and what do they reply? Jesus once asked of His disciples, "Whom do men say that I am?" What did they answer? Did they report a complete unanimity of opinion among men? Did not their answer show that man failed utterly to agree on that question? If there is such a diversity of views among men as to the very existence and personality of God, is it not clear from this very fact, that they are entirely disqualified from authoritatively requiring from each other any allegiance to any God? Certainly if men do not know what the obedience is which they require, nor for whom they demand it, they are not competent to make rules of action in that regard, nor to enforce what may be made.

But what is the propriety of any man attempting to compel another either to worship or not to worship? Does he who attempts to exercise the compulsion gain anything, either for himself or for the other, or for the cause of God? He certainly does not. When Peter drew the sword in Christ's behalf what was the result? Christ healed the wound he made, and rebuked him. More than that He warned him, and all those for whose instruction the Scriptures were given, that the sword, even when used in His behalf, would return upon those who used it.

But if a man denies God why should he virtually knowledge Him, and then contradict himself, by undertaking to enforce God's commands by the sword or by law?

On the other hand if men acknowledge God, why should they deny Him, His kingdom and His omnipotence, and disobey Him, by striving to enforce by civil power what they hold to be His law, whether they be right as to the application of the commandment or not? How evident it is that he who thinks himself a Christian becomes openly unchristian the moment he assumes to enforce his views of Christianity by secular means, either military or judicial.

He who denies the power of religion, and then would enforce it, is involved in a hopeless inconsistency at the outset. He who acknowledges God, and then attempts to put the human arm in place of the Divine, is still more inconsistent. So, from whatever point of view one looks upon it, the enforcement of religious belief or observance by one man upon another is totally unreasonable. In nothing more than in this does it appear, that, although God created men reasonable beings, they have found out for themselves many strange, inconsistent, and unreasonable devices.

"Interesting Figures" The Present Truth 12, 26.

E. J. Waggoner

Interesting Figures .-Not only at home but in the colonies the question of religion and the schools is agitating political and church circles. In South Australia the question was recently submitted for the people to indicate their mind by popular vote. Our Australian organ, the Bible Echo, says: "According to latest returns the education referendum in South Australia stands as follows: For the continuance of the present, or secular, system of education, 34,300; against it, 10,426. In favour of the introduction of religious instruction into the State schools, 11,379; against it, 22,959. In favour of the payment of a capitation grant to denominational schools for secular results, 8,360; against it, 26,764. It cannot be that all the women in South Australia voted the wrong way. It would seem there were more level-headed ones than the religio-political leaders there had counted on. It is to be hoped that the mothers in that, as well as all other colonies, will learn to do as the mothers did of old-take their little ones to Jesus, and not to C?sar, to learn of Jesus."

"The Call of Abraham. The Covenant Sealed" The Present Truth 12, 26.

E. J. Waggoner

"THE SIGN OF CIRCUMCISION"

And now we must carry a little further the study of the seal of the covenant, namely, circumcision. What does it signify, and what is it in reality? We have learned that it signifies righteousness by faith.It was given to Abraham as a token of the possession of such righteousness, or, as an assurance that he was "accepted in the Beloved, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace." Eph. i. 6, 7. What circumcision really is, may be learned from the following scripture:-

"For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law; but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision. Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? And shall not uncircumcision, which is by nature, if it fulfill the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law? For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God." Rom. ii. 25-29.

Circumcision was the sign of righteousness by faith. But that righteousness is the righteousness required by the law of God. Circumcision never amounted to anything unless the law was kept. In fact, the keeping of the law is real circumcision. The Lord requires truth in the inward parts. An outward show, with no righteousness within, is an abomination to Him. The law must be in the heart, or else there is no real circumcision. But the law can be in the heart only by the power of the Lord through the Spirit. "The law is spiritual," (Rom. vii. 14), that is it is of the nature of the Holy Spirit, and the law can be in the heart only as the Spirit of God dwells there. Circumcision is therefore nothing less than the sealing of righteousness in the heart by the Holy Spirit. This is what Abraham received. His circumcision was the scale of the righteousness of faith which he had. But the righteousness of faith was that by which he was to inherit the promised possession. Therefore circumcision was the pledge of his inheritance. Now read the following text:-

"It whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace. . . . in whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of Him that worketh all things after the counsel of His own will; that we should be to the praise of His glory, who first trusted in Christ. In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation; in whom also after that ye believed, ye were scaled with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession." Eph. i. 7-14.

The word of truth is the Gospel of salvation. When we believe the Gospel, we are sealed by the Holy Spirit, and that seal is the pledge or assurance of our inheritance, until it is bestowed at the coming of the Lord. Abraham had, therefore, the Holy Spirit as the pledge of the inheritance that was promised him. The possession of the Spirit shows that we have a right to the inheritance, because the Spirit brings righteousness, and the inheritance is one of righteousness. Righteousness, and that only, will dwell in the new earth.

In harmony with the above text, we have also the following: "And ye are complete in Him [Christ], which is the head of all principality and power; in whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ." Col. ii. 10, 11.

God's promise to Abraham had been made long before the time of which we are writing. The making of the covenant is recorded in the fifteenth chapter of Genesis. But after the covenant was made, Abraham fell into the error recorded in the sixteenth chapter. He saw his mistake, and repented of it, and turned to the Lord again in full faith, and thus received the assurance of forgiveness and acceptance; and circumcision was given as the reminder of it.

The Scriptures which we have read in the New Testament concerning circumcision are not the statement of something new. Circumcision was always just what it is there said to be. It always meant righteousness in the heart, and had no significance whatever when that righteousness was absent. This is plainly indicated in Deut. xxx. 5, 6: "And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and He will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers. And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live."

WHY THE OUTWARD SIGN?

The question very naturally arises, Why was the outward sign of circumcision given to Abraham, if he already had everything that it implied? Since circumcision is of the heart by the Spirit, and is nothing but the possession of righteousness by faith, and Abraham had that before he received the sign of circumcision, why was the sign given?

It is a reasonable question, and happily may easily be answered. The reader will first notice, however, that that which Abraham received is in Rom. iv. 11 called "the sign of circumcision." The real circumcision he already had. In harmony with this is the statement that that which was in the flesh, made by hands, was only "called circumcision." Eph. ii. 11. It was not circumcision in fact.

Now the reason why this sign was given,

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which was only a sign, and which brought nothing to its possessor, and which was a false sign unless the righteousness of faith was in the heart, will be seen when we consider what had taken place after the covenant was made with Abraham. He had entered into an arrangement, the object of which was to work out the promise of the Lord. Abraham and Sarah believed that the promise was to be theirs, but they thought that they must work it out. But since the promise was of an inheritance of righteousness, the thought that they could work it out was in reality the very common idea that men can work out the righteousness of God. So when God repeated the covenant, He gave to Abraham a sign which should always be a reminder of his attempt to work out the promise of God, and his failure. It did not give him anything, but was on the contrary a reminder that he could do nothing of himself, and that everything was to be done in him and for him by the Lord. The cutting off of a portion of flesh showed that the promise was not to be gained by the flesh but by the Spirit. Ishmael was born after the flesh, but Isaac after the Spirit.

The same purpose was also served by it for his descendants. It was to keep continually before them the mistake of their father Abraham, and to warn them against making the like error. It was to show them that "the flesh profiteth nothing." In after times they perverted this sign, and assumed that the possession of it was an assurance of their righteousness, whether they kept the law or not. They trusted that it brought them righteousness, and made them the peculiar favourites of the Lord. But the Apostle Paul showed the truth in regard to the matter by saying, "We are the circumcision, which worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." Phil. iii. 3. The Jews came to look upon it as bringing to them everything, because they trusted in their own righteousness; whereas its only object was to teach them not to put confidence in themselves.

"The Jews and Palestine" The Present Truth 12, 26.

E. J. Waggoner

The studies on the promise to Abraham now in progress in this paper have from the first have shown how far astray those are who look for the fulfilment of promises to the fathers and the return of the fleshly Jews to Palestine. Not until Abraham is raised to life, with all the children of Abraham by the faith of Jesus, will he and his seed inherit the land. Whether a few thousand or even millions of unbelieving Jews join a mixed population of Palestine or not is a matter of no interest, so far as prophecy is concerned.

The frequent statements by those who insist that there is a significant movement of Jews for Palestine are very indefinite. Not so, however, some of the statements in the following article, written by Rev. C. L. Goodell, a Methodist minister, who has lately travelled in that land. He writes to the Zion's Herald, of Boston, as follows:-

Your excellent paper had a short note last week in which some figures are given concerning the return of the Jews, which are said to be "highly significant." It is said that dozens of Jewish agricultural colonies are being established, and that, taking all things together, "students of prophecy will not fail to recognise herein one of the most important 'signs of the times.'" I am sure that none of us would want to base even a desirable conclusion on an unwarranted premise. Whether or not we believe in the literal return of the Jews to Palestine, we are all interested in knowing what the present facts are.

I have had an honest desire and exceptional opportunities to find out those facts. I went from one end of Palestine to the other, inquiring of consuls, missionaries, physicians, teachers, dragomens, Turks and Jews, and using my own eyes to the best of my ability, to determine if anything in the present condition of things could be taken as evidence of any general and surprising return of the Jews. I found only two parties who made such a claim, and these were both Americans who came to Palestine a generation ago with the same conviction and who hold it as one of the strongest articles of their faith.

It is true that a great effort is being made to get poor Jews to go back to Palestine. On arriving at Jerusalem they register at one of the synagogues, and collections are taken for them throughout the world. But notwithstanding this, and the generosity of Sir Moses Montefiore and the Rothschilds in building tenement-houses, hospitals, and reclaiming land, the concurrent testimony of the men best qualified to judge is that nothing has as yet transpired which is at all significant from a prophetic standpoint.

Let me give some of the facts and the names which are behind this conclusion. Dr. Selah Merrill is quoted as saying that there are 27,000 Jews in Jerusalem. That is a very conservative estimate, and unless Dr. Merrill has greatly changed his mind since we ran over the figures of the various consulates in Jerusalem, he will be greatly surprised to find his figures quoted as giving any colour to the idea of the rapid return of the Jews. Dr. Merrill stoutly opposes the idea. Much more than half the Jewish population of Palestine is in Jerusalem. Safed and Tiberius are the only other cities where there is a considerable number of Jews; while in Nazareth and Bethlehem there is not a Jew.

Dr. W. H. Thompson saw nothing in his time that seemed to him to indicate a speedy return, although he witnessed a much larger proportionate increase than has taken place in the last few years. Dr. Jessup, of the American College at Beirut, has been there since 1856. Dr. Vartan, a Scotch physician at Nazareth, has been there almost as long, and both these men share the opinion of Dr. Merrill, our consul at Jerusalem. Dr. Buckley, of the Christian Advocate, sums up a very careful inquiry with the words: "In view of the character of the Jews migrating hither, nothing of significance is indicated." There are four times as many Jews in New York city as in all Palestine.

It cannot be truthfully said that there are "dozens of Jewish agricultural colonies" in Palestine. I saw only three in a journey from Damascus to Jerusalem. It is impossible to get any accurate census from the Turkish authorities, but they may be relied upon to make the Jewish population as large as it is, so that they may get as large a per capita tax from them as possible.

If the home-coming of the Jews is a necessary preliminary to the coming of our Lord, we will do all we can to hasten that event; but no good will come of our claiming a consummation which has not taken place.

"Grace Superabounding" The Present Truth 12, 26.

E. J. Waggoner

Grace Superabounding .-"Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." It would be well if every person knew this fact. We should hear less talk about being discouraged because we are so sinful. Is the heart full of sin? Know that where sin abounds, there does grace much more abound. This is shown in the fact that Christ, who is full of grace, stands at

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the door of the heart that is sinfulness itself, and knocks for admission. See Rev. iii. 15-20. "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief." 1 Tim. i. 15. When Wesley sang,

"Plenteous grace with Thee is found,
Grace to cover all my sin,"

he had the authority of Rom. v. 20 for it.

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 26.

E. J. Waggoner

-By an earthquake in Japan last week 1,000 persons lost their lives, a whole town being destroyed.

-The rising in Crete against the Turkish Government still continues with fire and sword on both sides. The Cretans demand a large measure of self-government.

-The wreck of the "Drummond Castle," with fearful lose of life, last week, was the first occasion on which the Castle Line have lost the life of a passenger by any steamer.

-In the various alphabets of the world the number of letters vary from 12 to 202. The shortest alphabet is that of the Sandwich Islanders, which has 12 letters, the Tartarian, the longest, containing 202 letters.

-Mr. Hudson Maxim, brother of the famous Hiram, has designed something like a new weapon of warfare. Over 200lb. of explosive can be fired more than ten miles by it, and it is only necessary for the torpedo it discharges to explode over a ship, not within it.

-Paris is somewhat agitated over reports of an increase of leprosy in the city. It is said that there are many lepers engaged in the markets and other occupations, by which there is danger that the dread disease may be spread amongst unsuspecting people.

-It is now claimed that sea water can be converted into a pleasant, wholesome, and palatable drink by citric acid, which precipitates chloride of sodium. Instead of condensing apparatus for use at sea, a bottle of citric acid should be made a part of every wrecked mariner's outfit.

-Workmen have been on strike in St. Petersburg, some thousands of factory workers meeting to present their demands. Even Russia cannot keep out the organised strike, although it is considered probable that this first attempt at a general strike in Russia will fail of its purpose.

-Of the 29,000,000 inhabitants of England and Wales at the last census, 20,800,000, or over two-thirds, lived in towns and cities, and only 8,200,000 in the country. In Scotland one-half of the population lived in towns of more than 10,000 inhabitants, though in Ireland the proportion was about one in six.

-It costs more to send a ton of goods from London to the west of Ireland than to Japan. A ton of woollen goods can be forwarded from Lon-don to New York for 20s., to Chicago, 1,000 miles inland, for 35s., to Japan for 50s. The same goods sent from Derry to London cost 70s., and from Gweedore, fifty miles inland, 120s. This is why farmers and producers in the United Kingdom are pleading for a reduction in railway rates.

-Great consternation is reported to have prevailed in Dongola when the news of the defeat of the Dervishes at Firket was received. Many of the leading emirs, or chiefs, were among the 2,000 killed, wounded, or captured by the Egyptian force. It is said to be the most decisive defeat the Dervishes have ever sustained. The population along the Nile valley are said to welcome the expeditionary force as deliverers from the mile of the Khalifs.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 26.

E. J. Waggoner

Last Sunday week, after the Pope had "pronounced the Apostolic benediction" upon the 400 British sailors and officers who attended mass at the Vatican, he regaled them with wine and cigars. The whole thing was, of course, as unapostolic as possible.

Our friends in Germany see the hand of God in the defeat of a bill in the German Reichstag, introduced by the Centre, or Catholic party, which would have had the effect of stopping the sale of our literature by the colporteurs in Germany, of whom there are about thirty giving their time to the book canvassing work.

African reports show the increasing gravity of the situation in Matabeleland. The rising is extending among the Mashonas, and isolated whites are being killed about Salisbury. South Africa is having its full share of difficulties, with the risings, political troubles, and cattle pests. As these things increase in the earth will they lead people to look to something beyond this world on which to base their hopes?

One disaster on a large scale has followed another closely during the last few weeks. The same day an earthquake was reported from Japan, with a loss of 10,000 lives, brought the startling news of the loss of the Drummond Castle, with 248 souls, all of whom were expecting to land on home shores in a few hours. All was bustle and merriment on board, and many were packing their trunks,-then a shock, and within a few minutes all plunged into the sea, but three survivors reaching land to tell the story. We feel these disasters more keenly when they are so near home, and sympathise with those homes into which the bitter sadness comes so suddenly; but while the world sympathises, and shutters at the thought of so sudden and tragic an end to home-coming voyagers, how little the lesson of it all is taken to heart.

Newspaper correspondence from Russia, since the coronation, gives publicity to ugly rumours in regard to existing political conditions in Russia. Nihilism, disgusted with the failure of methods heretofore used, has now undertaken, it is said, a propaganda of revolt and rebellion throughout the empire. In St. Petersburg, we are told, the very day of the coronation, occurred a riot in which the police were cowed and powerless, and which was only quelled by the military at the expense of two hundred lives.

If Nihilism should really begin to mix its bombs with brains, there is no knowing how widespread a reign of terror might ensue.

"In Russia" The Present Truth 12, 26.

E. J. Waggoner

In Russia .-The leader of one of the Seventh-day Adventist churches in Russia writes to the Hamburg branch of our Society:-

The magistrate of our colony has now for four weeks imprisoned us for forty-eight hours each time for holding our Sabbath meetings. We were from twenty to twenty-two persons, men and women, some of the women with nursing babies, in a narrow cell, low and damp, containing about 120 feet. The Lord, however, gave us strength to bear it; we can but praise Him for it. Over Easter the officer did not molest us on account of the holy days. We leave the future with the Lord.

"Patience" The Present Truth 12, 26.

E. J. Waggoner

Patience .-"Here it is the patience of the saints." What a remarkable expression, in all its possible significance. "Patience of the saints!" When we realise that "all things work together for good to them that love God," we may begin to appreciate the infinite possibilities of achievement and attainment possible to the patience of the saints. When patience has had its perfect work then it will surely be seen that patient waiters are no losers. Patience is the handmaid of faith, and to faith nothing is impossible.

"Disorder in Crete" The Present Truth 12, 26.

E. J. Waggoner

Disorder In Crete .-A religious journal, in the following statement, shows how loose a conception of what Christianity is prevails in the religious world generally:-

The Christian inhabitants of the western provinces of the island of Crete are in open rebellion against their Turkish rulers, owing to the tyrannies from which they have so long suffered. The revolutionary committees judged the present an opportune moment to revolt, and relied on aid from Greece or the intervention of the Powers.

Now, granting that Turkish misrule is all that is said of it, it must be remembered that Nero-whose name has become a synonym for cruelty-was on the throne when Paul wrote, by the Holy Spirit, "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers." And in telling Titus how to establish the Cretians in the Gospel he said: "Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers." Christians are not found in revolt with arms in their hands. They can suffer and give their lives rather than do an evil thing, and can bear injustice to the death, and take it patiently, but they cannot render evil for evil. This militant idea of Christianity which is possessing all Christendom is bound to bring back just such times as broke upon the world when the Church in the early centuries turned from the principles of Jesus, and let worldly principles lead into violence and corruption.

"Where Rome Has Free Sway" The Present Truth 12, 26.

E. J. Waggoner

Where Rome Has Free Sway .-To see what the papal principle is we need to look to places where Rome has power to do as she pleases. Mr. Henry Norman, in the Cosmopolis, describes Manila, in the Philippine Islands, where Romanism rules, "unrestrained by any outside influence":-

Here the Church has free sway, and interrupted by alien faith, undeterred by secular criticism. All is in the hands of the priests. . . . The people are plunged in superstition, and their principal professed interest in life (after cock-fighting) is the elaborate religious procession for which every feast-day offers a pretext. . . . If you would prosper, it is absolutely indispensable that you should be on good terms with the priests. Their suspicion and disfavour mean ruin. The personal liberty of the common man may almost be said to be in their keeping. It is hardly necessary to add that the people, as a whole, are idle and dissipated, and that most of the trade is in the hands of the foreign houses. Altogether Manila. . . is a remarkable and instructive example of the free natural development of "age-reared priestcraft, and the shapes of woe."

"God's or Man's?" The Present Truth 12, 26.

E. J. Waggoner

God's or Man's? -A Church paper, finding fault with the Government generally, says: "In the next place, when an attack was made upon the English Sunday, the Government failed to conserve this great institution." It is well stated. It is only the English Sunday-nothing Divine about it, and dependent wholly upon human support, as its origin was only human. It is well to call things by their right name. We have the English sabbath, the Scottish sabbath, the American sabbath, etc., but none of these have anything to do with "the Sabbath of the Lord thy God," save as they are all rivals to the one and only day that is claimed by the Lord, "the Lord's day" indeed. The fact that Parliamentary bodies are looked to to conserve these national substitutes for God's Sabbath shows that they are recognised as feeble human institutions unable to stand without support. God's Sabbath stands eternally His, nor can all the powers of this world tear it down to set up the papal substitute in its place.

June 28, 1896

"The Call of Abraham. Making a Covenant" The Present Truth 12, 26.

E. J. Waggoner

The fifteenth chapter of Genesis contains the first account of the covenant made with Abraham. "The word of the Lord came unto Abram in a vision, saying, Fear not Abram; I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward."

Notice the statement that God said that He Himself was Abraham's reward. If we are Christ's, then we are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. Heirs of what?-"Heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ." Rom. viii. 17. The same inheritance is mentioned by the Psalmist: "The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance." So here again we have a link to connect all God's people with Abraham. Their hope is nothing else but the promise of God to him.

The promise which God had made to Abraham was not to him only, but to his seed as well. Therefore Abraham said to the Lord, "What wilt Thou give me, seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house (or, "he that shall be possessor of mine house") is this Eliezer of Damascus? And Abraham said, Behold, to me Thou hast given no seed; and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir." Abraham did not know the plan of the Lord. He knew the promise, and believed it but as he was old, and had no child, he supposed that the seed promised to him must come through his trusted servant. But that was not God's plan. Abraham was not to be the progenitor of a race of servants, but of free men.

"And, behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir. And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them; and He said unto him, So shall thy seed be. And he believed in the Lord; and He counted it to him for righteousness." Gen. xv. 4-6.

"And he believed in the Lord." The root of the verb rendered believed, is the word "Amen." Its idea is that of firmness, a foundation. When God spoke the promise, Abraham said "Amen," or, in other words, he built upon God, taking His word as a sure foundation. Compare this with Matt. vii. 24, 25.

God promised a great household to Abraham. But this house was to be built upon the Word of God, the Lord, and Abraham so understood it, and began at once to build. Jesus Christ is the foundation, for "other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." 1 Cor. iii. 11. The house of Abraham is the house of God, which is "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone." Eph. iii. 11. "To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained in the Scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious; and he that believeth [buildeth] on Him shall not be confounded."

"Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness." Why?-Because faith means building upon God and His word, and that means the receiving of the life of God in His word. Note in the verses last quoted, from Peter, that the foundation upon which the house is built is a living stone. The foundation is a living foundation, which gives life to those who come to it, so that the house which is built upon it is a living house. It grows by the life of the foundation. "Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established." In this text the words "believe" and "be established," are both from the one root, "Amen," and we might read it thus: "Build upon the Lord your God, so shall ye be built up." But the foundation upon which we build is righteous: "The Lord is upright; He is my Rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him." Therefore since faith means to build upon God and His holy word, it is self-evident that faith is righteousness to the one who possesses and exercises it.

Jesus Christ is the source of all faith. Faith has its beginning and end in Him. There can be no real faith that does not centre in Christ. Therefore when Abraham believed in the Lord, he believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. God has never been revealed to man except. The fact that Abraham's belief was personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, is further shown by the fact that it was counted unto him for righteousness. But there is no righteousness except through the faith of Jesus Christ. He "is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." 1 Cor. i. 30. No righteousness will be of any worth at the appearing of the Lord except "that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." Phil. iii. 9. But since God himself counted Abraham's faith for righteousness, it is plain that his faith was centred in Christ alone, in whom he was made righteous.

And this demonstrates that the promise of God to Abraham was through Christ alone. The seed was that only which is through the faith of Christ, for Christ Himself is the seed. Abraham's posterity, that was to be as the stars for number, will be the innumerable host who wash their robes in the blood of the Lamb. The nations that were to come from him will be "the nations of them which are saved." Compare Matt. viii. 11. "For how many soever be the promises of God, in Him is the yea; wherefore also through Him is the Amen." 2 Cor. i. 20, R.V.

"In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land," etc. Gen. xv. 18. The making of this covenant is recorded in the preceding verses. First we have the promise of an innumerable posterity, and of land. God said, "I am the Lord, that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it." Verse 7.This verse must be kept in mind while reading verse 18, lest we

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get the wrong impression that there was something promised to Abraham's seed, which did not include him. "Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made." Nothing was promised to the seed that was not also promised to Abraham.

Abraham believed the Lord, yet he said, "Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it?" Then follows the record of the dividing of the heifer and the she goat and the ram. This is referred to in Jer. xxxiv. 18-20, when God reproved the people for transgressing the covenant.

"And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him. And He said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; and also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge, and afterward they shall come out with great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full." Gen. xv. 12-16.

We have seen that this covenant was one of righteousness by faith. For the promised seed and the land were to be Abraham's through faith in God's word, which was counted to him for righteousness. Now let us see what more we can learn from the verses just quoted.

For one thing, we learn that Abraham was to die before the possession was bestowed. He was to die in a good old age, and his seed was to be a stranger in a foreign land for four hundred years.

Not only Abraham himself, but his immediate descendants also, would be dead before the seed should come into the land that was promised them. As a matter of fact, we know that Isaac died before the children of Israel went down into Egypt, and that Jacob and all his sons died in the land of Egypt.

"Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made." The chapter before us tells the same thing. It is evident that a promise made to the seed of Abraham cannot be fulfilled by bestowing the thing promised upon only a part of the seed; and that which was promised to Abraham and his seed cannot be fulfilled unless Abraham shares it as well as his seed.

What does this demonstrate?-Simply this, that the promise in the fifteenth chapter of Genesis, that Abraham and his seed should possess the land, had reference to the resurrection of the dead, and to nothing short of that. This is true, even though it should be claimed that the eighteenth verse excludes Abraham from the covenant there spoken of; for as we have seen, it is clear that many of the immediate descendants of Abraham would be dead before the time of the promise; and we know that Isaac and Jacob and the twelve patriarchs were dead long before that time.

Even if Abraham be left out of the question, yet the fact remains that the promise to the seed must include all of the seed, and not a part merely. But Abraham cannot be left out of the promise. Therefore we have positive evidence that in this chapter we have the record of the preaching of "Jesus and the resurrection" to Abraham.

TO BE FULFILLED AFTER THE RESURRECTION

This enables us to understand why Stephen, when he was upon his trial for preaching Jesus, began his talk with a reference to these very words. Speaking of Abraham's coming into the land of Canaan, he said that God "gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on; yet He promised that He would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child." Acts vii. 5. In thus referring to this promise, which was well known to all the Jews, Stephen showed them most plainly that it could be fulfilled only by the resurrection of the dead through Jesus.

"And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again; for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full." From this we learn how it was that Abraham died in faith, although he had not received the promise. If he had expected to receive it in this present life, he would have been disappointed when death came before the fulfillment of the promise. But God plainly told him that he must die before it was fulfilled. Therefore since Abraham believed God, it is very clear that he understood about the resurrection, and looked for it. Yea, he triumphed in it. The resurrection of the dead, we shall see, was ever the central hope of the true children of Abraham.

But we learn something more. In the fourth generation, or after the lapse of four hundred years, his seed was to come out of bondage, into the promised land. Why could they not possess the land at once?-Because the iniquity of the Amorites was not then full. That shows that God would give the Amorites time to repent, or, failing that, to fill up the measure of their iniquity, and thus demonstrate their unfitness to possess the land.

And that teaches us further that the land which God promised to Abraham and his seed could be possessed only by righteous people. God would not cast out of the land those of whom there was any seeming prospect that they might become righteous. But the fact that the people who were to be destroyed from before the children of Abraham were to be cast out because of their wickedness, shows that the possessors of the land were expected to be righteous. And thus we learn that the seed of Abraham, to whom the land was promised, were to be righteous people. This has already been shown by the fact that the seed was promised to Abraham only through the righteousness of faith.

July 2, 1896

"Latin Services" The Present Truth 12, 27.

E. J. Waggoner

Latin Services .-A contributor to the Catholic Times is greatly dissatisfied with the incorrect and indistinct pronunciation of the Latin portions of the service as heard in our Roman Catholic churches. Among others things, he says:-

Apparently the clergy and choir take it for granted that nobody in the congregation understands Latin, so that it does not matter in how mumbling and slovenly a manner the words are spoken. Even in such a centre of classic study as Oxford I found it quite impossible to follow the Latin prayers and hymns, although, seeing that the very object of employing this language is that worshippers of all nations may understand it, there is a special reason for enunciating it with particular distinctness.

The plea for accurate scholarship elsewhere made in the communication is something with which all will sympathise, but who can avoid smiling at the innocence with which the claim is indirectly made that the object of employing Latin in the Roman Catholic ritual is that "worshippers of all nations may understand." In order that all may understand they use a tongue that not one in a hundred in the congregation can understand.

"Liberty a Product of the Gospel" The Present Truth 12, 27.

E. J. Waggoner

Civil liberty is a product of the Gospel. To demand complete freedom for himself is natural to every man; but to deny to all others the same liberty which he so earnestly desires for himself is just as natural. To the unregenerate man liberty means freedom from authoritative control coupled with the possession of despotic power over all other men.

Freedom to enslave, liberty to exercise the right of might, the gospel of force,-the possession of this only satisfies him. What freedom really is-actual liberty-is alone comprehended by the spiritual man. Before the understanding of this paradox, of freedom through subjection, can enter the mind of man, he must first have talked with God, as did Nicodemus; and, being taught of the Lord, have learned the mystery of regeneration.

If there have been those who unreservedly espoused the cause of civil liberty and human rights, pure and simple, and yet seemed to antagonise Christianity, it was because they unconsciously followed in the steps of Christ. They but needed some one, like another Paul to the Athenians, to preach to them the God whom they ignorantly worshipped. It was not Christianity which they antagonised but the power and authority of a false Christianity which they saw exemplified in the minds, hearts, and lives of their contemporaries. Who will say that the Athenian who knelt at the altar of the unknown god was not nearer to the kingdom of God than the Pharisee, the dust of whose city Paul had shaken from his feet?

From the desire for liberty to its possession is an upward step, but this is the pinnacle. There is but one step from the possession of liberty to the desire for power;

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this is a downward step. Through ambition the angels fell; by it the covering cherub lost his high estate; how, then, could feeble humanity, whatever its Christian profession, expect to gain by that through which heavenly power was lost? When once the unholy lust for power has entered the heart of the church, Satanic poison has begun its work and that is a fallen church, no less than is Lucifer a fallen angel. When the fallen angel and the fallen church are animated by the same motives,-ambition for power,-they will be kindred spirits, and will work the same works.

Lucifer sought supreme authority, eternal in the heavens. When the spirit of worldly ambition has entered a church it seeks temporal authority supreme on earth. This is but the natural course for human weakness to take, when it has forgotten to subject itself in child-like humility to Divine leading. When the fallen church and the fallen angel have purposes which complement each other and tend to the same end, they become natural allies. But when the church forsakes its Divine Master, it subjects itself to Satan's leadership, and becomes, with all its power and intelligence, the dupe and the tool of supernatural subtlety. The two will then work together for the same ends,-the supremacy of self, and the subjugation of all else, and will have a common purpose,-to destroy the product of the Gospel, liberty, civil and religious. When a church does this it becomes an ecclesiasticism and no longer the Church of God.

"Silent Forces" The Present Truth 12, 27.

E. J. Waggoner

How silent are the forces of nature! The earth, the planets, the sun, all the heavenly bodies swing in their rapid courses through space and make no sound. Gravity, attraction, repulsion, cohesion, the various forces which hold the worlds in their traces, all perform their labours, so infinitely gigantic, in silence. The rays of light, from sun and stars, that come to us through illimitable spaces, from distances without end, with the speed of thought, fall upon the earth more gently than the mother's morning kiss upon her sleeping babe. Yet as the tender kiss of love may warm the heart and rouse it to great thoughts and heroic deeds of lifelong endeavour, so, light exerts upon the earth that marvellous power which causes all nature to spring into life, and develop into wondrous forms of beauty and usefulness.

All the machinery of the vast workshop of nature is set in motion, and the results are marvellous in our eyes, yet no commotion is heard. With the mind's ear we listen delightedly to the harmonious melody of the swinging spheres, the keen, overtones of the ringing, flashing sunlight, the soft undertone of the growing things,-yet, our ear-drums give no answering vibration, and we detect no sound. All the processes of the Divine laboratory, wherein God creates, sustains, and governs worlds, produces and maintains life, and brings forth all His manifold blessings for His creatures, are carried on in a majestic grandeur of a great silence.

There was a time when Elijah, the man of God, went forty days' journey into the wilderness and lodged in a cave on the mountain, and as he went forth and stood on the mountain a great wind went by that rent the mountain and broke the rocks in pieces; but the Lord was not in the wind; then a mighty earthquake shook the earth, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; then a rushing, devouring flame, yet the Lord was not there; but after that came a "still, small voice," and it was the voice of God.

"'They That Take the Swordó'" The Present Truth 12, 27.

E. J. Waggoner

The Army and Navy Gazette has noted the collection of loafers whose horse play, or indeed whose very presence only, gives such unpleasant prominence to the public-house corner, and suggests its own remedy. The Gazette says:-

We have long enough submitted to the audacious bearing and conduct of tramps, cab-runners, and roughs of many varieties, all of whom ought to have been passed through a period of military training so as to be taught decency, cleanliness, and respect for their superiors.

From these premises the conclusion is reached, naturally enough, that it is surely high time for the country to recognise that military training and discipline, in their elementary forms, are quite as necessary as the three R's. . . . It would therefore appear desirable to arrange in some way for the drill of all boys and young men not already serving in the army, militia, or volunteers, so that they may be prepared in due time to take their places in one or another of these three branches of our land forces.

This means that the Army and Navy Gazette wishes to see Englishmen under a similar military despotism to that which has its iron heel on the neck of every able-bodied man of all the continental nations. There is no nation on the continent of Europe in which the civil power is really of supreme influence. The actual, though perhaps at present unacknowledged, authority-the true power behind the throne or the President's chair-is the military power. To the requirements and needs of this all else must bend. It has become a burden which the citizens of continental countries can scarce any longer endure. There, not only are years of military service compulsory upon every able-bodied man, but, in some instances, even the school-children are subjected to military drill. So burdensome has all this become that the Socialists of Germany, France, and Switzerland, are beginning to attempt some organised movement for relief.

Still, in the face of the experience of these military despotisms, there are continually to be found not a few, in countries yet free, who desire to see the power of militarism increased. Religion and the church, even, furnish the youth with military equipments and teach them army drill and tactics in those lands where the policy of the State is pacific.

It cannot be denied that within the last decade there has been an immense increase in the military spirit throughout all civilised nations, and that the present form of civilisation, and popular religion as well, gives its influence to further this, rather than otherwise.

What the logical outcome of such a situation must be within the next decade is worthy of consideration; and the adoption of measures in mitigation of the universal catastrophe is called for, rather than to add further to the destructive forces already so great.

"Youthful Criminals" The Present Truth 12, 27.

E. J. Waggoner

The statistics of crime for the last twenty years show one very suggestive fact, and that is the considerable increase in the number of youthful offenders. From one-third to one-fourth of all convictions for larceny, burglary, and crimes against morals, during the last two years, were had against youths under twenty-one years of age. There can be no doubt of the increased intelligence of the youth of the country, as the figures leave no room to doubt the increased criminality. These facts are suggestive of the eventual outcome. Youthful offenders will certainly develop into mature criminals, in the vast majority of cases, under present conditions. This clearly points to a continued growth in the criminal cases. Prophecy affirms that such will be the case until the end comes.

"The Call of Abraham. The Test of Faith" The Present Truth 12, 27.

E. J. Waggoner

We pass by a period of several years. The number of years we cannot tell, but Isaac, the child of faith and promise had been born, and had grown to be a young man.⁵1 Abraham's faith had grown stronger and more intelligent, for he had learned that God fulfills His own promises. But God is a faithful teacher, and does not allow His pupils to leave a lesson until it is thoroughly learned. It is not enough for them to see and acknowledge that they have made a mistake in the lesson that He has given them. Such acknowledgement of course ensures forgiveness; but, having seen the error, they must go over the same ground again, and possibly many times, until they have learned it so well that they can go without stumbling. It is solely for their own good. It is no kindness on the part of a parent or teacher to allow his children to pass by lessons that are unlearned, simply because they are difficult.

So "it came to pass after these things, that God did prove Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham; and he said, Here am I. And He said, Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, even Isaac, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of." Gen. xxii. 1, 2.

In order to understand what this proving meant, we must have a clear idea of what was bound up in Isaac-of what was embraced in the promise that had been made to Abraham, which was to be fulfilled through Isaac. We have already studied it, and so have only to recall the fact. God had said to Abraham, "In thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed," and, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called." As we have seen, the blessing was the blessing of the Gospel, the blessing which comes through Christ and His cross. But this, since God had so said, was to be fulfilled through Isaac. The promised seed, consisting of Christ and of all who are His, was to come through Isaac. Thus we see that to human sight the requirement of God seemed like cutting off all hope of the promise ever being fulfilled.

But the promise was the promise of salvation through Jesus Christ, the seed. The promise had been very explicit, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called," and that seed was first of all Christ. Therefore Christ the Saviour of all men could come only in Isaac's line. But Isaac was yet a young man and unmarried. To cut him off would be, so men would reason, to cut off all prospects of the Messiah, and so to cut off all hope of salvation. To all appearance Abraham was called upon virtually to put the knife to his own throat, and to cut off the hope of his own salvation.

Thus we can see that it was not merely Abraham's fatherly affection that was tried, but his faith in the promise of God. A severer test no man was ever called upon to undergo, for no other man ever could be in the same position. The entire hope of the whole human race was bound up in Isaac, and Abraham was asked apparently to destroy it with a stroke of the knife. Well might the one who could stand such a test be called "the father of the faithful." We may well believe that Abraham was strongly tempted to doubt if this requirement came from the Lord; it seemed to be so directly contrary to God's promise.

TEMPTATIONS

To be tempted, and sorely tempted, is not a sin. "My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations." James i. 2. The Apostle Peter speaks of the same inheritance which was promised to Abraham, and says that we greatly rejoice in it, "though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations; that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ; whom having not seen, ye love; in whom though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory; receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls." 1 Peter i. 6-9.

These temptations cause heaviness, says the apostle. They weigh one down. If it were otherwise-if it took no effort to endure them-they would not be temptations. The fact that a thing is a temptation means that it is something which appeals to all the feelings, and to endure which almost takes the very life. Therefore we may know, without casting the slightest reflection upon Abraham's faith, that it cost him a terrible struggle to obey the command of the Lord.

Doubts were suggested to his mind. Doubts come from the devil, and no man is so good that he is free from the suggestions of Satan. Even the Lord Himself had to bear them. He "was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin." Heb. iv. 15. The sin does not consist in the devil's whispering doubts in our ears, but in our acting upon them. This Christ did not do. Neither did Abraham; yet he who thinks that the patriarch started upon his journey without first having a sore struggle, must be unmindful not only of what was involved in the proposed test, but of the feelings of a father.

The tempter would suggest, "This cannot be the requirement of the Lord, because He has promised you an innumerable posterity, and has said that it must come through Isaac." Again and again would this thought come; but it could not stand, because Abraham knew full well the voice of the Lord. He knew that the call to offer up Isaac came from the same source as the promise. The repetition of that suggestion of the tempter would only make

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more sure the fact that the requirement, was from the Lord.

But that would not end the struggle. A strong temptation to disregard the command would be found in his own affection for his son. The requirement probed that very deeply: "Take now thy son, thine only son whom thou lovest." And there was the fond and proud mother. How could he make her believe that it was the Lord that had spoken to him? Would she not reproach him for following the fancies of a disordered mind? How could he break the matter to her? Or, if he should proceed to make the sacrifice without letting her know of it, how could he meet her on his return? Besides, there were the people. Would they not accuse him of murdering his son? We may be sure that Abraham had a desperate struggle with all these suggestions that would crowd upon his mind and heart.

But faith gained the victory. His time of wavering had long since passed, and now "he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God." Rom. iv. 20. "By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac; and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called; accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure." Heb. xi. 12-19.

The whole thing, from first to last, involved the resurrection of the dead. The birth of Isaac was really the bringing of life from the dead. It was by the power of the resurrection. Abraham had once, through harkening to his wife, failed to trust God's power to bring him a son from the dead. He had repented of his failure, but must needs be tested upon that point, to ensure that he had thoroughly learned the lesson. The result proved that he had.

THE ONLY BEGOTTEN SON

"He that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called; accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead." Note the expression, "his only begotten son." We cannot read it without being reminded that "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John iii. 16. In Abraham's offering his only begotten son we have a figure of the offering of the only begotten Son of God. And Abraham so understood it. He had already rejoiced in Christ. He knew that through the promised Seed should come the resurrection of the dead; and it was his faith in the resurrection of the dead, which can come only through Jesus, that enabled him to stand the test.

Abraham offered up his only begotten son, in confidence that he would be raised from the dead because God would offer up His only begotten Son. Nay, more, God had already offered His only begotten Son, "who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world," but who had yet to be manifested. 1 Peter i. 20. And herein we can see the marvelous faith of Abraham, and how fully it comprehended the purpose and the power of God. For the Messiah, the Seed through whom all the blessings were to come to men, was to be born of Isaac's line. Isaac was to be cut off without an heir. Yet Abraham had such confidence in the life and power of the word of the Lord, that he believed that it would fulfill itself. He believed that the Messiah who was to come of Isaac's line, and whose death alone could destroy death and bring the resurrection, and who had not yet come into the world, had power to raise up Isaac from the dead, in order that the promise might be fulfilled, and He be yet born into the world. Greater faith than that of Abraham could not possibly exist.

THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE

In this we see not only proof of the pre-existence of Christ but also of Abraham's knowledge of it. Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life." John xi. 25. He was the Word that was in the beginning with God, and that was God. He was the resurrection and the life in the days of Abraham as well as in the time of Lazarus. "In Him was life," even endless life. Abraham believed it, for he had already proved its power, and he was confident that the life of the Word would bring Isaac to life in order that the promise might be fulfilled.

Abraham started forth on his journey. Three days he pursued his weary way, in which there was ample time for the tempter to assail him with all manner of doubts. But doubt was fully mastered when "on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off." Gen. xxii. 4. Evidently some sign that the Lord had given him appeared on the mountain, and he knew beyond all doubt that the Lord was leading him. The struggle was over, and he went forward to the completion of his task, fully assured that God would bring Isaac from the dead.

"And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you." Verse 5. If there were not a single line in the New Testament about this matter, we might know from this verse that Abraham had faith in the resurrection. "I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you." In the original it is made very clear: We will go, and we will come again to you. The patriarch had such confidence in the Lord's promise that he fully believed that although he should offer up Isaac as a burnt offering, his son would be raised again, so that they would both return together. "Hope maketh not ashamed." Having been justified by faith, he had peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. The trial of his faith had been patiently endured, for we must know that the bitterness of the struggle was now over, and a rich experience of the life that is in the Word had come to him, producing an unwavering hope.

THE SACRIFICE COMPLETED

We all know the outcome. Isaac carried the wood to the appointed place. The altar was built, and he was bound and laid upon it. Here still we have the likeness to the sacrifice of Christ. God gave His only begotten Son, yet the Son went not unwillingly. Christ "gave Himself for us." So Isaac freely yielded himself as a sacrifice. He was young and strong, and could easily have resisted or fled if he had wished. But he did not. The sacrifice was his as well as his father's. As Christ carried His own cross, so Isaac carried the wood for his own sacrifice, and meekly yielded his body to the knife. In Isaac we have a type of Christ, who was "led as a lamb to the slaughter;" Abraham's statement, "God will provide Himself a lamb," was but the expression of his faith in the Lamb of God.

"And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham; and he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou anything unto him; for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing that thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from Me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering instead

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of his son." Gen. xxii. 10-13. The son's life was spared, yet the sacrifice was as truly and as completely made as though he had been put to death.

THE WORK OF FAITH

Let us turn to read what this transaction teaches us as to the relation of faith and works. "Wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled, which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness; and he was called the friend of God." James ii. 20-23.

How is it possible for anyone to suppose that here is any contradiction or modification of the doctrine of justification by faith as set forth in the writings of the Apostle Paul? All the Scriptures teach that faith works. "Faith which worketh by love" (Gal. v. 6) is declared to be the one necessary thing. The Thessalonian brethren were commended for their "work of faith." 1 Thess. i. 2, 3. So the case of Abraham is used as an illustration of the working of faith. God had made a promise to him; he had believed the promise, and his faith had been counted to him for righteousness. His faith was the kind that works righteousness. Now that faith received a practical test, and the works showed that it was perfect. Thus the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "Abraham believed God, and it was imputed to him for righteousness." This work was the demonstration of the fact that faith had justly been imputed to him for righteousness. It was faith that wrought with his works. The work that Abraham did was a work of faith. His works did not produce his faith, but his faith produced his works. He was justified, not by faith and works, but by faith which works.

THE FRIEND OF GOD

"And he was called the friend of God." Jesus said to His disciples, "Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth; but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of My Father, I have made known unto you." Friendship between two means mutual confidence. In perfect friendship each one reveals himself to the other in a way that he does not to the outside world. There can be no perfect friendship where there is distrust and restraint. Between perfect friends there is a perfect understanding. So God called Abraham his friend, because they perfectly understood each other. This sacrifice fully revealed the character of Abraham. God had said before, "I know him;" and now again He said, "Now I know that thou fearest God." And Abraham on his part understood the Lord. The sacrifice of his only begotten son indicated that he knew the loving character of God, who for man's sake had already given His only begotten Son. They were united in a mutual sacrifice and a mutual sympathy. No one could appreciate the feelings of God so well as Abraham could.

No other person can ever be called upon to undergo the same test that Abraham endured, because the circumstances can never again be the same. Never again can the fate of the world be bound up in a single person, and hang, as it were, in the balance. Yet each child of Abraham will be tested, because only they who have the faith of Abraham are the children of Abraham. Each one may be the friend of God, and must be such if he is a child of Abraham. God will manifest Himself unto His people as He does not unto the world.

But we must not forget that friendship is based upon mutual confidence. If we wish the Lord to be confidential with us, we must make Him our confidant. If we confess our sins, laying out before Him in secret all our weaknesses and difficulties, then He will show Himself a faithful friend, and will reveal to us His love, and His power to deliver from temptation. He will show us how He has been tempted in the same way, suffering the same infirmities, and will show us how to overcome. Thus in loving interchange of confidences, weshall sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, and may sup together. He will show to us wonderful things; for "the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him; and He will show them His covenant." Ps. xxv. 14.

"Matabeleland Savagery" The Present Truth 12, 27.

E. J. Waggoner

That the savages in Matabeleland are not all black is evident from Buluwayo correspondence which appears in the papers now and then. "There will be a lot of fighting, and I fear a lot killed," says one newspaper correspondent, "but nevertheless, any amount of sport, as shooting natives just suits this climate." Another paper prints a letter in which the writer says, "It is grand fun potting

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niggers off and seeing them fall like nine-pins." Such correspondents represent very few of the population of Matabeleland, we hope, but these little touches of savagery show how little civilisation without godliness can affect the natural barbarity of fallen human nature.

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 27.

E. J. Waggoner

-Nine-tenths of the railway passengers in England and Wales travel third-class.

-Hundreds of tons of strawberries have come into London every day during the week past.

-Spain expects to hold Cuba, her last American possession. Six cities are to present the Government with a gunboat each.

-The cholera is spreading in the provincial towns in Egypt. Since the outbreak about 15,000 deaths have been registered.

-The loss of life in Japan by the tidal wave which followed the recent earthquake is estimated at 80,000, the most disastrous event of recent years.

-Disease is spreading in the desolated parts of Armenia. One relief agent writes of the difficulty in getting doctors to go into districts where disease is taking off the people.

-The strike of factory operatives in St. Petersburg is proving a difficult thing for the authorities to deal with. The majority of the strikers have stood out stubbornly, and mills are idle.

-It is said that Li Hung Chang has given extensive orders for big guns to the great German gun-makers. Some hundreds of young Chinese are to go to Germany for military education.

-From the despatches it appears that in Crete the war between "Christian" and Moslem is like any other civil strife, both sides kill, and burning according to the rules of irregular warfare.

-Fresh disturbances occurred at Van, in Turkey, last week, in which is estimated that 400 Armenians and Turks were killed. The agitation was fostered by paid Armenian agents from abroad.

-Cablegrams from Mashonaland state that the Mashonas are joining the Matabeles, and now the whole of Rhodesia is involved in the rising. The chief Matabele prophet, or war-god, who was directing the campaign in the western country, was killed last week.

-The withered arm of the German Emperor has, it is said, been photographed by the R?ntgen rays, with the result that the character of the malformation has been made clear, and the surgeons declare it possible that a simple operation may yet give him the use of the arm.

-A national testimonial is to be presented to the islanders of Ushant and Helene in recognition of their sympathetic kindness in the treatment of the living and the dead in the asking of the Drummond Castle. The name . . . ant means "the terrible island," and such it was on the night of the disaster. Several entire families perished together.

-Following in the wake of Mdlle. CouÈdon a small boy has appeared in France who is performing miracles of second sight, while in the State of Vermont, U.S.A., a whole corps of maraculous healers has sprung up, following the example of one Bradley Newell, an illiterate blacksmith. This man's success has been such as to acquire an income of ten thousand pounds a year from this source alone.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 27.

E. J. Waggoner

There are thirty Bible societies in existence; they have issued over 240,000,000 of Bibles and portions.

From the Catholic press, Anglican and Roman, it is evident that the sudden dropping of the Education Bill in no wise discourages those who demand State aid for the church schools. Their demands will increase rather than diminish.

When the Romish theologian, Dr. Eck, Luther's adversary, told Duke William, of Bavaria, that he could refute the Reformers with the Fathers, though not with the Scriptures, the Duke replied, "I am to understand, then, that the Lutherans are within the Scriptures, and we are on the outside."

No one can fail to remark the revival of interest in such occult sciences, as they are called, as find their most active expression in Spiritualism and Theosophy. In Roman Catholicism also apparitions and wonders are reported from many quarters. Satan is working on the minds of men to prepare them for those "signs and wonders" by which he will work to deceive all whose names are not written in the book of life.

The English Church Union enthusiastically affirms that prayers for the dead should be restored to the regular church service. The practice is already common in many Anglican churches. Dean Lucock, at a recent E.C.U. meeting, answered the objection that such a practice had no recognition in the Bible by calling for "a single text in the whole Bible" authorising the substitution of Sunday for the seventh-day Sabbath. The two practices, prayers for the dead and Sunday observance, rest on the same foundation, Catholic tradition, which makes void the Word.

A student of statistics, writing in the Homiletic Review, calls the present "the age of murder in all Christendom." It is so because it is the age of lawlessness generally, as the days which were before the flood.

"Healthful Words" The Present Truth 12, 27.

E. J. Waggoner

Healthful Words .-Paul frequently exhorts us to hold fast the "sound words." Literally, it is helpful words. The words of God are full of life, and are health to the soul that feeds upon them.

"Protestants as Persecutors" The Present Truth 12, 27.

E. J. Waggoner

Protestants as Persecutors .-Last week we described the treatment meted out to Sabbath-keepers in one district in Russia, where about twenty-five had been imprisoned for two days every week for meeting on the Sabbath. A later report says:-

The room in which they were confined is so small that they cannot lie down, and there is no opening for air, reminding one of the Black Hole of Calcutta. When they ask for air, they are told to forsake their Sabbath nonsense, and they shall have it. Part of their time is occupied in singing the songs of Zion. At first they were asked to stop this, and as they continued, rowdies gathered and stormed without; but now they sing without disturbance. This is a German colony, and the perpetrators of this shameful treatment are not Russians, but professed Protestants. Notwithstanding this trying ordeal, new members are being added to this company.

"A Moslem Defender" The Present Truth 12, 27.

E. J. Waggoner

A Moslem Defender .-In their hatred of the law of God these professed Protestants thrust Sabbath-keepers into the prisons from which Lutheranism itself has suffered in Russia in past days. Thus the descendants of Luther are denying the vital principle of the Reformation, as they are brought face to face with the truth. The report continues:-

According to Russian law for dissenters, they have a right to meet; and now a Mohammedan lawyer has taken the case in hand, basing his action on this law. This is a striking case! Protestants so zealous in persecuting fellow Protestants that they even go beyond Russian laws, and must be called to a halt by a Mohammedan! How literally Rev. xii. 17 and chapter xiii. are being fulfilled all over the world!

In concluding his report, Bro. H. P. Holser, of Switzerland, who has recently returned from Russia, says: "The outlook for the work in Russia was never better."

"Why Protestants?" The Present Truth 12, 27.

E. J. Waggoner

Why Protestants? -Why is it that in Russia and other countries Protestants are doing the same thing by Sunday laws that Romanists did in olden time in Europe, and in present times are now doing in some countries, by laws requiring the recognition of the ecclesiastical institutions and ceremonies? The answer is simple: They have very largely ceased to be Bible Protestants. They want Sunday kept. They are getting to know that there is no Bible authority for the day. The general public is finding out that the Sunday displaced the Sabbath of the Lord just where all the corruptions of Romanism swept into the church to displace the Gospel. In the face of all the evidence, and moved by the spirit which inevitably controls every society which refuses to follow the Word, the Protestant world has determined to enforce the Sunday observance, as far as it can, by human law. "All nations have drunk of the wine" of Rome's corruption. So says the prophet, and we can see the evidences multiplying.

"In America" The Present Truth 12, 27.

E. J. Waggoner

In America .-There it is that we can see at its worst, just now, the manifestation of the determination to make Sunday observance compulsory-the chief mark of fallen Protestantism, as it has ever been the mark of papal authority. Nearly every mail from the States brings exchanges which publish the developments in the crusade which the American Protestant churches are carrying on in their effort to blot out the Sabbath and elevate the Sunday. The last New York Sentinel reports that when one of our brethren in Tennessee was recently sent to prison for not observing Sunday "two ministers were at the gaol to see that he was thrust into the cage, which is the inner prison." All the denominations which we here call Nonconformists are joined in trying to secure the kind of conformity in America of which Sunday observance is the mark. When some ministers in these denominations, who see the principle of all this, cry out against it, they are silenced by the voices of the thoughtless majority.

"What to Do" The Present Truth 12, 27.

E. J. Waggoner

What to Do .-What is to be done to meet this propaganda of force which is gathering in all Christendom? "Preach the Word." That is the only thing. The Word and the law of God will stand with all the power of the world opposed to them. To those who desire to stand upon the Word God gives this assurance: "Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath, for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment, and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner; but My salvation shall be for ever, and My righteousness shall not be abolished. Hearken unto Me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is My law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings." "Fear God, and give glory to Him," is the Gospel message now to all.

July 9, 1896 The Present Truth 12, 28.

"A Long Sermon" The Present Truth 12, 28.

E. J. Waggoner

"By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh."

A Long Sermon .-When Cain killed Abel because his own works and worship were evil and his brother's according to the direction of the Lord, he doubtless thought he had silenced Abel's testimony for truth. But Abel "yet speaketh." For six thousand years Abel has been testifying to the world that it is good to follow the Lord.

The Work of Faith .-The life of righteousness and the work of faith and the labour of love never cease to bear fruit so long as the world stands and there are sinners who can be saved, and souls to be encouraged. Every life not lived to itself starts a circle of influence for good that continues to widen until it touches the shores of eternity. Abel's gift of the firstlings of his flock was a small one, but God still testifies to the love and the faith which prompted it.

A Successful Life .-Abel was so young, and his life was so suddenly cut short that it might appear at first thought that he had accomplished little in the world, notwithstanding his faithfulness. But God, who does not measure the influence of men's lives according to the world's standards, has made Abel's simple life a blessing and encouragement and a sermon to millions.

"The Call of Abraham. The Promise and the Oath" The Present Truth 12, 28.

E. J. Waggoner

The sacrifice had been made; Abraham's faith had been tested and found perfect; "And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time, and said, By Myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son; that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply⁶1 thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea-shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of His enemies; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed My voice." Gen. xxii. 15-18.

In the Epistle to the Hebrews we learn the significance of the fact that God swore by Himself. The reader will at once see that the following Scripture has direct reference to that which has just been quoted:-

"When God made promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no greater, He swear by Himself, saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men verily swear by the greater; and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath; that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us; which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek." Heb. vi. 13-20.

The oath was not for Abraham's sake.

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His belief in God was complete without the oath to back the promise. His faith had been shown to be perfect, before the oath was given. Moreover, if it had been given for his sake, there would have been no necessity of putting it on record, since he was dead long before the record was written. But God was willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, and so He confirmed the promise by an oath.

IN CHRIST ALONE

And who are heirs of the promise?-The next clause tells us. The oath was in order that "we might have a strong consolation." The oath was given for our sakes. This shows that the covenant with Abraham concerns us. Those who are Christ's are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise; and this oath was given to be an encouragement to us when we flee for refuge to Christ.

How plainly this last reference shows us that the whole of the covenant with Abraham, with all of its included promises, is purely Gospel. The oath backs the promise; but the oath gives consolation to us when fleeing for refuge to Christ; therefore the promise has reference to that which is to be gained in Christ. This is also shown in the text which has so often been repeated, "If ye are Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." The promise had nothing else in view but Christ and the blessings which are bestowed through His cross. Thus it was that the Apostle Paul, whose determination was to know nothing but "Jesus Christ and Him crucified," could also say that he stood and was judged "for the hope of the promise made of God unto the fathers." Acts xxvi 6. The "hope of the promise made of God unto the fathers," is "the hope set before us" in Christ, and which is made "more abundantly" sure by the oath of God to Abraham.

The oath of God confirmed the covenant. The oath by which the promise was confirmed gives us strong consolation when we flee for refuge to the sanctuary where Christ is priest in our behalf, after the order of Melchizedek. Therefore that oath was the same as the oath that made Christ priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. This is clearly set forth in the statement that Christ was made priest "with an oath by Him that said unto Him, The Lord sware, and will not repent. Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek" (Heb. vii. 21), and that He is able therefore to save them to the uttermost that come to God by Him.

Still further, The oath by which Christ was made priest after the order of Melchizedek was the oath by which He is made surety of a "better covenant," (verse 22) even the new covenant. But the oath by which Jesus was made priest after the order of Melchizedek was the same as the oath by which the covenant with Abraham was confirmed. Therefore the covenant with Abraham is identical in its scope with the new covenant. There is nothing in the new covenant that is not in the covenant with Abraham; and no one will ever be included in the new covenant, who is not a child of Abraham through the covenant made with him.

What wonderful consolation is lost by those who fail to see the Gospel and the Gospel only in the promise of God to Abraham. The "strong consolation" which the oath of God gives us, is in Christ's work as "a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people." As a priest He presents His blood, through which we have redemption, even the forgiveness of sins. As a priest He not only provides mercy for us, but "grace to help in time of need." This is assured to us "without respect of persons," by the oath of God.

"STRONG CONSOLATION"

Here is a poor, timid, trembling soul, cast down and despondent by a sense of sins committed, and of general weakness and unworthiness. He is afraid that God will not accept him. He thinks that he is too insignificant for God to notice, and that it would make no difference to anybody, not even to God, if he were lost. To such the Lord says, "Hearken to Me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord; look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. Look unto Abraham your father, and to Sarah that bare you; for I called him alone [when he was but one, R.V.], and blessed him, and increased him. For the Lord shall comfort Zion; He will comfort all her waste places; He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody." Isa. li. 1-3.

Look to Abraham, brought up a heathen, and see what God did for him and what He promised to him, confirming it with an oath by Himself, for your sake. You think that it would make no difference with the Lord if you were lost, because you are so obscure and insignificant. Why, your worthiness or unworthiness has nothing whatever to do with the matter. The Lord says, "I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins." Isa. xliii. 25. For His own sake? Yes, certainly; because of His great love wherewith He loved us, He has placed Himself under bonds to do it. He swore by Himself to save all that come to Him through Jesus Christ, and "He abideth faithful; He cannot deny Himself." 2 Tim. ii. 13.

Think of it; God swore by Himself! That is, He pledged Himself, and His own existence, to our salvation in Jesus Christ. He put Himself in pawn. His life for ours, if we are lost while trusting Him. His honour is at stake. It is not a question of whether or not you are insignificant and of little or no worth. He Himself says that we are "less than nothing." Isa. xl. 17. He says that "we have sold ourselves for naught," (Isa. lii. 3), which shows our true value; but we are redeemed without money, even by the precious blood of Christ. The blood of Christ is the life of Christ; and the life of Christ bestowed upon us makes us partakers of His worth. The only question is, Can God afford to break or forget His oath? And the answer is that we have "two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie."

Think of what would be involved in the breaking of that promise and that oath. The word of God, which brings the promise, is the word which created the heavens and the earth, and which upholds them. "Lift up your eyes on high, and see who hath created these, that bringeth out their host by number; He calleth them all by name; by the greatness of His might, and for that He is strong in power, not one is lacking. Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, my way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed away from my God?" Isa. xl. 25-27. The preceding part of this same chapter speaks of the word of God, which has created all things, and that it shall stand for ever, and the words are quoted by the Apostle Peter, with the additional statement, "And this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you." 1 Peter i. 25.

It is the word of God in Christ that upholds the universe, and keeps the innumerable stars in their places. "In Him all things consist." If He should fail, the universe would collapse. But God is no

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more sure than His word, for His word is backed by His oath. He has pledged His own existence to the performance of His word. If His word should be broken to the humblest soul in the world, He Himself would be disgraced, dishonoured, and dethroned. The universe would go to chaos and annihilation.

Thus the entire universe is in the balance to ensure the salvation of every soul that seeks it in Christ. The power manifested in it is the power pledged to the help of the weak. So long as matter exists, so long will the word of God be sure. "For ever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven." Ps. cxix. 89. It would be a sad loss to you if you should fail of salvation; but it would be a far greater loss to the Lord if you should fail through any fault of His.

Then let the aforetime doubting soul sing:-

"His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the whelming flood;
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay."

"Roman Catholic Growth" The Present Truth 12, 28.

E. J. Waggoner

According to a recent writer in the English Churchman, Roman Catholic statisticians themselves vary as to the number of Roman Catholics in the world from 195,000,000 to 250,000,000,-making a small discrepancy between their own figures of 55,000,000. This fact is used to show that no reliance can be put upon their own estimates. This writer then brings forward his own figures which show that there were in 1893, throughout the world 208,000,000 of Roman Catholics. He then says, "No one save a bigoted and uninformed Roman Catholic will deny that Romanism is not making any headway."

To substantiate this he brings the statement of Mr. Gladstone in his pamphlet "The Vatican Decrees" in an article in the Contemporary Review for October, 1878. In this Mr. Gladstone shows, by a comparison of the marriage statistics, that the proportion of Roman Catholics to the entire population, in Great Britain, between the years 1854 and 1878, had decreased about one-half of one per cent. It will be seen that this will allow for a large numerical increase in the Roman Catholic denomination, and still permit the slight decrease in proportion to the whole population which the marriage statistics show. In fact, in view of the rapid increase in population and other conditions, it would seem that these figures were very favourable for the Roman Catholic denomination. If the comparative statistics of the last twenty years were at hand, there is but little doubt but that they would be still more favourable.

But these this writer does not give. He does say, however, that the "Statesman's Year-Book" gives the number of Catholics in 1893 in England and Wales as 1,135,400. In 1851 their number, calculated upon the basis of the marriage returns, was 758,800, but at the same time the number of their places of worship, and their wealth, has increased in far greater proportion, and the number of their priests and religious orders has also multiplied greatly.

This writer then repeats certain statements made in Catholic papers in the United States in 1836 and 1874 to show that Roman Catholicism is waning in the United States. These articles are merely a collection of extravagant figures and statements as to what the Roman Catholic Church in America might have been had none of its members ever neglected their church relationship, and all their children, comprising the entire number of the natural increase, been added to the church in their turn. Such an imaginary possibility as that for the growth of the religious denomination is of course entirely Quixotic. And yet the number of Roman Catholics in the United States at present is variously estimated from six to twelve millions. However, the strength of the Roman Catholic power is not to be estimated by statistics so much as by the political evidences of its influence which are now abroad in every land, and, in this country, the present willingness, if not desire, of the Anglican Church to affiliate with Rome if it could but do so upon its own terms.

"Spoken to You" The Present Truth 12, 28.

E. J. Waggoner

The Bible is the language of the Spirit of God spoken through men. The Spirit of God, who knows the human heart and its needs, as well as the Divine gifts, has put language into the mouths of certain men, which may be used by all. So when we read the words of David, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, . . . who forgiveth all thine iniquities" (Ps. ciii. 1-3), we are to appropriate that language as our own.

We may indeed believe that God spoke to and blessed David and Paul; but if we do not make that language and blessing our own, we do not really believe the Word, for it is addressed to us. If you wish to know if you really believe the whole Bible, you may test yourselves by this text:-

"I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." Gal. ii. 20.

If you read this merely as Paul's experience, then you have not learned to believe the Bible. But if in reading it you can speak that word "I" as meaning yourself, and can repeat the text intelligently as the language of your own heart, as the Spirit of God meant you should, then you really believe not that verse alone, but the whole Bible, and the joy of God's salvation is yours.

"Increase of Organised Murder" The Present Truth 12, 28.

E. J. Waggoner

The reported discoveries in connection with a murder lately committed in Paris are startlingly suggestive of the systematic development of method in the perpetration of crimes of violence. It is said that the police have learned of the existence in Paris of a company of young men, organised for the purposes of crime. It is believed that not less than twenty-five had personal knowledge of this particular murder, in which the victim was an aged and titled woman of wealth. In this company of criminals are a number of young men belonging to respectable families of some position. All claim to be students and live in the Latin quarter, holding frequent gatherings for the purpose of planning their crimes. Murder is openly advocated in these meetings, and planned for by them as but an incident necessary to the successful prosecution of their crimes.

It is not long since a similar murder was committed in Brussels, the victim being also an old and wealthy woman. In this case it was found that the instigator of the crime was a person high in police authority, who was using his knowledge and experience, gained in long service, to carry out a series of such robberies and murders, and, by means of his official position, conceal and screen the actual perpetrators, sharing with them the proceeds.

Four murderers have just been executed in London, the story of whose deeds are familiar to readers of the daily papers.

These are but samples of the individual deeds of cold-blooded slaughter, among those which come to the light, in which we call civilised countries. But consider the wholesale slaughter which is taking place

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at the same time in Cuba, in South Africa, in Egypt, in Crete, in Armenia.

To remedy these conditions, or to do away with them, is not within the power of man. The tares will grow until the harvest, and just as long as the tares and the wheat are together the tares will strive with one another and crowd and choke the wheat. From this there is no escape until the end. The noble work of arbitration committees and peace societies will have their beneficent effect here and there, but it is not reasonable to look to them for any appreciable amelioration of the evil days which have come upon us,-for the continuance of which, until the Prince of Peace Himself shall come, we have the sure word of prophecy. But it remains for us to "follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." Heb. xii. 14.

"An Apology for Sunday Laws" The Present Truth 12, 28.

E. J. Waggoner

The Christian has recently done the Sabbath truth a distinct service by exhibiting the hopeless confusion of ideas that prevails amongst those who defend the substitution of Sunday for the Sabbath. The editor recently visited South Africa, and in letters home showed considerable concern at the growth of the work of Sabbath reform in Cape Colony. His criticism of those who, in fighting the Sabbath, resort to a denial of any Sabbath obligation whatever, brought a reply from a Baptist minister of Cape Town, printed in the Christian of June 18.

NO BIBLE FOR SUNDAY OBSERVANCE

This reply is interesting, as it chose the grounds on which Baptists-who have been historically against religious legislation-are ready to base Sunday laws. He first shows how necessary it is to take the no-Sabbath position if one is not to keep the Sabbath of the Lord. He says to the editor:-

The only passage you quote of general import is, "The Sabbath was made for man; not man for the Sabbath." That passage surely cannot contradict all the passages in the Old Testament, which distinctly state that it was given to the children of Israel as a sign to separate them from the other nations, and as a memorial of their deliverance from Egypt.

We hardly need remark, in passing to the argument for Sunday laws, that, so far from there being many passages which "distinctly state" that the Sabbath was given as a sign to the children of Israel "to separate them from other nations," there is not one which does so. It is distinctly and repeatedly stated that it is a sign between God and His people. "Between Me and you"-not between them and other nations. Nor is it anywhere said to be a memorial of the deliverance from Egypt. God asked them to keep His Sabbath, as He asked them to do justice and judgment, and to keep all His laws because He had delivered them from bondage. The event of which the Sabbath is a memorial is named in the commandment itself-the creation. It is "the Sabbath of the Lord thy God"-not the Sabbath of the Jews; and when God becomes our God, and the observance of His Sabbath becomes the sign that we accept Him as such.

Proceeding, the correspondent shows why he is forced to take the current no-law position:-

Now, the Sabbatarian says: "You believe that Sunday is the Sabbath? Show me in the Bible where the day was changed? Show me where we are commanded to keep the first day instead of the seventh? Show me where the seventh day law is binding on the first day of the week?" And you can show him none of these things. If the Sabbath remains, it must be kept according to instructions. There is nothing in the Bible about a change of day.

THE "CIVIL" ARGUMENT

Yet while confessing that there is nothing in the Bible about a change of day, the usual familiar references are made to the disciples meeting on the first day, although the Scriptures show that they attached no significance whatever to the day. "The example of the early church bids us observe it," says the writer-an argument that places him distinctly upon the Catholic ground, and it is not surprising that he then passes on to justify the enforcement of Sunday laws on the very principles by which Romanism has justified the enforcement of this, and other of her ecclesiastical institutions, from the days of the apostasy down.

To those who recognise themselves as the Lord's, no Act of Parliament is needed to enforce the observance of the State. Those who do not yield themselves to the Lord, we have no right to enforce, on religious grounds, to observe what is essentially a religious day. We cannot extract religious observance by Act of Parliament.

Sunday is "essentially a religious day," and it is to be enforced-but not on religious grounds; for that would be religious persecution, a phrase which has a bad sound. But on whatever ground it is alleged to be enforced, the fact remains that it "is essentially a religious day." So that the man who is compelled to recognise it is compelled to recognise a religious institution. What difference, then, does it make to the man who conscientiously objects to recognising the day on what grounds it is sought to be enforced? If one were commanded to fall down and worship an idol what difference would it make to him whether the man with the sword asked to do so on the ground that it was good for his health, or his civic duty, or whether he came out frankly and commanded him to recognise idol worship? The act sought to be enforced is the thing, the compulsory recognition of "what is essentially a religious day," and when the churches of the day joined in pressing Governments into the enforcement of Sunday laws they are repeating the history of Rome. And this is how they are to ask for the enforcement of "a religious day" and preserve the Protestant profession:-

We do not go as Christians to Government and ask it to help us to observe the day that we freely grant should be observed by us, and which we esteem it a privilege to observe; neither do we ask Government to persuade men by force to observe a day, whom by religious arguments we cannot persuade to observe it. But we go as citizens, taking common ground with the rest of our fellow-men, to ask that in the interests of the community there may be a weekly respite from work. If we ask for legislation on religious grounds we have granted the principle of the right of the State to legislate on religious matters, a principle which we are not inclined to grant.

But even here Rome has forestalled Protestants in the use of this argument-which is not new with our Baptist friends, but may be taken as representing the plea on which Protestants in all lands are urging forward Sunday legislation. Long ago Rome invented this theory of dual personality and responsibility. The Church of Rome never persecuted, say they; they merely turned over the offender to "the secular arm." The Church secured the laws, the clergy decided what was dangerous to the body politic, and "as citizens" may even have helped the "secular arm" execute the penalty, but it was not the Church which did these awful deeds!

The whole thing is transparent. What difference does it make to a man if I am seeking to compel him under penalties to recognise an "essentially religious" institution, in which he does not believe, if I tell him it is not as a Christian but as a citizen that I am punishing him? Our Baptist friends, above all peoples, ought to understand these principles. "The Anabaptists," says the historian, "were the first of Protestant sects to feel that even the reformed churches could rival the intolerance of Rome." Amongst the first victims burned in Smithfield were Baptists, and all through the later struggles in the

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sad history of intolerance Baptists knew what it was to suffer for the truth, charged with violating laws established for the good order of the commonwealth. "In the interests of the community" has always been the cry in the enforcement of religious institutions. Here is a dialogue which Neal gives in his history of Puritanism, which illustrates the principle. One White, before the Lord Chief Justice, objected to being forced to attend worship in which he believed it idolatry to take part.

Master of the Rolls.-These are no part of idolatry, but are commanded by the prince for civil order, and if you will not be ordered you show yourself disobedient to the laws.

White.-I would not willingly disobey any law, only I would avoid those things that are not warranted by the Word of God.

Master of Requests.-These things are commanded by Act of Parliament, and in disobeying the laws of your country you disobey God.

That was the controversy, over and over again, centuries ago. Apply the same principles to Sunday laws, and it is readily seen why it is that Sabbath-keepers cannot be forced to pay regard to the Sunday, which stands as the mark of Rome's assumed authority. One of the latest utterances on the subject by a prince of that Church, Cardinal Gibbons, is to the effect,-

Of course the Catholic Church claims that the change was her act. It could not have been otherwise, as none in those days would have dreamed of doing anything in matters spiritual and ecclesiastical and religious without her. And the act is a mark of her ecclesiastical power and authority in religious matters.

Now Sabbath-keepers do not acknowledge that authority, nor can they acknowledge the mark which that power has set up as a rival to the Sabbath, the sign or mark of allegiance to God. The closing message of Rev. xiv. 6-12 is God's warning against the recognition of this mark of Rome's authority, and God's call to men to rally round "the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus."

The theory that men can do "as citizens" what would be wrong to do "as Christians" is a thoroughly bad one, responsible for much wickedness and other things than religious legislation. When God judges the man, according to his holy law, where will the citizen be? "Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God" is the command of the Lord. Whatever is to the glory of God men can do as Christians, and when they want to do something which they cannot do as Christians, we may assure them it is an un-Christian thing. Sunday laws are distinctly anti-Christian, and their history runs parallel with that of a persecuting Church from Constantine's day down. No juggling with names and phrases can alter their nature.

We appeal to all who know the nature of spiritual ordinances and worship against the employment of carnal force in religious matters. And we appeal, in the name of the Lord, and by his Holy Word, to all who range themselves on the side of God's law and the Divine government at this time when the principles of the Papacy are leading on to the formation of the very image of the Papacy in lands which have been called Protestant. The Word is the guide, and the Word is the power, and the Word will stand.

"Formosan Idolatry" The Present Truth 12, 28.

E. J. Waggoner

Formosan Idolatry .-A traveller who writes of Formosa says of the religious life of the people:-

Many of the Chinese, especially the women, are devout worshippers; many others are sceptical, and the majority are careless. Idolatry has a powerful hold on their minds, but it is only when reverses and troubles come that the average man will resort to the temple. They believe the gods have power to help or to injure them, but so long as things go well they are careless about their devotions.

Human nature is alike the world over. Many in more enlightened lands reserve their thoughts of God merely for accidents and emergencies, having no more idea of spiritual worship than the idolatrous Formosan.

"Rome's Position Restated" The Present Truth 12, 28.

E. J. Waggoner

The Pope's new encyclical on the unity of the church has appeared. It is addressed to the dignitaries of the Roman Catholic Church by their different titles, and deals with the question of the attitude of the Catholic Church towards those who reject any of its doctrines. The position taken is uncompromising. It holds that the Roman Catholic Apostolate is commanded "to the end of time to teach and rule the nations,"-and that Christ "ordered the nations to accept their teaching and obey their authority," as the successors of Himself and His apostles.

This is definite, and leaves no room for any negotiations as to the validity of Anglican orders except through the acknowledgement of complete and unquestioned Roman Catholic supremacy. That there need be no room for doubt left as to the absolute completeness of the surrender required, these words are used: "There can be nothing more dangerous than those heretics who admit nearly the whole cycle of doctrine, and yet by one word, as with a drop of poison, infect the real and simple faith," etc. The idea which the encyclical enforces is the divine right of the Papacy to rule the world and the religious duty which the world is under to subject itself unreservedly to its authority. The soul of Leo longs for unity but only on the basis of papal supremacy by divine right.

"Religious Animosity in Political Life" The Present Truth 12, 28.

E. J. Waggoner

The American correspondent of the London Baptist Freeman expresses the hope that the coming presidential campaign in the United States may be free from religious controversy. Such a suggestion, even, has a very sinister sound. It shows that such a thing as the mingling of bitter religious controversy with American political strife is not only possible but probable. This writer thinks, however, that trouble is likely to come only from the American Protective Association, which is a secret organisation aiming to boycott the Romanists as enemies to national life. With the Democrats they will have no chance, but the Republicans will need to go carefully, especially as a new order has been started for self-protection by the Roman Catholics. No candidate for the Presidency who will not assure them that he has given no promise of support to the A.P.A. will stand any chance of votes from this body. There is no concealing the fact that if organised for political purposes the Romanists would control the situation. They constitute about a third of the religious communicants of the country, and number as many as the combined strength of the Baptists and Methodists, the principal Protestant denominations.

The matter-of-fact way in which this is stated shows how thoroughly the public mind in the United States is becoming accustomed to the idea of political religion, and how largely religious prejudices and animosities are already beginning to make their influence felt in political life. It is true that which makes itself most apparent is the antagonism between this organisation, which calls itself the American Protective Association, and the Roman Catholics, but it is not here that the real danger lies. It is far deeper than this. Where the root of the actual danger is may be seen from the fact that Mr. McKinley, the Republican nominee for the Presidency, was approached, previous to his nomination, by certain representatives of so-called orthodox religious views, and sounded as to his position upon the enforcement of such religious laws as are already on the statute books. It is claimed by them that he gave to them his unqualified

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assent. This fact is already used among the churches in Mr. McKinley's favour politically. These things, together with the condition mentioned in the extracts quoted, shows a complete revolution already taking place in religious and political affairs in the United States. That separation between religion and the State, which has been proclaimed the pride and glory of the American governmental system, is to be thrown aside, indeed is already ignored, and religious prejudice and ignorant zeal is to be made a part of political wire-pulling, trickery, and chicanery. The untoward results of such a change as this cannot fail to make themselves quickly apparent.

"A Swiss School" The Present Truth 12, 28.

E. J. Waggoner

In Switzerland the school laws are very strict, and in some of the cantons administered with a consideration for those upon whom they may work a hardship. Attendance is required at school for six days in the week, without any exemption for Seventh-day observers. These people have suffered fine and imprisonment, in one case even several days close confinement on bread and water, for refusing to send their children to school on the Sabbath. Every means was tried to satisfy the school authorities, by extra work during the week and paying the teacher for the overtime given to the children that they might be excused from the exercises on the Sabbath, but without avail. The school authorities vetoed all that was tried and that could be done, and finally stated positively that the school programme as laid down must be implicitly followed. This of course necessitated the establishment of a school of their own. This was done last autumn, and their first school year has just closed with a very successful record. The accompanying cut shows the main edifice, but fails to do justice to the picturesque surroundings, or to show the accompanying buildings which go to make up the facilities of the school. The chateau occupied by the school, and which the Seventh-day Adventists have purchased, is situated in a commanding position overlooking the valley which runs down to the lake of Bienne, and has in connection with it park, meadows, and orchard, of about twenty-four acres. In the rear of the building and its park are the government forests and the Juras rising precipitously several thousand feet. Certainly the buildings and the location are most admirable, and it is an exceedingly satisfactory thing to see that success has been attained the first year. About thirty pupils have been in attendance this first term and nearly if not quite double that number will seek admission the coming year.

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 28.

E. J. Waggoner

-Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, famed as the author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," died on July 1, aged 85.

-Great rains in India have resulted in many landslips which have occasioned very serious damage to property and some loss of life.

-For the second time the Anglesey Quarter Sessions has had a blank calendar. A similar condition characterised last summer's assizes.

-Within the past few weeks very serious hail storms have occurred in Southern Russia; children have been killed and cattle injured by the hail-stones.

-As many as thirty journals are written, printed, and published in American prisons, by the inmates. One, the Ohio Penitentiary News, has a circulation of 2,500.

-Preparations are being made to send 40,000 men from Spain to Cuba for the prosecution of the Cuban war. Twenty steamers will be used in the transportation of the troops.

-The Queen of Portugal, the most beautiful crowned head in Europe, has taken Rontged photographs of the waist of her Court ladies to demonstrate the evils of tight lacing.

-Following the loss of the Cape liner a few weeks ago, two other steamers have just been lost. One in the Red Sea went down with sixty souls, and a Japanese steamer sunk with 178 on board.

-An American publisher has brought out a Bible for the coloured people in which all the angels are represented as negroes. The coloured people are buying up the Bibles as fast as they can get them.

-In 1874 the exports of British and Irish produce to the British possessions were, exclusive of India, worth ?48,000,000. They ran up to ?52,000,000 in 1889, but in 1894 they had fallen to 244,000,000.

-It is said that a physician has collected the details of over seven hundred eases of burial while in a condition of trance or catalepsy. The same physician has written a book contemning suggestions for the prevention of such tragedies.

-An orange-coloured shirt has been strongly recommended for tropical wear by a Royal Engineer in India, who declares that he fell frequently ill after duty in the sun until he treated himself as a photographic sensitive plate and surrounded his body with yellow light.

-Hot water is to be supplied in the streets of Liverpool on the penny-in-the-slot principle at a halfpenny a gallon. The heating agency is fitted to a street lamp. When a halfpenny is passed in a flash-jet lights the lamp, and the water in a copper coil is instantly heated to 194 degrees.

-A telegram from Shanghai states that disorders continue to prevail in different parts of the Chinese empire, and that the Mussulman insurrection is the Kansu province is assuming more and more grave proportions, while the secret societies are again exciting the people against Europeans. Famine and the plague are raging in the southern provinces.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 28.

E. J. Waggoner

During the thirty years of his work for the children, Dr. Barnardo's Homes have received from 30,000 to 40,000 waifs from the streets and desolated homes.

The question of Sunday rest for the Paris Exhibition of 1900 has been before the French Government, with the result that the authorities have refused to name Sunday as a day of compulsory rest.

Complaint is often made of the increase of the School Board rate for London. But the amount spent on schools is trifling compared with London's drink bill. The schools cost about two and a half millions yearly, while the amount spent for drink is twenty millions.

Our friends who are engaged in medical missionary work in Samoa find so much to do that increased facilities are necessary to care for those who ask help. A site has been purchased for a sanatorium, the work on which is already under way, we understand.

An old soldier, who is now a Christian, said to the writer a few days ago, that the chaplain in the army made him an infidel. The spectacle of a man professing to represent the religion of Jesus Christ actively participating in, and encouraging war is enough to make infidels of those soldiers who have any perception of the difference between spiritual and carnal things.

Speaking of the thousands of troops everwhere about Moscow, guarding the Czar and others during the coronation, the superintendent of our Society's work in Russia writes:-

Laws of iron may conquer the world, but it is only where the gentle Spirit of God conquers the heart and plants the law of love, that none need to fear. We are glad of the blessed hope, and that soon will take place the coronation of Him who alone is worthy to rule the world, and whose kingdom is one of everlasting peace and righteousness. May it soon come!

Contrasting military with missionary methods of dealing with uncultured tribes the Christian World says: "As pioneer in a world then unknown, David Livingstone set as a splendid, an heroic, an apostolic, a Christ-like example. Trusting solely to the fascination exercised over humanity, even its lowest social phases, by a true reflection of the image of Christ, not in word only but in life, he ranged from shore to shore of the Dark Continent, solitary but supreme by the grace of God."

One of the objects of the Theosophical Society, as stated in a meeting lately held in New York City, is "to discover the psychic powers latent in man."

For the purpose of such a discovery how would it do to undertake a thorough study of the Bible? All earnest investigators should desire facts rather than theories. The Bible contains the only perfectly reliable record of these facts. This textbook is no doubt within reach of all these Theosophists. Let them hasten, then, to avail themselves of the information it contains.

The name does not determine the character of anything, nor does a change of name change the nature. If, therefore, the only thing preventing corporate reunion between Rome and the larger body of the Church of England clergy is the recognition of Anglican "orders," it is evident that, so far as doctrine is concerned, there is practical agreement. The other is only a technical question, which would be no practical barrier whatever if it were not for State establishment. However it turns now, we may expect to have the Roman faith taught in the future as it has been in the past, in thousands of Church of England pulpits. What it is called makes no difference.

The statistics of crime in Germany develop a very surprising fact, namely, that there is one-fifth less crime in proportion to population among the Jews than among the people of Germany at large: and also that as crime increases with increasing population the increment is three times greater among the people at large than in the Jewish section. Such facts as these should cause the Jew-baiter to stop and think.

Dr. Cheyne, the late Physician-General of the Death Rate, once made the following statement: "The information of twenty years has convinced me that were ten young men on their twenty-first birthday to begin to drink one glass (equal to two ounces) of ardent spirits or a pint of port wine or sherry, and were they to drink this supposed moderate quantity of strong liquor daily, the lives of eight out of ten would be abridged by twelve or fifteen years."

Dr. Laffin, a West African missionary, says that in Central Africa, during the last twenty-five years, 250,000 people have been taught to read the Bible in their own tongues, and that not "a missionary, with tact and discretion, and a knowledge of the people, can, if unarmed, travel almost anywhere he chooses, preaching the Gospel as he goes." His most dangerous ground is in the track of armed explorers and traders who are "opening" Africa to civilisation.

"What It Means" The Present Truth 12, 28.

E. J. Waggoner

What It Means .-The Chronicle, in commenting editorially upon the Pope's latest encyclical, says:-

What the Encyclical does mean is that the Anglicans now have fair warning of the terms on which absolute reunion, including common orders, common faith, common jurisdiction, can proceed. Reunion is simply another word for absorption in Rome. Those Anglicans therefore who are prepared, as we imagine some of them are prepared, to accept these terms, will not be deterred by the Pope's Encyclical. Nay, their action might even be hastened by it.

It remains to be seen what course those will now take who have interested themselves in this movement. However, it will be clear that all those who continue to agitate and favour it, are intelligently and intentionally working in the interest of the Roman Catholic Church, and with a view to merging the English Church with that body.

"'The Spirit Itself Maketh Intercession'" The Present Truth 12, 28.

E. J. Waggoner

"The Spirit Itself Maketh Intercession." -It may well send conviction to men's hearts to know that God searches the heart and knows every secret there. But God tells us this in order to encourage us-not to discourage, or to keep us away from Him. "The Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints." Rom. viii. 26, 27. God searches the heart only that sin may be discovered to us and put away, and the Holy Spirit follows the conviction of the sin by the Divine comfort of intercession in behalf of the sinner. It is a blessed thing that God knoweth the hearts.

July 16, 1896

"Job's Patience" The Present Truth 12, 29.

E. J. Waggoner

"Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job."

Yes; we all have heard of it. Job's patience has been proverbial for thirty centuries or more.

But we have heard of something else also. Indeed, we never should have heard of Job's patience if we had not heard of Job's trials.

Many who wish they had Job's patience forget how he got it. "Tribulation worketh patience." Rom. v. 3. When we pray for patience, let us remember what it is that works this Divine grace, and then we shall not be surprised if in answer to the prayer the trial comes which is to develop the grace in our souls.

Some are very apt to talk as though they would be examples of marvellous patience if it were not for the trials they have to endure. It is the trial that makes them hasty of temper and impatient. What a misreading of human experience! It is the trial that works the patience.

In the life of Jesus we have the Divine example of patience-the highest degree of patience brought out by the sorest trials that humanity ever bore. We are exhorted to "consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds." It is only by considering His patience that we can be patient.

It is important to remember this: that, as all the faith that we have is of Him-"the faith of Jesus,"-so all patience is His. And as His patience comes only by tribulation, it necessarily follows that He bears the trial every time one of His children is called upon to pass through tribulation. The suffering works that sweet grace of patience because Jesus Himself shares in the suffering, bears the infirmity, and His all-sufficient grace bestows upon the tried one His own patience.

Knowing this, we can heartily and joyfully "glory in tribulations also." We know then that they are not against us, but for us; that in this experience God is giving us patience, and Jesus is proving His fellowship with us in suffering. When Job suffered affliction, it was just as true that Jesus suffered with him and strengthened him to patiently endure, as it was that when Israel suffered in the wilderness, "In all their affliction He was afflicted." Those who hastily conclude that God suffered affliction to come to Job, and harshly left him to bare it alone, fail to see "the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy." Jas. v. 11. Job saw the end that the Lord had in view, and preserved his integrity, and received the gift of the patience of which all have heard.

"Four Hundred and Ninety Times!" The Present Truth 12, 29.

E. J. Waggoner

Peter came to the Lord and said: "How oft shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? till seven times?" And Christ's answer was-"Until seventy times seven," four hundred and ninety times. Peter asked this because he had in mind what Christ had just said in reference to the adjustment of differences between the brethren. The arbitration which the Lord then advised is the only

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proceedings at court to which the Lord ever gave His direct sanction. When this course is followed, and His advice taken throughout, He may be called upon to act as counsel.

But mark how different the whole affair is from a common proceeding at law. First it is necessary for the complainant to go alone to the one that has wronged him and with a kindly persuasion attempt to win him to do that which is right, that, if possible, he may gain his case without any publicity as to the facts whatever, and at the same time gain a friend and brother instead of making an enemy. But if this should not succeed, even then he is not to be summoned to appear and defend himself against the accusations made. No, the complainant with his one or two witnesses must go to find the culprit, and there, in such seclusion and privacy as he may desire, propose to hold their court of arbitration. The appeal is to the culprit-not to the court. But if this proves useless, then, and not till then, the matter is to be made public and the congregation informed. Then if he will not listen to this third and public appeal for a settlement,-what then? Take the matter to the civil or criminal court? No, "let him be"!

Remember this was not in the absence of a system of judicial procedure. Law courts were in existence, and their methods well developed. But Christ counselled no recourse to them. It was with this in his mind that Peter asked if he should forgive seven times,-and Christ answered, Four hundred and ninety times!

"Showing Their Treasures" The Present Truth 12, 29.

E. J. Waggoner

Showing Their Treasures .-Li Hung Chang, the greatest of the Chinese, is visiting the West for the first time. He is visiting the Powers called "Christian," and all are showing him the greatest treasures. The exhibits seem to be mostly of military and naval appliances, and he must have seen enough to convince him of the great skill of Western nations in manufacturing appliances for killing. Each Power evidently wants him to see enough to make him wish for so powerful an ally, or at least to hesitate uniting China to any combination which would bring these armaments upon his people. Whether the object is to woo or to terrify, it may be difficult for him to tell, but it is pitiful to see this aged statesmen, almost in his grave, visiting the West to see what the highest civilisation produces, and having his attention mostly concerned with the machinery and man?uvers of war. A military and naval journal urges that when he comes here he be given a view of the fleet of Great Britain in English waters, "as a counterpoise to any impression his previous experiences on the Continent have made on his mind." Who could blame him if he returned to China with the impression intensified which the Chinese already have formed from their contact with professedly Christian nations, that Christianity is not a religion of peace, but of brute force. But it will not be the fault of Christianity.

"'Despise Not One of These Little Ones'" The Present Truth 12, 29.

E. J. Waggoner

It was Christ Himself who said: "Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come: but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!" Matt. xviii. 7. We can look for no higher authority than this, and here the express statement is made that offences will come.

The line of thought is that of offences against little ones. In the preceding verse Christ declared that it were better for a man to have been drowned in the deep sea, with a millstone about his neck, than to have committed an offence against one of the little ones that believed in Him. And all this was said as the little child stood in the midst of them,-that little toddling boy whom Christ had called to Him, and had set there as a simple and unmistakable object lesson to enforce the reply He was about to make to those who had asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"

Such as that little child, He told them, would be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven,-and indeed they who were not such as that little one would not even enter there. And such was His love for those little ones, and for those who should humble themselves to be like them, that He identified Himself with them, and said: "Whoso shall receive one such little child in My name receiveth Me." Then he who commits an offence against one of these little ones with whom Christ so identified Himself commits an offence against Christ. And yet He said these offences would come,-and have they not? Indeed, how bitterly have Christ's little ones been misused! Just such little ones as those whom He took in His arms, and pressed to His heart, and said-"of such as the kingdom of heaven." How long has been the list of offences committed against them! How many men have rendered themselves subject to that denunciation-"woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!"

How little they thought that an angel of light stood before the Father in heaven, the guardian spirit of each of these little ones, and brought accusations of every offence committed. How little they recognised the fact that these very little ones in whom Adam's sin had sown the seeds of death, Christ came to save from that death, as the anxious, tender shepherd seeks the lost and helpless lambs in the mountains, and rejoices over it as it is found more than over the ninety and nine that were left in the fold,-it being His will that "not one of these little ones should perish."

"The Law and the Mediator" The Present Truth 12, 29.

E. J. Waggoner

The Law and the Mediator .-We are told that the law was ordained "in the hand of a Mediator." Gal. iii. 19. Who was the Mediator in whose hand the law was ordained?-"There is one God, and one Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus; who gave Himself a ransom for all." 1 Tim. ii. 5, 6. The law, therefore, was given from Sinai by Christ, who is and always was the manifestation of God to man. He is the Mediator, that is, the One through whom the things of God are brought to man. The righteousness of God is conveyed to men through Jesus Christ. The statement that the law was given in the hand of the Mediator, reminds us that where sin abounded grace did much more abound. The fact that the law was in the hand of a Mediator, at Sinai, shows us this: (1) That God did not mean that anyone should suppose that he must get the righteousness of the law by his own power, but only through Christ. (2) That the Gospel of Christ was displayed at Sinai as well as at Calvary. (3) That the righteousness of God which is revealed in the Gospel of Christ, is the identical righteousness that is described in the law as given from Sinai, without the alteration of a letter. The righteousness which we are to obtain in Christ is none other than that.

"True Learning" The Present Truth 12, 29.

E. J. Waggoner

True Learning .-The Psalmist has said: "The entrance of Thy words giveth light: it giveth understanding unto the simple." The words of the Lord are our wisdom, and theirs is the wisdom which shall not pass away. He who is learned in the Word of the Lord has gained that which will make him wise, not only for time but for all eternity. Such an one has indeed chosen the good thing which will never be taken from him. His is a learning which will survive all vicissitudes, and bring him well furnished to begin his studies in the Divine university of eternity.

"The Call of Abraham. The Promise of Victory" The Present Truth 12, 29.

E. J. Waggoner

We have noted the repetition of the promise, and the oath which confirmed it. But there is yet one very important feature of the promise which has not been specially noted. It is this: "And thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies." Gen. xxii. 17. This is worth most careful attention, for it presents the consummation of the Gospel.

Let it never be forgotten that "to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, and to seeds, as of many; but as of one, and to they seed, which is Christ." Gal. iii. 16. There is only one seed, and that is Christ; but "as many as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ," so that they are all one in Christ Jesus. And "if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Verse 29. The seed is Christ and those who are His, and it is nothing else. The Bible nowhere sets forth any other seed of Abraham. Therefore the promise to Abraham amounted to this: Christ, and those who are His-thy seed-shall possess the gate of their enemies.

By one man sin came into the world. The temptation came through Satan, the archenemy of Christ. Satan and his hosts are the enemies of Christ, and of everything that is like Christ. They are the enemies of all good, and of all men. "The enemy" that sowed the tares is the devil. The name "Satan" means adversary. "Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour." 1 Peter v. 8. The promise that Abraham's seed should possess the gate of his enemies, is the promise of victory over sin and Satan, through Jesus Christ.

This is shown by the words of Zacharias the priest, when he was filled with the Holy Ghost. He prophesied, saying, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for He hath visited and redeemed His people, and hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David; as He spake by the mouth of His holy prophets, which have been since the world began: that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant; the oath which He swear unto our father Abraham, that He would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life." Luke i. 68-75.

These words were spoken on the occasion of the birth of John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ. They are a direct reference to the promise and the oath which we are studying. They were prompted by the Holy Spirit. Therefore we are simply following the Spirit when we say that the promise of possession of the gate of our enemies means deliverance from the power of the hosts of Satan. When Christ sent out the twelve, He "gave them power and authority over all devils." Luke ix. 1. This power is to be with His church till the end of time, for Christ said, "These signs shall follow them that believe; in My name shall they cast out devils," etc. Mark xvi. 17. And again, "He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto My Father." John xiv. 12.

But death came by sin, and as Satan is the author of sin, so he has the power of death. A theology derived from heathenism may lead man to say that death is a friend; but every funeral train, and every bitter tear shed for the dead, proclaims that it is an enemy. The Bible so declares it, and tells of its destruction. Speaking of and to the brethren, it says:-

"For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order; Christ the first-fruits; afterwards they that are Christ's at His coming. Then cometh the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when He shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign, till he hath put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death." 1 Cor. xv. 22-26.

This tells us that the end is at the coming of the Lord, and that when that takes place all Christ's enemies will have been put under His feet, in accordance with the word of the Father to the Son, "Sit Thou at My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool." Ps. cx. 1. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. John in vision saw the dead small and great stand before God to be judged, at the last great day. Those whose names were not in the Lamb's book of life, were cast into the lake of fire. "And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death." "Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection; on such the second death hath no power." Rev. xx. 14, 6.

The promise, "Thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies," cannot be fulfilled except by victory over all enemies by all the seed. Christ has conquered; and we even now may give thanks to God, who "giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ;" but the battle is not yet over, even with us; there are very many who will be overcomers at last, who have not yet enrolled themselves under the Lord's banner; and some who are now His may turn from the faith. The promise therefore embraces nothing less than the completion of the work of the Gospel, and the resurrection of all the righteous-the children of Abraham-and the putting on of immortality, at the second coming of Christ.

"If ye are Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." But the possession of the Holy Spirit is the distinguishing characteristic of those who are Christ's. "Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." But whoever has the Spirit has the surety of the resurrection, for "if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you." Rom. viii. 11.

Thus we see that the hope of the promise

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made to Abraham was the resurrection of the dead, at the coming of the Lord. The hope of Christ's coming is the "blessed hope" that has cheered God's people since the days of Abraham, yea, even from the days of Adam. We often say that all the sacrifices pointed forward to Christ, and we almost as often fail to realise what is meant by that statement. It cannot mean that they pointed forward to the time when forgiveness of sins should be obtained, for all the patriarchs had that as much as anyone has had it since the crucifixion of Christ. Abel and Enoch are especially mentioned, among a multitude of others, as having been justified by faith. The cross of Christ was as real a thing in the days of Abraham as it possibly can be to any who live to-day.

What then is the real significance of the statement that all the sacrifices from Abel down to the time of Christ pointed to Christ? It is this: It is clear that they showed the death of Christ; that needs no second statement. But what is the death of Christ without the resurrection? Paul preached only Christ and Him crucified, yet he most vigorously preached "Jesus and the resurrection." To preach Christ crucified is to preach Christ risen. But the resurrection of Christ has in it the resurrection of all that are His. The well instructed and believing Jew, therefore, showed, by the sacrifices that he offered, his faith in the promise to Abraham, which should be fulfilled at the coming of the Lord. The flesh and blood of the victim represented the body and blood of Christ, just the same as the bread and the wine of the Lord's supper, by which we, even as they did, "show the Lord's death till He come."

"Prophesying Peace" The Present Truth 12, 29.

E. J. Waggoner

Prophesying Peace .-The Bible Echo, Melbourne, says: At the installation of Lord Brassey as "Most Worshipful Grand Master" of the Free Masons of Victoria, Chief Justice Way, of South Australia, who performed the ceremony, said:-

Standing on the floor of this Grand Lodge-breathing the serene atmosphere of brotherly love, undisturbed by "wars or rumours of wars"-we hold fast to the great principles of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, and confidently look forward to the golden age when our labours shall find their happy consummation "in the parliament of man, in the federation of the world;" when they shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks; when nation shall not lift up sword against nation; neither shall they learn war any more.

Thus many are looking for what will never come,-a "golden age" before the end of the world, a millennium of peace. They would better be preparing for the "time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation" (Dan. xii. 1), for that is what is coming. Thousands read the prophecy in Isaiah ii. and Micah iv. about swords and ploughshares so carelessly as to misread it altogether. This is what the people say; but God says exactly the opposite. See Joel iii. 9, 10. Thus Paul wrote, "When they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them." 1 Thess. v. iii. It is not peace, but war that awaits the world; not a golden age, but a time of trouble.

"Russian Creed vs Russian Practice" The Present Truth 12, 29.

E. J. Waggoner

There are some very interesting questions and replies in the Larger Catechism of the Russian or Eastern Church, prepared for the use of schools, and printed in Moscow under direction of the Holy Synod. It is put out, therefore, by the highest authority of the Greek Church.

On the Ten commandments it says:-

491. Did Jesus Christ teach men to walk by the Ten Commandments?

He bade men if they would attain to everlasting life to keep the commandments; and taught us to understand and fulfil them more perfectly than had been done before He came. Matt. xix. 17 and v.

This is very good. Now take what the Catechism says of the fourth commandment:-

536. Why is it commanded to keep the seventh, rather than any other day, holy to God?

Because God in six days made the world, and on the seventh day rested from the work of creation.

537. Is the Sabbath kept in the Christian Church?

It is not kept, strictly speaking, as a holy day; but still in memory of the creation of the world, and in a continuation of its original observance, it is distinguished from the other days of the week by a relaxation of the rule for fasting.

The ingenuousness of the replies is delightful. The commandment says, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." Yet in the Russian Church, as in others, it is not kept "strictly speaking." This practical disobedience of the commandment of the Lord is so evident that the Catechism anticipates the question that would surely come to the lips of the average schoolboy:-

538. How, then, does the Christian Church obey the fourth commandment?

A better question would be, "Why does it disobey, 'strictly speaking'?" Or "How can one keep the seventh day, when he doesn't keep it?" But here is the answer:-

She still to every six days keeps a seventh, only not the last of the seven days, which is the Sabbath, but the first day in every week, which is the day of the Resurrection, or Lord's day.

This, of course, begs the question entirely, as the Lord's day is the day which He claims as His-"My holy day"-which the Lord says is the seventh, nor does the Lord ask us to commemorate His resurrection by breaking His law, to sustain which, and yet save the sinner, He died and rose again.

HOW TO MEET WICKED LAWS

In a comment on the fifth commandment the Russian Catechism sets forth the true principle on which the Christian should act when governments or any other power comes between the soul and God. Would that the Russian authorities could practise the principle as well as they can profess it:-

572. How ought we to act, if it fall out that our parents or governors require of us anything contrary to the faith or to the law of God?

In that case we should say to them, as the apostles said to the rulers of the Jews. Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye; and we should be ready, for the sake of the faith and the law of God, to endure the consequences, whatever they may be. Acts iv. 19.

Excellent! And yet when our brethren in Russia follow the fourth commandment, or when Stundists and others refuse to obey those laws of the Greek Church and Russian State which come between God and man's service, the same "Holy Synod" is in no mood to listen to such a reply as they here give. But that is the reply they do get, and it is a good one. And the consequences follow-it may be banishment or it may be imprisonment.

"War and Warrior Ants" The Present Truth 12, 29.

E. J. Waggoner

It is often said that boyhood is cruel. Perhaps it is so,-but if it is so why is it? It is because boyhood is thoughtless. Personal experience has not yet developed sympathy for the sufferings of others. But if this is true, tender thoughtfulness should increase with age and mental development. All human beings should be humane. Those human beings who are not humane but inhuman, are, as shown by common consent expressed in the formation of speech, by just so much lacking in the development of their manhood and womanhood.

It is animal nature to fight. Yet not all animals delight in cruelty and deeds of blood. Only the carnivorous creatures, birds and beasts of prey, seem to delight in causing suffering, and kill for the sake of killing. However, all animated nature seems to share in the desire for conquest. The pugnacious little sparrows will sometimes fight with such ferocity that they apparently become almost oblivious to their surroundings, and flutter and tussle and roll about the lawn or the dusty street like furious little game-cocks.

Even those models of insect life, the industrious ant and the busy bee, are filled with the spirit of conquest and organise their wars with a skill and ability equal to that which they show in their industrial pursuits. An interested observer of nature has given us this vivid and circumstantial account of a battle which he witnessed:-

"One day when I went to my wood-pile I observed two large ants, the one red, the other much larger, nearly half an inch long, and black, fiercely contending with one another. Having once got hold

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they never let go, but struggled and wrestled and rolled on the chips incessantly. Looking farther I was surprised to find that the chips were covered with such combatants, that it was not a duel but a war, a war between two races of ants, the red always pitted against the black, and frequently two red ones to one black. It was evident that their battle cry was-Conquer or die.

In the meanwhile there came along a single red ant on the hillside of this valley, evidently full of excitement, who had either despatched his foe, or had not yet taken part in the battle; probably the latter, for he had lost none of his limbs; whose mother had charged him to return with his shield or upon it. He saw this unequal combat from afar off,-for the blacks were nearly twice the size of the reds,-he drew near with rapid pace till he stood on his guard within half an inch of the combatants; then, watching his opportunity, he sprang upon the black warrior, and commenced his operations near the root of his right foreleg, leaving the foe to select among his own members. I should not have wondered by this time to find that they had their respective musical bands stationed on some eminent chip, and playing their national airs the while, to excite the slow and cheer the dying combatants.

"I took up the chip on which the three I have particularly described were struggling, carried them into my house, and placed it under a tumbler on my window-sill, in order to see the issue. Holding a microscope to the first-mentioned red ant, I saw that, though he was assiduously gnawing at the foreleg of his enemy, having severed his remaining feeler, his own breast was all torn away, exposing what vitals he had there to the jaws of the black warrior, whose breast-plate was apparently too thick for him to pierce; and the dark carbuncles of the sufferer's eyes shone with ferocity such as war only could excite. They struggled half an hour longer under the tumbler, and when I looked again the black soldier had severed the heads of his foes from their bodies, and they were hanging on either side of him, like ghastly trophies at his saddle-bow, still apparently as firmly fastened as ever, and he was endeavouring with feeble struggles, being without feelers and with only the remnant of a leg, and I know not how many other wounds, to divest himself of them; which at length, after half an hour more, he accomplished. I raised the glass, and he went off the window-sill in that crippled state. I never learned which party was victorious, nor the cause of the war; but I felt for the rest of the day as if I had had my feelings excited and harrowed by witnessing the struggle, the ferocity and carnage, of a human battle before my door."

Were it not that this description was written many years ago, one might almost think the writer had in mind to give an allegorical account of a battle in a race war in Africa. However, had that been so he could have no doubt as to which party was eventually victorious, although he would very likely have been just as uncertain as to the cause of the war.

What is the state of human development when mature men and civilised nations emulate the beasts of prey, the fighting sparrows, and the warrior ants, in their deed; of violence and wars of conquest? Emulate them indeed! Yes, far exceed them. But, if it be acknowledged that boyhood is thoughtlessly and ignorantly cruel, then are we still in the boyhood of mankind? No, that excuse will not hold good,-for the most ancient peoples are among the most cruel and blood-thirsty. The terrible cruelties which have recently been perpetrated in the East have been the work of those same Medes of whom Isaiah said that they should dash the young men to pieces and should not spare children. Isa. xiii. 16, 17. No, it is not youth,-it is not thoughtlessness,-it is not ignorance,-the world is growing old in lust and murder, and cruelty and crime. Brilliant uniforms, and martial music, and scientific appliances for slaughter do not Christianise warfare, or make it possible for Christian men to take part in it. "Thou shalt not kill," applies just as much to him who carries a sword and wears a uniform as it did to Cain who was clad in a sheepskin and used a club.

"God's Choice" The Present Truth 12, 29.

E. J. Waggoner

God knows where we can do the most good better than we do. Hence it is well for us to realise that we are just where we ought to be when we are in the place where God has set us. "If each drop of rain chose where it should fall," says Charles Kingsley, "God's showers would not fall, as they do now, on the evil and the good alike." So it is that the world is benefited by God's choosing the place for His individual workers in the world.

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 29.

E. J. Waggoner

-The Dutch are still fighting in their East Indies possessions.

-During the year ending 1895, Russia increased its national deist by ?48,000,000.

-Another disaster has visited Japan, thousands of houses being destroyed by floods.

-Cyprus had a continuous series of earthquake shocks last week, alarming the people and interfering with business.

-It is reported that 60,000 Kurds in the Diarbekir district of Turkey have revolted, and are pillaging the districts indiscriminately.

-The average wealth per head of the population of all countries shows that England comes first, France second, and the United States third.

-The Queen does not now walk about her own residences, and will be wheeled into the chapel at Buckingham Palace on the occasion of the royal marriage. She never moves without her stick.

-Postal returns show that the average number of letters per head written in England in a year is 60. Other countries are, France, 89; Switzerland, 74; United States, 110; Germany, 40; Italy, 16.

-The Premier of New Zealand has introduced a Bill to pension every one above sixty-five after twenty years' residence in New Zealand, the maximum amount to be 10s. weekly and the minimum 5s.

-In 1874 there were 3,630,300 acres of land devoted to the growing of wheat in Great Britain and 183,711 sores in Ireland. In 1895 only 1.417,614 acres were thus cultivated in Great Britain and 36,529 acres in Ireland.

-China's national debt now amounts to ?40,000,000, and it is said that additional taxation will be necessary to secure revenues. Meanwhile, the insurrection that started last year in the western provinces still continues, and the national troops are said to be powerless to put it down.

-The skilled labourer in Japan gets from five. pence to eightpence a day, and it is said his living expenses are about three-halfpence a day. Such conditions are being combined with modern machinery, and observers say that Japan will compete with Manchester on very favourable terms in a short time.

-It is now hoped that the Cretan insurrection will be shortly settled by uniforms allowed by the Turkish Government. The Mohammedan population has had more loss than the "Christian" in this insurrection, as the latter are in overwhelming majority in the island, and understand well the use of sword and torch.

-The latest reports from South Africa are to the effect that nearly all the Mashonas have joined the Matabele in their efforts to out the whites from Rhodesia. Earl Gray, the Administrator of the Chartered Company predicts a speedy end of the war, and thinks they will be able to afford the natives "a larger measure of protection against such ill-treatment as he in afraid they have suffered from in the past, and which, he is informed, has been not the least potent of the causes of the present rebellion."

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 29.

E. J. Waggoner

Considerable discussion is going on over the Border concerning the increase of Ritualism in the Church of Scotland.

In planning for a holiday be sure to make recreation what it should be-re-creation. Too often it is far from being this.

"People talk of the sacrifice I have made," said Livingstone, "in spending so much of my life in Africa. Say, rather, it is a privilege. I never made a sacrifice."

It speaks well of the Russian Stundists that in some parts of the country who refuse the national peasant drink, "vodka," is to bring upon one the charge of being a Stundist. Stundism has so far been a Bible reform movement, and temperance always follows the reception of the Word.

Almost any pugnacious beast will fight for his rights. Any vigorous heathen will do so. But it takes a Christian, following Christ's example, to give up his rights without bitterness of feeling. The Father's right to His service was the right which Christ maintained, and that is the only right which the Christian cannot relinquish.

Vienna has the reputation of being one of the gayest cities in Europe, and it is entirely in keeping with this reputation that it furnishes about the highest rate of suicides. The report for the first half of this year shows that 200 suicides occurred in the city. The more empty gaiety and pleasure-seeking, the greater is the disgust with life.

"Two Free Prisoners" The Present Truth 12, 29.

E. J. Waggoner

Two Free Prisoners .-There were two free men, once, who were in prison, in Macedonia. We do not know that there were any others in the city so free. They had their feet fast in the stocks, and their backs had been scourged. But they were so free that they could not contain themselves, and they sang songs in the night. Their liberty was religious liberty, a freedom which was theirs even with their bodies in stocks and in prison. And the Lord showed them they were his freedmen also by sending an earthquake and loosening their bonds. But they were no more religiously free after than before. They had religious liberty. They lived amongst an oppressive people, and under pagan and anti-Christian laws, but that did not hinder them from rejoicing in the liberty with which Christ makes men free. What a freedom that was! So free the prison walls could not take away their freedom. That is a freedom greater than can be guaranteed by any government on earth. They were so free that the prison couldn't contain them.

"No Place for Christians" The Present Truth 12, 29.

E. J. Waggoner

No Place for Christians .-The theatre has always been a pronounced agent of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and it is to be doubted if ever it was more so than at the present time. It may have been coarser, but not more insidiously evil. One has only to note the scheme of the plays in newspaper announcements, or to see flaming posters, to see that they are so inane and void that they are kept up only by the suggestiveness of passion and intrigue, or of shallow folly which amuses empty minds. At a time when there is a distinct effort being made to introduce a flavour of religious feeling into some plays, it is well to remember that it takes something besides the faint flavour of imitation rosewater to cleanse a sewer.

"Raising Church Funds" The Present Truth 12, 29.

E. J. Waggoner

Raising Church Funds .-Speaking at the annual meeting of the East London Church Fund last week, Lord Salisbury rebuked the scandalous methods resorted to nowadays to get people to give. They were taught, he said, that they must eat a bad dinner, or attend a ball or garden party before they could be charitable.

So it goes. There must always be some secondary machinery. The largest effort a Christian makes he makes in response to an organisation, by which he is invited to purchase worthless articles at ridiculous prices.

He could not help thinking that there was something wrong in the state of Christian feeling amongst the laity which makes these strange devices necessary. He even felt his own presence there was a reflection on the power which their Bishop ought to exercise without any assistance. It was a strange contrast to what happened in the earlier days of Christianity. When they read of what happened when Paul exhorted the Corinthians to send relief to their suffering fellow-Christians in Jerusalem, they did not read that it was found necessary to have a bazaar, or a public dinner, or even a public meeting with a Roman magistrate to make a speech.

Lord Salisbury's speech is a crushing rebuke of that spirit which is so rampant. When people refuse to give of their means to the Lord's work it is not entertaining that they need, but converting. It ought to make the organisers of these devices pause and think when the Premier and statesman is forced to rebuke this resort to worldly methods of money-getting. Statesmen have also to pass laws to keep some of these same elements from establishing lotteries and gambling for church purposes, and even then we now and then read of raffles at church bazaars patronised by the highest in the land. Let all keep separate from these things. If a man believes the truth he will freely give to send it on to others. If he does not believe it the Lord does not need his funds.

"Clericalism in Politics" The Present Truth 12, 29.

E. J. Waggoner

Clericalism in Politics .-Austria has lately been passing some new laws to prevent the interference of the clerical power in politics. The clergy have used their position as priests and confessors to terrify or influence its voters to keep things in the hands of partisans of the church party. So far have they gone that in an intensely Roman Catholic country like Austria the people are driven in self-defence to legislate to keep priestcraft out of politics. In the recent Canadian elections, also, the priests issued a manifesto ordering Catholics to vote for certain candidates. The result, however, was that their arrogance was resented and some Catholic secular organs plainly told the priests to attend to religion and give a free hand in politics to the people. What a spectacle when the world has to defend itself against the schemes of those whose profession is to be ministers of another kingdom, not of this world.

"The Prayer of Faith" The Present Truth 12, 29.

E. J. Waggoner

The Prayer of Faith .-Christ's words in regard to the answer to prayer are unequivocal. In one place he says: "If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father which is in heaven." There is no mistaking the plain language of the statement. To him who believes, then, all things that are worthy to be accomplished our possible,-for wherever two agree, in asking, their prayer of faith will be effectual. Then what remains is to believe, have faith, and pray. "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth." Mark ix. 23. "Have faith in God. . . . What things soever ye desire, when ye pray believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." Mark xi. 23, 24.

July 23, 1896

"The Promises to Israel. A General View" The Present Truth 12, 30.

E. J. Waggoner

"By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised. Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them and embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly; wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He hath prepared for them a city." Heb. xi. 8-16.

ALL HEIRS

The first thing that we note in this scripture is that all these were heirs. We have already learned that Abraham himself was to be no more than an heir in his lifetime, because he was to die before His seed returned from captivity. But Isaac and Jacob, his immediate descendants, were likewise heirs. The children were heirs with their father of the same promised inheritance.

Not only this, but there sprang from Abraham "so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea-shore innumerable." These were also heirs of the same promise, for these also "all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." Mark this, the vast host of Abraham's descendants "died in faith, not having received the promises." Note that it says "promises." It was not simply a part that they did not receive, but the whole. All the promises are in Christ only, who is the seed, and they could not be fulfilled to those who are His before they are to Him; and even He yet waits for His foes to be made His footstool.

In harmony with these words, that they died in faith, not having received the promises, but confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth, we have the words of King David hundreds of years after the deliverance from Egypt, "I am a stranger with Thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were." Ps. xxxix. 12. And when at the height of his power he delivered the kingdom to his son Solomon, in the presence of all the people, he said, "For we are strangers before Thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers; our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding." 1 Chron. xxix. 15.

The reason why this innumerable company did not receive the promised inheritance, is stated in these words: "God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect." The further particulars will be considered when we come to their times.

A CITY AND COUNTRY

Abraham looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. The city with foundations is thus described in Rev. xxi. 10-14, 19:-"And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great

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and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God; and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; and had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon; which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel; on the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb." "And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones."

That is a partial description of the city for which Abraham looked. His descendants also looked for the same city, for we read descriptions of it in the ancient prophets. They might have had a home on this earth, if they had desired. The land of the Chaldees was as fertile as the land of Palestine, and it would have sufficed for a temporal home for them as well as any other land. But neither one would satisfy them, for "now they desire a better country, that is an heavenly; wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He hath prepared for them a city."

This scripture kept in mind will guide us in all our subsequent study of the children of Israel. The true children of Abraham never looked for the fulfillment of the promise on this present earth, but in the earth made new.

ISAAC AN ILLUSTRATION

This desire for a heavenly country made the true heirs very easy to get along with in temporal affairs, as is illustrated in the life of Isaac. He went to sojourn in the land of the Philistines, and sowed in that land, "and received in the same year an hundredfold; and the Lord blessed him. And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great; for he had possession of flocks, and possession of herds, and great store of servants; and the Philistines envied him. . . . And Abimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us; for thou art much mightier than we. And Isaac departed thence, and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there." Gen. xxvi. 12-17.

Although Isaac was mightier than the people in whose land he dwelt, he went from them at their request, even when he was prospering abundantly. He would not strive for the possession of an earthly estate.

The same spirit was manifested after he went to dwell in Gerar. The servants of Isaac dug anew the wells that had belonged to Abraham, and also dug in the valley and found living water. But the herdmen of Gerar strove with them, saying, "The water is ours." So they went and dug another well; but the herdmen of Gerar claimed that also. "And he removed from thence, and digged another well; and for that they strove not; and he called the name of it Rehoboth; and he said, For now the Lord hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land." Gen. xxvi. 18-22.

"And the Lord appeared to him the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father; fear not for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for My servant Abraham's sake. And he builded an altar there, and called upon the name of the Lord, and pitched his tent there." Verses 24, 25.

Isaac had the promise of a better country, that is, an heavenly, and therefore he would not strive for the possession of a few square miles of land on this sin-cursed earth. Why should he? It was not the inheritance that the Lord had promised him; and why should he fight for a part in the land wherein he was only a so-journer? True, he had to live, but he allowed the Lord to manage that for him. When driven from one place, he went to another, until at last he found quiet, and then he said, "The Lord hath made room for us." In this he showed the true spirit of Christ, "who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, He threatened not; but committed Himself (His cause) to Him that judgeth righteously." 1 Peter ii. 23.

In this we have an example. If we are Christ's, then are we Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. Therefore we shall follow the precepts of Christ. Here is one: "I say unto you, That ye resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right check, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law,⁷1 and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also" (Matt. v. 39, 40), are thought by many professed Christians to be fanciful, and altogether impractical. But they are designed for daily use. Christ practiced them, and we have an example in the case of Isaac.

"But we should lose everything that we have in the world, if we should do as the text says," we hear it said. Well, even then we should be in no worse circumstances than Christ the Lord was here on earth. But we are to remember that "your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things." He who cares for the sparrows, is able to care for those who commit their case to Him. We see that Isaac was prospered even though he did not "fight for his rights." The promise which was made to the fathers is also made to us, by very same God. "When they were but a few men in number; yea, very few, and strangers" in the land; "when they went from one nation to another, and from one kingdom to another people, He suffered no man to do them wrong; yea, He reproved kings for their sakes; saying, Touch not Mine anointed and do My prophets no harm." Ps. cv. 12-15. That same God still cares for those who put their trust in Him.

The inheritance which the Lord has promised to His people, the seed of Abraham, is not to be obtained by fighting, except with spiritual weapons-the armour of Christ-against the hosts of Satan. They who seek the country which God has promised, declare that they are strangers and pilgrims on this earth. They cannot use the sword, even in self-defence, much less for conquest. The Lord is their defender. He says: "Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green." Jer. xvii. 5-8. He has not promised that all our wrongs shall be righted at once, or even in this life; but He doth not forget the cry of the poor, and He has said, "Vengeance is Mine; I will repay." Rom. xii. 19. "Therefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to Him in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator." 1 Peter iv. 19. We

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may do this in full confidence that "the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and the right of the poor." Ps. cxl. 12.

ESAU'S INFIDELITY

The case of Esau furnishes another incidental proof that the inheritance promised to Abraham and his seed was not a temporal one, to be enjoyed in this life, but eternal, to be shared in the life to come. The story is told in these words:-

"And Jacob sod pottage; and Esau came from the field, and he was faint: and Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint; therefore was his name called Edom. And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright. And Esau said, Behold I am at the point to die; and what profit shall this birthright do me? And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he swear unto him; and he sold his birthright unto Jacob. Then Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentiles; and he did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way; thus Esau despised his birthright." Gen. xxv. 29-34.

In the Epistle to the Hebrews Esau is called a "profane person," because he sold his birthright. This shows that there was something besides mere foolishness in the transaction. One would say that it was childish to sell a birthright for a meal of victuals; but it was worse than childish; it was wicked. It showed that he was an infidel, feeling nothing but contempt for the promise of God to his father.

Notice these words of Esau's, when Jacob asked him to sell his birthright: "Behold, I am at the point to die; and what profit shall this birthright do me?" He had no hope beyond this present life, and looked no further. He did not feel sure of anything that he did not actually possess in this present time. No doubt he was very hungry. It is probable that he felt as if he were really at the point of death; but even the prospect of death made no difference with Abraham and many others. They died in faith, not having received the promises, but were persuaded of them, and embraced them. Esau, however, had no such faith. He had no belief in an inheritance beyond the grave. Whatever he was to have he wanted now. Thus it was that he sold his birthright.

The course of Jacob is not by any means to be commended. He acted the part of a supplanter, which was his natural disposition. His case is an illustration of a crude unintelligent faith. He believed that there was something to the promise of God, and he respected his father's faith, although as yet he really possessed none of it. He believed that the inheritance promised to the fathers would be bestowed, but he had so little spiritual knowledge that he supposed the gift of God might be purchased with money. We know that even Abraham thought at one time that he himself must fulfill the promise of God. So Jacob doubtless thought, as many do still, that "God helps those who help themselves." Afterwards he learned better, and was truly converted, and exercised as sincere faith as Abraham and Isaac. His case should be an encouragement to us, in that it shows what God can do with one who has a very unlovely disposition, provided he yields to Him.

The case of Esau is set thus forth before us as a warning:-

"Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord; looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected; for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears." Heb. xii. 14-17.

Esau was not the only foolish and profane person there has been in the world. Thousands have done the same thing that he did, even while blaming him for his folly. The Lord has called us all to share the glory of the inheritance which he promised to Abraham. By the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead He has begotten us again to a living hope, "to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." 1 Peter i. 3-5. This inheritance of righteousness we are to have through the obedience of faith-obedience to God's holy law, the ten commandments. But when men learn that it requires the observance of the seventh day, the Sabbath kept by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all Israel, they shake their heads. "No," say they, "I cannot do that; I should like to, and I see that it is a duty; but if I should keep it I could not make a living. I should be thrown out of employment, and should starve together with my family."

That is just the way Esau reasoned. He was about to starve, or, at least, he thought that he was, and so he deliberately parted with his birthright for something to eat. But most men do not even wait until they are apparently at the point of death, before they sell their right to the inheritance for something to eat. They imagine dangers that do not exist. Men do not starve to death for serving the Lord. We are entirely dependent upon Him for our life under all circumstances, and if He keeps us when we are trampling on His law, He surely is as able to keep us when we are serving Him. The Saviour says that to worry over the future, fearing lest we should starve, is a characteristic of heathenism, and gives us this positive assurance, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." Matt. vi. 21-33. The Psalmist says, "I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread." Even though we should lose our lives for the sake of the truth of God, we should be in good company. See Heb. xi. 32-38. Let us beware of so lightly esteeming the rich promises of God that we shall part with an eternal inheritance for a morsel of bread, and when it is too late find that there is no place for repentance.

"My Father is rich in houses and lands,
He holdeth the wealth of the world in His hands;
Of rubies and diamonds, of silver and gold,
His coffers are full-He has riches untold.

"I'm the child of a King, the child of a King;
With Jesus, my Saviour, I'm the child of a King.

"My Father's own Son, the Saviour of men,
Once wandered o'er earth as the poorest of them;
But now He is reigning for ever on high,
And will give me a home in heaven by and by.

"I once was an outcast stranger on earth,
A sinner by choice, and an alien by birth;
But I've been adopted, my name's written down-
An heir to a mansion, robe, and a crown.

"A tent or a cottage, why should I care?
They're building a palace for me over there!
Though exiled from home, yet still I may sing,
All glory to God, I'm the child of a King!"

"Borrowed from Paganism" The Present Truth 12, 30.

E. J. Waggoner

Borrowed from Paganism .-In the Month, a Catholic magazine, a writer says: "No intelligent student of antiquity, Catholic or non-Catholic, would never hesitate to avow that many Christian ceremonies and observances have had their origin in pagan customs. We say ceremonies and observances, because such things do not touch in

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the least the essence of the Christian faith. It is one thing to admit that the Christians borrowed the liturgical use of incense and flowers, let us say, from the ideas of the pagan world in which they lived, and quite another to assert that they derived the doctrine of the blessed Eucharist, which is the foundation-stone of all Catholic worship, from some vague folk tradition about African priests and the corn spirit. How far this influence of paganism upon Christian ritual extended is a very obscure and difficult question, much too intricate to be treated here. But there are few facts for which such abundant evidence is forthcoming as the almost universal prevalence of the cross symbol in pre-Christian ages." Notwithstanding the writer's reservation, it is perfectly plain that the mysteries of the mass in Catholic doctrine are also borrowed from the ancient mysteries, associated with the sensuous sun-worship of the East.

"Forgive Us Our Debts" The Present Truth 12, 30.

E. J. Waggoner

One million eight hundred and seventy-five thousand pounds is a large sum,-and yet that is the amount owed by the servant who was called upon for his accounting in our Lord's parable in the latter part of the eighteenth chapter of Matthew. Suspicion must attach to such an enormous arrearage. Either there was dishonesty in his transactions or at least extreme negligence and unfaithfulness. The discrepancy in his accounts was so great that not even the sale of all his property, and of himself and family into slavery, could suffice to return to his master anything more than a small moiety of the great sum he owed.

Yet when, at last, in hopeless contrition, he pleaded in anguish at the feet of his master, he was forgiven. The immense debt he owed was freely and entirely forgiven him. The account was balanced. It was hopeless that it could ever be expected that he could repay it, indeed that was impossible. He was not asked to repay it. He went out a free man, relieved of any necessity of ever paying his debt, and still in possession of the property which he had acquired and retained,-went out a free man to wife and children at home which he had forfeited and but for the gracious mercy of his master had lost beyond the possibility of recovery.

Yet notwithstanding this, almost immediately, apparently, as he went out from the presence of his master, he met with his fellow-servant who owed him but little more than three pounds, and, treating him with personal violence, refused to listen to his appeals for merciful extension of time in which to pay his debt, and cast him into the debtor's prison to remain there until payment should be made. This was in strong contrast to the treatment which he had received from the Lord. And how insignificant was the sum which is fellow-servant owed him, compared with the amount in which he was indebted,-nearly two millions of pounds as against a little more than three pounds!

No wonder his fellow-servants were sorry and came and told what he had done. No doubt they concurred in the justice of the punishment which then fell upon him. So, unquestionably, at the last day will all agree as to the justice of the penalties which will be meted out when the last words of this parable shall be fulfilled. "So likewise shall My Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses." Will that not be just? Who can say it will not, when they remember the words of the daily prayer,-"Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors"!

"When There Will Be No More War" The Present Truth 12, 30.

E. J. Waggoner

The futility of the hope of universal peace, or any assurance of continued peace between the more civilised and enlightened nations even, to be secured by arbitration, is well shown by an article in the Atlantic Review, on the limits of arbitration, which is now being referred to and quoted by the reviewers. The writer of this article concludes that,-

It cannot be expected that any controversy whatever which involves national honour will be submitted to arbitration by any nation capable of self-vindication. The same consideration will likewise prevent the reference to such a tribunal of any dispute involving the integrity of the territory of a nation, which has been occupied by its subjects under a claim of right for any considerable period of time on the faith of their country's protection. And finally, it is obvious that in no case whatever can that remedy be successfully proposed, where popular feeling on one side or the other has reached fighting heat, and has passed beyond the control of representative government. A casual review of the wars that have occurred in modern times between countries so governed, and of the conditions that preceded them, will show how utterly futile in such emergencies would have been, or would be likely to be hereafter, the attempt at the lingering and uncertain process of submitting the quarrel that had set men's minds on fire to the decision of foreign jurists. It will probably be apparent, therefore, to those who will reflect upon these suggestions, that it is a mistake to suppose that international arbitration can ever become, as has been fondly hoped, a substitute for war. On no such artificial and cumbrous contrivance can peace on earth and good will among men be made to depend. These reside in the temper of nations, not in the decision of courts.

This is unquestionably a sure result of the logic of nations. While human nature remains as it is no permanent and universal substitute for the trial by battle will ever be found. The character of a nation cannot rise above the characteristics of those who constitute that nation. So long as men are selfish, violent, and headstong, governments will possess and show the same traits. Indeed the only necessity for civil government arises out of these very facts, and when the time comes that there will be no more war and no fear of war for evermore, then there will be no need of human government, and there will be none, but His kingdom will have come.

"The Rising Tide of Sunday Legislation" The Present Truth 12, 30.

E. J. Waggoner

One of the most noteworthy signs of the times is the sudden springing up within a few years of a world-wide movement for securing stricter Sunday laws. In countries widely separated from one another, having no direct contact or mutual agreement in the matter, the same tendency is seen, showing that behind it all there is one mind, and that the governments and people are merely agents through which that mind or power works.

What power is it? There are only two sources of power by which work is done in the world-God, working in the interests of His kingdom, and Satan, in the interests of his. Whenever we find the powers of this world seeking to enforce religious observances it need not take long to decide which power is moving. "The Gospel is the power of God," said Paul, and the kingdom of God is advanced by the preaching of the Word. The only power that the enemy of God can use is the power of which he obtained possession when he enticed men to join his rebellion-the power which the elements of earth afford him. The "god of this world" has always used the powers of this world in his fight against the truth. Having come down in great wrath, "because he knoweth that he hath but a short time" (Rev. xii. 12), it is not strange that all the governments of this world are being constrained at this time to specially legislate along lines which make void the commandments of God. The Sunday law strikes straight at the Sabbath of the Lord, which is the sign of God's power, and it is against that power

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that Satan has been warring ever since the creation of the world and of man.

The following summary, clipped from a contemporary, shows the progress the Sunday-law crusade is making on the Continent:-

"The International Federation of Lord's Day Societies has made a report as to work done in the year. Among the items of interest are the following: In France the Paris League for Sunday Rest has enrolled over 4,000 members. Many shops are closed on Sunday, including the great Magazin de Louvre. In the army Sunday is a day of rest, and contractors are not now obliged to work on that day. In Lyons there are more than 1,000 shops and stores closed entirely on Sunday. A commission has been sent to England from Germany to inquire into the laws applying the Sunday labour in factories and workshops. There has been a marked advance also in Austria, owing to an enactment in December, 1895, that on Sunday all work, industrial and commercial, shall cease, except such as is absolutely necessary. In Switzerland Sunday laws have been passed in nearly all the cantons. The post and telegraphic service are reduced one-half. No goods trains are run, and the goods depots are closed. Each employÈ on railways, steamboats, street road-cars, and the post office is allowed fifty-two days of rest, and seventeen of these must be on Sundays.

"In Belgium, on account of the anti-religious feeling, the Sunday as a day of rest is not named in the law which guarantees one rest day in each week for women and children; but in practice it is thus observed to a very great degree, and in many departments of labour Sunday work has been reduced. In Holland there are no Sunday newspapers, the railway traffic is reduced, and Sunday hours of rest are given to public servants, though a whole day on each Sunday is an exception, not the rule. In Denmark shops are closed at 9:00 A.M., and also factories, except where work is essential. In such cases the employÈs alternate Sundays. In Norway and Sweden factories and workshops close on Sundays, and no intoxicating liquors are sold from 5 o'clock Saturday afternoon until 8 o'clock Monday morning. There is not even bread-making on Sunday, and street railways are closed until afternoon. In the cities there is only one postal delivery at 8 o'clock in the morning, and railway servants get every third Sunday. The movement has extended to Russia, where a new law as to Sunday is in preparation, and where the post offices are open only from 12 to 2, and public-houses are closed until 11 o'clock in the morning. In Spain the Sunday work of young persons under eighteen years of age in factories is prohibited. In Japan, of the 600 newspapers and periodicals not one is published on Sunday. In India the Christian Literature Society is active and has accomplished considerable."

"Who Cannot Help" The Present Truth 12, 30.

E. J. Waggoner

Much discussion goes on as to the extent to which professed Christians can engage in amusements such as dancing, card-playing, theatre-going, all of which are outside the life of Jesus Christ. No one who seeks to defend these things would have the temerity to seriously argue that he could follow Jesus Christ into such circles. The sin and misery in the world are the same as when Christ walked in the flesh amongst men, and it is not to those who follow these pleasures that the lost turn when they want help to break away from the power of sin. Speaking of these forms of amusement a noted evangelist says:-

"I have some quite one hundred thousand people publicly avow their faith in Jesus, the Saviour Divine, in meetings which I have had the pleasure of labouring in. But I have never yet met a person who was not a Christian who, brought under the convicting power of the Holy Spirit, wanted anyone, even his most intimate friend, that was engaged in these worldly pastimes and pleasures, to point out to him the way of salvation. Such persons have no confidence in the religious professions of the man or the woman who is given over to worldliness."

"'Except Ye Become as Little Children'" The Present Truth 12, 30.

E. J. Waggoner

When Jesus went away from Galilee into the borders of Judea, beyond Jordan, as related in the first verses of the nineteenth chapter of Matthew, a great multitude followed Him. It is evident that they were influenced by greatly varying motives. Many came to be healed. They presented their infirmities, and were healed. The Pharisees came tempting Him. They seemed fond of bringing before Him questions concerning the relationship of man and woman, and they drew from Him, this time, a clear, though far from flattering, explanation of the divorce regulations instituted by Moses, and an unequivocal statement of the original law of God on this subject. In this, as in every other similar instance, their mouths were stopped by His reply, and they had nothing more to say.

Then there were among those who followed Him loving parents who brought their little children to Him, and besought Him that He would lay His hands on them and pray for them and bless them. But a short time before the disciples had seen evidence of His tender love for the little ones, yet now they rebuked the parents for bringing their children, and would have sent them away only that Christ saw their action and was displeased and reproved them, saying, "Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of God." Then He took them in His arms and put His hands on them and blessed them,-and repeated, as Mark tells us, the warning counsel which He had given His disciples previously, when they sought to know who should be greatest in the kingdom of heaven, "Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein."

Mark says not only that Christ was displeased that His disciples would have sent the little children away, but that He was "Much displeased."

The feeble and infirm, and helpless infancy, Christ accepted as His special charge. They could come to Him with their personal needs, and desire for loving care and protection or expression of affection and regard, and have their wants satisfied fully. But they who came attempting were thwarted and sent away humbled.

So, multitudes come to the Word of God; whether they go away filled with spiritual health and joy and blessing, or thwarted and shamed like the Pharisees, depends on whether they come in the spirit of the sick and the helpless and the little children, or in the spirit of the Pharisees.

"As the Dervishes Phrase It" The Present Truth 12, 30.

E. J. Waggoner

As the Dervishes Phrase It .-The correspondence captured after the defeat of the Dervishes at Ferkeh shows how strong a religious sentiment animates them. The Mahdist cause is, of course, one of religious fanaticism, and under the self-deception which leads them to think they are fighting for God they fight just as any other warriors, for themselves, as lust or covetousness drives them on. One chief reported to another after a raid:-

After salutations. I beg to inform you that God has given victory to His faith, and brought His enemies to naught. On Tuesday, the 22nd inst., we raided the village of Adendam, and God has destroyed all His enemies who were in that village.

After all, it differs little from that travesty of Christianity which leads professedly Christian powers to talk piously of thanks to God after a bloody victory over their fellows, one in the interests of commercial or other purely national affairs.

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Mohammedanism bears the sword, but Christianity has none of it, nor, as Christians get in touch with the Word, will they be found partaking of that world-spirit which glorifies deeds of arms and leads to the recurrence of war.

"'There Am I'" The Present Truth 12, 30.

E. J. Waggoner

"There Am I." -Among the comforting assurances of His continued personal care for His disciples, that in the eighteenth chapter of Matthew is one of the most definite and positive, where Christ says: "For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them." There was no limit of time, place, or persons, attached to this promise. It is just as good, and is to be counted upon as fulfilled, just as much to-day as the hour it was spoken. That this should be so is something which the scoffer rarely considers. "Thou God seest me" seems more than ordinarily applicable when one considers that wherever two or three are gathered together in His name He is actually there, though unseen. If this fact were only realised the seat of the scornful would be empty. The knowledge that He is present will cause every believer to respect all gatherings, however humble, where the name of the Lord is called upon.

"An Indian Incident" The Present Truth 12, 30.

E. J. Waggoner

The following interesting paragraph shows the influence of Christian example on the progress of religious truth in India:-

"Pundita Ramabai and her home for Hindu widows, near Bombay, has just had a peculiar experience. While she herself is a pronounced Christian, in starting her institution she preferred to place it upon a foundation such as would not antagonise the Hindus. This aroused considerable criticism when she started her work. The result has been that while making no effort for direct Christian conversion, the general influence of her own life and of the home has been such that twelve of the child widows have announced their acceptance of Christianity. This aroused a great deal of opposition, and the student class is reported as particularly vehement in its denunciation.

"She resolved then to go straight to them and make her defence. In front of the hall a mob of these young men gathered, and there was fear of a disturbance. She addressed the audience with boldness and faithfulness, affirmed that the degradation of the community was due to Hinduism, and that Christianity alone was able to lift them out of moral degradation and helplessness. She declared that she had kept her promise; she had not sought to bring undue influence, but that the results were due to the power of the truth of God. There was much excitement, but no manifestation of disturbance. Apparently, her firm, heroic bearing over-powered those who would have been glad to oppose her."

Certainly the foundations of paganism, of caste, and the enslavement of woman, in India, are breaking up when such an incident as this can be recorded. That a woman should have the ability, the opportunity, and the will, to do such a thing as this, and should do it, means much in that land.

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 30.

E. J. Waggoner

-At Huddersfield 2,725 persons last week voted in favour of Sunday trams and 4,154 against.

-It is estimated that the drought in New South Wales has caused the loss of 9,500,000 sheep.

-Cholera has attacked some detachments of the Egyptian expedition in the Soudan. The military authorities expect to successfully resist it by sanitary precautions.

-A proclamation promising pardon to all Matebeles who surrender before August 10 has been published at Buluwayo. It is expected that the country will not be quiet for months yet.

-Spain, which has already spent ?20,000,000 in fighting the Cuban reb to, has voted another like amount to continue the campaign, which seems no nearer an end than when it began.

-The largest sheep owner in the world is said to be Mr. S. McCaughey, of the Caonong station, at Jerilderie, New South Wales. He has 3,000,000 acres of land, and last season sheared 1,000,000 sheep.

-Nearly every French President in recent years has been shot at with blank cartridges by some one with a grievance which he wanted to make public. Last week President Faure had the experience.

-A British force captured thirty-four Arab slave raiders in British Central Africa last week. They had just begun catching slaves and had but a few, who were released to return to home and friends.

-Old political lines in the United States are considerably broken by the platforms adopted in the pending presidential campaign, and it is expected that the fight between the parties will be exceptionally fierce.

-An exceptionally large number of wrecks and collisions on sea and land were reported last week. Shipping is so increasing, and the rate of travel is so largely increased over speeds maintained a few years ago that accidents are more common.

-Taking a recent work entitled, "Made in Germany" as a basis, one of this month's reviews shown the effects of the revival of industrialism in Germany on British markets, and appeals for greater attention being given here at home to educating workmen in technical schools: "The fads are most alarming. In twenty-three years our population has increased by 7,000,000, but the declared value of our exports has fallen by ?30,000,000. In ten years, from 1889 to 1893, the value of German manufactured goods imported into this country went up by ?5,000,000, an increase of over 30 per cent. Samples of the results in foreign markets are the facts that Russia, which in 1893 took 78,000 tons of German iron and 59,000 tons of English, in 1895 took 168,000 tons from Germany, and only 60,000 from England; so in Italy; and in Japan in 1884 we sold 4,000,000 catties of rails, but in 1894 we sold only 3,000,000; whereas the German supply of rails to Japan increased from 2,000,000 catties to 19,000,000."

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 30.

E. J. Waggoner

The elections in Belgium have resulted in a victory for the Clerical party. The chamber will consist of 111 Clericals, 12 Liberals, 29 Socialists.

A London newspaper says: "The false glamour of war is kept up by war correspondents, who seldom or never speak of the horrors of war, and by the Church, which prays for victory in all causes, however bad."

Our friends in Cape Town are just beginning a Bible Institute, for workers and others, which will continue several months. We learn also, by friends recently from the Cape, that the sanatorium which our Society has been building in a suburb of Cape Town, is nearing completion, and will very shortly be ready for patients.

The Church Association, representing the Protestant section of the Church of England, is sending vans with colporteurs into country districts to campaign against Sacerdotalism. One thing which shows the need of Protestant work is the fact that in many districts these vans have not only the local clergy but bishops against them. At any rate they seem to be doing good among the people if we may judge by the strength of all the opposition to them on the part of Ritualists.

How zealously the churches in the United States are pressing the Sunday-law crusade may be seen from the following words written by a Seventh-day Adventist, who himself was recently arrested in Arkansas for not keeping Sunday. In a letter to the New York Sentinel he says: "My wife was in her house doing some hand-sewing. A woman passed and told her it was against the law to do anything on Sunday, and that you would be arrested if she did not stop."

The editor of the Investor's Review warns investors that trouble is brewing in many quarters, and that the stock exchange will feel it one of these days. "So let the prudent men," he says, "if any such remains alive in these times, gamble with caution and sometimes think of the morrow." Many who give no thought to the signs of the times religiously, see that the world is whirling on toward the crisis.

"Terrible Figures" The Present Truth 12, 30.

E. J. Waggoner

Terrible Figures .-One of the reviews this month deals with the increase of murder in the United States. These are the facts:-

During the last six years there has been an average of twenty homicides a day, year end and year out, in the United States. The daily average of executions is two, and the average of lynchings three; but last year the number of persons killed had risen from twenty to thirty per day. Five years ago the daily average was only twelve. A community in which murder increases nearly threefold in five years is clearly retrograding towards barbarism.

This has been called by a recent writer "the age of murder," and as the United States is a composite of all nations it may represent the highest development of the natural tendencies in civilisation without Christianity. What a comment these figures are on the self-glorification which characterises boastful modern civilisation. Only this month one of our London magazines deals with the great increase of wealth, and another with the high development of the public educational system, in America, and yet all this does not prevent the country from ranking next to Italy in the murder list of the greater nations.

"Blessing the Grog Shops" The Present Truth 12, 30.

E. J. Waggoner

Blessing the Grog Shops .-The Russian State has taken over the sale of spirits, and so the spirit traffic becomes a State monopoly. As everything the Russian State does is "Christian" it was fitting that the new departure should be inaugurated last week by religious services in many of the drink shops now transferred to the Crown. The modern "Christian" State blesses what God abhors, and curses that which God has blessed. How could it be expected otherwise when we know that Satan is "the god of this world," and this world is composed of all the kingdoms of men? That is why we pray, "Thy kingdom come."

"And Yet Have Believed" The Present Truth 12, 30.

E. J. Waggoner

And Yet Have Believed .-What a joyous satisfaction the Apostle John takes in recurring to the personal presence of the Saviour with himself and his fellow-disciples. In the fourteenth verse of the first chapter of his Gospel he says: "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." In the first chapter of his first epistle he reiterate and amplifies the same thought with an added stress of feeling, born of years of meditation and experience, filled with a loving recurrence to the memories of his personal human association and fellowship with Jesus. With what joyful assurance he says, "We have seen with our eyes," "we have looked upon, and our hands have handled" "the Word of life." "The life was manifested and we have seen it," it "was manifested to us." "That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you." This is "the message that we have heard of Him, and declare unto you." To all those who read and hear these glad words of John is addressed that promise which Christ incorporated in His gentle rebuke to Thomas, "Blessed are they that have not seen; and yet have believed."

"In the Pacific Islands" The Present Truth 12, 30.

E. J. Waggoner

In the Pacific Islands .-Our Missionary ship Pitcairn expected to leave Pitcairn Island last month for a cruise touching Tahiti, and the Austral, Cook, Samoan, Tongan, and Fiji groups, leaving workers and literature. The medical missionary workers in the island fields are kept especially busy, and hardly less so are all the other teachers and labourers. The prophet said, "He shall not fail nor be discouraged till He have set judgment in the earth; and the isles shall wait for His law." And our workers find many amongst these islanders who are only waiting for that "law of the Lord" which "is perfect, converting the soul."

"The Eastern Question" The Present Truth 12, 30.

E. J. Waggoner

The Eastern Question .-The newspapers are every day dealing with some phase of this great question which menaces the peace of Europe. The little work recently published from this office, "The Eastern Question: What Its Solution Means to all the World," is one which we would that all might read. Those who have not read it should do so by all means in order to know the significance of events in the East. Price, 1d., by post, 1 1/2nd.

"Ever Learning, Never Knowing" The Present Truth 12, 30.

E. J. Waggoner

Ever Learning, Never Knowing .-We read of some who are "ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." The trouble is that they do not make the truth a matter of life and heart knowledge. They merely learn theories, and are never anchored to the truth by heart knowledge of its principles. Therefore they are the prey of any plausible theory-monger that may come along, running here and there, following this and that, always learning, never knowing. "From such turn away."

July 30, 1896

"A Valuable Investment" The Present Truth 12, 31.

E. J. Waggoner

Christ has said that whatever of the things of this world anyone shall forsake, for His name's sake, shall be returned to him a hundredfold, with the addition of an eternity of possession and enjoyment of that which he has received.

The value of property is always enhanced in proportion to the length of time the title has to run. A freehold is more valuable than a lease for a term of years. But in this case the promised return for the investment is not only to be one hundredfold, with a title which shall run for eternity, but also this has joined with it a clause which states that everlasting life in which to personally enjoy the use of this increased estate is to go with it as an inseparable adjunct. This is indeed much. From this point of view the increase in value upon the original investment becomes not one hundredfold merely, but infinite.

This is qualified, however, by the surprising statement, to a worldly mind, that many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first. Then in the chapter immediately following (Matt. xx.), the explanation of this is given in the parable of the householder, who went out from time to time during the day and hired labourers for his vineyard, paying them all at the close of the day the same wages, irrespective of whether they had laboured one hour or the entire day. And when those whom he had engaged first, and who had worked the full day, murmured, he answered, "Is it not lawful for to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil, because I am good? So the last shall be first, and the first last; for many be called, but few chosen."

What does the penny a day represent? The wages of sin is death. The wages in the service of God is eternal life. Is the penny, then, eternal life? If it be so, then would it not be just that those who murmured that others received the same wages should be last, and that the last who went gladly, trusting only that they would receive that which was just, and ready to be satisfied with whatever was given them, should be first?

"Why God Waits" The Present Truth 12, 31.

E. J. Waggoner

Objectors often say, "Why doesn't the Lord, if He has the power, put a stop to evil? Why does He

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let it go on in the world? The objector does not stop to think that it would go hard with him if God should instantly put an end to evil. God has promised to bring sin and misery to an end, and "the Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." 2 Pet. iii. 9. Instead of finding fault with the Lord for waiting, the objector would better hasten to take advantage of God's longsuffering and desire for his salvation; for while the Lord is longsuffering, He cannot always wait, and "the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night." Then evil will vanish away in the fires that melt the elements and purify the earth in order that it may be renewed and filled with righteousness.

"'Which Is Your Reasonable Service'" The Present Truth 12, 31.

E. J. Waggoner

That was a solemn moment when Christ said to His disciples, "Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn Him to death, and shall deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify Him; and the third day He shall rise again." Matt. xx. 18, 19. The twelve were all there together. Christ had even taken them apart by the wayside, that they might be alone by themselves while He first clearly stated to them in definite words the treachery which He was to meet, and the painful and ignominious death He was to die.

Yet, notwithstanding the clearness of His statement, and the impressive list of the circumstances under which it was given them, they seemed to fail utterly to comprehend it, or to appreciate in any degree its tragic and solemn import. For immediately after this, apparently, the two brothers, one of whom was the affectionate and noble disciple whom Jesus loved, with their mother, came to ask for personal preferment and power. The reply of Jesus, "Ye know not what ye ask," was apt and expressive. Yet, notwithstanding their error in making such a request, and the fact that it could scarcely have been more ill-timed, He did not reprove them sharply. He only used the incident to illustrate to them all the difference between the administration of heavenly and of worldly affairs.

By the use of this sad misconception and the jealous anger of their fellow-disciples, He would show them, in such a manner as to impress it vividly upon their minds, that it should not be among them as in the world, "But whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant." Then, striving to recall to their minds the solemn words which He had previously spoken, in warning as to what was about to befall Himself, He illustrated what their service should be by what His own had been and was to be to them,-"Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many."

"'What Must I Do to Be Saved?'" The Present Truth 12, 31.

E. J. Waggoner

It is related that a young man came to the Master and said, "Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?" Mark says that the young man came running, and kneeled to Him, and asked Him, "Good Master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?" It is evident that the youth was a man of high world position, for Luke calls him "a certain ruler."

The first words of Christ's reply to him are very striking. It was as if He would challenge him to acknowledge Him to be the Son of God: "Why callest thou Me good? there is none good but One, that is, God." But, seemingly, without waiting for a reply He reminded the young man that he knew the commandments of God, and that the observance of them was necessary to eternal life. Yet, apparently desiring to know if special stress should be laid upon any particular commandment, the youth asks, "Which?" Christ then enumerates to him some of the ten commandments. And he answers, "All these things have I kept from my youth up; what lack yet?" Upon this, Mark says, "Then Jesus beholding him loved him."

It seems that he was a pure and noble character,-such an one as would, in these days, be considered a model Christian man. And it is true that for the beauty and purity of his life Christ loved him; yet he was not perfect. There was one thing still lacking,-that was sacrifice. This was the answer to his question:-"Go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me." Mark x. 21.

This was His answer,-that loving invitation,-"Come, take up thy cross, and follow Me!" But the sacrifice which that entailed was too great, for the young man was very rich, and held high social position and authority; he was a ruler. These things he could not give up, and he turned away grieved, and very sad.

His question was, "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" Did Jesus answer his question? Did he point out to him the way to eternal life, for which he asked? and did the young man accept the reply, and walk in that way, or did he turn from it? Christ is the way and the life. He is the heir, and with Him and through Him alone is the inheritance of eternal life.

"Chinese Chronology" The Present Truth 12, 31.

E. J. Waggoner

Chinese Chronology .-Very often we meet the statement that the Bible cannot be true as the Chinese have records reaching back many thousands of years. The determined unbeliever will always swallow the tallest fable if it only runs contrary to the Bible, whose simple record he claims he cannot believe. It is like the giant who swallowed windmills but was at last choked by a pat of butter. Here is the explanation of this windmill of Chinese chronology:-

"Sceptics have alleged against the Bible chronology the age of the Chinese annals. At length Professor DeLacouperie has found the key to these extravagances. The Chinese themselves were unable to make sense of their oldest books, but this eminent Frenchman has deciphered them, showing that their characters are derived from the Babylonian period in the Chinese list of mythical sovereigns he discovers a reproduction of the first Babylonian dynasty mentioned by Berosus, and in the records which accompany it, some of the facts and legends in Babylonian history. In a paper read before the Royal Asiatic Society, Professor DeLacouperie seems to set these wonderful identifications beyond doubt."

"'Whom Jesus Loved'" The Present Truth 12, 31.

E. J. Waggoner

"Whom Jesus Loved." -The first chapter of the Gospel of John, and the opening verses of the first epistle of John, bear a most interesting resemblance in thought and feeling. In the writings of this epistle the keen and intelligent natural insight of the man seems to show, as well as his affectionate and lovable qualities. Surely, through such a character as this, the inspiration of God could readily work to move mankind to an understanding of His Gospel, and a realisation of His love towards the erring and the lost. How much to-day the Lord's work needs men of clear minds, simple expression, and loving hearts, like John.

"The Promises to Israel. IsraelóA Prince of God" The Present Truth 12, 31.

E. J. Waggoner

Jacob had bought the birthright from Esau for a mess of pottage, and had through deceit obtained the blessing of the first-born from his father. But not by such means may anybody obtain the inheritance which God promised to Abraham and his seed. It was made sure to Abraham through faith, and no one need think to inherit it through force or fraud. "No lie is of the truth." Truth can never be served by falsehood. The inheritance promised to Abraham and his seed was an inheritance of righteousness, and therefore it could not be gained by anything unrighteous. Earthly possessions are often gained and held by fraud, for a time, but not so the heavenly inheritance. The only thing that Jacob gained by his sharpness and deceit, was to make his brother an everlasting enemy, and to be an exile from his father's house for more than twenty years, never again seeing his mother.

Yet God had said long before that Jacob should be the heir instead of his elder brother. The trouble with Jacob and his mother was that they thought they could work out the promises of God in their own way. It was the same kind of mistake that Abraham and Sarah had made. They could not wait for God to work out His own plans in His own way. Rebekah knew what God had said concerning Jacob. She heard Isaac promise the blessing to Esau, and thought that unless she interfered, the Lord's plan would fail. She forgot that the inheritance was wholly in the Lord's power, and that no man could have anything to do with the disposing of it, except to reject it for himself. Even though Esau had obtained the blessing from his father, God would have brought His own plan about in good time.

GOD'S CHOICE

So Jacob became doubly an exile. Not only was he a stranger in the earth, but he was a fugitive. But God did not forsake him. There was hope for him, sinful as he was. To some it may seem strange that God should thus prefer Jacob to Esau, for Jacob's character does not at that time seem any better than Esau's. Let us remember that God does not choose any man because of his good character. "For we also were aforetime foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Saviour, and His love toward man, appeared, not by works done in righteousness, which we did ourselves, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He poured out upon us richly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour; that being justified by His grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life." Titus iii. 3-7 R.V.

God chooses men, not for what they are, but for what He can make of them. And there is no limit to what He can make of even the meanest and most depraved, if they are only willing, and believe His Word. A gift cannot be forced upon one, and therefore those who would receive God's righteousness, and the inheritance of righteousness, must be willing to receive it. "All things are possible to him that believeth." God can do "exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think," if we but believe His Word, which effectually worketh in them that believe. The Pharisees were much more respectable people than the publicans and harlots, and yet Christ said that these would go into the kingdom of heaven before they did; and the reason was that the Pharisees trusted in themselves, and disbelieved God, while the publicans and harlots believed the Lord, and yielded themselves to Him. So with Jacob and Esau. Esau was an infidel. He regarded the word of God with contempt. Jacob was no better by nature, but he believed the promise of God, which is able to make the believer a partaker of the Divine nature.

God chose Jacob in the same way that He does everybody else. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ; according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love." Eph. i. 3, 4. We are chosen in Christ. And since all things were created in Christ, and in Him all things consist, it is evident that we are not required to get ourselves into Christ, but only to acknowledge Him, and abide in Him by faith. There was no more partiality in the choice of Jacob before he was born than there is in the choice of all others. The choice is not arbitrary, but in Christ, and if none rejected and spurned Christ, none would be lost.

"How rich the grace! the gift how free!
'Tis only 'ask'-it shall be given;
'Tis only 'knock' and thou shalt
The opening door that leads to heaven.
O then arise, and take the good,
So full and freely proffered thee,
Remembering that it cost the blood
Of Him who died on Calvary."

JACOB'S FIRST LESSON

While Jacob believed the promise of God sufficiently to enable him to endeavor to secure its fulfillment by his own efforts, he did not understand its nature well enough to know that God alone could fulfill it through righteousness. So the Lord began to instruct him. Jacob was on his lonely way to Syria, fleeing from the wrath of his offended brother, "and he

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lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took one of the stones⁸1 of that place, and put it under his head, and lay down in that place to sleep. "And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord, the God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac; the land whereon thou liest, to the will I give it, and to thy seed; and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south; and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee whithersoever thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." Gen. xxviii. 11-17, R.V.

This was a great lesson for Jacob. Before this his ideas of God had been very crude. He had supposed that God was confined to one place. But now that God had appeared to him, he began to realise that "God is a Spirit; and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth." John iv. 24. He began to realise what Jesus told the Samaritan woman long afterwards, that the worship of God does not depend upon any place, but upon the soul's reaching out and finding Him, wherever it is.

Moreover, Jacob began to learn that the inheritance that God had promised to his fathers, and which he had thought to get by a sharp bargain, was something to be gained in an entirely different manner. How much of the lesson he grasped at this time, we cannot tell; but we know that in this revelation God proclaimed the Gospel to him. We have learned that God preached the Gospel to Abraham in the words, "In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed." Therefore we are sure that when the Lord said to Jacob, "In thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed," He was preaching the same Gospel.

Connected with this statement, was the promise of land, and of an innumerable posterity. The promise made to Jacob was identical with that made to Abraham. The blessing to come through Jacob and his seed was identical with that to come through Abraham and his seed. The seed is the same, namely, Christ and those who are His through the Spirit; and the blessing comes through the cross of Christ.

All this was indicated by that which Jacob saw, as well as by that which he heard. There was a ladder set up on the earth, reaching up to heaven, connecting God with man. Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, is the connecting link between heaven and earth, between God and man. The ladder connecting heaven with earth, upon which the angels of God were ascending and descending, was a representation of that which Christ said to Nathanael, that true Israelite: "Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man." John i. 51. The way to heaven is the way of the cross, and this is that which was indicated to Jacob that night. Not by self-assertion, but by self-denial, are the inheritance and the blessing to be gained. "He that will lose his life," and all that life contains, "shall save it."

APPLYING THE LESSON

Of Jacob's sojourn in the land of Syria, we need not speak particularly. In the twenty years that he served his uncle Laban, he had ample opportunity to learn that deception and sharp dealing do not profit. The course that he had pursued came back upon himself; but God was with him, and prospered him. Jacob seems to have laid to heart the lesson that had been given him, for we see very little indication of his natural disposition to overreach in his dealing with his uncle. He seems to have trusted his case quite fully to the Lord, and to have submitted to all manner of ill-treatment without retaliation. In his reply to Laban's charge that he had stolen, Jacob said:-

"This twenty years have I been with thee; thy ewes and thy she-goats have not cast their young, and the rams of thy flock have I not eaten. That which was torn of beasts, I brought not unto thee; I bare the loss of it; of my hand didst thou require it, whether stolen by day, or stolen by night. Thus I was; in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep departed from mine eyes. Thus have I been twenty years in thine house; I served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy cattle; and thou hast changed my wages ten times. Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely thou hadst sent me away now empty. God hath seen mine affliction and the labour of my hands, and rebuked thee yesternight." Gen. xxxi. 38-42.

This was a calm and dignified statement, and showed that the fear of Isaac, and the same spirit, had actuated him. The preaching of the Gospel had not been in vain in Jacob's case; a great change had come over him.

Let it be noted here that Jacob gained nothing whatever from the birthright which he had so shrewdly bought from his brother. His property was due to the direct blessing of God. And in this connection we may recall the fact that Isaac's blessing was to the effect that God would bless him. The inheritance was not one which could be transmitted from father to son, as ordinary inheritances, but one which must be to each one by the direct, personal promise and blessing of God. To be "Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise," we must be Christ's; but if we are Christ's, and joint-heirs with Him, we are "heirs of God."

THE FINAL TEST

But Jacob had made a grievous failure in his earlier life, and so God as a faithful Teacher, must necessarily bring him over the same ground again. He had thought to win by guile: he must completely learn that "this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." 1 John v. 4.

When Rebekah proposed to send Jacob away from home, because Esau sought to kill him, she said, "Now therefore, my son obey my voice; and arise, flee thou to Laban my brother to Haran; and tarry with him a few days, until thy brother's fury turn away; until thy brother's anger turn from thee, and he forget that which thou hast done to him; then will I send and fetch thee from thence." Gen. xxvii. 43-45. But she did not know the nature of Esau. He was bitter and unrelenting. "Thus saith the Lord. For three transgressions

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of Edom, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because he did pursue his brother with the sword, and did cast off all pity, and his anger did tear perpetually, and he kept his wrath for ever." Amos i. 11. (Edom is Esau. See Gen. xxv. 30; xxxvi. 1.) Here we see that, bad as Jacob's natural disposition was, Esau's character was most despicable.

Although twenty years had passed, Esau's anger was as fresh as ever. When Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau, to speak peaceably to him, and to conciliate him, they brought back the news that Esau was coming with four hundred men. Jacob could not hope to make any stand against these trained warriors; but he had learned to trust in the Lord, and so we find him pleading the promises in this manner:-

"O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the Lord which saidst unto me, Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee; I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth which Thou hast showed unto Thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands. Deliver me, I pray Thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children. And Thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude." Gen. xxxii. 9-12.

Jacob had once tried to get the better of his brother by fraud. He had thought that thus he could become an heir of the promise of God. Now he had learned that it could be gained only by faith, and he betook himself to prayer in order to be delivered from the wrath of his brother. Having made the best possible disposition of his family and flocks, he remained alone to continue his prayer to God. He realised that he was not worthy of anything, and that if left to his deserts he should perish, and he felt that he must still further cast himself upon the mercy of God.

"And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when He saw that He prevailed not against him, He touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with Him. And He said, Let Me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me. And He said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And He said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel; for as a prince hast thou power with God and with man, and hast prevailed. And Jacob asked Him and said, Tell me, I pray Thee, Thy name. And He said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after My name? And He blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel; for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved." Gen. xxxii. 24-30.

People often speak of wrestling with God in prayer, as Jacob did. There is no evidence that Jacob knew that it was the Lord that was wrestling with him, until the morning broke, and his thigh was put out of joint by the touch of his antagonist. Indeed, we very well know that no man would have the hardihood to engage in a contest of strength with the Lord, if he knew Him to be the Lord. The angel appeared to him as a man, and Jacob doubtless thought that he was being attacked by a robber. We can well conceive that Jacob was in sore trouble all night. The time was fast approaching when he must face his angry brother, and he dared not meet him without the full assurance that all was right between himself and God. He must know that he was pardoned for his past wicked course. Yet the hours that he had designed to spend in communing with God, were being spent in wrestling with a supposed enemy. So we may be sure that while his strength was all engaged in resisting his antagonist, his heart was uplifted to God in bitter anguish. The suspense and anxiety of that night must have been terrible.

Jacob was a man of great physical power and endurance. Watching the flocks night and day for years had demonstrated this, and had, at the same time hardened his frame. So he continued the struggle, and held his ground all night. But it was not thus that he gained the victory. We read that "by his strength he had power with God; yea, he had power, over the angel, and prevailed; he wept, and made supplication unto Him; he found Him in Bethel, and there He spake with us; even the Lord of hosts; the Lord is His memorial." Hosea xii. 3-5. By his power Jacob prevailed with God, but it was not by his power and skill as a wrestler.

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His strength, was in his weakness, as we shall see. Notice that the first intimation that Jacob had that his opponent was other than an ordinary man, was when his thigh was put out of joint by the Divine touch. That revealed in an instant who his supposed enemy was. It was no human touch, but the hand of the Lord that he felt. What did he then do? What could a man do in his condition? Picture to yourself a man wrestling, where so much depends upon the strength of his legs, and having one of them suddenly dislocated. Even if he were merely walking, or simply standing still, and one of his legs should suddenly be put out of joint, he would instantly fall to the ground. Much more would he fall if he were wrestling. Such would have been the case with Jacob, if he had not at once thrown himself upon the Lord, with a firm grasp. He would most naturally grasp the nearest object for support; but the knowledge that here was the One whom he had been longing to meet, would make his grasp more than an involuntary action. His opportunity had come, and he would not let it slip.

That Jacob did at once cease wrestling, and cling to the Lord, is not only most apparent from the fact that he could do nothing else, but also from the words of the Lord, "Let Me go." "No," said Jacob. "I will not let Thee go, except Thou bless me." It was a case of life and death. His life and salvation depended upon his holding on to the Lord. The words, "Let Me go," were only to test him, for the Lord does not willingly leave any man. But Jacob was determined to find a blessing indeed, and he prevailed. It was by his strength that he prevailed, but it was by the strength of faith. "When I am weak, then am I strong." In that hour Jacob fully learned the lesson that the blessing and the inheritance come not by might, nor by strength, but by the Spirit of the Lord.

A NEW NAME

The new name was a pledge to Jacob that he was accepted. It did not confer anything upon him, but was a token of what he had already gained. Resting upon God, he had ceased from his own works, so that he was no more the supplanter, seeking to further his own ends, but the prince of God, who had fought the good fight of faith, and had laid hold on eternal life. As Israel he was henceforth to be known.

Now he could go forth to meet his brother. He who has seen God face to face has no need to fear the face of man. He who has power with God, will most certainly prevail with men. This is the secret of power. Let the servant of God know that if he would have power with men he must first be able to prevail with God. He must know the Lord, and have talked with Him face to face. To such the Lord says, "I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist." Luke xxi. 15. Stephen knew the Lord, and held communion with Him, and the haters of truth "were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spake." What then must have been his power with those whose hearts were open to receive the truth?

In this story of Jacob, we learn anew how the inheritance which God promised to Abraham and to his seed is to be obtained. It is by faith alone. Repentance and faith are the only means of deliverance. By no other means could he hope to have any share in the inheritance. His whole salvation lay in his dependence upon the promise of God. It was thus that he was fully made partaker of the Divine nature.

WHO ARE ISRAELITES?

We learn also who are Israel. The name was given to Jacob in token of the victory which he had gained by faith. It did not bestow any grace upon him, but was a token of grace already possessed. So it will be bestowed upon all those who through faith overcome, and upon no others. To be called an Israelite does not add anything to anybody. It is not the name that brings the blessing, but the blessing that brings the name. As Jacob did not possess the name by nature, so nobody else can. The true Israelite is he in whom is no guile. Such ones alone please God; but "without faith it is impossible to please Him." So the Israelite is only the one who has personal faith in the Lord. "They are not all Israel, which are of Israel;" "but the children of the promise are counted for the seed." Rom. ix. 6, 8.

Let every one who would fain be known as an Israelite consider how Jacob received the name, and realise that only so can it be worthily carried by anyone. Christ, as the promised seed, had to go through the same struggle. He fought and won through His trust in the word of the Father, and so He is of right the King of Israel. Only Israelites will share the kingdom with Him; for Israelites are overcomers, and the promise is, "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My Throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His Throne." Rev. iii. 21.

"Prayers for the Dead and Sunday Observance" The Present Truth 12, 31.

E. J. Waggoner

At the late annual meeting of the English Church Union the special subjects discussed was that of prayers for the dead, and the Union strongly urged that this custom should be more fully recognised in the services of the Church of England. To this all Protestants are, of course, strenuously opposed. Prayers for the dead, associated with offerings for the dead, known in Catholic phraseology as masses for the dead, come from the ancient pagan custom of sacrificing for the dead and the worshipping of demons, against which the Scriptures specifically warns all. But it is not of the doctrine itself that we shall speak, but of the argument by which those who urge it silence the objections of those in the Church of England, and Protestants generally, who oppose it.

Protestants say that the practice is without Scripture warrant, founded merely on tradition which has always made void the Word. It is so, and the objection is unanswerable. But those who favour prayers for the dead do not take the Scriptures as authority so much as ecclesiastical tradition. They adopt the Catholic position. But then they turn on their objectors and retort that Protestants, while pleading for the Word as the standard, themselves reject the Word and take tradition when it so pleases them. The Dean of Lichfield, Dr. Lucock, in his speech at the meeting of the E.C.U., replied to the Protestant controversialist as follows:-

Just because there is no direct evidence in so many words in Holy Scripture enjoining prayers for the dead, he maintains that as members of the Reformed Church, believing Scripture and Scripture alone, we have no right to revive them. I want to point out to you what inconsistency is involved in this position. Take the case of Sunday as an illustration. There is not a single text in the whole Bible which teaches us in so many words that the seventh day was to be superseded by the first. It is perfectly true that in the New Testament we find religious associations connected with the first day. But if there was a single text directing the change we should not have found in certain portions of the Church in the early centuries both the seventh and the first day observed. In justifying the change, we appeal to the Primitive Church, being perfectly certain that the rulers and Bishops of the Church would never have sanctioned such a revolution as that unless they had received by tradition such directions as they believed to have, from our blessed Lord Himself. What, then, is the rule of authority in the one case must be made the rule in the other.

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The Church Times endorses the Dean's argument editorially, saying, "No distinct direction is given in the Gospel for the observance of the first day of the week in lieu of the Sabbath." This of course is not a matter of argument. It is a matter of fact. The argument based upon the facts simply amounts to saying, "There is no Scripture for prayers for the dead, neither is there for Sunday keeping; but we do both according to the primitive tradition, which we follow instead of the Word." The answer silences the Protestant who finds himself keeping the Sunday and refusing prayers for the dead, which practice comes on the same authority as Sunday observance.

It is a fact, everywhere made prominent in ecclesiastical history, that what is called primitive tradition begins after the "falling away" of which the Apostle Paul warned the early church. The apostasy had already begun to work in his day, he told them, and immediately after the days of the apostles the errors which crowd the Roman Church came in as a flood. As Dr. Killen says in his preface to the "Ancient Church":-

Rites and ceremonies, of which neither Paul nor Peter ever heard, crept silently into use, and then claimed the rank of Divine institutions. Officers, for whom the primitive disciples could have found no place, and titles, which to them would have been altogether unintelligible, began to challenge attention, and to be named apostolic.

It is to these times that men appeal whenever they appeal to primitive tradition in support of doctrines and practices for which they find no warrant in the Scripture. And it is interesting, in this special connection, to note the fact that in the earliest times prayers for the dead, or offerings for the dead, and Sunday observance were associated together. In accounting for these practices, the matter of observing the Sunday, offerings for the dead, and the sign of the cross, Tertullian, who wrote about the year 200, said:-

If for these and other such rules, you insist upon having positive Scripture injunction, you will find none. Tradition will be held forth to you as the originator of them, custom as their strengthener, and faith as their observer. That reason will support tradition, and custom, and faith, you will either yourself perceive, or learn from some one who has.

That was all that could be said for these practices then, and it is all that can be said for them now. But the retort that silences those who cling to one of Scripture practice and object to another, based on the same authority and associated with it in origin, will not silence the protests of those who take the Bible as God's Word to men, and test all of these perversions of the truth and adaptations of ancient pagan rites and observances by "the law and the testimony." By this test is seen that "there is no light in them." Isa. viii. 20.

Notice how generally this question of the authority of Sunday is being made the test of the authority of the Church aside from the Word. It was on this point that the Council of Trent based its condemnation of the Reformers' appeal to the Bible alone, as against Church authority. It is just here that the Church of Rome is constantly charging the Protestant world with inconsistency in accepting Sunday observance by authority of the Church, while rejecting that authority in other matters where it pleases them to do so. And the Anglican Catholics are also learning the weak spot in the armour of popular Protestantism. This is why we cannot do otherwise than continually call attention to the Sabbath question. On the side of human authority the Sunday is being made the test and the mark of such authority. On the side of Divine authority and the Word of God the Sabbath is the sign or mark of allegiance to God. Ezek. xx. 12, 20. The issue is joined. It is the Word of God against the word of man. On which side will you choose to stand?

"Strikes" The Present Truth 12, 31.

E. J. Waggoner

Strikes .-Strikes are not only becoming more frequent in the industrial world, but violence is more frequently resorted to in conducting them. Such contests, attended with violence, necessitating the calling out of troops have recently been reported from the Continent, England, and America. The inequalities of social life, with increase of both riches and wretchedness, are being more keenly felt, and men seem to have less patience to endure. There are often two sides to these labour disputes, but the Scripture gives advice to the Christian labourer which is equally good whether it is the covetousness of the employer or of the employed, or both, which leads to bad feeling and a struggle on each side to overcome the other. The prophet warns the rich in these days who have "heaped treasure together for the last days" by keeping back the hire of the labourer. James v. But anticipating the violence to which these things would lead, the prophet says to the Christian, "Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." It is incompatible with the character of the Christian servant to fight even for that which may be rightfully due, and as injustice increases and is met by increasing violence on the part of the oppressed, the Christian is to stand apart from strife and wait patiently for the grand event which is to bring oppression to an end and right all wrong for ever.

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 31.

E. J. Waggoner

-Native risings are reported from Formosa. The Japanese are said to be hard pressed.

-A boundary dispute between Chili and Argentina is to be arbitrated by Queen Victoria in case of necessity.

-The Young Men's Christian Associations own buildings and other real estate to the value of ?3,600,000.

-Appeals are being made for funds in relief of Cretans, both Christian and Moslem, who are suffering by the insurrection there. Both seem to have suffered equally, one side being as savage as the other.

-Mount Vesuvius continues active, considerable streams of lava flowing down. Mauna Loa, in the Sandwich Islands, is again throwing out great quantities of molten rock after a long period of inactivity.

-The University of Jena has conferred the honorary Degree of Medicine upon Prince Bismarck. He also holds the degrees of Doctor of Philosophy, Doctor of Law, Doctor of Biblical Science and Doctor of Theology.

-On the first Sunday that all the London museums were thrown open they were visited by 10,650 persons. Of these, 2,437 went to the National Gallery, 3,173 to the South Kensington Museum, and 1,644 to the British Museum.

-Teheran, the Persian capital is held by troops called Cossacks and officered by Russians. Russia dictates Persian policy, and the new Shah is more Russian than his father in his sympathies. It is said that northern Persia is Russian in all but name.

-A French expedition for the Upper Nile region is said to be working its way from the Congo regions. Doubtless this is one reason why the advance on Dongola was planned. Central Africa still belongs to the first one who can get it, and all the powers are after it.

-An ordinance prohibiting the opening of public-houses within two hundred feet of a building occupied for school purposes has been passed by the City Council of New York, and upheld by the courts. It is said that this will necessitate the closing of at least five hundred public-houses.

-The value and importance of the commerce of the great lakes of North America is shown by the fact that Cleveland, Ohio, is the second greatest ship-building port of the world, the Clyde being first, and that the traffic through the ship canal at Sault St. Marie is greater than that of the Suez Canal.

-The Pope advised members of Parliament that the Deceased Wife's Sister's Bill was not agreeable to him, and now we hear that it is to be dropped. In the United States the party platform upon which the late Republican nomination for the presidency was made, as at first drafted, contained a clause against the appropriation of public money for sectarian uses. Archbishop Ireland objected and the clause was expunged.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 31.

E. J. Waggoner

A leaflet on foreign missions states that 40,000,000 people in Great Britain have one preacher to every 1,000. But 1,000,000 heathen have but one foreign missionary to every 200,000 souls. The average contributions of members of churches in England for foreign missions is 1? d. per month.

A certain church committee were discussing how they could best raise some necessary funds for church repairs. A satirical elder said: "And now, brethren, let us get up a supper and eat ourselves rich. Buy your food, then give it to the church. Then go buy it back again. Then eat it up, and your church debt is paid."

A missionary, riding home from Madagascar, says that under the rule of the French many material improvements are being made in the capital and the island generally. But "there are evils which seem inseparable from the presence of a large number of soldiers of whatever nationality. There is a great increase of drinking among the Malagasy, as well as of licentiousness."

A barber of Sheffield has been fined five shillings under the Lord's Day Observance Act, for carrying on his business on Sundays. The action was brought by a local hairdressers' association for the purpose of compelling the acceptance of the time of work agreed upon by the association. An appeal was taken to a higher court. In the same town a milkman was convicted for publicly crying milk for sale on Sunday. The old law still has vitality enough, and the disposition to use it is being manifested more than formerly.

Not only in Armenia and Crete is the Eastern Question raised by violence and outrage on the part of both Muslims and "Christians," but now the Macedonian frontier is ablaze, and a troop of Greeks has destroyed a company of Turkish troops in that region. It is for every Christian to pray that the winds of strife may be held in check until the message of the everlasting Gospel is brought to those who are waiting for it in these regions.

Forty villages are said to have been destroyed in the late disturbances in the region of Van. Even correspondents whose attitude is consistently hostile to the Turkish Government say that there is no doubt the Armenian revolutionists precipitated the conflict. When will the churches of Christendom learn that when they magnify into a virtue political revolution, and breathe out nothing but the spirit of hatred and violence against the Turkish Government, they are taking a terrible responsibility for the loss of life-the innocent suffering with the guilty-which accompanies political insurrection in Turkey.

A newspaper, commenting on the need of such work as Dr. Bernardo is doing for the children of the streets, says: "In London there are generally about 100,000 persons living in open profligacy, 20,000 professed beggars, 3,000 receivers of stolen goods, 20,000 children living in destitution and sin; 12,000 children living under regular training for vice; 30,000 thieves. It is heart-breaking to think of the misery and crime in London. But the picture is not all dark. Owing to the work of men animated with the spirit of Christ, there are spots of blue."

The Society of Christian Endeavour, which has a large membership here and is said to number nearly three millions in the United States has had an international meeting in Washington. With much zeal in truly Christian endeavour it is much to be regretted that it is being drawn in the direction of political reform, expecting to advance religion by political methods. It is the temptation which comes with numbers-the hope of securing the kingdoms of this world by some easier way than the Cross. When Jesus was tempted in this way He chose the Cross, and that is the only way of salvation.

"Rooted in Him" The Present Truth 12, 31.

E. J. Waggoner

Rooted in Him .-The reason why many are not "rooted and built up in Him," is that they do not abide in Him sufficiently long to get rooted. No plant will root itself firmly in the soil if it is pulled up every day. Just so many who think they want to be rooted in Christ, are variable and changeable, here and there, never settled and established in the truth, and do not abide in Him so that they may be rooted in Him.

"Getting the Preciousness" The Present Truth 12, 31.

E. J. Waggoner

Getting the Preciousness .-The Revised Version brings out the thought in 1 Peter ii. 7 very clearly: "For you therefore which believe is the preciousness." God has given exceeding great and precious promises, but the preciousness of the gift of God is only for those who believe. The way and the service of God seem dull and barren to the unbeliever; he cannot see the joy there is in God. Of course he cannot see what is in the promises of God, because he does not take it. He does not taste and see that the Lord is good, but stands without, fearing to let go of the hollowness of life for fear the Lord has nothing good for him. What a mistake to stand afar off and refuse to enter in, or to follow so slavishly and unbelievingly that one gets only the hardness of the way, and the crosses, without the life and power of the cross! Unto those that believe is the preciousness. No one ever yet ventured their all upon the promises of God without finding them precious indeed, "exceeding great and precious."

"By What Life?" The Present Truth 12, 31.

E. J. Waggoner

By What Life? -By what life are we saved?-By the life of Christ, and He has but one. Jesus Christ is "the same yesterday, and to-day and for ever." Heb. xiii. 8. It is by His present life that we are saved, that is, by His life in us from day to day. But the life which He now lives is the very same life that He lived in Judea eighteen hundred years ago. He took again the same life that He laid down. Think what was in the life of Christ, as we have the record in the New Testament, and we shall know what ought to be in our lives now. If we allow Him to dwell in us, He will live just as He did then. If there is that in our lives that was not in His then, we may be sure that He is not living it in us now.

"Russian Censorship" The Present Truth 12, 31.

E. J. Waggoner

Russian Censorship .-The infinite pains taken by officials in Russia in shutting out what they regard as heresy is something wonderful. Even the PRESENT TRUTH does not escape. A reader in St. Petersburg a few weeks ago received the paper with a portion cut out by the censor's scissors, and other portions blacked out with ink. It is a very common thing for newspapers to be thus dealt with for their political criticisms, but when the shortest of notes in a religious journal are detected and obliterated, it shows how close is the scrutiny of the officials.

August 6, 1896

"Accountability for Light" The Present Truth 12, 32.

E. J. Waggoner

Of Jesus Christ is written, "That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." John i. 9.

The light is His life. "In Him was life; and the life was the light of men" because this life has been given to every man that was ever born into this world, the light has been manifested to every man.

Every man, therefore, who is not saved will be "without excuse;" for the light has enlightened every man. The most benighted heathen, without the written law and revelation, nevertheless receives life from Him, and the very life by nature gives him sufficient knowledge of the law of God, so that in the Judgment his conscience will witness for or against him. Rom. ii. 14-16.

The man who knows least of the will of God knows better than he has done, and is conscious of guilt. And it is not for not knowing that he will be condemned, but for not believing and doing what he knew. God is just. The condemnation is not that men did not know, but "that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light."

"Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required." It is the law of the kingdom of heaven. Great light brings greater responsibility. When the Word reveals God's will to a person, who sees it for the first time in his life, he can never go on in the old way, turning from the light, and be the same that he was before the fresh light came to him. "If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin." John xv. 22.

The record concerning the cities of Galilee illustrates this principle of accountability for light rejected. Jesus came and dwelt in Capernaum. "That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, The land of Zabulon, and the land of Naphthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; the people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up." Matt. iv. 14-16.

Here Christ lived and wrought most of His mighty works. The region was populous and one in which to reach men of all nations. Says Dean Farrar, in his "Life of Christ":-

Through this district passed the great caravans on their way from Egypt to Damascus; and the heathens who congregated at Bethsaida Julias and C?sarea Philippi must have been constantly seen in the streets of Capernaum. In the time of Christ it was, for population and activity, "the manufacturing district" of Palestine, and the waters of its lake were ploughed by 4,000 vessels of every description, from the war-vessels of the Romans to the rough fisher-boats of Bethsaida, and the gilded pinnaces from Herod's palace.

But the great light was seen, and the people rejected it. It was not convenient just then to receive it, and they lapsed again into the shadow of death; but now into denser darkness than before. And so Christ pronounced the woe upon these busy cities, Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum.

"And thou, Capernaum, which are exalted unto heaven, shall be brought down to hell; for if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee." Matt. xi. 23, 24.

Yet Capernaum, the religious centre of the North, prided itself on its scrupulous performance of religious forms, and its formal piety. But in rejecting the "great light" that had arisen, it sunk lower than Sodom, which sinned so terribly and yet without as great light as Capernaum.

Sharing with Jerusalem in the rejection of the light, Capernaum and the coasts of the sea shared in the general desolation that fell upon the land which had filled up the cup by centuries of apostasy. Of the region now, a visitor, Archdeacon Farrar, says:-

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The shores are now deserted. With the exception of the small and decaying town of Tiberias-crumbling into the last page of decrepitude-and the "frightful village" of Mejdel (the ancient Magdala) where the degradation of the inhabitants is best shown by the fact that the children play stark naked in the street-there is not a single inhabited spot on its once crowded shores. One miserable, crazy boat-and that not always procurable-has replaced its gay and numerous fleet.

The ruins here piled about amidst the rocks and brambles bear mute testimony to the fulfilment of such portion of the woe as pertains to this world. And in the day of account the fearful record of rejected light must be faced by those who might have walked in it. The mighty works brought in Galilee are written that we might believe and have life. John xx. 31. They trusted in following the ways of the fathers, the traditions of the elders, and refused to walk forward in the light. Nowadays we hear much of the enlightenment of the Reformation. But the light that shines from the Word since the Reformation set it free, and since God's providence has so multiplied it and made it possible for all to study it, only throws upon people of this generation the greatest responsibility that has ever come to a generation since Jesus walked among men in Galilee. The light still shines. The Reformation is not ended. As Jesus said to the people in that day, so He says to all now, "Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth."

"All Things Were Made by Him" The Present Truth 12, 32.

E. J. Waggoner

The activity of natural forces is ceaseless. Such an expression as this does not seem to be necessarily religious in its character. Indeed men indulge in many so-called expressions of scientific facts, and philosophical statements, and often congratulate themselves that they are avoiding all reference to questions of religious truth, or possible religious controversy. But this is a mistake. Though couched in the most abstruse and philosophical language, all questions having to do with the powers of nature must lead directly, whether it be acknowledged or not, to a discussion of religious truth, and some reference to God and His providence.

Often, of course, if indeed it be not usually, the phraseology will be such that he who only recognises statements of religious truth by the formal language in which they are expressed will repudiate them, and even criticise them, perhaps, as materialistic or irreligious. Frequently, indeed, it is true that the very writer or speaker himself does not appreciate, or would even deny, the force of his own words,-strangely thinking that by the use of Greek or Latin derivative he can eliminate God from a thought which is clearly filled with Him when expressed in simple Saxon. The truth is that as language itself is from God, and the very mentality which develops and uses speech is also the gift of God, therefore it is utterly impossible to so use language as to ignore or deny the existence of God.

He who would deny and blaspheme in the terms of his denial proves that which he would deny,-and he who blasphemes acknowledges and confesses by his very blasphemy. The man who thinks to discourse upon the ceaseless beneficence of the forces of nature, or any other subject for that matter, and ignore or deny the existence of Divinity in it all must be himself unaware of the origin, growth, and history of the very words which he is himself using.

"Walk Carefully" The Present Truth 12, 32.

E. J. Waggoner

The Lord exhorts us to "lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way." Christ's life is an example of path-setting. In fact, the only straight path there is is the one He made, "leaving us an example that ye should follow His steps." The trouble is that so often we follow carelessly, forgetting that the careless step may be a cause of stumbling to those who are behind. Speaking of the fact that believers do not live unto themselves, a look or word, insensibly to themselves, having a far-reaching influence on others, Dr. Hugh Mcmillan uses some illustrations from the physical world which very vividly emphasise the need of careful attention to the walk if the lame are not to be turned aside from the way. And remember that it is not carefulness in externals merely that can guard against evil influence. What we need is to set the heart to follow hard after the Lord, and he who gives power to walk in his footsteps will attend to the influence of the life. Only when the heart is right, single before the Lord, will the walk be right. A straight tree will cast a straight shadow:-

"Chemists tell us of substances whose ownership is disturbed by the slightest motion, so that they rush into permanent combinations. The touch of a feather will cause the iodide of nitrogen to explode, and the vibration of any kind of sound will decompose it. The scratch of a pin will so alter the arrangement of the molecules of mercury that their action on light is altered, and the colour of the whole mass is changed at once from yellow to bright red. Many other substances could be named whose equilibrium is so unstable, whose affinity is so weak, that the most insignificant and apparently inadequate causes will immediately change their properties, so that they become henceforth quite different from what they were before.

"Among the high Alps, early in the year, the traveller is told to proceed as quietly as possible in certain places. On the steep slopes overhead, the snow hangs so evenly balanced that the sound of the voice, the crack of the whip, the report of a gun, or the detachment of a snowball, may destroy the equilibrium, and bring down an immense avalanche that will overwhelm everything within reach in ruin.

"Applying these illustrations of the physical world to the condition of society around us, are there not many whose moral character is so unstable, whose principles are so unfixed, who are so evenly balanced between good and evil, that a word, a look, may incline them to the one side or to the other, and produce effects that will alter the colour and the nature of their whole future existence? Are there not souls around us hanging so nicely poised on the giddy slopes of temptation, watching us, and ready, on the least encouragement to evil from us-of which we ourselves are not conscious-to come down in terrible avalanches of moral ruin, crushing themselves and others in their fall?"

"Will It Always Work?" The Present Truth 12, 32.

E. J. Waggoner

Will tribulation always work patience in those who believe the Lord?-Yes, invariably. "Well," says one, "I am sure that anybody would be impatient if he had as much to trouble him as I have." Question-Would Christ become impatient? He had the things to endure that you have? Did He not have as much to endure, and more? You must admit that He did. Was He impatient?-"He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth." Isa. liii. 7. Then if He were in your place, He would be patient. Why, then, do you not let Him be in your place? Faith brings Christ into the heart, so that He is identified with us, and therefore He bears the burdens. "Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee; He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved." Ps. lv. 22.

"The Promises to Israel. Israel in Egypt" The Present Truth 12, 32.

E. J. Waggoner

It will be remembered that when God made the covenant with Abraham, He told him that he himself should die without having received the inheritance, and that his descendants should be oppressed and afflicted in a strange land, and that afterwards, in the fourth generation, they should come into the promised land.

"And He gave him the covenant of circumcision; and so Abraham begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs. And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt; but God was with him, and delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favour and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house. . . . Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls. So Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, he, and our fathers, and were carried over into Sychem, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham had bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor, the father of Sychem. But when the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt, till another king arose who knew not Joseph. The same dealt subtilly with our fathers, so that they cast out their young children, to the end they might not live." Acts vii. 8-19.

The king "who knew not Joseph," was one of another dynasty, a people from the East which conquered Egypt. "For thus saith the Lord, Ye were sold for naught, and ye shall be redeemed without money. For thus saith the Lord God, My people went down at the first into Egypt to sojourn there; and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause. Now, therefore, what do I here saith the Lord, seeing that My people is taken away for naught? they that rule over them do howl; saith the Lord; and My name continually all the day is blasphemed. Therefore My people shall know My name; therefore they shall know in that day that am He that doth speak; behold, it is I." Isa. lii. 3-6. R.V.

WHAT EGYPT SIGNIFIES

From the text last quoted we learn that the oppression of Israel in Egypt was opposition and blasphemy against God; that contempt for their God and their religion had a great deal to do with its rigour. We learn also that their deliverance from Egypt was identical with the deliverance which comes to all who are "sold under sin." "Ye have sold yourselves for naught; and ye shall be redeemed without money." "Knowing that ye were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from your vain manner of life handed down from your fathers; but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ." 1 Peter i. 18, 19, R.V. A brief study therefore of what Egypt stands for in the Bible, and of the real condition of the Israelites while there, will enable us to understand what was involved in their deliverance.

EGYPTIAN IDOLATRY

Of all the idolatry of ancient times, that of Egypt was undoubtedly the grossest and most complete. The number of the gods of Egypt was almost beyond computation. "Every town in Egypt had its sacred animal, or fetish, and every town its local divinities."-Encyc. Brit. But "the sun was the kernel of the State Religion. In various forms he stood at the head of each hierarchy."-Sun Images and the Sun of Righteousness, in O. T. Student, Jan. 1886. "Ra, the sun, is usually represented as a hawk-headed man, occasionally as a man, in both cases generally bearing on his head the solar disc."

The union of Church and State was perfect in Egypt, the two being really identical. This is set forth in "Religions of the Ancient World" (Rawlinson) page 20:-

Ra was the Egyptian sun-god, and was especially worshipped at Heliopolis. Obelisks, according to some, represented his rays, and were always, or usually, erected in his honour. . . . The kings for the most part considered Ra their special patron and protector; may, they went so far as to identify themselves with him; to use his titles as their own, and to adopt his name as the ordinary prefix to their own names and titles. This is believed by many to have been the origin of the word Pharaoh, which was, it is thought, the Hebrew rendering of Ph' Ra-the sun.

Besides the sun and moon, named Osiris and Isis, "the Egyptians worshipped a great number of beasts, as the ox, the dog, the wolf, the hawk, the crocodile, the ibis, the cat, etc." "Of all these animals, the bull Apis, called Epapris by the Greeks, was the most famous. Magnificent temples were erected to him while he lived, and still greater after his death. Egypt then went into general mourning. His obsequies were solemnised with such pomp as is hardly credible. In the reign of Ptolemy Lagus, the bull Apis dying of old age, the funeral pomp, besides the ordinary expenses, amounted to upwards of fifty thousand French crowns. After the last honours had been paid to the deceased, the next care was to provide him a successor, and all Egypt was sought through for that purpose. He was known by certain signs which distinguished him from all other animals of that species: upon his forehead was to be a white spot, in form of a crescent; on his back, the figure of an eagle; upon his tongue, that of a beetle. As soon as he was found,

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mourning gave way to joy; and nothing was heard in all parts of Egypt but festivals and rejoicings. The new god was brought to Memphis to take possession of his dignity, and there installed with a great number of ceremonies." Rollin's Ancient History, Book 1, part 2, chap. 2, sec. 1.

These ceremonies, it is hardly necessary to say, were of an obscence character; for sun-worship when carried out to its full was nothing else but the practice of vice as a religious duty.

So strong a hold had superstition upon the Egyptians that they worshipped even leeks and onions. In this we are reminded that superstition and abominable idolatry are not necessarily connected with a low order of intellect, for the ancient Egyptians cultivated the arts and sciences to a high degree. The practice of idolatry did, however, cause them to fall from their former high position.

The very name Egypt is a synonym for wickedness and opposition to the religion of Jesus Christ, and is coupled with Sodom. Of the Lord's "two witnesses," it is said that "their dead bodies shall lie in the street of that great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified." Rev. xi. 8. That the Israelites in Egypt took part in its wickedness and idolatry, and that they were prevented by force from serving the Lord, is evident from several texts of Scripture.

In the first place, when Moses was sent to deliver Israel, his message to Pharaoh was, "Thus saith the Lord, Israel is My son, even My firstborn; and I say unto thee, Let My son go, that he may serve Me." Ex. iv. 22, 23. The object of the deliverance from Egypt was that Israel might serve the Lord, an evidence that they were not serving Him there.

So again we read that "He remembered His holy promise, and Abraham His servant. And He brought forth His people with joy, and His chosen with gladness; and gave them the lands of the heathen; and they inherited the labour of the people; that they might observe His statutes, and keep His laws." Ps. cv. 42-45.

But strongest of all the evidence that Israel had joined in the idolatry of Egypt is found in the reproach for their not forsaking it. "Thus saith the Lord God: In the day when I chose Israel, and lifted up Mine hand unto the seed of the house of Jacob, and made Myself known unto them in the land of Egypt . . . then said I unto them, Cast ye away every man the abominations of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I am the Lord your God. But they rebelled against Me, and would not hearken unto Me; they did not every man cast away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt." Eze. xx. 5-8.

STILL IN EGYPTIAN BONDAGE

Neither has it been done unto this day. The darkness that overspread Egypt at the time of the plagues was no more dense than the darkness that Egypt has cast over the whole earth. That physical darkness was but a vivid representation of the moral darkness into which the people had fallen, and of that which has since come from that wicked country. The story of the apostasy in the Christian church is but the record of the errors which were brought from Egypt.

Near the close of the second century of the Christian era, a new system of philosophy sprung up in Egypt. "This philosophy was adopted by such of the learned at Alexandria as wished to be accounted Christians, and yet to retain the name, the garb, and the rank of philosophers. In particular, all those who in this century presided in the schools of the Christians at Alexandria-Athenagoras, Pantaenus, and Clemens Alexandrinus-are said to have approved of it. These men were persuaded that true philosophy, the great and most salutary gift of God, lay in scattered fragments among all the sects of philosophers; and, therefore, that it was the duty of every wise man, and especially of a Christian teacher, to collect these fragments from all quarters, and to use them for the defense of religion and the confutation of impiety."

"This mode of philosophising received some modification, when Ammonius Saccas, at the close of the century, opened a school at Alexandria, and laid the foundation of the sect called the New Platonic. This man was born and educated a Christian, and perhaps made pretensions to Christianity all his life. Being possessed of great fecundity of genius as well as eloquence, he undertook to bring all systems of philosophy and religion into harmony, or attempted to teach a philosophy by which all philosophers, and the men of all religions, the Christian not excepted, might unite together and have fellowship. And here, especially, lies the difference between this new sect and the eclectic philosophy, which had before flourished in Egypt. For the eclectics held that there was a mixture of good and bad, true and false, in all the systems; and therefore they selected out of all, what appeared to them consonant with reason, and rejected the rest. But Ammonius held that all sects professed one and the same system of truth, with only some difference in the mode of stating it, and some minute difference in their conceptions; so that by means of suitable explanations they might with little difficulty be brought into one body. He, moreover, held this new and singular principle, that the popular religions, and likewise the Christian, must be understood and explained according to the common philosophy."-Mosheim's Eccl. Hist., Cent. 2, part, ch. 1, Secs. 6, 7.

"Clement of Alexandria has been mentioned as one of the Christian teachers who was devoted to this philosophy. Mosheim tells us that "Clement is to be ranked among the first and principal Christian defenders and teachers of philosophic science, indeed that he may even be placed at the head of those who devoted themselves to the cultivation of philosophy with an ardour that knew no bounds, and were so blind and misguided as to engage in the hopeless attempt of producing an accommodation between the principles of philosophic science and those of the Christian religion."-Mosheim's Commentaries, Cent. 2, Section 25, Note 2.

Let it be remembered that the only philosophy was pagan philosophy, and it will be very easy to imagine the inevitable results of such devotion to it on the part of those who were the teachers in the Christian church. Mosheim tells us that "by the Christian disciples of Ammonius, and more particularly by Origen, who in the succeeding century (the third) attained to a degree of eminence scarcely credible, the doctrines which they had derived from their master were sedulously instilled into the minds of the youth with whose education they were entrusted, and by the efforts of these again, who were subsequently for the most part called to the ministry, the love of philosophy became pretty generally diffused throughout a considerable portion of the church." Origen was at the head of the "Catechetical School" or theological seminary of Alexandria, which was the seat of learning. He stood at the head of the interpreters of the Bible in that century, and was closely copied by the youth who flocked to that seminary. "Half the sermons of the day," says Farrar, "were borrowed, consciously or unconsciously, directly or indirectly, from the thoughts

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and methods of Origen."-"Lives of the Fathers," chap. 16, sec. 8.

Origen's skill as an "interpreter" of the Bible was due to his skill as a philosopher, which consisted in making evident things that had no existence. The Bible was used by him and his companions, as were the writings of the philosophers, as a thing upon which to display their mental skill. To read a simple statement, and to believe it as it reads, and to set plain truth before the minds of students, leading the minds of the people to the Word of God, was considered too childish, and altogether beneath the dignity of a great teacher. Anybody could do that, they thought. Their work was to seem to draw from the Sacred Word something which the common people would never find there, for the reason that it was not there, but was the invention of their own minds.

In order to keep their prestige as deep scholars and great teachers, they taught the people that the Bible does not mean what it says, and that whoever follows the plain letter of Scripture will certainly be led astray; and that it could be explained only by those who had exercised their faculties by the study of philosophy. Thus they effectually took the Bible from the hands of the common people. With the Bible practically out of their hands, there was no way by which the people could distinguish between Christianity and paganism. The result was not only that those who already professed Christianity were in a large measure corrupted, but that the heathen came into the church without changing their principles or practices. "It came to pass that the greater part of these Platonists, upon comparing the Christian religion with the system of Ammonius, were led to imagine that nothing could be more easy than a transition from the one to the other, and, to the great detriment of the Christian cause, were induced to embrace Christianity without feeling it necessary to abandon scarcely any of their former principles."

Thus it came to pass that "nearly all those corruptions by which, in the second and subsequent centuries, Christianity was disfigured, and its pristine simplicity and innocence almost wholly effaced, had their origin in Egypt, and were thence communicated to the other churches." "Observing that in Egypt, as well as in other countries, the heathen worshipers, in addition to their public religious ceremonies, to which everyone was admitted without distinction, had certain secret and most sacred rites, to which they gave the name of mysteries, and at the celebration of which none except persons of the most approved faith and discretion were permitted to be present; the Alexandrian Christians first, and after them others, were beguiled into a notion that they could not do better than make the Christian discipline accommodate itself to this model. The multitude professing Christianity were therefore divided by them into the profane, or those who were not as yet admitted to the mysteries, and the initiated, or faithful and perfect . . . . From this constitution of things it came to pass, not only that many terms and phrases made use of in the heathen mysteries were transferred and applied to different parts of the Christian worship, particularly to the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper, but that, in not a few instances, the sacred rites of the church were contaminated by the introduction of various pagan forms and ceremonies."

THE CALL TO COME OUT OF EGYPT

It is not necessary to enumerate the various false doctrines and practices that were thus introduced into the church. Suffice it to say that there was not a thing that was not corrupted, and there was scarcely a heathen dogma or ceremony that was not either adopted or to a greater or less extent copied. The light of God's Word being thus obscured, the "Dark Ages" necessarily resulted, continuing until at the time of the Reformation the Bible was once more put into the hands of the people, for them to read for themselves.

The Reformation, however, complete the work. A true reformation never ends; when it has corrected the abuse which first called it forth, it must go on with the good work. But those who came after the Reformers were not filled with the same spirit, and were content to believe no more than the Reformers had believed. Consequently the same story was repeated. The word of men came to be received as the word of God, and therefore errors still remained in the church. To-day the current is setting strongly downward, as the result of the wide-spread acceptance of the doctrine of Evolution, and of the influence of the so-called "Higher Criticism." Several years ago the historian Merivale, Dean of Ely, said, "Paganism was assimilated, not extirpated, and Christendom has suffered from it more or less ever since."-"Epochs of Church History," p. 169.

It may easily be seen, from this brief outline, that the darkness that at any time covers the earth, and the gross darkness that envelops the people, is the darkness of Egypt. It was not merely from physical bondage that God set Himself to deliver His people, but from the spiritual darkness that was far worse. And since this darkness still remains to a great extent, that work of deliverance is still going on. Ancient Israel "in their hearts turned back again into Egypt." Throughout their whole history they were warned against Egypt, an evidence that they were never fully free for any length of time from its blighting influence. Christ came to earth to deliver men from every species of bondage, and to that end He placed Himself to the fullest extent in man's position. There was therefore a deep significance in His going down into Egypt, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, "Out of Egypt have I called my Son." Since Christ was called out of Egypt, all who are Christ's, that is, all the seed of Abraham, must likewise be called out of Egypt. This is the work of the Gospel.

"On the Way to Jerusalem" The Present Truth 12, 32.

E. J. Waggoner

Just as the Lord was about to start on His last journey up to Jerusalem, to the passover, Himself to be the Lamb led to the slaughter, He called His disciples aside, where He might speak to them alone, and told them plainly what was about to come to pass. His language could not well be more clear than when He said: "Behold we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priest and scribes, and they shall condemn Him to death, and shall deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify Him; and the third day He shall rise again."

They must all have heard it. He took them apart by the way, so that there could be no reason why their attention should be distracted and they fail to comprehend the reality of the facts which He was about to relate to them, or to feel their importance. Then He told them these things in words capable of no double interpretation. One by one, in regular sequence, He named the different scenes in the tragedy that was about to be enacted. First was the going up to Jerusalem,-then the trial,-the condemnation to death,-the delivery to the Gentiles,-the mocking and scourging, the crucifixion,-and, lastly, the resurrection on the third day.

How strange it seems that so remarkable a prediction as this, couched in such plain terms, did not immediately and completely absorb their whole attention, occupy their

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whole thought, and become the entire subject of their conversation. But there is no evidence that they even gave His words a second thought. Seemingly, they were no more to them than the blowing wind,-they did not even make so much impression as they might have done had they entered one ear to pass out at the other. Indeed Luke says, "And they understood none of these things." It seems now incomprehensible that they should, by any possibility, have failed to understand. One would have thought that as they went up to Jerusalem they would have been saying to each other on the way, "The Master said we should go up to Jerusalem, and now here we are on the way; when we get there, so He told us, He is to be betrayed to the chief priests." Then when the trial took place, one would have thought that they would have looked in each other's faces, not needing to speak, for each would know what was in the other's mind,-that the next step was the condemnation to death. And then when the decree of death was granted they would have known that the delivery to the Roman authorities, the mocking, scourging, and then crucifixion was to follow. But then, when all these different steps, one by one, in their specified order, had been fulfilled, their hope and faith, would have become a certainty, assured,-"and the third day He shall rise again."

But instead of this, they understood none of these things, having scarcely listened while He told them all this alone, apart by the way.

It is evident why two of them, at least, did not understand. The very next verses, recounting the request which they and their mother made to the Lord, show that the reason why they did not hear and understand was that they were absorbed in thoughts of self. Mark x. 35.

In those days, and in the presence of those men, the words of the Lord were fulfilled, and they were ignorant of that which had been opened as clear as the daylight before their eyes, and so missed the blessing.

In these days, and in our presence, the words of the Lord are being fulfilled no less than then. It behoves us to be purged of that darkness of self, and be filled with His life which is the light of men, that we may hear, see, and understand the history which God is making in the world, and know that it is the fulfilment of His prophecy, step by step, as surely as that from the road to Jerusalem to the cross and the resurrection. Of the attitude of wakeful believers, the apostle says, "But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief."

"The Tea Cigarette" The Present Truth 12, 32.

E. J. Waggoner

This latest invention in the smoking line comes from Paris. Next it was heard of as a vice of fashionable New York ladies. And now a London morning paper says it is being introduced at home. We think none of our readers will be in danger of trying the foolish practice if we give the particulars of the way in which the cigarettes are made. We do this that it may be seen that the evil effects are due simply to the poison that is in the tea leaf, of which every user of tea as a beverage gets more or less to the detriment of the health. A drug that has such effect when inhaled is not a good thing to put into the stomach. We take the following from the Daily Mail:-

One of the most injurious and dangerous of new fashions is the tea cigarette.

Several descriptions of the tea cigarette have been printed, but these have erred in the presumption that the tea was taken as sold, rolled up in a paper and smoked. This would be practically impossible, as the sharp edges of the tea would cut the paper in all directions, spoil the draught, and render the cigarettes unsmokable.

To make the tea cigarette one takes a grade of green tea which has but little dust, being composed of unbroken leaf, and dampens it carefully, just enough to permit the leaves to be unrolled without being broken, and so as to be left pliable and capable of being stuffed in the paper cylinder, while the dampness is not sufficient to stain the paper. The cigarettes are to be laid aside for a few days and are then ready to be smoked.

The feeling of a tea cigarette in the mouth is peculiar. The taste is not so disagreeable as might be supposed, but the effect on the tyro is a sense of thickening the head and a disposition to take hold of something or sit down. If the beginner quits them, that settles it, he will not try tea cigarettes again. If, however, the smoker sits down and tries a second cigarette, inhaling it deeply, then the thickening feeling passes and is succeeded by one of intense exhilaration. The nerves are stimulated until the smoker feels like flying, or doing something else entirely out of the common way. This stage lasts as long as the smoke continues, which is until the reaction of the stomach sets in.

Words cannot describe the final effects of the tea cigarette. The agony of the opium fiend is a shadow to that of the nauseated victim of the tea cigarette. It will be hours before food can he looked at, yet the first step toward a cure is a cup of tea. An hour afterward comes the craving for the tea cigarette.

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 32.

E. J. Waggoner

-In France, when a railroad train is more than ten minutes late, the company is fined.

-A German gunboat with seventy-five men has been lost in a typhoon off the Chinese coast.

-Matches have not yet displaced the tinder-box in certain rural district of Spain and Italy.

-It is said that no one is allowed to die in the sacred island of Miyajima, Japan. Any one mortally ill is sent away by boat to the adjacent land.

-There are at least 14,000 people in Lucknow who are opium-smokers, and so wedded to the vies that the habit is unconquerable. In that city there is no secrecy about selling or purchasing the drug.

-A race riot between Swiss and Italians has occurred at Zurich. Houses have been sacked and several persons injured. It was found necessary to pall out the military to quell the disturbance.

-Miss Clara Parrish is to start in August on a round-the-world missionary tour for the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. This will be the seventh such tour which has been made under the auspices of that organisation.

-The largest encyclopedia in the world is a Buddhistic work of 225 volumes, weighing 8,000 pounds. One copy is owned by the British Government and another by the Russian. The latest quoted price is said to be ?280.

-The great Nijni Novgorod exhibition of Russian industries and area promises to turn out a complete failure. Although the Government have greatly reduced the already cheap railway fares from all parts of Russia to the great fair city, Russians do not seem to take much interest in the exhibition.

-During the peat year a demand has been made in Russia for the abolition of corporal punishment, and for the introduction of universal popular education. The first has been refused, and such active measures taken in opposition to the second that the committees of education at St. Petersburg and Moscow have been abolished.

-Mail advices from depot state that fully 30,000 people were killed by the tidal wave last month. The wave was eighty feet high in parts, and about three hundred miles of coast was swept. A pestilence is feared owing to the bodies unburied, though the authorities are working to relieve distress and to secure proper sanitary arrangements.

-The trouble in the north is being felt throughout South Africa. Everywhere the natives are on the qui vive. Pondoland, the Transkoian territories of the Cape Colony, Basutoland, and Bechuanaland-in all these places the natives are watching their opportunity, and would most assuredly rise en masse, says a newspaper correspondent, in the event of any repetition of the Zulu War disaster in Rhodesia.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 32.

E. J. Waggoner

A call comes to our brethren in Norway to send help in the way of workers to Iceland, where there are a number of believers wishing to see our work established in their island. One delegate from Iceland attended the recent annual conference of our Norwegian churches. Publications are being prepared in the Icelandic tongue.

A tidal wave in China has followed the one in Japan, 4,000 being reported killed, and large tracts being inundated, so that famine and pestilence are threatened. While the world is quarreling over possessions and trade in these populous countries of the East, the calamities that are so often sweeping away thousands call loudly upon Christians to preach the Gospel to those who have never heard it.

In view of the distinction which the popular standard of the world's judgment makes between armed expeditions bent on killing in military fashion, and the man who goes single-handed to kill an enemy, it is not surprising that one of the great morning papers the other day said, "The truth is that the whole question of when you may and when you may not kill a man, grave as it seems to be, is very much in a muddle."

It is a fact that the idea of glory is mainly associated with military exploits. In all the world greater glorification of men of arms exists than of those who give themselves to the arts of peace, or who risk their lives in mines or dangerous trades which minister to the comforts and conveniences of life. Distinction may be won in other ways, but glory, after this world's standard, is most often attained on the field of blood, and national churches give place to the monuments of those who have thus gained fame.

"To Prevent Disappointment" The Present Truth 12, 32.

E. J. Waggoner

To Prevent Disappointment .-The surest way to prevent being disappointed in this life, is to have small expectations, and not to make large demands on our fellow-men. The humble man, who does not think that other people were made for the purpose of serving him, but rather that he is servant of all, will, instead of meeting disappointments, be continually surprised and astonished at the kindness and goodwill he receives. On the other hand, the man who expects the most from the Lord, and who, depending on God's promises, makes the largest demands upon Him, will never be disappointed; for God gives "exceeding abundantly, above all that we ask or think" (Eph. iii. 20), and never forsakes those who put their trust in Him. Ps. ix. 10. And a humble man, with the lowest opinion of his own worth, is just a man who can and will confidently make the largest demands on God, for God "has respect unto the lowly," and he who inhabits eternity dwells with the humble and the contrite ones. Isa. lvii. 15. Therefore the humble man is the only truly happy man on earth. He is always contented, for all his desires are abundantly satisfied with the fatness of God's house.

"He that is down need fear no fall,
He that is low, no pride;
He that is humble ever shall
Have God to be his guide."

"Sunday Laws at Work" The Present Truth 12, 32.

E. J. Waggoner

Sunday Laws at Work .-Canada has recently been imprisoning Seventh-day Adventists for working on Sunday, and one or two are now in gaol there. The last mail from the States brings word that three others have been sentenced in Tennessee. The real offence, of course, is Sabbath-keeping, as those who do not keep the Sabbath or any day have always worked freely on Sunday. Reports from New Zealand state that our brethren there are also being threatened with prosecution, the churches having taken up a crusade for enforcing the Sunday laws of the colony. It is the one spirit moving the forces of evil in all the world.

"Remedy for War" The Present Truth 12, 32.

E. J. Waggoner

Remedy for War .-In the conference at Grindelwald, last week, while the subject of International Arbitration was under discussion, Dr. Parker said that the true remedy for war was to turn the hearts of the people to the Lord. "If the people were penetrated by the Spirit of Jesus Christ they would lead rulers aright." In this Dr. Parker solves the whole question. In that proportion in which Christianity, pure and undefiled, rules in the hearts of the people, individually, will there be peace. The solution then is simple-preach the Gospel to the whole world, individually. If they receive it there will be peace. If they do not receive it, the Lord has said that when His Gospel has been preached to the whole world He will come and make peace. That will be His kingdom, and in no other way can it come.

"Japan's Calamity" The Present Truth 12, 32.

E. J. Waggoner

Japan's Calamity .-The detailed reports of the earthquake and tidal wave in Japan, on June 15, which have but just been received, show this to have been a greater calamity than the earthquake of 1891, which destroyed so many villages in the interior of Japan, and rent their sacred mountain Fujiyama. It seems that a tidal wave variously reported as from twenty to fifty feet in height swept the coast for a long distance, and devastating the country for a distance of two miles inland. Twenty-seven thousand persons were drowned, two thousand received serious injuries, and at least sixty thousand are rendered homeless and destitute.

"The Sea Roaring" The Present Truth 12, 32.

E. J. Waggoner

The Sea Roaring .-Some sentences of the published accounts of this catastrophe are suggestions of our Lord's description of the scenes which should immediately precede His second coming, "upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring." One narrator says that a faint rumbling was heard at first and then,-

In a few minutes the noise swelled into a tremendous sound, as coming from the sea. Just at this moment a tidal wave about fifty feet high came over, and in a few seconds it penetrated inland as far as Yokomachi, some two miles from the beach. The water dashed about in every direction from terrific force for about five minutes, and then subsided as quickly as they had arisen.

Another speaks of the slight shocks of earthquake and says, "About half-past eight o'clock P.M . , a wild roar of raging waves, resembling the noise made by a violent wind rushing through a forest, rapidly approached." Then in a moment the village was overwhelmed.

"Not Education and Culture" The Present Truth 12, 32.

E. J. Waggoner

Not Education and Culture .-Many talk as though civilisation and education must necessarily bring people nearer to Christianity; but this is far from being true. An Indian missionary says of the Parsees: "It is quite true that they are advanced in civilisation, education, and branches of commerce; but I have noticed that the more the heathen native of India becomes advanced in these things, the further he, as a rule, gets from Christ, and the harder it is to convert him." It was of the intellectually cultured Greek and Roman civilisation that Paul was speaking when he wrote the first chapter of his epistle to the Romans.

August 13, 1896

"The Mind of the Natural Man" The Present Truth 12, 33.

E. J. Waggoner

The Mind of the Natural Man .-Daniel tells how, just before Nebuchadnezzar was stricken and humbled, the proud king walked up the terraces of his palace, saying, "Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?"

Memorials of Vanity. -He not only spoke it, but engraved like sentiments in his inscriptions upon the royal tablets, now dug up and read. One of them says: "For the astonishment of men I built this house; all of the power of my majesty encompasses its walls. . . . In Babylon alone I raise the seat of my dominion." This vanity is the common frailty of the human mind.

The Mind of Christ. -Contrast with this Christ's attitude as he came into the world to show men how to live for man. He had not built a pile of bricks and mortar, but the very earth and all living things upon it and the heavens were the work of His hands. Yet He said, "I can of Mine own self do nothing." "I came not to do Mine own will." "I have glorified Thee on the earth." Nebuchadnezzar glorified himself as the builder of a great city now buried in the sands. Jesus, in whom all things consist, glorified God. "Have this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus: who. . . emptied Himself." Phil. ii. 5, 6, R.V.

"'Wanted: Religious Reciprocity'" The Present Truth 12, 33.

E. J. Waggoner

Under this title, a correspondent of the Daily Chronicle calls attention to the hollow pretence of the Papacy in professing to favour religious liberty. The present Pope lauds religious liberty in lands where papal principles are not fully in the ascendant, but wherever the Papacy has control Protestants are treated as enemies to the civil order. Nor while printing this letter, showing papal inconsistency, can we forebear calling attention to the inconsistency of Protestants who disapprove of Spanish laws seeking to exact deference to Romish ceremonies and observances, but who, at the same time, approve of Sunday laws in England or elsewhere, which are as distinctly religious laws, and as distinctly Roman Catholic, as any of the Spanish regulations. The correspondent says:-

"Judging by the account given in your issue of Monday of the imposing Roman Catholic public procession, which caused all the vehicular traffic between Farringdon-road and Holborn Town Hall to be suspended for nearly three-quarters of an hour, it is most evident that it is a glorious privilege to reside in a Protestant country. How happy should we be if like liberty were known in Roman Catholic countries! But alas! what do we find? Take Spain-that most Catholic of countries-there, no ism but Romanism is allowed to do anything that can give the public to know that it even exists. At this very moment Protestant chapels remain closed by order of the authorities. In one town which I could name, a goodly band of law-keeping, devout Protestants are strictly prohibited from even meeting together in an "upper room." For nearly two years these local Roman Catholic authorities have defied the best efforts of British Consul and British Ambassador at Madrid to obtain through the Spanish Government liberty for these Protestants to worship God even in secret.

"Well may our Roman Catholic, Jewish, Greek and other non-Protestant fellow-subjects of Queen Victoria bless God that they dwell under the glorious flag of a free and Protestant England. In most Catholic Spain religious liberty is granted to no one except Roman Catholics. But that is the least of it, for free-born Spanish Protestants are compelled by law to do public obeisance to images, etc., set up by the Church of Rome. Law-abiding subjects are sent to prison and fined for not violating their consciences by kneeling-or, at least, uncovering-in the public streets before the images borne by a papist in procession. 'Twas but the other day that an immense deputation of grandees waited on the Queen Regent of Spain imploring her, by all things sacred, on no account to allow the members of the Spanish Reformed Church the liberty of meeting to worship God under their own roof.

"We have the Pope sending his best thanks to the Queen for granting liberty of worship, etc., etc., to Roman Catholics; when will the day dawn in which the Queen will be in a position to thank the Pope for even so much as suggesting to Roman Catholic countries that liberty of worship be granted to Protestants? Why should all the liberty be on one side? How can the Pope and his agents with any conscience ask and accept that which they would rather die than grant in their turn?"

"Understanding the Bible" The Present Truth 12, 33.

E. J. Waggoner

There are two principal causes why people find the Bible difficult, even after they give assent to the fact that it means what it says, and think that they believe it. The first is the power of preconceived opinions. They come to the study of the Bible with certain fixed ideas, and they think that they must find those ideas in it. When they read a certain passage that conflicts in any degree with their ideas, they modify the statement to agree with their ideas. This they do unconsciously. They do not mean to put their ideas in the place of the Bible statement, but they are so firmly persuaded that their ideas are according to Scripture that they think the passage in question must be toned down a little to agree with some other text.

This suggests a principle that must be grasped and firmly adhered to before one can hope to get any real benefit from the Bible; and it this is: The Bible means just what it says in every text. No text can modify another, so as to make it mean less, or anything different from its plain reading. True, no one text tells all that may be said upon any subject, or else there would not be another one written on the same subject; but every text must be allowed to stand just as it is written. "Every word of God is pure; He is a shield unto them that put their trust in Him. Add thou not unto His words, lest He reprove thee, and thou be found a liar." Prov. xxx. 5, 6.

The other cause is the impatience of the reader. He cannot wait for an understanding of the text. He must know at once. So he rushes off to a commentary, or to some friend in whom he has confidence, and inquires for the meaning. Having received an answer, he thinks that he knows the meaning; but he does not. Even though the exact truth be told him, he does not know it. By and by some other commentator or friend will give him another explanation of the same text, and then his doubt is greater than before. The poor man sees that learned men differ, and he wonders, "How am I to know which is right?" He could not know, if he were to depend on the testimony of men, for he would never know what men to depend on. But he may know for a certainty, if he will let the Lord tell him.

"For the Lord giveth wisdom; out of His mouth cometh knowledge and understanding." Prov. ii. 6. The knowledge of God is found in His Word, and He alone can give the understanding. We do not get light upon the Word of God, but we get light from it. The Word itself is light. If at the first we do not perceive the light, that is no evidence that it is not there. It will be revealed to us if we look long enough.

"Ritualistic Theory" The Present Truth 12, 33.

E. J. Waggoner

According to the Ritualistic theory, the Church of England is the true Church in England, and the Roman Catholic the true Church on the Continent. Rev. R. C. Fillingham, Vicar of Hexton, has been showing how supremely absurd the position is. "Is it not ridiculous," he says, "childishly ridiculous, to be forced by one's theory to assert that a man will be damned at Dover for believing what he would be damned for not believing in Calais?"

"The Promises to Israel. The Time of the Promise" The Present Truth 12, 33.

E. J. Waggoner

We have Israel in Egypt, and we know something of what that signifies. The bondage, as well as the deliverance, had been foretold to Abraham when the covenant was made with him; and that covenant had been confirmed by an oath of God.

Now let us turn again to some of the words spoken by Stephen when, full of the Holy Ghost, he stood before the Jewish Council. He began his discourse by a positive proof that the resurrection was necessary to the fulfilment of the promise to Abraham; for having repeated the promise, he declared that Abraham had not so much as a foot-breadth of theland that was promised, although God had said that both he and his seed should possess it.

Since Abraham died without inheriting it, as did also a vast number of his descendants even those who, like him, had faith, the conclusion was inevitable that the fulfillment could be only through the resurrection. The only reason why so many of the Jews rejected the Gospel was that they persisted in ignoring the plain evidence of the Scriptures, that the promise to Abraham was not temporal, but eternal. Even so at the present time the belief that the promises to Israel convey an earthly and temporal inheritance, is incompatible with a full belief in Christ.

Stephen next recalled the word of the Lord to Abraham, that his seed should sojourn in a strange land, and be afflicted, and afterwards delivered. Then he said, "But when the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt." Acts vii. 17. Then followed the oppression, and the birth of Moses. What is meant by the drawing near of the time of the promise which God had sworn to Abraham? A brief review of some of the Scriptures already studied will make this question very clear.

In the account of the making of the covenant with Abraham we read the words of the Lord to him, "I am the Lord that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it." Then follow the details of the making of the covenant, and then the words, "Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; and also that nation whom they shall serve, will I judge; and afterwards they shall come out with great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again; for the iniquity of the Amorities is not yet full." Gen. xv. 13-16.

That covenant was afterwards sealed with circumcision, and then when Abraham had shown his faith by the offering up of Isaac, the Lord added His oath to the promise, saying, "By Myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son; that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies." Gen. xxii. 16, 17.

This is the only promise concerning which God swore to Abraham. It was a confirmation of the original promise. But, as we have already seen, it involved nothing less than the resurrection of the dead through Christ, who is the seed. "The last enemy that shall he destroyed is death," that the words of God by the prophet may be fulfilled, "I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death; O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction." Hosea xiii. 14. Not till then will the promise be fulfilled, which God swore to Abraham, for not till then will all his seed possess the gate of his enemies.

To the weeping mothers who mourned the loss of their children that had been slain by the command of Herod, the Lord said, "Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears; for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy. And there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again to their own border." Jer. xxxi. 16, 17. Only through the resurrection can the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob come again to their own border. This was indicated to Abraham when he was told that before his seed should possess the land they should be afflicted in a strange land, and that he should die; "but in the fourth generation they shall come hither again."

There can therefore be no doubt but that God designed that the return of Israel from Egyptian bondage should be the time of the resurrection and restoration of all

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things. The time of the promise drew nigh. How long it would have been after the going forth from Egypt, before the full restoration would have taken place, we have no means of knowing. There was of course much to be done in the way of warning the people of the earth; and the time depended upon the faithfulness of the children of Israel. We need not speculate upon how all things would have been fulfilled, since the Israelites were not faithful. All that concerns us now is the fact that the deliverance from Egypt meant nothing less than the complete deliverance of all God's people from the bondage of sin and death, and the restoration of all things as they were in the beginning.

"Peace and Safety!" The Present Truth 12, 33.

E. J. Waggoner

The general view of the condition of affairs throughout the world, given in the columns of almost any morning paper, is scarcely assuring, one would think, to those who look for men and nations to develop into perfection through their own efforts, and establish an earthly millennium.

The decision of the court as to the legal guilt of the South African raiders, and their condemnation to terms of imprisonment, only serves to emphasise the fact that the peace of that district which they disturbed shows no evidence, as yet, of being re-established. It seems to be now acknowledged that but for this abortive conspiracy, of which the ride of these raiders is the part now known to all the world, none of this native uprising with all its consequent slaughter, suffering, and disaster, would have occurred. The gusto with which the soldiery, in published letters, speak of hunting natives and shooting them down, shows a spirit just as ignorantly bloodthirsty as that of the wild Matabele themselves. An arid, infertile country, cattle plague, drouth, and locusts, all add to the unfavourable picture.

On the Nile and in the Soudan there is nothing to show as yet the approach of suspension of military operations; in the meantime, heat and cholera are even more destructive than the ferocious fighting Dervishes. In Crete nothing yet happens to stop the mutual slaughter that is going on. In Armenia, apparently, nothing will bring about a cessation of butchery but a lack of men, women, and children to murder. The sanguinary civil war in Cuba shows no signs of coming to an end. In Madagascar, despite the technical victory and possession by French arms, there is still war and violence.

Add to this the terrific catastrophes for which man is not responsible, such as earthquakes and tidal waves in the East, and the frightful storms which with increasing frequency devastate parts of America, and which have lately been felt in modified form in different places on the Continent,-take all these things into consideration-the forces of evil which are working in man and in nature,-and one wonders how men can think they see any possible chance for the amelioration of the condition of mankind, and the world, short of the personal intervention and second coming of the Saviour of mankind, according to His promise.

"Sights of the Battle-field" The Present Truth 12, 33.

E. J. Waggoner

So long as Christendom glorifies war, and so long as the religious world explains away the teachings of Christ in order to make it appear that the Christian can become a part of the machinery of this world's administration, and bear the sword, which is the symbol of political power, it will be necessary not only to repeat the doctrines of Christ, but to show what a hideous thing war is. It is so outrageous a thing that only one possessed by the very spirit of Satan could justify it if he knew what it is on the battle-field.

The editor of Good Words, Dr. Donald Macleod, prints a conversation he had with two German military men, who told him of some of the sights to be witnessed in battle. We do not apologise for printing such things, though they make terrible reading, for this is what nearly all Christendom seeks to justify every time the rights and integrity of the empire or country are threatened. It is only where the doctrine that men are bound to maintain their rights in this world must lead every one who does not recognise the higher right of living at peace with God which Christ's life illustrated for us. This is part of the interview with the two German officers, who were speaking of the late Franco-German war. And these are only a hasty glance at one or two incidents, repeated with variations all over the field of carnage:-

"It is terrible to think of it. Do you remember, W---, that at the bridge of Orleans? Himmel! what a thing it was! We had been cannonading the bridge and had driven the French across; but when following them up, when I reached the nearer end of the bridge, I saw there a French soldier propped up against the side of the bridge. All his stomach and entrails had been shot completely away, but he was alive and apparently conscious, and looked up at me with such a pleading look. What could I do? His wound was mortal-worse than mortal-it was hideous, so I called to an army doctor who was near me and said, 'For heaven's sake, give that poor man something which may put an end to his sufferings, for he cannot live, and it is too awful to leave him.' 'My duty, sir, is to save life, not to destroy it.' 'But you can't save him, and it will be the greatest mercy to give him release.' 'That, sir, I dare not do.' Well, there was nothing for it but to get a soldier's blanket and to tie it tight round him, and to give him something to wet his lips with, and, having done this as rapidly as we could, we left him; but I could not get over the look of his eye following me as I went away.

"And there was still a worse spectacle-if such there could be-at the other end of the bridge, for there was another soldier who had had a part of his skull shot away, and he was leaping in the air, as you may have seen a wounded hare do, leaping up and then tumbling down, leaping high up and then tumbling. 'Ach!' I said to the doctor once more, 'here is a still more fearful case. Give him something, do give him something to put him out of his agony.' 'It is impossible, sir, for me to do so.' What shall I do? I thought, but as I was thinking, he gave one great leap which sent him over the bridge into the water, and I was so thankful that he at last got release in death. . . .

"After the engagement I was sent out to visit the out-posts. Such a mission, after a great battle, forms one of the most trying of experiences. Never shall I forget those cries coming in the dark from every side, and heard over long stretches of country, from the woods, from the fields, from everywhere, always the same pitiful cry, 'Water! water!' in French and German, one piteous wail after another from the parched lips of the wounded. It was impossible to do more for them than we were doing, because the demands on the ambulances were so enormous, and the numbers of wounded not only great, but widely scattered. When riding along I came upon a great barn or shed, and, looking in, found it crammed with German and French wounded, poor fellows! all the bitterness of war was forgotten in the comradeship of a common suffering. It was shocking to see the various ways in which these brave men had been injured, and the ghastly methods in which they had tried to staunch their wounds, but worst of all were the loud entreaties for 'Water! water!' which came from all."

Oh, who but men incarnating the very spirit of demons could contemplate perpetrating such ghastly mutilations of their fellow men, who are of one blood, brothers, if they only recognised it. And what is it all about?-Rights of territory, trade,

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political rights, or some other such object. The Christian is entirely out of it all. Christendom is into it because it is overwhelmingly pagan and worldly in spirit, when Christians get out of the world-spirit they leave the contentions and methods of the world behind. All the kingdoms of this world are maintained by the sword. That is the reason why Christians, who are forbidden to take the sword, remain in this world merely as ambassadors of another kingdom, having no part in the quarrels and political animosities agitating those whose possessions and interests centre in the kingdom of men. We seek a better country, that is, an heavenly.

"A Pertinent Question" The Present Truth 12, 33.

E. J. Waggoner

A Pertinent Question .-The Missionary puts this pertinent question: "Would it not be well for even Christian people to study afresh those bits of wonderful missionary history from the Book of Acts? Paul is now a hero, and his name surrounded with a halo of glory. In every pulpit and in every Christian home his name and career are a watchword and an inspiration. Yet he lived that wonderful life amid human surroundings just like ours, and if he were here to-day, and proposed to go to Kucheng, China, or the New Hebrides, or the heart of Congo, how many, even of God's people, would cry, 'Tempting Providence! Why this waste?'"

"Poison in the Pot" The Present Truth 12, 33.

E. J. Waggoner

It is but a short time since a large seizure of tinned meats was made in London, under circumstances which showed that its unwholesome condition was well known to those who had purchased and were using it. From the surroundings it was also evident that a systematic business was being carried on in re-cooking, and so spicing and preparing this poisonous material as to conceal its dangerous character, and make it marketable to cheap eating-houses and dealers, to whom low price, rather than high quality, was the first consideration.

The lesson which should be learned from such an incident as this is emphasised by the following extract:-

In conversation with a Lloyd's reporter yesterday a London medical officer of health stated that the trade in poisonous foods was far more extensive than the public had any idea of. The mode of procedure by those engaged in the nefarious trade was for them or their agents to go round to the wholesale importers of tinned foods, and buy up all the cast-away tins damaged in transit. In some instances these buyers represented themselves as manure manufacturers; and when, on that distinct understanding, they acquired possession of the tins, they set to work to sort and re-sell the best of them and make the contents of others up into "soups" or "potted meats." The tins were easily known by the traders by being bulged out with the air, but some of the dealers had a method of expelling the air, and then soldering over the small pin-holes, which unless looked for easily escaped the notice of buyers. Sometimes the meat went bad through being undercooked and improperly tinned abroad, but bad importations were easily detected. The public would be surprised to know at what a cheap rate this putrid meat was bought, and how, in many instances, it was treated with chemicals, spices, or condiment, and sold all over the country as "potted meat" or soup. Tradesmen were often imposed upon, and bought stock only to find themselves compelled to destroy it. The evil was so great and so much unsuspected sickness was caused by it, added the officer, that he believed he might with certainty say it would have to be sternly grappled with in the near future by the authorities.

"The Meat Bill" The Present Truth 12, 33.

E. J. Waggoner

The total quantity of dead meat, including rabbits, imported into Great Britain in the month of May last was 5,458,002cwt., as compared with 4,907,800 cwt. and 4,301,394cwt. for the corresponding periods of 1895 and 1894. For meat imported alive we have paid in the last five months ?4,414,091, and for dead meat, including poultry and game, ?10,183,332.

When it is remembered that this represents the meat bill for imported meats alone, it will be seen that the people pay out a large sum during the year for flesh foods. What would be the difference in the price of food and the condition of nourishment which the people would show if all this money, as well as the time and money spent in producing flesh food, were expended on grains, fruits, and vegetables?

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 33.

E. J. Waggoner

-The Czar is to visit Paris in October.

-Affairs in Crete are going from bad to worse. A Mussulman force pillaged Heraklion last week.

-The Matabele forces sustained a severe defeat in their stronghold last week, with a loss of about 300.

-Dock and ship labourers are meditating an international strike if their terms are not accepted.

-A newspaper paragraph reports that a man has been fined for betting in the streets of London on Sunday.

-It is said that camel meat, supplied from Algona, is now being consumed in Paris. The hump is said to be the choicest cut.

-The tidal wave, which recently destroyed 4,000 lives in the Chinese coast, is said to have travelled at the rate of 550 miles per hour.

-The East, End of London has been suffering from water famine, the water company failing to get, sufficient supply for domestic use. Disease has greatly increased.

-The Cuban insurgents have eighty thousand men under them. Spain is making preparations to send several thousand soldiers to reinforce her forces already in Cuba.

-Fish have been discovered in an artesian well sunk some time ago in the desert of Sahara. They are of a variety of carp which live at a depth of two hundred to five hundred feet, and could not have been brought there across the desert.

-The weekly census of metropolitan paupers, taken at the instance of the London Local Government Board, shows that on the last day of the fourth week of July there was within the metropolitan area a total of 97,011 paupers who were in the receipt of relief.

-A whirlwind, quite limited in influence but of considerable force, lately occurred on the sea-front at Eastbourne. Several row-boat, were carried into the air and blown about like paper. A number of people were thrown down or carried along by the wind, but no one seriously injured.

-If we can tryst the telegraphic statement, the most enormous meteorite ever yet reported fell to the earth last month in the district of Chihuahua, Mexico. It is said to have struck the side of a mountain that fell, bringing down with it in its course . . .as of the cliffs, and finally plunging many feet into the ground. It destroyed the house of a miner, killing his two children. This is not the first ease on record in which a meteorite has destroyed a house.

-Two ocean steamers have reached port lately much buffeted era battered. The stories which both tell are quite striking. In southern aims the steamship Seminole ran into a school of whales, and was attacked by them, coming out of the conflict with battered sides and inner furnishings upset and broken by the force of the concussions from the blows of charging whales. In the North Atlantic the steamer Etolia fell in with a school of icebergs, from collision with which it suffered severely.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 33.

E. J. Waggoner

We have received from the Calcutta branch of our Society some new literature in the Bengali language.

Notwithstanding the German Emperor's advice to preachers to stick to their pulpits and keep out of politics, the "Christian Socialist" party seems to be growing and active.

A new edition of the little work, "Who Changed the Sabbath?" Quoting a Catholic and Protestant testimony has recently been prepared. The price is 1d., by post 1 1/2nd.

The late Cardinal Manning was a humane and naturally kind-hearted man, and these qualities as a man only throw in a clear relief his sentiments as an ecclesiastical. Possessed by the spirit of the Papacy, which, having no hope of a kingdom in the world to come, is struggling for a place amongst the kingdoms of this world, the Cardinal once told Mr. Price Hughes that "he would be willing to deluge the whole of Europe with blood in order to destroy the unity of Italy, and recover the temporal power of the Pope." To such lengths an evil principle will drive the one who is dominated by it.

While here and there the ancient Sunday law of Charles II. is being enforced, at Manchester it seems it is realised that there is something incongruous either in the law or its enforcement, as is shown by the following newspaper paragraph:

Manchester City Council yesterday referred back to the Watch Committee for further consideration a resolution recommending that no proceedings be taken against barbers to open their shops on the Sunday. The chairman of the committee said they had found it impossible to get convictions for Sunday trading by the magistrates. The whole question ought to be dealt with under a new Act, that of Charles II. having become obsolete.

The trouble with this aged Act of Charles II. is not so much that it is obsolete as that it is, and always was incongruous with justice and true religion. The question ought not to be dealt with under a new Act, however obsolete the old may have become, for the reason that it is not a question for legal action at all,-and it is because this is so that the Act of Charles II. has become so nearly obsolete as it has.

At the recent great conference of Wesleyan Methodists it was stated by those in touch with the people in various districts of England that betting and gambling had become almost as terrible a curse throughout the country as the drink evil. The mad rage for amusements was also an increasing evil. Good words were spoken as to the necessity of personal Gospel work in fighting these evils, which legislation can scarcely touch.

In 1882 the Queen of Madagascar officially proclaimed Christianity the religion of the country. But the proclamation made no one a Christian. The preaching of the Word by consecrated missionaries has brought many to the knowledge of the Lord, but multitudes of those who were only officially "Christians" have taken advantage of the overturn of affairs to act out the innate paganism of their natures. A missionary of the Norwegian Mission says of the present conditions:-

The people are rebelling against the French in several places and murdering many Europeans. It is not only a rebellion against the French authorities, but also a rising against Christianity. The old idols are restored, the churches burned, and missionaries, as well as their faithful adherents, persecuted and killed. Churches and school-houses are burned, Bibles and other books destroyed.

An organisation called the National Federation of Afro-American Women has just been formed in the United States. At its first annual convention, held in Washington, Mrs. Douglas Sprague, a sister of the late Frederick Douglas (and, by the way, a member of the Washington Seventh-day Adventist church) in speaking for her race expressed these practical needs, as quoted by the Christian World:-

Our wants are numerous. We want homes in which purity can be taught, not hovels that are police-court feeders; we want industrial schools where labour of all kinds is taught, enabling our boys and girls to become skilled in the trades; we want the dram shop closed; we want the pool rooms and gambling dens of every variety swept out of existence; we want kindergartens and schools established; we want reform schools for our girls in such cities where the conscience of the white Christian is not elastic enough to take in the negro child.

"The End Coming" The Present Truth 12, 33.

E. J. Waggoner

The End Coming .-"He shall come to his end, and none shall help him," is the prophetic assurance regarding the Ottoman Power in the latter days. Weakening everywhere, the end even now hastens. Says a morning paper:-

While this power and that is straining its diplomatic energies to preventing the disruption of the Turkish dominion it is breaking up before the eyes of all men. And one of these days we shall find that but one Power is ready to face the catastrophe. What that Power is our readers need not be conformed.

But the triumph of that great Power will be short-lived, for the prophet says: "At that time. . . there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation." Then follows the end, not only the Ottoman Power, but of all the kingdoms of men, and the coming of the Lord and the resurrection. Dan. xii. 1-3.

"'For the Truth'" The Present Truth 12, 33.

E. J. Waggoner

"For the Truth." -Last week we mentioned the fact that three Seventh-day Adventists have been committed to gaol in Tennessee for Sunday work. About the same time another was released from the same gaol, having served his time for the like "crime" of refusing to observe Sunday. Rather, he had, by mistake of the authorities, served thirty days more than the legal time. Of his case the New York American Sentinel says:-

The Scripture declaration that "we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth," is illustrated in the action of the Tennessee authorities against J. W. Lewis, just released from Tiptonville Gaol. It appears from his own statement, made in a private letter, that three of his fellow-prisoners have been converted and commenced the observance of the Sabbath, as the result of his association with them in bonds. This must seem rather discouraging to the authorities.

"The Tares" The Present Truth 12, 33.

E. J. Waggoner

The Tares .-In the late work of Mr. Gladstone, entitled "Studies Subsidiary to Butler's Works," occurs the following sentence, in reply to the question as to whether human character is developing for good or ill:-

The cruelty of Christians is more cruel; the lust of Christians is more lustful; the animal greed of Christians is tenfold more greedy; and the pre-Christian times afford us no panorama of Mammon worship to compare for a moment with our own. The luxury and the worldliness of old were but child's play in relation to those of modern times.

This is a true indictment of false Christianity. He who is the father of all falsehoods is the father of it. The evil and the good, the wheat and the tears, must grow together until the harvest. As they develop and ripen they must become more and more like their Master whose purposes they serve. The evil will grow more Satanic, the righteous will develop into purer, nobler, and more Godlike lives.

August 20, 1896

"Thine Is the Kingdom" The Present Truth 12, 34.

E. J. Waggoner

"Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen." Matt. vi. 13.

This is an everlasting truth, for the Lord Himself has spoken it; yet to how many who daily utter the words are they little more than a form of speech. As a matter of fact, it is a confession, which, if made with the spirit and with the understanding, brings the soul into the closest and most perfect relation to God.

The kingdom belongs to God. How exhaustive is it? "The Lord hath prepared His throne in the heavens, and His kingdom ruleth over all." Ps. ciii. 19. "The Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before Him." Hab. ii. 20. "The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein." Ps. xxiv. 1. "The Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will." Dan. iv. 17. "For God is the King of all the earth; sing ye praises with understanding. God reigneth over the heathen; God sitteth upon the throne of His holiness." Ps. xlvii. 7, 8. Wherever in the universe created beings can look up and see a canopy of space above them, there is God's kingdom. Read Ps. cxxxix. 1-12.

People in general do not recognise God as universal King, but that makes no difference with the fact. A portion of God's dominion is in rebellion against Him; but that does not destroy the fact that the kingdom is His by right. Many people worship gods of their own making, but that does not destroy the fact that there is but one God. In the beginning God gave the dominion of this earth to man (Gen. i. 27), but He did not thereby renounce His right to it. God is the King of kings, and it pleased Him to rule this portion of this dominion through man, whom He had made in His image. Man was to be simply the agent through whom God would manifest His power on earth. The fact that man has refused to be the instrument of God's will, does not in the least impair God's original and eternal right to the kingdom.

But our confession to God comes closer home. When the unbelieving Pharisees demanded that Jesus should tell when the kingdom of God should come, he replied: "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation; neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for behold, the kingdom of God is within you." Luke xvii. 20, 21.

There is a story of a king who visited a school and questioned the pupils. Taking

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up a paper weight, he asked them to what kingdom it belonged. They replied, "To the mineral kingdom." Then pointing to a plant, he asked the same question, and they said, "To the vegetable kingdom." Then he asked, "To what kingdom do I belong?" The children were afraid to say that he belonged to the animal kingdom, and, as they hesitated, one said, "To God's kingdom." That was a truth, for every created thing in the universe belongs to God's kingdom, and there is but one law for all, namely, God's law.

Some one will say, "But God does not rule in wicked men's hearts." Quite true, because His rule is love, which they reject; but the fact remains that every human heart is God's rightful kingdom. His right is demonstrated by the fact that "He giveth to all life, and breath, and all things," "For in Him we live, and move, and have our being." Acts xvii. 25, 28. It was with His life alone that we live, for we have none of our own; and since the life belongs to Him, He alone has the right to direct it.

That which may be known of God, that is, "His eternal power and Godhead" is manifest in men, even in the heathen, as well as in all the things that God has made. Rom. i. 19, 20. But men, unlike the trees of the field, "hold down the truth in unrighteousness," choosing rather to be their own masters than to allow God to rule. But "the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." Jer. x. 23. Man has no more power in himself than the grass of the field has, and therefore when he attempts to rule the kingdom himself, he makes a sad failure.

Who alone has the right to rule?-He to whom the kingdom belongs. So when we say to the Lord, "Thine is the kingdom," we acknowledge that He alone has the right to rule, not only in our hearts, but in all the earth. But if we truly acknowledge the fact, we yield the kingdom fully to His control.

Just here is where many make a fatal mistake. They say, "The kingdom is the Lord's, but people in general will not acknowledge it, therefore we must compel them to submit to Him." Such a course as that is virtually a denial of the fact that the kingdom is the Lord's. To say the least, God is as able to use force as we are, and if He wished people to be forced to submit to Him, He would do it. The fact that He does not compel people to serve Him, is sufficient evidence that He does not wish man to seek to do so. His law is love, and therefore force is in direct opposition to His kingdom.

All that we are called upon to do, no matter who we may be, is to acknowledge God's right to the kingdom. Whoever acknowledges that the kingdom-that is, all mankind, including himself-belongs to God, will very naturally refrain from attempting to rule any part of it. He to whom the kingdom belongs has the sole right to rule, and if we are sincere in our acknowledgement of God's right, we will not meddle with His affairs. We will leave Him to deal with other people as He sees best. By acknowledging His right to rule all the kingdom, we ourselves disclaim the right to rule any portion of it, even to our own lives. The only part of the kingdom, however, that we can yield up to God, is ourselves. When we have done this, then we may tell others how good His rule is, and persuade them also to yield to His dominion.

There is strength in the heartfelt confession, "Thine is the kingdom," for God is able to protect His own. The battle is not ours, but His to whom we belong-"the King of glory." "Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle." In His hand is power and might, so that none is able to withstand Him. His thoughts toward us are thoughts of peace, and He desires nothing so much as our welfare both here and in eternity. What a blessed thing to know that "the Lord is our Judge, the Lord is our Lawgiver, the Lord is our King; he will save us."

"The Rival Popes" The Present Truth 12, 34.

E. J. Waggoner

At a time when the Papacy was preparing to destroy Wycliffe, and silence his testimony, the papal agents had their attention distracted, and the Reformer was granted a little time for quiet work, by the great schism in the Papacy which exhibited to the world two Popes, each anathematising the other as antichrist. Wiley thus describes the origin and history of the schism:-

"On the seventh of April, 1378, the cardinals assembled in the Quirinal to elect a successor to Gregory. The majority of the sacred college being Frenchmen, the Roman populace, fearing that they would place one of their own nation in the vacant chair, and that the Pontifical court would again retire to Avignon, gathered round the palace where the cardinals were met, and with loud tumult and terrible threats demanded a Roman for their Pope. Not a cardinal should leave the hall alive, so did the rioters threaten, unless the request was complied with. An Italian, the Archbishop of Bari, was chosen; the mob was soothed, and instead of stoning the cardinals it saluted them with 'Vivas.' But the new Pope was austere, penurious, tyrannical, and selfish; the cardinals soon became disgusted, and escaping from Rome they met and elected a Frenchman-Robert, Bishop of Geneva-for the tiara, declaring the former election null on the plea that the choice had been made under compulsion. Thus was created the famous schism in the papal chair, which for a full half-century divided and scandalised the papal world.

"Christendom now saw, with feelings bordering on affright, two Popes in the chair of Peter. Which was the true vicar, and which carried the key that alone could open and shut the gates of Paradise? This became the question of the age, and a most momentous question it was to men who believed that their eternal salvation hung upon its solution. Consciences were troubled; council was divided against council; bishop battled with bishop; and kings and governments were compelled to take part in the quarrel. Germany and England, and some of the smaller States in the centre of Europe, sided with the first-elected pope, who took possession of the Vatican under the title of Urban VI. Spain, France, and Scotland espoused the cause of the second, who installed himself at Avignon under the name of Clement VII. Thus, as the first dawn of the Gospel day was breaking on Christendom, God clave the papal head in twain, and divided the papal world."

"In an Unknown Tongue" The Present Truth 12, 34.

E. J. Waggoner

The Bohemian churches were missioned from the East, and had received from the Greek Church the custom of conducting their services in the tongue of the people, at a time when Rome was shutting away the Word of God by insisting that the public service should be in Latin. In 1079 Pope Gregory the Great issued an order requiring the Bohemians to conform to this practice, telling them that "after long study of the Word of God, he had come to see that it was pleasing to the Omnipotent that His worship should be celebrated in an unknown language, and that many evils and heresies had arisen from not observing this rule."

One wonders what portion of the Word the great Gregory found on which to base his conclusion that God liked to have people address them in a language which none of them could understand.

"The Promises to Israel. 'The Reproach of Christ'" The Present Truth 12, 34.

E. J. Waggoner

"By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt." Heb. xi. 24, 25.

Here we are told most positively that the treasures of Egypt were the pleasures of sin; that refusing the treasures of Egypt was to refuse to live in sin; that to cast in one's lot with the Israelites, was to suffer the reproach of Christ. This demonstrates that Christ was the real leader of that people, and that that which had been promised them, and to share which they were to be delivered from Egypt, was to be theirs only through Him, and that, too, through His reproach. Now the reproach of Christ is the cross. Thus we are again brought face to face with the fact that the seed of Abraham,-the true Israel,-are those who are Christ's through faith in His blood.

Very few stop to think what it was that Moses gave up for the sake of Christ. He was the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter, and was heir to the throne of Egypt. All the treasures of Egypt were therefore at his command. He "was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds." Acts vii. 22. The crown prince, a scholar, a general, and an orator, with every flattering worldly prospect open before him,-he gave up everything to cast in his lot with a despised class of people for the sake of Christ.

He "refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter." That implies that he was urged to retain his position. It was in the face of opposition that he gave up his worldly prospects, and chose to suffer affliction with the people of God. We cannot over-estimate the contempt with which his action would be regarded, nor the epithets of scorn that must have been heaped upon him, among which that of "fool" must have been the mildest. When people in these days are called upon to accept an unpopular truth at the expense of their position, it will be well for them to remember the case of Moses.

What led him to make the "sacrifice?" "He had respect unto the recompense of the reward." It was not merely that he sacrificed present position for the hope of something better in the future. No; he got more than an equivalent as he went along. He esteemed the reproach of Christ, of which he had a full share, greater riches than the treasures in Egypt. That shows that he knew the Lord. He understood the sacrifice of Christ for man, and he simply chose to share it. He could not have done this if he had not known much of the joy of the Lord. That alone could strengthen him in such a case. Probably no other man has ever sacrificed so great worldly prospects for the sake of Christ, and therefore we may be sure that Moses had such knowledge of Christ and his work as few other men have ever had. The step that he took is evidence that he already knew much of the Lord; the sharing of the reproach and the sufferings of Christ must have made very close the bond of sympathy between the two.

When Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, he did it for the sake of Christ and the Gospel. But his case, like that of Jacob, as well as of many others, shows that the most sincere believers often have much to learn. God calls men to His work, not because they are perfect, but in order that He may give them the necessary training for it. At the first Moses had to learn what thousands of professed Christians have not yet learned in this age. He had to learn that "the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God." James i. 20.

He had to learn that the cause of God is never advanced by human methods; that "the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." 2 Cor. x. 4, 5.

"And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel. And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian; for he supposed that his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them; but they understood not. And the next day he showed himself unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, ye are brethren; Why do ye wrong one to another? But he that did his neighbour wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us? Wilt thou kill me, as thou diddest the Egyptian yesterday? Then fled Moses at this saying, and was a stranger in the land of Midian, where he begat two sons." Acts vii. 23-29.

It was true that the Lord designed that the people of Israel should be delivered by the hand of Moses. Moses himself knew this, and he supposed that his brethren would also understand the matter. But they did not. His attempt to deliver them was a sad failure, and the reason for the failure lay in him as much as in them. They did not understand that God would deliver them by his hand; he understood that fact, but he had not yet learned the

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method. He supposed that the deliverance was to be affected by force; that under his generalship the children of Israel were to rise and conquer their oppressors. But that was not the Lord's way. The deliverance which God had planned for His people was such a deliverance as could not be gained by human efforts.

By this failure of Moses we learn much as to the nature of the work which God proposed to do for the Israelites, and of the inheritance to which he was about to lead them. If it had been a deliverance from mere physical bondage that He designed for them, and if they were to be led only to an earthly, temporal inheritance, then it might possibly have been accomplished in the way that Moses began. The Israelites were numerous, and under the generalship of Moses they might have conquered. That is the way in which earthly possessions are gained. History affords many instances in which a small people threw off the yoke of a great one. But God had promised to Abraham and his seed a heavenly inheritance, and not an earthly, and therefore it could be gained only through heavenly agencies.

LABOUR TROUBLES AND THEIR REMEDY

At the present day we find very much the same conditions that existed in the case of the children of Israel. Surely the "sweating system" prevailed at that time as much as it ever has since. Long hours, hard work, and little or no pay, was the rule. Capital has never oppressed labour more than at that time, and the natural thought of the oppressed then, as now, was that the only way to secure their rights was to meet force with force. But man's way is not God's way; and God's way is the only right way. No one can deny that the poor are grossly abused and trodden down; but very few of them are willing to accept God's method of deliverance. No one can condemn the oppression of the poor by the rich any more strongly than it is done in the Bible, for God is the poor man's friend.

The Lord cares for the poor and the afflicted. He has identified Himself so closely with them that whosoever gives to the poor is considered as lending to the Lord. Jesus Christ was on this earth as a poor man, so that "he that oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker." Prov. xiv. 31. "The Lord heareth the poor." Ps. lxix. 33. "The needy shall not alway be forgotten; the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever." Ps. ix. 15. "The Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted,and the right of the poor." Ps. cxl. 12. "For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the Lord; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him." Ps. xii. 5. "Lord, who is like unto Thee, which deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him, yea, the poor and the needy from him that spoileth him?" Ps. xxxv. 10. With the Almighty God so interested in their case, what a pity it is that the poor are so ill-advised as to seek to right their own wrongs.

The Lord says: "Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your old and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth; and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just, and he doth not resist you." James v. 1-6.

This is a terrible indictment against the oppressors of the poor, and those who have

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defrauded them of their rightful wages. It is also a promise of sure judgment against them. The Lord hears the cry of the poor, and He does not forget. Every act of oppression He considers as directed against Himself. But when the poor take matters into their own hands, meeting monopoly with monopoly, and force with force, they put themselves in the same class with their oppressors, and thus deprive themselves of the good offices of God in their behalf.

To the rich oppressors God says, "Ye have condemned and killed the just, and he doth not resist you." The injunction, "I say unto you, That ye resist not evil," means just that, and nothing else; and it is not out of date. It is just as applicable to-day as it was eighteen hundred years ago. The world has not changed in its character; the greed of men is the same now as then; and God is the same. Those who heed that injunction, God calls "the just." The just do not resist when they are unjustly condemned and defrauded, and even killed.

"But how then can there ever be any remedy for these wrongs, if the poor suffer even to death?" Listen further to what the Lord says to the poor themselves. He is not ashamed to call them brethren, and He says, "Be patient, therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." James v. 7, 8.

The coming of the Lord is the time when all oppression shall cease. The trouble is that, like Esau, people do not have faith nor patience to wait. So a lesson is drawn from the farmer. He sows his seed, and does not become impatient because he does not reap the harvest the same day. He has long patience in waiting for the fruit of the earth. "The harvest is the end of the world." Matt. xiii. 39. Then those who have committed their cause to the Lord will receive ample return for their trust and patience. Then will be proclaimed claimed liberty throughout all the land, and to all the inhabitants thereof.

That which makes known this deliverance, and which gives even now the joy of it, although grievous trials oppress, is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. The worldly-wise scoff at the preaching of the Gospel as the remedy for the labour troubles of the present day. But the labour troubles of to-day are no greater than they were in the days of Moses; and the proclamation of the Gospel was the only means that God then approved of and used for their betterment. When Christ came, the strongest proof of the Divinity of His mission was that the Gospel was preached to the poor. Matt. xi. 5. He knew the needs of the poor as no other ever can, and His remedy was the Gospel. There are possibilities in the Gospel that have scarcely been dreamed of as yet. The right understanding of the inheritance which the Gospel promises can alone make man patient under earthly oppression.

"An Important Difference" The Present Truth 12, 34.

E. J. Waggoner

An Important Difference .-Dr. Gordon was once asked the secret of his power as a soul winner, and replied: "I used to pray for the baptism of power that I might be a successful preacher. I used to try to use the Holy Spirit. Now I let the Holy Spirit use me." He here makes a very fine distinction, but an all-important one. It is so easy for zeal to attempt to make of the Lord a servant; to talk and act as though the Lord were in duty bound to carry out the will of His servants instead of His servants being subject to His will.

"Development of Religious Law" The Present Truth 12, 34.

E. J. Waggoner

What is the origin of the present development of human law for the enforcement of religion? Paul asked the Thessalonians if they did not remember that when he was with them he had told them of these things; and that they should let no man deceive them, for there should be a falling away and the man of sin be revealed, by whom the mystery of iniquity was already, even at that time, working.

The Thessalonians were to remember-and are we to forget that this was said to them?-that God was to be opposed, and there should be one who would exalt himself above God, and should, from the very temple of God itself, attempt to show that he was himself God. They were told not to forget-and are we to fail to remember?-that the iniquitous workings, then begun in secret, should at length be revealed, and that which was planned in secrecy should finally be proclaimed on the housetops.

Here was the origin of human laws for the enforcement of religion, and this subtle deceivableness of unrighteousness, which is now working with power and signs and lying wonders, is the mystery of the deeds of sin of that wicked one who will be consumed and destroyed by fire out of heaven in that last great and terrible day of the Lord.

This wicked one still works in secret and his deeds are yet a mystery to most-but not to all. That mysterious antichristian influence which has permeated the world-has invaded and corrupted churches-has, with consummate tact and diplomacy, insinuated itself into civil councils and dominated governments-is not now utterly unknown and unrecognised.

Prophecy has pointed out the progress of the mystery of iniquity, and history has recorded the fulfilment and realisation of prophecy step by step, and emphasised each prophetic milestone by such unmistakable inscriptions that the most ignorant may read and comprehend. The line of march of the mysterious commander of the forces of Antichrist is marked by ever increasing inroads into the confines of true religion and civil justice; while pagan observances are added to, or mingled with, methods of worship, and practice, until they become accepted forms. Those who have resisted the encroachments of evil, and remain true to the teachings of Christ and the apostles, acknowledging no rival authority, and submitting their lives to no rule but that of God and His Word, have, at the behest of this commander, filled the cells of the Inquisition, suffered under its instruments of torture, fed the flames with their flesh, and soaked the earth with their blood.

The same spirit of fraud, and violence, and force, and cruelty, and injustice, is still at work. Its field of operations is not circumscribed. It is not confined to the battle-grounds of former campaigns. Fresh fields of conquest have been opened in new worlds. The same tactics which have been so successful in former ages are still in vogue, in forms modified to suit changed and social and political conditions. Religious observances, pagan and idolatrous in character, have been ingrafted into the accepted religious formality. These observances have grown and developed until they overshadow the real purpose of religion, and take the place, in the minds of their devotees, of true religion itself. The test of a profession of religion has, oftentimes, become the acceptance of the popular and accepted forms of superficial and fashionable devotion.

Not infrequently they who occupy the highest seat in the synagogue ignore Christ and His teachings, and, although they profess to accept the Word of God, deny the

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authority of its precepts, and affirm the authority of the traditions of men.

The pulpit has been set in the open doorway of the temple of Janus. While it remains there those doors can never be shut. From such a pulpit the gospel of force must be preached. From such a pulpit but the soldier and the police constable will be accredited emissaries. Such a gospel does not persuade or convert, it subjugates; it does not convict sin, it establishes the sinner in an hypocrisy which covers people with an affectation of good, and imputes evil were good is.

"Prayers for the Dead" The Present Truth 12, 34.

E. J. Waggoner

The revival of ultra-Catholic practices in the Church of England continues. Speaking of the increase of prayers for the dead in that Church, the English Churchman says:-

The Guild of All Souls exists for the special purpose of organising prayers for the dead. Every month, according to its own printed statements, Masses are said for the "faithful departed." The notorious Society of St. Osmund has published a pamphlet on the subject, dealing with a variety of details, and suggesting the desirability of setting apart paid Mortuary Priests! The Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament offers Masses for the dead yearly, as does the English Church Union. As instances of the spreading influence of this mischievous propaganda, it may be added that the usage of praying for the dead has been openly advocated in the pulpits of St. Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey, while at its recent Diocesan Conference the Archbishop of Canterbury expressed a sympathetic opinion on the practice.

Much as Evangelicals deprecate the practice, it is a fact that when they stoutly maintain the doctrine of man's natural immortality they build up the foundation of error on which rest those other Romish doctrines-prayers for the dead, invocation of saints, and purgatory.

The only safeguard against these dealings with the dead, and against Spiritualism is that Word which reveals the only source of life, and which declares that the departed "sleep in the dust of the earth" until the awakening of the resurrection. This is the testimony from one end of the Bible to the other. But the mythology of ancient heathen religions peopled a fabulous region with the souls of the dead, and the living sought to the dead for knowledge and offered sacrifices for them and to them. The same notions came into the church in the days of apostasy, and are to-day responsible for this propaganda which is making such headway in the Church of England.

"'Their Flesh Shall Ye Not Eat'" The Present Truth 12, 34.

E. J. Waggoner

Some interest has lately been aroused by a mysterious case of poisoning at an English country house, where the entire corps of servants, eight or more in number, were made very ill from eating rabbit pie, one of the number dying.

The Daily Chronicle commenting upon this says:-

"Any doubt cast upon the wholesomeness of the rabbit as an article of food will alarm a very large proportion of the humbler population of this country. Thanks to the reproductive habits of the rabbit itself, and also to the fact that it serves as an object of sport to so many people, its flesh forms one of the cheapest articles of animal food. Dr. Stevenson, however, the eminent analyst to the Home Office, stated in his evidence at the inquest on the servant who died of eating rabbit-pie, that in the course of his experience he had found large numbers of live rabbits affected with micro-organisms to such an alarming extent that they frequently died in consequence. The organisms, he added, were generally killed by cooking, but this could not be taken as a safeguard."

In the eleventh chapter of Leviticus may be found the word of the Lord Himself to Moses directing him as to what animals were fit for food and what were not. This is the counsel of Him who created these animals, therefore no more competent expert testimony could possibly be had. In the sixth verse of this chapter the hare is especially mentioned as being unfit for food, and the eighth verse says, "of their flesh shall ye not eat, and their carcass shall ye not touch: they are unclean to you." The prohibition even of contact with the dead body of these animals would seem to suppose a possible condition of poisonous virulence, which, in the light of investigations of modern science, we know would be accompanied by the very condition which Dr. Stevenson names.

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 34.

E. J. Waggoner

-In making experiments to test the varying currents of air, at different heights, a kite has lately been flown to the altitude of one and twoflf the miles.

-The German Inventor who was thought to have found at last a flying machine was killed by a fall from a height of about 100 feet while testing his invention.

-Southern Spain has been troubled lately by whole districts being ravaged by brigands. The hard times have driven many of the peasantry to a life of brigandage.

-The Blackburn Chamber of Commerce has sent a mission to China to work in the Interests of the Lancashire cotton trade. The mission in expects to spend three years in its work.

-For the second time this summer serious floods, causing much damage, have occurred In different parts of Switzerland. The Canton of Basel it said to have especially suffered.

-The different censuses of church goers in Newcastle, taken since 1851, show the increase in population of that city to be about six times greater proportionately than the increase in the number of church-goers.

-Numerous fatalities are reported from the Alps, which furnish every year a list of victims. It is strange that people will climb in dangerous places, where there is no reason for going except that it is adventuresome.

-According to a census of Great Britain, lately published, the population of her African colonies and dependencies of 4,035,669, while that of her protectorates, or spheres of influence, is 25,504,374, making a total of 29,540,048.

-Greek insurgents in Macedonia are advancing constantly, driving Turkish troops before them. The feeling in Greece is so intense that the Government has been compelled to cease its efforts to forcibly hinder its subjects from going privately to the relief of the Cretans. Rumour now has it that Russia and England are approaching an understanding by which they hope to restore order in the near East.

-The second week in August was one of unparalleled heat throughout portions of North America. In New York and Chicago large numbers of men and horses died from the effects of the heat. Two hundred persons are reported to have been struck down in one day in New York,-three hundred and sixty-nine died from sunstroke during six days. Hundreds of horses are said to have died. Central Europe has also been suffering from an unusual hot wave.

-The first part of the Report of the Royal Commission on Vaccination recommends that the operation of vaccination shall not be insisted upon when a parent tasked a written declaration of his objection to it. In part two the majority urge new methods of procedure, and insist upon the employment of calf lymph. In part three the minority wholly discountenance any State or public interference with a parent as regards vaccination. The report, as a whole, approves of vaccination.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 34.

E. J. Waggoner

The state of anarchy in Madagascar is said to be unparalleled. Over three hundred churches have been burned, and missionaries have fled from outlying stations to the large centres.

The Rector of Hutton writes to the Church Review, "as an English Priest and son of a Bishop," urging that the English Church should accept the doctrines of papal infallibility and the immaculate conception in order to facilitate complete reunion with Rome.

Arbitration is much talked of nowadays. The Bible suggests a court which will keep the Christian altogether out of disputes. "Let the peace of God rule [arbitrate, literally] in your hearts." Col. iii. 15. Where this arbitration is allowed no third party is necessary to find terms of peace.

The remarkable fulfilment of prophecy in the ruins of Nineveh, Tyre, Babylon, and in the history of ancient empires cannot fail to convince every open mind of the truth of Revelation. A well illustrated booklet, called "The Testimony of the Centuries," issued by our publishers, calls attention to these facts of prophecy and history. Price 1d., by post, 1 1/2nd.

Three hundred French priests meet at Rheims next week to form an active "Christian Socialist" party. Socialistic theories are all abroad and the Church of Rome has long given evidence of a desire to turn the movement to the advantage of the Catholic Church. The temper of the times favours the tyranny of the majority over the individual, and when ecclesiasticism is able to dominate the majority it will be as well able to place its mark upon all men as ever it was in the days when it worked through kings and princes instead of the democracy.

That well-known missionary traveller Mrs. Isabella Bishop, has lately been travelling in the extreme Western Provinces of China. In some provinces she found the hostility to missionaries and Europeans astonishingly intense, the feeling having greatly increased since the provinces were forced to pay large sums as compensation for mission property destroyed in the riots two years ago. It is a very short-sighted policy for missionaries to apply to governments to punish their enemies. Paul had many hard experiences, but we never hear of his appealing for the punishment of those who wronged and mobbed him because he preached the Gospel.

"Sunday Baking" The Present Truth 12, 34.

E. J. Waggoner

Sunday Baking. -It seems that in Broad-street a Jewish baker has lived and carried on his business for many years. This Jewish baker's yeast works, and his bread rises, and his fire burns, and his oven bakes on Sundays,-therefore the London District of the Amalgamated Society of Bakers sent its spy, at four o'clock Sunday morning, to look through a basement window and see this forbidden industry of the yeast, the dough, the fire, the oven, and the Jew, and to report the same to the magistrate. The baker's solicitor explained that the defendant was a Jew, that he had not baked his bread upon the Sabbath, and that he had baked bread for years on Sunday, and it was necessary that those who neither baked nor bought on the Sabbath should buy on Sunday. But the reply of the magistrate was that "by the Act the baking of bread on Sunday mornings was forbidden. The defendant would therefore have to pay a fine of 10s. with 4s. costs, and he would advise him not to offend again." There is a grim humour about all this, the ponderous title of the prosecutor, the loitering spy in the grey of the morning, the application of the law irrespective of justice, and the gratuitous warning of the magistrate which is suggestive of history.

As a parallel to the case of the London baker referred to in another paragraph, we make mention that our American exchanges say that the enemies of the Sabbath in the wilds of Tennessee, after sending three male Sabbath-keepers to prison, have been trying "to secure indictments against some of the women and larger children for doing the family washing on Sunday" in their country homes. From New Zealand and Australia, across America, and eastward to Russia, every nation is giving proof of having partaken of the wine of Roman apostasy, and all are moving simultaneously to revive Sunday laws. Prophecy is truly fulfilling.

"Sabbath Essays" The Present Truth 12, 34.

E. J. Waggoner

Sabbath Essays .-The "Sabbath Observance Society," Edinburgh, offers to all Y.M.C.A. and Y.W.C.A. members an opportunity of winning a bronze medal for essays on the Sabbath. The Society requires that the following admirable specification shall be complied with:-

The Essay is to be based entirely upon the Word of God, the following to be the heads of the Essay:-

The Sabbath ordered by our Creator-Gen. ii. 3.

Christ our Creator-John i. 1-3 and 10.

The Sabbath amplified and enforced-Ex. xx. 8-11; xxxi. 18, and xxxiv. 28.

The Sabbath a sign between God and His people-Ex. xxxi. 17, Ezek. xx. 12, 20.

Sabbath-breaking punished by God-Num. xv. 27-36.

Sabbath obedience specially rewarded-Isa. lviii. 13, 14, and Jer. xvii. 19-27.

Christ's teaching as to obedience-John xiv. 15, xv. 10, 14, on Matt. xxviii. 20, and Luke vi. 46.

Christ's teaching as to the permanence of the Commandments-Matt. v. 17-20, and Luke xvi. 17.

Christ's instructions how to remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy-Matt. xxiv. 20.

If this outline is intelligently followed the Society must certainly receive some good essays. But what has all this to do with Sunday? Not a scripture contains a hint of Sunday sacredness. On the contrary the scriptures referred to establish the Divine authority and permanent obligation of the Sabbath of the Lord, which He says is the seventh day, not the first.

"Religious Strife" The Present Truth 12, 34.

E. J. Waggoner

Religious Strife .-No wars in history have been so cruel and vindictive as those in which religious feeling has had a place. This has recently been illustrated in the troubles in Turkey and Crete. The Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs said last week in the Commons:-

The second difficulty with which we are confronted is one which it is almost impossible to escape, and that is the outbreak of religious and political animosity which unhappily prevails in the island. One day one party is the aggressor, and the next day the other party is the aggressor. It is not fair to say that in every case the Christians have been the victims. If the House could all realise the intensity of the religious feeling which prevails, it would try and avoid taking sides.

The origin of all trouble is political, and religious animosity on both sides causes men to act as men can only act when they make a religion of violence and intrigue. It is for this very reason that the introduction of religious questions into politics in all countries can only embitter politics and ruin religion. History speaks with one voice on this matter.

August 27, 1896

"Made From Nothing" The Present Truth 12, 35.

E. J. Waggoner

"Praise ye the Lord." Who? You-whether you have ever done so before or not.

Why? "Praise Him for His mighty acts: praise Him according to His excellent greatness." Ps. cl. 2.

His mighty acts are seen in the things which He has made. One may have little of the world's possessions, but all share in the light, the air, the life, and those things of creation which no man's selfishness can monopolise.

Made From Nothing .-In the beginning God created the world from nothing, "so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." "He spake and it was, He commanded and it stood fast." We may praise Him for the might which could make something where nothing was before.

Made From Less Than Nothing .-The same power that created now saves. If we could make any comparison between the various ways in which Infinite power is exercised, we might say that the mightiest of the acts for which all may praise Him is the great act of salvation. He made the earth from nothing. It was a harder case in making the Christian, for fallen man was "less than nothing, and vanity." Praise God for His excellent might, which can create the "new creature" where was worse than nothing.

"The Claims of Priestcraft" The Present Truth 12, 35.

E. J. Waggoner

Even the scribes, with all their self-assumption, knew that it was blasphemy for man to assume to forgive sins against God. "Who can forgive sins but God only?" they asked when Christ said to the sick of the palsy, "Son, thy sins be forgiven thee." They were all right as to the power which alone could forgive sins, but their failure was in not recognising who Christ was. Jesus thereupon demonstrated "that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins" by healing the sinner bodily as well as spiritually.

But the Catholic priest goes beyond the scribes and assumes to himself the authority which God alone possesses. Thus, a Catholic priest, as reported in the Derry Journal, says, truly enough, that neither angels nor Mary can forgive the sinner. Of course not; for Mary is dead, and the angels are not able to do that which God alone can do; nor, since they witnessed the fate of the fallen angels, who tried to usurp the place of God, can they have any desire to emulate the example of Satan and his hosts. This spirit of evil, however, is the great genius of the Papacy, which, as Paul foretold, has sought to exalt itself "above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." 2 Thess. ii. 4. Therefore this priest, after telling his hearers that angels cannot forgive the sinner his sin, says:-

Who can do this for him? The priest of God. He can rescue the sinner from hell, and make him worthy to be received in the heavens; go, therefore, where you will, to heaven or through this earth, you will find only one created being who can forgive the sinner, and that being is the Catholic priest. Thus we see that the priest is raised beyond the brightest spirits which God has created or ever will create, and that to him are given powers, which have been denied to the Mother of God, and to the angels in heaven. Are we any longer, then, surprised to hear our Lord addressing those solemn words of warning to the Church at large:-"Beware of touching My anointed ones, he who touches them touches the apple of My eye." Is it any wonder that St. Francis of Assisi should have exclaimed, "If I met an angel and a priest at the same time, I would first bow my knee to the priest, and then to the angel."

And the difference between the priest of Rome and the angel of God would be that while the angel would rebuke such adulation (Rev. xxii. 8, 9), the priest would encourage it and even command it. Priestcraft is as arrogant and proud in its claims now as ever in the days of Tetzel and his chest of money, in which the chinking of every golden coin signalled a soul released from purgatory, as easily as the penny-in-the-slot machine delivers a cake of chocolate. Times have changed a little, and the matter must be conducted rather more discreetly than that old indulgence seller found necessary, but the old claims are still made, and still mortal men assume the power to let men in or shut them out of the Church of Christ.

"The Crusades" The Present Truth 12, 35.

E. J. Waggoner

Eight hundred years ago this summer and the first Crusade was organised and started for the Holy Land. To commemorate this anniversary twelve persons are about to start from Amiens, France, from whence Peter the hermit, with his followers, started out eight hundred years ago, on a program made to Jerusalem. They go on foot, as did the rank and file of the age crusaders.

It seems there is a "Society of the Crusades" in England, and this society has thought it fitting that Englishmen should also celebrate this anniversary with some memorial of the part taken in those strange and desperate expeditions by English kings, princes, knights, and people, against the Turks to recover the Holy Sepulchre. Therefore this society announces a second pilgrimage, to start from England in September, evidently not to go on foot, for a meeting is appointed in advance to be held in the Christian Temple, Jerusalem, on October 1, to decide what the memorial shall be which they will raise to the memories of those who fell in the battles of the Crusades.

It is evident, from the early date of this appointment that the English contingent of this nineteenth century crusade does not intend to march to Palestine, but will ingloriously accept the aids of modern civilisation, and will make its descent upon the Holy Land quite after the manner of the modern tourist. Indeed the ways, and manners, and methods, and purposes, of the tourist parties of the present day, personally conducted by gracious and well-informed gentlemen, are incontestably preferable to those conducted by Peter the Hermit and his confreres.

There are many theories as to the great value to the world of the influence of the Crusades, and much mistaken sentiment. The invasions of the Goths and Vandals and Huns and Saxons,-and the return trips of the Crusaders, were the ancient method of travelling, influenced by dire necessity or by fanatical zeal and bigotry.

The tourists of those days travelled either on foot or horseback, and instead of paying their way with good coin of the realm, took what they required or desired at the edge of the sword or the point of the pike.

But these expeditions resulted in slaughter, cruelty, shameful deeds, and enormities of such extent and character that the Turkish-Armenian massacres of the present day which chill the world with horror are yet productive, in comparison, of but the minutest fraction of human woe. Out of the millions who undertook the desperate journey to Palestine, men, women, and children, but a few thousand returned, strewing pestilence, plague, and leprosy along their homeward way-bringing everywhere destruction alike upon themselves, their foes, and their friends. The few survivors from such a terrible school must necessarily have learned something by their experiences. The barbarian churl and semi-civilised knight brought back to hut and castle a bitterly earned knowledge of men and the world. This, by the kindness of an over-ruling providence, has since proved profitable, but at what a cost was this knowledge gained!

The plain truth about the Crusades is that they, and all that they stand for, are no more worthy of celebration than the slaughter and persecutions of the Inquisition, or the cruelties of the religious wars of Mohammed, or the massacres of helpless Armenians in Turkey to-day. Although masquerading under different names, they are all the same spirit.

"Hindu Formalism" The Present Truth 12, 35.

E. J. Waggoner

Hindu Formalism .-It is very easy for the Christian to let the life or his service die out and follow the round of religious forms mechanically and faithlessly. Such an one finds his counterpart in those followers of non-Christian religions who repeat their formulas, knowing that no power or life comes to them in their service. An Indian missionary says:-

"The Hindus have strange ideas as to what constitutes salvation. A fakir in Kuparia told me that his highest ambition was, after death, to enter heaven on a horse. The mode of transit was upon what he laid most stress. Though a religious teacher, he knew absolutely nothing concerning sin and righteousness. Is it any wonder that the common people are ignorant? Other gosains, living at a quiet hermitage at Naraha, said they simply worshipped Hunaman as their fathers had done before them; that they did not derive any real spiritual benefit from what they worshipped; but performed their ceremonies in behalf of others, as they had been taught, and in this way obtained a living. I told them it was wicked to deceive others by teaching that which they knew to be useless; and then sang and explained some Christian hymns and preached to them and to others who had come to listen; and they gave me a good hearing. Many a time, in these secluded spots, have I had a quiet chat with heathen teachers and idol worshippers."

"The Promises to Israel. Giving the Commission" The Present Truth 12, 35.

E. J. Waggoner

Forty years passed by after that first ill-advised attempt, when the Egyptian was killed, before the Lord was ready to deliver His people by the hand of Moses. It took that length of time to fit Moses for the important work. We read of Moses, at a later period of his life, that he was meek above all other men; but that was not his natural disposition. An education at court is not calculated to develop the quality of meekness. From the way in which Moses at the first proceeded to settle the labour troubles of his people, we see that he was impulsive and arbitrary. The blow closely followed the word. But the man who should lead the children of Abraham into the promised inheritance must have very different characteristics.

The inheritance promised to Abraham was the earth. It was to be gained through the righteousness of faith. But the righteousness of faith is inseparable from meekness of spirit. "Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith." Hab. ii. 4. Therefore the Saviour said, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." Matt. v. 5. "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 ii. 5. The promised inheritance, to which the Israelites were to be led, could be possessed only by the meek, and therefore he who should conduct them on the way must necessarily possess that virtue. Forty years' retirement in the wilderness as a shepherd, wrought the desired change in Moses.

"And it came to pass in process of time, that the king of Egypt died; and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob." Ex. ii. 23, 24.

This covenant, as we have seen, was confirmed in Christ. It was the covenant which God made with the fathers, saying unto Abraham, "And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed." Acts iii. 25. And this blessing consisted in turning them away from their iniquities.It was the covenant which God remembered in sending John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, who should deliver His people from the hand of their enemies, so that they might "serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him" all the days of their lives. It was the covenant which assured to Abraham and his seed the possession of land, through personal faith in Christ.

But faith in Christ does not assure any man an earthly possession. Those who are heirs of God are the poor of this world, rich in faith. Christ Himself had not a place of His own on this earth, where he could lay His head; therefore, none need think that following Him in truth will assure them worldly possessions. It is more likely to be the contrary.

These points are necessary to be borne in mind as we consider the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, and their journey to the land of Canaan. They should be borne in mind in the study of the entire history of Israel, or else we shall be continually making the same mistake that was made by His own who received Him not when He came, because He did not come to advance their worldly interests.

"Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the back side of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush; and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And He said, Draw not nigh hither; put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moreover, He said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God. And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of My people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; and I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto Me; and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. Come now, therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth My people the children of Israel out of Egypt." Ex. iii. 1-10.

We do not need to go into the details of the refusal of Moses, and of his final acceptance of the Divine commission. Now that he was actually fitted for the task, he shrank from it. It is sufficient to note that in the commission the power by which the deliverance was to be effected was made very clear. It was such a deliverance as could be accomplished only by the power

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of the Lord. Moses was to be simply the agent in His hands.

Notice also the credentials which Moses carried. "Moses said unto God Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, the God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is His name? what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM; and He said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you." Ex. iii. 13, 14.

This is "the glorious and fearful name" of the Lord, which no man can ever comprehend, because it expresses His infinity and eternity. Look at the renderings that are given in the margin of the Revision: "I am because I am," or "I am who I am," or "I will be that I will be." No one of these renderings is complete in itself, but all of them together are necessary to give something of an idea of the title. Together they represent "The Lord which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty." Rev. i. 8.

How fitting that when the Lord was about to deliver the people, not simply from temporal bondage, but from spiritual bondage as well, and give to them that inheritance which could be possessed only by the coming of the Lord and the resurrection, He should make Himself known not only as the self-existent Creator, but as The Coming One, the same title by which He reveals Himself in the last book of the Bible, which is wholly devoted to the coming of the Lord and the final deliverance of His people from their great enemy, death.

"And God said, moreover, unto Moses. Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, the Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you; this is My name for ever, and this is My memorial unto all generations." Ex. iii. 15. Continually are we reminded that all this deliverance is but the fulfilment of the promise made through Christ to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Notice also the significance of the fact that some of the most powerful Gospel sermons recorded in the New Testament, refer to God as the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, an evidence that He is to be known to us by the same title, and that the promises made to the fathers hold good to us, if we will but receive them in the same faith. "This is My name for ever, and this is My memorial unto all generations."

With this name for his support, with the assurance that God would be with him and would teach him what to say, armed with the power to work miracles, and comforted with the assurance that Aaron his brother would join him in the work, Moses set out for Egypt.

"Amongst the Wounded After Battle" The Present Truth 12, 35.

E. J. Waggoner

In the Fortnightly, a writer of repute on military subjects discourses on "The Human Animal in Battle," and forecasts the terrible sufferings of the wounded in future great battles, where long-range weapons will spread destruction, and render it more difficult than ever before to give aid to the wounded. After giving some gruesome examples of the terrible fate of the injured in modern wars, he says:-

No wonder that with knowledge such as this, at the Geneva Conference Mr. Twining proposed to end the miseries of the hopelessly wounded by giving the coup de grace. The time may come when such a measure will be permitted; now it shocks our squeamish humanity which cannot bear to read of such things, still less to think of them.

This proposition by one whose work and profession is to render aid to the victims of hideous war shows how fearful is the task of those who glean for life on the battlefield.

"The Trials of a Pope" The Present Truth 12, 35.

E. J. Waggoner

Years ago, when the plaint of the "prisoner of the Vatican" was bitterer than in recent times, enterprising clericals sold straws to the faithful, the stalks of corn, which brought a good price, being represented as taken from the bed of straw on which the Pope was languishing in prison. Latterly the general knowledge of the sumptuous apartments of the Vatican, with the semi-royal state maintained by the Pope, must have dispelled these ideas even amongst the Catholic masses. But the plaint is still heard. The other day-the day on which he had been celebrating the release of the Apostle Peter from prison-the Pope said to a distinguished newspaper director:-

I, too, am a prisoner, and that for eighteen long years. In fact the nineteenth has now begun since I am here in imprisonment-a noble imprisonment, if you like, but still a real imprisonment. For eighteen years I have not been able to get a glimpse of the streets of Rome or of its holy Basilicas. I have had a new apse constructed in St. John Lateran's, and yet it has been impossible for me to see it.

Is the Pope a prisoner? He is not. The only reason why he refuses to go out is that he demands the homage of a temporal prince and the Roman State; and because he has been dispossessed of his temporalities he sulks in his palace, complaining all the time, and intriguing all the time to overthrow the Italian Government in order to recover his place as a petty prince in this world.

He seems to realise, however, what many far-seeing observers have repeatedly declared, that his influence in the world at large was never greater in recent times. "One thing greatly consoles me," he says, "in spite of all this, and it is the universal

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attention given to the Pope's voice. I write Ecyclicals, and all give ear to them."

"Dyspepsia" The Present Truth 12, 35.

E. J. Waggoner

Hyperpepsia is, says a medical journal, overwork of the stomach, and may not be abnormal in any other sense than that a more than normal amount of work is done. This sometimes gives various symptoms. Usually there is a good appetite, sometimes tenderness over the stomach, and in some cases sour stomach, which does not come from acid fermentation of food, but simply an over-production of the gastric juices. This condition often gives considerable trouble to the patient, although he is veil nourished; it may, in fact, irritate the nervous system to that extent that it may approach what is termed nervous dyspepsia.

This form of dyspepsia can be more easily remedied from the fact that there is no lack of power in the work, and it is easier, as a rule, to check an exaggerated peptic action than to bring a case of low action up to the normal status. Taking less food is the first thing, and restricting the diet to grains, milk, and fruits, leaving off all flesh foods. This diet will materially diminish the gastric juices, which will be a benefit to this class of patients. An hour before meals a drink of cold water will be beneficial, which will not only dilute the gastric juice, and make it less irritating, but will also depress the production of the gastric juice. Many cases often get a good deal of benefit from a drink of common cold water an hour before meals.

This class of dyspeptics is the most easily managed of all classes, and scarcely any other treatment is necessary than the above dietary regimen.

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 35.

E. J. Waggoner

-Spain has been alarmed recently by evidences of Anarchist activity.

-There are now 1,700 co-operative societies in Great Britain, with 1,250,000 members. The annual trade amounts to 240,000,000, upon which is a profit of 25,000,000.

-The American presidential campaign, which is being fought on the currency question, is breaking up old party lines, and very largely arraying the West against the East.

-Three-tenths of the earnings of a Belgian convict are given to him on the expiration of his term of imprisonment. Some of them thus save more money in gaol than they had ever saved before.

-Mohammedan depositors in the Post Office Savings Banks are enriching the British Government, as their religion forbids them to receive interest. They insist on taking out no more than they put in.

-Fast trains now traverse the Trans-Siberian Railway as far as Tomsk, about 800 miles from the Asiatic frontier. There is still a rush of immigrants, in spite of the discouraging accounts given by many who have returned to European Russia.

-On account of obscuring clouds the principal astronomical expeditions fitted out for observing the total eclipse of the sun, which occurred on Sunday, August 9, failed completely in their objects. Successful observations were made, however, in Finmark, Nova Zambia, and Ameer.

-Statisticians say that 32,214,000 die annually; that is an average of 98,840 a day, 4,020 an hour, and 67 a minute. The annual number of births, on the other hand, is estimated at 36,792,000, an average of 100,800 a day, 9,200 an hour, and 70 a minute, so that the population is increasing at the rate of three to the minute.

-There has just been opened in the Sault Ste. Marie Canal, connecting the great American lakes, a look which is the largest construction of its kind in the world, and which has taken seven years to build. It is 800ft. in length between the gates, and 1,100ft. over all; 43ft. high, 100ft. wide, and will accommodate boats drawing 21ft. of water. Its giant centrifugal pumps, driven by compound Westinghouse engines, can fill the lock in thirteen minutes, and empty it in eight minutes.

-A missionary lately returned from Central Africa reports the natives there as making rapid development in the adoption and use of the conveniences of civilisation. They are building two storey stone and brick houses, provided with windows and doors, and furniture,-bridges also are being built, and carriages and bicycles coming into use. Of missionary matters he speaks as follows:-"The contrast between the Uganda of to-day and that of 1893 is simply marvellous. I have pointed out some of the progress that has been made, and the same rapid development applies to mission work. In the case of the English Protestant Mission, our great difficulty is to restrain the thousands of natives who flock to us for instruction and apply for baptism."

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 35.

E. J. Waggoner

The Belfast riot is a suggestion of the trouble which may come in many parts if the Catholics and Protestants alike press religious differences into the arena of politics.

A contemporary reports the case of a man who recently applied for recognition as a Unitarian minister, saying "He was not a Christian, and refuses to profess Christianity." The examining committee reported him "well qualified to do good work as a minister."

A report from the Hawaiian Islands says that our friends in Honolulu are just starting a sanatorium, with a medical missionary in charge. The Chinese work in the islands is prospering, and some natives connected with the mission are expecting some to return to China to work.

Protestants in Malta are still much concerned over the mixed marriage law. Immediately after the Privy Council decree declaring such marriages legal, though not celebrated before a Roman Catholic priest, the Malta Legislature passed a bill declaring them illegal, and the bill is now awaiting the Queen's assent. It seems impossible that such assent should be given.

The Select Committee of the House of Lords, appointed to consider the advisability of relaxing some of the provisions of the "Lord's Day Act," of 1781, report that, whilst inappropriate in phraseology, the old law substantially harmonises with public opinion, and they do not advise changing it.

While the world rings with praise of the man who gets farthest North into the ice packs, it would puzzle most people to tell what is the practical utility of all the expenditure of lives and means in the mere effort to see how many degrees beyond previous records may be accomplished.

"The Matabeleland Mission" The Present Truth 12, 35.

E. J. Waggoner

The Matabeleland Mission .-The brother in charge of our Society's Mission farm in Matabeleland has visited the farm, and found buildings intact although crops are mostly destroyed by raiding parties, and a few cattle left. The natives about the vicinity have continued loyal, and as he found them in hiding he received a most cordial reception. All were anxious for the mission to be speedily taken up again so that they might return to their homes. Of the causes of ill feeling and consequent savage retaliation this brother says:-

Many of the white people do not respect their rights of property, and constantly impose upon the ignorance of the unsuspecting native. Worse than all else is the invasion of family sacredness against the protest of all. These things sometimes seem to me to form a basis for the action of the native race of Matabeleland at this time. I pity them, and pray that the time may come when they may be taught to bear even these cruelties with fortitude rather than to retaliate by shedding blood. Our company are all of good courage. Changes may quickly occur, and we cannot say now what is ahead. We trust in the Lord, and press forward. However, we feel safe, and hope so to yield to the Master that all will be well with us whatever befalls.

"Theosophy" The Present Truth 12, 35.

E. J. Waggoner

Theosophy .-A morning paper, which reviews a new work on Theosophy, says, "One advantage of the study of Theosophy seems to be that it makes its disciples thoroughly optimistic. Mrs. Besant holds out to us glorious hopes as to the future of humanity." The greatest Theosoph of all beguiled men in the beginning by promising great things if only he would turn from the words of God. "Ye shall be as gods," was the promise. Human nature loves to be flattered by assurances of great things to be developed from within.

"Religion in Rome" The Present Truth 12, 35.

E. J. Waggoner

Religion in Rome .-A French critic, who certainly has no Protestant bias, says of the religious life of the masses in modern Rome:-

There is no real religion, but simply a childish idolatry; all hearts go forth to the Madonna and the saints, who alone were entreated and regarded as having any existence of their own; it never occurred to anybody to think of God.

To see how Mary and the "saints" are allowed to eclipse the Christ one has only to observe the worshippers in out of the way churches, and even in the great cathedrals. The religion of Rome effectually shuts out the Lord as an approachable helper, and puts the human, living and dead, between the sinner and his Saviour.

"Profitable Education" The Present Truth 12, 35.

E. J. Waggoner

Profitable Education .-The subject of education has been much before the country of late. It is an important question. Too great stress cannot be laid upon it. But it is easily possible to ask too much of the public school. It is not too much to ask that the pupils of the schools should leave them with trained and developed bodies and minds, and with an understanding of how to continue that training and development. The system of education which does not fit those who pass through it to gain their own living and support those dependent upon them is worthy of the name. But, as life is more than raiment, so there is more in building up a life, and by example and precept helping others to do the same, than there is in simply making a living for one's self and others. It is only those who have been taught of the Lord to comprehend this, and deny themselves the prizes which the world offers to accomplish it. That system of education which graduates men and women of this stamp is the only one truly profitable to individuals and the world.

"The Crusaders" The Present Truth 12, 35.

E. J. Waggoner

The Crusaders .-An article in another part of this number notices the proposal to commemorate the "great good" which the Crusades accomplished. The historian Ridpath gives the following account of the entry of the "Christian" forces into Jerusalem on one of those expeditions:-

The Saracens gave way before them. They retreated through the streets, fighting at intervals until they were driven into the precincts of the mosque of Omar. Blood flowed in the gutters, and horrid heaps of the dead lay piled at every corner. None were spared by the frenzied Christians, who saw in the gore of the infidels the white way of redemption. Ten thousand dead, scattered through the city, gave token of the merciless spirit of the men of the West. Another ten thousand were heaped in the reeking courts of the great mosque on Mount Moriah. "God wills it," said the pilgrims. . . The spirit of the massacre is well illustrated in the letter which the Christian princes sent to his holiness the Pope. The devout writers say: "If you wish to know what we did to the enemies we found in the city, learn that in the portico of Solomon and in the temple our horses walked up to the knees in the impure blood of the Saracens."

September 3, 1896

"'Prove All Things'" The Present Truth 12, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." 1 Thess. v. 21. A very reasonable exhortation this, and one that should commend itself to everybody's good sense; yet few heed it, and many of those who profess to regard it misapply it.

How are we to prove all things? By what standard shall we test them? Here is where so many fail. Most people would use their own feelings and impulses as the standard. Their natural likes and dislikes determine what they shall hold fast and what they will reject. What they think to be good, they will follow; but since human judgment is naturally controlled or at least biased by inclination and desire, it is an unsafe guide. "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." Prov. xvi. 25.

For this reason alone, if for no other, it should be apparent to all that we are not to approve all things by sampling them. A thing may taste good, and yet contain a deadly poison. He who makes it his practice to eat everything he sees, in order to find out if it is good to eat, may have his probation cut short. It is far better to apply well-known tests for poisons, and then to eat only that which is proved to be good.

So in the mental and spiritual world. A man is not obliged to dabble in every theory in order to prove it. He who thinks that he must prove every form of teaching by trying its effects on himself will fare worse than the one who tries physical poisons on himself. The system cannot stand it. His nature would soon become so corrupted that he would be unable to distinguish the good, even if he got hold of it. But he would never find the good; for the forms of error are infinite, and he who sets himself to the task of investigating all error, so as to know how to avoid it, will never finish. The only thing that he will prove will be his own folly.

Just as there are tests for physical poisons, which can be applied without subjecting ourselves to the influence of those poisons, so we have an infallible test of truth and error. "To the law, and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them." Isa. viii. 20. The Word of

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God is truth, and whatever is not in harmony with that is of course error. If we become thoroughly familiar with the Word, error will be revealed on its first approach, and we need have nothing whatever to do with it. The Word of the Lord is His voice, and all that is necessary is for us to know that; for we do not need to talk with a stranger hours or days in order to find out if the voice is that of our most intimate friend.

Least of all must it be supposed that we are to prove the Word of God itself, to see whether or not we should hold to it, or to how much we should hold fast. No; that is the standard that is already proved. "The words of the Lord are pure words; as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times." Ps. xii. 6. "Every word of God is pure." Prov. xxx. 5. The Word itself is good; hold it fast, and prove all things by it, holding only that which the Word declares to be good.

"'When They Shall Say, Peace and Safety'" The Present Truth 12, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

"But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape." 1 Thess. v. 1-3.

War has been the history of man ever since sin entered the world. It is so because sin is itself rebellion, and so long as sin is in the world war will be the history of man. The world has been making preparations for war as never before in its history. The mighty men are waking up. The produce of the ploughshare is being turned into swords. The heathen of the East are seeing the necessity of following the example of the professedly Christian nations of the West, and they too are getting ready to act their part in the fulfilment of the third chapter of Joel's prophecy, describing the preparations for the battle of the great day of God. The great Chinese visitor to Europe has been principally occupied with questions of military and naval training and equipment, and all Europe is anxious to help him prepare his people for war.

And yet, with all this, there is more talk of peace and arbitration than ever before. The people are fulfilling that portion of Isa. ii. The mountain of the Lord's house is exalted. All Christendom patronises Christianity, that is, as officially interpreted Are not all the nations of the West "Christian"? And the "many peoples" of this chapter say, "Come ye; let us beat our swords into ploughshares; there is to be no more war." The peace and safety cry is all abroad, and the world is supposed to be coming into a better state of things. But "the whole world lieth in wickedness," and "there is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." Knowing what sin and human nature are, and knowing that the Scriptures represent the last days as convulsed with strife and battle, socially and internationally, we need not be at loss to know the meaning of the cry of peace and safety. As it increases it is quite possible that considerable progress may apparently be made toward actual peace, and those whose message is to promise peace and prosperity and lull into carnal security will have considerable surface evidence to appeal to.

But the cry is but a trumpet blast to those who watch the times and seasons. It is an indication that the day is at hand. "For when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief." The strained conditions everywhere abounding, the waking up of nations, and the increase of the peace and safety cry in the midst of it all, mark the time when we may look up and lift up our heads, knowing that redemption draweth nigh.

"Religion for Rhetorical and Political Effect" The Present Truth 12, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

A noticeable thing in the oratorical and rhetorical speeches made by the Democratic nominee for the Presidency, in the United States, is the exceptionally striking use which he makes of Scriptural allusions. In the closing paragraph of the peroration to the address which gained him his nomination at the Chicago convention, with these words: "You shall not press this crown of thorns upon the brow of labour, you shall not crucify mankind on a cross of gold." This thought and reference seem to have been taken up almost as a party cry here and there by Mr. Bryan's adherents. Democratic political processions have adopted the gold cross and a crown of thorns as ensigns of their political faith, and have carried these emblems figured on their banners and transparencies. The resemblance to Roman Catholic ceremonial emblems is very great, and the Catholics have made strenuous protests against the carrying of these insignia in street processions.

This is another prominent evidence among the many which are now to be seen continually, of how religion is constantly being made subservient to selfish and personal uses in political affairs, social and business life, and of how, also, in forms, ceremonies, and theological theories, it is becoming more and more a matter of contention. Throughout the entire world there is an increasing use of religious formality and a growing spirit of bigotry. The fact that these things are so and that they coincide with prophecy ought to arouse the attention of every thoughtful mind.

"Orthodoxy vs Higher Criticism" The Present Truth 12, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

The Professor of Biblical Criticism in the Aberdeen University has been asked, so it is reported, to resign on an allowance. The reason given for this is that "the students complained that he was too orthodox, and did not initiate them into the higher criticism,-they could not follow his lectures." What has happened to the Scotch theological mind, that orthodoxy should be at a discount and "Higher Criticism" at a premium?

This sounds very much as if the strongholds of so-called orthodoxy were drifting in the currents of Continental theology. Is there such a demand in Scotland for theological doctrine "made in Germany" that an old and tried Professor must be shelved because he gives his students Biblical teaching rather than Higher Criticism?

"Christian Warfare" The Present Truth 12, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

Christian Warfare .-There is a strange misconception quite prevalent in regard to the fighting which must be done by the Christian. It almost seems as though the idea of many professed Christians is that in order to fight sin must wage war upon some person. So the minister who is the most active in denouncing the doings of men in public position, and who spends the most of his time in enforcing the law upon criminals, or in berating the officers of the law for their laxness in that respect, is eulogised as an earnest fighter of sin. But all this is a mistaken idea of the Christian warfare. "For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." Eph. vi. 12, R.V.

"The Promises to Israel. Preaching the Gospel in Egypt" The Present Truth 12, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

"And Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel; and Aaron spake all the words which the Lord had spoken unto Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people. And the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel, and that He had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped." Ex. iv. 29-31.

But they were not yet ready to leave Egypt. They were as yet but stony ground hearers of the Word. They received it with joy at the first, but as soon as persecution arose they became offended. If they could have left Egypt without any hindrance, and could have had an easy passage to the promised land, they doubtless would not have murmured; but "we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God," (Acts xiv. 22), and those who do enter in must learn to rejoice even in tribulation. This lesson the Israelites had yet to learn.

The message to Pharaoh, "Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let My people go," of which we shall speak more particularly later on, resulted in a still more grievous oppression of the Israelites. This was really a necessity for them, that they might be the more anxious to leave, and afterward have less desire to return, and that they might see the power of God. The plagues that came upon the land of Egypt were as necessary to teach the Israelites the power of God, that they might be willing to go, as they were for the Egyptians, that they might be willing to let them go. The Israelites needed to learn that it was not by any human power that they were delivered, but that it was wholly the work of the Lord. They needed to learn to trust themselves completely to His care and guidance. And as "whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope," (Rom. xv. 4), we should learn the same lesson as we read the story.

It is not at all to be wondered at that the people complained at the first when persecution increased as the result of the message brought by Moses. Moses himself seems to have been perplexed by it, and went to ask the Lord about it. "Then the Lord said unto Moses, Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh; for with a strong hand shall he let them go and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land. And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am Jehovah; and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by My name Jehovah I was not known to them. And I have also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their sojournings, wherein they were strangers. And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered My covenant. Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am Jehovah, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments; and I will take you to Me for a people, and I will be to you a God; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you into the land concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it to you for an inheritance; I am Jehovah." Ex. vi. 1-8, R.V.

THE GOSPEL OF DELIVERANCE

We have learned that when God made the promise to Abraham He preached the Gospel to him; it follows, therefore, that when the time comes for the fulfillment of the promise, the seed to whom it is fulfilled must know at least as much of the Gospel as was revealed to Abraham; and we should expect to find the same Gospel preached to them. This was the case. We learn from the Epistle to the Hebrews that the Gospel which is now preached to us is the same that was then preached to them, and in the Scripture last quoted we find it. Note the following points:-

1. God said of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, "I have also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers."

2. Then He added, "And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered My covenant."

3. When the Lord says that he remembers a certain thing, He does not imply that that thing has ever passed from His mind, for that is impossible. Nothing can ever escape Him. But, as we find in various instances, He thus indicates that He is about to perform that thing. In the final judgment of Babylon it is said, "God hath remembered her iniquities." Rev. xviii. 5. "And great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath." Rev. xvi. 19. "God remembered Noah," and caused the flood to cease, but we know that not for one moment while Noah was in the ark was he forgotten, for not even a sparrow is forgotten. See also Gen. xix. 29; xxx. 22; and I Sam. i. 19, for the use of the word "remember" in the sense of being about to fulfil the thing promised.

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4. It is evident, therefore, from the sixth of Exodus, that the Lord was about to fulfil the promise to Abraham and his seed. But as Abraham was dead, that could be done only by the resurrection. The time of the promise which God had sworn to Abraham was very near. But this is evidence that the Gospel was being preached, since only the Gospel of the kingdom prepares for the end.

5. God was making Himself known to the people. But it is only in the Gospel that God is made known. The things which reveal the power of God make known His Divinity.

6. God said, "I will take you to Me for a people, and I will be to you a God; and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God." Compare with this the promise of the new covenant, "I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord." Jer. xxxi. 33, 34. No one questions that this is the proclamation of the Gospel; but it is the very same thing that was proclaimed to the Israelites in Egypt.

7. The fact that the deliverance of the children of Israel was such a deliverance as could be effected only through the preaching of the Gospel, is evidence that it was no ordinary deliverance from physical bondage to a temporal inheritance. A most wonderful prospect was opened before the children of Israel, if they had but known the day of their visitation, and had continued faithful.

PREACHING TO PHARAOH

It is a truth that "God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with Him." Acts x. 34, 35. This was not a new truth in the days of Peter, but has ever been true, for God is always the same. The fact that men have usually been slow to perceive it, makes no difference with the fact. Men may fail to recognise the power of God, but that does not make Him any the less powerful; so the fact that the great mass of God's professed followers have usually failed to recognise that He is perfectly impartial, and have supposed that He loved them to the exclusion of other people, has not narrowed His character.

The promise was to Abraham and his seed. But the promise and the blessing came to Abraham before he was circumcised, "that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also." Rom. iv. 11. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Gal. iii. 28, 29. Therefore the promise embraced even the Egyptians, as well as the Israelites, provided they believed. And it did not embrace unbelieving Israelites any more than it did unbelieving Egyptians. Abraham is the father of those who are circumcised, but only of those who "are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised." If the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, their uncircumcision is counted for circumcision. See Rom. ii. 25-29.

It should not be forgotten that God did not begin at once to send the plagues upon Pharaoh and his people. He did not propose to deliver the Israelites by killing their oppressors, but rather by converting them, if it were possible. God is "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." 2 Peter iii. 9. He "will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth." 1 Tim. ii. 4. "As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live." Eze. xxxiii. 11. All men are God's creatures, and His children, and His great heart of love embraces them all, without respect to race or nationality.

Accordingly, at the first, the simple demand was made upon Pharaoh to let God's people go free. But he impudently and haughtily replied, "Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice, to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go." Ex. v. 2. Then miracles were wrought before him. These were not at the first judgments, but simply manifestations of God's power. But the magicians of Pharaoh, the servants of Satan, counterfeited these miracles, and Pharaoh's heart became harder than before. Yet the careful reader will see that even in the miracles that were counterfeited by the magicians, the superior power of the Lord was manifested.

The next article in this series of studies on the Everlasting Gospel will deal with that much-talked-of question of how Pharaoh's heart was heardened.

"The Adversary, the Devil" The Present Truth 12, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

How much it must please the enemy of souls to have men conclude that he does not exist. No better device could he invent to put men off their guard and work his way in them unconsciously to themselves. The notion that the adversary is a mere principle of evil rests on that old method of interpretation which Origen introduced into the Church in the early centuries, by which it was maintained that the Bible does not mean what it says, but that some hidden mystic sense must be found in it.

As we view the controversy between Christ and Satan we learn the terrible reality of the latter's existence and devices. He "abode not in the truth," said Jesus, showing that at one time he had been "in the truth." Then came that "war in heaven," in which Michael and His angels expelled Satan and his host Rev. xii. 7-9. And then Jesus "beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven" (Luke x. 18), cast out with his sympathisers-"the angels which kept not their first estate," (Jude 6)-into the earth, which has been the scene of the conflict ever since men joined the rebellion against God. These fallen angels are those "spirits of devils working miracles" which go forth into all the world leading men to destruction. Rev. xvi. 14. And probably no miracle of deception could be better calculated to advance his interest, then that by which Satan-notwithstanding the evidence of his workings-blinds the eyes of those who do not believe the testimony of the Lord so that they may even deny his very existence.

"But we are not ignorant of his devices," said the apostle. Just now has he come down "in great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time." Rev. xii. 12. Thank God the time for his working "with all power and signs and lying wonders" is to be short. But if it is a short time for him, so it is also for all the world. "The time is short." The "god of this world," "the prince of the power of the air," knows it, and is working as never before. So, too ought we to know it, and work as never before. And the hope in the conflict is that it is between Christ and Satan. The battle is His, and by His faith and the word of His testimony the victory is won.

"Resist the devil, and he will flee."

"'There Shall Arise False Christs'" The Present Truth 12, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

Fanatical movements in the West have now and then shown the need for Christ's warning against false Christs and false prophets which should try to personate His second coming. It is in the Orient, however, that we have most often seen the rise of these fanatical movements, which have been the life of the Mussulman religion. Dr. Haweis has a paper in the Contemporary Review, describing an interview with a Persian statesman, which shows how this Messianic idea pervades the whole Mussulman world, and is responsible for such outbreaks as that which has made trouble in the Soudan in recent years. It is an element that no statesmen can control in their efforts to preserve quiet and peace in the Orient. If only the Gospel could go in amongst these people with the hope of the true Messiah and Deliverer, what a blessing it would bring to those who believed. Dr. Haweis gives this report of the Persian's words:-

"If these oppressed hordes in Persia, Turkey, Morocco, have endured patiently so many bad governments, it is because they are sure that a Mahdi will sooner arise to remedy all these evils. They are crying out, like the Jews, for a saviour and a deliverer. All the different Mahdis, past and present, those of the Sultan as well as all the others, are but the expression, more or less incomplete, of this central doctrine of a miraculous Messianic deliverer. And here comes in Babism. According to tradition, the true Mahdi will be preceded by sixty fourerunners-John Baptist or Eliases-called Babs (Bab means the door, through which enters Messiah). As a rule, these holy personages-Ulemas, or descendants of the Prophet, who end by setting up themselves as the Messiah-begin by calling themselves only Babs, or doors, and if they meet with success and are accepted, they then pose as the actual Mahdi. . . . A vast underground agitation is going on throughout our Mussulman population, of which Europeans can gather but the faintest and vaguest idea; but one thing is undeniable, that this movement is daily and hourly gathering momentum throughout the Mussulman world. What has shattered movements like this, and rendered abortive in the past all such aspirations, is the absence of a scientific programme. Ignorance of European methods, absence of organisation and constructive purpose, have hitherto drowned these movements beneath the sterilising waters of Asiatic abstractions. But a new era has dawned."

"A Colony of Vegetarians" The Present Truth 12, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

At Oranienburg, near Berlin, says a newspaper, a colony of vegetarians was started some years ago and is growing slowly but steadily. Founded in 1892 by seven enthusiasts on the subject, there are at present forty-seven homesteads, where thirty-seven families and ten single men have built houses and raised their crops. Outside of the vegetables necessary for their own food, they have planted 35,000 fruit trees and 15,000 berry bushes, and have fenced in the entire property with a hedge of hazel nuts. From a financial standpoint they are doing very well, because they realise excellent prices for the products of their truck farms, the quality of the vegetables raised by them being the best to be obtained in the district.

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

-There are 26,000 breweries in Germany.

-A war upon Italian settlers is reported from Brazil.

-Three slight shocks of earthquake have been felt in Southern Greece the past week.

-Over 250 prisoners have been in custody in Barcelona, bald for the bomb outrage there.

-The property loss by fire in the United States, for the year 1895 was more than ?28,400,000.

-Vesuvius has been for some time in a state of active eruption. At present the flow of lava is increasing.

-An Antarctic iceberg has been seen that is twenty miles wide, forty miles in length and 800 feet in height.

-Spain is troubled by a conspiracy in the Philippine Islands, next to Cuba her most it portent island possessions.

-The birthday of Mohammed, August 22, was celebrated in London by a company of Moslems from India, Egypt, Turkey, the Transvaal, and Cape Colony.

-There were 3,491 fires in London during the year 1895, an increase of 572 upon the preceding year. The amount of water used in extinguishing fires during 1895 was 23,000,000 gallons.

-In Belgium alone there are at the present moment 600,000 racing pigeons, which, in case of a war, would be placed at the disposal of the Government. Every bird of this number is admirably trained.

-The people of Cuba who wish to be neutral have a hard time of it. The insurgents burn their crops if they do not pay a consideration, and the Spanish authorities now forbid gathering any crops so as to prevent payments to the rebels.

-The British Empire has an area of 11,899,316 square miles, and a population of 402,514,800 persons, the former being equal to 21 per cent. of the supposed surface of the land, the latter 27 per cent. of the population of the world.

-The fiftieth report of the Commissioners in Lunacy shows the increase in the number of lunatics under restraint in England, during the year 1895, to have been 2,365, being a much larger increase than in any previous year. There are also fewer recoveries than heretofore.

-An investigation has been made into the practical results of the anti toxin treatment for diphtheria in hospital and private practice in America, with the result of showing that whereas the average of deaths in this disease had formerly been from 48 to 56 per cent., under this treatment they only averaged from 8 to 18 per cent.

-Professor Geikie has estimated the amount of sediment carried to the sea by the Thames in a year at one minim eight hundred and sixty-five thousand nine hundred and three cubic feet, while it is estimated that the Mississippi deposits in the sea in a year solid matter weighing eight hundred and twelve billion five hundred million pounds.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

The organ of our Society in South Africa, the South African Sentinel, is having a good circulation, as also the Dutch edition of it, De Wachter. It reduces our own circulation in the Colony, but we are glad to see the prosperity of the local organ, which is a lively journal.

Russia is said to be hopeful, now that the State has become the public-house keeper, of deriving sufficient from the trade to support the army and navy. It is eminently fitting that the revenues which are the price of their people's life and morals should be used to fill their war chests.

It was stated authoritatively that the Cretan insurgents had burned Turkish villages, but now it is authoritatively denied from Athens. "The Christian insurgents burned no Turkish villages during the recent conflicts, but only set fire to a few hamlets." When the press and pulpits of Christendom make such use of the word Christian, what shall we say?

Constantinople has drawn all eyes during the past week. The terrible scenes there show how suddenly the fall of the Turkish power may come at any time. And when "he shall come to his end" it means more than even statesmen who are straining every nerve to help them to stand have ever realised. Then comes the "time of trouble" for all nations. Dan. xi. 45; xii. 1, 2.

After having brought desolation upon the Armenian villages, and having failed to accomplish their revolutionary purpose, the Armenian leaders organised a disturbance in Constantinople last week, attacking the Ottoman Bank with revolvers and dynamite bombs, and holding it against the authorities. After considerable bloodshed, they were captured, and are to be exiled, it is said. It is this lawless agitation that has brought upon guilty and innocent Armenians together the awful vengeance of the Turks. Yet these men pose as Christians, and appeal to the churches of Christendom to support them. Let it never be forgotten that whatever may be the misrule of a Government, Christians follow Christ and can never be revolutionists.

The annual Pastoral Address of the Wesleyan Conference expresses disappointment at their decrease in church membership during the year. But it says that on the other hand there are evidences of an increase of the influence of Methodism in civic and social affairs, and growing numbers of Methodists are taking part in local government organisations and in councils of the State. We would say that possibly this accounts for the decrease in membership.

Two more West-end bakers were fined last week for baking on Sunday, one a Jew the other evidently an Italian. The prosecutor in the Jew's case was another baker who evidently bakes on Saturday, when his rival rests, and makes use of this wicked law to deprive his fellow of one day's work and forces him to keep Sunday, so far as lies in his power. The magistrate approved of this and remarked: "It would be a very serious case for the British public if there were one law for the Jew and another for the Christian." Yet that is exactly what it is when the "Christian," merely because he has the power and the inclination to use it, denies to the Jew what he claims for himself.

Luther was not the first priest whose visit to Rome, where he expected to find the highest piety, convinced him that it was the very seat of Antichrist. More than a century before his day Milicius, a Bohemian archdeacon, went to the "Holy City" to find peace; but when he left he wrote over the door of one member of the Sacred College, "Antichrist is now come, and sitteth in the Church." If it had not been for fear of a popular uprising in his town of Prague, the Pope would have made him feel the vengeance that was frequently visited upon those who dared to tell the truth about the papal church.

"The Coming Millennium" The Present Truth 12, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

The Coming Millennium .-"We spend 30s. per head of population on the army and navy yearly; 7s. per head on education. How far, far off that millennium is! And does it not grow daily dimmer as the expenditure on blood increases with every annual Budget?" So says a London newspaper. Instead of showing that the millennium is a long way off, these things are evidences of its nearness. But the popular idea of a thousand years of peace and plenty in the earth is not the Bible teaching regarding the millennium. That period is ushered in, not by the conversion of the world, but by its destruction. "The nations were angry, and Thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead that they should be judged, and that Thou shouldest give reward unto Thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear Thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth."

During the Millennium .-The coming of the Lord brings the translation and resurrection of the righteous, who are caught up in the air to meet the Lord (1 Thess. iv. 15, 16), to accompany Him to those mansions in the Father's house, according to His promise (John xiv. 1-3). There they live and reign "with Christ a thousand years," during which time the earth is desolated; for only the righteous are raised at the coming of the Lord (Rev. xx. 6). "The rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished." With the righteous reigning with Jesus in the heavenly Jerusalem, and the wicked in their graves, Satan finds himself bound, and helpless to carry on his work of deception. He can meditate on the fruits of rebellion in the midst of the chaotic desolation which he has brought upon the world once fair and beautiful. Then comes the resurrection of the wicked, at the end of the thousand years, the coming down of the New Jerusalem from heaven, the gathering of a host of the wicked to war against the city, and then the final destruction of sin and sinners and the author of sin, "the second death." Then from out the purifying fires of the final judgment will spring the new heavens and the new earth, wherein will dwell righteousness." 2 Peter iii. 13.

"Demoralising Militarism" The Present Truth 12, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

Demoralising Militarism .-Of the influence of militarism on the people the Countess von Krockow, of Berlin, says:-

The army may be acted upon by the intellect of the nation, as its friends say; but it is quite undeniable that, in return, it reacts brutally upon the popular way of thinking. This, I think, is proved by the striking fact that in our day the worst literature comes from the two most military States, the nastiest fiction from France and the most cynical, material philosophy from Germany.

Of course no other than a brutalising influence can be exerted by continuous and scientific training for killing people.

September 10, 1896

"The Power and the Glory" The Present Truth 12, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

"Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen."

The kingdom is the Lord's, and it includes the whole universe. Nothing is outside His jurisdiction. Every creature in the heavens and on earth rightfully belongs to His dominion.

But a king without power is king only in name. God is really King, and therefore to Him belongs power. "God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this: that power belongeth unto God." Ps. lxii. 11.

We must not fall into the error of limiting God, by thinking that power is divided, and that He has merely a share of it, even though it be the largest share. "Thine is the kingdom and the power." "His kingdom ruleth over all;" and wherever His kingdom is, His power is supreme. God alone has power.

God is the Almighty One. That is to say, He has all might. Therefore no other being possesses any might in Himself. Because God possesses all the power in the universe, Christ, the only begotten Son could say, "All power is given to Me in heaven and in earth." Matt. xxviii. 18.

"In Him we live, and move, and have our being." Acts xvii. 28. Every motion that is made, every thought, every word, requires the exercise of power; but the power is not inherent in the man who moves, but in God. "There is no power but of God." Rom. xii. 1. The power which men have to fight and blaspheme God, and to commit all sorts of wickedness, is but God's power perverted, just as the performance of righteous acts, and the utterance of praise, is God's power given free course.

Lightminded persons may see in this occasion for charging God foolishly; but others will see in it his superabounding grace and His everlasting love. While some think that God's seeming non-interference is an evidence of weakness, or of complicity with crime, the well-instructed will "account that the long-suffering of our God is salvation." 2 Peter iii. 15.

If God were not sure of His "everlasting strength," He could not the sit still and see men defy Him to His face, and even use His own power in opposition to Him. He has the patience of conscious omnipotence. Knowing that He really has power, He cannot, like puny man, be tempted to make an exhibition of it simply to demonstrate to scoffers that He possesses it.

God desires that men should be saved, and in the Gospel He manifests His power to save them. All God's power, and every revelation of it, is for the purpose of leading men to trust Him for their soul's salvation. The fact that men misunderstand God, even wilfully, and pervert the power which He reveals in them for their salvation, does not discourage Him or throw Him into a passion. Still He graciously manifests His power in them, in hope that at last they will allow Him to use it to His own glory in their salvation. God's power is the power of love, and love does not use force; therefore He patiently waits, until He is positively and definitely rejected.

What wonderful joy comes with the recognition that all power is God's! "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is a gift of God." Eph. ii. 10. Our salvation depends on Him, and He has the power. His kingdom is in our hearts, but His enemy has been allowed to come in and raise the standard of rebellion. Nevertheless, as soon as we definitely choose the Lord for our King and our Lawgiver, He will save us by His mighty power. Isa. xxiii. 22. He has power to drive out every enemy. What comfort to rest confidingly in the almighty power of our God.

His is the glory. Not only ought it to be, but it is. The last message before the coming of the Lord, calls loudly upon men to "fear God, and give glory to Him," as

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the One who "made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." Rev. xiv. 6, 7. We are to give glory to Him, because it belongs to Him. His is the glory, because His is the power. Whoever takes glory to himself for anything that he possesses or has done, thereby robs God.

"Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; but he that glorieth let him glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth." Jer. ix. 23, 24. Wisdom, power, and riches, all come from the Lord; therefore "he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." 1 Cor. i. 31.

Take a single example, in the line of wisdom. On the day of Pentecost, and in any times thereafter, God gave His servants power on the instant to talk foreign languages. Unlettered Galilean fishermen suddenly began to speak intelligently in languages that before were but meaningless jargon to them. It was manifestly a gift of God, and one instinctively shudders at the thought of one with which such a gift boasting of his possession, as though the glory of it were due to him. Very well; but "the Lord giveth wisdom; out of His mouth cometh knowledge and understanding." Prov. iii. 6. If a man by study has acquired several languages, he has done it only by the power which God gave him, and therefore his knowledge is the gift of God just as truly as was the knowledge of the apostles.

Whoever not simply openly, but in his inmost thoughts, continually gives God the glory, will be kept "to the praise of the glory of His grace." "In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths." Prov. iii. 6. Men foolishly think that it is beneath their dignity, and a limitation of their freedom, to acknowledge that God alone has power, and that all glory belongs to Him; but how much better it is to acknowledge the truth, and thus be "strengthened with all might according to His glorious power" (Col. i. 11), than to deny Him, and thus be left to our own disgraceful impotence.

"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, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen." Jude 24, 25.

"Not a Creed" The Present Truth 12, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

Justification by faith, and that means salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ, is not a theory. It can never be put into a creed, a form of words. Every professor of religion who has certain points of doctrine which he holds, and who is satisfied with them just as he has put them into a formal statement, has as iron-bound a creed as any ever imposed by a council.

But the truth of God is ever growing, ever enlarging. "The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day" (Prov. iv. 18), and we cannot put that light into writing, and say, "This is the sum of the doctrine." We may speak what we know, and write what we know, but this simply calls attention to the truth; there is more and more. There are oceans of light and truth, wonderful revelations that the Lord will make to every soul, beyond what he has ever seen, and the treasures of the grace of Christ, if he will but give up to the Lord continually, for Him to live His own marvellous life in Him. Continually should the prayer be made, "Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law." Every wonderful thing that we see is but the forerunner of a still more wonderful thing to be revealed, if we will but be open to receive it.

But the man not content with God's words, who will not rest until he has defined doctrine by his own words and put God into a formula, shuts himself away from learning of God.

"Parable, History, and Prophecy" The Present Truth 12, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

In a parable, in the twenty-second chapter of Matthew, Christ compared the kingdom of heaven to a certain king who made a marriage feast upon the occasion of his son's wedding, and invited guests to the regal festivities which he had prepared. But those who had been invited did not come, and so a second time he sent out his servants to remind them that all was ready and waiting their attendance. This time it became clearly evident that they had no intention whatever of accepting the invitation, for they made light of it and went every man his own way, to his business, his farm, his counting-house. Each man thought it of more importance to attend to his own affairs than to do honour to his king, and rejoice with him at the wedding of his son.

But there were those, even, who took the servants who had been sent out to bear the king's message of love and courteous invitation, and abuse them and put some of them to death. What could have been the expectation of these murderers? Did they not suppose that they would arouse the king's righteous anger? Did they think that they could thus ill-treat and slaughter innocent men without themselves receiving sooner or later the just reward of their deeds? Was it a supposable thing that they could not only insolently scorn the king's gracious invitation but also kill his messengers, and go free and unpunished? Could such unparalleled deeds of insolent wickedness go unnoticed? Impossible! Impossible! Yet how many have excused themselves, with laughter and jeering, from listening to the invitation to the marriage supper of the Lamb, which the Lord sends out to all the world. How many of His prophets and messengers and servants have been illtreated, even murdered! Will not their Lord avenge them? In the parable it is said, "He sent forth His armies, and destroyed these murderers, and burned up their city." Is it not revealed in Revelation that this is what will be done at the time of the second death? And yet guests will not be wanting at the marriage supper. They will be gathered in from the highways and hedges, from among every tongue and kindred and nation and people, and clothed in spotless robes of righteousness, as wedding garments, will be present at the feast, and dwell thereafter in that holy city which John saw "coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband."

"Income of the Pope" The Present Truth 12, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

Income of the Pope .-The Australian organ of our Society quotes the following from the Catholic journal, showing the funds at the personal disposal of the Pope: "Pope Leo XIII. derives his revenue from three sources. One is the interest of the vast sum left by Pius IX. in the pontifical treasury, invested chiefly in English consols. This interest amounts to ?125,000 a year. Another source is the Peter's pence contribution, which in spite of the very great reduction in late years, averages about ?23,000 annually. The third source is the Apostolic Chancery, the receipts of which include sums received for titles and decorations, privileges of the altar, private chapels, etc., an aggregate about ?104,000 a year. The entire annual income of Leo XIII., therefore, is about ?252,000."

"The Promises to Israel. How Pharaoh's Heart Was Hardened" The Present Truth 12, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

When mild measures failed to cause Pharaoh to acknowledge the power of God, judgments were sent. God, who knows the end from the beginning, had said that Pharaoh's heart would be hardened, and even that He Himself would harden it; and so it was. Yet it must not be supposed that God set about deliberately to harden Pharaoh's heart against his will, so that he could not have relented if he had wished. God sends strong delusion, that men should believe a lie, only upon those who have rejected the truth, and who love a lie. Every one has just what he most desires. If any man wishes to do the will of God, he shall know of the doctrine; but to him who rejects truth, there is nothing left but darkness and deception.

It is interesting to note that it was the manifestation of the mercy of God that hardened Pharaoh's heart. The simple request of the Lord was scornfully denied. Then the plagues began to come, yet not immediately, but with interval enough to allow Pharaoh to think. But as long as the power of the magicians appeared to be as great as that exercised by Moses and Aaron, Pharaoh would not yield. Then it became manifest that there was a power greater than that with his magicians. They brought frogs upon the land, but they could not drive them away. "Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, Intreat the Lord, that he may take away the frogs from me, and from my people; and I will let the people go, that they may do sacrifice unto the Lord." Ex. viii. 8. He had already learned enough of the Lord to call Him by His name.

"And Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh; and Moses cried unto the Lord because of the frogs which He had brought against Pharaoh. And the Lord did according to the word of Moses; and the frogs died out of the houses, out of the villages, and out of the fields. And they gathered them together upon heaps; and the land stank. But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart, and hearkened not unto them; as the Lord had said." Verses 12-15.

"Let favour be shown to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the Lord." Isa. xxvi. 10. Thus it was with Pharaoh. The judgment of God caused his haughty purpose to weaken; but "when he saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart."

Again there came swarms of flies, at the command of the Lord, and Pharaoh said, "I will let you go, that you may sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness; only ye shall not go very far away; intreat for me. And Moses said, Behold I go out from thee, and I will intreat the Lord that the swarms of flies may depart from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people, to-morrow; but let not Pharaoh deal deceitfully any more in not letting the people go to sacrifice to the Lord. And Moses went out from Pharaoh, and intreated the Lord. And the Lord did according to the word of Moses; and He removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, and from his servants, and from his people; there remained not one. And Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also, neither would he let the people go." Ex. viii. 28-32.

And so it went on throughout the plagues. All the steps in each case are not recorded, but we see that it was the longsuffering and mercy of God that hardened Pharaoh's heart. The same preaching that comforted the hearts of many in the days of Jesus, made others more bitter against Him. The raising of Lazarus from the dead fixed the determination in the hearts of the unbelieving Jews to kill him. The Judgment will reveal the fact that every one who has in hardness of heart rejected the Lord, has done so in the face of the revelation of His mercy.

GOD'S PURPOSE WITH PHARAOH

"And the Lord said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, Let My people go, that they may serve Me. For I will this time send all My plagues upon thine heart, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people; that thou mayest know that there is none like Me in all the earth. For now I had put forth My hand, and smitten thee and they people with pestilence, and thou hadst been cut off from the earth; but in very deed for this cause have I made thee to stand, for to show thee My power, and that My name may be declared throughout all the earth." Ex. ix. 13-16, R.V.

The still more literal rendering of the Hebrew by Dr. Kalisch, reads thus: "For now I might have stretched out My hand, and might have smitten thee and thy people with pestilence; and thou wouldst have been cut off from the earth. But only for this cause have I let thee exist, in order to show thee My power, and that My name may be acknowledged throughout all the earth." A close comparison will show that this idea is expressed in the Revised Version, as quoted above, but not so clearly.

It is not the case, as is too often lightly supposed, that God brought Pharaoh into existence for the express purpose of wreaking His vengeance upon him. Such an idea is most dishonouring to the character of the Lord. But the true idea is that God might have

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cut Pharaoh off at the very first, and so have delivered His people without any delay. That, however, would not have been in keeping with the Lord's invariable course, which is to give every man ample opportunity to repent. God had borne long with Pharaoh's stubbornness, and now proposed to send severer judgments; yet He gives him fair warning, that even yet he may turn from his wickedness.

God had kept Pharaoh alive, and had delayed to send His severest judgments upon him, in order that He might show unto him His power. But the power of God was being manifested at that time for the salvation of His people, and the power of God unto salvation is the Gospel. Therefore God was keeping Pharaoh alive, in spite of his stubbornness, to give him ample opportunity to learn the Gospel. That Gospel was as powerful to save Pharaoh as it was to save the Israelites.

The revised renderings have been used because they are clearer than those of the common version, and not because the same truth is not set forth in each. Take the common rendering, "In very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to show in thee My power; and that My name may be declared throughout all the earth," and grant that it refers to the bringing of Pharaoh to the throne. Even then it is far from showing that God raised him up for the purpose of plaguing and killing him. The text says that it was for the purpose of showing God's power, and causing His name to be known throughout all the earth. To infer that God can show His power and make known His name only by the destruction of men, is dishonouring to Him, and contrary to the Gospel. "His mercy endureth for ever."

God's purpose was that His name should be declared throughout all the earth. This is what was done, for we read that forty years later the people of Canaan were terrified at the approach of the Israelites, because they remembered what God had done in delivering them from Egypt. But the purpose of God would have been accomplished just the same if Pharaoh had yielded to the wishes of the Lord. Suppose that Pharaoh had acknowledged the Lord, and had accepted the Gospel that was preached to him; what would have been the result? He would have done as Moses did, and have exchanged the throne of Egypt for the reproach of Christ, and a place in the everlasting inheritance. And so he would have been a most powerful agent in declaring the name of the Lord throughout all the earth. The very fact of the acceptance of the Gospel by a mighty king, would have made known the power of the Lord as effectually as did the plagues. And Pharaoh himself, from being a persecutor of God's people, might, like Paul, have become a preacher of the faith. Sad to say, he did not know the day of his visitation.

Take particular notice of the fact that the purpose of God was that His name should be declared throughout all the earth. This affair was not to be done in a corner. The deliverance from Egypt was not something that concerned only a few people in one portion of the earth. It was to "be to all people." In accordance with the promise to Abraham, God was delivering the children of Israel from bondage; but the deliverance was not for their sakes alone. Through their deliverance His name and power was to be made known to the uttermost parts of the earth. The time of the promise which God had sworn to Abraham was drawing near; but since that promise included the whole earth, it was necessary that the Gospel should be proclaimed as extensively. The children of Israel were God's chosen agents to perform this work. Around them, as the nucleus, the kingdom of God was to centre. That they proved unfaithful to their trust, only delayed, but did not change God's plan. Although they failed to proclaim the name of the Lord, and even denied it, God said, "As truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord."

"Chinese Superstitions" The Present Truth 12, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

In all the courts and centres of the West which he has visited, the Chinese viceroy, Li Hung Chang, has impressed all with his intelligence and astuteness. It helps to gauge the depth of the average Chinese superstition to read of the childish notions of the great Li Hung Chang when it is a question of religious superstition that concerns him. An Englishwoman in China says that while she read of his triumphal progress in the public press of Europe, she turned to the Pekin native Gazette and read this grave announcement:-

"A memorial of Li Hung Chang states that the breach in the banks of the Grand Canal near Tien-tsin, some days ago, was due to the devilry of a river god. This spirit appeared in various guises to the soldiers at work on the embankment, and their commander on hearing it caused a sacrificial stage to be erected and gifts and prayers to be offered to appease the god. These measures were evidently successful, for thenceforth the labourers were blest with beautiful serene weather and placid waters, in lieu of the stormy wind and heavy rains of the previous weeks. The memorialist therefore prays that a fitting acknowledgment of his favours be made by the throne to this river god in form of the title 'God of the northern terminus of the Great Canal,' and a temple erected for his residence, where spring and autumn sacrifices may be offered by the mandarins of the district."

"Nineteenth Century Pharisaism" The Present Truth 12, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

Nineteenth Century Pharisaism .-In speaking of the Pharisees Christ never left them any excuse for their ignorance and unbelief as to His identity. As in many other places, how clearly in the latter part of the twenty-first chapter of Matthew, by reference to the prophetical Scriptures, in which they were well versed, Christ told them who He was. By the use of these familiar references He also warned them most solemnly of the result of the course which they were taking. To speak of the Lord as the master of a vineyard was a familiar figure of Scriptural speech to them, and no less familiar was the reference to prophecy in the stone which the builder rejected, and the fate of those upon whom the stone should fall. Indeed, they did recognise His references and their applicability, but instead of repenting and casting themselves down before Him, that their heart hearts might be broken, they "sought to lay hands on Him." This is a warning. It is just as possible to be a Pharisee in the nineteenth century as it was in the first.

"They Did Not Accept" The Present Truth 12, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

They Did Not Accept .-How plainly the parable and the twenty-second chapter of Matthew, wherein Christ likens the kingdom of heaven to a certain king who made a marriage for his son, connects itself with the many passages in the Bible wherein Christ is figured as a Bridegroom, and those who love Him, and so live for ever, as the one to whom He is eternally united. The continuity of this figure speech of Biblical thought is enough in itself to suggest that its different utterances were prompted by the inspiration of one loving heart, and that the heart of Him who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. But the Pharisees, when they had heard this exposition of God's loving invitation to all, did not accept,-they "took counsel how they might entangle Him in His talk."

"'Put Not Your Trust in Princes'" The Present Truth 12, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

"Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust," said the Psalmist. Who else is worthy of trust? Who else can be trusted? Whose knowledge, and strength, and existence, is unfailing and sure, but only the Lord's? What man is there who is unchangeably reliable in all his ways even yesterday and to-day? But the Lord, He is immutable,-the same not only yesterday and to-day, but for ever.

No hero worshipper and no subject, however legal, would think of putting their confidence in prince or king longer than for the transient period of life; yet the Lord may be trusted for ever. That man who puts his trust in princes' favours will surely one day come to feel that if he had but served his God, and put his trust in Him, He would not have deserted him in his need. Truly, "Blessed is the man that maketh the Lord his trust;" he shall not want; goodness and mercy will follow him all the days of his life, and he will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

-The Rhodesian rising is not yet at an end. It was hoped peace was assured, but many of the rebels refuse to come in.

-Newfoundland has been passing through very serious financial depression. Now it is reported that gold has been discovered there in paying quantities, and the colony is excited.

-To-day, the Jews are scattered among "all nations." There are 3,000,000 in Russia, 1,644,000 in Austria, 562,000 in Germany, 105,000 in Turkey, 63,000 in France, 92,000 in Great Britain, and 250,000 in New York.

-The English railways, with their 14,650 miles of line, carried about 200,000,000 more passengers than the railways of the United States, with twelve times the length of line and a population twice as great to draw upon.

-Of our railways, the largest system is the Great Western, with 2,500 miles of line. The wealthiest is the London and North-Western, The greatest number of passengers was carried last year by the Great Eastern, nearly 91 millions of persons.

-The largest permanent store of coined money in the world is in the Imperial war treasury of Germany-a portion saved for emergencies, from the sum paid by France after the Franco-Prussian war, and locked up in the Julius Tower of the fortress of Spandau. It amounts to the value of ?6,000,000.

-The annual report of the Lunacy Commissioners shows that mental derangement has greatly increased in Scotland as well as England. This year the increase touched the highest point since 1858. The increase of population has been 38 per cent., and the increase of lunacy 142 per cent. Drink is probably answerable for much of the increase.

-It is claimed for Ireland that, with its lees than 5,000,000 of population, it has more centenarians than any country in Europe-perhaps in the world. They number 578. In pain 401 persons have crossed the century limit, in France 213, in England 146, in Germany 78, in Scotland 46, in Norway 23, in Sweden 10, in Belgium 6, and in Denmark 2.

-By a vote of fifteen to ten the Transvaal Volksraad has passed a bill totally prohibiting the sale of liquor to natives from January 1 next. The law has been urgently demanded by Johannesburg, which employe about 47,000 natives about the mines. It has been proved that 15 per cent. of these natives are absent daily through drunkenness, and another 6 per cent. turn up in a drowsy, stupid state from the same cause.

-During 1895, 7,527 inquests were held in London, an increase of 14 per cent. on the number in 1894. One hundred and seven persons of the "subjects" died from "want, cold, and exposure." Five hundred and seventy-two children were suffocated during the year by drunken or careless parents in bed. Accidents from petroleum lamps advanced to the great total of 473 last year.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

By a majority of one, the casting vote, the Manchester City Council last week decided not to order the prosecution of barbers for Sunday work.

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children has been the means of succouring 30,000 boys and girls from cruelty. And the demon Drink has been the chief cause of the cruelty and neglect.

The Bavarian Archbishop has, says the Christian World, issued a decree forbidding the clergy to give any encouragement to the circulation of the Bible, and denouncing those who read it without permission. It is the most dangerous book that Rome has to fear.

We are glad to see that the German organ of our society, the Herold der Wahreit, of Hamburg, flourishing. Its circulation is now 10,000 copies, which is larger than that of most of the religious organs in Germany, where religious papers have a surprisingly small circulation.

Relief committees are showing praiseworthy activity in appealing for help for desolated homes in Turkey. Guilty and innocent need it alike. But when tried missionaries appeal to Christendom to discriminate between Armenian Christians and Armenian revolutionists, as does the one whose appeal we notice on another page, all who know what spirit Christianity is of know that this call speaks genuine Christian sympathy for the suffering.

A circular letter to the public press, unsigned, but coming from a Catholic publishing house, urges that the Italian Question is really "the European Question," and calls upon the press and statesmen of Europe to take up the matter of restoring Rome to the papacy. They say that Italy is rushing on to "anarchy, red ruin, revolution, and chaos;" all true, no doubt, but how forcing the unwilling Roman people back under papal rule is to avert the catastrophe the authors of the circular do not tell. However, sudden changes come now, and it would be nothing strange if out of Italy's trouble the Papacy found a way to regain some of its lost temporal dignities. But the ruin will fall upon Rome all the same.

Next week our friends in Turkey begin a Bible Institute in Constantinople, which will continue several weeks, and will be attended, it is expected, by Armenians and Greeks and others from various parts of Turkey. Amidst the terrible calamities which have come upon that country during the past year our brethren there have gone steadily forward, testifying to Armenian, Greek, and Turk alike of the message of Christ's salvation and of the coming of the Lord.

What a record of tragedy and calamity is sometimes crowded into one week's news record. Last week it was war in the various parts of Africa, in Cuba and the Philippines, preparations for war in all the world, massacre in one corner of Europe, earthquakes in Japan, Iceland and France, and unrest everywhere.

"The world is very evil,
The times are waxing late;
Be sober and keep vigil;
The Judge is at the gate,
The Judge who comes in mercy,
The Judge who comes with might,-
Who comes to end the evil,
Who comes to crown the right."

The Pope blesses the Spanish troops departing for Cuba to put down a rebellion, and by his representative declares that the Spanish flag, surmounted by the cross, can never be defeated. How eager the papacy would summon armies, if it could, to fight in what it considers the cause of the Cross, its own temporal sovereignty.

The "origin of Sunday observance" is a pamphlet going into the details of the history of the beginning and growth of Sunday observance in the church, by which it came about that the Sabbath was almost universally desecrated. It is a question, not of one day or another merely, but of loyalty to God's government and to the Cross, and all should inform themselves as to the facts. Price, sixpence.

"On Protestantism" The Present Truth 12, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

On Protestantism .-Replying to the overtures of Maryland Methodists, inviting Catholic priests to unite with Protestant ministers to secure the enforcement of Sunday laws, a Catholic writer said in the Catholic Mirror, Cardinal Gibbon's official organ:-

What living Catholic priest is there who does not know that Protestantism has, contrary to its fundamental principles, abandoned its sole acknowledged teacher, the Bible, on the Sabbath question, and, guilty of a double apostasy, gone over, bag and baggage, to the teaching and practice of the Catholic Church? In putting the question, I must make honorable exception. I refer to the Seventh-day Adventists. They are the only consistent Protestants on earth. They follow the teachings of their Bible by keeping the Sabbath enjoined by God and their acknowledged guide, only to be fined, punished and imprisoned by their fellow-Protestants even in the State of Maryland, for their consistency, while their prosecutors have shamefully abandoned the very principles for which they punish them.

"Armageddon" The Present Truth 12, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

Armageddon .-It is not without reason that the eyes of the world are turned upon Turkey at this time. But those who clamour for the extinction of the Turk, or his expulsion from Europe, little think what momentous happenings prophecy tells us will follow that event. Now and then a hint of the truth may be found in the public prints-stated, though not believed-as in this editorial utterance from the Daily Chronicle:-

The world knows why Lord Salisbury recoiled from the task to which he seemed to have put his hand. Russia was suddenly indifferent to the sufferings of the Armenians. The original scheme of reforms, pressed upon the Sultan by the Ambassadors, was hastily dropped, and we were told by the organs of our Government that it could be executed only at the cost of an Armageddon.

The Turk himself understands that he will be driven from Europe,-and that "then the Messiah will come." The one sure thing in this world is the fulfilment of prophecy. It has been fulfilled,-it will be. The events which will follow the removal of the Turkish capital to Jerusalem (Dan. xi. 450) are narrated in Revelation xvi. 12-21. The battle of Armageddon is one of them.

"An Old Bill" The Present Truth 12, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

An Old Bill .-A writer in the Windsor Magazine, who is sketching the history of some of the first Archbishops of Canterbury, quotes an old account which shows how much it cost to burn a heretic three centuries ago and more. He says: "To defy the authority of the Church meant in those days certain excommunication, which in turn entailed that the culprit should be dealt with by the laws of the State. That my readers may realise what this course implied, I give the following significant extract which appears in the municipal records of Canterbury dated 1535:-

"For the expenses of bring me a heretic from London. . . 14s 8d.

For 1? load of wood to burn him . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2s. 0d.

For gunpowder. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1d.

A stake and staple. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8d."

September 17, 1896

"The Pharisees Silenced" The Present Truth 12, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

There seems, from His earliest years, to have been something about the personality of Christ which aroused attention, and excited inquiry. It seems to have been the general impulse either to ask questions about Him, or to question Him directly, wherever He was seen. When a youth of twelve, among the doctors in the temple, questioning and questioned, "all that heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers."

The culmination of this inclination of His enemies to question and cross-question Christ, in the hope of drawing some reply from Him which they could use for their own purposes, is narrated in the twenty-second chapter of Matthew. Indeed the beginning of this final series of questions which resulted in their complete discomfiture, is told in the preceding chapter, where they asked Him, "By what authority doest Thou these things? and who gave Thee this authority." To this question He replied by asking them another, to which they felt compelled, after consultation among themselves, to make the hypocritical answer, "We cannot tell." Upon which He refused to give a direct reply to the question they had put to Him.

But nevertheless He did answer them, immediately, in parables, in which the language in figures used referred so unmistakably to Himself, as spoken of in their ancient Scriptures, that they could scarcely fail to understand its application. But that they might have no excuse, He says to them further, "Did ye never read in the Scriptures?" and then quotes to them, verbatim, prophetic references to Himself in Isaiah. In this "they perceived that He spake of them."

Still He continued with yet another parable, also based upon scriptural symbolism, in which its application to Himself, and its force as a reply to the question which they had asked, was but thinly concealed. As they had understood that in the previous parables He had spoken of them, so also in this they must have seen themselves and those who asked to be excused from attending the wedding of the king's son, or ridiculed the invitation, or persecuted and slew the king's servants. Then they took counsel together systematically, "how they might entangle Him in His talk."

For the accomplishment of this they sent to Him their own disciples with the Herodians, that they might, after flattering speeches, ask Him concerning a matter of civil government, a religio-political question, "Is it lawful to give tribute unto C?sar, or not?" His reply was such that they could take no exception to it. They could only marvel and go away. But more than that it set up the limits and fixed the boundaries beyond which the authority of man cannot go. Render unto God the things that are God's, and unto man, and his government, the things which are man's.

Then came the Sadducees to Him and put to Him a puerile question which they thought made utterly ridiculous the doctrine of the resurrection. But then He silenced, and at the same time proved to them from the Scriptures the necessity of the resurrection of the dead, that God might be the God of the living. For they were not prepared to accept the logical conclusion of their own position and declare Jehovah to be so futile a being as to be God alone of the dead, and His kingdom to be only the realm of silence and death.

When the Sadducees had been discounted the Pharisees came again to the attack, and a lawyer among them questioned him as to the commandments,-which was the greatest. In His reply Jesus epitomised the commandments in two short sentences. To this they could take no exception, and when they had nothing more to say, He questioned them again in reference to the Scriptures as regard Himself. When He asked them whose son Christ is, and they say David's, He quotes to them the words of David himself, and asks, "If David then call Him Lord, how is He his son?" "And no man was able to answer Him a word, neither any man from that day forth ask Him any more questions."

"The Prophet and the Statesman" The Present Truth 12, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

That the world is on the threshold of great changes and startling events is very evident. The development of the Eastern Question from week to week show that there is less and less a disposition to help the Turkish Power to stand. "He shall come to his end, and none shall help him." Dan. xi. 45. That we know; and while it seems probable that once again the Powers will agree to keep him up, every time that services are requisitioned the case becomes more desperate and the situation more insecure. We have often repeated it, and shall often do so, that when he does come to his end the time of trouble comes for all nations. Less than a year ago Lord Salisbury told why the Powers are so anxious to maintain the Turkish Power. His words we then printed as a striking comment on Daniel's prediction of the scenes which would be enacted when the "king of the north" was no longer propped up. They are as follows:-

"Turkey is in that remarkable condition that it has now stood for half a century, mainly because the great Powers of the world have resolved that for the peace of Christendom it is necessary that the Ottoman Empire should stand. They came to that conclusion nearly half a century ago. I do not think that they have altered it now. The danger, if the Ottoman Empire fall, would not merely be the danger that would threaten the territory of which that empire consists; it would be the danger that the fire lit should spread to other nations, and should involve all that is most powerful and civilised in Europe in a dangerous and calamitous contest. That was a danger that was present to the minds of our fathers when they resolved to make the integrity and independence of the Ottoman Empire a matter of European treaty; and that is a danger which has not passed away."

"Turks and Armenians" The Present Truth 12, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

How can Turks bring themselves to butcher Armenians by the thousands? How can Armenians retaliate in king to the extent of their power? How can the civilised nations order their subjects out to mangle and cut one another down? The killing is no softer a thing in war than are massacre and riot. It is because Satan fills the heart with hatred, and men become as calloused as brutes. What an awful thing fallen human nature is!

"The Promises to Israel. Saved by the Life" The Present Truth 12, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

Of Moses we read, "By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible. Through faith he kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the first-born should touch them." Heb. xi. 27, 28.

It was not at the first, when he fled in fear, that Moses forsook Egypt in faith, but when he went out after having kept the passover. Then the wrath of the king was nothing to him, because "he endured as seeing Him who is invisible." He was under the protection of the King of kings.

Although this text speaks only of Moses, we need not suppose that he was the only one of the children of Israel who had faith; for we read in the next verse of the whole company that "by faith they passed through the Red Sea." But even if it were true that Moses alone of all the company left Egypt by faith, that fact would prove that all ought to have left it in the same manner, and that the entire deliverance was a work of faith.

"He endured as seeing Him who is invisible." Moses lived in the same way that true Christians of the present day live. Here is the parallel: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations; that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried in the fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ; whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see Him not; yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory; receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls." 1 Peter i. 3-9.

Moses and the children of Israel were called to the same inheritance that is reserved for us. The promise was to them in Christ, as well as to us. It was an inheritance to be gained only by faith in Christ, and that faith was to be such as would make Christ a real, personal presence, although invisible. And more, the basis of the faith and hope was the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Christ then, as now, was the head of the church. The true church has not and never has had any other than an invisible head. "The Holy One of Israel" was given to be "a leader and commander to the people" ages before He was born a babe in Bethlehem.

We see therefore that personal faith in Christ was the basis of the deliverance of Israel from Egypt. This was shown in the institution of the passover. Matters had then come to a crisis. Pharaoh had persisted in stubborn resistance until the mercy of the Lord had no effect upon him. That Pharaoh had acted deliberately, and had sinned against light, is shown by his own statement after the locusts had been sent. He called for Moses and Aaron, and said, "I have sinned against the Lord your God, and against you. Now therefore forgive, I pray thee, my sin only this once, and intreat the Lord your God, that He may take away from me this death only." Ex. x. 16, 17. He had come to acknowledge the Lord, and he knew that rebellion against him was sin, yet as soon as there was respite he was as stubborn as ever. He definitely and fully rejected all the Lord's advances, and now nothing remained but to execute such judgment upon him as would compel him to desist from his oppression, and to let Israel go.

THE FIRST PASSOVER

It was the last night that the children of Israel were to spend in Egypt. The Lord was about to bring His last great judgment upon the king and people, in the destruction of the first-born. The children of Israel were instructed to take a lamb "without blemish," and to kill it in the evening, and to eat the flesh. "And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it." "It is the Lord's passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt will I execute judgment; I am the Lord. And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt." Ex. xii. 5-13.

The blood of that lamb did not save them, and they well knew that. The Lord told them that it was but a token. It was simply a sign of their faith in that which it represented, namely, "the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot," for "Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us." 1 Cor. v. 7. The blood of the lamb was therefore only a token of the Lamb of God; and they who "endured as seeing Him who is invisible" understood this.

"The life of the flesh is in the blood." Lev. xvii. 11. In the blood of Christ, that

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is, in His life, we have redemption, even the forgiveness of sins; because God hath set him forth, "to be a propitiation through faith, by His blood, to show His righteousness, because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime, in the forbearance of God." Rom. iii. 25, R.V. God passes over sins, not in that He compromises with them, but because "the blood of Jesus Christ His son cleanseth us from all sin." 1 John i. 7. The life of Christ is the righteousness of God, for out of the heart are the issues of life, and the law of God was in His heart as perfect righteousness. The application of the blood or the life of Christ, is therefore the application of the life of God in Christ; and that is the taking away of sin.

The sprinkling of the blood upon the door posts signified what was said later: "The Lord our God is one Lord; and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart; . . . . and thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates." Deut. vi. 4-9. The righteousness of the law of God is found only in the life of Christ. It can be in the heart only as the life of God in Christ is in the heart, to cleanse it from all sin. Putting the blood on the posts of the door of the house was the same as writing the law of God on the posts of the house and on the gates; and it indicated nothing else but dwelling in Christ-being encompassed with His life.

Christ is the Son of God, whose delight was found in doing His Father's will. As He was the Passover of the children of Israel in Egypt, so He is ours, because His life is everlasting and indestructible, and those who are dwelling in it by faith share its safety. No man nor devil could take His life from Him; and the Father loved Him, and had no desire to take His life from Him. He laid it down of His own free will, and took it again. He laid it down that we might take it, and He took it again, that He might take us with it. The dwelling in Him, therefore, which was signified by the sprinkling of the blood upon the door posts, means being made free from sin, and so being saved from the wrath of God which cometh upon the children of disobedience.

Jesus Christ is "the same yesterday and to-day and for ever." Heb. xiii. 8. Faith in His blood, which was signified by the sprinkling of the blood of the lamb upon the doors of the houses, accomplishes the same result to-day that it ever did. When we celebrate the Lord's Supper, which was instituted at the time of the passover at which Christ was betrayed and crucified, we celebrate the same thing that the Israelites did in Egypt. They were yet in Egypt when they celebrated that first passover. It was an act of faith, showing their confidence in Christ as their Deliverer. So we, through the blood of the covenant, show our faith in the power of His life to preserve us from sin and from the destruction that is coming upon the earth because of sin. In that day the Lord will spare those whose life is hid with Christ in God, "as a man spareth his own son that serveth him." Mal. iii. 17. And it will be for the same reason, because God spares His own Son, and men are spared in Him.

THE LAST PASSOVER

When Christ celebrated that last passover with His disciples, He said, "With desire have I desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God." Luke xxii. 15, 16. From this we learn that the institution of the Passover had direct reference to the coming of the Lord to punish the wicked and to deliver His people. So we are told, "As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till He come." 1 Cor. xi. 26. The death of Christ is nothing without the resurrection; and the resurrection of Christ means simply the resurrection of all those whose lives are hidden in His life. It is by His resurrection that He begets us to a lively hope of the inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away; and the same faith and hope, laying hold of the same inheritance, was shown by the true Israel in Egypt. The inheritance for which we look is one that is reserved in heaven; and the inheritance that was promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to which God was prepared to lead the children of Israel, was "a better country, that is, an heavenly."

"The sprinkling of the blood" (compare Ex. xii. 5-14; Heb. xi. 27, 28; xii. 24; and 1 Peter i. 2-10) is the grand link that unites us in our Christian experience with ancient Israel. It shows that the deliverance that God was working for them was identical with that which He is now working for us. It unites us with them in the one Lord and the one faith. Christ was as really present with them as He is with us. They could endure as seeing Him who is invisible, and we can do no more. He was "slain from the foundation of the world," and therefore risen from the foundation of the world, so that all the benefits of His death and resurrection might be grasped by them as well as by us. And the deliverance that He was working for them was very real. Their hope was in the coming of the Lord to raise the dead, and thus to complete the deliverance, and we have the same blessed hope. Let us take warning from their subsequent failures, and "hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end."

From this point on, our way will be much more plain, because at every step we shall see clearly that we are only studying the dealings of God with His people in the plan of salvation, and are learning his power to save and to carry on the work of proclaiming the Gospel. "Whatsoever things are written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope."

"Unprecedented Conditions" The Present Truth 12, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

Unprecedented Conditions .-The meteorological conditions on the continent of North America, this past summer have been both unusual and startling. Speaking of only a portion of the month of August, an editorial paragraph from an American paper says:-

The long-continued excessive heat, and the number and violence of electrical storms and other meterological disturbances experienced during the first thirteen days of the month, will place August, 1896, on record as unequalled in the annals of previous history. The loss of life and property by rain, hail, floods, cloudbursts, hurricanes, tornadoes, cyclones, lightning, and prostrations from heat, have been unequalled and appalling.

When we recollect that the summer was ushered in by tornadoes of great violence which caused unexampled loss of life, and that the season throughout has shown an extraordinary record of untoward natural phenomena, while the financial and political situation in the country threatens a similar condition of disturbance, if not disaster, it may well be that people should turn to prophecy to understand the meaning of these things.

"The Alcoholised Brain" The Present Truth 12, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

The Alcoholised Brain .-Some authorities claim that "a once-thoroughly intoxicated brain never becomes what it was before, though the outward evidence of a debauch may wholly pass away if the use of the alcohol is abandoned." If this be true no wonder that the mental and moral results of habitual intoxication are so serious.

"He is Responsible" The Present Truth 12, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

He is Responsible .-If you have committed your ways and yourself to God, do not rob yourself of the joy of His salvation by doubting His power to keep you. "I know whom I have believed," said Paul, "and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day." He has the responsibility of the keeping if only we continually choose Him. "Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory, . . . be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and for ever. Amen."

"Divorcing Religion from Conduct" The Present Truth 12, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

Formal religion presents very often such amazing contradictions that it would be amusing if it were not so pitiful. The Mexican or Italian brigand will count his beads or invoke the aid of the Virgin Mary to secure Divine assistance and protection in his criminal career. He thinks, of course, that God is altogether such an one as himself. He makes a god after his own imaginations, just as many do who do not use their religion to cover criminal conduct, but to use it nevertheless to serve their own inclination and pleasure.

But the Leipsic Christliche Welt gives some instances of the unconscious inconsistency of the Russian formalist which point a good moral; for it is not alone in Russia that men are in danger of separating religion from the life. We quote two paragraphs:-

"In Russian court in the city of Odessa some years ago there was a trial between two peasants, one of whom had bodily maltreated the other. The examination revealed the fact that the injured party had claimed that Almighty God was superior to St. Nicholas. The other, in the interests of his patron saint, presented this and abused his neighbour. This is a specimen of Russian religiousness. Some years ago, when the compulsory conversion in mass of Protestant peasants in Livonia to the State Church of Russia was in process, a Greek Catholic superior pope expressed his surprise that Protestants were opposed to this change of base. There was no ground for this opposition, he thought; for had not Luther at one time been the Court preacher of Queen Catherine of Russia? This is a specimen of theological training in Russia. At Warsaw the Emperor Nicholas was taking part in a religious service in which, according to custom, the worshipper was to kiss the hand of the officiating priest. The latter, in his confusion at the presence of the visible head of the State Church, failed to offer his hand. Thereupon the Emperor cried out: 'Give me your hand, you dog; I want to kiss it.' This is a characteristic trait in Russian Church life.

"The religiousness of the Russian Church is an odd combination of elements, difficult to understand even for him who has come into constant contact with it, and even more difficult to make clear to others. In it are remnants and remains of the oldest kinds of Christianity, a certain barbarian naivetÈ, a lifeless formality from the times of Byzantine sterility, and a wilderness of confused ideas."

"Terrible and True" The Present Truth 12, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

How picturesque and terrible is the language of Isaiah! Yet if we but think of the wonders of the things of which he speaks, and their import to the world, we cannot feel surprised at the marvellous heights of mysterious grandeur to which he rises. In the thirtieth chapter he breaks forth:-

"Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of Me; and that cover with a covering, but not of My spirit, that they may add sin to sin. . . . Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever; that this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord; which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits; get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us. Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon; therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant."

These words are noted in a book, that they may be, as they should be, a warning for ever. It is the characteristic of the world to this day to take counsel of anyone but God. It is the practice of the world to this day to hide behind any subtle devices that it may add sin to sin. The people of to-day will not hear the law of the Lord, but stultify themselves with false logic and foolish inconsistencies, that they may uphold a misconstruction and misrepresentation of God's law. And when their substitute for God's law is ignored they strike by legal enactments and penalties to enforce it. This very year and day the people are saying to those who see and understand the signs of the times, "See not!" "We do not wish to understand that these are prophetic evidences. Give us flights of fancy, and pleasant rhetoric,

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and flattering speeches. Lead us in the depths of the higher criticism rather than in the way of that ancient Book."

Is not all this true of the present age and shall it not cause God to cease from among men? And when He has withdrawn His presence from the world, shall He not see just such things as we are told are now happening in Turkey? The breezes heated by an equatorial sun is now carrying the hotter breath of slaughter round the world. When their odours shall have penetrated to cooler climes and roused the quest of war in the slower tempered peoples of the North, all these things may well be expected to combine in a sudden breaking forth which will appal the hearts of men, but from which, and from the results of which, there will be no escape. All intelligent men may well stand aghast at the possible outcome of that which is now taking place in Turkey.

"'The Seeing Eye'" The Present Truth 12, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

"The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even both of them." Prov. xx. 12.

Have you ever thought what a very wonderful piece of machinery the eye is? Each part acts in perfect obedience to the messages which come to it by the nerves from the brain, so that when we wish to open or close our eyes, it is done instantly and almost unconsciously.

Now in Matt. vi. 22, we find the eye called "the light of the body," and I do not think there could be a better name. In front of the eyeball there is a round, transparent window, always kept beautifully clean, through which the rays of light pass into the eye, and after being collected by a lens, they strike on a delicate membrane at the back of the eye, known as the retina. Here, an image of the object at which we look is formed, and here the sensation of sight is felt. We do not value this precious gift of sight so much as we ought. Too often we strain our eyes by small print and reading in dim lights. Let us take more care in future of our sight.

But what about the eye of our souls? That eye is faith. How many are blind with this eye! They have never asked God to open "the eyes of their under."

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

-Spain continues sending troops to Cuba and the Philippines.

-The revenues of Cape Colony increased by over a million pounds this year.

-It is stated that more money is made out of coal mines than out of gold mines.

-Since the first of the year over ?11,000,000 hat been invested in new bicycle companies.

-Great forest fires are reported from Canada, thousands of sores of timber being destroyed.

-Hundreds of Armenians are emigrating from Turkey, anxious to get anywhere away from that country.

-There are, it is said, at least 200 horse-butcher shops in Paris. The first one dates from July 1, 1866, since when the consumption has grown continuously.

-At the Battle of Trafalgar, the heaviest gun used threw a projectile weighing only 32lb., which was 6.41 inches in diameter; the modern 110-gun uses a shell weighing 2,000lb., of 1? inches in diameter.

-Icebergs have made more trouble than usual this summer in the Transatlantic trade. A fortnight ago a London steamer was sunk by collision with a great floating mountain of ice. The crew escaped in boats.

-A town to be named Ecathorinagrad is to be built on the Mourman coast, the shores of Russian Lapland, to serve as a naval station for Russia, giving the latter country a free entry to the Atlantic seaboard.

-Storms and rainfall in Egypt of an extent and violence heretofore unknown occurred during the first few days of September. The tempest did great damage to the railway being constructed by the Egyptian force.

-The World's Women's Christian Temperance Union has collected a monster petition, signed by women throughout the world, containing seven and a half millions of signatures, against the liquor and opium traffic. The section which contains the signatures from the British Empire has been forwarded to Balmoral for presentation to the Queen.

-In Sicily the language of signs is universal, says a writer in Macmillan's Magazine. It is per. featly possible for a Sicilian to carry on a long conversation from a distance with hands, eye-brows, lips, and even nostrils. Even the children are expert in silent communication, and when using ordinary speech they accompany their words with most expressive gesture.

-Over ?200 was spent in drink in one week by a Hertfordshire family making a tour of America. The family consisted of the mother, aged about sixty, and two sons and a daughter. They pus chased the liquor wholesale, and drank it in their hotel. After the carouse, which ended on Saturday, the debauchees were found lying on the floor of one of the rooms in the hotel. One son was dead, the daughter was isane, and the other son and the mother were suffering from delirium tremens.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

Two of our friends who have devoted themselves to work in India sailed from London last week for Calcutta.

The gambling dens recently running just across the water, at Ostend, are said to be already rivaling Monte Carlo, and women, English women especially, are said to be the heaviest gamblers.

One of the most difficult tasks is to try to help the person who thinks that he holds back from doing right because someone else is doing wrong. The objector is often sincere but always deceived. The trouble is a personal one, and very often when the heart is set right and the vision clarified the trouble in the other person, that was supposed to be the stumblingblock, disappears also.

The Amalgamated Bakers are still at it,-not baking, but spying upon Jewish baker's on Sunday mornings, and preferring complaints against them for Sunday baking under the old law of Geo. IV., as witness the following:-

J. L. Meek, a baker was summoned yesterday at Marlborough-road under an Act passed in the reign of George IV. for unlawfully baking bread on Sunday,-Mr. Travers Humphreys, a barrister, prosecuted on behalf of the Amalgamated Society of Bakers. Two working bakers stated that they saw baking going on in defendant's shop at two o'clock last Sunday morning.-Mr. Humphreys said the defendant was fined for a similar offense on August 13.-Mr. Newton imposed a fine of 20s., with 2s. costs. Benjamin S. Cohen, a baker, was similarly summoned. In this case the evidence showed that the bake-house windows were boarded up, but after some little trouble the witnesses were able to see bread being made. A previous conviction for a similar offence having been proved, Mr. Newton fined the defendant 20s., with 2s. costs.

Are these men criminals? Is justice being meted out to them, or are they being persecuted?

"A moment really seems to have come in the history of humanity when Christianity may effectively deliver to the nations its message concerning war," says a religious journal. But the same article treats war as a necessary evil at times, when rights cannot be maintained without it. The nations are ready for this message-in fact will fight for it at any time when they can safely do so. However, Christianity's message has not waited till now. Wherever the faith of Christ has been preached a message concerning war has been delivered.

The "Tourists' Church Guide" has become the hand-book for recording the progress of Ritualism. The eastward position is now adopted in nearly 6,000 churches in the Church of England.

"Pitcairn Island" The Present Truth 12, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

Pitcairn Island .-Reports from our South-Sea missionary ship, Pitcairn, state that all are well on Pitcairn Island. "The principal events of the year," they tell us, in this out-of-the-way but famous island, "have been the opening of the industrial school and the establishing of water-works." A number of the islanders accompanied the force on board the Pitcairn which is leaving workers and various island groups.

"Mammon's Tribute" The Present Truth 12, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

Mammon's Tribute .-An evening paper, the Echo, in calling attention to the fact that "murders, suicides, and lunatics are alarmingly increasing in England," attributes this increase to the true cause, the rush of money-getting and pleasure-seeking which characterises not our national life only but the age in which we live. Our contemporary says:-

Mammon is the god most worshipped in England, and we pay the penalty in the usual unrest, and morbid activity, and feverish competition, in trampling down the weak, and increased drink bills, in the conspicuous development of the social evil; and increased infanticide, suicide, madness, and murder. If anyone doubts the accuracy of the indictment let him look at the facts.

"The Rise of the Ottoman Power" The Present Truth 12, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

The Rise of the Ottoman Power .-In the ninth of Revelation the prophet by specifications which have been exactly fulfilled, sketches the rise of the Turkish Power. The sons of the desert swept out from the Arabian wastes like smoke issuing from the bottomless pit. "And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which had not the seal of God in their foreheads." The historian Gibbon quotes the instructions which Abubeker, the successor of Mohammed, issued to his hordes, as he led them into the Greek Empire. Notice how exactly the verse quoted was fulfilled in these instructions:-

When you fight the battles of the Lord, quit yourselves like men, without turning back; but let not your victory be stained with the blood of women and children. Destroy no palm-trees, nor burn any fields of corn. Cut down no fruit-trees, nor do any mischief to cattle, only such as you eat. When you make any covenant or article, stand to it, and be as good as your word. As you go on you will find some religious persons who live retired in monasteries, and propose to themselves to serve God that way; let them alone, and neither kill them nor destroy their monasteries; and you will find another sort of people that belong to the synagogue of Satan, who have shaven crown; be sure you cleave their sculls, and give them no quarter till they either turn Mohammedans or pay tribute.

"A Destroyer" The Present Truth 12, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

A Destroyer .-The name given to the Mohammedan power in the Scriptures is that of Apollyon, or Destroyer. Rev. ix. 11. The first king, who in this verse has this symbolic name given him, was Othman. As one of our Armenian correspondents said in our columns last year, "As though to be in harmony with the prophetic name, Apollyon, his name Othman, means 'Bone-breaker.'" Such has it been-a Destroyer throughout its history, a scourge like locusts from the desert, as the Revelator describes it. But as in its rise, so in its history, it has been very largely a scourge upon a corruption of Christianity, upon Roman and Greek Catholicism, which but for this enemy at their gates would often have carried further persecution and torture of those who followed the Word during the Dark Ages and later times.

"'Not Religious Fanaticism'" The Present Truth 12, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

"Not Religious Fanaticism . " -The Daily Chronicle gives this head to one portion of the despatches of its own correspondent in Constantinople. The fact which the correspondent states is almost universally overlooked in comments which are made on the terrible crime in Constantinople, although his words are full of significance to those who would get at the true situation in Turkey:-

It certainly was not religious fanaticism which caused the massacres in Anatolia. In like manner, these massacres in Constantinople were clearly arranged by the Sultan, and strictly ordered to be confined to Armenian Christians. If Moslem fanaticism were really the cause, it is absurd to pretend that Greek and other Christians would have been passed unnoticed by the mob.

"For Little Ones" The Present Truth 12, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

For Little Ones .-A new third edition of "The Gospel Primer" for little folk has just been prepared by our publishers. It consists of a picture alphabet, with Scripture texts, simple lessons on the subject of Creation and the Gospel, and several poems and illustrations. Price 2nd.

September 24, 1896

"'And Peter'" The Present Truth 12, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

When the women came to the sepulchre on that morning of the third day the angel reminded them that Christ had said He would rise again the third day, and told them to hasten to tell the disciples. Mark's narrative adds two words, not mentioned by the other writers, which we know meant so much to one in that sorrowing company: "Go your way, tell His disciples, and Peter."

Poor Peter had denied his Lord, and then knowing his awful sin, and remembering Christ's words, that before the hour of cock-crowing he would deny Him thrice, his heart must have well-nigh broken as the Lord turned upon him that last look of love and sorrow. It must have been the love in the look that kept any heart at all in him; and now on the morning of the third day, with no recollection of Christ's words regarding the rising again from the dead, with only the leaden sorrow of this sin weighing upon his soul, he must have wept at the dawning of another day of waking and reflection.

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But then came the word that the angel spoke: "Tell His disciples, and Peter." The Lord knew Peter's sorrow; and how that special personal message must have thrilled the burdened heart! It is not to be wondered at that the fervency of Peter's desire to see Jesus and fall at His feet was rewarded by an interview that same day. We are told that the Lord had appeared to Peter before he appeared to all together. All assembled were to see Him that day that they might be witnesses of the fact that He rose the third day according to the Scriptures; but the tender compassion of the Lord for the erring, even for the one weakly denying Him with cursing, were shown for the encouragement of the repentant sinner in all time by that special message and the special interview.

It was the prayer of the Lord, too, that saved Peter in the midst of his sin, and gave him repentance and contrition of heart. Jesus had told him that Satan was trying to get him into his power, that he might sift him as wheat. "But I have prayed for thee," He said, "that thy faith fail not." Luke xxii. 31. It was the prayer of Christ that saved Peter from utter shipwreck of faith. We may well think it a blessed thing to have the prayers of such an One, and long for such a promise as that for ourselves. We have it. "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word." John xvii. 20. Jesus prays for every believer. "The Spirit itself maketh intercession." God longs to help and to save. Peter's awful sin could not baffle the love of God which brought him to repentance and to the feet of Christ, more humble, less self-reliant. That love is drawing every sinner to-day. Oh, that God's goodness might yet lead to repentance the multitudes who are refusing to be drawn, and still continue to do despite to the Spirit of Grace.

"Sunday Enforcement Growing" The Present Truth 12, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

Paragraphs continue to appear in the public prints, showing the steady growth of the spirit for the enforcement of Sunday observance. This is from a late Echo:-

The Cleethorpes (Lincolnshire) District Council have adopted resolutions dealing with the Sunday trading question. They have decided that no boats or hackney carriages shall be allowed to ply for hire on Sundays. The maximum penalty for offences against the byelaw is to be five pounds with the cancelling of the license. All street touting and the shouting of wears is also prohibited. Bathing machines are in future to be licensed and inspected, and not allowed to be hired out on Sundays. In addition to passing on these resolutions, a vigorous protest has been made against the drinking that is allowed on Sunday trains.

Such ordinances as these are quite in keeping with the ancient, medi?val, Sunday statutes,-but are they in consonance with modern knowledge of what the true scope of law is? Why is it, that having enjoyed a period in which ecclesiastical tyranny, and legal enforcement of religious forms, has been measurably in abeyance we are now so rapidly retrograding into medi?valism? From the point of view of true religion, and right reason, nothing could be more irreligious or more unreasonable. But we know by the unfailing testimony of the Scriptures that this form of the expression of the workings of the "mystery of lawlessness" will increase.

"God's Poor-Law" The Present Truth 12, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

Christ said, "The poor ye have always with you." In saying this He repeated the thought expressed in the eleventh verse of the fifteenth chapter of Deuteronomy,-the chapter which contains God's poor-law given to the Israelites. This eleventh verse says, "For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to the poor, and to the needy, in thy land." Where such regulations as this existed, and were lived up to, would it be possible that there should be antagonism between the "classes and the masses"? Where every rich man's hand was open to satisfy the needs of his employees, and of the poor about him,-and no debt or obligation but what was outlawed every seventh year,-in that community there would be no deaths from hunger and cold, and no bread riots.

The poor we have always with us, indeed they are with us still after all the centuries. But why are all of our poor-laws and multitudinous charities so inefficient in stemming the tide of poverty and holding its increase in check? Why is it that the old farmer's grim philosophy is so true and it remains a sad and still sadder fact that "the poor in a loomp are bad"? It is true because there is no release for them. They are bound in their poverty, and the misery and degradation which it causes, for ever. Not only for life, but for generation after generation. Those who are born to the inheritance of property are likely to increase their inheritance, and leave to their offspring a legacy of still deeper and more hopeless indigence, with the sunshine of a possible hope obscured by clouds of yet darker ignorance.

The first section of this poor-law reads: "At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release. And this is the manner of the release: Every creditor that lendeth aught unto his neighbour shall release it; he shall not exact it of his neighbour, or of his brother; because it is called the Lord's release." This means that with the end of every seventh year all accounts should be closed and all books balanced. Whatever the amounts might be then remaining unsettled they must be charged up to profit and loss, and new accounts opened with no "amount transferred" to begin the page. No keeping alive of old obligations, no debtor's prison, no distraint, no bankruptcy procedure.

What affect would it have on commercial affairs to adopt such a business rule to-day? It certainly would simplify matters amazingly, although it might not be thought, at first, that such would be the case. How businessmen would smile at such an idea! "The plan of a financial crank,-repudiation, and universal bankruptcy every seven years," they would say. By no means! Universal solvency every seven years,-with an assured and healthy business thereafter, on a sound basis of ever increasing reliability. God's financing of the world cannot be bettered, and it is because men have not been content to follow the methods He has suggested, but have undertaken, as they thought, to improve upon them, for their own selfish individual benefit, that money and lands are now gathering into a few hands,-so that the few have more than they can use or utilise and the many have nothing. This condition is rapidly turning to the injury of those who thought to benefit by it, and will eventually be their destruction.

The day is surely coming when all these hoards will be found to be as unfortunate a possession as was the talent which the unprofitable servant wrapped in a napkin and hid in the ground. What a multitude, in the day of the second death, will realise the reality of the parable of the rich man and Lazarus! Is it to be wondered at, that, after the incident of the rich young man who turned from following Him because he had great possessions, Christ, looking down the centuries to come, and seeing the history which they were to make, said, so sadly, "Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven." And this because of failure to obey God's poor-law.

"The Promises to Israel. The Final Deliverance" The Present Truth 12, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

"Sound the loud timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea;
Jehovah has triumphed; His people are free."

Let us read in brief the story of Israel's deliverance, as recorded by inspiration. "And it came to pass at midnight, that the Lord smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the first-born of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the first-born of cattle. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead. And he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Rise up, get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel; and go, serve the Lord, as ye have said. Take both your flocks and your herds, as ye have said, and be gone; and bless me also. And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, to send them out of the land in haste; for they said, We be all dead men. And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading-troughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders. And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they asked⁹1 of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment; and the Lord gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. And they spoiled the Egyptians.

"And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot that were men, beside children. And a mixed multitude went up also with them; and flocks, and herds, even very much cattle." Ex. xii. 29-38, R.V.

"And it came to pass, when

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Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that way was near; for God said, Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt. But God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea." Ex. xiii. 17, 18.

"And they took their journey from Succoth, and encamped in Etham, in the edge of the wilderness. And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night: He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people." Verses 20-22.

"And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn and encamp before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, over against Baal-zephon; before it ye shall encamp by the sea. For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in. And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, that he shall follow after them; and I will be honoured upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host; that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord. And they did so.

"And it was told the king of Egypt that the people fled; and the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was turned against the people, and they said, Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us? And he made ready his chariot, and took his people with him; and he took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over every one of them. And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued after the children of Israel; and the children of Israel went but with an high hand. But the Egyptians pursued after them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his army, and overtook them encamping by the sea." Ex. xiv. 1-9.

"And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid; and the children of Israel cried out unto the Lord. And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore has thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt; Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness.

"And Moses said unto the people, Fear not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will show you to-day; for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to-day, ye shall see them no more again for ever. The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace." Verses 10-14.

With the manner of their deliverance, everybody is familiar; how at the command of the Lord the sea went back and left a path through the midst of it, so that the children of Israel went through dry-shod, and how when the Egyptians attempted to do the same thing, the sea rushed back and swallowed them up. "By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land; which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned." Heb. xi. 29. Let us note a few lessons that we are to learn from this history.

1. It was God that was leading the people. "And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines." Moses no more knew what to do, or which way to go, than the people did, only as the Lord told him. God could tell Moses, because "Moses was faithful in all His house."

2. When the people murmured, they were murmuring against God, instead of against Moses. When they said to Moses, "Wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt?" they were really denying the agency of God in the matter, although they had well known that it was God who had sent Moses to them.

3. At the first sight of danger the faith of the people oozed away. They forgot what God had already done for them, and how powerfully He had wrought for their deliverance. The last judgment upon the Egyptians should have been sufficient of itself to teach them to trust in the Lord, and that He was abundantly able to save them from those of the Egyptians who yet remained alive.

4. God did not design that the people should do any fighting. He led them through the wilderness, in order that they might not see war. Yet He knew that if they went the way that they did, the Egyptians would surely pursue them. The children of Israel never had any greater need of fighting than they did when the Egyptians closed in on them by the Red Sea; yet the word then was, "The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace." It may be said that the reason why the Lord did not wish them to see war was because they were as yet unprepared for fighting; but we must remember that on other occasions when they had many trained warriors, God often delivered them without their striking a blow.When we consider the circumstances of their deliverance from Egypt-how it was all accomplished by the direct power of God, without any human power, their part being only to follow and obey His word-we must be convinced that it was not according to the plan of God that they should do any fighting, even in self-defence.

5. We are also to learn that the shortest and the apparently easiest way is not always the best way. The route through the land of the Philistines was the shortest, but it was not the best one for the Israelites to take. The fact that we get into difficult places, where we cannot see our way out, is no evidence that God has not been leading us. God led the children of Israel into that narrow place in the wilderness, between the mountains and the sea, just as surely as He led them out of Egypt. He knew that they could not help themselves in such a trap, and He led them there deliberately, in order that they might see as never before that it was God Himself who was responsible for their safety, and that He was fully able to discharge the task which He had undertaken. Their trouble was designed to give them an ineffaceable lesson of trust in God.

6. Lastly, we must learn not to condemn them for their unbelief. "Thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest; for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things." Rom. ii. 1. When we condemn them for not trusting the Lord, we show that we know that there is no excuse for our murmuring and fear. We have all the evidence of the power of God that they had, and a great deal more besides. If we can see clearly how foolish their fear was, and how wicked their murmurings, then let us see to it that we do not show ourselves still more foolish and wicked. There is one more lesson that we must note in this connection, and it is of so much importance that special attention must be called to it, for it includes all the others. We learn it from the eleventh chapter of Isaiah. That chapter gives in few words the whole story of the Gospel, from the birth of Christ till the final deliverance of the saints in the kingdom of God, and the destruction of the wicked.

"THE SECOND TIME"

There is one more lesson that we must note in this connection, and it is of so much importance that special attention must be called to it, for it includes all the others. We learn it from the eleventh chapter of Isaiah. That chapter contains in few words the whole story of the Gospel, from the birth of Christ till the final deliverance of the saints in the kingdom of God, and the destruction of the wicked.

"There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots; and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; and He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of His ears; but with righteousness shall He judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth; and He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips shall He slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, and faithfulness the girdle of His reins." Isa. xi. 1-5.

Compare the first part of the above with Luke iv. 16-18, and the last part with Rev. xix. 11-21, and we shall see how much it covers. It brings us down to the destruction of the wicked. It covers the entire day of salvation. "And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek; and His rest shall be glorious. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time to recover the remnant of His people, which shall be left from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And He shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth." Verses 10-12.

Here again we have the deliverance of God's people brought to view. It is the second time that God sets His hand to the task, and it will be successful. He set His hand to the task the first time in the days of Moses; but the people entered not in because of unbelief. The second time will result in the everlasting salvation of His people. Notice that the final gathering of His people is through Christ, who is the ensign for the nations; for God is visiting the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name. They are to be gathered "from the four corners of the earth;" for "He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other." Matt. xxiv. 31.

That this deliverance is to be in the last days, even at the very close of time, is apparent from the fact that He gathers "the remnant" of His people, that is, the very last one of them. And now note this promise and reminder: "And there shall be an highway for the remnant of His people, which shall be left, from Assyria, like as it was to Israel in the day that the came up out of the land of Egypt." Isa. xi. 16.

Bear in mind the fact that the work of delivering Israel from Egypt began a long time before the day that they left that land. It began the very day that Moses reached Egypt and began to tell the people about the purpose of God to fulfil the promise to Abraham. All the display of the power of God in Egypt, which was but the proclamation of the Gospel, was a part of the work of deliverance. Even so will it be in the day when the Lord sets His hand the second time to deliver the remnant of His people. That day is now, for "behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." 2 Cor. vi. 2. All

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Israel shall be saved, because "There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob." Rom. xi. 26. The work of delivering God's people from the bondage of sin is the same as the final deliverance. When the Lord comes the second time He "shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able to subdue all things unto Himself." Phil. iii. 21. The power by which our bodies will be change-the power of the resurrection-is the power by which our sins are subdued, and we are delivered from their control. It is by the same power that was displayed in the deliverance of Israel from Egypt.

"I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." Rom. i. 16. Whoever wishes to know how great that power is, has only to look at the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, and the dividing of the Red Sea, to see a practical example of it. That is the power that will accompany the preaching of the complete Gospel until the coming of the Lord Jesus.

"The 'Lost' Tribes" The Present Truth 12, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

A contemporary, commenting on Assyrian inscriptions, refers to the theory which tries to identify the "lost" ten tribes of Israel with modern Gentile nations. The Assyrian records are said to agree in all important particulars with the Bible account of the captivity, and state that Sargon carried away from Samaria 27,280 persons. Others were added afterwards, perhaps doubling the number and the inscriptions state that he also sent Arabs into the land, which formed the mixed multitude that caused so much trouble after the return from the Babylonish captivity. "The system of deportation practiced by the despots of that day," says a writer, "never sent the entire people of a land into exile," but only those "whom it was feared might cause rebellion." We know this, that after the restoration of the temple, in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, "all Israel dwelt in their cities." Neh. vii. 73.

The article of which we speak concludes thus:-

"In reality the ten tribes never were 'lost.' The few people carried away by Tiglath Pileser formed an insignificant contingent compared with the masses that remained. They could not have constituted one tenth of the people. The deported were not tribes, or larger parts of tribes, but only individuals, or at most families. These, indeed, have been 'lost,' but lost beyond a least chance of rediscovery. The tribes as such remained in Canaan, and absorbed the heathen settlers that were sent in. The division into tribes signified little or nothing in later times; the division into tribal territory was not regarded. Anna, of the tribe of Asher, dwells in Jerusalem; Joseph, the carpenter, of the tribe of Judah, in Nazareth; Paul, a Benjamite, in Tarsus; Barnabas, a Levite, in Cyprus, etc. In general, the Jew of the New Testament era knew as little from what tribe he came as does the modern

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Jew. Then as now the Jews were cosmopolitan. Their Diaspora was scattered over the entire world. Everywhere they found they could prosper as well, or even better, than in their native land. The endless wars in Palestine finally destroyed them as a nation altogether, in the days of Titus and Hadrian. This great Diaspora embraced representatives of all the tribes of Israel. Among modern Jews all these tribes, without any doubt, have their descendants. In other words, the 'lost' tribes never have been, and are not now, 'lost.'"

"'Many People Shall Go and Say'" The Present Truth 12, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

In a recent article in the proposed treaty of International Arbitration between Great Britain and the United States, there is this sentence: "If the grand object in view, accepted as it is in principle by both governments, can once be effectually realised, all the civilised nations of the world will follow our example, and thus, by degrees, the cruelty, injustice, and folly of war will come to an end."

It is a noble hope, but futile. This is the time when the nations are crying, Peace! Peace! and there is no peace, and will be no peace. The logic of the law of nations in the court of last resort is inevitably and invariably the trial by battle, and always will be so as long as time lasts. But certainly, however feeble and eventually useless the protest against war may be, it is well, indeed it should be the duty of all men, citizens, and Christians, to make it.

It is the noblest opportunity for a lofty thought, and word, and deed, which this world affords, to stand in calm fronted opposition to the tide of satanic evil, of which war is one expression,-and yet we should not deceive ourselves as to when and where the victory is to be. The day has surely come when, as prophesied in the second chapter of Isaiah, many people are saying, Let us beat our swords into ploughshares, and our spears into pruninghooks, "nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."

But the prophet did not say that the word of the people would be fulfilled. No, the Scripture tells is quite the contrary. So, while applauding every noble and humane effort, those will not be disappointed who look only for that of which they have the assurance in the Word of God. There is the Divine promise of peace on earth and good will among men, but the enjoyment of this is not promised while Satan and his servants, wicked men and angels, remain in existence,-this is to be realised in the purified, renewed earth under the reign of the Prince of Peace.

"Deliverance from a Scourge" The Present Truth 12, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

It is God's power that causes the earth to bring forth its fruit, the same word that caused the plants to spring up in the beginning still working. This manifestation of God's blessing is so regular and commonplace that even Christians too often fail to recognise the Divine care in it, and the worldling congratulates himself on the good luck of the careful planning which secured him a good crop, without giving a thought to the Being whose life is springing up in the herbs to give food for man and beast. In the Home Missionary, one of the organs of our Society in America, we find the following simple narrative, written by a woman in one of the Western States, showing how this Divine care was manifested in a special way, in the blessing upon the fields in time of plague. One year the grasshoppers, a scourge like the locusts, had destroyed nearly all the fields in the region and had deposited eggs so thickly that the prospects for the next year were very forbidding. The writer says:-

"My father was an old man in very feeble health; mother was not strong, and I had two little brothers. My health was also very poor; and our income was small. Still, we were not discouraged; we studied the Bible, and believed that the promises of God were the same to us in these last days as they were to His people in olden times, and we laid the matter before Him. We told Him how we were situated, and asked Him to bless us in planting a garden, and to protect it from the grasshoppers; and we believed He would do it. We knew that He was the same God yesterday, to-day, and for ever, and that His promises were sure; they could not fail. We had known them to be verified many times. We loved the Lord, and we knew that He loved us.

"In the spring when the grasshoppers hatched out, they covered a large portion of our small garden spot. To all outward appearance, it would be useless to plant a garden there. However, we had the ground prepared, and planted our garden, trusting in the Lord to protect it from the grasshoppers. When the seeds came up, there were no grasshoppers in our garden, and the vegetables grew rapidly. When the grasshoppers were full grown, in the time of day when they hopped and flew, it sounded like the fast falling of hail all round and over the garden; and in the time of day when they were quiet, they were in great heaps round the garden.

"When I went into the garden, and saw everything growing so thriftily, exceeding everything I had ever seen or heard of, and the grasshoppers so very thick round it, and knew that everything else was destroyed for many miles round by them, it seemed almost like holy ground. I could not but think what a kind heavenly Father we have, and how utterly unworthy we are of His favours."

Not only were the grasshopper's prevented from destroying the garden, but the yield was extraordinarily heavy.

"When people came to buy of us, they wondered at the abundant yield, in the midst of the grasshoppers. Even those who were not Christians, when they saw our garden, would exclaim, 'How you are blessed!'

"It was for no good thing that we had done, but through the abundant love and goodness of God, who is 'great in goodness, and good in greatness.' We took the Lord at His word; we believed He would do as He had promised, and He did not disappoint us. I am sure it grieves the Lord when we disbelieve Him. I believe the Lord is willing, and more than willing, to give us such things as we need, if we ask Him. He says He will do more for us, if we trust Him, than we can ask or even think. We asked a blessing; the Lord gave us sevenfold.

"We had just begun to pay tithes, it being the first time we had ever heard anything on the tithing system, and had not noticed what the Lord says in Mal. iii. 8-11: 'Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed Thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a cursed: for ye have robbed Me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in Mine house, and prove Me herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground.' In this the Lord fulfilled His promise, and if we love and trust Him, He will do greater things for us than this. 'Oh, that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men!'"

"The Golden Rose" The Present Truth 12, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

The Golden Rose .-The Princess of Bulgaria has received the Pope's "golden rose." It goes to the Princess named because she so vehemently protested against having the baby Prince Boris "converted" to the Greek Church. But the baby had to change his religion notwithstanding. The rose that the Pope gives is worth intrinsically about ?2,000, and stands in a golden pot, which bears the papal coat of

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arms. This gift is designed for royal ladies only, who are thus rewarded for distinguished service to the Roman Church. A prelate and a guard are sent to bear the gift to the recipient. It is thus that the head of a religious organisation uses the arts which immense wealth places in his hands to gain favour with royalty. It is said that the Pope's gift to Princess Maud, on the occasion of her recent wedding, was the first papal gift to English royalty since 200 years ago.

"Killed by Tobacco" The Present Truth 12, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

Killed by Tobacco .-An evening paper recently reported the death of a boy of fourteen who, proud of his record as a smoker, smoked nineteen cigarettes in close succession, and to the admiration of his silly associates. The boy was taken ill soon after, and, notwithstanding the physician's efforts, died in great agony, a victim of nicotine poisoning. Where one is killed outright in this way, thousands lay the foundation for consumption and future ills by the foul practice.

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

-Every ruling monarch in Europe has German blood in his veins.

-A process for colouring by electricity is in successful operation in Germany.

-The number of Armenians slaughtered in Constantinople is variously estimated at from 2,000 to 5,000.

-Russia is watching all Armenian committees in the Caucasus and suppressing agitation against Turkey.

-The electric wires of the French railways are so arranged that they can bs used for telegraphing or telephoning.

-Several new expeditions are being planned to get to the North Pole, and Belgium has just voted to send one to the Antarctic regions.

-There are still savage islands in the Solomon Group, a party landing for scientific research having been attacked recently with severe loss of life.

-Probably the owner of the largest number of dogs in the world is a Russian cattle king, who has 35,000 shepherd dogs to look after 1,500,000 sheep.

-The Trades Union Congress voted to demand of Parliament that the age of child labour should be raised to fifteen years, and of night labour to eighteen years.

-If all the armies of Europe were to march at an eight-mile pace five abreast, fifteen inches apart, it would require nine and a half days for them to pass a given point.

-The Nile expedition is already engaged with the advance forces of the Dervishers, who fight with desperation, but who can do little against the superior arms and skill of the British-Egyptian force.

-It is said that peace is concluded between Italy and Abyssinia, the latter country asking a large sum for the expense of keeping the Italian prisoners who were taken at the defeat of the Italians at Adowa.

-A Transvaal paper says that whole tribes of natives between Pretoria and the Limpopo have almost nothing to live on, nor can they expect crops till February. They pursue after the swarms of locusts, which are food for them.

-Li Hung Chang is on his way back to China. He is said to be desirous of starting railways in China, but the mandarins are thought unlikely to allow the general opening of the country. The envoy's chief purpose in visiting the Governments of Europe was to get their assent to doubling the duties in China to increase the imperial revenues.

-The National Sunday League, which exists for the purpose of antagonising the National Sunday Observance League, and for the popularising of Sunday excursions, Sunday opening of Museums, etc., now has a membership of 6,000, with an annual income of ?85,293. The League has just opened a new hall, of its own construction, in Red Lion-square.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

The language of the military camps is that of the shambles. The cables say that during the flight of fifty Matabeles the newly arrived Hussars "were afforded opportunity of testing their swords."

The prohibition of meetings in Constantinople may interfere with the Bible Institute which our friends in Turkey had arranged to hold. But it may not, as during the riots there last year the Bible school went on as usual, attended by Armenians and Greeks.

The Armenian revolutionary committee addresses a manifesto to the Powers declaring that in case of inaction by Europe, they are preparing to "drag Death again into the contest," and "to bring about a general catastrophe which shall engulf us and those who surround us." They mean to bring disaster upon Europeans next time.

The Pope has at last definitely pronounced the Anglican orders invalid, declaring that Anglican clergymen must be re-ordained when going over to Rome in profession as well as practice. It remains to be seen whether this little technicality will be any barrier to the reunionists.

In the work of our missionaries amongst the natives of the South Pacific islands they do not, of course, neglect any opportunity for setting the truth before Europeans. A report from one of the Society Islands says that a British Consul there has begun the observance of the Sabbath, and a notice on his office door announces that no business is transacted on that day.

A late paper notes a most unexpected source of difficulty between the Pope and United Italy in the matter of the new Italian postal card. The paper says:-

There is a new friction between the Pope and the kingdom of Italy. The new postal card is emblematical of United Italy and the loss of the temporal power of the Pope. The Pope is offended; and under his appeal, Catholic postmasters refuse to pass it through the mails. The card is said to be made in perfect accord with the international agreement, and so Italy claims damage of those countries where the card has been refused circulation.

"The Sword" The Present Truth 12, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

The Sword .-When Peter drew the sword to defend Christ from a mob, Jesus told him to put it up. When Christ was upon the cross, he said of the wretched rabble that had placed Him there, "Father, forgive them." When the disciples were persecuted and martyred they followed Christ, never appealing to earthly power for the punishing of their enemies. Yet they lived in the days of Nero, whose name has become a synonym for brutal power, so much so that to this day cruelty enthroned is spoken of as "modern Nero." Christianity to-day is exactly what it was in the days of Christ and the apostles.

"Force and Violence" The Present Truth 12, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

Force and Violence .-While all the nations are perfecting appliances for making war more than ever terrible, and the man who invents the highest explosive that can be adapted to use for killing men in war is highly paid, is it surprising that those elements that are at war against society and against all government and order should likewise resort to the use of those explosives of so high a power that one criminal may work destruction that appals one to contemplate? Who cannot see that the world is rapidly filling with violence, as in the days which were before the flood?

"God's Power" The Present Truth 12, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

God's Power .-While the world is seeking for power, and reckless criminals resort to dynamite as a fit weapon to express their hatred of their fellow-men, God sends a message concerning power to the world. Paul declares the Gospel to be "the power of God unto salvation." The word power, dunamis, is that from which we derive the word dynamite. The Gospel is God's dynamite, to destroy the power of sin. It is spiritual force employed to rout the legions of darkness and rouse the sinner to accept the reign of righteousness. It is what the world needs now. God's power bears the message of peace to those who will except it. But Satan's dynamic power is in the heart a spring of hatred which shows itself in war and revolution and lawlessness.

"Whites and Coloured" The Present Truth 12, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

Whites and Coloured .-Whenever any of the Powers want a particular part of countries already unappropriated by them, it is always easy to find moral reasons for forcibly taking possession. The mission of carrying civilisation to the uncivilised is the plea. But the Daily Chronicle frames the following indictment of the white race, which has so abused the privileges which God has given it. It is Christianity that the feebler races need:-

The uncivilised earth has a heavy account against its civilised guardians. Europe has, in the main, inoculated the savage races with its vices rather than with its virtues, and they have flowed through the veins of black and yellow men like raging pestilences. Disease, prostitution, drunkenness, are the white man's hall-marks; by them he is known on every Pacific strand, and every African lake and forest where his feet have trod; and in too many cases they obliterate a higher religious and moral code, the saving gifts of energy and industry which he also carries with him.

"International Trusts" The Present Truth 12, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

International Trusts .-An exchange publishes the following paragraph from an American paper:-

Among the marks of the last days are the existence of "rich men" and the heaping together of treasure. The state of things and the oppression arising therefrom is increasing. Recent despatches have informed us of the formation of three great trusts. The Standard Oil Company has combined with its only rival, and succeeded in its efforts to control the oil trade of the world. The borax output of the world has passed into the hands of one international company, with a capital of $2,500,000; and the Coates, the Clarks, and the Kerrs have united in a "cotton-thread trust," with a prospect of controlling the cotton-thread trade of the world.

This tendency to the consolidation of business interests for the benefit of the few, within the "ring," and to the disadvantage of the great public, has especially characterised the last decade.

That the "trust" and "combines" are now developing to their highest possible extent and becoming international, would seem in itself to argue that the pinnacle from which the disastrous fall was to take place is just about to be reached. The days are coming in which men do indeed say to each other, "A confederacy." There is a scriptural warning in reference to that time.

"Saint-Making" The Present Truth 12, 39.

E. J. Waggoner

Saint-Making .-The absurd spectacle of a Catholic court weighing evidence to determine whether they will allow a certain person long since dead to be canonised, or made a saint, is paralleled by the action of the Chinese emperor in the case of Thibetan Llamas. Believing in the transmigration of souls, it is the theory that when the chief Llama dies he is immediately re-incarnated in the child chosen as his successor. But "the emperor has been known even to forbid a person to be re-incarnated, and has placed him on the list of those 'from whom the privilege of successive births into the world is withdrawn for ever.'"

October 1, 1896

"'The Amen'" The Present Truth 12, 40.

E. J. Waggoner

There is probably no other word of importance in the language, that is used with less thought as to its meaning than the word "Amen."

It is used in prayer by all Christian people, no matter what their nation or language, and it is worthy of note that it is used only in Christian worship; yet to most it probably means little if anything more than a sign to indicate that prayer is ended.

True, there is so much knowledge of its meaning, that it is often used as an expression of assent to what is prayed or spoken by others, yet in the main people use it as the close of a prayer much as though they would say, "Now I have finished."

The word itself is simply the Hebrew root signifying "to be firm or established." It conveys the idea of stability and certainty. As a noun, we find it signifying "foundation," and in one form of the verb it signifies "to believe," as in the statements, Abraham "believed in the Lord, and He counted it to him for righteousness" (Gen. xv. 6); and, "Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation; he that believeth shall not make haste." Isa. xxviii. 16. The words "believe" and "believeth" are from the Hebrew word amen, which, in the form here used signifies to build upon, thus holding the root idea. To believe in God is to build upon Him as a sure foundation.

"Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." 1 Cor. iii. 11. In Him are all the promises of God (2 Cor. i. 20), therefore whoever accepts and follows His words is said to build on the rock. Matt. vii. 24, 25. Everything depends on Christ, for He upholds all things by the word of His power. Heb. i. 3. In Him all things are created, and in Him all things consist. Col. i. 16, 17.

Read now Rev. iii. 14: "These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God." Christ is the Amen, the sure foundation, because He is all creation's source and supporter. When we pray in faith,-and the prayer of faith is the only real prayer,-we pray in the name of Christ; for the promise is that when we ask anything in His name we shall receive it. If we do not ask in the name of Jesus, we have no promise of receiving anything; because to ask in His name is simply to ask for only such things as God has promised in Christ. It is to ask according to the will of God, and not according to our own fancies.

When we pray in such a manner, then we may be as sure of receiving the things we ask for as we are that God lives. Then we have a right to the word amen. The man who doubts when he prays, who is not sure that he is asking according to the will of God, and who doesn't know whether or not he will receive the things that he has prayed for, has no right to close his petition with the word Amen. His prayer is simply an experiment, and for him to say "amen," is to take the name of the Lord in vain, for "Amen" is one of the Lord's titles.

He who uses the word amen understandably, closes his prayer in a tone of triumphant confidence. He has already the thing asked for. "For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen." The Lord as universal King possesses all things, He has all power

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and it is His glory to do deeds of kindness, and therefore we are sure of our requests as we are that Christ is the eternal Foundation. Amen: "so it shall be," is what we say, because Christ, the Amen, is the one in whom all things are. As long as the sun and moon endure, so long we know that His word of promise is sure.

The Christian is the only one who has this confidence. The heathen cannot know the word, for they are "without Christ" "having no hope, and without God in the world." Truly, "their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges."

"Preaching the Life" The Present Truth 12, 40.

E. J. Waggoner

"The life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life." 1 John i. 2. Jesus did not teach as the scribes. They taught a lifeless formula. And when the form of the truth itself is held without the spirit of it, human theorising inevitably clothes it in human definitions, until the traditions of men obscure the truth of God. Jesus swept all this aside, and manifested the life, which was life indeed to the perishing.

And so, too, the disciples were sent out, not to bear witness to lifeless theories, but to preach the doctrine of life, which can only be received as it is translated into life in the believer. When the angel of the Lord brought the disciples out of the common prison into which they had been thrust the command was, "Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life." And to all times the church of Christ is to persevere, without murmurings and disputings, "holding forth the word of life."

"A Curious Survival" The Present Truth 12, 40.

E. J. Waggoner

The halo or nimbus which appears in Ecclesiastical art about the heads of saints and martyrs was an idea borrowed from paganism. One may see the same thing in the ancient and modern pictures of Oriental heathen "saints." Its use as a symbol of the sun and moon was connected with the most ancient religions of the East, and with the church became corrupted by paganism and the mithraic sun worship, the symbolic halo which had appeared about the heads of heathen deities was transferred to the Catholic saints. One curious development of this symbol appears, according to the following paragraph from a trade journal, to be responsible for the superstition about the horse-shoe, as an emblem of good luck:-

"The Chinese have their tombs built in a semicircular form, like the horse-shoe, and the Moors follow this to a considerable extent in their architecture. The nimbus or halo, which in old pictures and over the wooden images of the patron saint was a crescent of bright metal, often remained long after all the rest had crumbled away, when it became regarded with a very high degree of veneration, and was looked upon as possessing, at least to some degree, the peculiar powers attributed to the saint or deity the painting or image had been believed to represent. The elevated positions in which they were placed, and the custom which followed of putting up the halo without the image, led in those localities to the use of the gilded or brightly-polished horse-shoe closely resembling the small halos that for a time were made and sold expressly for putting up over the doors."

"An Indictment" The Present Truth 12, 40.

E. J. Waggoner

The following extract is from the leader in one of our prominent London daily papers:-

"Will some Member of Parliament next session move for a return of the number of murders and suicides in this country during the present year? And will he also ask for returns of the number of lunatics admitted into our public and private asylums during the last, say, ten years. Should he do so and get the returns, he and all interested will find that murders, suicides, and lunatics are alarmingly increasing in England. . . .

"We are continually boasting of our commercial and intellectual progress; but are we advancing morally and socially in like proportion? We think not. It is quite possible to multiply schools and newspapers, and to achieve, after a fashion, educational conquests, and yet make no corresponding progress. Take, for instance, gambling, to which we made particular reference yesterday. This gambling has vastly increased in the face of a vast system of School Board education, in the face of a conspicuously revived Church activity, and in the face of a universally diffused Press. The gambling spirit has vitiated the national heart, and particularly those parts of it engaged on the Stock Exchange and in high places, such as the Chartered Company, and in the promotion of companies on rotten foundations, on the race course, and drinking saloons, and industry. The same desire for wealth at all hazards, for luxury, display, and titles, is everywhere manifest; and we see some of the results in multiplied murders, suicides, and lunatics. The fact is, and it cannot be too often proclaimed, that certain vices are allowed to eat into the heart of our splendid civilisation."

This is a serious indictment, but it should not be filed, necessarily, against England alone. It is true. But it is also a fact that there is no country on the globe of which it is not proportionately true. The organised murder in Turkey is but an example and an evidence of the spirit of people which is in greater and still greater degree possessing the peoples of all countries.

The facts narrated in these reprinted paragraphs show the steady development of a field here which only bides its time to be fruitful after its kind in general violence and slaughter. The madness of a Satanic possession is fast overtaking those who have denied God and refused His overtures of mercy. For those who say in their heart "There is no God," or, acknowledging His existence, disobey Him, there is no escape from this fate. The prospect is not a pleasant one, but the wages of sin is death. Yet at the last it will be seen that all things work together for good to them that love the Lord, and that the God of all the earth has done right.

"'Wars and Rumours of Wars'" The Present Truth 12, 40.

E. J. Waggoner

One of the not least remarkable features of the Queen's reign, says the Daily Chronicle, considering its eminently pacific character, is the enormous number of wars, "little and big," that have marked its progress. Scarcely a twelvemonth of this period has passed indeed without finding our country at war in some part of the world. The following is a list of them:-Afghan War, 1838-40; first China War, 1841; Sikh War, 1845-6; Caffre War, 1846; second war with China; second Afghan War, 1849; second Sikh War, 1848-9; Burmese war, 1850; second Caffre War, 1851-2; second Burmese War, 18 to 52-3; Crimea, 1854; third war with China, 1856-8; Indian Mutiny, 1857; Maori War, 1860-1; more wars with China, 1860 and 1862; second Maori War, 1863-6; Ashanti War, 1864; war in Bhootan, 1864; Abyssinian War, 1867-8; war with the Bazotees, 1868; third Maori War, 1868-9; war with Looshai 1871; second Ashanti War, 1873-4; third Caffre War, 1877; Zulu War, 1878-9; third Afghan War, 1878-90; war in Besutoland, 1879-81; Transvaal War, 1879-81; Egyptian War, 1882; Soudan, 1884-85-89; third Burmah War, 1885-92; Zanzibar, 1890; India, 1890; Matabele Wars, 1894 and 1896; Chitral Campaign, 1895; third Ashanti Campaign, 1896; second Soudan Campaigns, 1896.

"The Promises to Israel. The Song of Deliverance" The Present Truth 12, 40.

E. J. Waggoner

"Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spake, saying,

I will sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously;
The horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea.
The Lord is my strength and song,
And He is become my salvation;
This is my God, and I will praise Him;
My father's God, and I will exalt Him;
The Lord is a Man of War;
The Lord is His name.
Pharaoh's chariots and his host bath He cast into the sea;
And his chosen captains are sunk in the Red Sea.
The deeps cover them;
They went down into the depths like a stone.
Thy right hand, O Lord, is glorious in power,
Thy right hand, O Lord, dasheth in pieces the enemy.
And in the greatness of thine excellency Thou over-throwest them that rise up against Thee;
Thou sendest forth thy wrath, it consumeth them as stubble.
And with the blast of Thy nostrils the waters were piled up,
The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil;
My lust shall be satisfied upon them;
I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them;
Thou didst blow with Thy wind, the sea covered them;
They sank as lead in the mighty waters.
Who is like unto Thee, O Lord, among the gods?
Who is like Thee, glorious in holiness,
Fearful in praises, doing wonders?
Thou stretchedst out Thy right hand,
The earth swallowed them.
Thou in Thy mercy hast led the people which Thou hast redeemed;
Thou hast guided them in Thy strength to Thy holy habitation.
The peoples have heard, they tremble;
Pangs have taken hold on the inhabitants of Philistia.
Then were the dukes of Edom amazed;
The mighty men of Moab, trembling hath taken hold upon them;
All the inhabitants of Canaan are melted away.
Terror and dread falleth upon them;
By the greatness of Thine arm they are as still as a stone;
Till thy people pass over, O Lord,
Till the people pass over which Thou hast purchased.
Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of Thine inheritance,
In the place, O Lord, which Thou hast made for Thee to dwell in,
The sanctuary, O Lord, which Thy hands have established.
The Lord shall reign for ever and ever." Ex. xv. 1-18.

And now let us see what instruction and encouragement and hope there is in this record for us.

1. The power by which the Red Sea was divided, and the people passed over in safety, was the power by which their enemies were to be kept from attacking them. Compare Ex. xv. 14-16 and Joshua ii. 9-11. If they had gone forward in the faith that they had at the moment of their deliverance, there would have been no need of their fighting. No enemy would have dared to attack them. Now we can see why the Lord led them the way He did. By one final act of deliverance He designed to teach them never to be afraid of man.

2. In this same power they were to make known the name of the Lord-to preach the Gospel of the kingdom-in all the earth, as a preparation for the end. That was a work which they had to do before the promise could be completely fulfilled. If they had kept the faith, it would not have taken long to complete the work.

3. The object of their deliverance was that they should be brought in and planted in the mountain of the Lord's inheritance-a land of their own, where they might dwell for ever in safety. This had not been fulfilled in the days of King David, even when his kingdom was at its height; for it was at the time when he had rest from all his enemies, and proposed to build a temple for the Lord, that the Lord said to him, "Moreover, I will appoint a place for My people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more as before time." Compare this also with Luke i. 67-75.

4. God's plan in delivering Israel from Egypt was thus set forth in the inspired song: "Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of Thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which Thou hast made for Thee to dwell in, in the sanctuary, O Lord, which Thy hands have established." No man can build a dwelling-place for the Lord, for "the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands." Acts vii. 48. "The Lord's throne is in heaven." Ps. xi. 4. The true sanctuary, the real dwelling-place of God, "which the Lord pitched, and not man," (Heb. viii. 1, 2), is in heaven upon Mount Zion. This is in harmony with the promise made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and which led them to count themselves strangers on this earth, and to look

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for a heavenly country, and "for a city that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God." Heb. xi. 10. This long-deferred hope was now about to be fulfilled, and it would have been fulfilled speedily if the children of Israel had kept the faith of their song.

5. The deliverance of Israel from Egypt and the dividing of the Red Sea is the encouragement of the people of God in the last days of the Gospel, when the salvation of the Lord is gone forth. These are the words which the Lord teaches His people to say:-

"Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art Thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon? Art Thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over? Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head; they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away." Isa. li. 9-11.

If the ancient Israelites had gone on singing, and had not once stopped to murmur, they would speedily have reached Zion, the city whose builder and maker is God.

6. When the redeemed of the Lord do at last stand on Mount Zion, having the harps of God, they will "sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are Thy ways, Thou King of saints. Who shall not fear Thee, O Lord, and glorify Thy name? for Thou only art holy; for all nations shall come and worship before Thee; for Thy judgments are made manifest." Rev. xv. 3, 4. It is the song of deliverance, the song of victory.

7. Even as the children of Israel sang the song of victory while upon the shore of the Red Sea, before they reached the promised land, so the children of God in the last days will sing the song of victory before they reach the heavenly Canaan. Here is the song, and as we read it, compare it with the opening part of the song of Moses by the Red Sea. We have already read that when the Lord sets His hand the second time to recover the remnant of His people, "there shall be an highway for the remnant of His people, which shall be left from Assyria, like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt." Isa. xi. 16.

"And in that day Thou shalt say, O Lord, I will praise Thee; though Thou wast angry with me, Thine anger is turned away, and Thou comfortedst me. Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid; for the Lord JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; He also is become my salvation. Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. And in that day shall ye say. Praise the Lord, call upon His name, declare His doings among the people, make mention that His name is exalted. Sing unto the Lord; for He hath done excellent things; this is known in all the earth. Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion; for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee." Isa. xii.

This is the song with which the redeemed of the Lord are to come to Zion. It is a song of victory, but they can sing it now, for "this is the victory that hath overcome the world, even our faith." Only as they proclaim the salvation of the Lord, they do not share it. While being conducted to Zion, they learn the song that they will sing when they reach that place. Thus

"when, in scenes of glory,
I sing the NEW, NEW SONG,
'Twill be the OLD, OLD STORY
That I have loved so long."

"Sunday Laws Opposed by a Catholic" The Present Truth 12, 40.

E. J. Waggoner

IN THE CANADIAN PARLIAMENT

The confused condition of things in the theological world has lately been illustrated in Canada, where we have seen a Roman Catholic leading the party opposed to endowing Catholic schools in Manitoba, and winning the election against the opposition of the Catholic clergy. And when, some time ago, a professedly Protestant member introduced a bill for a more rigid Sunday law in the Dominion, it was a Roman Catholic member, Hon. G. Amyott, who most strenuously opposed it, in the name of civil liberty. After showing that the only ground for the Sunday was Catholic tradition, and that if the introducer of the bill followed the Bible as authority he must keep the seventh day, and not the first, he concluded:-

"As for us Catholics, Mr. Speaker, we shall celebrate our Sundays as we please, provided we do not interfere with your civil rights, and, if we do, go to the provinces and you will receive protection.

"The honourable mover of this bill says he wishes to protect the rights of conscience. Is he doing that when he wants to impose upon the Jews the obligation of keeping the first day instead of the seventh? Does he respect the rights of conscience when he wants to compel the Seventh-day Adventists to celebrate the first day of the creation instead of the seventh? Does he protect the rights of conscience when he wants to compel a great number of his fellow-citizens to disobey the word of God and to obey the words of a church of which they do not approve?

A ROYAL PROCLAMATION

"The honourable gentleman must remember that in proposing his bill he acts not only contrary to the constitution I read a moment ago, but also contrary to the general understanding which prevails in this country and which is summed up in a proclamation by her Majesty the Queen in 1858, which is as follows:-

"'Firmly relying ourselves on the truth of Christianity, and acknowledging with gratitude the solace of religion, we disclaim alike the right and the desire to impose our convictions on any of our subjects. We declare it to be our royal will and pleasure that none be in anywise favoured, none molested or disquieted by reason of their religious faith or observances, but that they shall alike enjoy the equal and impartial protection of the law; and we do strictly charge and enjoin all those who may be in authority under us that they abstain from all interference with the religious belief or worship of any of our subjects, on pain of our highest displeasure.'

"These are the words not only of the Queen, but of the Parliament of Great Britain. This is the rule which should be recognised in this country. Everybody should enjoy complete liberty, provided that liberty does not interfere with the liberty and civil rights of others. But the honourable gentleman wants to force those who are not of the same belief with himself to observe as the Sabbath some other day than that which they believe to be the Sabbath, and even to force those who, like himself, desire to observe Sunday, to observe it in the way he believes in, and not in the way they believe in themselves. That is not protection of civil rights; it is interference with civil rights."

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 40.

E. J. Waggoner

-In Japan, we are told, children are taught to write with either hand.

-A rich discovery of gold is reported from Grahamstown, South Africa.

-It is estimated that over one-tenth of male Matabelee have been killed.

-The Queen's descendants now occupy or are destined to occupy seven thrones.

-One-third of the female population of France are engaged as labourers in agricultural pursuits.

-A strike of miners in Colorado led to such violence that the State troops were called out last week to suppress it.

-Among the warlike tribes of the Soudan the unwritten law of the desert forbids any settlement around the wells, as they are common to all.

-Many wrecks were reported along the coast last week, the gale raging with wintry violence. Gallant rescues by the lifeboats were also reported.

-Railway accidents have been unusually frequent in England this summer. Last week a collision at March killed one person and injured many.

-The expedition to Spitzbergen reports having discovered a mountain nearly 6,000 feet high, which is composed almost wholly, apparently, of marble.

-The ratable value of the Metropolis, according to the quinquennial valuation now operative, has increased during the last five years by 21 millions, making a total of nearly ?36,000,000.

-Over a million tons of machinery and plant, dredgers, and locomotives are rusting and rotting along the Panama canal. The gigantic failure is said to be pitiful as one gazes at the "awful scene of chaos."

-The Russian and Japanese Governments have agreed to exercise a mutual protectorate over Korea, but Russia as the greatest Power is quietly building up her interests in that important peninsula.

-It was thought the Dervishes would make a stand at Dongola, but the approach of the British force led them to flee into the desert and up the Nile, the cavalry pursuing and killing what they could. Many Dervishes are surrendering.

-It said that the Japanese are encouraging the revolt against Spain in the Philippine Islands, as these islands are greatly desired by Japan, which feels the need of more room in which to plant its crowded population.

-Last week the Queen had reigned longer than any previous British sovereign, or European ruler. Her Majesty has seen the reigns of five Prussian monarchs, four of Russia, Denmark, Spain, and Portugal, three of Sweden and Holland, two of Austria and Belgium, and she has seen tremendous changes political and otherwise in the history of her reign. All members of the House of Peers that saw her coronation are dead, and but one member of the House of Commons who was a member at that time still retains his seat.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 40.

E. J. Waggoner

We hear that the medical missionary of our Society in Raratonga has been requested to take charge of the Government hospital in that island, which will doubtless give him better facilities for carrying on his work for the suffering, bodily and spiritually.

The Salvation Army female rescue department reports 13,768 cases dealt with in homes, of which nearly eighty per cent. have continued well thus far in their new life. The work of rescue has been accomplished at a total cost of not more than ?2 per person.

It is worth remarking that two young Christian Chinese ladies have just completed a medical course in an American university, and have returned to China, the first native female physicians, hoping to be able to do much for the women of China, ministering to physical and spiritual needs. China has one skilled physician to 2,500,000 of her population.

Change, restlessness, strife are the characteristics of the time. Now Thibet is waking up, and the head of the religion of the country, the Grand Lama, is ordering his lamas to take the field and lead the people's revolt against Chinese rule. At the very time when the great Powers are deliberating as to how China shall be divided, the empire itself is being rent by rebellion.

Our readers are perhaps aware that the greater proportion of those connected with the work of our Society in Turkey are Armenians. So far as heard from they have suffered no harm and the terrible scenes recently enacted. Needless to say, Seventh-day Adventists in Turkey simply preach the Word, and they have taken no part in armed insurrection or political strife, and the good providence of the Lord has watched over them. Even though some were killed we know they would not die calling for the death of their enemies. That would be a denial of Christianity. The freedom for which they work in Turkey is religious not political, and religious liberty is freedom from sin and its power, which no human power can deprive one of; nor can principalities or powers, or life or death, or any other creature separate the Christian from the love of Christ which is his support and life. Christians are needed in Turkey now. May the terrible times develop and increase them.

Every gail about our coasts brings out the heroism of the coastguardsmen. The character of courage developed in the fight with the elements to save men's lives is of an entirely different stamp to that developed in war to take men's lives. The lifeboatman is disappointed when the fierceness of the gale hinders him from rescuing those imperilled, while frequently, as in despatches the other day from the Soudan, we hear of the disappointment of troops when the enemy runs away and does not stand up to be killed in fierce combat. It cannot be too often repeated that the spirit of war in which is drilled into men is the very spirit of Satan.

The journals which have all along urged greater expenditure on armaments are preparing to make use of the spirit of militarism which is sweeping the churches into their camp. They notice that it is those who formerly opposed so great expenditure for war and bloodshed who now cry most loudly for war; and if there is to be war, guns, and boats, and men, and money must be ready, and the more the better if war is a remedy for any evil under the sun. Not till the last great conflict, when all the armies of the nations will be destroyed by the hosts of heaven, will the world recover from this hot wave of militarism.

For a long time many Anglicans have been begging the Pope to pronounce on the validity of their orders. So the Pope says, "We pronounce and declare that ordinations carried out according to the Anglican rights have been and are absolutely null and utterly void." If those who have appealed value the opinion of their chosen judge they have not an opportunity to show it. But fancy asking the Pope to tell who can obey Christ "orders," "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature."

The Papal Bull on Anglican orders is a long document, but we find only two references to Scripture in it, and those merely incidental, and not a part of the argument. It is not a Bible question but an ecclesiastical quibble with those who argue it. The Rabbis in the time of Christ spent their time discussing fine points of human definitions, and when Christ came speaking the words of God they questioned His "orders" and authority.

Old earth groans under the weight of transgression bearing heavy upon it, and the pent-up forces stored within it for the last great day (2 Peter iii. 7, R.V.) are shaking its surface here and there, as though to warn all who put their trust in it that the foundation of one's hope must be laid on something more secure. Mail advices regarding the recent earthquake in Iceland show how powerless man is when the earth beneath his feet gives way:-

In places the ground opened as if to swallow the little turf houses that are dotted over its surface. One of these chasms is many miles in length, but not very deep or broad. Great rocks and big landslides tumbled down from the mountains. It was as if the earth was writhing in agony. All these movements were accompanied by terrific rumbling noises underground, as loud as heavy peals of thunder. The women cried and wrung their hands.

A Roman Catholic shop-keeper, who sells horsehair belts and barbed instruments to wear next the body as disciplinary agencies, says that he sells three to Church of England people to one to a Catholic. A Protestant book-seller in Paternoster Row has created considerable excitement by exhibiting a set of these instruments of self-torture in his window.

"What Is the Commission?" The Present Truth 12, 40.

E. J. Waggoner

What Is the Commission? -Great enthusiasm has prevailed amongst the churches to avenge the slaughter Armenians. But Christ has commissioned the church to go and preach the Gospel to every creature, even the Turk, and God has expressly said, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay." Unsanctified human nature has always been more ready to try to do the work which God reserves for Himself than to do the work which God commands men who know Him to do. It is easy, apparently, to rouse religious people to enthusiasm to hire other men to go and vent their natural feelings of wrath upon wrong-doers, but has anybody ever heard of any great popular enthusiasm to carry the Gospel to Mohammedans? It is not a question of what wicked men deserve, but of what God sends Christians into the world to do.

October 8, 1896

"Front Page" The Present Truth 12, 41.

E. J. Waggoner

The Pope evidently expects new converts as a result of his final pronouncement against Anglican orders, for he suggests to Cardinal Vaughan "the formation of a considerable fund for the help of converted Anglican clergymen."

Cardinal Vaughan urges those Anglican clergymen and laymen who have been longing for reunion with Rome to come into the open arms of the "Mother Church" and "no longer to temporise with grace. Persons desiring to act might communicate with any bishop or priest, or with himself, for instruction and direction. Let them not tarry for corporate reunion. It was a dream and snare of the Evil One. They had all to be converted to God individually."

The old rabbis, the doctors of the Jewish church, had their fable of oral traditions handed down from Moses to the men of the Great Synagogue, who later put them into writing, with interpretations and comments, without which it was impossible to understand the Scriptures. Just so the Catholic doctrine of tradition substitutes the vagaries of the Fathers for the pure words of God. And they are said to have received the traditions from the apostles just as the Jewish rabbinical writers received their traditions through Moses, who talked with God. The Jews made void the commandments of God by their traditions, and thus the Catholic Church has made void the Word by tradition. Drink of the fountain head.

"Whose Man Are You? Christ's? Or Whose?" The Present Truth 12, 41.

E. J. Waggoner

In olden time when two companies met, or a wayfarer was descried by the way, the accustomed challenge was, "Whose man are you?"

That, in a larger way, is the challenge now. Are you for peace, or war? Whose man are you,-Christ's or Satan's?

The Daily Mail asks of the public meetings which have been so much for war, "Is this a clergyman's agitation?" and quotes this paragraph from the Scotsman:-

The most warlike section of the public press is the so-called religious press. Clergymen like Canon MacColl and Dr. Guinness Rogers, and that more fiery and foolish agitator Mr. Hugh Price Hughes, are among the leading spirits in a movement which, consciously or unconsciously, has for its object the destruction of the peace of Europe. Of the eight speakers-excluding the Lord Mayor, who presided officially-at the Birmingham meeting, five were clergymen. Of the five speakers at the overflow meeting, three were clergymen. The present atrocity agitation is in the main a clergyman's agitation.

The Scotsman goes on to say that if this were only a religious movement at heart, instead of really a political question, the clergy might be not only excused but commended for their ardour. In this thought the Scotsman is sadly in error.

Christ said, "Blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be called the children of God." It was in this connection, during the same discourse, that He continued the thought thus:-"Ye have heard that it has been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: but I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. . . Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thy enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven."

Such an injunction as this, in such earnest and loving terms, certainly does raise the question as to whether they who do not follow this counsel can ever be the children of the heavenly Father. Is Jesus the god of battles and strife, or is He the Prince of Peace? He says He is the God of Peace. How then can He be the god of battles? He commands peace, and says, "Thou shalt not kill." Does He also sound the call to war, and march with the heaviest battalions? Does our God blow both the hot breath of battle and the cool, sweet blessings of peace? How is it, then, is there a contradiction here? Is He the God of battles, or not? He is not, except as He is God over all, and will make the wrath of man to praise Him,-yes, and the wrath of Satan also. For it is he, Satan, who is the god of battles, in the sense that he incites to war and slaughter.

Is he who kills a thousand any less a murderer that he who kills one? Certainly not, but a thousand times more. Because the subject is enlisted as a soldier, and acts under the authority of his commanding officer, does that reduce the

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individual responsibility of the soldier, the officer, or the sovereign? Certainly it does not. God is not mocked. There is no evasion of guilt, or avoidance of sentence and punishment, in His court. There it will be true that "murder will out,"-and there it will not be true that "dead men tell no tales." The witnesses will all be there, and the indictment perfect, in every case. The soldier who has killed his man will be found guilty of the single murder, as any other murderer. But what of the guilt, also, of the commander, at whose word tens of thousands have taken the lives of others and have themselves fallen? Or what the responsibility of the sovereign at whose whim, or to satisfy whose sense of wounded honour, hundreds of thousands of lives have been sacrificed on the field of battle?

If none of these shall escape the apportionment of their guilt, what shall be the fate of those who, having been appointed pastors and masters of the spiritual interests of the people, place in their hands the firebrands of war instead of holding to their lips the cooling cup of peace. What would be the fate of an officer who in time of action, in the field, deliberately transferred his services to the enemy? Let the military code, under which they place themselves, decide. Retribution would be short, sharp, merciless, would it not? Pastors and ministers are officers in the army of peace,-the army of the Lord and of His Son Jesus Christ. The army of peace is ever in the field, and will be so long as the world lasts. What shall be said of those officers in God's army who now, in time of action, desert to the army of Satan, and strive to carry all their gathered forces with them!

Offences must needs come. War there will inevitably be, sooner or later. The armed neutrality of Europe will not always be maintained. But what sane man desires to incur the awful guilt of the slaughter which will ensue?

"The 'Institut Sanitarie' of Basel" The Present Truth 12, 41.

E. J. Waggoner

The large building at the left, in the cut on this page, is the sanatorium carried on under the direction of our Society, in Basel, Switzerland. The institution goes under the French title of "Institut Sanitaire," although it is thoroughly polyglot in its character, its faculty and core of nurses speaking English, French, German, and the Scandinavian languages. This sanatorium has now been in successful operation nearly a year. The location of the building is most excellent, being number 48, Weiherweg, facing the Schutzenmatt, large open public grounds, which gives an uninterrupted view from the windows of the building to the high foothills of the Juras, not far distant. From the observatory on the roof may be seen, when the atmosphere is clear, the Juras, the Vosges, and the mountains of the Black forest in Germany.

Basel itself is an interesting, conservative old Swiss city. It has the reputation of being the wealthiest city of its size in the world. Its ancient university, still flourishing, was established some years before the discovery of the art of printing. The medical department, although not largely attended, is very thorough and complete in its teaching and enjoys excellent facilities, the hospitals of the city being very finely appointed, and well carried on.

The Institut Sanitaire is managed upon thoroughly practical hygienic principles,-its bathing and massage rooms are convenient and provided with competent, educated

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operators of experience. The bakery attached to the building not only provides the table of the institution with some ten or a dozen different varieties of bread, biscuits, and health foods, but is beginning to do some business for the trade. The biscuits and health foods produced there find favour wherever they are used.

This institution is very well situated indeed, being centrally located on the direct line of European travel, and as it becomes more widely known will be able to extend its sphere of usefulness accordingly.

The building was formerly the printing and publishing house of our Society for Central Europe, but when, as some of our readers will remember, the Sunday laws of Switzerland compelled the closing down of the presses, the printing work was transferred partly to Germany and partly placed with other printers in Basel, and then the building was remodelled and fitted as a health institution to bear its part still in preaching the Gospel. For the Gospel by no means neglects the body while it ministers to the spiritual life. The principles of health and temperance, and the teaching of a proper care of the body and health and disease are of vital importance, it can by no means be neglected by those who recognise the fact that men and women are not their own, but belong to God, and are responsible to give Him the best service of their lives.

"War and Peace" The Present Truth 12, 41.

E. J. Waggoner

Li Hung Chang has learned the Western plea for armaments. He says, "The best guarantee for peace is to be ready for war." Yet somehow all countries seem to feel that the carrying of arms by the private citizen does not make for domestic peace.

"The Promises to Israel. Bread from Heaven" The Present Truth 12, 41.

E. J. Waggoner

It is with singing that the ransomed of the Lord will return and come to Zion. The song of victory is an evidence of faith, by which the just shall live. The exhortation is, "Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward." Heb. x. 35. "We are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end." Heb. iii. 14. The Israelites had started well. "By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land." On the other shore they had sung the song of victory. True, they were still in the wilderness; but faith is "the victory that hath overcome the world," and they had just received the most wonderful evidence of the power of God to carry them safely through. Had they but gone on singing that song of victory, they would speedily have come to Zion.

But they had not yet perfectly learned the lesson. They could trust the Lord as far as they could see Him, but no further. They "provoked Him at the sea, even at the Red Sea. Nevertheless He saved them for His name's sake, that He might make His mighty power to be known. He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it was dried up; so He led them through the depths, as through the wilderness. And he saved them from the hand of him that hated them, and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy. And the waters covered their enemies; there was not one of them left. Then believed they His words; they sang His praise; they soon forgot His works; they waited not for His counsel." Ps. cxi. 7-13.

Only three days' journey in the wilderness without water sufficed to make them forget all that the Lord had done for them. When they found water, it was so bitter that they could not drink it, and then they murmured. This difficulty was easily remedied by the Lord, who showed Moses a tree which, when cast into the bitter waters, made them sweet. "There He made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there He proved them." Ex. xv. 25.

Encamped by the palm trees and wells of Elim, they had nothing to vex them, so that it must have been nearly a month before they murmured again. During that time they doubtless felt very well satisfied with themselves, as well as with their surroundings. Now they were surely trusting the Lord! It is so easy for us to imagine that we are making progress when we are only lying at anchor, and the tide is flowing past us; so natural to think that we have learned to trust the Lord, when there are no trials to test our faith.

It was not long before the people not only forgot the power of the Lord, but they were ready to deny that He had ever had anything to do with them. It was only a month and a half after their leaving Egypt that they came to the wilderness of Sin, "which is between Elim and Sinai," "and the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness; and the children of

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Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.

"Then said the Lord unto Moses, Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law, or no. And it shall come to pass, that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in; and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily. And Moses and Aaron said unto all the children of Israel, At even, then ye shall know that the Lord hath brought you out from the land of Egypt; and in the morning, then ye shall see the glory of the Lord; for that He heareth your murmurings against the Lord; and what are we, that ye murmur against us?" Verses 4-7.

The next morning when the dew was gone, "behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost upon the ground. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna; for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat. This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded, Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for every man, according to the number of your persons; take ye every man for them which are in his tents. And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less. And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating." Verses 14-18.

"And Moses said, Let no man leave of it till the morning. Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank; and Moses was wroth with them. And they gathered it every man according to his eating; and when the sun waxed hot it melted." Verses 19-21.

"And it came to pass, that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for every man; and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. And he said unto them, This is that which the Lord hath said, To-morrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord; bake that which ye will bake to-day, and seethe that ye will seethe; and that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept until the morning. And they laid it up till the morning, as Moses bade; and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein. And Moses said, Eat that to-day: for to-day is a Sabbath unto the Lord; to-day ye shall not find it in the field. Six days ye shall gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none." Verses 22-26.

"And it came to pass, that there went out some of the people on the seventh day for to gather, and they found none. And the Lord said unto Moses, How long refuse ye to keep My commandments and My laws? See, for that the Lord hath given you the Sabbath, therefore He giveth you on the Sabbath the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of His place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day." Verses 27-30.

We now have the entire story before us, and can study its lessons in detail. Remember that this was not written for the sake of those who participated in it, but for us. "Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope." If they failed to learn the lesson that God designed they should from the event, there is so much the more reason for us to learn it from the record.

THE TEST

The Lord said that He would prove the people, whether they would walk in His law or not. And the special thing upon which they were tested was the Sabbath. If they would keep this, there was no doubt that they would keep the whole law. The Sabbath, therefore, was the crucial test of the law of God, Even so it is now, as the following points that we have already learned will show:-

1. The people were being delivered in pursuance of the covenant made with Abraham. See Ex. vi. 3, 4. That covenant had been confirmed with an oath, and the time of the promise which God had sworn to Abraham had come near. Abraham kept God's law, and it was on this account that the promise was continued to his descendants. Gen. xxvi. 3-5. The Lord said to Isaac that He would perform all the oath that He swore unto Abraham his father, "because that Abraham obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws." Now when God was bringing the children of Abraham out of Egypt, in fulfillment of that oath, He proposed to test them to see if they also would walk in His law; and the point upon which He tested them was the Sabbath. This therefore proves beyond all controversy that the Sabbath was kept by Abraham, and that it was in the covenant made with him. It was a part of the righteousness of the faith which Abraham had before he was circumcised.

2. "If ye are Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Now since the Sabbath-the very same one that the Israelites kept in the wilderness, and which the descendants of Jacob have kept, or professed to, until this day-was in the covenant made with Abraham, it follows that it is the Sabbath for Christians to keep.

3. We have already learned that our hope is the very same that was set before Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the children of Israel. "The hope of the promise made of God unto the fathers," was that for which the Apostle Paul was judged (Acts xxvi. 6); and the promise to the faithful is that they shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God. The Lord has set His hand the second time to deliver the remnant of His people and therefore the test of obedience at this time is the same that it was at the beginning. The Sabbath is the memorial of God's power as Creator and Sanctifier; and in the message that announces the hour of God's Judgment at hand, the everlasting Gospel, which is the preparation for the end, is preached in the words, "Worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters." Rev. xiv. 6, 7.

This test was made before the law was spoken from Sinai, and before the people had reached that place.Yet we find that every feature of the law was already known. So far was the giving of the law from Sinai from being the first announcement of it, that more than a month before that event the children of Israel were tasted upon it; and the words, "How long refuse ye to keep My commandments and My laws?" show that they had known it a long time, and had often broken it through their unbelief.

When we come to the events connected with the giving of the law, we shall be able to see more clearly than now that the Sabbath which the Jews were expected to keep could not by any possibility be affected by the death of Christ, but that it was for ever identified with the Gospel, centuries before the crucifixion. In this

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connection, however, we must note one point in regard to the definiteness of the Sabbath day.

The people were told, "Six days shall ye gather it; but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none." This is the very same expression that is used in the fourth commandment, "Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work." Many people have been led to believe that the commandment is not definite in its requirement, and that the Sabbath is not by it fixed to one particular day of the week, but that any day of the week will answer, provided it is preceded by six days of labour. The account of the giving of the manna shows that this is a mistaken idea, and that the commandment requires not simply an indefinite seventh part of time, but the seventh day of the week.

The giving of the manna showed most positively that the Sabbath day was definite, and that it was not left for man to decide which day it is. Moreover is showed that "the seventh day" does not mean the seventh part of time, but a definitely recurring day. If "the seventh day" means one seventh part of time, then "the sixth day" would at the same time mean the sixth part of time; but if the children of Israel had proceeded upon that assumption, they would have been in difficulty the first thing.

There is but one period of seven days, and that is the week which was known from the creation. God worked six days, and in those first six days He finished the work of creation; "and He rested the seventh day from His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made." Gen. ii. 2, 3. Therefore, when God says that the seventh day is the Sabbath, He means that the Sabbath is the seventh day of the week, the day that is commonly known as Saturday. The sixth day, upon which the children of Israel were to prepare for the Sabbath, is the sixth day of the week, commonly called Friday.

This is also settled beyond all controversy by the account of the crucifixion and burial of Christ, where we are told that the women came to the sepulchre "in the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week" (Matt. xxviii. 1); and by another writer that it was "when the Sabbath was past." Mark xvi. 1. We refer to these texts to show that the first day of the week immediately follows the Sabbath, and that no time intervened between the close of the Sabbath and the visit of the women to the sepulchre. Now when we read the record in Luke, we learn that when Christ was buried "that day was the preparation, and the Sabbath drew on." The women came and saw where He was laid, "and they returned, and prepared spices and ointments, and rested the Sabbath day according to the commandment." And "upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulchre." Luke xxiii. 54-56; xxiv. 1.

The Sabbath followed "the preparation," and immediately preceded "the first day of the week." Therefore the Sabbath was the seventh day of the week. And it was "the Sabbath day according to the commandment." Therefore the Sabbath of the commandment is none other than the seventh day of the week. This was the day which God marked out in the most special manner as the Sabbath, by performing wonderful miracles in its honour for forty years. Let this fact be well considered. Let it be remembered that whenever in the Bible the Sabbath is spoken of, the seventh day of the week, and that only, is meant. That long before the days of Moses, this Sabbath of the fourth commandment, together with the whole law, was inseparably connected with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, will be very apparent as we proceed in our study.

"A Grasshopper Story" The Present Truth 12, 41.

E. J. Waggoner

When I go to London, I always stand at the corner of the Bank of England for a minute or two, watching the crowd of busy men hurrying everywhere. What thousands of cares they carry! How many anxieties!

Then I look at the Royal Exchange. It is pleasant to see the London sparrows, though they are a little black and grimy, chirping on the massive cornices, as free and happy as possible, above the din and awful hurry of the great city.

They have no cares, no anxieties. They seem to know what the great letters mean, which are out in the stones on which they hop: "The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof." God keeps the sparrows, and they are happy. I wish the busy city men would watch the sparrows, and read the great city text.

But the sparrows and the text are not the most attractive things about the Exchange, and I am sure if you look at it, you will think as I do that the weather-cock is the most singular and curious thing about the building. It is not like any other weather-cock in England, or, I should think, in the world; and I'll tell you how it came to be there.

About three hundred and fifty years ago, a woman, with a little baby in her arms, was trudging along a country lane. Presently, after looking to see that no one was watching her, she climbed over the gate into the field, and wrapping the baby in its little shawl, she laid it down in the grass, so gently as not to awaken it, and then, never even looking behind her, she climbed over the gate again into the lane and went on her journey.

The baby soon awoke, and began to cry; and it cried for a long, long time. And at last, tired and hungry, and hot with the sun, for it was a fine summer's day, it was wearied out, and dropped off to sleep again. But God had "heard the voice of the lad," and see how simply He brought help for the little one.

By and by, down the Iane came a school-boy. He was whistling away, as happy as ever he could be; he had come out of school, and was going home. He lived at the farmhouse a little way farther up the lane. Now he gathered a few primroses; now he scampered after a butterfly; now he had a shy at a bird; but just as he came to the gate over which the woman had climbed, he heard a grasshopper chirping away also so loudly that he sprang over the gate to catch him, and there was the baby, fast asleep. Far more pleased than if he had caught a hundred grasshoppers, the boy took up the little fellow, and ran home with his prize. The kind farmer's wife, although she had many children of her own, at once determined to keep the little orphan who had been saved by a grasshopper.

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 41.

E. J. Waggoner

-Servia is buying from Russia 200,000 repeating rifles.

-Telegraph operators have been out on strike in Canada.

-The long continuance of wet weather has blighted the potato crop in some countries.

-Bohemian coal miners have been on strike, and the military were called out to suppress violence.

-More gold is reported from Newfoundland, a number of reefs promising the metal in paying quantities.

-A terrific storm along the South Atlantic sea-board in the United States caused great damage and loss of life last week.

-A slight earthquake which shook houses and began with a laud noise like an explosion, occurred last week on the East Coast.

-The Transvaal has been spending about ?40,000 a mouth in the effort to fight the rinderpest, and without much apparent success.

-Japan has now a large navy, and the diet has voted to increase it very materially, the greater number of ships to be made in Japan.

-The state of Madagascar continues deplorable. The native insurgents hold most of the country districts, and have even threatened the capital.

-The natives in Rhodesia continue surrendering, and save for isolated chiefs who still refuse to cease fighting, the country is comparatively quiet.

-Greek and Armenian bands are causing trouble on the Macedonian border, trying to enter the Turkish territory to stir up insurrection against Turkish rule.

-Drought in Northern India has led to serious disturbance. Crops are short and the rite in price of grain causes great want. Grain riots have occurred at several points.

-It is said that the Soudan expedition will go no further than Dongola this year. Officers are to be appointed over this province, and the railway and steamer communication is to be maintained between Dungola and Egypt.

-Calculating the salaries of rulers a newspaper finds that the Czar has ?250 per hour, the Sultan ?170, the Emperor of Austria ?100, the Kaiser ?90, the King of Italy ?66, Queen Victoria ?66, the French President ?30, the King of the Belgians ?13, and the President of the United States ?1 10s. per hour.

-The German empire, with 55,000,000 population, has but 78 subjects who are mere than one hundred years old. France, with lower than 40,000,000, has 213 persons who have passed their hunuredth birthday. England has 146; Ireland, 678; Scotland, 46; Denmark, 2; Belgium, 5; Sweden, 10; and Norway, with 2,000,000 inhabitants, 23. Switzerland does not boast a single centenarian, but Spain, with about 18,000,000 population, has 401.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 41.

E. J. Waggoner

Funds are being raised to erect a granite obelisk in Lutterworth, the scene of Wycliffe's later ministry to commemorate the labours of the "Morning Star of the Reformation."

A foreign journal remarks upon the increase of legislation and of the demand for legislation enforcing varying degrees of Sunday observance in France, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, and Sweden.

A writer in a Spiritualist journal congratulates a famous preacher on his courage in preaching out-and-out Spiritualism, describing the spirits of the departed as taking part in affairs of earth. "The Sin of Witchcraft," in our list of tracts (price 2nd.), shows what is involved in this delusion of Spiritualism, and we commend it to all who want to know what the Bible says of it.

Apparently there will be a temporary lull in the storm that is gathering in the Near East. God's hand restraints where human passion would hasten the desolating conflict. The winds of strife are held that the servants of God may be sealed (Rev. vii. 1-3). What a trumpet call to duty does God now sound to all Christians who know that the work of Christians in this world is to preach the Word.

Just recently the professedly Protestant church authorities in Constantinople call the attention of the Turkish authorities to the growth of the work of Seventh-day Adventists in Turkey, asking that it might be suppressed. The result was that the request was refused and the work and lives of our friends there spoken of commendably. In every case where our workers have suffered physical violence in Turkey it has been at the hands of professed Christians. The various sects fight among themselves and accuse one another to the authorities. Is it any wonder that Mohammedans have a poor idea of Christians generally? It shows the need of Gospel work in Turkey to show professed Christians and Turks alike that the Christianity of Christ means a life of honesty and sobriety and obedience to God's law.

Because a man can do little he is not to refrain from doing that little, for that is to distrust God's power and to say that the good accomplished depends on the giver. A lad once had but five loaves and two small fishes, but they fed five thousand people because Divine power blessed the little store.

We look out upon the world lying in wickedness, and darkness covering the earth and gross darkness the people. There are so few missionaries out in destitute fields; millions of heathen who have not heard the Gospel are hearing of the improved methods of warfare in vogue in the Western world, and are catching the spirit of unrest and violence. Yet the Gospel must go to all nations and tongues before the end comes. How can it? The lesson of the five loaves and the five thousand hungry souls tells us how. God can do it, because there is nothing too hard for Him, and a short work will He make in the earth.

At Pentecost the Lord had gathered to Jerusalem representatives of many nations who heard the Gospel, each in his own tongue. During this century the Lord has so multiplied His Word that it is now speaking the same Gospel in 330 languages, and He now asks believers to go into all the world to carry this Word to those who are waiting to hear the message that it bears. And the Holy Spirit accompanies the Word to convict hearts now as at Pentecost.

No observer can fail to see the revival of the old spirit of the Papacy in the enforcement of Sunday laws. Two cases were before the magistrates in London last week. An Italian was fined for selling buns and cakes. It seems bread may be sold on Sunday by a baker, but not buns, a distinction which the magistrate agreed was a very fine one. The Chronicle says, "Sunday work will, we hope, have the attention of those who frame the next Factory Act." The Chronicle of course works on Sunday to get out its Monday's edition, with all the betting and sporting news of the week-end, but this does not prevent its joining in the cry for Sunday observance in ordinary occupations, enforced by fines and imprisonment.

The rinderpest, the terrible cattle plague which has worked such havoc in Rhodesia, has appeared in Cape Colony, and advices state that the fifteenth of this month has been officially appointed as a day of humiliation and prayer. God is as ready to hear as in the days of Nineveh, but He asks for a rending of the heart and not of the garments, a turning from wickedness and not a formal service, with a day's cessation of the rush of pleasure-seeking and money-getting.

American papers show that the pulpit is taking a greater part in the presidential campaign this year than ever before. It is the natural result of the "Christian citizenship" movement which has got possession of the American churches. And while the issue is arraying class against class and section against section, and observers cannot but think of the possibility of strife and even revolution in the country in the near future, the churches, by joining in the political controversy, are losing their power to hold political passion in check with the restraints of religion.

The life of Jesus is the example of what a Christian life is. "Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow in His steps; who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth: who when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered He threatened not; but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously." And He is the only one who has the power to live that kind of life in human flesh to-day.

A religious journal, arguing in favour of the Christian's maintaining his rights alongside the worldling, says:-

It was absolutely necessary that men should be the guardian of his own rights in this world, and for the temporary concerns of this world.

It would be a dreary world if this were true. And how different would have been the history of the world if professed Christians had followed the example of Christ instead of acting on this worldly maxim. The fifth chapter of James shows, too, that the principles of Christianity are to guide the believer in his temporal affairs till the very end. God has not renounced the guardianship of His children, who may safely put their trust in Him.

October 15, 1896

"Political and Religious Reform" The Present Truth 12, 42.

E. J. Waggoner

When Wycliffe saw by the Scriptures how impossible it was that the church of Christ should be intriguing with the governments of earth and working to elevate itself to a ruling place over the affairs of nations, he was quite prepared to denounce the Papacy for its efforts to maintain a temporal power over the English people. This naturally drew to him those who were struggling for political freedom. But this was not the Gospel which God was sending to men. He desired them to know freedom, the spiritual despotism of the Roman Church, and freedom from the power of sin.

So it was that Reformer was led along the path of Bible Protestantism to testify against Rome's claim to dispense salvation to man, and to reassert the truth that Jesus Christ is the only mediator between God and men, and that the Word of God is the rule of life. But here those whose political sentiments had led them for the moment to applaud the principles which Wycliffe taught now forsook him. The King was prevailed upon by the ecclesiastics to withdraw all sympathy from him, and, as Wiley says:-

"When this was seen, all his friends fell away from him. John of Gaunt had deserted him at an earlier stage. This prince stood stoutly by Wycliffe as long as the Reformer occupied himself in simply repelling encroachments of the hierarchy upon the prerogatives of the crown and independence of the nation. That was a branch of the controversy the duke could understand. But when it passed into the doctrinal sphere, where the bold Reformer, not content with cropping off a few excrescences, began to lay the axe to the root-to deny the Sacrament and abolish the altar-the valiant prince was alarmed; he felt that he had stepped on a ground which he did not know, and that he was in danger of being drawn into a bottomless pit of heresy. John of Gaunt, therefore, made all haste to draw off. But others too, of whom better things might have been expected, quailed before the gathering storm, and stood aloof from the Reformer."

How many times has this principle been illustrated in history. When one of the German princes wanted to place his sword at the service of Luther to protect him, Luther gave him to understand that the Elector was more in need of his (Luther's) protection, as a servant of God, than was he in need of a sword as a protector. The mere political reformer considers his chances and the votes at his command, or the swords which the votes represent. He knows how to go to work because he fights with carnal weapons for merely carnal reformation. But in moral reform, wherein

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the weapons can be only spiritual, he is as much out of his element as a fish is when out of water. He knows not how to use the weapons which are mighty through God, to the pulling down of strongholds; and while he would be full of courage if the battle were his own, and would sell his life in fighting for political liberty, he doesn't understand the moral heroism which leads one to lose this life, battling in spiritual warfare against sin, in order to find eternal life.

The world is in great danger, in these days, of confusing the methods of moral and political reform; and those engaged in moral Reformation will frequently meet the temptation which Wycliffe in large measure met successfully,-that of lowering the standard to secure the favour and influence of those whose aims are not spiritual, and whose ideas are merely social and political, impossible to realise in a world where sin makes slaves of all who are out of Christ.

The world was full of wrong in Christ's day. Tyranny and selfishness reigned, and Palestine was sullenly watching an opportunity to throw off the Roman yoke. It was not because Christ disregarded wrongs that He had led no social or political movement to overturn existing conditions. His whole life was one of sympathy for suffering and all His teaching a rebuke of wrong-doing. But His Gospel was of infinitely higher imports than any programme of reform ever conceived by man. It promised the liberty of heaven to the slave with manacles about his limbs, and it promised the infinite riches of heaven to the enslaved toiler who was willing to be saved from wrath and malice and covetousness in this world.

People complain of the "other-worldliness" of this Gospel, and men have fought through the centuries to right their wrongs. But the ills that have always afflicted society are still with us, worse than ever; and the world is filling with discontent and a determination to smash something, if need be, to find a remedy. But the disease is in the life, in the heart, of the very one who suffers, and the Gospel alone brings the cure. And it brings the patience to wait until the coming of the Lord, enduring injustice and oppression without malice and without rendering evil for evil, if that is the lot of the one who waits. He can rejoice in tribulation, and glory in His sufferings, for Christ shares them with him. The patient endurance with which Jesus met oppression in the days of His flesh is granted His associates now. This is not the Gospel that the world wants, but it is what the world needs, and it is the only Gospel God has for it.

"'The Just Shall Live by Faith'" The Present Truth 12, 42.

E. J. Waggoner

What is the value of corporate Christianity? Is there any saving grace in it?

In these days the greater part of the world's effort is put forth through corporate channels. The immense enterprises undertaken by civilised peoples are only possible of accomplishment through systematically organised and incorporated co-operated means. In this the people of this world are wise in their generation. By such methods, and by such methods alone, is it possible to utilise the natural forces which man is learning to control, and to so bring them under subjection that they may serve his purposes. Without corporate organisation it would be utterly impossible to carry on the enormous traffic of the world over sea and land. Without the great incorporated manufacturing industries it would be impossible to feed and clothe and provide for the multitudes which have gathered in the numerous and populous cities of the world. Indeed, without them, all, whether in city or country, would be deprived of many of those commodities and conveniences which have now come to be thought the necessities of life.

But not only are the greater industries of the world incorporated and combined, but the religious effort and expression of professed Christianity is also organised into the corporate form. The thought of the organised corporate church has led to the extended idea of national Christianity, until the phrase "Christian nation" has become current. And active ideality has invested the creations of men, in governmental organisation, with personality and individuality-personified them-until, in the minds of many men these personalities have become endowed with personality and actual, individual responsibility.

But the truth is actually expressed in the phrase "corporations have no souls." Corporate personality is only a fraction of the law. It is entirely of human origin, and exists only by the will of man. Corporations and governments have no responsibility outside of the individual responsibility of those who constitute and control them. Salvation is solely and only an individual question, depending alone upon the personal faith of each person and the works which are the evidence of that faith. Because where faith is works must be. Where the Spirit is there must be the fruits of the Spirit, for the Spirit of God can never be barren and fruitless. Those fruits will be the evidence of faith,-and faith will work the salvation. Faith can be attributed only to a sentient being. No creation of man either material or immaterial ever was or ever will become a sentient creature capable of exercising faith. Upon faith alone depend salvation. The possibility of immortality rests only in and with the individual man. All the creatures of his hand and brain are ephemeral. Their existence is limited to this world, as they are concerned only with the things of this world. There is therefore no saving grace in citizenship in a professedly Christian nation. Neither is there, necessarily, salvation in membership in human religious organisations. They always should be, and certainly are-though not always,-a means toward salvation, but they cannot in the slightest degree assume or detract from their personal responsibility of the individual.

The only saving grace which exists in corporate, organised Christianity consists in the fruits of the Spirit, which through the agency of mutual co-operation and organisation its members are enabled to produce; and these fruits are profitable for eternal life only to the individual by whose faith are produced, and do not redound in the slightest to the future benefit of the corporate organisation as a whole. "The just shall live by faith."

"The Horrors of War" The Present Truth 12, 42.

E. J. Waggoner

The Horrors of War .-"In the Franco-German war," says a French journal, "the doctors had not finished their merciful works at Mars-la-Tour when they were wanted at Gravelotte. After days of work at Gravelotte they returned to the fields of Mars-la-Tour, where they found men still living in agony with festering wounds. Others had ended a life hateful beyond imagination with their own hands." Yet we are asked to suppose that a follower of Christ may work such atrocities as these on his fellows at the command of statesmen who choose to declare war upon one another.

The German Christian on one side of the line may love his French brother in Christ on the other side, and when they meet together they may claim Christ's promise to be in the midst of them to bless. But let hostilities be declared, and these same two are supposed, by popular religion, to be bound to hunt each other with the infernal weapons of war!

"The Promises to Israel. Life from God" The Present Truth 12, 42.

E. J. Waggoner

At the close of the wandering in the wilderness, Moses said to the people, "All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers. And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldst keep His commandments, or no. And He humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger; and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that He might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live." Deut. viii. 1-3.

"The word of God is living and active." Heb. iv. 12. Christ said, "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." John vi. 68. Through the prophet He says, "Incline your ear, and come unto Me; hear, and your soul shall live." Isa. lv. 3. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live." John v. 25. That time had come in the days when the children of Israel were in the wilderness. In the giving of the manna He was teaching them that men could live only by "every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."

Note this well. God was proving them by the manna, whether they would walk in His law or not. But at the same time He was teaching them that the law is life. Jesus said, "I know that His commandment is life everlasting." John xii. 50. They were to keep the commandments that they might live, but they could keep them only by hearing them. The life is in the commandments themselves, and not in the individual who tries to keep them. He can get no life from his own efforts, yet he is to get life through the commandments. Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The reason is that the word itself is life, and if we listen attentively to it, we shall be made alive by it. "O that thou hadst hearkened to My commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea." Isa. xlviii. 18.

Jesus said, "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." Matt. xix. 17. But it is not by our efforts to conform to a certain standard, and by measuring ourselves by it to see what progress we are making, that we get righteousness and life. Such a course makes Pharisees, but not Christians. Abraham kept all the commandments of God, and yet not a line of them was written. How did He do it?-By hearkening unto the voice of God, and by trusting Him. God bore witness that he had the righteousness of faith.

In the same way that He had led Abraham, God was leading the children of Israel. He had spoken to them by His prophets, and by the miracles that He had wrought in delivering them from Egypt, He had shown them His power to work righteousness in them. If they had but listened to His voice, and believed Him, there would have been no difficulty in regard to their righteousness. If they would only trust God, and not trust in themselves, He would be responsible for their righteousness and life. "Hear, O My people, and I will testify unto thee; O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto Me, there shall no strange god be in thee; neither shalt thou worship any strange god. I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt; open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it." Ps. lxxxi. 8-10. "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled." Matt. v. 6. In the giving of the manna, God was trying to teach them this fact, and in the record of it He expects us to learn it. Let us therefore study it a little more closely.

LIVING BREAD

The Apostle Paul tells us that the children of Israel in the wilderness "did all eat the same spiritual meat." 1 Cor. x. 4. We have already read the words of the Lord when He promised to give them food, saying, "Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you." He "commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven;" He "rained down manna upon them to eat," and gave them "of the corn of heaven;" "man did eat angels' food." Ps. lxxviii. 23-25.

The food that they had to eat was not a product of the country through which they were passing. If it had been, they would have had it from the first. But the Scripture tells us that it was rained down from heaven. It came direct from God. It was "spiritual meat," "angels' food." What it was intended to be for them, if they had only believed it, we learn from the words of Christ, when on another occasion He fed a multitude of people in the desert.

In the sixth chapter of John we have the account of another miraculous provision of food for a multitude of people in the wilderness. There were "about five thousand men, beside women and children," and the entire amount of food in the company was five barley loaves and two fishes. One of the disciples said that two hundred pennyworth of bread would not be sufficient for every one to have even a little. Their "

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penny," we are told, was a coin equal to about eightpence-halfpenny, so that two hundred pence would be more than seven pounds, which would purchase much more than the same amount now. Yet even that would have afforded but a scanty meal. No wonder that Peter said of the paltry five loaves and fishes, "What are they among so many?"

Nevertheless Jesus "knew what He would do." He took the loaves into his hands, and gave thanks, and then gave the bread to the disciples, who passed it on to the multitude. The same was done with the fishes. The result was that from that insignificant amount which would not ordinarily have given them a taste, they were all satisfied, and there were twelve baskets full of fragments left. There was more food when they had finished than there was when they began.

Where did that bread come from? There is only one possible answer, namely, It came from the Lord Himself. The Divine life that was in Him, which is the source of all life, caused the bread to multiply, even as it had made the grain to grow, from which it was made. The multitude, therefore, ate from Christ Himself. It was His own life that was the nourishment of their bodies that day. The miracle was wrought for the purpose of satisfying their immediate physical wants; but it was also designed to teach them a most valuable spiritual lesson, which Jesus set before them the next day.

When the people found Jesus the next day, He reproved them for caring more for the loaves and the fishes than for the better food which He had for them. He said, "Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you; for Him hath God the Father sealed." Then they said to Him, "What shall we do that we might work the works of God?" Jesus replied, "This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent." John vi. 28, 29. Then, notwithstanding all that they had seen and experienced, they asked Him for a sign, saying, "What sign showest Thou, then, that we may see and believe? what dost Thou work?" And then, not realising that they had just had the same miracle repeated in effect for them, they referred to the giving of the manna, saying, "Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat." Verses 30, 31.

Jesus then reminded them that it was not Moses that gave them that bread in the desert, but that God alone gives the true bread from heaven. Said He, "The bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world." Still failing to see what Jesus meant, they asked that they might evermore have that bread of life, when He told them plainly that He Himself was the living bread, saying, "I am the bread of life; he that cometh to Me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst." Still later Jesus said, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever; and the bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." Verses 32-51.

Just as the people ate that bread which came from the Lord Jesus, and were strengthened by it, even so they might, if they had believed, have received spiritual life from Him. His life is righteousness, and all who eat of Him in faith must receive righteousness. Like ancient Israel, they were eating bread from heaven, and like them they did not appreciate it, so as to receive the full benefit of it.

"On the Gold Coast" The Present Truth 12, 42.

E. J. Waggoner

This year has been exceptionally trying for whites on the African Gold Coast, which is so appropriately called "The White Man's Grave." One of the workers in our mission there has recently been compelled to return on account of his health. The missionary nurse and his wife have had their hands full of work for the natives. In a recent report he says:-

"I have at this writing treated four hundred different persons, and have lost only one case. I felt almost sure he would die, and I told his people so; but they wanted me to try the case. I told them that by the help of God I would do what I could for him. I usually send such cases to the hospital. The patient was a young man aged sixteen years. I did what I could for him, and we prayed over him with his people. He said that he loved God, and that he would take him by and by to a better place. I am satisfied that God sent him here that he and his people might know of God and His goodness.

"The government doctor is sending patients to us, mostly women. He says that water treatment is the best for them if they want to get well. Praise the Lord. The Lord has heard my cry to Him for wisdom in treating these patients, for they get better, and send others.

"My boy works well. He gives the treatments to the men with the help of Dick, the washerman. People think that we can cure almost anything. I tell them to go home and pray God to bless the treatment given here; and if it is His will that they should get well, He will hear and answer. Oh, it does my soul good to have a man come in and say, 'I have prayed to God, and I know I shall get well.' I say, 'Yes; now continue to pray every day. God will bless you, and heal you.' And praise the Lord, He does not fail us."

"Who Is Held Responsible?" The Present Truth 12, 42.

E. J. Waggoner

Who is held responsible? The notion that a man has a dual personality, so that "in one capacity he may do that which is morally wrong in another," is responsible for much sin. "Religion is religion, and business is business," is a maxim which many a professor tries to make himself believe when he wants to adopt some method in business which his troubled conscience acknowledges to be not good religion. As Christians men will acknowledge that they ought to love their enemies, but as citizens they will fight them to the death if necessary to defend one's own or to get somebody else's possessions. The following, from one of Mr. McNeill's sermons in Glasgow, shows very nicely how this theory of a dual personality will be found wanting:-

"He was the Elector of Cologne in the old days, Prince palatinate, an archbishop in the church; and in the open street this archbishop and prince was swearing tremendously. A countryman stood by with open mouth, as the oaths rolled from the swearer's lips, who turned and said to the countryman, 'What are you staring at?'

"He replied, 'I was staring in wonder and amazement to hear you swear.'

"'But why should you stare at me swearing?'

"'Well, I never heard an archbishop swear before.'

"'But I am not swearing as an archbishop, I swear as a prince.'

"'Well, I stare the more, because when the prince goes to the devil, where is the archbishop going to?'

"Ay, and whatever your office, whatever your dignity, you cannot cleave asunder the individual responsibility before God-you cannot by church connection, and you cannot by ecclesiastical denominationalism get rid of your responsibility to God for your individual sin."

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 42.

E. J. Waggoner

-Since 1875 London's Board Schools have increased from 192 to 448.

-In Norway the average length of life is greater than in any other country.

-The capital of Ecuador, Guayaquil, has been almost totally destroyed by fire.

-Little is heard of Nihilism now, but a Russian correspondent says that it has recently been more active.

-On October 5 the hills of northern England were covered with snow, and storms of hail swept over portions of Wales.

-There is a lock-out in the Penrhyn quarries, 8,000 quarrymen being idle. It is understood that Lord Penrhyn is fighting the Quarrymen's Union.

-On the east coast of England where hook and line fishing is most extensively carried on, immense lines are used. Some of them are about eight miles long, and carry nearly 5,000 hooks.

-China has given Runts permission to run the Siberian railway through Manchuria to Viadivostock, but refuses to let a branch run down to the Gulf of Pechill, where Russia desires to find a port open all the year round.

-The India Government is making preparation to deal with wide-spread distress in North India, and it is said that relief work is to be organised on a large scale to employ thousands on railway and other improvements.

-Trouble is feared again in Crete, as the populace in the interior is armed and race hatred keeps up the attitude of hostility between Moslem and "Christian." Distress is being acutely felt owing to destruction of houses and olive groves.

-The political event of last week was the resignation by Lord Rosebery of the leadership of the Liberal party, owing to his differences with what he considers to be the opinions of a largo mass of the party on the Eastern Question, he being strongly opposed to separate action by England.

-The Blackwall tunnel under the Thames has been completed without the loss of a single life throughout all the hazardous labour of its construction. The cast-iron tunnel itself is 8,088ft. in length, exclusive of the approaches. The outside diameter is 27ft. The sifted roadway is 16ft. wide, including two footpaths.

-October the Czar and Czarina, on their royal tour through England, Prance, and Germany, were received in Paris with extravagant demonstrations. The ornamentation and illumination of the city of Paris in honour of the royal guest's is said to have been on a grander scale and more beautiful than anything ever before attempted.

-Egypt, Spain, and Holland send us over a million bushels of onions each every season. Large quantities are also imported from France, Portugal, Belgium, Germany, and the United States. We import ?166,000 earth of vegetables weekly. It is said that in Lincolnshire the price for potatoes is ?1 per ton, but in London the poorest quell of potatoes are retailed at ?4 5s.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 42.

E. J. Waggoner

Many lines of business are said to have collapsed in Turkey owing to the terrible scenes that have been enacted there, and the coming winter promises to bring intense suffering to all classes of poor people.

The early church lived in times when militarism was the ruling passion in the earth, and Paul's injunction then-that prayer should be made "for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority"-is especially applicable to our day, when the same spirit fills the world.

In the discussion of the labour question at the Church Congress last week one speaker said his intimate knowledge of the situation "led him to believe that the clouds are gathering rather than dispersing, and that the next few years will see more bitter strife between capital and labour than has ever been known before."

A current magazine prints photo-reductions of the thrones of various sovereigns. Amongst them appears the papal throne at the Vatican, gorgeous in its crimson and gold, no doubt an object of pride to the loyal Catholic. But its appearance alongside the thrones of earthly kingdoms presents to the eye a striking testimony to the fact that the Papacy has no part or lot in Christ's kingdom, which is not of this world.

The fox declared the grapes sour when he couldn't get them, and certain Anglican speakers and writers who a few months ago plainly intimated that they were prepared to accept even papal infallibility, if it would decide in their favour, now give us to understand that the opinion of "an Italian prelate" amounts to very little. Before they spoke of him as the chief bishop of Christendom, now they defy him.

A New York despatch says that the American Board of Missions, the Congregationalist mission agency which has done most of the mission work in Turkey, has appealed to the President to take peremptory steps to secure indemnity for mission property destroyed and the punishment of the guilty. This represents the latest edition of foreign missions. The notion of appealing for gunboats to aid in mission works is becoming common. If the churches at home use force, by the means of religious laws, to compel people to keep Sunday, etc., why should not missionaries call for soldiers and ships of war. But this field of Asia Minor is one in which Paul and others suffered persecution in early days. Does anyone read that he demanded the punishment of his enemies?

The English Churchman is certainly well advised in attaching little importance to the protests of the High Church party in the matter of the Anglican orders and the Pope. Some think this is an evidence that Protestantism is reviving in England. But our contemporary says:-

If the Ritualists consistently protested against the claims and the doctrines of the Papacy, we should rejoice. But a protest which may set up a rival Pope or Patriarch at Canterbury, and can accept all the doctrines of Rome except the authority of the Pope, is of no value.

In all the controversy as to the attitude of the great Powers towards Turkey, now agitating politicians, on one thing there is unanimity, for the first time in this century, namely, that not one will lift a finger to preserve the Turkish power, though as before it is not sure that any one power can take over the coveted possession of Constantinople without fighting a combination of the other powers. The situation is very different from what it has been in the past. What a significance attaches to this change viewed in light of the prophetic words, "He shall come to his end, and none shall help them." Dan. xi. 45.

Now that the Princess of Montenegro who is betrothed to the Crown Prince of Italy, has been "converted" from the Greek to the Roman Church for political reasons, the latter church is even with its Eastern rival for having "converted" the baby Prince Boris to the Greek persuasion. These farces so often enacted show that the idea of religion held is purely pagan. Who that knows the religion of Jesus Christ could think of hiring or forcing or persuading, save by moral teaching, anyone to profess it?

The visit of the Czar to France, and his declarations regarding the indissoluble friendship between the two countries is generally taken as marking the opening of a new era in European history. The French journal Debats says:-

If, but a little while ago, anyone had ventured to predict that the chief of the most powerful and absolute Autocracy in the universe would visit Republican and Democratic France, and be acclaimed by a tempest of enthusiasm-that the Catholic clergy would chant a Te Deum in honour of the chief of a schismatic Church-that the revolutionary Town Council would offer him a f?te eclipsing the most splendid monarchical pageants, he would have been set down as a visionary. And yet those anticipations fall short of the reality.

"Work for Women" The Present Truth 12, 42.

E. J. Waggoner

Work for Women .-Last week a notable company of missionaries, sent out by the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society, sailed for their various stations in India, China and Ceylon. The company consisted of forty-five ladies, and among them was Miss Codrington, who was the sole survivor of the murderous attack made upon the mission station at Hwa Sang, China, last year, and who now returns to her labours in China. It is God's missionaries, who carry His Gospel of peace and love to every kindred, nation, tongue, and people, both at home and abroad, who, having given all of this world to follow Him, will be rewarded in the world to come, as Christ Himself has told us, "And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for My name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life."

"The Spread of Romanism" The Present Truth 12, 42.

E. J. Waggoner

The Spread of Romanism .-The Archbishop of York declared that the Church Congress that "so far as statistics went, Romanism was making no headway whatever in England." It depends upon what kind of statistics are taken. Every year sees an immense increase in the introduction of purely Romish practices in the English Church. The Protestant party in that church has had to complain more during recent times than before of the action of the bench of bishops in encouraging sacerdotal pretensions and frowning upon Protestant activity. The name matters not at all. Romanism is growing and increasing in England with startling rapidity as it is in all nations. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her abominations.

October 22, 1896

"Front Page" The Present Truth 12, 43.

E. J. Waggoner

It is easy enough for the Christian to believe that God will intervene to help in great trials and desperate necessities. But very often it is taken for granted that the Lord is too great to give attention to small details of life, the little burdens that it is thought can be endured alone or worried through with in some way.

But it is precisely in this way-trying to carry the little cares ourselves-that we most frequently fail. The word of the Lord is, "Casting all your care upon Him; for He cares for you." All care, in small affairs and great ones, is to be left with Him, and He will do the caring.

"Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy, I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit." It is because God is so great that He dwells with the humble and the poor who are rich toward God; and as He lives with them, He can understand the perplexing cares that come to humble homes.

There was once a widow in Zarephath whose little store of food was nearly gone, and it was a time of famine. God knew when the barrel of meal was all but empty and the cruse of oil nearly dry. Just then the prophet Elijah came, asking her to share the little that remained with him. She did so, and the barrel of meal wasted not and the cruise of oil failed not until the famine was passed.

God apparently added to her cares by sending a man who promised at first to be a burden to her, but when she accepted the Lord's word and shared her little with a stranger she found it God's way of preserving her life. He knew the exact moment when she needed special help. And it is very likely that all through those months of famine there were but a few handfuls of meal and a little oil in the larder at any time.

In the days of Elisha the sons of the prophets were felling trees along the Jordan,

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in order to build a larger house to dwell in. "But as one was felling a beam, the axe head fell into the water." It does not seem a great calamity, but axes were probably more expensive in those days than with us now; and, worse still for the poor man, it was not his own. "Alas master!" He cried to Elisha, "for it was borrowed." And then by Elisha's word, the Lord caused the iron head to swim upon the surface of the river, and the young man took it up again. It was not too small a matter for the Lord to help the man out of his dilemma.

God is ready to carry the little burdens as well as the great ones. He knows what makes up human life, and how galling the little worries are to the spirits of men. The one who has no strength cannot bear up under the smallest of loads. We have absolutely no strength of our own. He gives all we have; and it is misusing His gifts and distrusting His comforting presence to shut Him out of any experience that comes in life.

"Is Christendom Ready for It?" The Present Truth 12, 43.

E. J. Waggoner

"All they that take the sword shall perish with the sword." Jesus Christ said it, and He told His disciples to put up his weapon. In Rev. xiii. the Spirit of God alludes to the sufferings and persecutions of the last days and repeats Christ's statement about those who take the sword. Even Dr. Parker, who has so often spoken for Christian principle in protests against State-taught religion, whether Anglican or Nonconformists, and against trying to force people to keep Sunday, now says:-

For my own part I do not see how a European war is to be avoided. It may be the only solution of many problems. A day of judgment is due. The civilised world is sinking into irreligiousness, materialism, and self-indulgence, and is finding its main pleasure in competitive and debilitating frivolities. It may be, God forbid! that the only way of return to a healthy, religious, and moral state lies through horrors infinitely greater than those which have made Armenia a field of blood.

If this were in a protest against war it would be different. "When Thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness." It may be that the only thing that will teach the churches of Christendom that Christ spoke truly about the results of taking the sword is to have the truth demonstrated in general desolation and carnage. But it is not for the church to pray for the judgments of God to fall. The cloud of Divine wrath is hanging low over the world. Instead of praying for it to fall men will do well to ask whether they are prepared and whether their flocks are prepared to render their accounts before God for themselves and for sinners who are to be warned of coming judgments. To some God says, "Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord! to what end is it for you? the day of the Lord is darkness, and not light."

"'But They Made Light of It'" The Present Truth 12, 43.

E. J. Waggoner

In one of His parable's Christ likens the kingdom of heaven to a king who had bidden guests to the wedding feast in honour of the marriage of his son, and when all was prepared those whom he had invited failed to come. The description of their action is most characteristic and life-like. It is applicable to all peoples in every age. "But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise; and the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them."

To-day, under our very eyes, we continually see this re-enacted, in that they to whom the message of the Gospel is sent go their own ways to their farms and merchandise, regardless of the earnest invitation which the Lord of heaven himself so graciously extends to them,-and not only do they go their own ways but they do, to-day, even make light of the invitation, criticise, doubt, misinterpret, and disbelieve, its language and its purpose; yes, go so far as to deny its authority, and yet farther, ridicule the idea of the existence of the Great King Himself.

Although they do not fall under the immediate observation of many of us, yet there are still to-day, as there always have been, that remnant, also, who despitefully use the servants of the King, and slay them.

They are, however, by far in the majority who make light of the message and the invitation. The refusal of by far the greater number is in the form, simply, of thoughtless, careless neglect. Perhaps the most, when taxed with their neglect, would reply in mild astonishment that they had never received any invitation. They forget that every copy of the myriads of Bibles distributed throughout all the world contains a record of the invitation which has been directed to them personally, and that thus it is possible for all the world to testify to the fact of the gracious bidding, and that He who declares himself unbidden only convicts himself of insolently thoughtless neglect. He has received the gracious written word of his King, but has laid it aside unread; or, if he has opened it, his eyes have glanced through it so cursorily as to have utterly failed in comprehending its purport and in perceiving its personal character. Whom, then, can they blame if when the appointed hour is past they find that they have lost a golden opportunity? Surely none but themselvesiu

In the hour of the realisation of his great, irremediable, and eternal loss, no human soul will be able to lay the responsibility for the position in which he finds himself upon another being,-much less upon his God. "Many are called, but few are chosen," and those who find themselves in outer darkness will only be able to accuse themselves of failing or refusing to accept the invitation of the Father, and the accompanying wedding robes of righteousness which the Son proffers to all.

"Sects in Russia" The Present Truth 12, 43.

E. J. Waggoner

"The numbers of the various Russian sectaries appeared to show," says a newspaper, "a steady increase despite all the severe measures devised for their suppression during the last decade. The official returns showed that there are at present 70,000 sectarians in the government of Nijni-Novgorod, 51,000 in Saratoff, and 81,000 in Samara. In the eparchiate of Viatka there are 70,000, in Tcheringoff 50,000, and in Blatzk 182,000. In Siberia, also, sectarianism appears to be rapidly spreading among the mixed population. In the eparchiate of Irkutsk there are now 30,000 sectarians, in Tomsk 82,000, and in the Don eparchiate 106,000.

And as though to show the futility of exacting genuine conformity by law, in Russia, where the lines have been held so firmly and heartlessly, there are more of the most extravagant and fanatical movements constantly springing up than in any other country we know of. It is the natural fruit of a policy of repression.

"The Promises to Israel. Life from the Word" The Present Truth 12, 43.

E. J. Waggoner

The Jews found it difficult to believe the words of Christ, that He would give them Himself to eat. They said, "How can this man give us His flesh to eat?" Jesus repeated the statement still more emphatically, and then said, "It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are life."

If each one of them could have eaten of the flesh of Christ as He stood there, and the flesh which they ate had been replaced, so that they could continue to eat of it, taking it into their stomachs, and assimilating it, they would have received no lasting benefit from it. No spiritual good would have come to them. That was what they had in reality already done, when they ate of the bread which came from the life that was in His body; but they had not profited by it. So if the Romish claim were true, that the priests have power to transform the bread into the actual flesh of Christ, there would be no profit in it. People might eat of it, and be as wicked as ever. "The flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are life." John vi. 63.

"By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth." Ps. xxxiii. 6. He spoke and said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth; and it was so." Gen. i. 11. All plant life is but the manifestation of the life of the word of the Lord. The life that was in His word caused the corn to grow in the beginning, and that same life has caused it to grow ever since. Therefore all the food that men have to eat is that which comes from the word of God. We cannot see the life in a grain of wheat, but when we eat the bread that is made from it, we experience it. But the physical strength which we receive from the food is but the working of the word of the Lord. Now if we do not recognise and acknowledge God in this, we get nothing but physical strength; but if in everything we see and acknowledge God, we receive of His life of righteousness. He says, "In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths." Prov. iii. 6.

When God directs our paths, those ways will be right; for "as for God, His way is perfect." Ps. xviii. 30. The people who ate of the loaves in the desert, did not believe the Lord, and did not recognise His life, and so they derived no spiritual life from it. So it was with the children of Israel in the desert. "They believed not in God, and trusted not in His salvation; though He had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven, and had rained down upon them manna to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven." Ps. lxxviii. 22-24. So although they were indeed feeding upon the life of Christ, they received no spiritual life, because of their blind unbelief. In the giving of the manna God was giving the same lesson that Christ gave the multitude in the desert, namely, that His word is life, and that "man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."

The manna was the test of their loyalty to the law of God, and especially to the Sabbath as a seal of that law. But in the manna they were taking in Christ, if they had only realised it. Therefore we are to learn that if we but allow Christ to dwell in our hearts by faith in His word,-not a part only, but the whole,-He will bring into our lives the keeping of the whole law, including the Sabbath. Every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God is necessary for our lives.

It is customary among Christians to return thanks whenever they eat. There is just as much reason for giving thanks when we drink, or when we receive any other of God's blessings. "In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." The trouble is that giving thanks is so often a mere form. It is often done because it has become the custom, and not from the heart. What does it really mean? Just this: That our food and drink, and everything necessary for our life, comes from God. It is all a manifestation of His love for us. But since "God is love," the manifestation of His love is but the manifestation of His life. In partaking of the bounties of His love, we are in reality partaking of Him. Now if we continually recognise this, and knowledge it, whether we eat, or drink, or whatsoever we do call, all will be done to the glory of God. We shall live as in His immediate presence. Knowing that His life is righteousness, and that His word is His life, our thanks for food will be thanks for His word.

Who cannot see that such a life must necessarily be a righteous life? With our daily food we shall be feeding upon Christ, and so of course upon His righteousness. This is what God wishes us to learn from the account of the giving of the manna. It was their life, and if they had recognised Christ in it, their life would have been the righteousness of the law. But our daily food comes from God just as surely as theirs did. May we learn a lesson that they neglected.

A LESSON OF EQUALITY

In the account of the giving of the manna, we find the statement often repeated, that "they gathered it every man

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according to his eating." They were also told to gather it for them that were in the tents. "And the children of Israel did so, and gathered, some more, some less. And when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack." Ex. xvi. 17, 18.

There is something wonderful about this. It seems as though there was a miracle in it, and so there was in a sense; but the miracle did not consist in one man's large amount suddenly shrinking in the measure, and another man's half empty measure mysteriously filling up. The Apostle Paul helps us to an understanding of it. Writing to the Corinthian brethren, concerning giving, he said: "I mean not that other men be eased, and ye burdened; but by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance may also be a supply for your want; that there may be equality; as it is written, He that had gathered much had nothing over; and he that had gathered little had no lack." 2 Cor. xiii. 13-15.

The miracle was a miracle of the grace of God in giving. He that gathered much had nothing over; because he divided with some one who had little, or who had not been able to gather any; and thus he that gathered little had no lack. And so we find that there in the wilderness there was the same principle acted upon that was in the church after the day of Pentecost. "And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul; neither said any of them that aught of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common. And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus; and great grace was upon them all. Neither was there any among them that lacked." Acts iv. 32-34.

We talk much about the faults of the ancient Israelites; it is well sometimes to consider the other side. With all their faults, they had none except such as are common to men. They were no worse than people generally are, and they sometimes rose to heights of faith and trust that are rarely seen. We need not suppose that they always kept up this kindness, and that there were not greedy ones among them. Even so it was in the church whose history is given in the Acts of the Apostles. But it is enough for us to know what they did at least part of the time, and to know that God approved it. God gave them bread abundantly. Their part was simply to gather it. There was therefore no reason why they should not divide with their needy brethren. Indeed, as we look at it from this distance, it seems the most natural thing in the world to do.

But our condition is the same as theirs. We have nothing except that which comes from God. He gives it, and the most that we can do is to gather His bounty. Therefore we ought not to consider any of our possessions as our own, but to hold them simply in trust for Him. But take notice that this is far different from all modern schemes of communism. It is not a dividing of property by law, but a daily giving by the strong to the weak. No one laid up anything for the future, leaving others destitute of present provisions, but trusted God for his daily supply.

That sort of communism cannot be attained by any human plans. It is the result of the love of God in the heart. "Whoso hath this world's goods, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?" "For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich." This grace and this love characterise the true Israel.

"But Another Step" The Present Truth 12, 43.

E. J. Waggoner

At the third annual gathering of the National Federation of Sunday Societies lately held at Newcastle, the following resolution was unanimously passed:-

"That in the opinion of this congress the conclusion of the second report of the Select Committee of the House of Lords on the Lord's Day Act 21, George III., chapter 49, namely, that the existing law conformed substantially with the wishes and sentiments of the English people, is erroneous; that the judges of the land have more clearly interpreted the wishes and sentiments of the English people when, in giving judgment in the action taken by the Lord's Day Society, they declared that the prosecution on the Lord's Day Act ought never to have been entered upon, and have given as their opinion that the Lord's Day Act, under which it was possible for the promoters of exhibitions, lectures, and concerts of an elevating character on Sundays to be prosecuted, ought to be repealed, as being out of harmony with the spirit of our time."

In the discussion which ensued upon the presentation of this resolution many of the speakers took the ground that the total repeal of the "Lord's Day Act of George III.," should be demanded. It is but a step from this expression, and the views maintained in this discussion to an appreciation and application of the pure principles which should discriminate between the sphere of civil law and the domain of true religion.

"The Second Commandment and Art" The Present Truth 12, 43.

E. J. Waggoner

Once in a while some one asks why it is that the second commandment, prohibiting the making of graven images or likenesses of anything in heaven or earth, does not prohibit photography, sculpture, and such arts. The modified clause, "Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them nor serve them," is a part of the commandment itself and shows the application of it. To stop before coming to this clause is to arbitrarily break the precept in two, and thus to destroy the sense of it. For the interpretation which is thus put upon it would no less interfere with what is commonly called art, than with the art of the shoemaker, the tailor, or any artisan who makes anything like any other thing. Our correspondent in this case writes a very pretty hand, but he makes his letters after the likeness of letters which have been seen before. The Lord means what He says, and there need be no confusion as to the language used if accepted in the natural sense. Immediately after speaking the law the Lord gave directions for making cherubims of beaten gold for the ark of the testament, and figures of angels in the curtains of the sanctuary, and by His Spirit specially gave Aholiab and others skill to execute them.

"Relics of Bitter Days" The Present Truth 12, 43.

E. J. Waggoner

Relics of Bitter Days .-A newspaper says: "An interesting discovering has been made in the town of Boskoop, in South Holland. When the church tower was being taken down last spring, five little books were found walled in it, and Professor Acquoy, of Leyden, to whom they were sent, has now published an account of them. All of them are religious books which were in secret use at the hagepreeken, or hedge-preachings, at the time of the Spanish persecution, and they must have lain concealed in the tower of Boskoop for over 300 years." Those were the days when the Spanish dragoons were sent to teach the people of the Netherlands the proper form of worship, as established by papal and civil law.

"Use of Alcohol in Hospitals" The Present Truth 12, 43.

E. J. Waggoner

The latest available returns from the largest London hospitals show, says a newspaper, a notable growth of non-alcoholic principles in the treatment of disease. The item of expenditure on alcohol shows a steady decline. In one institution, at which the expenditure on malt liquor is ?652, there has been a decrease of ?252 during the last thirty years, or a steady decline year by year. Out of ten hospitals only two have failed to decrease their expenditure to a very remarkable extent. The consumption of wine and spirits has also diminished correspondingly. At the London Hospital in twenty years this item of expenditure has dropped almost ?1,000-from ?1,462 to ?525.

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 43.

E. J. Waggoner

-The Kaiser is building a gigantic cathedral in Berlin, the dome of which is to eclipse that of St. Peter's at Rome.

-The snuff boxes which etiquette requires the Czar to present to chief officials where he visits, are said to coat ?500 each.

-The catches of herrings off Yarmouth have been phenomenal. One day about 8,000,000 fish were landed, the sale price bring twenty a penny.

-The bubonic plague is spreading in India. Owing to the state of the crops a famine is feared. Siberia is also threatened with famine, the crops having been damaged by floods.

-Two members of the Cabinet have stated that separate action by England at any time in the Turkish crisis would have certainly led to a conflict with several European Powers.

-France has secured orders from China for reconstructing the Foochow arsenal which French guns destroyed some years ago. Of course the reconstruction is at China's expense.

-The entire province of Dongola is now said to be cleared of hostile Dervishes. Panic is reported as reigning in Omdurman where the Khalifa is, as they are fearing an immediate attack.

-A Spanish officer in Celia is reported as saying that he despairs of conquering the Cubans, who are able to evade decisive engagements, and are inflicting great loss on the Spanish forces.

-The final settlement of the Matabele rising was reached last week, if reports are true, and native chiefs have been appointed as heads of various districts, to represent the blacks.

-London's milk bill is computed at ?1,500,000 per year, and of this it is said that at least between ?70,000 and ?80,000 has been paid for water-with which dishonest dealers have diluted their milk.

-The Evangelical Church in Darmstadt, where the Czar and Czarina visited, refused to join in a celebration in their honour because the Czarina had abjured Protestantism when she joined the Greek Catholic Church at her marriage.

-The most common name of babies in England and Scotland is Smith. The English Smiths are 1 in 72 of the infant population; the Scotch baby Smith is 1 in 70, but he has a rival in MacDonald, who claims about the same proportion. In Ireland the Murphy baby is 1 in 75.

-Leaders of the dock workers are suggesting that the workers shirk their duties and do as little as possible in order to force the companies to pay more wages. The companies threaten to discharge those who are thought to be following this new programme, and both sides are preparing for an international strike of dock workers.

-Disastrous effects have been felt at Ostend and along the Belgian coast from what is thought to have been some submarine disturbance in the nature of an earthquake. About four o'clock on Tuesday, Oct. 13, the sea suddenly became greatly disturbed and rose abnormally;-flooding some of the streets of Ostend to the depth of five and six feet. Several small boasts along the coast were capsised, and six men drowned.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 43.

E. J. Waggoner

A missionary of the London Missionary Society, recently arrived from Madagascar, says that the Jesuit policy, under the French administration, is to get the Protestant missionaries out of the island by fair means or foul.

The Pope thanks the Queen for the measure of liberty which Roman Catholics enjoy in England and the public exercise of their religion. Has he ever remonstrated with Spain, or Austria, or other Catholic countries for persecuting Protestants who are continually suffering under the ban of the authorities? Of course not. The Pope's admiration of such liberty is confined to places where Catholics are in the minority.

No little anxiety exists in the minds of Protestants in the Church of England as to the appointment of a successor to the late Archbishop of Canterbury. The late Dr. Benson, by the Lincoln judgment, gave the advanced High Church party the decided advantage of official recognition, and Ritualism has held its own way ever since. It would be in accordance with the precedents if the still more advanced Ritualist were chosen to the Archbishopric.

"The Old Act Lives" The Present Truth 12, 43.

E. J. Waggoner

The Old Act Lives .-At Okehampton Petty Sessions two chimney-sweeps have been summoned and fined for an offense against the Lord's Day Observance Act. It seems that they contracted with the military authorities to sweep thirty chimneys at the Royal Artillery camp at Dartmoor. In carrying out the contract the two men worked on Sunday, Sept. 27, for eight hours. The penalty imposed amounted to five shillings and costs. Offended religion has been vindicated, and the military chimneys and those who were occupied in labour upon them must remain idle on Sunday, but how about the military arms, and accoutrements, and those who use them in time of peace or war? But it will be said that military necessities are supreme. It is true that they are so considered, and that that proves the supremacy of the military idea over the world. Mankind lives under a military despotism. The peaceful chimney-sweep may not cleanse a smoking chimney on Sunday, but the gunners must stand to their smoking cannon without consideration of God's words, "Remember the Sabbath day," and "thou shalt not kill."

"'With Perplexity'" The Present Truth 12, 43.

E. J. Waggoner

"With Perplexity." -Jesus said that one of the signs of the approach of the second advent would be "distress of nations, with perplexity." There has always been distress and perplexity in the world, but it must be that as the end draws near the conditions will be more serious. Nothing need be said to those who watch the newspapers as to the increasing tension in the affairs of the nations, and already they are feeling acutely the distress and perplexity which must increase to the end. The nations cannot arm to the teeth and spend their strength getting ready to fight one another without demoralising the people and encouraging internal discontent and violence. A member of Parliament recently said that the European nations were afraid of being involved in a war lest revolution should break out at home.

"Symptoms" The Present Truth 12, 43.

E. J. Waggoner

Symptoms .-The Standard, commenting on the perplexity in business circles the other day, said:-

Everything appears solid and well-protected, and yet the City is not comfortable. Why, it is most difficult to say. From some aspects, the most perplexing point about the City is that it should be perplexed. Men seem out of heart.

As probable causes of a lack of confidence, the disturbed conditions in America are referred to, together with "the threatened break-down in Spain," and the "dubious condition of Turkey." Added to this is the general impression that ere long the powers will have to "clear the air" by fighting out a few of their differences, or be crushed by the weight of their own armaments. Truly "the nations are angry."

"Depravity of the Stage" The Present Truth 12, 43.

E. J. Waggoner

Depravity of the Stage .-The stage caters to a corrupt public taste, and still further corrupts it, so that every year, as the time comes for renewing the music hall licenses, it is evident that there is increasing depravity. Some friends of social purity braved the sarcasm of the press and called the attention of the authorities to the specific instances of how the stage ministers to vice and coarse vulgarity. But it was of no avail. Even journals which are full of zeal for politico-religious moral reforms, sagely counselled the objectors not to be prudish. And so the music-halls and theatres will continue to draw the kind of audiences which demand that kind of amusement, and will do their part in increasing the work of those who are trying to rescue the victims of the reign of folly and shallow gaiety and vice.

"Lopping off the Branches" The Present Truth 12, 43.

E. J. Waggoner

Lopping off the Branches .-Many times those who protest against the coarser vulgarities of the stage think to emphasise their protests by giving their approval of other features. It is a mistake, and calculated to do more harm than their protests can do good. The other day, at the Church Congress, a well-known preacher condemned the commonest sort of theatricals, and advised his hearers to patronise only the best. But the whole tree is bad; the axe should be laid at the root. One of the very plays mentioned approvingly is shown by press notices to consist, in part, of personating characters contemplating vice and crime. At the best, the stage ministers only to worldliness and amusement, but it rarely stops there. Dramatic critics in the press tell how artistically some great actor expresses the character of the supposed villain or weakling in the play. But no one can act wickedness and vice, or enjoy seeing it acted, who knows the Lord. It is a moral impossibility. The fact is that the character of the stage is a good index of the social conditions which are tending toward the end which the apostle declared would be reached as evil men "wax worse and worse."

"In Foreign Languages" The Present Truth 12, 43.

E. J. Waggoner

In Foreign Languages .-The volume of literature going out from the various publishing branches of our Society is by no means insignificant, measured by any standard, but the greater portion of it is in the English and the leading European languages. However, a good beginning has been made in foreign languages, and we are informed that the principles for which this paper speaks are being advanced by publications in Arabic, Basuto, Bengali, Bohemian, Bulgarian, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, Esthonian, Finnish, French, German, Hawaiian, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, a Kaffir, Lettish, Livonian, Maori, Polish, Portuguese, Armenian, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Swedish, Tahitian, Turkish, and last, but not least, Welsh. We hope to see the list rapidly increase.

October 29, 1896

"Front Page" The Present Truth 12, 44.

E. J. Waggoner

The disciples were asking which of them would be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, when "Jesus called a little child unto Him, and set Him in the midst of them."

The little one stood in their midst wonder-eyed, but confident that it was a loving voice that called. Thoughtless of itself the child only knew that it was the natural thing to do to obey the call.

Then Jesus said, "Verily I say unto you, except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven."

"How To Be Humble" The Present Truth 12, 44.

E. J. Waggoner

How To Be Humble .-The disciples were to humble themselves as the small child. Now, it is a fact that there is no more absurd spectacle than to see a proud person trying to act humbly. The proud heart cannot be humble. The little child was humble because it did not try to be so-it was so without trying. The little one was not thinking of itself, but only of the one who called it. The innocent child is artless because he has not yet learned to be envious and self-conscious. The way then to be humble is to let self go. Let the humiliation of Jesus show what a senselessly wicked thing the heart of self is, and then it will be possible for a man not to "think of himself more highly than he ought to think." Let the conceited heart, which makes so much trouble, acknowledge its utter worthlessness, and it will not make the pitiful failure of trying to stimulate a humility that does not exist.

"His Saving Knowledge" The Present Truth 12, 44.

E. J. Waggoner

"For the word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." Heb. 4:12, 13, R.V.

To the soul that does not know the Lord, this is one of the most terrible texts in the Bible. Since the day when Adam and Eve hid themselves among the trees of the garden, the consciousness of guilt has ever tended to make men afraid of God. The natural inclination of the sinner is to try to hide from God; He cannot bear to have His misdeeds laid bare before the eyes of spotless purity. So the words, "All things are naked and opened to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do," and, "Thou understandest my thought afar off" are words that strike terror to the heart of the ungodly. So the natural man tries to forget the fact,-tries to forget his own sins,-foolishly imagining that his ignorance, or forgetfulness, or unbelief, hides the matter from the eyes of God.

But it is impossible to hide from God, for He is everywhere, filling all space. "Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me." Ps. cxxxix. 7-10. This being the case, the best thing for man to do is to face the fact, and find the comfort that there is in it, instead of following the devil's prompting, and endeavouring to hide from Him who is love, "the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort." 2 Cor. i. 3.

How is it that God knows all things? Is it by searching into the secret things, so that by study He arrives at knowledge that He did not possess before? Impossible! For that would argue imperfection on His part. We may not seek to understand God's capacities by a comparison with man. "The eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good." God himself is everywhere, the direct source of all life. Wherever there is life, wherever there is a created thing to be maintained in existence, there God is, and wherever God is there is all wisdom.

Notice that the Word of God pierces the joints and marrow, and soul and spirit, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. This is a natural consequence of the fact that "the Word was made flesh." John i. 14. God in Christ has for ever identified Himself with humanity. When Adam stood in innocence and uprightness, it was only by the indwelling Word, upon which he wholly depended. When he forgot his dependence, and struck out for himself, and thus fell, God did not forsake him, but descended to the depths with him, that He might lift him out again. So God "is not far from every one of us; for in Him we live, and move, and have our being." Acts xvii. 27, 28. When men would seek to justify themselves for not obeying the commandments of God, by professing ignorance of them, the Spirit says to them: "Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above); or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ

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again from the dead);" for "the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart." Rom. x. 6-8. Christ, "the wisdom of God," knows the sins of mankind, because "He is come in the flesh." He bears the sins of the world, because the Lord has laid upon Him the iniquities of us all. Isa. liii. 6. He knows them, because in human flesh He feels them. He knows them, because nothing can be done that does not touch Him; no motion can be made without the power that comes alone from the Word. This is the true "Real Presence."

How utterly useless, then, to think of hiding our sins from the Lord! We might as well try to hide from the Lord the knowledge of His own existence. Every one of those sins is stamped upon His being. They pierce His brow, His hands, His feet, even His heart, and press upon Him so that "His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men." Isa. lii. 14. He must know, for every sin touches His own life.

And herein is the comfort to us and the thought of God's knowledge of mankind. "By His knowledge shall My righteous servant justify many; for He shall bear their iniquities." Is. 53:11. He knows our sins, because He experiences their power, and by that knowledge He justifies many. How many?-As many as believe on Him. As many as confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." "For whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." Rom. x. 9, 13.

Christ bears the burden of the world's guilt, and bears it easily. Our sin crushes us, and presses us down to destruction; but He swallows up death in victory. Though sin crushed out His life, yet He rises from the dead with the freshness of eternal life. Whoever knows this, and believes the truth, that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, will of course let the burden fall entirely on Him who is able to bear it, and will thus be free.

So when we confess sin to God, we are not telling Him any news. We are simply agreeing with His Word. He knew it all before, but He wishes us to be confidential with Him. He is a faithful Friend, and will not betray our secrets. On the contrary, He will Himself forget our misdeeds, blotting them out of existence, so that even our adversary, the devil, cannot find them, to taunt us with them. The only way to hide them from the world, is to tell them to God.

What a blessing and comfort, then, to know that God knows. "He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust." And He cares, too. "Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you." And, what is more, He is able to carry the burden for us, and give us peace and rest. "Cast thy burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain thee." Therefore unto Him that is able to keep us from falling, who is "able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us," to Him who knows our sins, who pities our weakness, and who is mighty to save by His love and wisdom-to Him be glory and praise for ever and ever.

"Dramatic Words" The Present Truth 12, 44.

E. J. Waggoner

The last words of the prophet Malachi are a marvel of condensed information, warning, and counsel. The reason of this is not far to find. They were the last words of Jehovah to the world, by the mouth of His prophets, until that great day of joy, and fate, when the Messiah should come,-the turning point in the world's history. God's last message foretelling that supreme event to the world, and counselling in regard to it, might be expected to be positive and intense in expression.

The warning is expressed in terms that cannot be mistaken: "Behold the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble, and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch."

The very next words, however, conveyed the contrasting promise, "But unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings, and ye shall grow up as calves of the stall. And He shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this, saith the Lord of hosts."

Then comes the earnest counsel, "Remember ye the law of Moses My servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments." But God is not willing that His servants should remain in ignorance of that which is to come upon the earth. Information is to be given them, and to that end He says, "Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord."

In the eleventh chapter of Matthew, from the seventeenth to the nineteenth verses, Christ refers directly to these words in His address to the multitude in reference to John the Baptist and his ministry. Here he tells them plainly, without the slightest circumlocution, in the fourteenth and fifteenth verses, "And if you will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear." This unqualified statement, connecting Himself and John the Baptist immediately with the last words of the latest prophet, were very dramatic and striking. It might have been thought that those who had ears would have heard.

"Civilised But Not Converted" The Present Truth 12, 44.

E. J. Waggoner

The chairman of the Wesleyan mission in the Transvaal is quoted by the Methodist Times as saying of the South African missionary work among the natives:-

The very success of the work amongst the natives embarrasses us. With Christianity comes civilisation, and it is not easy for a new convert to distinguish between them. It is a great deal easier to put on English manners and dress than to put on morals and religion. Their condition after conversion requires not less oversight, but more.

There is in this the realisation of one great truth and the failure to appreciate another. The discrimination between Christianity and civilisation is a just one. The general failure to make that discrimination, both within and without religious circles, is responsible for a vast amount of false religion among those who profess Christianity, and of misconception of true religion among those who stand aside and look critically on. To put on civilised dress and manners is one thing,-to put on Christ is quite another. But where native peoples see in Christianity only civilisation, and profess that, it is only an acceptance of the forms and methods of civilised life and not conversion. If there had been a real conversion their latter condition would not be worse than the first, and they require more oversight than before.

"Educational Battle" The Present Truth 12, 44.

E. J. Waggoner

Recent meetings of the Anglican, and nonconformists bodies show that the Educational Battle has still to be thought out. When all alike are agreed that the State must teach religion, it is inevitable that there should be bitter controversy as to the kind of religion to be taught.

"The Promises to Israel. Water from the Rock-Living Water" The Present Truth 12, 44.

E. J. Waggoner

"Rock of Ages cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee."

"And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, by their journeys, according to the commandment of the Lord, and pitched in Rephidim; and there was no water for the people to drink. Wherefore the people strove with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why strive ye with me? Wherefore do ye tempt the Lord? And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said. Wherefore hast then brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst? And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me. And the Lord said unto Moses, Pass on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go. Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smile the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the striving of the people of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us, or not?" Ex. xvii. 1-7.

We have seen that in the manna God was giving the people spiritual food. In like manner we read, with reference to the event just narrated, that they "did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of that Rock that followed [margin,"went with"] them; and that Rock was Christ." 1 Cor. x. 4.

Water is one of the things most essential to life. Indeed, it is life. It constitutes two-thirds of the human body. Without a proper supply of water, both animals and plants soon cease to exist. Those people in the desert would soon have perished, if water had not been provided for them. It was therefore life to them. Everybody who has suffered from thirst can vividly realise how the spirits of the children of Israel revived, and new life sprang up in them, as they drank of that fresh, sparkling living water that gushed forth from the smitten rock.

"And that Rock was Christ." Many times the Lord is represented as a Rock."The Lord is my Rock, and my Fortress, and my Deliverer." Ps. xviii. 2. "The Lord is upright; He is my Rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him." Ps. xcii. 15. "Ascribe ye greatness unto our God. He is the Rock, His work is perfect; for all His ways are judgment; a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He." Deut. xxxii. 3, 4. Jesus Christ is the Rock upon which the church is built-the "living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious," upon whom, if we come to Him, we are "built up a spiritual house." 1 Peter ii. 4, 5. Both prophets and apostles built on Him not only as "the chief corner stone,"

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(Eph. ii. 20), but as the entire foundation, and the only one that can be laid. 1 Cor. iii. 11. Whosoever builds not on Him, builds on the shifting sand.

The rock which the people saw in the desert was but a figure of the Rock, Jesus Christ, who stood upon it, but whom they did not see. That flinty rock could not of itself furnish water.There was no exhaustless supply stored up within it, which, once given vent, would continue to flow ever fresh and sweet. It had no life. But Christ, "the Author of Life" stood upon it, and it was from Him that the water came. We do not need to theorise, for the Scripture plainly tells us that the people drank from Christ.

This must have been evident to every one who gave a moment's thought to the matter. Indeed, the water was given as a direct answer to the unbelieving question, "Is the Lord among us, or not?" By supplying them with water out of the solid, flinty rock in the dry and barren desert, the Lord showed the people that He was really among them; for none but He could have done it.

But it was not simply as a guest that He was among them. He was their life, and this miracle was designed to teach them that fact. They knew that water was their sole hope of life, and they could not help seeing that the water which revived them came directly from the Lord. Therefore those who stopped to think must have seen that He was their life and their support. Whether they knew it or not, they were drinking directly from Christ, that is, receiving of His life. With Him is "the fountain of life." Ps. xxxvi. 9.

It made all the difference in the world whether or not the people recognised Christ as the source of their life. If they did, if they drank in faith, they received spiritual life from the Rock. If they did not recognise the Lord in His gracious gift, then the water was no more to them than it was to their cattle. "Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish." Ps. xlix. 20. But when the people with their superior abilities did not recognise God in His gifts any more than their cattle did, they showed themselves even less discerning than the cattle. "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib; but Israel doth not know, My people doth not consider." Isa. i. 3.

In view of the miracle of the water from the Rock, the Lord Himself,-we can better understand the force of His words when He afterward thus expressed the greatness of their sin in departing from Him: "Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the Lord. For My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water." Jer. ii. 12, 13.

The Psalmist said of the Lord, "He is my Rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him." His life is righteousness. Therefore those who live by faith in Him live righteous lives. The water which came from the Rock, in the desert, was for the life of the people. It was Christ's own life. If, therefore, in drinking it they had recognised the source whence it came, they would have been drinking in righteousness, and would have been blessed with righteousness; for it is written, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled." Matt. v. 6. If we thirst for righteousness, and are filled, it is only by drinking in the righteousness for which we thirst.

Jesus Christ is the fountain of living water. So when the woman of Samaria expressed surprise that He should ask her for a drink as she came to draw from Jacob's well, He said to her: "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water." And then, as she still wondered at His words, He added, "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again; but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." John iv. 10-14.

This living water may be drunk now by "whosoever will." For "the Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Rev. xxii. 17.

This water of life of which all are invited to drink freely, is the "pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb." Rev. xxii. 1. It proceeds from Christ, for when John saw the throne, from which the water of life comes, he saw "in the midst of the throne" "a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven eyes, which are the Seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth." Rev. v. 6.

If we look to Calvary we shall see this made still more plain. As Jesus hung upon the cross, "one of the soldiers with a spear pierced His side, and forthwith came there out blood and water." John xix. 34. Now "there are three who bear witness, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood; and the three agree in one." 1 John v. 8, R.V. We know that "the blood is the life," (Lev. xvii. 11, 14), and that "the Spirit is life because of righteousness;" (Rom. viii. 10); therefore since the Spirit and the water and the blood agree in one, the water must also be the water of life. On the cross Christ poured out His life for mankind. His body was the temple of God, and in His heart God was enthroned; so the water of life which flowed from His wounded side was the same water of life that flows from the throne of God, from which we may all drink and live. His heart is the fountain opened "for sin and for uncleanness." Zech. xiii. 1.

It is the Spirit of God that brings this water of life to us; or, rather, it is by receiving the Holy Spirit that we receive the water of life; and this we do by faith in Christ, who is represented by the Holy Spirit. On the last day of the feast of tabernacles, "Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake He of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive." John vii. 37-39.

The Holy Spirit received into the heart brings to us the very life of Christ, even "that eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us." 1 John i. 2. Whoever willingly receives the Holy Spirit receives the water of life, which is identical with the blood of Christ which cleanses from all sin. This would have been the portion of the Israelites in the desert, if they had but drank in faith. In the rock which Moses smote, they had, even as did the Galatians in Paul's day, Jesus Christ "evidently set forth crucified" among them. Gal. iii. 1. They stood at the foot of the cross of Christ as really as did the Jews who flocked out from Jerusalem to Calvary. Many of them did not know the day of their visitation, and so perished in the wilderness, even as the later Jews did not know the crucified Christ, and so perished in their sins in the destruction of Jerusalem. "But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name." John i. 12.

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The Israelites, in the days of Moses, had no excuse for not knowing the Lord, for He made Himself known unto them by many mighty miracles. There was no excuse for their not recognising Him as "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world," for they had daily evidence that He was their life; the smitten rock continually spoke to them of the Rock of their salvation pouring out His life for them from His smitten side.

The ransomed of the Lord are to come to Zion with songs, but they are not to be forced songs. They will sing because they are happy; because nothing but song will express their joy. This joy is the joy of the Lord. He feeds them with bread from heaven, and makes them drink of the river of His pleasures. That is, He gives them Himself. But when the Lord gives us Himself, there is nothing more to give. "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" Rom. viii. 32. God gives Himself to us in giving us His life in Christ; and this was expressed to the Israelites in the giving of the water of life, which came from Christ. Therefore we know that everything which the Gospel of Christ has for men, was there for the children of Israel in the desert.

We have already learned that the promise to Abraham was the Gospel. The oath which confirmed that promise is the oath that gives us strong consolation when we flee for refuge to Christ, in the holy place of God. It was to assure the Israelites of the free grace of God, and that they could drink in the life of Christ, if they would believe, that the water came from the Rock. It was to assure them that the blessing of Abraham, which is the forgiveness of sins through the righteousness of God in Christ was for them. This is shown by the words, "He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out; they ran in the dry places like a river. For He remembered His holy promise, and Abraham His servant." Ps. cv. 41, 42.

Jesus Christ is "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world," (Rev. xiii. 8), "who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world." 1 Peter i. 20. The cross of Christ is not a thing of a day, but stands wherever there are sinners to be saved, ever since the fall. It is always present, so that continually believers may say with Paul, "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live." Gal. ii. 20. We have not to look backward to see the cross, even as the men of the most ancient times had not to look forward to see it. It stands with its outstretched arms spanning the centuries from Eden lost till Eden restored, and always and everywhere men have only to look up, to see Christ "lifted up from the earth" drawing them to Him by His everlasting love, which flows out to them in a living stream.

THE REAL PRESENCE

In their murmuring for water the people had said, "Is the Lord among us, or not?" The Lord answered that question in a most practical way. He stood upon the rock in Horeb, and gave them water that they might drink and live. He was really there in person. It was His Real Presence. He was there none the less because they could not see Him. And as He was giving them evidence that He was not far from every one of them, so, if they had felt after Him by faith they would have found and received Him, and His real presence would have been in them as truly as was the water which they drank.

In the manna, the bread from heaven, which the Israelites were eating every day, and in the water from the Rock Christ Jesus, we have the exact counterpart of the Lord's Supper. The bread and the water were not Christ, even as the bread and the wine cannot by any means be changed into the body and blood of Christ. It would be of no use even if they could be thus changed, for "the flesh profiteth nothing." But they showed the real presence, to all who had eyes of faith to discern the Lord's body. They showed that Christ dwells in the heart by faith just as freely as the emblems are received into the body; and that just as really as those emblems are assimilated, and become flesh, so really does Christ, the Word, become flesh in all those receive Him by faith. Christ is formed within by the power of the Spirit.

God is not a myth. The Holy Spirit is not a myth. His presence is just as real as He Himself. When Christ says, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock; if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and sup with him," (Rev. iii. 20), He means it for an actual fact; and when He says, "If any man love Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him," (John xiv. 22), He does not intend to deceive us with a phantom. He comes in the flesh to-day as really as He did in Judea. His appearance then was simply to show all men the possibility and the perfection of it. And just as He comes in the flesh now, to all who receive Him, so He did in the days of old, when Israel was in the wilderness; yea, even in the days of Abraham and Abel. We may weary ourselves in speculations as to how it is possible, and die in spiritual starvation by this means, or we may "taste and see that the Lord is good," and find in His presence satisfaction and "fulness of joy."

"As the Heathen See It" The Present Truth 12, 44.

E. J. Waggoner

The profession of Christianity by certain nations, and a profession of it by religious people who regard it not at all inconsistent with such profession to engage in war and political strife and revolution, cause the name of Christ to be blasphemed among the intelligent heathen, who know well enough that there is an enormous gulf between the profession and the practice. Thus a Hindu newspaper says:-

Christianity, we are told, is a message of peace and goodwill. But what has she done among the Christian nations themselves? The same unrest, the same hypocrisy, and the same Lamb-and-wolf policy stalk as proudly as they did in the horrid pagan days. Europe has been an armed camp, and each nation is trying to catch its neighbour in the napping. Militarism, like the vampire, has been sucking up the life-blood of the people. But the mission of civilisation is abroad, and the poor pagans unwilling to receive the civilisation and Christianity are goaded to desperation, and when the poor fellows show their temper, there are the Maxim guns to mow them with. And Mr. Pecksniff, spiritual or temporal, says "Amen."

It is a fact that the nations we call heathen are learning more from those called Christian, and the missionary in the great heathen fields, if he would give the people anything of the genuine Gospel of Christ, must dissociate himself from all this pagan militarism and teach the Gospel by life and word.

"Coffee as a Beverage" The Present Truth 12, 44.

E. J. Waggoner

Within recent years there has been a remarkable awakening amongst many in the medical profession on the question of stimulants and narcotics. It is doubtless very largely due to the overwhelming evidences of the evil results following the habitual use of stimulants. And when people begin to use the milder stimulants of tea and coffee, it is very certain that the habit will grow on the user, until the nerves are subject to the poisonous principle contained in the beverages, and difficulty is found in dropping the cup. A London evening paper, the Echo, said the other day:-

"Warnings have just been issued almost simultaneously by the leading medical societies of Paris, Berlin, and Vienna against the evils of excessive coffee drinking. The symptoms of coffee drunkenness are so similar to ordinary inebriety that physicians constantly diagnose coffee poisoning as alcoholic disturbance. Insomnia, nausea, depression of spirits, and lack of appetite are among the symptoms of coffee poisoning, and the effort on the part of a confirmed coffee-drinker to become a total abstainer is similar in result to that which follows the abandonment of alcoholic liquors, the nervous system being terribly wrenched."

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 44.

E. J. Waggoner

-London, in monetary value, is worth two and a-half times as much as Paris.

-The Egyptian expedition is expected to start for Khartoum in March or April.

-Turkey has issued an irade levying increased taxes to be devoted to military preparations.

-Krupp's gun works are making a new gun which is expected to do affective work at a range of ten miles.

-It is asserted that in the spring a general rising will take place if in the meantime reforms have not been granted in Macedonia.

-Spanish troops are being reinforced in Cuba, and the preparations are under way for a final struggle to decide the fate of the island.

-The deepest hole in the world has been bored in Silesia. It has reached a depth of 6,520 feet, and passes through eighty-three beds of coal.

-Dongola is to be made a trade emporium, to which merchants from the interior of Africa may bring their wares, receiving Manchester goods in exchange.

-The famine in India, owing to drought, has treated such demand for American wheat that the value of the wheat crop is estimated to have increased by $27,000,000.

-Since the beginning of this century the use of the Italian language has greatly increased. In 1801 it was spoken by 15,070,000 people, and in 1890 it was used by 98,400,000.

-The most expensive place in the world, to live, is said to be New South Wales. The average cost per head per annum is ?50, which is S10 greater then in the United Kingdom.

-According to the record of a rain gauge in Hertfordshire, more rain has fallen in the past month than within any other equal period since the gauge was constructed in 1843.

-The pirates along the Morocco coast have been especially active of late, and France is taking them in hand. It is also said that she will take a large slice of territory to pay for the trouble of putting down the pirates.

-During the past twelve years 2,600,000 square miles of territory have been added to the Empire by annexation. France has taken almost the same, and Germany has annexed 1,023,070 miles in the same period. Belgium has taken 1,500,000 in Africa, and Italy nearly a million.

-Of all the countries of the world, save China, labour is probably cheapest in India, where the wages of the labouring classes average something like threepence halfpenny a day. A fairly skilled journeyman can earn about twelve shillings a month, and a good mechanic about sixteen shillings a month, or twice the pay of a native soldier.

-A Swedish explorer in Central Asia has discovered two large buried towns, the existence and history of which has been hitherto entirely unknown. One town was more than two and a half miles long. The remains show that the inhabitants possessed some knowledge of mechanics and the arts. It is believed by the discoverer that these cities were overwhelmed by sand storms more than 1,000 years ago.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 44.

E. J. Waggoner

A Mexican bishop having expressed doubts about the genuineness of an apparition of the Virgin has been compelled by popular prejudice to resign.

Despatches say that all classes are expecting trouble in Syria, and the slightest incident would be sufficient to precipitate it. "The Christians are all armed," and of course the Mohammedan population is.

The French Government, though not always on good terms with Clericalism at home, votes over half a million francs every year for religious establishments in the East, where the clergy are avowed agents of French political interests.

It was the long journey undertaken by a poor Welsh girl to get a copy of the Scriptures that led to the founding of the British and Foreign Bible Society. Wales still leads in sending out the Word, according to the monthly report of the Society. According to population Wales contributes ?3 to the funds for every ?1 given by England.

The incongruity of any connection between Church and State must be apparent even to Churchmen at times like the present, when they wait expectantly, with no direct voice in the matter, to see whom the politicians will nominate as the next Primate. And the Prime Minister can hardly be supposed to relish his ecclesiastical duties, as however worldly he may walk he is sure to offend one side if he please the other.

Some members of the Turkish Council of Ministers opposed the levying of the new war tax, as they feared it would alarm the non-Mohammedan population. "The opinion prevailed in high quarters, however," a despatch says, "that the measure was necessary for the defence of the Mohammedan religion, on the ground that the Christians were apparently preparing to attack the Mohammedans, and that the European press was preaching a crusade against Islam." It is not an unnatural Muslim interpretation of the warlike tone of the churches, and Mohammedanism is preparing to meet the sword by the sword.

There is on the part of many a tendency to regard a Roman Catholic priest as necessarily insincere. All are deceived, but the fact that Wycliffe, Huss, Luther, and many names on the honour roll of Protestant Reformers, were Catholic priests show that it is not condemnation but the Gospel that the Catholic priest needs, as well as every other sinner.

Turkey, Belgium, and Sweden are announced as planning to add greatly to military expenditure, and of course the great powers will do so. The greater part of the increase in Great Britain is to be devoted to the Navy, it is said. A year ago there was a strong protest from the churches of England against the increase of armaments. It is doubtful if that voice will be heard as strongly this year.

Several years ago a large community, mostly from Queensland, immigrated to Paraguay, and established a communistic settlement, where all was to be prosperity and brotherhood. The Queensland Government has just helped almost the last remnant of the community to return. The plan did not work because the people would not be unselfish and brotherly. These schemes look well on paper, but the material with which the plan is to be carried out is always found lacking. Just as a good building cannot be built with crumbling bricks, so all the schemes of social reform which leaves out the Gospel will miserably fail.

"Pitcairn Island" The Present Truth 12, 44.

E. J. Waggoner

Pitcairn Island .-One of our American organs reports return from the Pitcairn Island of a Californian brother who has helped in building a school in the island, and has laid piping which now supplies the village with pure mountain spring water. The youngsters of Pitcairn could understand the water going down the mountain into the valley, but were amazed that it should run up the pipes to the elevated ground on which the village stands. A windmill for grinding corn and turning a lathe is also a new thing in the island, which is as much interested as ever in doing all it can to aid in the mission work of our Society in the South Pacific. A number of Pitcairners are now with our mission ship Pitcairn.

"Candles" The Present Truth 12, 44.

E. J. Waggoner

Candles .-A little five-year-old boy visited a Catholic church the other day and saw the candles burning in the day-time on the altars. He said, "The people must be sitting in sin, and think the room is dark." He was right. Where the true light is shining in the heart, it is light, and candles are not needed.

"The Other Side" The Present Truth 12, 44.

E. J. Waggoner

The Other Side .-Not all who helped to win great victories in battle feel exhilaration at thoughts of success. Cassell's Magazine says: "The Duke of Marlborough seeing a soldier leaning thoughtfully on his firelocke after the battle of Blenheim, said to him: 'Why so sad, my friend, after so glorious a victory?' 'It may be glorious,' was the reply, 'but I am thinking of how much blood I have spilt this day for fourpence (the private soldier's pay at that period). As late as 1860 we find an English officer, whose coolness at his gun largely helped to save a victory during the Chinese war, struck with so great a horror at the carnage he had created, that he threw up his commission and devoted himself to the cause of the Gospel."

"Who Would Oppose It?" The Present Truth 12, 44.

E. J. Waggoner

Who Would Oppose It? -Suppose an effort were made to revive the old law making it compulsory to partake of the Lord's Supper, who would most strenuously protest against it? It is safe to say that it would be those who most clearly discerned the spirituality of God's service. Such would rightly rightly abhor dragging men to the Lord's table to act a lie, and would consider the law an outrageously wicked one. So, too, if those who favour Sunday laws really believe that keeping Sunday was a spiritual act, they would be protesting against such laws.

"Statement and Appeal" The Present Truth 12, 44.

E. J. Waggoner

Statement and Appeal .-Hardly a week passes which does not bring increased evidence of the determination to revive the old Sunday laws of Britain. Those of our readers who have not read the "Statement and Appeal," got out when the Sunday clauses of the Factory Act were being pressed in London, should obtain it, as the little work shows the evil principles involved in all religious legislation, and the ends to which it must certainly lead. Illustrated, 16 pages, 1d. By post, 1? d. It is a question which vitally concerns every man and woman in the United Kingdom.

November 5, 1896

"The Catholic Religion of the Natural Man" The Present Truth 12, 45.

E. J. Waggoner

When the Spaniards, under Cortes, penetrated Mexico, when the New World was new indeed and strange to the Old, they were not more amazed at the wealth and splendor of the ancient civilisation of the Aztecs than at the religion which was practised there.

The priests who accompanied the expedition (in order that the papal religion might win the souls of the barbarians while the arms of Spain were winning their possessions) were at loss how to account for the striking similarity to their own rites and doctrines which the Aztec religion bore.

The Sign of the Cross .-"They could not suppress their wonder," says Prescott, the historian of the Spanish conquest, "as they beheld the Cross, the sacred emblems of their own faith, raised as an object of worship and the temples of Anahuac. They met with it in various places, and the image of a cross may be seen at this day, sculptured in bas relief, on the walls of one of the buildings of Palenque."

Sacerdotal Order .-"The sacerdotal order was very numerous; as may be inferred from the statement that five thousand priests were, in some way or other, attached to the principal temple in the capital." Whilst in attendance at the temple "they lived in all the stern severity of conventual discipline. Thrice during the day, and once at night, they were called to prayers. They were frequent in their ablutions and vigils, and mortified the flesh by fasting and cruel penance-drawing blood from their bodies by flagellation."

Confession and Absolution .-"It is remarkable that they administered the rights of confession and absolution. The secrets of the confessional were held inviolable, and penances were imposed of much the same kind as those enjoined in the Roman Catholic Church." The priestly caste by this means held the people in their power as fully as the priests of modern Rome or those of ancient Egypt and Babylon. By a few drops of water sprinkled upon an infant it was supposed to be regenerated from all traces of original sin, and there was a celebration resembling the Catholic mystery of the Eucharist.

Clerical Education .-The priests controlled the educational policy, and at an early age children were brought into the schools within the temple enclosure, and trained in the mysteries of religion and the sciences of the period. "Such was the crafty policy of the Mexican priests, who, by reserving to themselves the business of instruction, were enabled to mould the young and plastic mind according to their own will, and to train it early to implicit reverence for religion and its ministers." Thus they exalted themselves and made the people willingly subject to a priestly caste.

A Catholic Paganism .-These and other features might well amaze the superstitious Catholic missionaries, who did not know that paganism is the Catholic religion of the natural man, and that from the cradle of the race in the East the religion of apostasy had spread into all the earth by the migrations of the human family after the dispersion of Babel.

An Oriental Religion .-The religion of the Aztecs was not similar to that of the Romanist because-as some of the early chroniclers were inclined to believe-the devil had copied the rites of Rome in building up the gorgeous system of the Mexicans. It was because the Roman corruptions came from the same place as the Mexican-the East. The Spanish "were not aware," says Prescott, "that the cross was a symbol of worship, of the highest antiquity, in Egypt and Syria; and that rites, resembling those of communion and baptism [after the Catholic form], or practise by pagan nations, on whom the light of Christianity had never shown."

Natural Religion .-Natural religion is a religion of all the world outside of Christ. It is expressed in many ways, but the central thought in it is self-salvation, and the systematisation of this religion inevitably leads to the exaltation of a priestly caste whose business it is to

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save men and whose power to do so comes from the consent and authorisation of their fellows. This built up the sacerdotal system which Babylon of old, as the first of the great cities after the deluge, passed on to all nations. Along with priestcraft came the worship of the forces of nature, the sun and moon, and all the host of heaven. Instead of worshipping the God who made all that he saw, a foolish man did not like to retain God in his knowledge, and so he worshipped the creature more than the Creator. Instead of keeping the Sabbath, which God gave the race as the memorial of His power as Creator and as a sign of His salvation, in order that men might keep Him in their knowledge, the natural man, to suit his self-appointed natural religion, substituted for it festival days dedicated to the gods of his own imaginings, chief of which was the sun.

"The Catholic Religion of the Natural Man" The Present Truth 12, 45.

E. J. Waggoner

Making of the Papal Religion .-Repeatedly God warned Israel against this religion of apostasy, as practised by their heathen neighbors. They failed because they became corrupted by it. The apostle says the story of their failure was written in order that the early church, and all believers, might profit by it. But the predicted "falling away" came, and as Cardinal Newman acknowledges, and the fathers of the Catholic Church in the third and fourth centuries adapted "the very instruments and appendages" of the heathen religions in order to win the people to the Church. Thus Romanism took on many points of similarity to the Mithraic worship of the Orient. The Aztecs of Mexico had preserved many of the traditions of the East, and the story of their origin clearly indicated that their fathers migrated from Asia and came down through the great North-west, planting in sunny Mexico a civilisation resembling that of Egypt and Babylon in many features other than those of religion, already mentioned. So it was that the Roman Catholic missionaries found the subjects of Montezuma caricaturing the Roman ritual. Later they tried to believe that the similarity was Divinely ordered to facilitate the conversion of the natives. The religion of the modern Mexican Indian is full of the old superstition, and in out-of-the-way places the priests have sometimes found those nominally under their spiritual charge showing regard to images of heathen gods. Most natives, however, have accepted the crucifix and images of the saints as efficient substitutes for the gods of their fathers.

"Japanisation of Christianity" The Present Truth 12, 45.

E. J. Waggoner

An interview relating, in one of the daily papers, the impressions of a traveller in Japan makes the interviewed speak as follows, in answer to questions:-

"What I most studied in Japan was the mission question; but the Christianisation of Japan can, perhaps, best be described as the Japanisation of Christianity. The Japanese are essentially a light-minded and Atheistic people, and adapt religion to suit their own ideas. The Romish section of the mission, here as elsewhere, is undoubtedly strongest; what catches the people so with the priests is their whole-hearted zeal for their work. One of the most popular men in Japan is Bishop Nicolai, of the Greek Church. He is a splendid fellow. He is commonly known as the 'Apostle of Japan.'"

"Are the Nonconformists doing much?"

"Yes, they are doing a good deal; but they are much disliked. It seems to me that the hatred in which these well-meaning people are held is an ever-increasing one. Every Englishman with whom you discuss this subject only adds to the cry against them; but in all fairness I must add that my own experience does not explain the attitude adopted towards them. As a rule they belong to an inferior class of people, and possess but little tact, notably their women, and so there is bitter animosity against them, especially on the part of their fellow-countrymen."

The gentleman who is giving expression to these views is a travelled and well informed man,-himself a writer of experience. More than that, he is not alone in holding them,-similar opinions have been expressed before by others. His description of the acceptance of the Christian religion in Japan as the "Japanisation of Christianity," is no doubt in great measure as truthful as it is pithy and suggestive. The same thing is immeasurably true everywhere where intelligent men adopt Christianity as a good social, political, or business policy, in order to make it subserve to their own interests. In that sense it is just as true that Italy has Romanised Christianity, and that England has Anglicised Christianity. Wherever religion is so treated it will be popular, and those who preach such a religion always be acceptable, both personally and in their teachings, to the world at large, whether there world be that of Japan or of England. But this is not religion pure and undefiled. It is not the religion of God, but the religion of humanity. This is what Christianity becomes when it is Japanised, Germanised, Anglicised, or Latinised.

It may be that the last paragraph of the quotation is also true in both particulars. If the first be so, that a large and active body of well-meaning missionaries are held in hatred by their fellow-countrymen, it is a serious charge against those who hate these well-meaning Christian workers. That they belong to what may, from one point of view, be called "an inferior class," is not a sufficient reason why they should be hated. That they do not possess as much tact as could be desired is not in itself, either, good cause for hatred. Peter was a plain, blunt man, and on several recorded occasions showed great lack of tact. If Peter were to-day missionary in Japan, would these people hold him in ever-increasing hatred. Peter was a Nonconformist, and was hated. The same things, it is evident, would be true of him to-day. What then is the conclusion? If a well-meaning man, who was a follower of Christ, but one who lacked in some degree tact and discretion, was hated then, it is quite possible that such a man may be hated now. It looks somewhat as if it were so. If it is so, where lies the greatest fault, and the chief blame? Upon the well-meaning Christian who lacks tact, or upon the man who thinks he possesses tact, but shows his lack of it by hating an innocent, well-meaning, self-sacrificing Christian man, and thus proving himself unchristian?

"Heart-Obedience" The Present Truth 12, 45.

E. J. Waggoner

The Pharisees were very scrupulous observers of the law. That is, they professed to be. But their observance of it was only outward. They did nothing that men could see that was wrong; but they did not hesitate to do any evil, provided nobody could find it out. The Saviour said of them, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity." Matt. xxiii. 27, 28.

Therefore when Christ said, "Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven," He meant that the righteousness which is only on the outside is worthless. They that do the commandments of God will have right to the tree of life, and shall enter into the gates into the city of God, the New Jerusalem. Rev. xxii. 14. But they who only outwardly appear to be righteous, cannot in any case enter there. This shows that the keeping of the commandments is an affair of the heart and the life, and not one of mere form.

"The Promises to Israel. Object Teaching" The Present Truth 12, 45.

E. J. Waggoner

God deals with us as with children, and teaches us by object lessons. By the things that we can see, He teaches us the things that mortal eye cannot see. So in the water that flowed from the rock, and in the water and the blood which flowed from the side of Christ, we learn the reality of the life that Christ gives those who believe on Him. Spiritual things are not imaginary, but real. The people in the desert could know that the water that refreshed their bodies came direct from Christ, and from that they could know that He can actually give life. They could not know how, but that was not necessary. It was sufficient for them to know the fact.

If we believe the Word, we may know that we drink as directly from Christ as did the Israelites in the wilderness. He made the heaven, and the earth, and the sea, and the fountains of water. "In Him all things consist." The water which we drink, coming forth from the ground, is as truly from Him as that which gushed from the rock in Horeb. "He layeth up the depth in storehouses." Ps. xxxiii. 7.

People speak of the water on the earth as a "natural product," almost with the thought that it is self-existent. The falling rain and the flowing spring are referred to "natural causes." Convenient terms are these to avoid giving God the glory. Stand by a stream of clear, sparkling water as it rushes on its way from its birthplace in the mountains. It is ever changing, yet ever the same. Unceasing in its flow, why does it not exhaust the supply? Is there a reservoir of infinite capacity in the heart of the earth, that enables the brook to "go on for ever," without ever diminishing the quantity. Is there not something marvelous about that constant flow? "Oh no," says the man who knows it all, "it is a very simple matter; the water on the earth's surface is drawn up to the clouds, and these give rain which keeps the supply constantly good." But who causes the rain? "The Lord is the true God, He is the living God, and an everlasting King; . . . when He uttereth His voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens, and He causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth." Jer. x. 10-13. He is the "living God" and the operations of "nature" are but manifestations of His ceaseless activity.

No doubt the Israelites in the desert soon ceased to look upon the flow of water from the rock as miraculous. No doubt many of them never, even at the first, gave a single thought to it, save that it afforded a supply for their thirst. But as it flowed on year after year, and became a familiar thing, the wonder of it diminished, and at last ceased altogether. Children were born, to whom it was as though it always had been; to them it seemed but a product of "natural causes" as do the springs which we may now see coming from the earth; and so the Great Source was forgotten, even as He is now.

Be assured that those who credit everything to "Nature," and who do not acknowledge and glorify God as the immediate source of all earthly gifts, would do the same in heaven, if they were admitted to that place. To them the river of life eternally flowing from the throne of God, would be but "one of the phenomena of nature." They did not see it begin to flow and they would look upon it as a matter of course, and would not glorify God for it. The man who does not recognise and acknowledge God in His works in this world, would be as unmindful of Him in the world to come. The praise to God that will come from the lips of the redeemed in eternity will be but the full chorus of the song whose first strains they practiced on earth.

ACKNOWLEDGING GOD

"In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths." Prov. iii. 6. When God directs a man's ways they are all perfect; even as God's own ways. "What man is he that feareth the Lord? him shall he teach in the way that He shall choose." The man who sees and acknowledges God in all His works, and who in everything gives thanks, will live a righteous life.

Take the gift of water, which we are continually using. If as often as we need water we thought of God as the provider of it, and as often as we saw it or used it we thought of Christ as the giver of the water of life, and remembered that in that water we receive His own life, what would be the result?-Simply this, that our lives would be continually subject to His control. Acknowledging that our life comes from Him, we should realise that He alone has the right to order it; and we should allow Him to live His own life in us. Thus we should drink in righteousness. For us truth would spring out of the earth, and righteousness look down from heaven. Ps. lxxxv. 11. Even the skies would "pour down righteousness." Isa. xlv. 8.

This acknowledgment of God in all our ways would keep us from selfish pride, and from boastful trust in our own "natural abilities." We should continually heed the words, "Who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?" This would keep us in the right way, for the promise is, "The meek will He guide in judgment; and the meek will He teach His way." Ps. xxv. 9. Instead of our own weak,

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foolish wisdom, we should have the wisdom of God to guide us.

We learn the same truth by looking at the opposite side. Men became degraded heathen simply through not acknowledging God as He is revealed in "the things that are made." For the gross darkness into which they fell there is no excuse, "because that when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things." "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind [a mind void of judgment], to do those things which are not convenient; being filled with all unrighteousness," etc. Rom. i. 21-23, 28, 29.

Even so it was with the Israelites, who were in a most wonderful manner permitted to see some of God's wonderful works, but who did not acknowledge Him in them. "They made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands." Acts. vii. 40. "Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass. They forgot God their Saviour, which had done great things in Egypt; wondrous works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red Sea." Ps. cvi. 20-22.

But this need not have been; it need not be now. God was bringing the children of Israel to plant them in the mountain of His own inheritance, in the place which He had made for Himself to dwell in, the Sanctuary, which His hands had established; and while they were on the way He would have them partake of the delights of that place. So He gave them water direct from Himself, to show them that by faith they could even then approach His throne, and drink the water of life that flows from it.

The same lesson is for us. God does not wish us to wait until immortality is bestowed upon us before we can share the joys of the heavenly city. By the blood of Christ we have boldness to enter even into the Most Holy place of His sanctuary. We are invited to come boldly to His throne of grace to find mercy. His grace, or favour, is life, and it flows in a living stream. Surely, since we are permitted to come to the throne of God, whence the river of life flows, there is nothing to hinder our drinking of it, especially when He offers it freely. Rev. xxii. 17.

"Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house; they will be still praising Thee." Ps. lxxxiv. 4. If in the things that we see we learn of the things that are unseen; if we behold and acknowledge God in all His works and in all our ways, we shall indeed, even on this earth, be dwelling in God's immediate presence, and will be continually praising Him, even as do the angels in heaven.

"Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing; to show that the Lord is upright; He is my Rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him." Ps. xcii. 13-15. "How excellent is Thy loving-kindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy house; and Thou shalt make them drink of the river of Thy pleasures. For with Thee is the fountain of life; in Thy light shall we see light." Ps. xxxvi. 7-9.

EDEN HERE BELOW

Mark that expression, "Thou shalt make them drink of the river of Thy pleasures." The Hebrew word rendered "pleasure" is Eden. Eden means pleasure, or delight. The garden of Eden is the garden of delight. So the text really says that those who dwell in the secret place of God, abiding under the shadow of the Almighty, shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of His house, and shall drink of the river of Eden, which is the living river of God.

This is the portion of believers even now; and we may know it as surely as the Israelites drank water from the rock or we live day by day from the bounties of His hand. Even now by faith we may refresh our souls by drinking from the river of the water of life, and eating of "the hidden manna." We may eat and drink righteousness by eating and drinking the flesh and blood of the Son of God.

"River of God, I greet thee,
Not now afar, but near;
My soul to thy still waters
Hastes in its thirstings here;
Holy River,
Let me ever
Drink of only thee."

"RIVERS OF LIVING WATER"

But God blesses men only that they may in turn be a blessing to others. To Abraham God said, "I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing;" and even so it is to be with all his seed. So we read again the words of Christ, which may be fulfilled to us today and every day if we but believe them:-

"If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this He spake of the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive." John vii. 37-39.

As Christ was the temple of God, and His heart God's throne, so we are the temples of God, that He should dwell in us. But God cannot be confined. The Holy Spirit cannot be hermetically sealed up in the heart. If He is there His glory will shine forth. If the water of life is in the soul it will flow out to others. As God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, so He takes up His abode in His true believers, putting into them the word of reconciliation, making them His representatives in Christ's stead to reconcile men to Himself. To His adopted sons is the wonderful privilege given of sharing the work of His only begotten Son. Like Him they may also become ministers of the Spirit; not merely ministers sent forth by the Spirit, but those who shall minister the Spirit. Thus as we become the dwelling-places of God, to reproduce Christ again before the world, and living streams flow from us to refresh the faint and weary, heaven is revealed on earth.

This is the lesson that God wished the Israelites to learn at the waters of Meribah, and it is what He is still patiently endeavouring to teach us, even though we like them have murmured and rebelled. Shall we not learn it now? "Happy is the people that is in such a case; yea, happy is the people whose God is the Lord."

"Christian Nations" The Present Truth 12, 45.

E. J. Waggoner

The loud professions that most of the great civilised nations make of Christian character leads non-professing peoples to judge Christianity by what they see in the history of these powers. Of course it is a mistake; but it is not an unnatural error, as in religious circles the term Christian nation is so commonly used. It is a symptom of the almost total loss of knowledge of what Christianity is which has come about by neglect of the means by which Christ may be known. Christianity means the life of Jesus Christ, nor will there be any such thing as a Christian nation until the nations of them which are saved walked in the light of the City of God.

A truly Christian nation would be one in which the people were Christians, and there would be no military, no fighting, and when a slight was offered or an attack made it would be met just as Jesus Christ met such things. Needless to say, no nation to-day exists which has the slightest claim to the title, and to use the name of Christ to cover the policy of the nations of this world is to use the sacred name in vain.

It is often and truly said that no nation could exist if it acted according to these Christian principles. Of course it could not, and the fact that the very existence of all the nations depends upon the transgression of the principles which Christ laid down for His disciples shows that Christians must necessarily live apart from all the strife and hatreds animating those whose citizenship is in this world alone. The Christian is subject to all government, wherever he is, for he is not a fighter, and does not resist even the evil and the froward. He knows that the only reason why God restrains the national rivalries and race hatred from causing the nations to destroy one another is that the Gospel may reach all and save some. Absolute subjection to Christ and law of His kingdom solves every problem as to duty toward God and man.

"The Denunciation of the Pharisees" The Present Truth 12, 45.

E. J. Waggoner

Throughout all His ministry on earth Christ was so mild and gentle in His dealings with the people that the terrible outburst of denunciations, recorded in the twenty-third chapter of Matthew, is more markedly intense and striking from the contrast. Yet, notwithstanding the character of that which He was about to say, He began with a plea for the respect and submission due to the scribes and Pharisees, as rulers, and a statement of the honourable position which they held, and to which all were to render fit respect. "The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat; all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do."

But He warned the people against copying their proud and vainglorious ways, against assuming the vice-regency, which was His, and against acknowledging the supreme authority of any man in the place of the Father: "But be ye not called Rabbi, for One is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father upon the earth; for One is your Father, which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters; for One is your Master, even Christ." So important is this thought that He enforces it upon them in the virtual repetition of the last sentence, and then comments further in the two following verses. "But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted."

Then opens that awful denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees,-the "Woe unto you," eight times repeated, with gathering force and intensity at each repetition. "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!" "Woe unto you, ye blind guides!" The list of their crimes, and the awful indictment culminates with the words which should have been startling indeed to them, "Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation."

And He stretched out His arms and broke forth into that tender, heartbreaking expostulation, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!" And then the forecast of the fate of the city-"Behold your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see Me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord." This chapter is an epitome of the dark tragedy of human weakness and sin, and of Divine wrath and tenderness.

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 45.

E. J. Waggoner

-The number of families in the United Kingdom is just over 7,700,000.

-To run the railways of the world costs weekly the sum of ?110,000,000.

-This year's wheat crop in the United States is 470,000,000 bushel's against 460,000,000 last year.

-Spain's difficulties were added to last week by another small rising in the Sulu Archipelago, near Manila.

-The population of the world averages 109 women to every hundred men. Eight-ninths of the sudden deaths are those of males.

-There are about 40,000 Welsh in London, and twenty Nonconformist chapels devoted to worship in the vernacular.

-The missionary ship Dayspring has been wrecked on a rock to the north of New Caledonia. Ten of her crew, it is believed, have been lost.

-The situation in north-western India increases in gravity, and the scarcity of food is already being felt in parts. Relief works have been started.

-The music halls of London give employment to between four and five thousand persons nightly. These receive in weekly salaries not less than ?10,000.

-A boat leaving Regent's Canal, in London, can travel by canal to Kendal in Westmoreland. This town is 251 miles distant from London by rail, but by canal it is over 900 miles.

-Bread has gone up everywhere in England because of the rise in American wheat. The famine in India, and crop failures in Australian wheat districts accounts for the rise.

-A comparison of sunshine statistics of European countries shows that Spain heads the list with 3,000 hours of sunshine in the year; Italy, 2,800; Germany, 1,700; and England, 1,400.

-By means of telephonic communication the sound of a marching political procession, and the shouts of the people in Chicago was transmitted to many different cities throughout the United States, and heard from New York to San Francisco.

-The inmates of Lambeth workhouse have consumed tobacco the past year to the value of ?290 5s. 10d. Six hundred and twenty-six persons are in receipt of their regular rations of tobacco. Besides this, forty old women receive their allowance of snuff.

-A general strike among dock workers is contemplated by the Dockers' Union, and it may turn out to be international, as special efforts have been made to bring Continental and American workers up to the organisation of the British unions. The prices in the sea-carrying trade are said to have risen very materially, and the dockers demand a share in the increased prosperity.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 45.

E. J. Waggoner

The Victorious, just completed at Chatham, has cost, in round numbers, one million sterling. The sum is nearly equal to the amount the churches in the entire country spent per year for foreign missions.

Bishop Tugwell, who has recently returned to England from West Africa, reports the drink traffic is flowing in like the tide. Last year the value of the spirits imported into Lagos rose from ?1,250,000 to nearly ?2,000,000. Three hundred miles inland the natives can buy gin at a half-crown per bottle.

The Bible Institute in Constantinople closed last month, after several weeks profitable study and consultation amongst the workers. Amidst the trouble that has fallen upon Turkey, God's overruling providence has signally wrought in favour of the work of our friends there, and the truth makes progress daily.

The latest official statistics of India give the following figures of the various denominations working in that country: Catholics, 1,315,263; Church of England, 295,016; Presbyterians, 40,407; Lutherans, 65,376; Baptists, 191,746; Methodist Episcopalian, 14,503; various Protestant sects, 60,713; Syrians, 200,467; and other sects, 100,889.

The Russian law against the Stundists provides that, when thought advisable, "The children of Stundists are to be taken from their parents and are to be confided to the care of such relatives as belong to the Orthodox Church; and if such are not to be found, the children are to be given into the care of the Orthodox clergy of the place."

The only disgrace that can come to any man in this world is the commission of sin. It is not the exposure and punishment of crime, but the crime itself, whether known or not, that constitutes the disgrace. Therefore the fact that a man has committed gross sin, is not necessarily a disgrace to him. That depends wholly upon whether or not he has repented of the sin. If he holds to the sin, the disgrace still clings to him; if he has repented, the disgrace is removed; because the grace of God removes the sin of him who repents, and where the grace of God abounds, there can be no disgrace. This is self-evident.

This shows that there is no disgrace to the repentant sinner in the fact that people who do not know the grace of God still remember his previous misdeeds, and despise him. It is not what others think of us, but what we are, that determines whether or not we suffer disgrace. And so it is no disgrace for a man to be unjustly suspected or accused. The disgrace rests upon the false accusers alone. Many people will say, even after a falsely-accused person is proved to be innocent: "There must be something wrong that gave rise to the suspicion." Such persons should remember that Christ, "who knew no sin," was accused of the grossest misdeeds. He Himself has said, "Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My name's sake."

"And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines," said Christ, speaking of the increase of calamities as the end drew near. The earthquake and tidal wave in Japan, which caused such an enormous loss of life, is being followed by the first serious famine that country has ever experienced. "The horrors of it," says a report, "cannot be told in language lurid enough to furnish an adequate portrayal." "The Japanese Government is issuing wholesale legal permits to destitute parents to sell their daughters." This abominable traffic is resorted to in the nation which, first of all in the far East, has proudly taken its place as a military power alongside Western nations.

A magazine writer, who discusses the abilities of those who stand at the head of the armies of Europe, says in conclusion:-

It is to be hoped that the military leaders of Europe will not be pitted against each other for a long time, but at present such a pious wish seems ridiculous. It does not require a soothsayer to predict that war must come soon, and that the longer it is staved off the more horrible it will be.

This feeling may be noted in the speeches of responsible statesmen, and in all the press. Acting on the profession that the best way to secure peace is to prepare for war, all the nations are stirring up the rivalries that inevitably lead to conflict.

"Catholicism in Wales" The Present Truth 12, 45.

E. J. Waggoner

Catholicism in Wales .-"It appears from Roman Catholic official statistics," says the Christian World, that there are 12,500 Catholics in Monmouthshire, 25,000 in Glamorganshire, and about 6,000 in the remaining eleven Welsh counties. In the year 1840 the Roman Catholics had not a single chapel in Glamorganshire; at present they have sixty chapels. It is stated that there are eight students at one of their institutions in Brittany who have learned to speak, Welsh, and will shortly come over to labour as missionaries among their Welsh cousins in the Principality."

"Shutting in the Light" The Present Truth 12, 45.

E. J. Waggoner

Shutting in the Light .-The sun has risen, and is beginning to flood our room with light. Brighter and brighter the light shines, as the sun ascends in the heavens. "Ah, now we have light enough; this is quite sufficient; we shall not need any more. We will therefore now close the shutters tightly, so that we may prevent any more light from coming in, and keep only that which we now have." This we forthwith do, but, behold, it is perfectly dark. The light we had went out as soon as we shut out the light that was streaming in. So we find that it is impossible to retain the light that we now have, unless we will allow the light to continue to come in freely. How many are forgetting the obvious fact, content to have no more light, and even strenuously resisting its entrance. Let such remember that they are in the way of making the light that is in them become darkness.

"Smashing the Glass" The Present Truth 12, 45.

E. J. Waggoner

Smashing the Glass .-When the Indian looked through a microscope at the water he was drinking he smashed the microscope. Just so many who find the law of God convincing them of sin try to make themselves believe that they can abolish law. The modern theory that God's law is not binding is the answer the world in sin is making as the everlasting Gospel is lifting up again "the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Rev. xiv. 6-12. It is the man who feels the condemnation of the law who wants to put it out of sight. The Apostle James likens the law of God to a mirror, into which a man should look continually for correction of life. What would be thought of the man who smashed his mirror because it revealed a fault in his appearance?

November 12, 1896

"Front Page" The Present Truth 12, 46.

E. J. Waggoner

In opening the recent Church Congress the presiding Bishop was enthusiastically applauded for expressing the opinion that the Church owed a "great debt" to Mr. Darwin for "interpreting the methods of creation."

The leading Nonconformist journal congratulates itself on the change during the last ten ten years which makes it possible for "such a thing to be said and approved," and many have remarked upon the evidence that the theory of evolution, for which Darwin stood, is very generally accepted in the religious world in place of the Bible account.

As it has, according to this notion, been reserved for wise scientists of modern times to get at the real truth about the methods of creation, very naturally Moses is not held in good repute. Yet the One who made the world, the Creator Himself, "made known His ways unto Moses" and told him what to write. But so poor an opinion do many hold of Moses that the fact that the Ten Commandments, written on tables by the finger of God, were committed to him to preserve, leads many to speak slightingly of the law of God.

During his life on earth Moses was familiar enough with the ways of critics. "This man," the people contemptuously called him, while he was communing with God in the mount. But as he was "very meek, above all men which were upon the face of the earth," he minded none of these things. God called him "My servant," and "the man of God." And He said He would not talk with Moses as with the ordinary prophet, but "face to face." What shallow folly for vain men, whatever their powers of observation, to affect a superiority over Moses and regard him as a recorder merely of unintelligent tradition.

Moses was so eminent a Christian that he was a type of Christ Himself. When God promised the Messiah He said to Moses, "I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put My words in His mouth." Deut. xv. 18. As Moses spoke God's words, so Jesus spoke not His own words but the words of the Father. And after Jesus had ascended His Spirit declared that Christ was faithful even as Moses was faithful, one as a servant the other as a Son. Heb. iii.

Those who refused to receive Jesus Christ did so because they would not receive the testimony of Moses. "Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me." John vi. 46. This shows what a serious thing is this modern tendency to belittle and then really reject the testimony of Moses. It is a symptom of the rejection of the Lord Himself. The time has come when men are turning away from the Word and law of God unto fables, and they demand teachers who will satisfy the itching ear and the vain imagination. The Lord's exhortation for this time is "Preach the Word." As the faithful minister of Christ heeds this command he can desire no greater thing than God promised Moses when He said, "I will be with thy mouth."

Such was Moses' Christian experience that when the redeemed stand at last upon the sea of glass on Mount Zion they can sing no higher note of triumph than that sounded in "the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb." Rev. xv. 2. His critics think of him as dead and buried, but so eminent a man of God was he that the Lord raised him from the dead by a special resurrection (Jude 9; Matt. xvii. 3), and now he dwells in that light which transfigured his face and shown from it when he came down from Mount Sinai.

"Daniel's Influence" The Present Truth 12, 46.

E. J. Waggoner

When Daniel found that he was expected to drink wine from the king's table in Babylon, and eat food which he could not conscientiously accept, he at once "purposed in his heart" that he would not do it. How naturally he might have reasoned that the matter was a comparatively small one, and that if he did not do as the rest did in the strange city he would only get into trouble; he would seem odd and eccentric, and perhaps lose his influence.

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Many since Daniel's day have overcome their scruples about wrong-doing by such processes of reasoning. They knew perfectly well what they ought to do, but-they did not want to do it, and it was easy to find a fairly presentable moral argument to excuse the disobedience. To make themselves peculiar and different from others would be to lose their influence, and then they would be unable to do much good that they were now doing. So they stifled the voice of conscience and decided to do evil that good might come.

Did Daniel lose his influence? We hear much of him and of his three faithful companions, but they were only four amongst the captives of Judah who were chosen for their grace and ability to stand in the king's palace with his counsellors and wise men. What of the other young men? They doubtless decided to save their influence and when in Babylon to do as the Babylonians did. They followed the world about them and the customs of the "best society," and compromised principle. They are nameless, and so far as we know were useless. But God stood by Daniel and his fellows and by their faithfulness witnessed of Himself before Babylon and all the world. Daniel did not lose his influence by doing right.

"Imagining Difficulties" The Present Truth 12, 46.

E. J. Waggoner

"Oh, I can't sleep at night, I can't sleep."

"Poor fellow, you must cease your overwork, and at once make use of soothing remedies."

"Oh, that will do no good; the trouble is not with me: I could sleep very well if I had an opportunity, but there is no time in which to sleep; I can never sleep any more."

"Why not? How can that be?"

"I have just learned that the earth is round, and that it isn't night at all places on the earth at the same time, and that therefore it is impossible for people to sleep."

"Foolish fellow! Who has been telling you that?"

"Nobody; but my pastor, who is a learned man, has told me that it is impossible to keep the seventh-day Sabbath, because it is not the seventh day all over the world at one time; and I have sense enough to see that if we can't rest on the seventh day, then we cannot sleep on the seventh night; and if we can't sleep on the seventh night, we can't sleep on any other night. What shall I do?"

"Do! why, go to bed to-night, when the night comes to you, and sleep where you are, instead of thinking you must sleep where you are not. Didn't you sleep well last night?"

"First-rate; never slept better in my life; but then you see I had not heard the parson's theory."

"Well, don't let a theory run away with the fact. The fact is, you can and do sleep every night when it comes to you; when the night is on the other side of the earth, you do not need to sleep. So with the Sabbath-the seventh day-which God made for man-for all men-to keep. Keep it when it comes to you; when it's not present with you, then you are not required to rest on it. Let your soul rest in the assurance that God has never given a commandment that it is not possible for all men everywhere to obey."

"Brotherhood of Man" The Present Truth 12, 46.

E. J. Waggoner

The phrase "Brotherhood of man" embodies no new thought. It is as old as the world. Its written and spoken expression is as old as the Word of God to man. And its disregard is as old as the question, "Where is Abel thy brother?" and the answer, "I know not; am I my brother's keeper?" The very question was fatherly; implying the assumption of the relation of fatherhood, and asserting the relation of brotherhood. The reply denied neither, but in expressed terms acknowledged the brotherly ties, while repudiating its obligations.

So it is that man has always, throughout these thousands of years, accepted the relationship of brotherhood with his fellows,-when the stronger, reserving to himself the right and authority to dominate, subjugate, and rule his feebler brother; when the weaker, using the tie as an evidence of rightful claim to the charity and protection of the other, however futile the plea might prove to be. And it is true that the obligations of the relationship, whatever acknowledgment they may have received, have never yet been sufficient to lead mankind to do each to the other as he would have the other do to him.

What must follow the practical acceptance by mankind of the fact of the fatherhood of God? It must necessarily be the acknowledgement and acceptance of, and obedience to, all divine truth. Brotherhood with all the children of God would then necessarily and inevitably follow. But if this be admitted, then brotherhood presupposes a common father, and He, being All-father, is consequently Creator and God. The two clauses of the expression, "Fatherhood of God, and brotherhood of man," answer to each other logically, as they do rhetorically. The antecedent regards its consequent, and the consequent its antecedent. Thus the action of the human mind, by the unavoidable sequences of its necessary processes, brings men, inevitably, to the statement of the two facts, which require him in their turn, to meet and fill the sphere of their demands, and love his Creator-father with all his heart, soul and mind, and his brother as himself, and the first and second great commandment, on which hang all the law and prophets, have been received and acted upon. This being so what remains? Nothing; all the conditions have in this have been met, for in this the Divine comprehensiveness of omniscience has condensed all the requirements of true religion. Of these two commandments the necessary antecedents are "the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man!" These two propositions, then, depend upon each other. One cannot be fully received without the other. Their entire significance is comprehended in the one word "Christianity." For that is the message of the Father to man through man's Elder Brother. Therefore he who accepts and professes, and practices the doctrine of the "fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man" must give up all false religion, put away all false gods both within and without; all idolatry must end, there must be no more service of mammon or self; to no false god, or idol, or selfish desire, must he bow; he must remember the name of God to keep it holy upon his lips; he must remember the day of God to keep it holy in his life; he must care for, love, and honour his father and mother; he must not commit the sin of Cain or even cherish anger in his heart toward his brother; he must do no impurity, or even harbour an unclean thought in his mind; he must respect his brother's property rights, never even so much as desiring that which is his brother's, and bear no false witness against him; he must in all things give ear and credence to the word of the Father, and love the coming of his Elder Brother. To acknowledge, and to do, all these things is to be a Christian, and every Christian must live before all his brothers as the representative of that Elder Brother for whom he waits.

"The Promises to Israel. The Entering of the Law" The Present Truth 12, 46.

E. J. Waggoner

"Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound; that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom. v. 20.

The object of the entering of the law at Sinai was "that the offense might abound." Not that there might be more sin; for since we are warned not to continue in sin that grace may abound, it is evident that the righteous God would not deliberately increase sin in order that He might have an opportunity of exhibiting more grace. The law is not sin, but has the effect, by its own righteousness, of causing sin to "appear sin," "that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful." Rom. vii. 13. The object, therefore, of the entering of the law at Sinai, was to cause the sin that already existed to stand out in its true nature and extent, so that the superabounding grace of God might be appreciated at its true value.

The entering of the law made the offence to abound. But the sin which the law made to abound already existed; "for until the law sin was in the world." Rom. x. 13. Therefore the law was also in the world before it was given upon Sinai, as well as after, for "sin is not imputed when there is no law." To Isaac, God said, "Abraham obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, My commandments, My statues, and My laws." Gen. xxvi. 5. The blessedness of Abraham was that of sins forgiven, "and he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised; that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also." Rom. iv. 11. Before the children of Israel had reached Sinai; when the manna first fell, God said that He was proving them "whether they will walk in My law or not." Ex. xvi. 4.

It is evident, therefore, that the giving of the law upon Sinai did not make any difference whatever in the relation that already existed between men and God. The very same law existed before that time, having the same effect, namely, to show men that they were sinners; and all the righteousness which the law demands, and all that it is possible for any man to have, had been possessed by men of faith, of whom Enoch and Abraham are notable instances. The only reason, therefore, for the giving of the law upon Sinai, was to give men a more vivid sense of its awful importance, and of the terrible nature of sin which it forbids, and to lead them to trust in God, instead of in themselves.

This effect the circumstances attending the giving of the law were calculated to produce. No such event of awful majesty and power had ever been witnessed by man. Neither has its like been seen since. The event of the giving of the law upon Sinai will be paralleled and exceeded only by the second coming of Christ, "to take vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ," and "to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe." 2 Thess. i. 8-10.

PARALLELS

At the giving of the law, "Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire." Ex. xix. 18. At the second advent "the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven," "in flaming fire." 1 Thess. iv. 16; 2 Thess. i. 8.

When God came to Sinai, sending forth from His right hand "a fiery law" for His people, "He came with ten thousands of saints." Deut. xxxiii. 1, 2. The angels of God-the armies of heaven-were all present at the giving of the law. But long before that time, Enoch, the seventh from Adam, had prophesied of the second coming of Christ, saying, "Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment." Jude 14, 15. At His coming in glory, He will have "all the holy angels with Him." Matt. xxv. 31.

God came down upon Sinai to proclaim His holy law to His people. "From His right hand went forth a fiery law for them." That law from Sinai was a verbal description of God's own righteousness. But when He comes the second time, "the heavens shall declare His righteousness; for God is Judge Himself." Ps. l. 6.

To announce the presence of God upon Sinai, in royal state, "the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder." Ex. xix. 19. So Christ's second coming will be proclaimed by "the trump of God." "For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed," for "He shall send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds." 1 Cor. xv. 52; Matt. xxiv. 31.

When the trumpet sounded long and loud upon Sinai, "Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice." Ex. xix. 19. Then God spake all the words of the ten commandments "out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice; and He added no more." Deut. v. 22. In like manner, "

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our God shall come, and shall not keep silence; a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about Him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that He may judge His people." Ps. l. 3, 4. "The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God." 1 Thess. iv. 16.

But herein the Lord's coming to judgment will be greater than His coming to proclaim His law: for then none of the people saw Him. "The Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire; ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice." Deut. iv. 12. But when He comes the second time, "every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him; and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him." Rev. i. 7.

Lastly, a parallel as a difference in the effect of the voice of God: When God spoke His law from Sinai, "the whole mount quaked greatly." Ex. xix. 18. "The earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God; even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel." Ps. lxviii. 8. "The earth trembled and shook." Ps. lxxvii. 18. But even greater will be the effect of that voice at the second advent. From Sinai, His "voice then shook the earth; but now hath he promised, saying: Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven." Heb. xii. 26. "The heavens shall pass away with a great noise," (2 Peter iii. 10), for "the powers of the heavens shall be shaken." Matt. xxiv. 29.

Wonderful likenesses we find between the coming of the Lord to give the law at Sinai, and His coming to judgment in the end of the world; and we shall find as we study that the likenesses are by no means accidental.

THE MINISTRATION OF DEATH

"The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law." 1 Cor. xv. 56.

The law entered for the purpose of making the sins of the people stand out in the boldest relief. The sin which lies dormant, and of whose power we are unconscious because we have never entered into mortal combat with it, springs into life and activity when the law enters. "Without the law sin was dead." Rom. vii. 8. The law sets forth sin in its true character and magnitude, and arms it with its power-the power of death. "By the law is the knowledge of sin." Rom. iii. 20. To point out sin, and to show its hideous strength, is the sole office of the law.

But death comes by sin. "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Rom. v. 12. Where sin goes, there death goes. Sin does not merely bring death in its train; it carries it in its bosom. Sin and death are inseparable; each is a part of the other. It is impossible to set the door far enough ajar to allow sin to creep through, and to shut death out. Be the crevice never so small, if it be large enough to admit sin, death comes with it.

Since sin already existed before the law entered at Sinai, the entering of the law proclaimed a curse, for it is written, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." Gal. iii. 10. That curse was death, because it was the curse which Christ bore for us. It is evident, therefore, that the giving of the law from Sinai was the ministration of death. "The law worketh wrath." All the attending circumstances proclaimed that fact. The thunders and lightnings, the devouring fire, the smoking mountain, and the quaking earth, all spoke death. Mount Sinai, itself a symbol of Divine law broken, was death to whoever should touch it. It needed not the barriers about the mountain to keep the people away, after the awful voice of God was heard proclaiming His law; for when they heard and saw, "they removed, and stood afar off," and said, "Let not God speak with us, lest we die." Ex. xx. 18, 19.

"Sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me." (Rom. vii. 8); for "the sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law." It was impossible that there could be a law given which could give life. But it was not necessary that there should be; and this we shall see clearly when, in the light of revelations previously made to Israel, we consider the deeper reason.

WHY THE LAW WAS GIVEN

Did God wish to mock the people by giving to them a law which could bring them nothing but death? Far from it. "Yea, He loved the people;" and never did He love them more than when "from His right hand went forth a fiery law for them." Deut. xxxiii. 2, 3.

For be it remembered that although "the law entered that the offense might abound," yet "where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." Rom. v. 20. Since it is the law that makes sin to abound, where can its hideous magnitude be more clearly defined than at Sinai? But since "where sin abounded, grace did much more abound," it is evident that at Sinai we may most clearly see the vastness of God's grace. No matter how greatly sin abounds, in that very place grace superabounds. What though "the mountain burned with fire unto the midst of heaven?" Still we have the assurance, "Thy mercy is great above the heavens; and Thy truth reacheth unto the clouds." Ps. cviii. 4. "As the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him." Ps. ciii. 11.

Jesus is the Comforter. "If any man sin, we have a Comforter with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." 1 John ii. 1, R.V. margin. So when His disciples were sorrowing because of His announcement that He was going to leave them, He said, "I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth." John xiv. 16, 17. While Jesus was on earth, he was the embodiment of the Spirit; but He would not have His work limited, so He said: "It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I go away, I will send Him unto you. And He, when He is come, will convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment." John xvi. 7, 8.

Mark well the fact that the first work of the Comforter is to convict of sin. The sword of the Spirit is the Word of God, which pierces "even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." Heb. iv. 12. Yet even while sending the keenest and deepest conviction, the Spirit is the Comforter. He is none the less the Comforter in convicting of sin, than in revealing the righteousness of God for the remission of the sin. There is comfort in the conviction which God sends. The surgeon who cuts to the very bone, that he may remove the poisonous death-breeding substance from the flesh, does it only that he may successfully apply the healing oil.

The great sin of the children of Israel

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was unbelief-trust in self rather than in God. This is common to all mankind. What is needed is something to destroy this vain self-confidence, so that faith may come in. The law entered in a way calculated to do this, and to emphasise the fact that only by faith, and not by works of man, does righteousness come. In the very giving of the law is shown man's dependence on God alone for righteousness and salvation, since men could not so much as touch the mountain where the law was spoken, without perishing. How, then, can it be supposed that God ever designed that any man should, for a single moment, imagine that he was to get righteousness by the law? At Sinai Christ the crucified One was preached in tones intended to reach all people, even as they shook the whole earth.

"Rome in America" The Present Truth 12, 46.

E. J. Waggoner

Rome In America .-The Papacy has long had its eyes on the New World as the place to find a new leverage by which it can regain its old position in the Old. It is rapidly getting the upper hand in the United States, with the aid of professed Protestants who, by leading the way into politics over the question of Sunday laws, have fairly dragged the papal hierarchy into the position of the advantage which it might have taken them much longer to have reached without this help. The German Kˆlnische Zeitung warns the Protestants in the United States that Rome is surely getting them into her hands. Of her plans this well-known journal says:-

The machine at the command of the Pope is a very formidable. No other machine can compare in organisation with the Catholic hierarchy. The army of Rome in the United States consisted in 1895 of 16 archbishops, 70 bishops, 9,686 priests, and 2,122 theological students, which army attends to the spiritual wants of 9,410,790 Catholics. The Church has 8,012 churches, 3,795 chapels, 1 university, 37 seminaries, 116 high schools, 637 academies, and 3,610 parochial schools, with 768,496 pupils. At the head of this formidable array stands the apostolic ambassador, with the rank of a cardinal.

"Murder in Italy" The Present Truth 12, 46.

E. J. Waggoner

At a public lecture in Rome, by Baron Garfalo, it was recently stated that during the past year a murder had been committed in Italy every two hours. The Baron atttributed this almost incredible fact to the absence of effective, practical, religious teaching in Italy.

"Whipping Their Gods" The Present Truth 12, 46.

E. J. Waggoner

Many act as though it were the Lord's duty to please them, instead of their duty to please Him. Then when He does not give what they think they ought to have they murmur and complain. This is as childish and unreasonable as the action of the Chinese in beating and whipping their gods when requests are not granted.

"Aggressive Romanism" The Present Truth 12, 46.

E. J. Waggoner

The "Catholic Truth Society" has just held its half-yearly meeting, at which it was apparent that Roman Catholicism is not only making headway in England, but is planning a still more active campaign. The secretary stated that there is a great demand for the Society's publications, and that many new pamphlets are in preparation. The necessity of active propagandism was urged by all the speakers. It was urged that instead of as in the past devoting the most of their time to those who belong to the Church of England, the Catholics should reach out to Nonconformists, and that special literature dealing with the views of English Nonconformists should be prepared. Cardinal Vaughan said that during the past summer he had, while in Wales, preached to gatherings of Wesleyans, Baptists, Methodists, etc., and had always been listened to with the greatest attention. He had no doubt that if Catholics study the wants of Nonconformists, and try to meet them, they could make a great impression.

The Cardinal stated that the Pope's message denying the validity of Anglican orders, had made a great impression, and the confident expectation is that it will result in bringing many over to the Catholic Church. As an illustration, he cited the case of a Protestant schoolboy who refused to go to communion any more, because he had heard that the Pope had denied the validity of Anglican orders. It is most likely that the boy's own disinclination had more to do with his refusal than the Pope's bull had; yet beyond all doubt there is in the hearts of most people a latent, unrecognised reverence for popery. It is the natural outgrowth of the failure to recognise one's true personal relation to God. He who does not take God alone for his personal guide, is bound sooner or later to depend on the Pope. Now is the time, as never before, to say to the people of earth, "Behold your God."

"An Incident in Our Work in Turkey" The Present Truth 12, 46.

E. J. Waggoner

The recent troubles in Constantinople occurred just before the time appointed for a several weeks' Bible school and conference of our workers in Turkey. At the time of the Armenian rising the brother in charge of our Society's operations in Turkey, an Armenian, was in Roumania, and as Armenians were forbidden to return to Constantinople it was a matter of perplexity to him to know how he would be able to return to the Bible school and to his work. One of our European brethren, who attended the school, gives the following interesting report of the manner in which the Lord overruled the difficulties:-

"On account of the new troubles, the Turkish consul refused to visÈ his passport, so it was not possible for him to return to Constantinople for the school, except contrary to law; this he ventured to do, leaving the results with God. In the ordinary course of of events, he would not be allowed to land, or would be sent to prison. We went to the steamer to meet him, and to see what the Lord would do. What was his surprise to meet at the gangplank the police director whom we had met four years ago in Mersin, near Tarsus, where our pockets had been searched and all books and papers taken. At that time this director had learned that our work was not dangerous to the government; he at once recognised Brother Baharian and was friendly to him; wrote a note to the police court, requesting that he be allowed to land, on the ground that he knew him to be a safe man; and send with him a policeman in citizen's dress, for he said it would be humiliating if he had to go with a policeman.

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"At the police headquarters, he was put in ward till the president should come; but before his arrival, the minister of police, whose office is in the same building, arrived; the case was brought to his attention, and he at once sent an officer to bring Brother Baharian to his room, where he received him very cordially, and set him at liberty without a word of reproach because he had come to the city contrary to the law. On the contrary, he began at once to speak to the gentlemen in his room in such high terms of the character of Brother Baharian, that our brother was much embarrassed. At ordinary times, those allowed to land without previously having their passports visÈd, must pay double the regular price, but the minister overruled all so that Brother Baharian had no expense at all."

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 46.

E. J. Waggoner

-It is calculated that more steel is now used in the manufacture of pens than in war implements.

-The oldest firearms were used in China. The Chinese fought with guns at a time when Europeans used bows and arrows

-In London alone, coroner's juries, during the pent year, returned verdicts of death from starvation in seventy-one cases.

-The oldest as well as the largest door-lock in the world has. been unearthed at Nineveh. The key is nearly three and a-half feet in length.

-The Trans-Siberian Railway will be 500 miles long, and when completed will enable a tour of the world to be made in thirty-three days.

-The hottest place on the face of the earth is said to be the desert near Manaus, 159 degrees in the shade. The coldest is in the north-west territory of Canada, seventy-six degrees below zero.

-There is a great revival of brigandage in the eastern countries,-Greece, Turkey, Persia, the Caucasus, etc. An English officer is in the hands of brigands, in Turkey, who demand a ransom of ?16,000.

-A scientific test lately made in Berlin shows to what extent the smoke from a chimney poisons the atmosphere. The soot from the chimney of a large sugar refinery was collected for six days, and it was found to weigh 6,800 pounds.

-The British authorities in India have been obliged to discontinue the bounties on dead snakes, because the natives went into the business of breeding the reptiles on a large scale in order to secure the reward paid for their dead bodies.

-The deepest hole in the earth has just been bored at Paruskowitz, near Rhyhnik, Silesia, to the depth of 6,520 feet. At that point the drill rod broke off, but, in spite of that accident, eighty-three beds of coal were penetrated during the borings.

-The House of Commons is protected from fog by the following method, which is both ingenious and expensive. The air pumped in from the river terrace is forced by steam fate through thick layers of cotton wool, which retain all impurities, leaving the air in a state of great purity. The layers of cotton wool are six inches in thickness, and occupy an area of 800 square feet.

-This has been a season of disasters in Japan. A fire in the city of Kobe, August 26, destroyed immense property. Just after this fire, severe storms destroyed 4,900 houses in the Gifu Prefecture, together with about 600 lives. In other provinces more than 2,500 lives were fort by floods, which were preceded by terrible earthquakes. At a later date, a regular series of earthquakes shook the country in the Rokugo district. In some places the hills cracked fires broke out in some places, and waters poured forth in others. At Rokugo, over 1,000 hones were overturned. All this in addition to the awful tidal wave, which, earlier in the season, deluged a large extent of country and destroyed some 30,000 lives.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 46.

E. J. Waggoner

The new Bishop of London is said to be an extreme Ritualist, officiating in cope and mitre and all the vestments of the most advanced schools.

When the new papal delegate to America arrived off New York a Government revenue cutter was sent to escort him into port. Is it surprising that Rome is exulting over its hold upon the United States?

Those who think the majority entitled to enforce religious observances upon a minority will not derive much comfort from considering how the doctrine would work out in the British Empire, and which, according to Mr. John Morley, there are 290,000,000 who are professedly non-Christians.

South Africa is anxiously watching the onward march of the rinderpest, and the serious calamity over-hanging in the colonies causes some searching of heart. The Christian Express, edited by Dr. Stewart, of the Lovedale Mission, says:-

There can be no doubt that the most important thing for consideration at the present moment in this country is the terrible shadow of the cattle plague that is sweeping down upon us from the north. . . . The plague has spread in spite of precautions, and mocked at cordons and guards. . . . Can there be a doubt that in all these things scourge after scourge-locusts and drought, wars, pestilence-God has a controversy with us?

One of our Indian missionaries says of the need of work for orphan children in Calcutta:-

If we had an orphanage for boys here in Calcutta, it could do a work which I am sure would meet the approval of the Lord. Scores of cases are constantly occurring were little lads are left to the mercies of a cold world. Many of them are taken by Mohammedans and brought up to a life of practical slavery. Others are being gathered by the Catholics. Aside from a small work which one Baptist minister here carries on on his own account, I know of no Protestant effort in behalf of these helpless, hopeless boys in this great city. Seldom do I place my head upon my pillow at night without thinking, What can be done for these helpless, hopeless, destitute little ones.

Iceland has again been visited by earthquake, the last shock being more destructive than the preceding. The pent-up forces in this old earth are violently seeking outlet. Men of the world often scoff at the idea that these things are tokens of the breaking up of the earth in the convulsions of the great day of wrath, but Peter said that in the last days scoffers would, ridicule the doctrine of the Lord's coming and claiming that all things "continue as they were from the beginning of the creation."

"Bold Avowals" The Present Truth 12, 46.

E. J. Waggoner

Bold Avowals .-A continental cardinal is said to have received his appointment by the present Pope as a reward for writing a book in defence of the papal principles of Church and State, in which he maintained that "it is not contrary to the spirit Christianity to burn heretics with fire." Just recently, also, the leading Catholic order of America has been expressly justifying the Inquisition. Formerly it has been asserted that it was not the papal principles but the rough ways of society that were responsible for the deeds of a few centuries ago. The Protestant world is drawing so near the papal principles in the matter of Church and State relationship that Rome no longer feels ashamed to avow her full responsibility for the system by which ecclesiastics made use of civil power to enforce religion and punish dissent.

"Light and Life" The Present Truth 12, 46.

E. J. Waggoner

Light and Life .-How necessary light is to existence is shown by the following statement by one of the crew of the Fram, of their experience during the long night of an Arctic winter:-

The last winter in the ice was simply awful. We had our fill of the darkness. We got sleepy and indifferent, and shaky on our legs. We were not ill, but weak and deadbeat, and the doctor was anxious about our brains. When the day came, with the sun, it was a resurrection for us all. We were electrified when we saw him. Nobody knows how fine the sun looks but those who have been six months in the darkness. Then we came to strength again.

Everybody recognises the fact that light is necessary to life, and even, as intimated above, to correct thinking in life. But the trouble is, that they do not realise that Christ is literally the light of the world, and that the light which the sun conveys to us is but a portion of the glory of the Lord. From the well-known fact that man cannot live without the light of the sun, the Lord would have all men learn that no one can have to life apart from Christ, "the Sun of righteousness." He is, in fact, the resurrection and the life.

"Church Orders" The Present Truth 12, 46.

E. J. Waggoner

Church Orders .-The day before his death, the late Archbishop of Canterbury was engaged in writing a statement to quiet the minds of those who had been disturbed by the Pope's letter concerning Anglican orders. The Archbishop said that the subject has been investigated in England as well as in Rome, and with much more knowledge of facts, and adds:-

The result of scrutiny with that fuller knowledge was, and is, to establish that our holy orders are identical with those of the whole Catholic Church. They are in origin, continuity matter, form, intention, and all that belongs to them, identical accordingly with those of the Church of Rome, except in the one point of subjugation to the Pope.

That statement will doubtless be comforting for those who desire that kind of comfort; but the Scriptures give us the true order, which is so simple that a child can comprehend it, and as sure as it is simple. Instead of deriding authority from a doubtful succession of bishops, all of them mere men, and some of them more than doubtful characters, the true church derives its orders in every age direct from the Lord Himself. It is God Himself, who has set the various gifts in the church, and it is the Holy Spirit that works them all, "dividing to every man severally as He will." 1 Cor. xii. 28, 11.

"Applied Evolution" The Present Truth 12, 46.

E. J. Waggoner

Applied Evolution .-Evolution, with its doctrines of the survival of the fittest, represents the religion of human nature. The moral of effect of the doctrine has been illustrated wherever a stronger race has come in contact with a weaker. Thus Mr. Selous, the well-known hunter and African explorer, says in his recent book:-

Matabeleland is doomed by what seems a law of nature to be ruled by the white man, and the black man must go, or conform to the white man's laws, or die in resisting them. It seems a hard and cruel fate for the black man, but it is a destiny which the broadest philanthropy cannot avert, whilst the British colonist is but the irresponsible atom employed in carrying out a preordained law-law which has ruled upon this planet ever since, in the far off misty depths of time, organic life was first devolved upon the earth-the inexorable law which Darwin has aptly termed the "survival of the fittest."

The worst of it is that the doctrine encourages the "atom" to believe that he is irresponsible-that the brutal selfishness animating him is a Divine force. The Gospel is founded on self-sacrifice, the stronger helping the weaker. And, when the day of Judgment evens up earth's history it will be found that the race was, after all, not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong.

November 19, 1896

"The Light of the World" The Present Truth 12, 47.

E. J. Waggoner

"And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth." And Jesus said, "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world. When He had thus spoken, He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, and said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent). He went his way, therefore, and washed, and came seeing." John iv. 1-7.

In this simple story we learn how literally true are the words of Jesus, "I am the light of the world." Here was a poor man who in the midst of light was walking in darkness. Jesus said, "I am the light of the world," and immediately gave the man sight. It is very evident that the poor man was wholly dependent on Jesus and His word for his sight. Jesus was literally to him the light of day.

But that case is only illustrative. What Jesus was to that man, He is to all. He is literally the light of the world. "All things were made by Him" (John i. 3), and "in Him all things consist." Col. i. 17. God has sent His glory upon the heavens. Ps. viii. 1, R.V. The light of which the sun was made bearer, is nothing less than "the light of the glory of God." All the light of this world came from the word of God, who said, "Let there be light," and "there was light."

It was the same word that gave light to the poor blind man. There was no healing virtue in the clay, nor in the water; but the man obeyed the command, "Go and wash," and in those words of Jesus He found the light. Thus he found that the words, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path," are indeed strictly and literally true. He who follows Christ cannot walk in darkness, because He has the light of life. John viii. 12.

The man upon whom this miracle was wrought was only a poor beggar, who until

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that day had never seen the light, yet as soon as the miracle was performed, he had more true knowledge of the light than all the learned Pharisees and doctors of the law had. Note his clear and decisive answers under cross-questioning. When there was a doubt expressed as to his being the same blind man who begged by the wayside, he settled that question by saying, "I am he." He was not ashamed to acknowledge his low degree.

Neither was he ashamed to acknowledge his dependence upon Jesus for his sight. On being asked how his eyes were open, he said, "A man that is called Jesus made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, Go to the pool of Siloam, and wash; and I went and washed, and I received my sight." It was a simple testimony to the truth, and therein lay its convincing power. The most learned man in the city could not have told it any better.

Then there was a dispute as to the character of Jesus. First, he bluntly declared, "He is a prophet." Note that he did not give it as his opinion or belief, but as a fact that admitted of no dispute. In his simplicity he did not presume to advance theories, but stuck to what he knew, and that was far better than theories. If professed Christians, and Christian teachers, were better acquainted with the practical facts of the Gospel, there would be far less groping among systems and theories.

Further than these simple facts, the young man would not allow himself to be enticed. To the Pharisees' declaration that Christ was a sinner, he replied, "Whether He be a sinner or no, I know not; one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see." That was a fact which the Pharisees would gladly forget, but the young man held them to it; and it really settled the whole question. For to give sight to a man born blind, was a creative act, and showed the presence of Divine power. That being admitted, there could be no further question as to the character of Jesus.

The result was characteristic. The Pharisees could not gainsay the fact so simply yet graphically told by the young man, but they were bound not to accept the light that had so brightly dawned upon him, and so they said, "Thou wast altogether born in sin, and dost thou teach us?" and they cast him out of the synagogue. When men meet facts which they cannot overthrow and will not accept, they betray their confusion by appealing to their age, or their position, or their learning.

But the great lesson for us to learn is the reality of light which God gives by His Word, and the positive assurance with which those must speak, who have received that light. If all the philosophers of the world should unite to demonstrate that the sun is an opaque body, and that we actually receive no light from it, the most ignorant man in the street could say, "I don't know anything about your science, but I know I see;" and with that fact he could overturn all their theories. So the simple man whose eyes are open to see "the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ," can silence every learned objection with the simple declaration, "I was blind; now I see." Doubtless few will accept the truth through his simple testimony; but he may be sure that those who will not accept it on such evidence, would not accept it under any circumstances. One thing that an unlearned man knows is worth more than ten million things that wise men do not know.

"A Shibboleth" The Present Truth 12, 47.

E. J. Waggoner

The theory of the brotherhood of man may be preached freely among all civilised peoples. To the theory all civilised men give assent. But do they know what they are doing? Do they realise to what they are committing themselves? The practical acceptance of this fact as a truth must bring the unbeliever to an acknowledgment of the existence of God, and all which must logically follow. It will subject the Christian to an unfailing test as to whether he be in the truth or not. For, if the infidel and the atheist make the "brotherhood of man" an article of their creed, they cannot deny a common Father, and that is an acknowledgement of God, and their unavoidable filial allegiance. The Christian, by the very terms of his belief, is committed to this from the beginning. His application of the doctrine, or his failure to do so, becomes then a shibboleth by which he and his brothers may test the reality or the hypocrisy of his profession.

When this test is applied what does it show? It shows that there is a fatal inconsistency between profession and practice. It proves that the rallying cry "The fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man" is but words, empty, sounding words,-and in the mouth and minds of those who speak them there is no realisation of the depth of their meaning, or of the personal responsibility of every Christian life to be the personification of their spirit. In the mouths of wealthy, fashionable, mammon-loving church members they are a mockery. In the mouths of idle, ease-loving, careless, selfish, professing Christians they are a mockery. In the mouths of those who uphold caste and the power of artificial social distinction they are a mockery. In the mouths of those who cry, "Down with the unspeakable Turk, slaughter him!" or call, with vote or voice, for war in many lands,-they are a mockery. In the mouths of those who demand of law-making powers to enact religious dogma into law they are a mockery. In the mouths of those who ask for the enforcement of these religious enactments by constable, judge, and jury, they are a mockery. But there is One who is not deceived, and it is well that we "Be not deceived," for "God is not mocked."

"Enforced Sunday Observance" The Present Truth 12, 47.

E. J. Waggoner

Dr. Spence Watson, in a Westminster Review article, asks of the efforts of those societies which are trying to enforce Sunday observance by civil law, "What are they but the offspring of the same sour, narrow, bitter, persecuting spirit which, when it dared, rushed for the thumbscrew, the rack, and the stake, as free-thought grew stronger, descended to the pillory and the stocks, and now falls back upon threathening letters and writs of the High Court of Justice!" The thing needed, however, is the proclamation of the principles of the Gospel, so that those resorting to force in behalf of religion may see the iniquity of their course. The Sunday Societies, for whom Dr. Watson speaks, do not touch the real principle in their protests.

"Russian Religious Laws" The Present Truth 12, 47.

E. J. Waggoner

A Russian correspondent of a Continental journal gives an illustration of the manner in which Russian religious laws are made to bear upon Dissenters and Jews. Speaking of the town of Kainsk, he says: "A church is being built for the Female Gymnasium next door to the synagogue, which has stood here for the last century. The synagogal authorities have been told that they will have to remove their synagogue, as Jewish places of worship are not allowed by law to be situated within 700 feet of a church."

"The Promises to Israel. The Entering of the Law. (Continued.)" The Present Truth 12, 47.

E. J. Waggoner

(Continued.)

After what we have already learned of the history of Israel, there is nothing that more concisely and simply states the purpose of God in speaking the law from Sinai than

THE THIRD CHAPTER OF GALATIANS

which we will briefly study. It is as simple as a child's story book, yet it is as deep and comprehensive as the love of God.

The sixth and seventh verses of the first chapter reveal to us the fact that the Galatian brethren had begun to fall away from the faith, being deceived by false teaching-by a pretended Gospel. Whereupon the Apostle vehemently exclaims: "Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As I said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other Gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed." Gal. i. 8, 9.

The only portion of the Scriptures that was written when Paul preached, was that which consisted of the books commonly known as the Old Testament. When he preached he opened those Scriptures, and reasoned out of them; and the interested ones among his hearers searched the same Scriptures to see if the things which he preached were so. Acts xvii. 3, 11. When he was on trial for heresy and sedition, he solemnly declared that in all his ministry he had said "none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come." Acts xxvi. 22. Now when we read again his anathema against any who should presume to preach a different Gospel from what he had preached, we know that if any man preaches anything different from what is found in the Old Testament, he brings the curse of God upon himself. This is a strong reason why we should faithfully study Moses and the prophets.

Knowing therefore that Paul always and everywhere preached nothing "save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified," we are not surprised that he breaks out, "O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?" Gal. iii. 1. From the writings of Moses and the prophets they had been made to see Christ, not as one who was to be crucified, nor merely as one who had been crucified some years in the past, but as one plainly and visibly crucified among them. And it is from those ancient writings alone that he proceeded to revive their languishing faith and zeal.

Theirs had been a thorough conversion, for they had received the Spirit, and had suffered persecution for Christ's sake. So the Apostle asks, "Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" Verse 2. They had heard the words of the law, and had received them in faith, and thus the righteousness of the law had been wrought in them by the Spirit. "This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent." John vi. 29. The Apostle was not depreciating the law, but only rebuking their changed relation to it. When they heard it in faith, they received the Spirit, and it was well with them; but when they began to trust in the flesh to perform the righteousness of the law, they ceased to obey the truth.

Again the Apostle asks, "He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" Gal. iii. 5. It is a question admitting but the obvious answer that it was through the hearing of faith, "even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness." Verse 6. They, like Abraham, had been justified-made righteous-by faith, not by works. Before we proceed further, let us have a few definitions. "Sin is the transgression of the law," (1 John iii. 4), and "all unrighteousness is sin." 1 John v. 17. Therefore it follows that all unrighteousness is transgression of the law, and just as evidently that all righteousness is obedience to the law. So when we read that Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness, we may know that his faith was accounted to him for obedience to the law.

This accounting of faith for righteousness was not an empty form to Abraham, nor is it to us. Remember that the accounting is done by God, who cannot lie, yet who calls things that are not as though they were, by the power by which He makes the dead live. Abraham actually possessed righteousness. Faith works. "This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent." "With the heart man believeth unto righteousness." Rom. x. 10.

This little digression will help us to bear in mind that in the chapter before us there is no disparagement of the law, but the righteousness, which is the fruit of faith, is always obedience to the law of God.

Abraham is the father of all them that believe. "Know therefore that they which be of faith, the same are the sons of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached beforehand the Gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all the nations be blessed." Gal. iii. 7, 8. The Gospel which was preached to Abraham is the same that is for "all people,"

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and which "shall be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all nations." To "every creature" it is to be preached, and whoever believes it and is baptized, shall be saved. But in the Gospel "the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith." The Gospel is preached "for the obedience of faith." Obedience carries a blessing with it, for it is written, "Blessed are they that do His commandments." "So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham." Verse 9.

THE CURSE OF THE LAW

"For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." Gal. iii. 10.

A careless reading of this verse, or, perhaps, of the first part only, has led some to believe that the law itself, and obedience to it, is a curse. But a thoughtful reading of the last portion of the verse shows that such an idea is a grave error. "For it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." The curse is not for obedience, but for disobedience. Not the man who continues in all things that are written in the law, but the man who does not continually do all things written in the law, is the one who is cursed. Not a part only, but the whole, must be done; not a part of the time only, but continually. The one who does not that is cursed: therefore the man who should do that would be blessed.

In the ninth and tenth verses of this chapter we have the same contrast of blessing and cursing that is presented in Deut. xi 26-28: "Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; a blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day; and a curse if ye will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God." On the one hand we have in one group, faith, obedience, righteousness, blessing, life; on the other hand we find bound together in one bundle, unbelief, disobedience, sin, the curse, death. The grouping is not in the least affected by the age in which one lives.

"But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident; for, The just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith; but the man that doeth them shall live in them." Gal. iii. 11, 12.

"The man that doeth them shall live in them;" but no man has done them; "for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Therefore no man can find life in the law. Thus it is that "the commandment which was ordained unto life," is "found to be unto death." Rom. vii. 10. And so it is that whoever attempts to keep the law by his own works, is under the curse; and to set the law before people who do not receive it in faith, is but the ministration of death to them. The curse of the law is the death which it inflicts upon the transgressors of it.

But "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree." Gal. iii. 13. Here we have fresh evidence that death is the curse of the law, since death was what Christ suffered on the tree. "The wages of sin is death;" and Christ was made "to be sin for us." 2 Cor. v. 21. The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all," and "by His stripes we are healed." Isa. liii. 5, 6. It is not from obedience to the law, that Christ has redeemed us, but from its transgression, and from death, which comes by sin. His sacrifice was in order "that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us." Rom. viii. 4.

Now this truth, that "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us," was as much a truth in the days of Israel at Sinai as it is to-day. More than seven hundred years before the cross was raised on Calvary, Isaiah, whose own sin had been purged by a live coal from God's altar, and who knew whereof he spoke, said: Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows;" "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed." This is identical with Gal. iii. 13.

Again, Isaiah wrote, with special reference to the children of Israel in their wanderings in the wilderness: "In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the Angel of His presence saved them; in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bare them, and carried them all the days of old." Isa. lxiii. 9. And it is to David, long before the days of Isaiah, that we are indebted for those soul-cheering words: "He hath not dwelt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities." "As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us." Ps. ciii. 10, 12. That language describes an accomplished fact. Salvation was as complete in those days as it is to-day.

Christ is "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world;" and from the days of Abel until now He has redeemed from the curse of the law all who have believed on Him. Abraham received the blessing of righteousness; and "they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham."

This is made still more evident from the statement that Christ was made a curse for us, "that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." Gal. iii. 14. To Abraham, and to those who are his children by faith, no matter what their nation or language, belong all the blessings that come by means of Christ's cross; and all the blessings of the cross of Christ are only those which Abraham had. No wonder that he rejoiced and was glad to see the day of Christ. Christ's death on the cross brings to us only the blessing of Abraham. Nothing more could be asked or imagined.

THE COVENANT UNALTERED

"Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; though it be but a man's covenant, yet, if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth or addeth thereto. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, and to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect." Gal. iii. 15-17.

The first statement is very simple: No man can disannul, take from, or add to, even a man's covenant, if it be once confirmed.

The conclusion is equally simple. God made a covenant with Abraham, and confirmed it with a oath. "Men verily swear by the greater; and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His council, confirmed it by an oath; that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us." Heb. vi. 16-18. Therefore that covenant, which was confirmed in Christ by God's oath pledging His own existence to its fulfilment, could never afterwards be changed one iota. Not one jot or tittle could pass from it or be added to it while God lives.

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Note the statement that "to Abraham and his seed were the promises made." And the seed is Christ. All the promises to Abraham were confirmed in Christ. "Promises," remember, and not simply a promise. "For how many soever be the promises of God, in Him is the yea; wherefore also through Him is the Amen, unto the glory of God through us." 2 Cor. i. 20.

OUR HOPE ALSO

Note also again that the covenant made with Abraham, and confirmed in Christ by God's oath, is that which gives us our hope in Christ. It was confirmed by the oath, in order that we might have strong consolation in fleeing for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us. The sum of the covenant was righteousness by faith in Jesus crucified, as shown by the words of Peter: "Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Unto you first God, having raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities." Acts iii. 25, 26.

The cross of Christ, and the blessing of sins forgiven, existed therefore, not only at Sinai, but in the days of Abraham. Salvation was no surer the day that Jesus rose from the tomb than it was the day that Isaac carried the wood for his own sacrifice up Mount Moriah; for God's promise and oath are two "immutable things." Though it be but a man's covenant, "yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto." How much more so, then, when it is God's own covenant, confirmed by an oath pledging his own life! That covenant embraced the salvation of mankind. Therefore it is a fact that, saying nothing of previous time, after God's promise and oath to Abraham not a single new feature could be introduced into the plan of salvation. Not one duty less or more could be enjoined or required, nor could there by any possibility be any variation in the conditions of salvation.

Therefore the entering of the law at Sinai could not contribute any new feature to the covenant made with Abraham and confirmed in Christ, nor could it in any way whatever interfere with the promise. The covenant, that was confirmed beforehand by God in Christ, cannot by any means be disannulled, or its promises made of none effect, by the law spoken four hundred and thirty years afterward.

Yet the law was to be kept, and if it was not kept, death was sure. Not one jot or one tittle could by any means be abated from the law. "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." Now since the giving of the law at Sinai added nothing to the covenant with Abraham, and yet that law must be perfectly kept, it follows that the law was in the covenant made with Abraham. The righteousness that was confirmed to Abraham by that covenant-the righteousness which Abraham had by faith-was the righteousness of the law that was proclaimed on Sinai. And this is further evident from the fact that Abraham received circumcision as a seal of the righteousness which he had by faith, and circumcision stood simply for the keeping of the law. Rom. ii. 25-29.

The oath of God to Abraham pledged the putting of the righteousness of God, which is fully outlined in the ten commandments, into and upon every believer. The covenant being confirmed in Christ, and the law being in the covenant, it most surely follows that God's requirements for Christians in these days are not a particle different from what they were in the days of Abraham. The giving of the law introduced no new element.

"Wherefore then the law?" A pertinent question, and one that is fairly answered. If the law made no change whatever in the terms of the covenant made with Abraham, what was the use of giving it? The answer is, "It was added¹⁰1 because of transgression;" (Gal. iii. 19); it "entered that the offense might abound." Rom. v. 20. It was not "against the promises of God," Gal. iii. 21, but directly in harmony with them; for the promises of God are all through righteousness, and the law is the standard of righteousness. It was necessary for the offence to be made to abound, "that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord." Conviction necessarily precedes conversion. The inheritance could be obtained only through righteousness, although it was wholly by promise; for righteousness is the "gift of grace." But in order that men may appreciate the promises of God, they must be made to feel their need of them. The law, given in such as awful manner, was for the purpose of letting them know how impossible it was for them to get its righteousness by their own strength, and thus to let them know what God was anxious to supply them with."

CHRIST THE MEDIATOR

And this is emphasised by the fact that it was ordained "in the hands of a Mediator." Who was that Mediator?-"Now a Mediator is not a Mediator of one, but God is one." Gal. iii. 20. "For there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." 1 Tim. ii. 5. Jesus Christ was therefore the One who gave the law upon Sinai; and He gave it in His capacity of Mediator between God and men. And so, although it was impossible that there could be a law given which could give life, the law which was death to unbelieving sinners was in the hands of a Mediator who gives His own life, which is the law in its living perfection. In Him death is swallowed up, and life takes its place; He bears the curse of the law, and the blessing of it comes to us. This brings us to the fact that at Sinai we find Calvary, for the further consideration of which we must wait till another number.

"How God Rules" The Present Truth 12, 47.

E. J. Waggoner

"Whithersoever the Spirit was to go, they went, thither was their spirit to go." Eze. i. 20. This is said of the living creatures that compose God's throne, and is therefore a description of the perfection of God's Government. He rules not by arbitrary command, but by His own Spirit of life. The description of God's throne is at the same time a statement of the way in which all God's people will obey Him, when they allow His will to be done on earth as it is of heaven. With the Spirit of life in them, they will be actuated by the mind of God Himself. As He thinks, they will act; whithersoever the Spirit moves, thither will they go. What a blessing to be subject to a King who can actually instil His own perfect life into His followers!

"Have They Counted the Cost?" The Present Truth 12, 47.

E. J. Waggoner

One item in Lord Salisbury's speech on Lord Mayor's Day deserves the serious consideration of those who, while professing themselves advocates of peace, are clamouring for England's intervention (single-handed if other powers are not willing to join her) to settle the Turkish-Armenian question. Said he:-

If you desire by force and against the will of the existing (Turkish) Government, to amend the government and to protect the industry and security of the inhabitants of the Turkish provinces, you can only do it by military occupation. Military occupation is a very large undertaking. It requires a great military force. No fleet in the world can do it. No fleet in the world can go upon the mountains of Taurus in order to protect the Armenians. Mr. Courtney has poured intense contempt upon those who have paraded the incapacity of Great Britain to succour the Armenians in the present case. Well, what Great Britain might do if she is exhausted all her forces, I will not pretend to say; but if you wish to execute an operation which is a military occupation, and which requires the command of a very large army, you must begin by establishing conscription in this country, and until you do that it is absurd to talk of any exhibition of incapacity. If you have not got a horse to ride on, it is not an exhibition of incapacity that you do not ride it. If you have not got a great army, it is not an exhibition of incapacity that you do not use it for these gigantic operations.

It is easier to conjure up the evil spirit than to lay it again. Conscription once established, would mean that England would always be a military camp,-simply a fighting machine. But machines are made only for use; and when all the nations of the world become mere fighting machines, we have simply the plant for universal war. Are those who thoughtlessly clamour for Turkey's annihilation ready for this?

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 47.

E. J. Waggoner

-There are 260,000 Scotchmen in London,-as many as in Edinburgh.

-A despatch states that the Transvaal demands a million pounds as damages for the Jameson raid.

-There are 600,000 children in the London Board schools, and 230,000 in the Voluntary schools.

-Excitement continues to disturb Crete, and in Macedonia there are frequent conflicts between Greek and Turkish bands.

-The Salvation Army has Invaded Japan. The same tactics are followed as in India, the customs of the people together with the native dress are adopted.

-The New Zealand legislature has before it a bill fining any sea captain who shall bring into New Zealand a person afflicted with consumption, or who shall develop the disease within three months after landing.

-A school has been established in toe Chinese quarters of New York City especially for the benefit of the children of the Chinese. It is proving very successful, and it is hoped will become a means of influencing the parents of the children.

-Marguerite Boyenval, of the little French village of Origny-Sainte-Benoite, has slept continuously for thirteen years. She fell into this condition at nineteen years of age, and no efforts of medical experts have been sufficient to awaken her.

-The largest shipyards in the world are those of Harland and Wolff, of Belfast, Ireland. The works employ at present over 9,000 skilled work-men and apprentices. Since its organisation the firm has turned out over 1,010,000 tons of ocean-going craft.

-Some time ago the Pope and his organs were glorying in their triumph over Italy, as it was thought Menelik, of Abyssinia, had granted the Pope's petition to release his Italian prisoners. But the Emperor has refused to give up his prisoners before Italy makes peace.

-A party of Japanese engineers and metallurgists, commissioned to make a tour of inspection of the great steel works of Europe and America, has just set out on its journey. The visit is in connection with a scheme to construct among the coal-fields of Japan a plant for steel manufacture, with a capacity of 100,000 tons, at a cost of ?400,000.

-Locusts are a great scourge on the island of Cyprus, and it is said that during the last three years the Government has bought and destroyed eight and a-half tons of the insects. The pries paid for them was ?16,400, and it is estimated that the number of locusts thus exterminated was 1,390,000,000. So the locust hunters got a farthing for eighty-five locusts. Notwithstanding the efforts made it is said the insects multiply as fast as they are destroyed.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 47.

E. J. Waggoner

It is not enough to know the right way. Divine power is needed continually in order to walk in it. "Hold up my goings in Thy paths," prayed the Psalmist, "that my footsteps slip not."

A professor in Peking University says that the Emperor of China is reading the New Testament. It promises to him no more than to the humblest of his subjects, but it is to be hoped that when the Scripture is read at the palace, it may have the effect of causing others to examine it.

Addressing the new German recruits last week the Emperor identified military service with the service of Christ. Militarism is coming to be as much a religion as in the early pagan times, when Christians were sent to the lions for refusing to burn incense to the genius of Roman government.

Political writers have made the money question a part of the religious liberty question and use and abuse Scripture freely in support of the view they hold. Bankers and money holders are denounced in no measured terms, and it is made a part of true Christianity to drive them from the land, or at least from any position of power or influence. The only way in which we can avoid fighting against God, according to these writers, is to shout and vote for free silver; while on the other hand the other party are sure that the man who is not heart and soul committed to the gold standard is an anarchist or an abettor of anarchy, guilty of breaking the commandments, and therefore all laws, if not quite, without God in the world, and having no hope. The worst is that on both sides of the question are found members of the same church, calling one another "brother" and yet indulging in these amenities toward one another. This, however, is inevitable when professed Christians engage in politics.

The question is not confined to the United States; it is everywhere the same, only it has been brought to special prominence in America during the recent campaign. We have no opinion to express one way or the other on the question of political finance, but we wish to call attention to the fact that many are making a religion out of that which the Bible warns against. That there will be oppression in the last days, is clearly pointed out, but it is nowhere intimated that the oppressed should turn on their oppressors. On the contrary, the Lord says to those who have become rich by unlawful means, "Ye have condemned and killed the just, and he doth not resist you;" and then the poor are exhorted to be patient until the coming of the Lord. James v. 6, 7.

This making a religious question out of the money and labour question, comes by a natural and easy grade from the idea that religious liberty is more or less a political question, to be advanced by political arguments, and that Christians must "stand for their rights." Wherever the question of human rights is raised, and men, whether professed Christians or not, start a crusade against oppressors, and elevate the demand for their rights to the level of the Gospel, there must inevitably be envy and strife; and "where envy and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work." When Christians recognise and act in accordance with the fact that they have nothing to do with seeking to maintain their rights, but have only to acknowledge God's right to their service, leaving Him to defend their cause, then will they be free from all responsibility for the using of the name of Christianity in the service of political strife and personal ambition.

"War and Prize-fighting" The Present Truth 12, 47.

E. J. Waggoner

War and Prize-fighting .-One of the most popular British authors in a recent book defends prize-fighting:-

It is a less evil that two men should, of their own free will, fight until they can't fight no more, than that the standard of hardihood and endurance should run the slightest risk of being lowered in a nation which depends largely upon the individual qualities of her citizens for her defence. Do away with war, if the cursed thing can by any wit of man be avoided, but until you can see your way to that, have a care to meddling with those primitive qualities to which at any moment you may have to appeal for your own protection.

That is a clear and candid acknowledgement of the fact that most people overlook or forget, namely, that the spirit which prompts nations to go to war is exactly the same spirit that prompts Bill and Jack to pummel each other on the street or in the public-house, whenever they fancy that their rights have been invaded or their "honour" insulted. Yet men who would scorn to be engaged in a street brawl, or even to be seen at the more dignified prize-fight, count it one of the highest honours possible, to be known as having fought in battle, especially if they were in the army that won.

Greater Numbers, Greater Wickedness .-This shows the magic influence of numbers. Where one boy is afraid to go alone, on account of a real or imaginary danger, He will go boldly if he but has a dozen companions, each as helpless as himself. So the man who would be ashamed to be seen mauling a single individual, is proud of the fact that he with a few thousand other men engaged in a similar row. Both are disgraceful and wicked, yet if there be any difference the advantage is on the side of the two men in the street fracas. In this case the men are fighting because they feel they have been personally injured, and their blows are directed to the particular objects of their hatred; while in that which is called war thousands of men who have not been injured or insulted, and have no personal grievance whatever, fight and kill others whom they have never seen. Numbers, instead of diminishing the crime and the disgrace, only make it the more senseless and wicked.

"The Gospel of Selfishness" The Present Truth 12, 47.

E. J. Waggoner

The apostle Paul warned Timothy with regard to men who indulged in questions and strifes of words, whereof come envy and strife, "supposing that gain is godliness." 1 Tim. vi. 4, 5. Never before, perhaps, was this warning needed as now. The late election in the United States, which turned wholly upon the question of money, has exhibited such a mingling of politics and religion, or rather, has made politics into religion in a way never before known. A despatch before the election said:-

In New York all the religious teachers of all the denominations have just united in an appeal on behalf of the Republican candidate; in Chicago, observers all bear witness to the fact that the enthusiasm for the Democrat [candidate] takes the form of a wave of religious enthusiasm.

November 26, 1896

"Fasting and Prayer" The Present Truth 12, 48.

E. J. Waggoner

When Jesus was on earth He taught His disciples how to pray, and the Bible abounds with instruction on this point, both by direct precept and by illustration; yet of the number of those who profess to pray, comparatively few have rightly understood what real prayer to God is. What wonder, then, that the matter of fasting, which is associated with prayer, has been very generally misunderstood? The Bible, however, gives us as clear instruction, even if less in quantity, on this point as upon the other.

In the prophecy of Joel we find fasting explicitly commanded, and that with special reference to the last days-the time just before the coming of "the great and dreadful day of the Lord." "Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God, and cry unto the Lord." Joel i. 14. Again: "Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, and gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children, . . . Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare Thy people, O Lord, and give not Thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them; wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God? Then will the Lord be jealous for His land, and pity His people, yea, the Lord will answer." Joel ii. 15-18.

Christ has also indicated that His people should fast often in the days between His ascension and His return to this earth. When the disciples of John asked Him, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but Thy disciples fast not?" He replied, "Can the children of the bride-chamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast in those days." Matt. ix. 14, 15.

From the instances recorded in the Old Testament, we find that fasting was resorted to in times of great perplexity and distress, in extreme need, when special help and blessings from the Lord were desired. When Esther was about to go in before King Ahasuerus, to seek deliverance for her people from the destruction decreed against them, she said to Mordecai, "Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day; I also with my maidens will fast likewise, and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law." Esther iv. 16. We all know the successful results.

Fasting was resorted to by Ezra, when he was on his way to Jerusalem to restore the city and the worship of God. He had a difficult and dangerous journey before

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him. "Thus I proclaimed a fast, at the river Ahava, that we might afflict ourselves before God, to seek of Him a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance. For I was ashamed to require of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy in the way; because we had spoken unto the king, saying, The hand of our God is upon them for good that seek him; but His power and His wrath is against all them that forsake Him. So we fasted and besought our God for this; and He was entreated of us." Ezra viii. 21-23.

WHAT FASTING IS

Fasting, in itself, whether as a religious act or otherwise, is entire abstinence from food and drink. The case of Daniel (Dan. x. 2, 3) is sometimes referred to as indicating that eating to a certain extent is compatible with fasting; but the careful reader will note that Daniel does not say that he was fasting, but that he was "mourning three full weeks," in which time he "ate no pleasant bread." A person may mourn without fasting, and this Daniel did. Whenever instances of fasting are recorded in the Bible, we find that neither food nor drink was taken during the time of the fast. It is as impossible for a person to be fasting while eating and drinking, as it is to be awake and asleep at the same time, or to be at once running and sitting still. Our common word "breakfast," indicates this. The longest period of abstinence from food is in the night, when we are asleep. When the morning comes, we break our fast by partaking of food, and we do this even though our breakfast be very light. At the ninth hour of the day Cornelius said "Four days ago I was fasting until this hour." Acts x. 30. If we should substitute, "Four days ago I ate very little until three o'clock in the afternoon," it would make the whole affair ridiculous. So it is senseless when pope or bishops prescribe how much may be eaten during a so-called fast. Each individual must decide for himself whether or not he will fast, and also at what time and how long; but no one can possibly have the choice of eating or not eating during a fast, for as soon as anything is eaten fast ceases.

THE OBJECT OF FASTING

What is the use of fasting? What is it for? From its connection with prayer, and from the Scriptures that we have read, it is evident that it is for the purpose of gaining special help and strength from the Lord, for the performance of some necessary work or the overcoming of some peculiarly strong temptation. This is indicated in the Lord's description of an acceptable fast, where He says, "Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to lose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?" Isa. lviii. 7.

But while fasting means special earnestness and importunity in prayer, it must not be considered as a penance, nor as buying the favour of God by the mortification of the body. God does not delight in human suffering, and we could not buy His favour even with the sacrifice of our lives. He bestows His grace freely, because He is love and mercy; and as an evidence of His favour He has given Himself for us. Christian prayer is not like heathen prayer. The heathen think that they shall be heard for their much speaking (Matt. vi. 7), and in their importunity they lacerate themselves and afflict their bodies. See 1 Kings xviii. 28. God's servants do not do so, for they know that God is their Father, tender and loving, that He knows what we have need of before we ask Him, and that He has already richly provided every necessary thing for us. Read Matt. vi. 8; Rom. viii. 32; Eph. i. 3; 2 Peter i. 2, 3. True prayer is therefore simply the claiming of the promises of God with thanksgiving (Phil. iv. 6); by faith demonstrating the reality of those promises. Since fasting means special emphasis in prayer, it of course means special confidence in God's word, and an exceptionally strong grasp of and dependence upon His promises. Fasting with prayer indicates such complete dependence on God's word, that we for a season depend on it instead of on the ordinary means of sustaining life.

LIVING BY GOD'S WORD

That God's word is indeed food, is clearly set forth in the Scriptures. Jesus said that we should eat His flesh, "for My flesh is meat indeed." John vi. 55. Afterwards He showed that we take His flesh through the word that He speaks. Verse 63. Therefore since His flesh is meat indeed, His words are likewise real food.

Jeremiah said, "Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart." Jer. xv. 16. Moses told the children of Israel that God suffered them to hunger, and then fed them with manna, "that He might make them know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live." Deut. viii. 3. These words have special significance in connection with fasting, because Christ quoted them when the devil tempted Him to break His fast by turning stones into bread. Matt. iv. 3, 4.

This is not a mere figure of speech, but a reality. It is a literal fact that men live by God's word, whether they realise it or not. By the word of the Lord everything came into existence (Ps. xxxiii. 6), and by the same word are they still upheld. Heb. xi. 3. There is no question but that we live by the food we eat. But all the life there is in the food we eat, is the life that is in the growing plants, and that life comes from the word which said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed after his kind," etc. Gen. i. 11. Although God has ordained that ordinarily we shall obtain life from His word through the grains and fruits which that word causes the earth to bring forth, it is certainly as possible to live directly from the word as from the grain, which gets its life-giving power only from the Lord. When Daniel was absolutely destitute of physical strength, he received full strength at once from the words spoken by the angel of God. Dan. x. 17, 18.

Many suppose that fasting is simply for the purpose of making the mind clearer. It does indeed for a time have that affect on one whose mind is beclouded by over-eating, but not on one who habitually eats only according to his needs. Our brain power, as well as our muscular force, is derived from the food that we eat. If under ordinary conditions we go without food for an unusually long time, we become weak in body, and our thinking power is correspondingly weakened. A brain worker requires more nourishment than one who exercises only his muscles. The natural effect of fasting is to diminish one's thinking power, as well as to weaken the body.

FASTING NOT PENANCE

Are we then to understand that fasting is after all only a sort of penance, a modification of the body?-Not by any means. Instead of its being a burden, it is the means of undoing the heavy burdens (Isa. lviii. 6); instead of being a sorrowful affair, it is a matter of choice and gladness, for Jesus said that when we fast we should not be of a sad countenance, but should

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anoint the head, an act indicating rejoicing. Matt. vi. 17. So in immediate connection with the exhortation to fast, we read also, "Be glad then, ye children of Zion; and rejoice in the Lord your God; for He hath given you the former rain moderately, and He will cause to come down for you the former rain and the latter rain." Joel ii. 23. God's people are to rejoice in Him all the time (Phil. iv. 4; 1 Thess. v. 16), and especially in view of Christ's near coming (Luke xxi. 28); and yet they are to fast at times. Do we fast because we are in trouble?-We are commanded to rejoice and be of good cheer in tribulation. John xvi. 33. Do we fast because we desire deliverance from temptation?-The exhortation is, "My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations." James i. 2. There is no time when a man has so good a cause for rejoicing as when he is mourning for his sins; because mourning for sins implies acknowledgement of them; and "if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John i. 9. "Blessed are they that mourn; for they shall be comforted."

"But how can we rejoice when both the mental and physical powers are almost exhausted by fasting?" That question arises from a misconception of what an acceptable fast is. An acceptable fast is not the mortification of the body, for God does not delight in that; but it is coming into the closest possible connection with God's Word. It is true that the natural result of a protracted abstinence from food is exhaustion of the powers of the body and mind; but a fast to the Lord is not like a forced fast, where one is all the time longing for food. On the contrary, an acceptable fast is one in which we take the living Word in the place of ordinary food, and are so supported by it as not for the time to be conscious of the absence of ordinary food. Note particularly the fact that when Jesus had fasted forty days and forty nights, "He afterward hungered." Luke iv. 2. Naturally, He would have hungered during that time of fasting, in conflict with the devil; but His mind was instead occupied with God's Word, which for the time was food both to body and soul.

He who, while fasting, has a continual longing for food, and who by force of will resists the desire to eat, because he has determined to abstain for a certain length of time, is fasting to little or no purpose. His fast does not indicate undivided faith in God's Word. Instead of thinking only of God and His all-powerful Word, he is thinking largely of himself. Of such a wavering, but doubting one, the apostle says: "Let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord." James i. 7.

Whoever fasts should have some definite object in view. This is self-evident, for fasting is inseparably connected with prayer, and prayer that has no definite object is only empty words. The faster must desire special grace for overcoming, or to help in some special time of need. Then when his confidence in God's living Word is so vivid and strong that he takes it as the reality that it is, and lives for a season upon it instead of upon his ordinary food, he knows that he has his heart's desire. God, who by His Word supports the physical wants, will much more supply the more essential spiritual needs. By our fasting we indicate that the Word of God is indeed our life, and that of course means that we fully yield ourselves to it. We show our dependence on God's Word, and our confidence in it for all things that pertain to eternal life and godliness, by taking it for a season absolutely for the support of our physical necessities, letting it take the place of ordinary food, and deriving equal or greater strength from the Word than from ordinary food. Thus the mind is indeed more clear through fasting.

The effect does not end with the season of fasting, but from that time we realise and acknowledge more fully than ever before that even while eating our daily food we are living only by God's Word, which works effectually in all who believe. This recognition of our dependence on God,-the knowledge that He not only gives us our food, but is able to sustain us by His Word when food is lacking,-tends directly to that dealing of our bread to the hungry, which characterises a true fast. Isa. lviii. 7. As we receive the gift, we minister the same to others, "as good stewards of the manifold grace of God." 1 Peter iv. 10.

May our perception of God's Word, and our confidence in it be so great that we may fast in spirit and in truth, and thus experience the fulness of the promise, "Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy health shall spring forth speedily; and thy righteousness shall go before thee; and the glory of the Lord shall be thy rearward. . . . And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones; and thou shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not." Isa. lviii. 8-11.

"The Curse of Militarism" The Present Truth 12, 48.

E. J. Waggoner

The Prime Minister's recent hint of the possible necessity for military conscription in this country, is not the first one that has been dropped in the speeches of those in authority. The curse of the Continent is waiting only for some serious reverse to fasten itself upon British soil. In the meantime it behoves Christians to study the relation of the believer in Christ to civil governments and the strifes that must of necessity pertain to their administration.

A newspaper correspondent called attention the other day to the military displays connected with nearly every demonstration, such as those at the Lord Mayor's procession, which many who talk for peace accept approvingly as a matter of course, without appreciating the fact that these things leaven the public with the spirit of fight. The correspondent rightly said that it is this unconscious advocacy of militarism on the part of even those connected with the churches that is doing much to encourage the war feeling. It manifests itself in literature everywhere, from school-books to religious newspapers.

At the recent Manchester Conference of the Peace Society, Dr. Maclaren's message was that the principles of the Society should be upheld even in view of the feeling regarding events in Turkey, and he truly said that to appeal to the sword was "setting Satan to cast out Satan." Of course it is; and yet the strongest note in the conference was that "they might have worse things than war." It shows how little can be expected from Peace societies when angry feelings run high. At the International Congress of Peace Societies at Buda-Pesth the resolution disapproving of duelling was hotly contested by three of the delegates. It only shows that it is useless to look to human organisations to lift up any effectual barriers against militarism. The work of the Gospel is to make peace between men and God, and wherever a heart surrenders to God the spirit of militarism and nationalism must go.

"A Straw in the Wind" The Present Truth 12, 48.

E. J. Waggoner

The trustees of the churches known as the Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion have applied to the High Court for permission to change the articles of faith, "particularly in the way of modifying the strong language they contained respecting the Pope of Rome." It is a straw showing which way the wind is blowing.

"The Promises to Israel. Sinai and Calvary" The Present Truth 12, 48.

E. J. Waggoner

"Remember ye the law of Moses My servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and Judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord; and he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse," or, literally, "with utter destruction." Mal. iv. 5, 6.

Notice how intimately the tender, converting work of the Spirit of God is connected with the law that was spoken from Horeb. For Sinai is Horeb, as we learn from Deut. iv. 10-14, where we read the words of Moses, the servant of God:-

"Thou stoodest before the Lord thy God in Horeb, when the Lord said unto me. Gather Me the people together, and I will make them hear My words. . . . and ye came near and stood under the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire unto the midst of heaven, with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness. And the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire. . . . and He declared unto you His covenant, which He commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and He wrote them upon two tables of stone. And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it."

When the Lord tells us to remember the law which He commanded in Horeb, or Sinai, it is that we may know the power with which He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, that they may be prepared for the terrible day of His coming. "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul." Ps. xix. 7.

THE RIVEN ROCK

When God spoke the law from Sinai, that living stream of water which gushed forth from the smitten rock in Horeb, was still flowing. If it had ceased to flow, the Israelites would have been in as bad a condition as before, for it was their only water supply, their only hope of life. It was from Horeb, whence the water came that restored their life, that God spoke the law. The law came from the same rock whence the water was already flowing, "and that Rock was Christ." 1 Cor. x. 4.

Sinai is rightly regarded as a synonym for the law; but it is no more so than Christ is; nay, not so much, for in Him it is life. Jesus said, "I delight to do Thy will, O My God; yea, Thy law is within My heart." Ps. xl. 8. The law was therefore Christ's life, for out of the heart are the issues of life. Prov. iv. 23.

"He was bruised for our iniquities;" and "with His stripes we are healed." When He was smitten and wounded on Calvary, the life-blood flowed from His heart, and that stream still flows for us. But in His heart is the law; and so as we drink by faith from the life-giving stream, we drink in the righteousness of the law of God. The law comes to us as a stream of grace, a river of life. Both "grace and truth come by Jesus Christ." John i. 17. When we believe in Him, the law is not to us merely "the voice of words," but a fountain of life.

Now all this was at Sinai. Christ, the giver of the law, was the Rock smitten in Horeb, which is Sinai. That stream was the life of those who drank, and none of those who received it in thoughtful gratitude could fail to know that it came direct from their Lord-the Lord of all the earth. They might have been assured of His tender love for them, and of the fact that He was their life, and hence their righteousness. So although they could not approach the mountain without dying-an evidence that the law is death to men out of Christ-they could drink of the stream that flowed from it, and thus in the life of Christ drink in the righteousness of the law.

The words spoken from Sinai, coming from the same Rock whence came the water which was the life of the people, showed the nature of the righteousness that Christ would impart to them. While it was "a fiery law," it was at the same time a gently-flowing stream of life. Because the prophet Isaiah knew that Christ was the Rock smitten at Sinai, and that even then He was the One Mediator, "the man Christ Jesus; who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time," he could say, "He was wounded for our transgressions," "and with His stripes we are healed."

For the ancient Israelites there was emphasised the lesson that the law comes as life to men only through the cross of Christ. For us there is the same lesson, together with the other side of it, namely, that the righteousness which comes to us through the life given to us on the cross, is precisely that which is required by the ten commandments, and none other. Let us read them:-

WHAT GOD SPAKE

1. "I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the Land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage; Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.

2. "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, nor any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; thou shalt not bow down

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thyself to them, nor serve them, for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation¹¹1 of them that hate Me; and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me, and keep My commandments.

3. "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain.

4. "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.

5. "Honour thy father and thy mother; that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

6. "Thou shalt not kill.

7. "Thou shalt not commit adultery.

8. "Thou shalt not steal.

9. "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

10. "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbour's."

This is the law that was uttered amid the terrors of Sinai, by the lips of Him whose life it was and is, and from whom had come the stream which was at that moment flowing-His own life given for the people. The Cross, with its healing, life-giving stream was at Sinai, and hence the Cross cannot possibly make any change in the law. The life proceeding from Christ at Sinai as at Calvary, shows that the righteousness which is revealed in the Gospel is none other than that of the ten commandments. Not one jot nor one tittle could pass away. The awfulness of Sinai was at Calvary, in the thick darkness, the earthquake, and the great voice of the Son of God. The smitten rock and the flowing stream at Sinai represented Calvary; Calvary was there; so that it is an actual fact that from Calvary the ten commandments are proclaimed in the identical words that were heard from Sinai. Calvary, not less than Sinai, reveals the terrible and unchanging holiness of the law of God, so terrible and so unchangeable that it spared not even the Son of God when "He was reckoned among the transgressors." But however great the terror inspired by the law, the hope by grace is even greater; for "where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." Back of all stands the oath of God's covenant of grace, assuring the perfect righteousness and life of the law in Christ; so that although the law spoke death, it only showed what great things God had promised to do for those who believe. It teaches us to have no confidence in the flesh, but to worship God in the Spirit, and to rejoice in Christ Jesus. Thus God was proving His people, that they might know that "man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live." Deut. viii. 3.

So the law is not against the promises of God, even though it cannot give life. On the contrary, it backs up those promises in thunder tones; for with God's oath ever steadfast, the greatest requirement of the law is to the ear of faith but a promise of its fulfillment. And so, taught by the Lord Jesus, we may "know that His commandment is life everlasting."

"Suicide in Japan" The Present Truth 12, 48.

E. J. Waggoner

A native Japanese statistician has prepared an essay on suicide in Japan in which statistics are presented showing that the prevalence of suicide in that country is in direct relation to the stress of pecuniary conditions. During the last ten years the proportion of suicides yearly has been in exact ratio with the variations in the price of rice, the staple food of the country. The yearly and half-yearly periods for the settlement of the amounts are the months in which the tide of suicide regularly renders its flood.

It seems to be the view of the Japanese, as of the ancient Roman, that his life is his own, and that he has a perfect right to do what he likes with his own. From a pagan point of view this is reasonable, and when one considers the prevalence of an educated paganism throughout the civilised world where the trials of life are greater, and its disappointments much keener than in uncivilised lands, one simply wonders that there are not more suicides than there are.

There must, indeed, inevitably come a time to every man, whose life is in and for himself, instead of being hid in Christ, in which he feels the utter futility, worthlessness, of his existence. It is only true religion, pure and undefiled, which enables a man to patiently, persistently, and courageously struggle on, steadily climbing the stepping stones of his dead self to the higher things.

"The Churches Teaching War" The Present Truth 12, 48.

E. J. Waggoner

THE BOYS' BRIGADE

The church and the Sunday-school, in some parts, have actually become the nursery of the Army. This is true at the present time throughout so-called Christian nations. This movement for the organisation of Sunday-school pupils into military companies, officered, drilled, uniformed, and equipped, originated in this country. It has now been adopted everywhere. Many of these companies are furnished with genuine fire arms and swords. In a published description of one of these organisations of Sunday-school soldiers, it is said, "No small degree of charm for the boys is added by the fact that the very guns they handle were once used in real fighting." This article continues to say further:-

"The company is put through all the evolutions in accordance with regular military tactics; is taught to march and counter-march, to execute many different formations, and to do the whole of the manual of arms and the bayonet exercise. This last is a particularly pretty drill, calculated to give the soldier a free use of his weapon and an easy, strong wrist. In a recent entertainment and exhibition given by the corps, this part of their work elicited a great deal of applause. In addition to the infantry exercises an artillery drill has been established, and a 'dummy' or wooden cannon having been built in exact reproduction of a genuine field-piece, a squad of picked boys from the company have been taught to handle it. They go through the field drill, as the loading and firing, going into action in every direction, changing the wheels and dismounting

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the piece by taking the cannon from off its carriage and the wheels from the axle, so that it is entirely dismembered, and setting it up again, all with precision, and each cannonier doing his part of the work exactly as regular soldiers are taught to do it. Ambulance and signal corps have also been organised, and during the mock action the former carries off the wounded while the latter signals for assistance."

An exhibition drill of this company is, in part, described thus:-

"One little boy, the smallest of the lot, and not over four feet two inches tall, went through all the elaborate movements of infantry drill, bayonet exercise and artillery drill without an error, and was the avowed favourite of the ladies. Round after round of applause were showered upon the corps on this occasion, and greatly appreciated by the little soldiers. At this drill a sham battle was given, the artillery firing on an imaginary enemy until it was supposed to bring up its cavalry to capture the gun. Then the artillery men signalled to the infantry to come to their support. The cannoniers dismounted their piece, and all laid down until the supposed enemy was driven off by the infantry to fire, then mounted their piece again to give them a few farewell shots. During this action the instructor called out the numbers of the boys at intervals, and as each was designated he fell over as though shot, and was carried off by the ambulance corps, while the remaining boys manned the cannon. This feature proved especially interesting to the spectators."

The realism of the last two sentences is particularly suggestive,-as is also the previously stated fact that an added zest was given to the use of their arms by the knowledge that those same weapons had already actually been used in bloody conflict.

Does this breathe a religious spirit? Is this religious instruction? But it is given by religious organisations. Then are they teaching the religion of Christ, or His adversary? We mention these things to show the need of preaching the Gospel of Christ. When even the religion that should restrain war is perverted into the direct encouragement of it, is it not time for Christians to decide what Gospel principles are?

"Working Food" The Present Truth 12, 48.

E. J. Waggoner

The increase in the price of bread, owing to the demand for wheat in famine-stricken India, is felt in many homes where the pence have to be carefully expended. In many families white bread is the staple food; but if the money is spent on good wheatmeal or brown bread, it will assuredly bring more working strength, as the finest white flour has separated from it the most nutritious portion of the wheat.

But while wheat has gone up, prices of other grains are not affected, and a look into the window of any cornchandler shows a liberal list of grain preparations which can be used to supplement the bread supply, and with advantage too. Oatmeal, rice, sago, and so on through the list, are readily prepared and have good strength-producing qualities. Dr. Andrew Wilson, in a recent newspaper article, called attention to the investigations of the late Dr. Frankland in the matter of the comparative values of different foods. Of the comparison between bread and oatmeal he says:-

Suppose that the work of raising his own body (one hundred and forty pounds weight) ten thousand feet high had to be accomplished by a man who elected to do the work on bread alone (water, an essential food, is left out of consideration here), then Dr. Frankland found that nearly two and a-half pounds of bread would be needed, and at three halfpence per pound the total cost would be threepence halfpenny.

Let us now see what bread is composed of. In one hundred parts of bread we find about forty parts of water, eight parts of nitrogenous matter or gluten, one and a-half parts of fat, fifty parts of starch, and one and a-half parts of minerals.

The great bulk of the bread we eat then is starch. The fat is not present in any quantity, therefore we add fat to it in the shape of butter, and make it a more valuable food; and the flesh-forming matter is present to the extent of about eight per cent. Bread is therefore a fair food enough, in respect to its giving a large amount of starch, which is certainly a force or lower-producing food.

The next food in the list is oatmeal. Dr. Frankland gives us over a pound of oatmeal, which, at twopence farthing a pound, costs us threepence halfpenny in all. The oatmeal is the same price as the bread, [this was written before prime rose] but note that infinitely less of it is needed to do the same work as that accomplished in nearly two and a-half pounds of bread.

Oatmeal, when analysed, is found to be a better food than bread: for one hundred parts of it are composed-of water about fifteen parts only; flesh-forming matter, thirteen parts; fat, six parts; starches, sixty-five parts; and minerals, three parts.

Here we get additional fat, and we also find more starch, while the flesh-forming matter is present in Iarger proportion than in the bread.

Oatmeal we all know to be a most excellent food. Dr. Johnson said it was a diet only fit for Scotchmen, and that it was fed to horses in England; but somebody wisely retorted, "Where will you find better men than in Scotland, or better horses than in England?"

The Highlander, on oatmeal, develops a hardy and robust frame; while we know that, for growing bodies, oatmeal is a typical food, and that, in part, because it contains a large proportion of bone-forming minerals.

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 48.

E. J. Waggoner

-There were in this country 876 strikes and lock-outs in 1895, aff ecting 268,755 labourers.

-A long list of disasters from floods has been reported from Austria. One whole village was swept away.

-Three crematories are in operation in England-one in Manchester, another in Woking, and the third in Liverpool.

-The iron and steel trade of Great Britain has very largely increased this year, much of the increase being due to the demand abroad.

-The price of wheat in Russia has risen, owing to the Indian demand. Trouble in India brings prosperity to favoured agricultural districts.

-It is said that the rinderpest is advancing in South Africa, and one well-known man predict; that not one per cent. of the cattle will be saved. The situation is calamitous in the extreme, and much suffering must follow.

-To help the natives in famine-stricken provinces the Indian Government have ordered from London 200 tons of the quickest growing vegetable seeds, from which it is hoped they may secure something to support life while waiting for the next season's crops to ripen.

-Companies are formed for the purpose of exploiting the new motor-cars, and it is proposed to have electric omnibuses on the streets of London very soon. Many business men think that the new mode of travelling will speedily work a revolution in the omnibus and carriage trades.

-Spain has been raising a loan to prosecute the wars in Cuba and the Philippines, and the people at home have enthusiastically subscribed far more than was called for, ladies selling jewellery and even poor people taking one bond. The nation is determined to hold to its rebellious colonists.

-Niagara Falls has been "harnessed," and a little stream diverted from it now drives factories and other machinery in Buffalo, twenty-six miles away, by means of electricity. The Times correspondent says that it is probable that power will be transmitted to distant towns, and smokeless factories will multiply.

-Counterfeit half-crowns are in circulation. They are excellent specimens, full weight and of the best quality silver. Each coin yields a profit to the makers of a shilling. The only difference between the base and proper half-crown is that the counterfeit one is a fraction larger and slightly thinner than the other.

-Japan is aspiring to a position as a maritime power, and has already established three lines of steamships. One to London, another to Australia, another to the United States, represent a determination to cater to the commercial and travelling world, and it is said that the London line will do a large business in passenger traffic between England and India. The American line is to bring cotton direct to Japan for the mills which are well established. The country seams bound to justify its boast of being the England of the Pacific Ocean, and it has a tremendous market at its doors in the line of manufactured goods.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 48.

E. J. Waggoner

An Australian correspondent informs us that the workmen have begun work on the school building which our friends in Australasia are building near Sydney, which they hope to have ready for use by the middle of March.

The first thing on the programme of the next Parliament appears to be some "settlement" of the education question. Both sides demand State-taught religion, but the questions of what religion and how it shall be paid for will continue to embitter educational discussions until the end.

"English Protestants will never consent to be rated in support of Sacerdotalism, either Anglican are Roman." So says the English Churchman, opposing the decision of the Church House meeting, advocating rate aid for voluntary schools. But will not the Sacerdotalists reply that they object to be rated in support of schools which teach "Protestantism"?

With the approval of the Pope certain Catholics are proposing to organise a vast international pilgrimage made to Rome at the opening of the twentieth century. The idea is "that in the presence of a concourse of people from all parts of the world, met together in the noblest temple of Christianity, the twentieth century be solemnly consecrated to the Lord."

The Russian Church has never prohibited the reading of the Bible, and so, while those who dissent from the State church are persecuted, Russia is still in possession of the Word. It is said that one-seventh of the total output of the British and Foreign Bible Society goes to Russian territory. Where the seed is allowed to be sown it will spring up, and no human power can repress it.

The discussion in the French Chamber over the insolence of English missionaries in Algiers has led to the suggestion that in Africa, at least, only French missions should work French territory, and English missionaries labour in British spheres of influence. The proposal will doubtless not be considered, but the suggestion should be enough to show missionaries the folly of appealing to their home governments for support in difficulties. Much that was gained in the early days by pioneer missionaries has been lost by their successors, who have allowed themselves to be drawn into relations with their home governments to the prejudice of their work as ambassadors of Heaven.

The work of our Society in Finland is extending, and we learn from reports that our friends there expect to begin the publication of a paper in Helsingfore next year. Finland enjoys greater freedom from press censorship than other parts of the Russian dominions.

"The Jews in Russia" The Present Truth 12, 48.

E. J. Waggoner

The Jews in Russia .-"It is reported from St. Petersburg," says the Christian, "that several prelates of the Orthodox Church are urging the Government to prohibit Jews, both in towns and villages, from carrying on trade on Christian holidays. Their efforts are believed to have every prospect of success." But this is nothing more than the Christian approves of when it advocates the enforcement of Sunday laws in England. When Protestants, say in Spain, are punished for neglecting to honour some of the many Catholic festivals, it is perfectly apparent that it is religious persecution. But anyone who studies the question knows that Sunday has no more authority than any other Catholic festival, which is none at all for Protestants. To force people to pay regard to Sunday in England, or to punish those who cannot be coerced, is as wicked as to try to force any Catholic dogma upon men, or as will be this Russian crusade against the Jew, if it succeeds.

"Sincerity" The Present Truth 12, 48.

E. J. Waggoner

Sincerity .-The other day a travelling journalist assured the readers of a London daily that the Chinese were sincere in their religious life, and should be let alone. It is a familiar saying, and very often it is taken for granted that the man who is sincere is also right. But the Bible couples "sincerity" with "truth" in the service of God. A man may sincerely enough take the wrong road in travelling, but it can never lead him to his destination; nor would it be reasonable for anyone to plead his sincerity as a reason for not pointing out to him the right way.

"'God with Us'" The Present Truth 12, 48.

E. J. Waggoner

"God with Us." -When the Chaldeans protested to the king Nebuchadnezzar that he required too much of them, in demanding that they should declare his dream, they said that only the gods could tell such a thing "whose dwelling is not with flesh." But Daniel knew the true God, whose dwelling is with flesh, and he obtained the desired answer for the king. It is not enough to assent to the fact that Divinity is in the heavens. What we must know is that God is near at hand to help, and that "wisdom and might are His," as Daniel said. His name is Immanuel-God with us. If any lack wisdom-and who does not?-He will supply it, and as for strength, He will strengthen "according to His mighty power."

"Taste and See" The Present Truth 12, 48.

E. J. Waggoner

Taste and See .-One of my friends offers me some food which he says is very good and nourishing, and asks me to adopt it as an article of diet. But I am sceptical, and do not believe that it is good, and so I say, "Prove to me that it is good, and I will take it." "That I cannot do," he replies; "I know it is good, and can assure you of the fact; but you must prove it for yourself; taste it, and you will know it too." Well, that is certainly reasonable; for I can't expect to know that a thing is good, unless I taste for myself. Even so, when my friend does not believe me when I tell him that the Lord is good, and asks me to prove it to him. I cannot; I know that He is good, for I have tried Him; I can assure others of His goodness, but I cannot prove it to them. I can only say, "O taste, and see that the Lord is good." Why will not people be as reasonable in regard to spiritual food as with the mere physical? Taste, and you have the proof.

"Ecclesiastical Dress" The Present Truth 12, 48.

E. J. Waggoner

Ecclesiastical Dress .-The protests of Anglican Protestant journals against the vestments of the Sacerdotalist party would have more weight if it were a protest on principle against that distinctive dress which is thought to mark the difference between clergy and laity. The distinction has no existence, save as a priestly assumption has manufactured it. The Scriptures declare the whole church to be God's "clergy," and the authorised standards of the Church of England, in making a priestly costume compulsory on all ministers in Anglican pulpits, lays the foundation for the entire system of vestments by which Ritualism adorns its ministry. Nor is this purely papal arrangement confined to the Establishment.

December 3, 1896

"Rooted in Him" The Present Truth 12, 49.

E. J. Waggoner

"I am the root," Jesus declares, by His angel. Rev. xxii. 16.

What is the office of the root? It gathers from the soil the elements needed for the growth of the plant. It takes in the moisture and the various minerals used in varying quantities by different plants in building up the stalk, and colouring the leaf or flower, and producing fruit. For instance, two different plants in the same soil may need different elements to feed upon, and the root of each will take the necessary proportions, choosing or rejecting materials, like the wise builder that it is.

It is the intelligent working of the Divine word which in the beginning caused the earth to bring forth plants, each after its kind. But the thought is that the root supplies the nourishment. The root provides the life that runs up into the plant and causes the beauty and fruit to appear.

"I am the root." Jesus wants all to know that to every believer He is what the root is to the tree. He assumes the responsibility of sustaining life, and He knows what is essential to vigorous growth and fruit-bearing. This root cannot die, and in seasons when it would seem as though the hot winds of sin and trial were determined to blast and whither the life, the tried one need never fear a drying up of the supply.

"Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit." Jer. xvii. 7, 8. The heat beats upon the tree, but its root is a way beneath the soil, drinking in the life-giving water from the river, and sending it on to the outmost branches. Our Root, Jesus, the root springing up out of the dry ground, as Isaiah says, is planted by the water of the river of life, which flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb. No "blast of the terrible ones" can affect the life-giving supply, and as the branch receives sap from the vine and the tree from the root, so every soul that trusts God receives from Jesus of the very water of life that makes glad the city of God.

No wonder, then, that the leaf is green in the time of heat; that the fruit of Christ's life appears in the midst of the drought which withers the distrustful until they are as the heath in the desert, having no living root. Jesus is the root. Leave the work and office of the root to Him, and let the life glorify Him by bearing fruit for which the root supplies and materials. "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in His law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not whither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." Ps. i. 1-3.

"Christ as Teacher" The Present Truth 12, 49.

E. J. Waggoner

"And many of the people believed on Him, and said, When Christ cometh, He will do more miracles than these which this man doeth? The Pharisees heard that the people murmured such things concerning Him; and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take Him." John vii. 31, 32.

The trouble with the Pharisees and chief priests was that their character and teaching suffered by comparison with that of Jesus. "Never man spake like this man," was the testimony of the officers who were sent to seize Him. "He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes." The people listened to Him more readily than to them, and this aroused their jealousy. And the people knew that the priests sought His life.

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Yet the priests and rulers might have retained the confidence of the people, even in the presence of Jesus, if they had only been willing to learn of Him, and accept His spirit and the wisdom that filled Him. For that, however, they were too proud, and so they took away the key of knowledge; they entered not in themselves, and those that would enter in, they hindered by every means in their power. Luke xi. 52.

There was another reason why the wrath of the leaders of the Jews was aroused against Jesus. It was that the people who heard His living words of truth, not only lost relish for the old traditions that the elders retailed, but they actually came to know more than the leaders themselves. "If any man willeth to do His will, He shall know the doctrine." The rulers were not willing to do, and therefore they did not know; while the poor people who desired to do God's will knew the truth. David said, "I understand more than the aged, because I have kept thy precepts." Ps. cxix. 100.

It is the earnest desire of every true teacher that the people shall learn, and the more they learn, the better he is pleased. If in time they surpass him in knowledge, then he will be but the more pleased. Even that is a testimony to the idea of his teaching. This will often be the case when one leads its hearers to the Word. If he does not limit by his own construction, but opens it, and allows the people to see for themselves, it will often be that souls will see more than he does. He who is not willing that this should happen, seeks his own glory, and not that of God; he preaches himself, and not the Word.

"The Bible in Spain" The Present Truth 12, 49.

E. J. Waggoner

A missionary in Spain gives a few facts to show how little Roman ecclesiastics in that country know of even their own corrupted version of the Bible.

"The archbishop of the see of Santiago Campostela, the capital of Galicia, one of the most important diocese of all Spain, on one occasion promised to give to a Protestant of that parish a Roman Catholic Bible in exchange for his Protestant Bible; but after spending a long time in looking for one, he had to confess that he could not find one in the episcopal palace-that he would 'have to send for it to Barcelona,' all across the peninsula!"

One day a minister was talking with a priest.

"Allusion was made to the second commandment; and when he quoted the words, 'Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them,' the honest priest, instead of arguing, as an astuter man would have done, that Roman Catholics do not worship images, nor bow down to them, but only to the being or the spirit that they represent or suggest, he frankly admitted that they do worship them, and that their worship was permitted if not taught by the church; and he declared that he could not believe that the words quoted by my friend were to be found in the Bible, and much less in the Roman Catholic Bible. So a copy of the Bible sanctioned by his church was produced. He read and reread the fatal words, and could hardly believe his own eyes. At last, with hands clenched and teeth set, he turned on his heel, and with intense feeling exclaimed: 'God made a mistake when He put that into the Bible!' Poor man! he could not believe that his church could be guilty of deliberately suppressing that part of the Decalogue from its liturgies and from its catechisms; he could more easily believe that God had blundered! 'And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.'"

"God's Handwriting" The Present Truth 12, 49.

E. J. Waggoner

In two instances of special interest the handwriting of God has been made visible to men,-when, engraved by His own finger on tables of stone, it came from out the clouds and thunders of Sinai, and again, when Christ, looking calmly and searchingly from eye to eye throughout the crowd of the pharisaic accusers assembled about Him, in silent dignity stooped and wrote with His finger in the sand. In the first instance, "He gave unto Moses, when He had made an end of communing with him upon Mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God." Of this unparalleled scene a writer has said,-

"God purposed to make the occasion of speaking his law a scene of awful grandeur, in keeping with its exalted character. People were to be impressed that everything connected with the service of God must be regarded with the greatest reverence.The Lord said to Moses, 'Go unto the people, and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes, and be ready against the third day: for the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai.' During these intervening days all were to occupy the time in solemn preparation to appear before God. Their person and their clothing must be freed from impurity. And as Moses should point out their sins, they were to devote themselves to humiliation, fasting, and prayer, that their hearts might be cleansed from iniquity. . . . On the morning of the third day, as the eyes of all the people were turned toward the mount, its summit was covered with a thick cloud, which grew more black and dense, sweeping downward until the entire mountain was wrapped in darkness and awful mystery. Then a sound as of a trumpet was heard, summoning the people to meet with God; and Moses led them forth to the base of the mountain. From the thick darkness flashed vivid lightnings, while peals of thunder echoed and re-echoed among the surrounding heights. 'And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.' 'The glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount' in the sight of the assembled multitude. And 'the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder.' So terrible were the tokens of Jehovah's presence that the hosts of Israel shook with fear, and fell upon their faces before the Lord. Even Moses exclaimed, 'I exceedingly fear and quake.'

"And now the thunders ceased; the trumpet was no longer heard; the earth was still. There was a period of solemn silence, and then the voice of God was heard. Speaking out of the thick darkness that enshrouded Him, as He stood upon the mount, surrounded by a retinue of angels, the Lord made known His law. Moses, describing the scene, says: 'The Lord came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; He shined forth from Mount Paran, and He came with ten thousands of saints; from His right hand went a fiery law for them.'"

Thus the law came from the hand of God, graven with His own finger. In the second instance no clouds shrouded the skies, no thunders shook the heavens, no quaking mountain threatened to overwhelm those who beheld the strange scene. The only darkness and tumult were the hatred and fear in the quaking hearts of those who again read their own sins in the written words of God, but this time mercifully written in the sand, where a sweep of the hand would efface the faint traces of the terrible words which bore conviction, shame, and terror, to the heart of each, as in turn their eyes rested on the writing on the ground. But though the immediate cause of their confusion was known only to each individual heart, -

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that they were confound it was clearly evident to many.

The occasion which the scribes and Pharisees chose, and which became their own undoing, was public. It was when Jesus was teaching in the temple, and "all the people" had come unto Him, that they brought before Him the guilty woman, and said,-"Now Moses and the law commanded us that such should be stoned: but what sayest Thou." But while the assembled people looked on and listened with wonder, doubt, misgiving, pity, anxiety, to hear what reply He should make, no audible answer came from Jesus' lips. He only stooped, with saddened face, and wrote with His finger in the sand. Then lifting Himself, with one piercing glance which each one felt pass into his very heart, He simply gave judicial utterance to the requirements of the law,-"He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." He said no more,-than stooping He wrote again in the sand.

Did each man see copied there the page of his own record from the book of Judgment which should be opened at the last day, that, in the same order in which it will come to them, each, beginning with the eldest, read there his unanswerable reply, and went from His presence without a word? Utterly confounded before God and in their own hearts, and in the eyes of the public, the Pharisees went out speechless. Clothed now in simple human flesh, and not in the clouds and thunders of Sinai, He who gave the law, as agent of the Father, stood before them here and interpreted, in stern and God-like tenderness, the application of that law to their individual hearts and lives. And it was the word of God to them individually, audible only in the depths of each heart, while the assembled people looked on and wondered.

Yet while He emphasised here the fact of the immutability of the law, graven in tablets of stone, at the same time by word and act He showed how that the sins of the individual, whether it be of the sinful and repentant woman or the cruel and haughty-hearted Pharisees, God writes in sand, that if the delinquents but repentant turn from them, and so permit the effacement of the record, it may be obliterated and for ever blotted from sight and memory.

God is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever,-when He wrote the law on tables of stone and the sins of the wicked Pharisees in the sand,-the same.

"The Promises to Israel. Mount Sinai and Mount Zion" The Present Truth 12, 49.

E. J. Waggoner

"Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of His holiness. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the Great King. God is known in her palaces for a refuge." Ps. xlviii. 1-3.

These words are sung in praise of the dwelling-place of God in heaven; for "the Lord is in His holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven" (Ps. xi. 4), and of Christ "who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens," (Heb. viii. 1) the Lord says, "Yet have I set My King upon My holy hill of Zion," or, "upon Zion, the hill of My holiness." Ps. ii. 6.

Jesus Christ, the anointed King in Zion, is High Priest as well, a "priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek." The Lord has said of "the Man whose name is The BRANCH," that "He shall build the temple of the Lord; and He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon His throne; and He shall be a priest upon His throne; and the counsel of peace shall be between them both." Zech. Vi. 12, 13. So as He sits upon His Father's throne in the heavens, he is "a Minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not man." Heb. viii. 2.

It was to this place-to Mount Zion, the hill of God's holiness, and to the Sanctuary upon it, His dwelling place-that God was leading His people Israel when He delivered them from Egypt. When they had safely passed through the Red Sea, Moses sang these inspired words: "Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of Thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which Thou hast made for Thee to dwell in, in the Sanctuary, O Lord, which Thy hands have established." Ex. xv. 17.

But they did not get to Mount Zion, because they did not "hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end." "So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief." Yet God did not forsake them, for even "if we believe not, yet He abideth faithful; He cannot deny Himself." So He instructed Moses to tell the people to bring offerings of gold and silver and precious stones, together with other material, and said, "Let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. According to all that I show thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it." Ex. xxv. 8, 9.

This was not "the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched," but one made by man. The tabernacle and its furniture were only "the patterns of things in the heavens," and not "the heavenly things themselves." Heb. ix. 23. It was but a shadow of the real substance. The cause of the shadow will be considered later on. But the believing ones of that olden time knew as well as Stephen did in later years, that "the Most High dwelleth not in temples made

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with hands," as saith the prophet, "Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool; where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of My rest? Acts vii. 48, 49. Solomon, at the dedication of his grand temple, said, "But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee; how much less this house that I have built?" 2 Chron. vi. 18.

All of God's really faithful children understood that the earthly tabernacle or temple was not the real dwelling-place of God, but only a figure, a type. So of the furniture which the sanctuary contained.

As God's throne is in His holy temple in heaven, so in the type of that temple on earth there was a representation of His throne. A very feeble representation, it is true, as much inferior to the real as the works of man are inferior to those of God, yet a figure of it, nevertheless. That figure of God's throne was the ark which contained the tables of the law. A few texts of Scripture will show this.

Ex. xxv. 10-22 contains the complete description of the ark. It was a box made of wood, but completely covered, within and without, with fine gold. Into this ark the Lord directed Moses to put the Testimony which He should give him. This Moses did, for afterward, in recounting to Israel the circumstances of the giving of the law, together with their idolatry, which led to the breaking of the first tables, he said:-

"At that time the Lord said unto me, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and come up unto Me into the mount, and make thee an ark of wood. And I will write on the tables the words that were in the first tables which thou brakest, and thou shalt put them in the ark. And I made an ark of shittim wood, and hewed two tables of stone like unto the first, and went up into the mount, having the two tables in mine hand. And He wrote on the tables, according to the first writing, the ten commandments, which the Lord spake unto you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly; and the Lord gave them unto me. And I turned myself and came down from the mount, and put the tables in the ark which I had made; and there they be, as the Lord commanded me." Deut. x. 1-5.

The cover of this ark was called the "mercy-seat." This was of solid, beaten gold, and upon each end of it, a part of the same piece of gold, there was a cherub with wings outstretched. "Toward the mercy-seat shall the faces of the cherubim be. After these directions, the Lord said: "Thou shalt put the mercy-seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee," which Moses did, as we have read. "And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy-seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel." Ex. xxv. 17-22.

God said that He would speak to them from "between the cherubim." So we read, "The Lord reigneth; let the people tremble; He sitteth between the cherubim; let the earth be moved. The Lord is great in Zion; and He is high above all the people." Ps. xcix. 1, 2. The cherubim overshadowed the mercy-seat, from which place God spoke to the people. Now mercy means grace, so that in the mercy-seat of the earthly tabernacle we have the figure of "the throne of grace" unto which we are exhorted to come boldly, "that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." Heb. iv. 16.

FOUNDATION OF GOD'S GOVERNMENT

The ten commandments on the two tables of stone were in the ark, under the mercy-seat, thus showing that the law of God is the basis of His throne and government. Accordingly we read, "The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad thereof. Clouds and darkness are round about Him; righteousness and judgment are the foundation of His throne." "Justice and judgment are the foundation of Thy throne; mercy and truth go before Thy face." Ps. xcvii. 1, 2; lxxxix. 14. R.V.

Since the tabernacle and all that it contained was to be made exactly like the pattern given to Moses, and they were "the patterns of things in the heavens," it necessarily follows that the ten commandments on the tables of stone were exact copies of the law which is the foundation of God's true throne in heaven. This enables us to understand more clearly how it is that "it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail." Luke xvi. 17. As long as God's throne stands, so long must God's law as spoken from Sinai remain unchanged. "If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?" Ps. xi. 3. If the ten commandments-the foundation stones of God's throne-were destroyed, the throne itself would fall, and the hope of the righteous would perish. But none need fear such a catastrophe. "The Lord is in His holy temple; the Lord's throne is in heaven," because His word is settled for ever in heaven. That is one of "the things which cannot be shaken."

Now we are able to see that Mount Sinai, which is a synonym for law, and which at the giving of the law was really the embodiment of the awful majesty of the law, is also a type of God's throne. Indeed, for the time being it was actually God's throne. God was present upon it with all His holy angels.

Moreover, the awful terror of Sinai is only the terror of God's throne in the heavens. John had a vision of the temple of God in heaven, and of the throne, with God seated in it; "and out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices." "And the temple of God was opened in heaven; and there was seen in His temple the ark of His testament; and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake and great hail." "A fire goeth before Him."

The terror of God's throne is the same terror that was at Sinai-the terror of the law. Yet that same throne is "the throne of grace," to which we are exhorted to come with boldness. Even so "Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was" on Sinai. Ex. xx. 21. Not only Moses, but "Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel" went up into the mount; "and they saw the God of Israel; and there was under His feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness. And upon the nobles of Israel He laid not His hand; also they saw God, and did eat and drink." Ex. xxiv. 9-11. If it had not been so, then we should not have had a positive demonstration of the fact that we may indeed come with boldness to the throne of grace-that awful throne whence comes lightnings and thunderings and voices-and find mercy there. The law makes sin to abound, "but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." The cross was at Sinai, so that even there was God's throne of grace.

For let it be remembered that it is only "by the blood of Jesus" that we have "boldness to enter into the holiest." Heb. x. 19. But for that blood it would be as certain death for us to come to God's throne and take His name upon our lips, as it was for anyone who should lightly

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approach Sinai. But Moses and others did draw near to God on Sinai, even into the thick darkness, and did not die, a sure evidence that the blood of Jesus saved them. The living stream from Christ was flowing at Sinai, even as "the pure river of water of life, clear as crystal" proceeds "from the throne of God and of the Lamb." Rev. xxii. 1.

That stream comes from the heart of Christ, in which the law was and is enshrined. Christ was the temple of God, and His heart was God's dwelling-place. We know that the stream-living water for the people-came from Christ at Sinai, and that the blood and the water, which agree in one, came from His side at Calvary-a living stream for the life of the world. Yet although the cross of Calvary is the highest possible manifestation of the tender mercy and love of God for man, it is a fact that the terrors of Sinai-the terrors of God's throne-were there. There was thick darkness and an earthquake, and the people were filled with an awful dread, because there God displayed the fearful consequences of violation of His law. The law in its terror to evildoers was at Calvary as well as at Sinai or in the midst of the throne of God.

When John saw the temple in heaven, and God's awful throne, he saw "in the midst of the throne" "a Lamb as it had been slain." Rev. v. 6. So the river of water of life from the midst of the throne of God, proceeds from Christ, even as did the stream from Sinai and Calvary. Sinai, Calvary, and Zion, three sacred mountains of God, all agree in one to those who come to them in faith. In all we find the terrible, death-dealing law of God flowing to us in a sweet and refreshing stream of life, so that we may sing:

"There's a wideness in God's mercy,
Like the wideness of the sea,
There's a kindness in His justice
That is more than liberty."

"Catholic and Mohammedan" The Present Truth 12, 49.

E. J. Waggoner

The conflict between Catholic and Mohammedan has, from the earliest times, been a bitter one, in which it is difficult to say which side has been less merciless than the other. "Quarter was seldom given in the field," says Gibbon of the ninth century wars; "those who escaped the edge of the sword were condemned to hopeless servitude, or exquisite torture; and a Catholic emperor relates, with visible satisfaction, the execution of the Saracens of Crete, who were flayed alive, or plunged into caldrons of boiling oil."

"Baptism" The Present Truth 12, 49.

E. J. Waggoner

Baptism .-In a recent historical address, Dr. Sinclair, Archdeacon of London, commented on the attitude of the Church of England as regards the substitution of sprinkling for baptism. He said:-

We may point out that the universal modern practice of baptizing by sprinkling, which has put one weighty and popular argument into the hands of the Baptists, is not in accordance with the mind of the Church of England. She permits sprinkling in exceptional cases, but she requires immersion as her rule. We may argue from this permission quite fairly that she considers sprinkling sufficient; but if the clergy of the Church of England would adhere to the rule of the Church, they would not only remove a cause of scruple to some minds, but to all minds they would give a new force and meaning to the symbolical language of Holy Scripture which was founded on the ancient and fuller ceremonial.

It illustrates very aptly the result that must follow whenever the church attempts to put itself in the place of Christ, and begins to issue permissions or commands regarding doctrine.

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 49.

E. J. Waggoner

-It has been found that nearly all the rivers in West Africa, within 100 miles east and west of Ashantee, yield gold.

-The proprietor of the London Echo has devoted all its profits for twenty years to the erection of public libraries, cottage hospitals, etc.

-The subject of duelling has been discussed hotly on the Continent recently, and public opinion seems inclined to call murder by duel by its right name.

-The highest place in the world regularly inhabited is stated to be the Buddhist monastery Heine, in Thibet, which is about 16,000 feet above sea level. The next highest is Calera, a railway station in Peru, which is located at a height of 15,635 feet.

-Late rains in a portion of the Indian districts threatened with famine have improved the crop prospects very much. The affected area is so large, however, that there seems no escape from severe suffering among the natives, which has already begun.

-By way of illustration of the size of London, it may be stated that last year there were 13,141 new houses built, 21,461 fires, and 44,742 persons involved in street accidents. Of these latter 1,298 were killed, about twelve times as many as the passengers killed in a year on all the railways of thr United Kingdom.

-English is spoken by 45,000,000 persons in the British Isles, by probably 57,000,000 of the 60,000,000 inhabitants of the United States, by 4,000,000 persons in Canada, by 3,000,000 in Australia, by 3,700,000 West Indians, and by 1,000,000 in India and other British colonies, bringing the total of the English-speaking race to over 100,000,000.

-A great dock strike was declared in Hamburg last week. About 10,000 men struck, and it is said that a great strike is imminent in this country also. The dock workers have been perfecting an international organisation, and they expect to be able to secure united action in America, England, and on the Continent. It is the largest federation of workers yet formed.

-Siberia promises to become an important mining field, as it is rich in all kinds of minerals. The discovery of valuable iron deposits has just been reported from Eastern Siberia, and experts say that it is capable of making steel that cannot be surpassed. The railway is changing the prospects of the country, and altogether it would seem that Russia is to lose its great prison district. The change may enable many convict colonists to better their conditions.

-It is said that the cities in Russia are rapidly increasing in population, the tendency there being from the country to the towns, and manufacturing is increasing. In 1867 Warsaw contained less than 200,000 people; to-day it contains nearly 600,000. Moscow contained 650,000 in 1867; in next year's census it is likely to show a population of 1,500,000. The railways are spreading everywhere ; 40,000 miles are now finished, and they are rapidly increasing

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 49.

E. J. Waggoner

"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth." Matt. vii. 7, 8.

If we seek, with this assurance, it is worth while to know what to seek; what it is that is worth finding. The same One who gives the assurance that we shall find, tells us what to seek. "Seek ye the Lord while He may be found." Isa. lv. 6. "Seek the Lord, and His strength; seek His face evermore." Ps. cv. 4.

Here is something that is certainly worth finding. If we find the Lord, we find His strength. He is the Almighty, therefore whoever finds Him becomes "strengthened with all might according to His glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness." Col. i. 11. In His presence is fulness of joy. Not only so, but "in Him all things consist" (Col. i. 17, R.V.), and therefore he who finds the Lord has with Him all things. Rom. viii. 32.

But is the Lord, with all this treasure, hard to find? Nay, quite the contrary; "he that seeketh, findeth," because He is not far from every one of us. Acts xvii. 27. More than this, He is seeking us; "for the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." Luke xix. 10. Since He is seeking us, what can possibly hinder us from finding Him, if we also seek Him; each seeking the other, we are sure to come together.

The statement that the Lord came to seek the lost, points to the fact that man was once with Him, but wandered away. "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way." Isa. liii. 6. When people sin, they imagine that God is angry with them, and that He has turned away from them. Not so; it is they who turn away and hide from Him, while He seeks them. Adam and Eve, after their sin, "hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden." Gen. iii. 8. But the Lord did not hide from them; on the contrary, He sought them, and when they responded to His call, they found each other.

Therefore, since it is we who "hid as it were our faces from Him" (Isa. liii. 3), and He is all the time seeking us, it is evident that all we have to do to seek and find Him is to turn around and look up. How easy the way, and how blessed the result! Let each one, then, make these words his own: "When Thou saidst, Seek ye My face, my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek," assured that the finding will be sure, speedy, and glorious.

It seems that early in the century Fulton, the inventor of the steamboat, had devised a torpedo, and tried to get France and then England to adopt it in naval warfare. It was rejected on the ground that it was contrary to military and naval codes to use such atrocious methods of destruction. What progress in the art of killing the nations have since made, in these days of torpedo-boats and dynamite guns.

"A Roman Catholic has been elected to a tutorial fellowship at Balliol, Oxford. This is the first instance," says the Daily Mail, "of a Roman Catholic being elected to such a position, and it is worthy of special note that he is to be a Tutor in History." Roman Catholics are able to report many significant "first instances" nowadays.

Two milk-carriers were called before the Lambeth Police Court last week for crying and selling their milk on Sunday. The action was taken by the Quiet Sunday Society, under the Act of Charles II., as amended by the Sunday Prosecution Act of 1871, which, although it lasted but one year, has been continued by the Expiring Law Continuance Act every session since. Disapproval of the summons by the Court were shown by the fact that only a bare conviction was granted, though costs being allowed, or penalty affixed,-a warrant for the forfeiture of the goods, permissible under the law, being also refused.

"There is none other name," the Word says, than that of Jesus, by which salvation comes. How effectually Mary has been placed by Roman Catholics in the stead of Christ is seen by the statement in the Roman Breviary, "Mary, thou art the only hope of Christians."

The man who is too proud to acknowledge that he has been in error, is simply ashamed to declare that he knows more to-day than he did yesterday. Therefore the one who rejects the reproof which shows him his error, despises wisdom; but "he that heareth reproof getteth understanding," and "abideth among the wise." Prov. xv. 31, 32.

Signs indicate that a new era in strikes is dawning. They are to become international, and one of the greatest strikes in industrial history is threatening. The labour world is becoming more and more familiarised with the notion of meeting injustice with revolution, and the elements are at work which will surely lead to scenes of violence.

Four trained nurses are to sail this week for Calcutta, to reinforce our Society's workers in India.

"Trust in Adversity" The Present Truth 12, 49.

E. J. Waggoner

Trust In Adversity .-God's saving grace is not for prosperous times only. Yet the natural thing is to distrust God when adversity comes-the very time of all times when the confidence should be held fast, without wavering. "Although the fig tree shall not blossom," says Habakkuk, "neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet will I rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation."

"'Give ye them to Eat'" The Present Truth 12, 49.

E. J. Waggoner

"Give ye them to Eat." -The world is so large and the people who do not know that the Word of the Lord is food are so many that not one who is partaking of the Lord's bounty can forget that He is debtor to all men. In the populous countries of Asia, with their great need, the missionary feels this keenly. One of our Indian workers writes: "Think of the awful procession of eight and a half million persons in this land who go down through the gates of death every year, the great majority of whom die in their sins, and die unwarned. The figures are too vast to appreciate. Stated another way, it means that about one thousand souls in this land die every hour of the year."

December 10, 1896

"Unlettered Learning" The Present Truth 12, 50.

E. J. Waggoner

"And the Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learn?" John vii. 15.

The Greek word here rendered "letters," is the word meaning writings or scriptures. A learned man, one well acquainted with books, is commonly called "a man of letters," or a literary man. Now there are many books, but only one that is so prominent as to be sufficiently designated by the term "the Book," and that is the Bible; for the word Bible means simply book. So "the writings," when used in the Bible without qualification, mean the sacred writings, or the Scriptures. The text above quoted should therefore be rendered, as it is in some versions, "How does this man know the Scriptures, never having learned?"

Like John the Baptist, Jesus never studied in the Jewish schools. John was "in the deserts till the day of the showing unto Israel." Luke. i. 80. So Jesus dwelt at Nazareth, subject to His parents, a humble carpenter, until He came prominently before the people at His baptism. Yet no two teachers ever aroused greater interest among the people, or attracted more attention. People flocked to hear them, and hung on their words. The officers of the law said of Jesus, "Never man spake like this man," and the people were astonished at His teaching; "for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes."

That Jesus had not studied in the schools of the doctors of the law,-the theological seminaries of that time,-is shown by the questions which the priests and elders put to Him as He was teaching in the temple, "By what authority doest Thou these things, and who gave Thee this authority?" Matt. xxi. 23. Yet He had wisdom, both in asking and in answering questions, that put to silence all the learned doctors, while His teaching was so simple that "the common people heard Him gladly," because they could understand Him; and the ability to put deep things into simple, easily-understood language is the mark of the greatest wisdom.

How did Jesus get this wonderful knowledge? From the Word of God. All Jewish children were taught the Book of the Law, according to the command of the Lord by Moses. "These words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart; and thou shall teach them diligently unto thy children and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkedest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." Deut. v. 6, 7. Many parents of course did this carelessly, and, especially in later times, mingled with their instruction many idle traditions learned from the Doctors; but those children who had faithful parents knew the Holy Scriptures from childhood. With the child Jesus this was no routine task, for He says, "I delight to do Thy

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will, O my God; yea, Thy law is within My heart." Ps. xl. 8. The Holy Scriptures, studied in the humble house in Nazareth, and opened to His understanding by the Spirit of God, were the beginning and the sum of all the wisdom that Jesus had.

As with Jesus Himself, so with those whom He chose to accompany Him, and to send forth to preach,-they were men in humble station, not having studied in the theological schools. Their learning was derived from the Scriptures.

The rulers were astonished at the power and knowledge of these humble fishermen preachers, as they had been with Jesus. We are told that when the rulers "saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled, and took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus." Acts iv. 13. The word "ignorant" is unfortunate, as applied to the apostles. "Unlearned" they certainly were, according to the fine standards of the school; but they were not ignorant. Why then do we have such a statement in the sacred record?-In reality we do not, and the occurrence of the word in our English version is an interesting illustration of the very point we are studying. Thus:-

The two words, "ignorant men," in Acts iv. 13 are from one Greek word, idiotai, the plural of idiotas. The reader will at once recognise in this our common word idiot, and will at once conclude that the English rendering is much more mild than the Greek text. But wait a moment. The primary and ordinary meaning of this Greek word is,-"a private person," one of the common people. But as certain public teachers began to style themselves philosophers, and to claim for themselves a monopoly of wisdom, so that a man must have a recommendation from them-a certificate that he had "been through" the prescribed course-before he could have any standing as a scholar, it came about that all who had not such public recognition were considered ignorant. The fact that our translators adopted this secondary use of the Greek word instead of its real meaning, shows how much they were under the influence of the same spirit. The Danish and Norwegian version have "laymen" in the place of "ignorant men," and the German has "men of inferior condition."

Here is encouragement, and a lesson. The encouragement is that people in the most humble and despised walks of life may, by devoted study of the Word from a sincere desire to know and do God's will, acquire wisdom that will astonish even the worldly wise. Deut. iv. 5, 6. See also Prov. ii. 1-9.

The lesson, is that in the church of Christ are no ranks and degrees-no class distinctions. The church, following in the steps of the schoolmen of heathen times, have made two classes,-clergy and laity,-that is the special, elect class, who have the keys of knowledge, and the people, who are to take what the clergy are pleased to dole out to them. But the Scriptures teach us that all in the primitive, true church were laymen, that is, they were simply, ordinary people, whose only distinction from others was that which the Holy Spirit gave them. Jesus, Himself an ordinary labourer, chose fishermen and sent them forth to preach, and because they were thus sent forth they are called apostles. But they were laymen, and such they would be called to-day, if they were alive and in England or America. That those who teach the Word should form a special class, distinguished from other people by title, dress, etc., was not only not contemplated by the Lord, but was directly opposed.

It is true that "there are diversities of gifts," and all men have not the same work, yet all in the church our brethren, and the greatest among them is he who does the most service. Let therefore no one be puffed up in his own mind with the thought that as a preacher he is above all others in the church, and let no one be discouraged because his state is lowly. It was Tyndale's declaration that he would "make the boy that drives the plough in England to know more of Scripture than the Pope does." That possibility is now before every ploughboy, and he who truly improves it, although his name be unknown outside of his neighbourhood, has a place in the church infinitely higher than that of the Pope.

"Discontent" The Present Truth 12, 50.

E. J. Waggoner

Not long ago a clergyman wrote in one of the newspapers that he was now devoting himself to preaching the "Gospel of Discontent"-that is, social reform. It is a current phrase to express the line of agitation which is going on in all parts of the country. The selfishness of the rich and the inequalities and hardships of life are being inveighed against on every side, and the Gospel of Discontent finds ready acceptance. One cannot fail to notice the frequency with which newspapers are discussing the best way of getting the ideal commonwealth, and within a year or two the idea of a revolution in order to enter the promised land of equality and prosperity has found increasingly frequent expression.

About a hundred years ago, in France, writers were engaged in just such work. They preached the Gospel of Discontent. Conditions were bad. The poor were trodden down until they had little energy to face present injustice. The social millennium was pictured by writers and workers. At last the disciples of discontent decided to inaugurate the new era. But when once human passion was let loose, and covetousness in the masses met the covetousness of the classes, violence began, and instead of a millennium they had a massacre. The same elements are working out in nearly all lands. The Bible shows that not the least of the troubles which will cause the nations to destroy themselves will be this very social trouble. It is a good time for Christians to learn the Gospel of Contentment which Paul preached. Phil. iv. 11-13.

"Philip II." The Present Truth 12, 50.

E. J. Waggoner

The persecutor is such not because he is worse than other men naturally, but merely because he is led by evil principles, and has the power to give effect to them. A recent writer, in the Fortnightly Review, gave some fresh light on the character of Philip II. of Spain, who bears in history one of the most infamous reputations of all who have tried to crush out Protestantism. But in his whole life he was evidently of refined and gentle temperament, delighting in his family, and in turn being regarded by his own with affection. The writer says:-

"Truly the human heart is a hard book to decipher. The man who could gaze upon human creatures undergoing the tortures of the damned by his orders because they differ from him, has been handed down to eternal infamy-and perhaps rightly so-on the strength of his public acts. It is reasonable to ask that his tyranny and cruelty should be forgotten, because there was a soft spot even in his stony heart for those who were nearest him, that the sickening fumes of scorching human flesh should be overpowered by the scent of flowers which Philip loved, or that the shrieks of the myriad martyrs should be drowned by the song of his nightingales; but, at least, the facts I have adduced prove that he was a human creature and not a fiend, and go far to support my contention that he was conscientiously and devotedly convinced that he was acting for the best in ruthlessly crushing those whom he looked upon as the enemies of God and society."

"The Promises to Israel. The Covenants of Promise" The Present Truth 12, 50.

E. J. Waggoner

"Wherefore remember that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands; that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world." Eph. ii. 11, 12.

An idea that prevails quite extensively is that God has one covenant for Jews and another for Gentiles; that there was a time when the covenant with the Jews utterly excluded the Gentiles, but that now a new covenant has been made which concerns chiefly, if not wholly, the Gentiles; in short that the Jews are, or were, under the old covenant, and the Gentiles under the new. That this idea is a great error, may readily be seen from the passage just quoted.

As a matter of fact, Gentiles, as Gentiles, have no part whatever in God's covenants of promise. In Christ is the yea. "For how many soever be the promises of God, in Him is the yea; wherefore also through Him is the Amen, unto the glory of God through us." 2 Cor. i. 20. The Gentiles are those who are without Christ, and so they are "strangers from the covenants of promise." No Gentile has any part in any covenant of promise. But whosoever will may come to Christ, and may share in the promises; for Christ says, "Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out." John vi. 37. But when the Gentile does that, no matter what his nationality may be, he ceases to be a Gentile, and becomes a member of "the commonwealth of Israel."

But let it be noted also that the Jew, in the common acceptation of the term, that is, as a member of the Jewish nation, and a rejecter of Christ, has no more share in the promises of God, or the covenants of promise, than the Gentile has. That is only to say that nobody has any share in the promises, save those who accept them. Whoever is "without Christ," whether he be called Jew or Gentile, is also "without God in the world," and is a stranger from the covenants of promise, and an alien from the commonwealth of Israel. This the text first quoted teaches us. One must be in Christ in order to share the benefits of "the covenants of promise," and be a member of "the commonwealth of Israel." To be "an Israelite indeed," therefore, is simply to be a Christian. This is as true of the men who lived in the days of Moses, as of those who lived in the days of Paul, or those who live to-day.

Some one will probably think to ask, "How about the covenant made at Sinai? Do you mean to say that it was the same as that under which Christians live, or that it was as good? Are we not told that it was faulty? and if it was faulty, how could life and salvation have come through it?"

Very pertinent questions, and ones that are easily answered. It is an undeniable fact that grace abounded at Sinai-"the grace of God which bringeth salvation"-because Christ was there with all His fulness of grace and truth. Mercy and truth were met together there, and righteousness and peace flowed as a river. But it was not by virtue of the covenant that was made at Sinai, that mercy and peace were there. That covenant brought the people nothing, although everything was there for them to enjoy.

The comparative value of the two covenants which stand related to each other as "the first" and "the second," the "old" and the "new," is thus set forth in the book of Hebrews, which presents Christ as High Priest, and contrasts His priesthood with that of men. Here are some of the points of superiority of our great High Priest over earthly high priests:-

1. "Those priests were made without an oath; but this with an oath by Him that said unto Him, The Lord sware, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek." Heb. vii. 21.

2. They were priests but for a short time, because "they were not suffered to continue by reason of death;" therefore there was a continual change and succession. But Christ "ever liveth," and therefore He has "an unchangeable priesthood." Earthly priests continued to be priests as long as they lived, but they did not live long. Christ also continues to be priest as long as He lives, and He is "alive for evermore."

3. The Levitical priests were made priests "after the law of a carnal commandment." Their priesthood was only outward, in the flesh. They could deal with sin only in its outward manifestations, that is, actually not at all. But Christ is High Priest "after the power of an endless life"-a life that saves to the uttermost. He ministers the law in the Spirit.

4. They were ministers only of a worldy sanctuary, which man made. Christ "is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a Minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man."

5. They were mere sinful men, as was shown by their mortality. Christ is "declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead" (Rom. i. 4), and so He is "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens." Heb. vii. 26.

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Now "by so much was Jesus made surety of a better covenant." ¹²1 Heb. vii. 22. The covenant of which Christ is Minister is as much better than that of which the Levitical priests were ministers, whose priesthood dated only from the making of the covenant at Sinai, as Christ and His priesthood are better than they and their priesthood. That is to say, the covenant of which Christ as High Priest is Minister, is as much better than the covenant that dates from Sinai, as Christ is better than man; as heaven is higher than earth; as the sanctuary in heaven is greater than the sanctuary on earth; as the works of God are better than the works of the flesh; as "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" is better than "the law of a carnal commandment;" as eternal life is better than a life that is but "a vapour that appeareth for a moment, and then vanisheth away;" as the oath of God is better than the word of man.

THE DIFFERENCE

And now we may read wherein this vast difference consists: "But now hath He obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also He is the Mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, He saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in My covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put My laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people; and they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." Heb. viii. 5-12.

The following facts must stand out very prominently to the thoughtful reader of this text:-

1. Both covenants are only with Israel. Gentiles, as we have already seen, are "strangers from the covenants of promise." It is always admitted and even claimed that they have nothing to do with the old covenant; but they have even less connection with the new covenant.

2. Both covenants are made with "the house of Israel;" not with a few individuals, nor with a divided nation, but "with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah," that is, with all the people of Israel. The first covenant was made with the whole house of Israel, before they were divided; the second covenant will be made when God shall have taken the children of Israel from among the heathen, and made them one nation, when "they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all." Eze. xxxvii. 22, 26. But concerning this we shall have more further on.

3. Both covenants contain promises, and are founded upon them.

4. The "new covenant" is better than the one made at Sinai.

5. It is better, because the promises upon which it is founded are better.

6. Yet it will be seen by comparing the terms of the new with those of the old, that the end contemplated by each is the same. The old said, "If ye will obey My voice;" the new says, "I will put My laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts." Each has reference to the law of God. Both have holiness, and all the rewards of holiness, as the object. In the covenant at Sinai it was said to Israel, "Ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation." Ex. xix. 6. That is just what God's own people really are, "a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people." 1 Peter ii. 5, 9.

But the promises of that covenant at Sinai were never realised, and for the very reason that they were faulty. The promises of that covenant all depended upon the people. They said, "All that the Lord hath spoken, we will do." Ex. xix. 8; xxiv. 7. They promised to keep His commandments, although they had already demonstrated their inability to do anything themselves. Their promises to keep the law, like the law itself, were "weak through the flesh." Rom. viii. 3. The strength of that covenant was therefore only the strength of the law, and that is death.

WHY THE COVENANT AT SINAI?

Why, then, was that covenant made?-For the very same reason that the law was spoken from Sinai; "because of transgression." The Lord says it was "because they continued not in My covenant." They had lightly esteemed the "everlasting covenant" which God had made with Abraham, and therefore He made this one with them, as a witness against them.

That "everlasting covenant" with Abraham was a covenant of faith. It was everlasting, and therefore the giving of the law could not disannul it. It was confirmed by the oath of God, and therefore the law could not add anything to it. Because the law added nothing to that covenant, and yet was not against its promises, it follows that the law was contained in its promises. The covenant of God with Abraham assured to him and his seed the righteousness of the law by faith. Not by works, but by faith.

The covenant with Abraham was so ample in its scope that it embraced all nations, even "all the families of the earth." It is that covenant, backed by the oath of God, by which we now have confidence and hope in coming to Jesus, in whom it was confirmed. It is by virtue of that covenant, and that alone, that any man receives the blessing of God, for the cross of Christ simply brings the blessing of Abraham upon us.

That covenant was wholly of faith, and that is why it assures salvation, since "by grace are ye saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast." The history of Abraham makes very emphatic the fact that salvation is wholly of God, and not by the power of man. "Power belongeth unto God" (Ps. lxii. 11); and the Gospel is "the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." Rom. i. 16. From the case of Abraham, as well as that of Isaac and of Jacob, we are made to know that only God Himself can fulfil the promises of God. They got nothing by their own wisdom or skill or power; everything was a gift from God. He led them, and He protected them.

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This is the truth that had been made most prominent in the deliverance of the children of Israel from Egypt. God introduced Himself to them as "The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob" (Ex. iii. 15); and He charged Moses to let them know that He was about to deliver them in fulfillment of His covenant with Abraham. God spake unto Moses, and said unto him:-

"I am JEHOVAH; and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob as God Almighty, but by My name Jehovah I was not known to them. And I have also established My covenant with them, to give them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their sojournings, wherein they sojourned. And moreover I have heard the groanings of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage, and I have remembered My covenant. Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am Jehovah, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments; and I will take you to Me for a people, and I will be to you a God; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you in unto the land, concerning which I lifted up My hand to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for an heritage; I am Jehovah." Ex. vi. 2-8, R.V.

Read now again the words of God just before the making of the covenant at Sinai:-

"Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel: Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagle's wings, and brought you unto Myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine; and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation." Ex. xix. 4-6.

Note how God dwelt upon the fact that He Himself had done all that had been done for them. He had delivered them from the Egyptians, and He had brought them to Himself. That was the thing which they were continually forgetting, as indicated by their murmurings. They had even gone so far as to question whether the Lord was among them or not; and their murmurings always indicated the thought that they themselves could manage things better than God could. God had brought them by the mountain pass to the Red Sea, and into the desert where there was no food nor drink, and had miraculously supplied their wants in every instance, to make them understand that they could live only by His word." Deut. viii. 3.

The covenant which God made with Abraham was founded on faith and trust. "Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto Him for righteousness." So when God, in fulfilment of that covenant, was delivering Israel from bondage, all His dealing with them was calculated to teach them trust in Him, so that they might in truth be the children of the covenant.

THE LESSON OF TRUST

Their response of Israel was self-confidence. Read the record of their distrust in God in Psalm cvi. He had proved them at the Red Sea, in the giving of the manna, and at the waters of Meribah. In every place they had failed to trust Him perfectly. Now he comes to prove them once more, in the giving of the law. As we have already learned, God never intended that men should try to get righteousness by the law, or that they should think such a thing possible. In the giving of the law, as shown by all the attendant circumstances, He designed that the children of Israel, and we also, should learn that the law is infinitely above the reach of all human effort, and to make it plain that, since the keeping of the commandments is essential to the salvation which He has promised, He Himself will fulfill the law in us. These are the words of God: "Hear, O My people, and I will testify unto thee; O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto Me, there shall no strange God be in thee, neither shalt thou worship any strange god." Ps. lxxxi. 8, 9. "Incline your ear, and come unto Me; hear, and your soul shall live." Isa. lv. 3. His word transforms the soul from the death of sin to the life of righteousness, even as it brought forth Lazarus from the tomb.

A careful reading of Ex. xix. 1-6, will show that there is no intimation that another covenant was then to be made. Indeed, the evidence is to the contrary. The Lord referred to His covenant,-the covenant long before given to Abraham,-and exhorted them to keep it, and told what would be the result of their keeping it. The covenant with Abraham was, as we have seen, a covenant of faith, and they could keep it simply by keeping the faith. God did not ask them to enter into another covenant with Him, but only to accept His covenant of peace, which he had long before given to the fathers.

The proper response of the people therefore would have been, "Amen, even so, O Lord, let it be done unto us according to Thy will." On the contrary they said, "All that the Lord hath spoken we will do;" and they repeated their promise, with additional emphasis, even after they had heard the law spoken. It was the same self-confidence that led their descendants to say to Christ, "What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?" Think of mortal men presuming to be able to do God's work! Christ answered, "This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent." Even so it was in the desert of Sinai, when the law was given and the covenant made.

Their assuming the responsibility of working the works of God, showed lack of appreciation of His greatness and holiness. It is only when men are ignorant of God's righteousness, that they go about to establish their own righteousness, and refuse to submit themselves to the righteousness of God. See Rom. x. 3. Their promises were good for nothing, because they had not the power to fulfill them. The covenant, therefore, which was based on those promises was utterly worthless, so far as giving them life was concerned. All that they could get from that covenant was just what they could get from themselves, and that was death. To trust in it was to make a covenant with death, and to be in agreement with the grave. Their entering into that covenant was a virtual notification to the Lord that they could get along very well without Him; that they were able to fulfill any promise He could make.

But God did not give them up, "for He said, Surely they are My people, children that will not lie; so He was their Saviour." Isa. lxiii. 8. He knew that they were moved by impulse in making that promise, and that they did not realise what it meant. They had a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. He had brought them out of the land of Egypt, that He might teach them to know Him, and He did not become angry with them because they were so slow to learn the lesson. He had borne with Abraham when he thought that he could work out God's plans, and He had been very patient with Jacob when he was so ignorant as to suppose that God's promised inheritance could

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be gained by sharp bargains and fraud. So now He bore with their children's ignorance and lack of faith, in order that He might afterwards bring them to the faith.

THE DIVINE COMPASSION

God meets men just where they are. He has "compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way." Heb. v. 2. He is always and everywhere seeking to draw all men to Himself, no matter how depraved they are; and therefore when He discerns even the faintest glimmer of a willingness or desire to serve Him, He at once nourishes it, making the most of it He can to lead the soul to greater love and more perfect knowledge. So although the children of Israel had failed in this supreme test of their trust in Him, He took advantage of their expressed willingness to serve Him, even though it was only in "their own weak way." Because of their unbelief they could not have all that He wished them to have; but that which they did get through their lack of faith was a continual reminder of what they might have if they fully believed. Because of their ignorance of the greatness of His holiness, which ignorance was expressed by their promise to do the law, God proceeded, by the proclamation of the law, to show them the greatness of His righteousness, and the utter impossibility of their working it out.

"War As a Religion" The Present Truth 12, 50.

E. J. Waggoner

War As a Religion .-Recent discussions in Germany on militarism and duelling have called attention to the constant use which the world is making of the name of God and religion in defending militarism. The theory that God delights in war, and that He fights on the side of the heaviest battalions, has no doubt won more souls to the eternal death to which Satan desires to consign them, companions with himself in his own inevitable fate, than any other error which he has been able to instil into the mind of man. Yet, throughout all the world, in civilised and so-called Christian nations, with enthusiasm even greater than among barbarians, men go on planning to increase the number of Satan's victims. Every now and then one hears of the cult of the Luciferians, the professors of Satanism. There can be no more complete Satanism than this military spirit which so possesses the world. Is there nothing that will waken mankind to the realisation of this?

"Escape for Thy Life" The Present Truth 12, 50.

E. J. Waggoner

ANCIENT BABYLON

When the wrath of God was about to fall upon Babylon, the children of the captivity had this word of warning:-

"My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the Lord. And lest your heart faint, and ye fear for the rumour that shall be heard in the land; a rumour shall both come one year, and after that in another year shall come a rumour, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler." Jer. i. 45, 46.

JERUSALEM

When Jerusalem had filled the cup of its iniquity by preferring its own ways to God's ways, and the destruction was about to fall upon it, the disciples of Jesus had this warning to escape:-

"And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out." Luke xxi. 20, 21.

MODERN BABYLON

The seventeenth of Revelation represents under the figure of a corrupt woman, that great religious system-"that great city"-"which reigneth over the kings of the earth" (Verse 18), plainly Rome, which from old time has been known as the city sitting on its seven hills. Verse 9. This system, together with off-shoots from it, partaking of the same spirit-represented in the symbol as the mother and her daughters-is described in the next chapter as the spiritual Babylon, which has made all nations drunken, and filled the world with evil. Rome is the true inheritor of the ancient religion of old Chaldean Babylon, and the same old principles are to this day corrupting religious life. As the day draws near when upon Rome and her corrupt daughters will fall the destruction of the last day, God's warning that again is:-

"Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues plates. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities." Rev. xviii. 4, 5. God faithfully sends the warning every time His judgments are about to fall in order that all who will believe Him may escape.

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 50.

E. J. Waggoner

-At least ?144,000,000 worth of British property is always on the sea.

-Female prisoners, by way of experiment, are to be taught the art of making Oriental rugs and mate.

-Rice has been successfully grown in the Botanical Gardens, Regent's Park, this past summer.

-A proposition to open the public library of Inverness on Sundays, has been defeated by only three votes.

-Japan is now, in population, the fifth power in the world. In numbers it exceeds Great Britain and Ireland by 7,100,000.

-Siberia is to have a new system of courts, and the old police government is to be abolished. It is expected that this will be a great reform.

-The opening of the door of a warm room in Lapland during the winter is immediately followed by a miniature snowstorm in the room, the condensed moisture falling in flakes.

-Japan is developing commercially. New lines of steamers to carry passengers and freight to and from America, Australia and Russia have been started with monthly sailings.

-Nearly four-fifths of the submarine cables of the world are in the hands of British companies, who own a length of more than 150,000 miles of cable, laid at a cost of over ?80,600,000.

-Safes, which outwardly exactly resemble iron ones, but really made of thin boards, are now supplied by various firms, and are sold to people starting in business who want to make a big show.

-The rinderpest, so destructive to the cattle of South Africa, threatens to spread to other countries. The bubonic plague, assisted by the famine, is also becoming more and more prevalent in India.

-It is said that the number of men throughout the civilised world who are capable of bearing arms, according to the physical rules fixed by the different governments for their soldiers, is one-fourth of the total population.

-India produces two crops of wheat in a year, one harvested in the spring and the other in the autumn. The autumn crop is sown in summer, but the spring crop is sown in the winter. The autumn crop in the present famine area has practically failed already, and unless rain falls during the next two months the spring crop will fail also. Of the vast population of India, numbering 300,000,000, 80 per cent. belong to the agricultural classes.

-The Lancashire Asylums Board have sanctioned the expenditure of 1,500 upon a new Roman Catholic Chapel for Rainhill Asylum, with the approval of the Lunacy Commissioners. The opponents of the scheme urged that Roman Catholics might hold service in a room devoted to other purposes as well; but Catholic members maintained that the exigencies of the Confessional and the Real Presence rendered a separate chapel absolutely necessary.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 50.

E. J. Waggoner

Both Catholic and Protestant papers credit the government with the intention of devoting a million sterling to the endowment of the Catholic University in Ireland.

Several masters of Voluntary Schools in the East-end last week gave effect to their condition that such schools should be exempt from taxation by refusing to pay rates. Summonses were issued.

The annual report of the Pobiedonostseff, procurator of the Russian Synod, just published, recommends a curtailment of liberties granted to some unorthodox bodies, and suggests work for the police and gendarmes in bringing wanderers back to the Greek Church. Yet the procurator protests, as strongly as any advocate of religious legislation in the West, that he is against religious persecution, and only enforces civil laws for the good of society.

At an inquest over the body of a man whose death was caused by drunkenness, a coroner took occasion the other day to remark that he was well acquainted with the late Sir B. W. Richardson, and "felt that he had shortened his days by abstinence." Inasmuch as Dr. Richardson had nearly completed threescore and ten years, and had lived an unusually busy and useful life, it is difficult to see how he lost much through his adherence to strict temperance principles. Certainly the coroner chose the most inopportune time and subject for preaching a sermon against total abstinence.

At a Nonconformist council last week, Dr. Parker pointed out the fatal inconsistency of Nonconformists who object to the Establishment, and who yet insist upon having religious teaching compulsory in State schools. Churchmen are consistent with their own principles, but both parties fail to see that the Christian religion can never be made a branch of politics. "If the national will has declared that religious education must be taught in State schools at the expense of the State, then," said Dr. Parker truly, "I declare that the national will is wrong."

Wherever there is human nature there is caste, which is always a wicked thing, whether in India, Europe, or America, but the Indian caste system has some points of superiority over the western system, as witnessed by the following from a recently published book on "Hindu Castes and Sects," written by a Hindu Brahman and President of the College of Pundits at Nadiya:-

Of the several unclean castes the most important are those connected with the manufacture and sale of spiritous liquors. . . . All these occupy a very low position in the Hindu caste system, and although a great many of them have been in recent times become very wealthy through the encouragement given to the liquor traffic for fiscal purposes, yet their status has not improved materially. They have been, for more than half a century, struggling hard to be recognised as a clean caste.

The Russian Government has lately published a book dealing with the various sects in Russia outside the Greek Church. Seventh-day Adventists are given space, with an account of their teaching and work. It was extensively circulated at the recent exposition held in Novgorod, and our friends have already heard of one man who had been led to accept the Sabbath and other truths by reading the book. One of our Russian workers suggests that it might be well to circulate the book, as with the rigid press censorship the problem of missionary literature in Russia is a serious one.

Some may have thought that the settlement of the Manitoba school question, announced a little time ago, showed that there was really a possibility of affecting a compromise on religious education question. But now the whole controversy is reopened, and the Catholic hierarchy in Canada declares the "settlement intolerable."

"To Make Him King" The Present Truth 12, 50.

E. J. Waggoner

To Make Him King .-When the Jews sought to take Jesus by force and make Him King, He evaded them. His kingdom was not of this world, and their momentary zeal to give Him political power sprang from their own corrupt and selfish interests. As He was true to the principles of His kingdom and preached the Gospel of loyalty to God, they ended by crucifying Him.

"The Same Thing" The Present Truth 12, 50.

E. J. Waggoner

The Same Thing .-The great Christian Endeavour Society, which, from its rise a few years ago in America, has spread into nearly all nations, is becoming possessed of the idea that it is the Christian's business to go into politics and thus make Christ the King of nations. The key-note now of the movement in America, representing a confederation of twenty-five denominations, is "Christian citizenship," and they declare,

We have a right to make and enforce human statutes that call for the observance of the laws of God.

The only possible end of any attempt by men to enforce God's law is the crucifixion of Christ afresh.

"Above God" The Present Truth 12, 50.

E. J. Waggoner

Above God .-God's law is spiritual, and so far is it above human strength that not only can no man be forced to keep it, but no man desiring to keep it can do so of himself. Only by receiving God Himself into the heart, by faith, to will and to do, can any man have the righteousness of the law fulfilled in him. And God Himself forces no one to be righteous against his will. So that this proposition, seriously made, to enact civil statutes to force men to keep God's law (as interpreted by men) is not only an attempt to usurp the place of God, but is an effort to exalt man above God.

"The Very Image of the Papacy" The Present Truth 12, 50.

E. J. Waggoner

The Very Image of the Papacy .-The exaltation of the human above God is what made the Papacy, and all the persecutions of the Papacy were but attempts to enforce what the "clergy" declared to be the will of God. And it was accomplished by the church securing control of political power. And wherever this idea of forcing men to regard religion has obtained possession of men's minds the result has been the same. Catholics or Protestants, they have only set up their own perverse wills, and only evil has followed. Priest or presbyter, it has mattered not a whit. "We will force respect for the Sabbath" says these zealous workers, and thus they think "the Government will become in fact as well as in name, a Christian government." The spirit is spreading into all countries. By making the Sunday the test and mark of the authority which they assume they are fulfilling the prophecy which shows that the Protestant world will make a very likeness or image of the papal beast of the Revelation; viii. 11-17. It is against this exaltation of the Papacy and against receiving this mark of apostasy that the final proclamation of the "everlasting Gospel" warns all the world. Rev. xiv. 6-12.

December 17, 1896

"The Turkish-Armenian Question" The Present Truth 12, 51.

E. J. Waggoner

A CONSIDERATION OF SOME NEGLECTED TRUTHS

For a long time, especially for the last eighteen months, the attention of the whole civilised world has been directed to the events taking place in Turkey. The Armenian massacres have been discussed in doubtless every pulpit in Christendom, and the papers, both secular and religious, have overflowed with accounts, comments, and suggestions. Indeed, one expects to see in his daily paper a column devoted to the situation in Turkey or to the relation of the Powers to it, just as regularly as to the state of the market.

It is therefore not necessary in this place to devote any space to the detailing of the outbreaks and massacres. No neglect has been shown in keeping them before the public in all their awful enormity; no details have been omitted, that would tend to excite the horror of the reader or hearer. While we do not repeat the reports of these massacres, we shall, for the purpose of our present study, assume that they are all true, both as to the numbers of Armenians slain, and as to the cruelties perpetrated. It might be well, however, to remember that in these reports we have the testimony from only one side,-that of the Armenians and those who are prejudiced against the Turks,-yet we will not now stop to question their truthfulness; let each one think that the outrages are as fearful as his imagination has pictured them.

A STILL MORE TERRIBLE THING

The taking of human life under any circumstances is an awful thing. To read of men being shot and stabbed, of human bodies mangled and bleeding in the streets, or kicked to one side as though they were dogs, is horrible; yet no description can equal the reality. So we say that people do well to shudder as they read of wholesale slaughter. But fearful as the massacres in Turkey may have been, there is something to which we do not see anybody's attention specially called, which is still more shocking, so much more shocking that there can be no comparison. What is that thing?-it is the almost universal cry for vengeance, the demand for war,-for more killing,-that has issued and is still issuing from the lips and pens of professed followers and ministers of Christ. We do not wish to call attention to any individual, but only to the thing, and therefore we shall not give the names of those whose utterances we quote.

One man, who shows his strong religious sentiments by the statement, "We want a leader filled with the Holy Ghost, whose only fear is to displease God," writes thus to a leading religious journal:-

Sir, I am the father of a family, but my sons and I are only waiting the call to go out. In God's name let us raise an army of volunteers, and wipe out the awful stain upon our fair island home of accomplices in crime, and sweep the old murderer and all his tribe into the sea.

Another person, a woman, a regular correspondent of the same religious paper, quotes the story of two English captains who received some Armenian refugees on board their ships in the Bosphorus, and then when the Turks demanded the refugees, hoisted the British flag, upon which the Turks went away. Then she says:-

How fervently one wishes for a moment that they had fired upon our flag! It would have been the signal for instant war!

GROSS PERVERSION OF THE GOSPEL

We have before us a report of a great representative meeting of Wesleyan Methodists, that was held in the historic City Road Chapel a few weeks ago. The writer says that, it was a meeting that showed, above all things, in how large a degree the best conscience of the people is permeated with the idea that the ethical principles of the Sermon on the Mount are applicable in all their simplicity even to the complex problems of international relations, and then follow these words:-

The immediate outcome was a resolution assuring Her Majesty's Government of united and

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vigorous support in any steps it may take to bring to a speedy end these disgraceful and unparalleled atrocities.

That by this resolution was meant support even in the event of war, is clearly shown by what preceded. One speaker said that "if necessary, England must stand alone in order to bring to an end this chapter of Eastern misrule." This, as another truly said, would doubtless "provoke a European war," yet even this the reverend gentlemen assembled were ready to accept, for still another said, "With Russia or without her, with the Concert of Europe or without it, we can, we must, we will, deliver the Armenians."

Remember now that to "deliver the Armenians" means war. If one Power should undertake it alone, without the concurrence of the other Powers, it would result in a general war of all the Powers ranged against one another according to their several interests; if there were agreement, then the war would be against the Turks alone; but in any case there would be war. Remember also that this war is just what ministers of the Gospel were and are still pleading for; and remember also the statement that the meeting showed "in how large a degree the best conscience of the people is permeated with the idea that the ethical principles of the Sermon on the Mount are applicable in all their simplicity to the complex problems of international relations," and it will be seen how greatly men have allowed their passions to cloud their perception of the simplicity of the Gospel as set forth in the Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus said, in the Sermon on the Mount, "Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth; but I say unto you, that ye resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." And further, "I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven; for He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." Matt. v. 38, 39, 44, 45.

That is all that is in the Sermon on the Mount that is especially applicable to this question, yet so far have professed Christians lost sight of its principles, that they can complacently cite their clamours for bloodshed and revenge as being an illustration of those principles. Indeed, it is from religious teachers and the religious press that the demand for vengeance principally comes, because they regard the case as one of religious persecution and therefore as especially concerning them. Now let the candid reader pause and think seriously, and say if such a perversion of the Gospel is not the most fearfully deplorable thing that could possibly happen.

The killing of a few thousands of people by men who do not profess to be Christians, is horrible enough; but more horribly wicked still is it when professors and ministers of the Gospel everywhere fill the minds of the people with the idea that war and vengeance are in harmony with and manifestations of the fundamental principles of Christianity. Such teaching only serves to nourish and glorify the natural fierceness which the Bible says will be characteristic of the last days; and with the people become fully imbued with it, there will be needed only a spark to set the whole world ablaze with the fire of hell. When the name of Christ, the Prince of Peace, is used as a war cry, where shall we look for peace on earth?

THE VENGEFUL SPIRIT

It seems as though Christendom were becoming intoxicated with the spirit of vengeance, so that the most peaceably inclined men have lost their senses. One religious paper reprints some floating newspaper stories derogatory to the character of Turks in general, and then exclaims editorially,-

Ought such a nation to be tolerated for a moment on the face of the earth?

and that but expresses the general sentiment among preachers and people.

Just analyse this: "Ought such a nation to be tolerated for a moment on the face of the earth?" is the same as, "Ought such people to be tolerated for a moment on the face of the earth?" and that includes thousands of individuals, and of each of whom it is virtually said, "Ought such a person to be tolerated for a moment on the face of the earth?" That is to say, the spirit of intolerance is already so firmly rooted in the hearts of professed Christians, that they do not wish to tolerate for a moment the existence of those whom they, taking the throne of judgment, have decided to be unfit to live. What is that but charging God with laxness in the discharge of His duty, because He suffers wicked men to live?

How different from the Spirit of Christ. When He was rejected by the Samaritans, and two disciples wished to command fire to come down and consume the inhospitable people, He rebuked them, saying, "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." Luke ix. 51-56. The Spirit of desiring to be the instruments of God's vengeance has always been more prominent than the desire to be instruments of His mercy, and when it is once cherished it inevitably results in getting ahead of the Lord, and being both judge and executioner.

THE TRUE CHRISTIAN SPIRIT

But we have a still stronger rebuke of this bitter, warlike spirit. When Jesus had been betrayed into the hands of His enemies, and a mob of men came to seize Him and put Him to death, Peter drew a sword in His defence. The blow just missed the head of one of the gang of murderers, and cut off his ear. "Then Jesus said to him, Put up again thy sword into his place; for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword." Matt. xxvi. 51, 52. And then, as an evidence that He came not to take life but to save it, Jesus healed His wounded enemy. Luke xxii. 50, 51.

If there was ever a time when it was right to resist oppression and injustice, it was then. Jesus was innocent, as even His judges declared. Here was the worst kind of religious persecution. Every indignity, insult, and outrage was heaped upon Jesus, yet He opened not His mouth, and forbade His followers to fight in His defence. How then can any of His followers fight in defence of themselves, or even of their brethren who are persecuted? The disciple is not greater than his Lord.

Peter was well-meaning and sincere in his defence of the Lord, and so would we fain believe are those who now counsel drawing the sword in behalf of the Armenians. But Peter did not then know the spirit of the Gospel. He was not converted, and within a few hours after his impulsive defence he denied that he knew the Lord. His example is not one to be followed by disciples of Christ. When he became converted, he learned to know the Lord, and then he wrote:-

"If, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God. For even hereunto were ye called; because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow His steps; who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth; who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not; but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously." 1 Peter ii. 20-23.

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Christians are called to follow Christ's example, and to suffer unjustly, without complaining, much less resisting; yet all over the world professed Christians are denying this calling. Why is it?-It is because a spirit, not from the Lord, is seeking to drive them to destruction, for Jesus said, "All they that take the sword shall perish with the sword." If Satan can only succeed in filling Christians with such zeal for any cause whatever, and no matter how worthy, that they will fight for it, He knows that their destruction is sure.

THE WICKED, DEVASTATING SWORD

Mark the word "all." There is no exception. "All they that take the sword shall perish with the sword." One of our poets has pleaded that

The just, the holy, the benignant sword might be drawn in behalf of the Armenians, and professed Christians have applauded the sentiment; but the sword is always unjust, unholy, and devastating. It makes no difference who handles it. The sword vigorously wielded by the hands of professed Christians will work as much havoc and destruction as in the hands of infidels, as history abundantly proves, and therefore it is just as cruel and unholy. The fact that a man calls himself a Christian, does not make it any more a righteous deed for him to cleave another man's head with the sword, than it would be if a Turk did the same thing. How can anybody think that that which is wicked on the part of a Mohammedan is righteous on the part of a Christian? Is it so that Christians have a monopoly of crime in this world? and that no one but Christians can murder their fellow-beings with impunity? Does the reputation that a man has determine the character of the deed he commits? If a man that is known to be a good man commits a murder, does that make the murder a righteous act? and is murder sinful only when perpetrated by men of previous bad reputation? That is the theory upon which is based the outcry against slaughter by the Turks, and the demand for the slaughter of the Turks. But it is a horrible doctrine. No; "he that doeth righteousness is righteous," and "every one that committeth sin is the bondservant of sin." When professed Christians do the deeds, and even overpass the deeds of the heathen, they nullify their profession, and place themselves in the ranks of the heathen. They are then worse than the heathen, because their high profession makes the insolence of their evil deeds the greater. Oh, the pity of the thing, that such a spirit should be consecrated by the name of Christianity!

WHO MAKES THEM TO DIFFER?

The prevailing idea seems to be that it is far worse to kill Christians than to kill non-Christians. Thus there is a great outcry when Armenians are killed, and on the contrary rejoicing when Turks are killed. Who has ever heard any sorrow expressed for the thousands of Turks who were butchered in the crusades? A religious paper that is loud in its outcry against Turks who kill, publishes without protest as a matter of simple history, the following:-

The founder of the reigning House of Montenegro was Daniel Petrovitch. He was elected Metropolitan in 1696, uniting in himself both the temporal and spiritual powers. On Christmas night, 1702, he cut to pieces all the Turks he could find in his dominions.

It is doubtful if there would be much if any indigation anywhere in Christendom if the Armenians should now slaughter the Turks in a similar manner. Indeed, the comments that followed the attack upon the Ottoman Bank furnish a case in point. At first it was thought to be a master stroke on the part of the Armenians; but afterwards, when the theory was circulated that the affair was planned by the Turks, then it was denounced as a dastardly outrage. It is on the same principle that when white men with machine guns kill several thousand blacks, it is a brilliant victory, and when the blacks retaliate upon a few dozen white that they succeed in overpowering, it is a cruel massacre.

A well-known prelate has expressed regret that the Spirit of the Crusades has been allowed to die out to the extent that it has, yet he can scarcely be ignorant of the fact that in those Crusades Mohammedans were butchered without mercy, simply because they were Mohammedans. The following brief extract describing the entry of the "Christians" into Jerusalem, amply shows the spirit and work of the Crusades:-

The Saracens gave way before them. They retreated through the streets, fighting at intervals until they were driven into the precincts of the mosque of Omar. Blood flowed in the gutters, and horrid heaps of the dead lay piled at every corner. None were sparred by the frenzied Christians, who saw in the gore of the infidels the white way of redemption. Ten thousand dead, scattered through the city, gave token of the merciless spirit of the men of the West. Another ten thousand were heaped in the reeking courts of the great mosque on Mount Moriah. "God wills it," said the pilgrims. . . . The Spirit of the massacre is well illustrated in a letter which the Christian princes sent to the Pope. The devout writers say: "If you wish to know what we did to the enemies we found in the city, learn that in the portico of Solomon and in the temple our horses walked up to the knees in the impure blood of the Saracens."

The Crusaders are applauded, while the Turks, who have not equalled them in ferocity, are execrated. Why this difference?

In the Philippine Islands the Spaniards are at this very time slaughtering their Mohammedan subjects by the hundreds, showing no mercy to prisoners, but perpetrating the grossest cruelties. Yet there is no demand for the wiping out of the Spanish nation.

At the same time that the troubles were taking place in Turkey, English soldiers in Africa, under the direction of the Government, were slaughtering African natives. The white man's machine guns mowed down the comparatively unarmed blacks making "a mere jujube of black humanity." When the natives fled and took refuge in caves, these were blown up with dynamite; men, women, and children, torn and mangled, were thus buried, both dead and alive in one common grave. These reports come not from the victims, but from the victors; yet we hear of no meetings called to protest, nor any claims that English people are too wicked to be allowed to live, as indeed they are not. The same course has been pursued with the Indians in America, until now there are but few left.

We do not cite these things as accusations, but simply for the purpose of asking why it is so much worse for Turks to kill people than it is for English and Americans; why that which is denounced as an outrage when done by Mohammedans is a thing for applause when done by professed Christians. Truly, the times are sadly out of joint. Why is it so much worse for Mohammedans to kill Christians than for "Christians" to kill Mohammedans? Can anybody tell. Is it worse to kill a Christian, who has hope in his death, then to cut short the probation of one who does not know the Lord? Think of the awful responsibility men take upon themselves when they set themselves not merely to execute God's judgment on the ungodly, but to anticipate Him, and to send them

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into eternity while He is waiting for them to repent.

A MISTAKEN IDEA

Thus far, in order that the case might stand in the strongest possible light, we have taken it for granted that the trouble in Turkey is simply religious persecution. The prevailing sentiment is thus expressed:-

The recent atrocities are an exhibition of Moslem fanaticism and hatred of Christians, which the Powers strangely permit.

Now anybody who will take the trouble to think calmly and seriously, can satisfy himself that this is not at all the case. One simple fact alone is sufficient evidence. The Greek Church is just as much Christian as is the Armenian, yet it is a well-known fact that in all the troubles in Turkey, the Greeks have not suffered. In the midst of the greatest excitement in Constantinople, if a man were arrested, or were in danger of death, he would secure his instant release by showing that he was a Greek. If the Turks were persecuting Christians, why should they be so careful not to molest the Greeks?

Again, there are many Roman Catholics in Turkey, yet there has been no proceeding against them. We mention these three bodies-Armenians, Greeks, and Roman Catholics-together, because they are very similar. While the Armenian Church is nominally Christian, it is a well-known fact that it is most intolerant of Protestants, as much so as is the Roman Catholic. Protestant work in territory exclusively Armenian is attended with as much difficulty as in Spain. That is no reason why they should be killed, or why those who are suffering should not be assisted; but it may help some who assist the needy to do so on the simple ground that they are needy mortals, and not under the mistaken notion that they are suffering for conscience sake.

In September last, just after the last outbreak, the writer witnessed a baptismal scene at Constantinople. It was at a time when the Turkish soldiers were patrolling the streets night and day; one could not turn a corner without seeing a squad of them. In the open day, without asking permission of anybody, a company of Christians went through the streets to the sea, to witness the immersion of some believers. The place of baptism was about midway between the Mohammedan mosques, and within bowshot of each. About half of the company were Armenians, the rest Greeks, and the administrator of the rite was an Armenian. Such a company walking together very naturally attracted a little attention, and a policeman asked what it meant. Upon being told, he said that was all right, and paid no more attention. At the sea there were Turks standing near, witnessing the baptism, and yet there was not so much as a disrespectful or irreverent word or gesture. There could not have been better decorum in any city in the world.

It might be well to add that the body represented on that occasion are not revolutionists, and are known to have no connection whatever with politics, but are content with being simply Christians. This is why they have had no difficulty.

Another instance will show that the Turkish opposition is against those who are plotting insurrection, and not against those who are teaching the Gospel. A young man, an Armenian residing in Scutari, was in Stamboul, and not being known to the police there, was arrested as a possible revolutionist. He told the police that he was a Sabbatarian, and they brought him to the house where the Sabbatarians were known to be assembled holding religious services, to see if it were so. When they were assured that he spoke the truth, he was released. But that was not all. The young men engaged the policeman in religious conversation, and the writer twice passed the door of the room where they were, and saw that Mohammedan Turkish policeman sitting on a divan with the Christian Armenian, each with a Bible in his hand, reading. The thought would not be repressed, that if all who profess to be Christians had used the sword of the Spirit instead of the carnal weapon in their dealings with the Turks, there might be a different story to tell.

IS THE GOSPEL FOR THE TURKS?

It is said, as proof that the Turks are animated solely by hatred of Christians, that people have been promised their lives on condition that they would turn Mohammedan, and give up the name Christian. That is very probably true. When revolution and anarchy are upheld and applauded throughout Christendom, what wonder is it if the Turks should, to a certain extent at least, associate Christianity and anarchy together? When to be a "Christian" is considered, and with good reason, synonymous with being an enemy of the Turks and the Turkish Government, the repression of revolution would very naturally be considered as simply the repression of too active Christianity. In such case it could easily be that real Christians, who hold the name as something more than a national sign, might suffer because they would not give up their faith, the Mohammedans not being able to distinguish between them and those who use the name as a cover for anarchy.

In prophetic vision the Apostle John saw "a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and peoples, and tongues," standing before the throne of God, clothed with white robes, and bearing palms of victory over sin and Satan. Rev. vii. 9. That is positive evidence that there will be Turks in heaven. Yet one would not gather from reading the religious press, that there was any possibility of salvation for a Turk. It may be said that the Turks are bitterly prejudiced against Christianity. That is true, and who could expect it to be otherwise? Christianity is to them embodied in the boasted "Christian nations" of Europe, and none of these have ever done anything to recommend the name. But that is not all. Those religious bodies, professing to be Christian, of which the Turks have most knowledge, are the Greek and Armenian churches, and in one important particular the Mohammedan has good reason to believe that his religion is superior to theirs; for he sees the members of those bodies bowing down to and adoring images and pictures, while the Mohammedan abominates the worship of idols. But even this is not the worst. From the time of the Crusades professed Christians as a rule have regarded the Turks with lofty contempt, as beings to be execrated and driven off; now, all Christendom is ringing with unchristian cries for vengeance upon the Turks, and even their utter extermination. Can it be wondered at that the Turks are not drawn towards Christianity, or that they are suspicious of foreigners? But when the just Judge of all the earth punishes the Turks for their misdeeds, who dare say that none of their blood will be upon the garments of those who bear the name of Christian? We appeal to individual Christians to clear themselves, by being Christlike in their words and acts, from all responsibility for Turkish indifference to Christianity.

THE GREAT DECEPTION

There is a cause for this present cry against the Turks. That it is not caused by the Spirit of Christ, needs no argument. What spirit it is that is even now working,

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may be seen by remembering what it is desired to do with the Turks. The least thing that is demanded, is that they be driven from Europe. Such atrocities, it is said, ought not to be allowed on European soil. But will they be any better on Asiatic soil?-Certainly not. Then what would necessarily be the next step after driving them from Europe-manifestly, to drive them from Asia, that is, from the earth, so far at least as their existence as a nation is concerned. This is even now demanded. Their overthrow will be the last act in the scheme to place the world under the dominion of so-called Christian powers, thus to fulfil the dreams of a temporal millennium, in which so many have indulged. But each one of these "Christian Powers" will wish to have the supremacy, and so the armies of all will be assembled in Palestine, the centre of the Sultan's Asiatic dominion,-when the last struggle takes place. That gathering is thus described in prophecy:-

"And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. . . And he [they] gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon." Rev. xvi. 13-16.

Here we are plainly told what spirit brings the kings of the earth together at that place. That deception we see working even now; for that Christendom is being deceived is painfully evident. If men were not already grossly deceived, how could they in the name of Christ counsel war? How could they so misrepresent true Christianity before the world as to claim that the blood even of martyrs demands revenge by the sword? Is it not a terrible deception that is even now closing in upon the world? What an awful thought, that every man, be he minister of the Gospel or not, who is upbraiding the powers for naught concerning the Turks, is simply an unconscious agent of Satan to gather the kings of earth to that great battle which is to result in the ruin of all. God grant that many who have thoughtlessly been led away by a popular clamour, may recover themselves from the snare of the devil before it is too late, and show to the world, including the Turks, that Christianity means to be like Christ. We have full faith that this prayer will be answered.

"The Promises to Israel. The Veil and the Shadow" The Present Truth 12, 51.

E. J. Waggoner

"But, and if our Gospel is veiled, it is veiled in them that are perishing; in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn upon them." 2 Cor. iv. 3, 4, R.V.

"And it came to pass, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in Moses' hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him." (Better, as in the margin of the Revision, "Because he talked with Him.") Ex. xxxiv. 29. Because Moses talked with God, his face shone even after he had left God's immediate presence. "And when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold the skin of his face shone; and they were afraid to come nigh him. And Moses called unto them; and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him; and Moses talked with them. And afterward all the children of Israel came nigh; and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him in Mount Sinai. And till Moses had done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face. But when Moses went in before the Lord, to speak with Him, he took the veil off, until he came out. And he came out, and spake unto the children of Israel that which he was commanded. And the children of Israel saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone; and Moses put the veil upon his face again, until he went in to speak with Him." Verses 30-35.

Unbelief blinds the mind. It acts as a veil, to shut out the light. It is only by faith that we understand, Moses had deep and abiding faith; therefore he "endured as seeing Him who is invisible." He needed no veil over his face even when he was in the immediate presence of the glory of God. The veil which he put on his face when he came down to talk with the children of Israel, was solely on their account, because his face shone so that they could not look upon him. But when he went back to talk with the Lord, he took the veil off.

The veil over the face of Moses was a concession to the weakness of the people. If he had not put it on, then each of them would have been obliged to put a veil over his own face, in order to come near to listen to Moses. They were not able, as Moses was, to look upon the glory of the Lord with unveiled face. Practically, therefore, each one of them had a veil over his own face. The face of Moses was unveiled.

That veil over the face of the children of Israel represented the unbelief that was in their hearts. So the veil was really over their hearts. "Their minds were blinded;" and "even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart." This is true not of the Jewish people alone, but of all who do not see Christ set forth in all the writings of Moses.

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A veil interposed between people and the light, leaves them in the shadow. So when the children of Israel spread out the veil of unbelief between themselves and "the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ," they naturally got only the shadow of it. They received only the shadow of the good things promised them, instead of the very substance. Let us note some of the shadows, as compared with the realities.

SHADOW AND SUBSTANCE

1. God had said, "If ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then . . . ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests." But they never became a kingdom of priests. Only one tribe, the tribe of Levi, could have anything whatever to do with the sanctuary, and of that tribe only one family, that of Aaron, could be priests. It was certain death for any one not of the family of Aaron to presume to serve as priest in any way. Yet all who are really the children of God through faith in Christ Jesus, are "a royal priesthood," even "an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." 1 Peter ii. 5. This was what God promised to the nation of the Jews, at Sinai; but they never attained to it, because they did not keep His covenant of faith, but trusted in their own strength.

2. Instead of being brought to the heavenly sanctuary which God's hands established, and being planted in it, they had a worldly sanctuary made by man, and were not allowed to go into even that.

3. The throne of God, in the sanctuary above, is a living throne, self-moving, coming and going like a flash of lightning, in immediate response to the thought of the Spirit. Ezekiel 1. On the contrary, they had in the earthly sanctuary but a feeble representation of that throne in the shape of an ark of wood and gold, which had to be carried about on the shoulders of men.

4. The promise in the covenant with Abraham, which God's people were to keep, was that the law should be put into the heart. The children of Israel got it on tables of stone. Instead of by faith receiving "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus," (Rom. viii. 2), that is, upon "the living stone" in the midst of the throne of God (See I Peter ii. 3, 4; Rev. v. 6), which would impart life to them, making them also living stones, they received the law only on cold, lifeless stones, which could give them nothing but death.

5. In short, instead of the ministration of the righteousness of God in Christ, they got only the ministration of death; for the very same thing which is a savour of life to them that believe, is a savour of death to them that do not believe.

But see the kindness and mercy of God even in this. He offered them the bright shining of His glorious Gospel, and they interposed a veil of unbelief, so that they could receive only the shadow. Yet that very shadow was an ever-present reminder of the substance. When a thick, passing cloud casts a shadow on the earth, we know, if we are not too dull to think, that it could not cast a shadow if it were not for the sun; so that even the cloud proclaims the presence of the sun. If therefore people nowadays, even professed Christians, were not as blind as the children of Israel ever were, they would be always rejoicing in the light of God's countenance, since even a cloud always proves the light to be present, and faith always causes the cloud to disappear, or else sees in it the bow of promise.

GOD'S WITNESS IN UNBELIEF

It was better for the Jews to have the law even as a witness against them, than not to have it at all. It was a great advantage to them in every way, to have committed unto them the oracles of God. Rom. iii. 2. It is better to have the law present to upbraid us for our sins, and to point out the way of righteousness, than to be left entirely without it. So the Jews, even in their unbelief, had an advantage over the heathen, because the Jews had "the form of righteousness and of the truth in the law." Rom. ii. 20. While that form could not save them, and only made their condemnation the greater if they rejected the instruction designed to be conveyed by it, yet it was an advantage in that it was a constant witness to them of God. God did not leave the heathen without witness, in that He spoke to them of Himself through the things that He had made, preaching the Gospel to them in creation; but the witness which He gave to the Jews, besides the other, was the very image of His own eternal realities.

And the very realities themselves were for His people. Only the veil of unbelief over their hearts kept them from having the substance of which they had the shadow; but "the veil is done away in Christ," (2 Cor. iii. 14), and Christ was even then present with them. Whenever the heart shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. Even the blindest could see that the sanctuary of the old covenant, and the ordinances of Divine service that were connected with it, were not the realities that God had sworn to give to Abraham and his seed. So they all might at once have turned to the Lord, even as individuals did throughout the whole history of Israel.

Moses talked with God with unveiled face. When the others "stood afar off," "Moses drew near." It is only by the blood of Christ that any can draw nigh. By the blood of Jesus we have boldness to enter even into the holiest, into the secret place of God. The fact that Moses did this shows his knowledge of the power of the precious blood and his confidence in it. But the blood that was able to give boldness and access to Moses, could have done the same to all the others, if they had believed as he did.

Do not forget that the presence of a shadow proves the present shining of the sun. If the glory of God's righteousness had not been present in its fulness, the people of Israel could not have had even the shadow. And since it was unbelief that caused the shadow, faith would have brought them at once into the full sunlight, and they could have been "to the praise of the glory of His grace."

Moses saw the glory with unveiled face, and was transformed by it. So if we believe, "we all, with unveiled face, reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit." 2 Cor. iii. 18. Even so it might have been with the children of Israel, if they had believed, for the Lord was never partial. That which Moses shared, all might have shared.

"THAT WHICH WAS ABOLISHED"

"Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." Rom. x. 4. He "hath abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel;" (2 Tim. i. 10); and that Gospel was preached to Abraham, and to Israel in Egypt, and in the desert. But because of the unbelief of the people they "could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished." 2 Cor. iii. 13. Because their faith did not lay hold on Christ, they got only the law as "the ministration of death," (Verse 7), instead of "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus."

People talk about "the Gospel age" and "the Gospel dispensation," as though the Gospel were an afterthought on the

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part of God, or at the most something which God long delayed to give mankind. But the Scriptures teach us that "the Gospel dispensation" or "Gospel age" is from Eden lost to Eden restored. We know that "this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." Matt. xxiv. 14. That is the end of it, but the beginning was at the fall of man. The Apostle Paul directs our attention to man in the beginning, crowned with glory and honour, and set over the works of God's hands. Directing us to fix our gaze upon man in Eden, lord over all that he saw, the apostle continues, "But now we see not yet all things put under him." Heb. ii. 8. Why not?-Because he fell, and lost the kingdom and the glory. But we still look at the place where we first saw man in the glory and power of innocence, and where we saw him sin and come short of the glory, and "we see Jesus." Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost; and where should He seek except where it was lost? He came to save man from the fall, and so He necessarily went where man fell. Wherever sin abounds, there does grace much more abound. And so "the Gospel dispensation," with the cross of Christ shedding the light of the glory of God into the darkness of sin, dates from the fall of Adam. Where the first Adam fell, there the second Adam rises, for there the cross is erected.

"Since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead," because the second man Adam is a quickening Spirit, (1 Cor. xv. 21, 45), being "the resurrection and the life." Therefore in Christ death was abolished, and life and immortality were brought to light in the Gospel, the very day that Adam sinned. If it had not been so, Adam would have died that very day. Abraham and Sarah proved in their own bodies that Christ had abolished death, for they both experienced the power of the resurrection, rejoicing to see Christ's day. Long before their day, Enoch's translation without seeing death had proved that its power was broken; and his translation was due to his faith in Christ. Much more, then, was "the Gospel dispensation" in full glory as far down in the history of the world as Sinai. Whatever other dispensation than the Gospel dispensation any people have ever shared, has been solely because of their hardness and impenitent heart, which despised the riches of God's goodness and forbearance and long-suffering, and treasured up unto themselves wrath against the day of wrath.

So right there at Sinai the ministration of death was done away in Christ. The law was "in the hand of a Mediator," (Gal. iii. 19), so that it was life to all who received it in Him. Death, which comes by sin, and the strength of which is the law, was abolished, and life put in its place to every one that believeth, no matter how many or how few they were. But let no one forget that as the Gospel was in full glory at Sinai, even so the law just as given at Sinai, is always present in the Gospel. If the law on the lifeless tables of stone was but a shadow, it was nevertheless an exact shadow, of the living law on the living stone, Christ Jesus. God would have all men know, wherever His voice is heard, that the righteousness which Christ's obedience imparts to the believer is the righteousness that is described in the law spoken from Sinai. Not one letter can be altered. It is an exact photograph of the character of God in Christ. A photograph is but a shadow, it is true; but if the light is clear it is an exact representation of some substance. In this case the light was "the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, who is the image of God," (2 Cor. iv. 4), so that we may know the ten commandments to be the literal and exact form of God's righteousness. They describe to us just what the Holy Spirit will print in living letters of light upon the fleshy tables of our hearts if they are but sensitised by simple faith.

"'Put Not Your Trust in Princes'" The Present Truth 12, 51.

E. J. Waggoner

The injunction not to put one's trust in princes is emphasised by the recent news from Russia. At the time of the coronation of the Czar bright prospects were held out to the betterment of the condition of those in Russia who were persecuted for conscience sake, but it seems that whatever the ideas of the Czar are, or might have been, the power behind the throne has no intention of making any change in Russian policy. A report says:-

During the reign of Alexander III. the Old Believers were granted certain liberties which went to ameliorate their hard lot. These privileges, according to M. Pobiedonostseff, should be now repealed, and police and gendarmes should be authorised to see if no means are available for bringing back these erring sheep to the fold of the Church. One inevitably concludes, after reading this report to the Czar, that the Minister believes himself in accord with his imperial master, as he would hardly advocate a policy which he believed to be distasteful to him.

The grim irony of the sentence, "Police and gendarmes should be authorised to see if no means are available for bringing back the erring sheep to the fold of the Church," is a sad commentary on those beautiful and tender Scriptural passages where Christ compared Himself to the shepherd, and His followers to the sheep which knew His voice. In Christ's parable of the Good Shepherd He did not represent Himself as calling for a detachment of Roman soldiers to go out on the mountain with swords and spears to drive in the wandering lamb.

But Russia is not alone. Daily instances are not lacking, in every country, to show how far the accepted religious organisations of the world have departed from Christianity.

"'I Am'" The Present Truth 12, 51.

E. J. Waggoner

In the eighth chapter of John we have three distinct utterances of Jesus, in which He sets forth the fact of His oneness with Him who is "from everlasting to everlasting." Speaking to the carping Jews, who blindly refused to understand Him, He said, "If ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die in your sins." The reader will notice that the word "He" is in italics, an indication that it was added by the translators. There is in the Greek no hint of it. Therefore since the translators inserted it, we can well omit it, taking the words of Jesus without the addition. Thus we have, "If ye believe not that I AM, ye shall die in your sins."

In verse 28 we have again the same edition of the word He. So we read, "When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I AM, and that I do nothing of Myself."

In verse 58 we have it clearly and plainly stated, "Before Abraham was, I AM."

In these texts we have the truth set forth that Jesus "through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God" (Heb. ix. 14), and that it is by a practical belief in His eternal nature that we are saved from dying in our sins. The power by which we are saved, is the power of a self-existent life. Christ is the One who was-His goings forth have been from of old, from the days of eternity. Micah v. 2, margin. He is the One who is-"He ever liveth." And He is the One who is to come-"Behold, I come quickly."

"I AM--." Fill out the blank with any good thing you please, and that is Christ, but yet only in part, for no one but Himself can fill it out. That blank indicates infinity and eternity. "I am the way, the truth, and the life." "I am the

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root of the offspring of David, and the bright and Morning Star." "I am the Good Shepherd." "I am the Door," "I am the resurrection and the life." Yea, all we need, and more than we can ask or think, we find in Him; and it is His cross, His being lifted up from the earth, that makes us know these things. Therefore, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ."

"Tea Drinking" The Present Truth 12, 51.

E. J. Waggoner

Some recent statistics of the tea trade show that the consumption of tea is increasing out of all proportion to the increase of population. It is becoming the popular beverage in countries not formerly using it to any great extent, and,-

"In those where tea is already the popular drink-Great Britain, Russia, and Holland, and, over seas, our Colonies and the United States-it also grows continuously in favour, though, of course, there is not room for such a large relative increase. The total consumption of all countries from which returns are obtainable, exclusive of the East, shows a rise of twenty-three per cent. in the twelve years. In short, tea seems to be conquering the world: those who used not to drink it have begun to do so, and those who drank it before drink more than ever."

And another thing, too, is growing-and we constantly meet its expression in medical and scientific journals-and that is the conviction that the increase of nervous troubles is due in great part to the increased use of stimulants. Under the heading, "Terrors of Tea," the St. James Gazette comments on this aspect of tea-drinking as follows:-

"Nervous people, experience shows us, are, as a rule, extremely selfish. La femme nerveuse is the most inconsiderate specimen of her sex. Her nerves have become a species of fetish, which must be propitiated by the sacrifice of everybody's comfort except her own. She considers every action, both of herself and the world at large, primarily from the point of view of the effect it will have on her nerves. If she happened to be omnipotent, she would no doubt at once stop the movement of the earth, for fear of its giving her a 'turn.' Her sentiment of pity for the misfortunes of others is entirely blunted by her horror of the sight of pain and the sound of woe. She exacts the utmost forbearance and sacrifice from others,-not for herself, but for her nerves,-and exempts herself from gratitude on the same grounds. She tends, in fact, to become completely soulless; accepting all devotion as her due, bitterly resenting any resistance to her claims, and substituting for all higher spiritual life an egotistical form of pessimism which is as delusive as it is difficult to combat. That she is not actively cruel is an accident; passively cruel she is continually, without remorse or thought; and it is probable that when provocation and opportunity offered themselves simultaneously, she would not stay her hand from direct cruelty. The nervous woman is a product of the nineteenth century, and, inferentially, of tea. She takes it to soothe her nerves, and it rather excites them; or else she takes it because she has acquired the habit, and the result is the same.

"Russian women are even more afflicted with 'nerves' than their English sisters. They are more inclined to fitful and violent excitements, more skilled in intrigue, more pessimistic, more selfish as a rule. Now it is worth noticing that they have known the use of tea much longer, that they drink a purer and stronger beverage, and that they indulge in it oftener than English women. The children take after their mothers, and in the men the characteristics become more pronounced and more brutal."

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 51.

E. J. Waggoner

-Vital statistics show that persons born in the spring are usually of a more robust constitution than those who come into the world at other times in the year.

-Abyssinia is reported to have ceded to Russia a strip of coast next to the Italian colony. Thus Russian diplomacy wins another victory and gets a footing in Africa.

-At the four great markets of the Western United States, for several years, the number of beeves slaughtered annually has averaged more than three and one-half millions.

-The Czar has a bodyguard of fifteen Cossacks who accompany him nearly everywhere, and occasionally sot as detectives. They sometimes officiate as cooks, and very frequently insist upon "tasting" fresh bottles of wine three or four times p day, to be sure it is not poisoned.

-The Budget of the Congo State still shows a deficit. The State lost nearly a milllon francs last year. A Belgian traveller has lately visited the State and reports that the morals of the whites there are utterly bad. Women are bought and sold at very low figures, and the influence of "civilisation" is anything but good.

-When it was proposed in the London County Council to enlarge Haswell Asylum in order to accommodate the increasing number of lunatics a member suggested that the proper authority for maintaining imbeciles was the Government, inasmuch as lunacy was chiefly caused by alcohol, the sale of which brought s large revenue to the Treasury.

-An Archbishop of Canterbury has to pay out nearly ?900 in fees before he can be enthroned. The officials of the Board of Green Cloth, the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod, the Clerk of Parliament, the Auditor of the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury, the Yeoman Usher of the Black Rod, and the doorkeepers of the House of Lords all profit by a vacancy in the Primacy.

-Great suffering is reported among the Matebeles. The stores and cattle of the natives were very largely destroyed during the recent war, and so many of the males were killed that many of the surviving families are perishing of starvation. Similar and more extensive distress exists in Armenia, where following the disorders of the past year or two, the cold winter is bringing misery and suffering upon destitute survivors.

-During the war between Japan and China Russia intervened in behalf of China, and compelled Japan to hand back Port Arthur and the surrounding country. Russia also loaned money to China. The price of this friendship is now made public, if reports are correct. China gives Russia practical control of Northern China. The railway through Manchuria is to be guarded by Russian troops, and Russia is to have a naval port at one end of the railway. Another branch of the railway is to run to Port Arthur, and this fortress is to be occupied by Russia in time of war. Thus Russia takes what Japan gave up, and the political balance in the East is entirely altered.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 51.

E. J. Waggoner

Speaking of the increasing frequency of earthquakes, Professor Milne says that some years ago Japan registered about 500 shocks per year, but in recent years as many as 1,000 a year have been experienced.

"I tell you," said a non-thinker, who fancied himself a free-thinker, "the idea that there is a God has never come into my head." "Ah! precisely like my dog. But there is this difference, he doesn't go round howling about it."

It is announced that the army, as well as the navy, is to be materially increased. This is to keep pace with the increase which France and Germany are making "Thus militant Europe continues," in the language of one newspaper, "to make ready for an inevitable, colossal conflict."

Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world; if My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews." John xviii. 36. The kingdom of Christ is not a thing to be fought for. The force that takes the kingdom of heaven, is not the force of arms. But if a man will not fight for the greatest thing in the world, how can he fight for the minor things? If he will not fight for the kingdom of Christ, it is certain that he will not fight for any kingdom of man. Therefore the servant of Christ will not fight at all, under any consideration.

"Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." But the man who starts in the service of the Lord with his eyes on "these things" of a temporal nature, is not seeking first the kingdom of God and righteousness. The man who does not see "these things" receives them, and is content with what he has, whether he abounds or suffers need, while the man whose thought is upon the material things has no certainty of them, and fails of receiving the righteousness.

"Papal Etiquette" The Present Truth 12, 51.

E. J. Waggoner

Papal Etiquette .-Some idea may be formed of the wonderful magic still exercised by the papacy over men's minds, says the Chronicle, by considering the inconveniences to which crowned heads voluntarily submit in order to keep up the fiction of "the Prisoner of the Vatican." Passing over the fact that such good Catholics as the Emperor of Austria and the King of Portugal are absolutely prohibited from setting foot in Rome, we may just note the conditions upon which King Alexander of Servia, a member of the Greek Communion, was permitted last week to call upon the Pope. The idea of a visit on his return from Naples, when he would no longer be King Humbert's guest, could not be tolerated for a moment. It was intimated that he and his whole suite must be conveyed in mufti by the Court carriages to be Quirinal Hotel, declared for the occasion to be Servian territory. There the party had changed their civil garments for gala uniforms, and then proceed in hired carriages to the Vatican. After the visit his Majesty must await in uniform the call of Cardinal Rampolla, and then resuming his every-day clothes return to the Quirinal Palace and the royal vehicles.

"The Gospel Gives" The Present Truth 12, 51.

E. J. Waggoner

The Gospel Gives .-It makes all the difference in the world how one looks at the Gospel. If one looks at it as taking away from us things that we have always prized because they are peculiar to us, it is hard; if we look at it as giving us the best possible things, it is easy. The one who says, "If I am a Christian, I shall have to give up" this or that thing, can see nothing but bondage in it; while the one who knows that if he accepts Christ he receives everything worth having, sees joy and gladness in the Christian life. The Gospel gives, instead of taking away. "God so loved the world, that He gave"-what?-"His only begotten Son," "whom He hath appointed heir of all things." John iii. 16; Heb. i. 2. Now "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" Rom. viii. 32.

All that the Lord asks us to give up is our own evil way, which we try to persuade ourselves is good enough, but which the Lord says is but "filthy rags." But He offers us instead His own perfection. Imagine now a poor beggar with filthy garments that will scarcely hold together, saying to his companions, "I am invited to go to Mr.--'s house; but if I go I shall certainly have to give up all these clothes of mine." "What! and go naked?" asks one. "Oh, no; he will give me a fine new suit." "Well, then," some sensible fellow would say, "you have stated the case wrong. What you ought to say is that if you go you will receive some good clothes, and instead of complaining, you ought to rejoice. Even so the one who knows the Lord will, instead of complaining that he must give up the filthy rags of his own misdeeds, say: "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness." Isa. lxi. 10. "Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift."

"'Christendom' and Heathendom" The Present Truth 12, 51.

E. J. Waggoner

"Christendom" and Heathendom .-The Rev. Mark Guy Pearse, of the West London Mission, as thorough and loyal an Englishman as there is living, preached a sermon at St. James's Hall, on "Temperance Sunday," published in the Methodist Times of Dec. 10, in which he said:-

All that England has done and is doing to advance the welfare of the nations is undone and worse than undone by the curse of strong drink. It hurts one indeed to think of it, but it is just the awful and terrible truth, that in spite of our Bible Societies and all our great Missionary Societies, the world would be better to-day if there were no England.

And the same is true of every other nation on earth, in proportion to its power and influence, the reason why may be seen from the next statement made by Mr. Pearse:-

In India, it is said that for every native converted to Christianity, one hundred natives are made drunkards. When the natives see a drunken man they are accustomed to say, "He has left Mohammed and gone to Jesus." "Now that Burmah has been annexed," says a missionary, "it has become a place of cheap drink and great crimes."

It is awful to think that people are given such false ideas of Jesus and Christianity, and it all comes through that fiction expressed by the term "Christian nation," which many real Christians thoughtlessly foster. If the truth had always been proclaimed, that Christianity is simply Christlikeness, that it is an individual affair and that all nations are, as nations, always heathen, and only heathen, much dishonour to the Christian name would have been saved.

December 24, 1896

"The Lesson of History" The Present Truth 12, 52.

E. J. Waggoner

We do not say "a lesson from history," but "the lesson of history;" for there is but one great lesson that history teaches, yet it is one that is rarely learned. For want of learning this one lesson, thousands study history in vain; while he who learns the simple, fundamental lesson in the beginning of his study will read to profit.

The reason why the lesson referred to is so almost universally overlooked, is that the records that are usually studied are so crowded with details that the mind becomes confused; history becomes to the student only a mass of occurrences, in which the underlying truth taught by history is lost. This melancholy result would be avoided if people began at the right place to study, taking the simplest history first, and afterwards that which is more complex.

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," and the Bible is the book that teaches the fear of the Lord; therefore it is in the Bible that the beginning of wisdom is found. It is the simplest book in the world, as would naturally be expected of a book of beginnings. That it is really a book very easy to be understood is proved

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by the fact that it teaches the way to the kingdom of heaven, which can be entered only by children and those who become like children. See Matt. xviii. 3. It is manifest, therefore, that the Bible can be understood by children, and consequently must be an easy book. It is the first book that children should study. But the whole of the thing is found in the beginning, just as the entire tree exists in the germ; and so the Bible, which teaches the fear of the Lord, contains the sum of knowledge, and may be studied by the grey-haired sage as profitably as by the little child. Its treasure of wisdom is inexhaustible.

Now for the first lesson in history. Very fittingly it begins with the beginning of time. We will quote a page from it, that we may clearly see what is the simple, underlying truth taught by all history since the creation of the world. Here it is:-

"This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; male and female created He him; and blessed them, and called their name Adam [man] in the day when they were created.

"And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in His own likeness, after His image; and called his name Seth. And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years; and he begat sons and daughters. And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died. And Seth lived an hundred and five years, and begat Enos. And Seth lived after he begat Enos eight hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters: and all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years; and he died." Gen. v. 1-8.

Thus the record continues to the end of the chapter, of which we have quoted just one fourth; yet the chapter covers a period of more than fifteen hundred years.

What is the sum of history, as indicated by this record?-Simply this, that man lived a certain number of years, and then died. With this first historical record agree all that have been written since. The whole of history can be summed up in the words, They lived so long, and then they died. The one thing, therefore, that history teaches, is that a man's life is but "a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away." Yet this is the thing that is seldom thought of in reading history. Histories written by man are so filled up with accounts of the incidentals,-the things that people did, the battles fought, the kingdoms established, the cities built, and the "glory" gained,-that unless one has begun the historical study of the primary book, that is, the Bible, he will lose the main point.

Secular history alone is sufficient, if one reads it thoughtfully, to show that it is utterly impossible for man to inherit or possess this earth. "For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others." Notwithstanding this, "their inward thought is that their houses shall continue for ever; they call their lands after their own names." "This their way is their folly; yet their posterity approve their sayings." Ps. xlix. 10-13. Each generation imagines that it is an exception, and that its works will stand for ever.

DULL STUDENTS

People refuse to learn the lesson of history, even when it is spread out before their eyes. They contemplate the ruins of former greatness, and even while looking, think, "How superior we are to those who lived in ancient times; their empires all vanished, and their cities are in ruins, or utterly extinct." But that is most short-sighted reasoning. A man might as well claim to have more vitality than Methuselah, because he himself is living, in the possession of full strength, while Methuselah, forsooth, is long since dead! Ah, but wait, my friend, and time will tell a different story. You will not have to wait one-tenth the length of Methuselah's life, to learn your mistake.

So with the works of which men boast to-day. There are now no structures so massive and so strongly built as many of those of ancient days, that have been utterly demolished by time. Should time continue as much longer as it has already continued, nothing would remain of the glory of the nations that now inhabit the earth, and their names would be forgotten unless some few fragments of stone preserved them.

No; this earth is under a curse, and unsuited for man's dwelling-place. He cannot live here. Do what he will to establish himself here, he is swept away before he can fairly get a foothold. The princes of the earth are brought to nothing, and the judges of the earth are as vanity. "Yea, scarce are they planted, scarce are they sown, scarce hath their stock taken root in the earth, when he bloweth upon them, and they wither, and the whirlwind taketh them away as stubble." Isa. xl. 24, R.V., margin.

In spite of this truth, which is the one thing that is most evident in all history, men go on planning for this earthly life as though they were able to abide here for ever. We see them throwing all their energies into a political struggle, fiercely excited over the outcome, scrambling and crowding for a place, perfectly oblivious to the fact that even if they succeed in attaining the coveted object, it will disappear, and they themselves with it, almost as soon as they seize it. So it always has been, and so it will be to the end. They are as foolish as children on the beach, fighting over the sand houses they have built, which the next wave of the incoming tide will wash away, and at the same time overwhelm them.

What hope is there then for men?-Much, every way. Go back again to our elementary history book. Surely we can believe the record that is so conclusively substantiated by facts. That tells us that God created the earth not in vain, but to be inhabited (Isa. xlv. 18), and that when He had completed it, with man upon it, He "saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good." Gen. i. 31. The critical eye of the Master could detect no flaw, nothing that could be improved, either in man or his condition and circumstances. Everything was as good as God Himself could make it.

Now we know that, "whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever." Eccl. iii. 14. Therefore the condition of the earth in the beginning, and of men as well, is that which is to be through all eternity. God did not place men on the earth in order that they should be swept away like gnats, but that they should possess it for ever, even for ever and ever. Therefore, "We, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." 2 Peter iii. 13. Even though there were not many repetitions of that promise, the fact that in the beginning God placed a perfect man in a perfect earth, is sufficient promise that so it will be. In view of this promise we can confidently say, even when about to be carried away by the flood of time, "God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave; for He shall receive me." Ps. xlix. 15.

Who will begin to read history from the beginning, and learn the great lesson that it teaches? Who will cease to chase the bubble that collapses as it is grasped, and begin to plan and live as citizens of a better country, that is, an heavenly, whose capital is a city that has everlasting foundations, whose builder and maker is God?

"The Promises to Israel. Two Laws" The Present Truth 12, 52.

E. J. Waggoner

From what has preceded, it will be evident that there are two laws just as there are two covenants, occupying the same relation to each other that the two covenants do to each other. One is the shadow of the other, the result of placing the veil of unbelief before the Light of life.

"For the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life." Prov. vi. 23. But Christ is the only Light of the world, the Light of life; so that the true and living law is found only in Him. It is His life, because it is in His heart, and out of the heart are the issues of life. He is the Living Stone, where we find the law in Person, full of grace as well as of truth. Of this, the law on tables was but the shadow, albeit an exact and perfect shadow. It tells us exactly what we shall find in Christ.

Although the law on tables of stone describes the perfect righteousness of God, it has no power to make itself manifest in us, no matter how greatly we may desire it. It is "weak through the flesh." It is a faithful signpost, pointing out the way, but not carrying us in it. But Christ has "power over all flesh," and in Him we find the law so full of life that, if we but consent to the law that it is good, and confess that Christ is come in the flesh, it will manifest itself in the thoughts and words and acts of our lives, in spite of the weakness of the flesh.

To those who know the law only as it stands in a book, and who consequently think that it rests wholly on them to do it, it is a law of works, and as such it does nothing but pronounce a curse upon them. But to those who know the law in Christ, it is a law of faith, which proclaims the blessing of pardon and peace.

As known only on tables of stone or in a book, it is a "law of sin and death," (Rom. viii. 2), since "the sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law." 1 Cor. xv. 56. But as known in Christ, it is "the law of the Spirit of life," "because of righteousness."

As "written and engraven in stones," it can never be anything else than "the ministration of death." He who preaches simply the written law, telling people of their duty to keep it, and inciting them to do the best they can to keep it, is but ministering condemnation. But the same law written in fleshy tablets of the heart, "with the Spirit of the living God" (2 Cor. iii. 3), is "life and peace;" and he who preaches that Christ "is come in the flesh," (1 John iv. 2), and that when He dwells in a man to-day He is as obedient to the law as He was eighteen hundred years ago, is a minister of righteousness.

Known only as a code of rules to which we must make our lives conform-a "law of commandments contained in ordinances"-it is but a "yoke of bondage," because one's best efforts to keep it are themselves only sin; "for the Scripture hath concluded [shut up] all under sin;" and with each work "done in righteousness which we did ourselves," the law but tightens its death grip on us, and strengthens the bars of our prison. But "the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." 2 Cor. iii. 17. Therefore in Christ the law is the "perfect law of liberty." James. i. 25.

When the Jews at Sinai volunteered to work God's works for Him, they undertook their own salvation. They ignored the history of Abraham, and God's covenant with him, to which their attention had been specially called. But God is long-suffering, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance; and so, in harmony with His covenant with Abraham, He did not cast off the people, but endeavoured to teach them of Himself and His salvation, even out of their unbelief. He gave them a system of sacrifices and offerings, and a daily and yearly round of ceremonies that were exactly in keeping with the law which they had elected to keep, namely, the law of works.

Of course this sacrificial system could not save them any more than could the broken law of works out of which it grew. Any man who had understanding enough to know the nature of sin and the necessity for atonement, had sense enough to know that pardon and righteousness could never be obtained by the ceremonies connected with the tabernacle. The very offering of a sacrifice indicated that death is the wages and fruit of sin. But anyone could see that the life of a lamb, a goat, or a bullock, was not worth as much as a man's own life. Therefore none of those animals, nor all of them together, could answer for the life of a single man. Thousands of rams, or even a human sacrifice, could not atone for a single sin. Micah. vi. 6, 7.

The faithful among the people understood this well. David said, after he had committed a great sin, "Thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it: Thou delightest not in burnt offering." Ps. li. 16. And God, through the prophets, taught the people: "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me?" "I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats." Isa. i. 11. "Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet unto Me." Jer. vi. 20. There was no virtue in them, for the law had only "a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things," and could "never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year

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continually make the comers thereunto perfect." Heb. x. 1.

It would of course have been better, nay, the very best thing, if the people of Israel had preserved the simple and strong faith of Abraham and Moses, in which case they would have had no tabernacle but the one "which the Lord pitched, and not man;" no High Priest except Christ Himself, "made an High Priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek;" no limit to the priesthood, but every one of them a priest "to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ;" no law but "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ;" in short, only the reality, and not the mere shadow. But since the people did not believe, it was a wonderful exhibition of God's kindness and love and forbearance, that He gave them what must have served as a continual object lesson. The very "weakness and unprofitableness" (Heb. vii. 18) of the law of works was always apparent to every thoughtful person; and when the soul became awakened, that law whose only profit was conviction, and whose only power was death, directed them to Christ, to whom it shut them up for freedom and life. It made evident to them that in Christ, and in Him alone, they could find salvation. The truth as it is in Jesus, is the truth that sanctifies.

HOW FORGIVENESS COMES

Another point that it is necessary to notice particularly, although it has already been fully covered, is that nobody ever received salvation or the pardon of any sin by virtue of the law of works or the sacrifices connected with it. Moreover, God never caused the people to expect that the law could save, and nobody who truly believed Him ever thought that it could. Samuel said to Saul, "To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams." 1 Sam. xv. 22.

The prophet king, from a heart melted to contrition by the mercy of God, wrote: "Thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it; thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise." Ps. li. 16, 17. Through Hosea the Lord, said: "I desired mercy and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings." Hosea vi. 6. Instead of the offering of fat beasts, the Lord desired that the people should "let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream." Amos v. 24. Recall the chapter on drinking in the righteousness of God.

"By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous." Heb. xi. 4. He did not obtain righteousness by the sacrifice of the firstlings of the clock, but by the faith which prompted the offering. "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Rom. v. 1. "By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God." Eph. ii. 8. And so it was from the beginning; for "Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness," and the same is affirmed of Enoch and Noah and all the patriarchs and prophets.

After the building of the tabernacle, sacrifices could not be offered in any other place; yet many of the people would necessarily be far away from it. Three times a year they were to assemble to it to worship. But they did not have to wait for those seasons to come, in order to receive forgiveness of the sins that they might have committed in the meantime. Wherever a man might be when he sinned, and became conscious of the plague of his own heart, he could acknowledge the sin to the Lord, who was always at hand, and experience, as well as we can, that "if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John i. 9. This is demonstrated in the case of David, when the prophet of God reproved him. David said, "I have sinned against the Lord;" and immediately came the assurance, "The Lord also hath put away thy sin." 2 Sam. xii. 13.

When this had taken place, then the repentant and forgiven soul could "offer the sacrifices of righteousness" (Ps. iv. 5; li. 19), which would be acceptable to God. Then would the Lord be pleased with burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings upon His altar. And why?-Because they showed the gratitude of the heart, and because they were a recognition of the fact that all belonged to God, and that everything came from Him. In all true sacrifice there is the underlying principle that He who saves the soul is abundantly able to supply all physical needs, even though every vestige of worldly goods should be consumed. It is not the thought that we are giving to God, but that God gives to us, that makes the true sacrifice, since the only real sacrifice is the sacrifice of Christ. This was plainly manifest in every sacrifice that was offered. The people could see that they were not enriching the Lord, for the sacrifice was consumed. Every one who offered intelligently-everyone who worshipped in spirit and in truth-simply indicated that he depended solely on God both for the life that now is and for that which is to come.

THE OLD COVENANT VALUELESS

The old covenant, therefore, together with the law which pertained to it, was never for one moment of any value whatever for pardon and salvation from sin. It was "made void" even from the beginning. (See Ps. lxxxix. 30.) A demonstration of this is furnished by the pleading of Moses with God, when the children of Israel had made and worshipped the golden calf. When God said, "Let Me alone, that My wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them," Moses besought the Lord and said:-

"Lord, why doth Thy wrath wax hot against Thy people, which Thou hath brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand? Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did He bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from Thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against Thy people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, Thy servants, to whom Thou swarest by Thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever." Ex. xxxii. 10-13.

Not a word was there about the covenant that had just been made, but only the covenant with Abraham. No particle of dependence was placed in the promises that the people had made, but only in the promise and the oath of God. If that covenant from Sinai had ever been of any value, it would surely have been when it was first made; but we see that even then it sunk entirely out of sight. It had no more power to save the people than had the parchment on which it was written.

Jeremiah in later years prayed: "O Lord though our iniquities testify against us, do Thou it for Thy name's sake; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against Thee." "We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers; for we have sinned against

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Thee. Do not abhor us, for Thy name's sake, do not disgrace the throne of Thy glory; remember, break not Thy covenant with us. Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not Thou He, O Lord our God? therefore we will wait upon Thee; for Thou hast made all these things." Jer. xiv. 7, 20-22. That was all the plea God desired then, as well as now, for He said, "Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord; and I will not cause Mine anger to fall upon you; for I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep anger for ever. Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God." Jer. iii. 12, 13. It was as true then as now, that "if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins."

God's power as Creator and Redeemer, and His promise and oath, are all that any really repentant Jew ever depended on for salvation. None of them ever thought of depending upon their own works or promises, as the means of salvation. In short, from the days of Abel until now, there has been but one way of life and salvation; only one way of approaching to God; only one Name under heaven by which men could be saved. Since the day when salvation through the Seed of the woman was made known to Adam and Eve, before they were driven from Eden, there has been no more change in the plan of salvation, nor in God's requirements for salvation, nor in the number to whom salvation was offered, than there has been in God Himself and His throne in heaven.

Men have changed, but God has not. There have always been men who have trusted in their own words and promises, and in ceremonies; but that does not prove that God wished them to do so. In the days of Moses and of Christ the majority of men trusted mostly in form and ceremony; and so they do to-day. Men have always been more ready to grasp the shadow than the substance. But that does not prove that in the ancient days God expected men to be saved by the law of works, any more than it proves that justification is not by faith now.

WORKS OF SUPEREROGATION

There has always been a tendency among men to multiply rites and ceremonies. This is the inevitable result of trusting to works for salvation. So it was in the days of Christ, and so it is now. When men get the idea that their works must save them, or that they themselves must do God's works, they cannot be content with attempting to do no more than God's commandments. So they teach for doctrines "the commandments of men," adding to them continually until no man could even enumerate the "good works" that are required, much less could he do them. The yoke which even at first is galling and insupportable, becomes heavier and heavier, until at last religion becomes a matter of merchandise, and men for money or some other consideration buy themselves off from the necessity of doing the works that have been imposed upon them. And since it is even more impossible for men to do the commandments of God by their own efforts than it is to do the commandments of men, God's law soon sinks in their estimation, even below the precepts of men.

All this is the natural and inevitable tendency of a failure to see Christ in the writings of Moses, and to understand that whatever ceremonies God ever gave were intended by their very emptiness to impress upon the people the absolute necessity of depending only on Christ, in whom alone is the substance.

THE USE OF A LIKENESS

One word further as to the shadow and the substance. As we have seen, the law delivered to the people in the wilderness of Sinai was but the shadow of the real law, which is the life of God. This is often urged in depreciation of the law; many people seem to think that since the law is but the shadow of good things, therefore we should choose that which is as opposite to it as possible. Not so do men argue in temporal matters. If we have a photograph-a shadow-of a man whom we wish to find, we do not light on a man whose features bear no resemblance to the likeness, and say, "This is the man." No; we find a man of whom the photograph is the exact likeness, and then we know that we have the one we seek. Now the real law is the life of God, and the law delivered to the children of Israel-the shadow of good things-is the photograph of God's character.

The one man in all the world who in every particular meets the specifications of that photograph, is, "the Man Christ Jesus," in whose heart is the law. He is the image of the invisible God, but the living image-the Living Stone. Coming to Him in faith, we also become living stones, having the same law written in us that was in Him, for His Spirit transforms us into the same living image; and the law on the tables of stone from Sinai will be the witness that the resemblance is perfect. But if there is in any particular a deviation from the perfect photograph, lack of resemblance will show that we are not of the true family of God.

"'I Have Told You Before'" The Present Truth 12, 52.

E. J. Waggoner

When Jesus warned His disciples against the false Christs and false prophets who should arise in the later times, and should deceive many, He said: "Behold I have told you before." The continued reiteration of counsel, advice, warning, injunction and exhortation, is a most marked feature of Christ's conversations with His disciples, as narrated in the Gospels. If this is so true of the few words of His there set down, how very much more true must it have been if one but considered all the daily conversation and teaching of those years together.

All the plan of salvation He laid before them again and again. The strange, tragic mystery of His crucifixion, death and burial, and resurrection, He foretold to them over and over again, and then promised them that after His resurrection He would go before them into the Galilee.

Yet, although they had seen Him call Lazarus from the grave after he had lain there more than three days, they apparently did not comprehend that He would Himself rise from the dead, as He had repeatedly said to them. When He had told them that He would go before them into Galilee (Matt. xxvi. 32), why did they not all, of one accord, go down into Galilee to meet Him? Because they had forgotten that He had said such a thing until the message from the Lord afterwards recalled it to their minds.

Just so they forgot the oft repeated words of the Master regarding the matter of His death and time of His resurrection. Still, though they were such dull students,-learned so slowly the lessons of truth and life and salvation,-even forgot and neglected again and again the simplest details of facts which He presented to them,-still, for all that, Christ loved them and did not turn from them. He scarcely ever reproved them for their slowness of mind and dulness of heart,-He waited for their conversion. He looked forward to the time when they should be converted, as is shown by His words to Peter, "when thou art converted."

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What a lesson of patience all this is to those who strive to present the truths of religion to the world which is so slow to hear, and slower still to accept and act. And yet much more than that it may be a comfort, unspeakable, to all, to realise how tenderly, with patient longsuffering, Christ bore with the errors, failures, ignorance, seemingly hopeless inability to comprehend spiritual things, which so often characterised those whom He had called to His personal discipleship. In our Bibles we have His words,-in all the wide world about us we have the material evidence of the expression of His word of creative power. The reiteration of God's teachings are even more numerous in our ears and eyes than their repetition to the disciples themselves.

"Need of Teaching Peace Principles" The Present Truth 12, 52.

E. J. Waggoner

It used to be said that kings and rulers, and not peoples, were responsible for wars, to which the people devoted their treasure and their lives. But growth of constitutionalism and increasing influence of the masses in national affairs has not resulted in lessening the warlike spirit. This is so sedulously cultivated under the name of patriotism that only recently we have seen statesmen resisting popular feeling in the interests of peace. A daily newspaper, commenting on the growth of militarism alongside the growth of democracy, says:-

Modern Europe teaches the significant lesson that in proportion as newspaper and Parliamentary education has advanced, and in proportion as the popular voice has obtained increased power in the government of nations, expenditure of national wealth for military and naval purposes has augmented. This fact is particularly observable in this country. Whilst expenditure votes have increased with increasing population, our military and naval expenditure votes have increased by leaps and bounds.

The facts are deeply significant for Christians. They show how rapidly the spirit of violence is filling the masses, and how great the need of true education and the principles of peace. It is not that the dreadful demon of war can ever be driven out; the Word of God shows that it will desolate the earth to the end. But now, while yet the general, "armed peace" exists, it needs to be made plain that no instructed Christian can have anything to do with designs upon the lives of those to whom he is commissioned by Christ to give the Gospel of life.

"The Bakers' Sunday Laws" The Present Truth 12, 52.

E. J. Waggoner

The continued prosecutions of bakers for baking bread on Sundays has led to a considerable agitation for the repeal of that section of the Bread Act which prohibits Sunday baking. On the other hand certain organisations of bakers have memorialised Lord Salisbury, urging him to oppose any attempt to repeal that section. As a matter of pure right and justice there cannot be two opinions about that provision of the law. But those who wish and interest it is that it should be retained are far in the ascendancy as regards the numbers and influence; there is scarcely the least likelihood, therefore, that the agitation will affect the removal of that ancient and objectionable feature from the law.

When once an unrighteous law has gained a place in the statute books, the fact of its unrighteousness will militate little for its removal unless it works a hardship to such a majority of the people that a popular clamour is raised against it through the great number of those whose personal interest have suffered thereby.

In this case it would seem that those who prefer that the improper law should be retained, are to those who desire its removal in about the ratio of one hundred to one.

"The Eastern Question Now" The Present Truth 12, 52.

E. J. Waggoner

The oppressive sense of overwhelming danger leads statesmen of all nations to deal carefully with the problems of the Eastern question. Yet they prepare for its eventual solution, little realising that their own destiny is bound up with that of Turkey; and that when the Ottoman Power, which occupies the very territory of the "king of the north," of the eleventh of Daniel, "shall come to his end, and none shall help him," it will be the signal for the ending of human history. For years the situation has remained critical, and now it has taken on a new phase, as a result of recent events. The President of Robert College, Constantinople, says of this change:-

"The events of the past two years have introduced a new factor into the Eastern question. England has taken up a new position. She is ready to make an end of the Ottoman Empire, as hopelessly corrupt; and a year ago she not only made this known to the Powers but sent her fleet to the Dardanelles and threatened to send it to Constantinople. No one who is not familiar with the inner working of European diplomacy can imagine the consternation which this action caused on the Continent. The partition of the Ottoman Empire is the one question which the five Powers do not dare even to mention in a whisper. To seriously discuss it would break up both the alliances and bring on a general war."

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 52.

E. J. Waggoner

-Along the Macedonian frontier the people said to be gathering arms and ammunition in expectation of a rising against Turkish rule in the spring.

-The Spanish arms seem to have had some alight successes in Cuba. It is taken as a true re-port that the leader of the insurgents, Macao, is dead. Ho was a half-breed Cuban, of great ability it is said.

-It is estimated that England pays a million pounds a year for toys for its fifteen millions of children. ?600,000 worth of these toys are imported from abroad,-Germany, Holland, France, Belgium, etc.

-The Hamburg dock strike has been long continued. Lately the strikers have engaged in some violence. Rumours of troubles in all ports are passing about, but as yet the situation is critical only in Hamburg.

-One Rhodesian chief, near Salisbury, is still defiant, and more fighting is expected. An old settler in Matabeleland declares that even now the prospects of long-continued peace with the natives are not reassuring.

-When the "P. & O." liner capsised in the Thames last week, one of the seven men who were drowned in the tanks, where they were working, might have saved himself, but gave way to a younger man, who was the last to escape through the man-hole.

-The latest returns show that 331,000 persons are employed on the relief works in India. The sufferings amongst the women and children in the famine-stricken districts is said to be most distressing, and a relief fund has been opened in this country. The plague shows no signs of abating in Bombay, and there has been a large exodus of natives from the city.

-The immense estates left by brewers, at their death, is an evidence of where much of the people's money goes. A brewer has just died whose personalty alone has been declared at two million pounds sterling,-two died in 1893 whose personalty figured up, the one ?2,876,731, the other ?361,568,-yet another died in 1894, whose personalty was declared at ?1,018,375.

-Emigration to America has created so great a dearth of labour in the agricultural districts of Germany that Chinese coolies are now being imported for field work in the provinces of Silesia, East Prussia, Posen, and Pomerania. Coolies are content to work for tenpence a day, and if they continue to arrive in large numbers emigration of German peasants will likely receive a great impetus.

-For more than a year the Russian military authorities have been storing large quantities of grain and ammunition in the extensive granaries and other buildings recently erected in the vicinity of Kars, in the Caucasus; the garrisons of this world-famous fortress and other towns near the frontier have been largely added to, and it is calculated that the Russian army south of the Caucasus numbers quite 100,000 men.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 52.

E. J. Waggoner

On Sunday, the 22nd day of November, for the first time in more than four hundred years, the ringing of a bell sounded forth from a Catholic church in Copenhagen.

If it be asked, "Why do you publish a paper, and write articles for it?" the reply is, The object of the Present Truth is to lead people to the Word, and to open it to them. We have heard that once and again it has been objected that our paper contains nothing that cannot be found in the Bible. It is our desire that this may always be said with truth. If we can give people such a taste of "the good word of God" that they will long for more, and will be induced to eat and drink freely from the great storehouse, we shall be happy.

"Attention to Bible-reading" The Present Truth 12, 52.

E. J. Waggoner

Attention to Bible-reading .-If you want to be strong Christian people, hide the Bible in your heart. You make a tremendous mistake, for your own soul's sake, if your religious reading consists in what people have said and thought about Scripture more than in the Scripture itself. Why should you dip your cans into the reservoir, when you can take them up to where the spring comes gushing out of the hillside, pure, and limpid, and living?-Dr. Maclaren.

Exhortations of this kind cannot be too often repeated or too strongly emphasised. It is a deplorable fact that most people who profess an interest in the Bible, will go almost anywhere except to the Book itself, to find out what it teaches. One might as well expect to grow strong by reading treatises on the nutritive value of various foods, as to grow wise unto salvation by reading comments on the Bible. He who would grow stronger must keep the real food, and so with the Word of God which is living bread and water.

"Strength Now" The Present Truth 12, 52.

E. J. Waggoner

Strength Now .-Some time you intend to be strong, and do better; when this weakness is overcome the strength will come. This thought that sometime the overcoming power will come makes many content to be weak. But God is strong now. We are weak; well, "He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might He increaseth strength." Isa. xl. 29. It is a wrong idea of how strength comes that leads one to go on in weakness expecting some day to get strong. "Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might," is God's command. It is not to the strong, but to the weak that He gives strength. Confess the weakness, not as an excuse for continuing in it, but as the reason for laying hold of God's strength now.

"The Unsteady Earth" The Present Truth 12, 52.

E. J. Waggoner

The Unsteady Earth .-On Thursday morning, the 17th, at about half-past five, a sharp earthquake shock was felt nearly all over England. In some places crockery was thrown to the floor and church bells are said to have been rung by the vibration. No material injury resulted, except that in Hereford a lady with a weak heart was frightened to death.

Although there have been earthquakes in England that have wrecked buildings, yet they are so infrequent that this one has caused widespread comment. The Chronicle closes a "leader" upon it with these words:-

Fortunately for us there is not much temptation to study earthquakes in this country. They occur so rarely, and in such tempered form that we almost welcome them as excellent subjects for light conversation.

Such remarks as the foregoing are certainly very light indeed. One need not be a wild alarmist, to think seriously over the occurrence of earthquakes. Our Saviour spoke of the rise of nation against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and the occurrence of famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places, as "the beginning of sorrows" (Matt. xxiv. 7, 8), connected with the final dissolution and subsequent renewing of the earth. When the solid earth begins to move, it is always a serious matter.

"The Root of the Matter" The Present Truth 12, 52.

E. J. Waggoner

The Root of the Matter .-It is an encouraging sign when those who are labouring for reform recognise the cause of the evil which they seek to remove or minimise. Lady Henry Somerset, when asked how she accounted for the marked increase of drunkenness, especially among women, gave heredity as the prime cause. The present generation is suffering the accumulated effects of many generations of drunkenness. Then she added:-

Other causes are insufficient food, bad air, and dreary surroundings. Temperance workers too often refuse to recognise these facts. They go around asking the people to sign the pledge, but they never seek to deal with the causes which lie at the root of drunkenness, especially in the case of women-causes which no mere written promises can remove. Consider the hopeless dullness of the lives of Englishwomen in the working classes. . . . . The wife of the English workingman has nothing but sordid, dismal, unrelieved monotony. Is it any wonder that too often she seeks relief in drink?

This touches the root of the matter, and shows that the only practical way to deal with the drinking habits of a people is to improve their habits of eating and general living. This of course is only a portion of what is needed; before the victory can be won, the poor souls must be brought to think of something besides themselves; and for lifting people out of themselves there is nothing that can take the place of Christ and His Gospel.

"The Good Way" The Present Truth 12, 52.

E. J. Waggoner

The Good Way .-The Chinese missionaries, in the region of Foochow, have given a good lesson to missionary boards, which are so prone to demand punishment of offenders and the exaction of compensation whenever heathen passion results in the destruction of mission property. The Christian says:-

An important memorandum has been sent home by seventy missionaries in the neighbourhood of Foochow, in China, to their respective boards at home, pointing out that a conspicuous example of disinterestedness has been shown by no compensation having been sought for the massacres of missionaries in August, 1895. Now, in answer to prayer, there is a widespread and general movement towards Christianity among all classes of the population and in all parts of the province, hundreds having joined the local churches, a fact which has aroused the authorities, and brought more persecution.

If it had been left to the missionaries, we hope, there would also have been no demand for the execution of the ringleaders for the murder of the missionaries who lost their lives. What an awful thing for professing Christians to demand that men fighting against the Gospel shall be launched red-handed into eternity!

December 31, 1896

"'His Time Was Not Yet Come'" The Present Truth 12, 53.

E. J. Waggoner

"These words spake Jesus in the treasury, as He taught in the temple; and no man laid hands on Him; for His hour was not yet come." John viii. 20.

How many times they had tried to lay hands on Him. Only in the preceding chapter we learned that "the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take Him," but the officers returned without having so much as spoken to Him. At one time the enraged Jews had Him in their hands, "and thrust Him out of the city, and led Him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast Him down headlong. But He passing through the midst of them went His way." Luke iv. 29, 30. All the plotting of the enemies of Jesus availed nothing against Him, until His time came.

Why was it?-It was simply because He had been sent into the world by the Father to do a definite work, and He "was faithful to Him that appointed Him." Heb. iii. 1, 2. To accomplish the work was His sole thought and life, more to Him than food and drink and rest. See John iv. 6-8, 31-34. He knew that the Father, who sent Him, was always with Him, and so He left the management of His case, and the protection of Himself, to the Father. While He was thus devoted to the work of God, always doing those things that please Him, Jesus was as safe from injury as God Himself; for it was God that was working in Him, and it is not possible that God would allow Himself to be hindered or stopped in His work by man.

Jesus therefore needed not to waste one moment in worrying about His own safety; He knew that no one could do Him harm until the Father permitted it, and then when He had finished the work He had been given to do, it was His joy to suffer as well as it was to work.

But of what use is all this to us? Was it written simply as a matter of curiosity? When we have read it, and know the facts, is that the end of the matter? Is there no lesson of encouragement in it for us? Of course there is encouragement for us, for it was written only for our learning, "that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope." But we often lose the lesson of Christ's life, because we fail to recognise or to remember the fact that He was a representative man." In all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren." Heb. iii. 17. "As He is, so are we in this world." 1 John iv. 17. God manifested Himself in the flesh of Jesus of Nazareth, in order to show what He could accomplish in the flesh, not simply of one man, but of all men who will allow Him to dwell in them in His fulness.

Those who regard Christ as being peculiar, an exception among men, lose the benefit of the Divine manifestation in the flesh. True, He was peculiar, just as He gave Himself for us, that He might purify unto Himself a peculiar people. To those who receive Him, He gives power to become sons of God, own brothers of Christ, having equal rights and privileges with Him. John i. 12; Rom. viii. 16, 17. He sends His disciples forth, even as He Himself was sent forth, assuring them that they are loved by the Father just as much as He Himself is (John xvii. 18, 23), and that He is always with them. Matt. xxviii. 20.

"Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to Him in well-doing, as unto a faithful Creator." 1 Peter iv. 19. The children of God, who are consecrated to His service, intent only on doing His will, have no more reason to fear than Jesus had, and no more reason to engage in self-defence. If their work is the Lord's, they may be sure that no man can stay that work, and that they are safe until the portion of it allotted to them is accomplished. Let it be our sole business to finish the work God has given us to do, and resting calmly in the knowledge that our times are in His hand.

"'An High Look'" The Present Truth 12, 53.

E. J. Waggoner

When one reads of princes as suppliants at the foot of the Pope, and of almost daily pomp and ceremony, it is not difficult to see what the prophet meant when he described

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the persecuting power that was to rise after the division of the Roman Empire as one "whose look was more stout than his fellows." Prouder claims were never made by the most arrogant of kings than are made by the priest-king who represents the Papacy.

But stout looks are not peculiar to Roman prelates, nor even to official and officious ecclesiasticism anywhere. Pride is the root principle of the Papacy, and, as pride is natural to every heart, every man needs to be saved from popery. "An high look and a proud heart" are as much an abomination to the Lord in one place as another. The Lord denounces the ecclesiastical Babylon for its pride, and calls upon His people to come out of it, for it shall be "utterly burned with fire." Rev. xviii. 8. But that day will devour all pride and self-esteem. "For behold, the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven; and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall burn them up." Mal. iii. 1.

"And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and shall be made low: and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day." Isa. ii. 17.

"Being with Christ" The Present Truth 12, 53.

E. J. Waggoner

"Then said Jesus again unto them, I go My way, and ye shall seek Me, and shall die in your sins; whither I go, ye cannot come." John viii. 21.

That is easily understood; of course those who die in their sins cannot go to be with the Lord; we all know that, for we have been taught from infancy that it is only the good who go to heaven when they die. Yes; we can well believe that those wicked Jews who persistently sought to take the life of Jesus, could not go to be with Him, if they died unrepentant.

But, hold a minute; not long afterwards Jesus used similar language to an entirely different class of people. Pass to chapter xiii., verse 33, and we find Jesus saying to His beloved disciples, whom He tenderly addressed as "little children," "Yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek Me; and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to you."

"Ah, yes," says one, "but He meant that they could not follow Him then, because they were to live several years after His crucifixion and ascension. Later on He said to Peter, 'Thou canst not follow Me now; but thou shalt follow Me afterwards.'" Verse 36. Yes, but the next verse shows us that Peter could not follow Him then, even though He should lay down His life for him.

Now read a little further. The words of Jesus, "Whither I go, ye cannot come," very naturally filled the hearts of His disciples with sorrow. They had indeed left all for Him, and had learned to depend on Him; and now the thought that He was going to leave them alone, troubled them. So Jesus addressed to them these comforting words:-

"Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am there ye may be also." John xiv. 1-3.

Now we know what time Jesus referred to when He said "afterward." The "afterward," when His disciples should be with Him, is when He comes again, "the second time, without sin, unto salvation." Heb. ix. 28. He has not yet come again, and therefore no soul has gone to be with Jesus since His ascension. Just as surely as He went away from this earth, so surely will He come again. But it is no more sure that He went away, than that He went away for a definite purpose, and that purpose was to prepare a place for His disciples. The place is not yet prepared, for He has not yet come again. Moreover since He is to return for the express purpose of receiving His disciples unto Himself, it is certain that none are with Him now; for we may be sure that Jesus will not come to earth on a fool's errand; He will not come to take people to heaven, who are already there; and He would not tell them that He would come for them, knowing all the time that they were to be with Him many years before His return. No; whether a man dies a saint or a sinner, he cannot go to be with the Lord at his death.

The same words of comfort that Jesus spoke to the disciples are those which the Apostle Paul speaks to us all, by the Lord's authority. "For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent [go before] them which are asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words." 1 Thess. iv. 15-18.

So shall we be ever with the Lord. How? By the resurrection of the dead, and the translation of the living. The dead do not go before the living. All wait until Christ's coming, and then all are "changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption." 1 Cor. xv. 51-53.

This change will take place "in the twinkling of an eye." This will be as true of the dead as of the living. A thousand years of absolute unconsciousness is as no time at all. So to the saint who closed his eyes in death ages before the coming of the Lord, it will be the same as though he closed his eyes and instantly opened them again to behold the glory of the Lord. All the time between will be but as the twinkling of an eye. There will be no disappointment. To the saints who, like Stephen, have in their last moments seen the Lord in glory, it will be the same as though they had that instant gone to be with Him. Their eyelids fell, the dreamless sleep of years is to them no longer than the twinkling of an eye, and they raise their eyelids to see the Lord still standing to receive them. "Wherefore comfort one another with these words."

"Pertinent Questions" The Present Truth 12, 53.

E. J. Waggoner

Pertinent Questions .-Having seen the statement in the New York Independent that there were more than three thousand congregations in the Presbyterian and Congregational bodies and the United States that did not have a single addition by conversion in the last year, Mr. D. L. Moody writes as follows to that paper:-

Is this the result of what they call the "modern criticism" of the Bible? Is this a specimen of the better times, when we would get rid of the old stories about Moses writing the Pentateuch, and the sun and moon standing still, and the fish swallowing Jonah? How much of all this is owing to the politics our ministers have been preaching lately, and the talks on the Labour question, and the stereopticon shows on Sunday evenings, and all these other things that have been driving out the blessed Gospel of Jesus Christ? When ministers go into preludes on current topics, how can they expect any afterludes of conversions?

These questions are practical, and may be considered with profit on both sides of the Atlantic.

"The Promises to Israel. Entering the Promised Land" The Present Truth 12, 53.

E. J. Waggoner

"And about the time of forty years suffered He their manners in the wilderness." Acts xiii. 18. In these few words the Apostle Paul in his discourse in the synagogue at Antioch disposed of the forty years' wandering of the Israelites in the wilderness; and for the purpose of our present study we may pass it by nearly as hastily. Their manners were such that God literally "suffered" them. The record is one of murmurings and rebellion. "They believed not in God, and trusted not in His salvation." Ps. lxxviii. 22. "How oft did they provoke Him in the wilderness, and grieve Him in the desert! Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel. They remembered not His hand, nor the day when He delivered them from the enemy; how He had wrought His signs in Egypt, and His wonders in the field of Zoan." Verses 40-43. Although for forty years they daily saw the works of God, they did not learn His ways; wherefore, says the Lord, "I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known My ways. So I sware in My wrath, they shall not enter into My rest." Heb. iii. 10, 11.

AN INHERITANCE OF FAITH

"So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief." What does that teach us as to the nature of the inheritance to which God was leading His people?-Simply this, that it was an inheritance that could be possessed only by those who had faith-that faith alone could win it. Worldly, temporal possessions may be, and are, gained and held by men who disbelieve, and who even despise and blaspheme God. Indeed, unbelieving men have the most of this world's goods. Many besides the writer of the seventy-third Psalm have been envious at the prosperity of the wicked; but such feeling of envy arises only when one looks at the things that are temporal, instead of at the things that are eternal. "The prosperity of fools shall destroy them." God has chosen the poor of this world, "rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which He hath promised to them that love Him." James ii. 5. That kingdom is "not of this world" (John xviii. 36), but is "a better country, that is, an heavenly," for which the patriarchs looked. It was to this country that God promised to lead His people when He delivered them from Egypt. But it can be possessed only by those who are "rich in faith."

The time had come when God could carry out His purpose with His people. The faithless ones who had said that their little ones would die in the desert had perished, and now those same children, grown to manhood, and trusting the Lord, were about to enter the promised land. After the death of Moses, God said to Joshua: "Arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses." Joshua i. 2, 3.

CROSSING THE JORDAN

But the Jordan rolled between the Israelites and the land to which they were to go with all their flocks and little ones. The river was at its height, overflowing all its banks, and there were no bridges; but the same God who had brought His people through the Red Sea was still leading them, and He was as able as ever to do wonders. All the people took their places according to the Lord's directions, the priests bearing the ark being about a thousand paces in advance of the host. Onward they marched toward the river, whose flood still kept on its way. To the very brink of the stream they came, yet the waters receded not an inch. But this people had learned to trust the Lord, and, as He had told them to go on, they hesitated not for an instant. Into the water they went, although they knew that it was so deep that it could not possibly be forded, and swift enough to carry them away. They had nothing to do with considering difficulties; their part was to obey the Lord and go forward, and His to make the way.

"And it came to pass, . . . as they that bare the ark were come unto Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bare the ark were dipped in the brim of the water, that the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon an heap very far from the city Adam, that is beside Zaretan; and those that came down toward the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, failed, and were cut off; and the people passed over right against Jericho. And the priests that bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all the Israelites passed over on dry ground, until all the people were passed clean over Jordan." Joshua iii. 14-17.

What a display of faith and trust in God! The bed of the Jordan was dry, it is true, for the people to pass over, but on the right hand was a wall of water, piling still higher and higher, with no visible support. Picture to yourself that mighty heap of water, apparently threatening to overwhelm the people, and you can better appreciate the faith of those who calmly passed over before it. All the time of the passage the priests stood calm and unmoved in the midst of the river bed, and the people marched over without breaking ranks. There was no unseemly scramble to get over quickly, lest the waters should come

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down upon them; for "he that believeth shall not make haste."

FREE AT LAST

"At that time the Lord said unto Joshua, Make thee sharp knives, and circumcise again the children of Israel the second time." "For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, till all the people that were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not the voice of the Lord; unto whom the Lord sware that He would not show them the land, which the Lord sware unto their fathers that He would give us, a land that floweth with milk and honey. And their children, whom He raised up in their stead, them Joshua circumcised; because they had not circumcised them by the way. And it came to pass, when they had done circumcising all the people, that they abode in their places in the camp, till they were whole. And the Lord said unto Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you." Joshua v. 2-9.

In order to see the full force of this ceremony at this time we must recall the significance of circumcision, and must also know what is meant by "the reproach of Egypt." Circumcision signified righteousness by faith (Rom. iv. 11); true circumcision, whose praise is not of men, but of God, is obedience to the law, through the Spirit (Rom. ii. 25-29); it is complete distrust of self, and confidence and rejoicing in Christ Jesus. Phil. iii. 3. In the instance before us we see that God Himself commanded the people to be circumcised, a positive proof that He Himself accepted them as righteous. As with Abraham, so with them, their faith was counted to them for righteousness.

"Righteousness exalteth a nation; but sin is a reproach to any people." Prov. xiv. 34. Sin was "the reproach of Egypt," and it was this that was rolled away from the children of Israel; for the true circumcision of the heart, which alone is all that God counts as circumcision, is "the putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ." Col. ii. 11. "Thus saith the Lord God: In the day when I chose Israel, and lifted up Mine hand unto the seed of the house of Jacob, and made Myself known unto them in the land of Egypt, when I lifted up Mine hand unto them, saying, I am the Lord your God; . . . then said I unto them, Cast ye away every man the abominations of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I am the Lord your God. But they rebelled against Me, and would not hearken unto Me; they did not every man cast away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Eypgt." Eze. xx. 58.

It was because they would not forsake the idols of Egypt, that the men who left that country with Moses did not enter into the promised land. A people cannot at one and the same time be both free and in bondage. The bondage of Egypt-"the reproach of Egypt"-was not merely the physical labour which the people were forced to do without reward, but was the abominable idolatry of Egypt, into which they had fallen. It was from this that God would deliver His people, when He said to Pharaoh, "Let My people go, that they may serve Me."

This freedom the people had at last obtained. God Himself declared that the bondage, the sin, the reproach of Egypt was rolled away from them. Then could it be sung, "Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in." Isa. xxvi. 2.

THE VICTORY OF FAITH

"By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days." Heb. xi. 30.

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Heb. xi. 1.

"For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds." 2 Cor. x. 4.

The children of Israel were in the promised land, but yet to all appearances they were no more in possession than they were before. They still dwelt in tents, while the inhabitants of the land were intrenched in their cities, which were "walled up to heaven," fully as strong as when the mere report of them caused the children of Israel to lose heart and turn back forty years before. But stone walls and multitudes of armed men avail nothing when the battle is the Lord's.

"Now the city of Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel; none went out, and none came in." Josh. vi. 1. Jericho was the first city to be taken and the mode of operation which the Lord directed, was one calculated to test to the utmost the faith of the Israelites. All the people were to march round the city in perfect silence, with the exception that the priests who went ahead with the ark were to blow on their trumpets. "Joshua had commanded the people, saying, Ye shall not shout, nor make any noise with your voice, neither shall any noise proceed out of your mouth, until the day I bid you shout; then shall ye shout." Joshua vi. 10. As soon as they had completed this silent circuit of the city, they were to go into camp. The same thing was to be done for six successive days, and on the seventh day the circuit was to be made seven times.

Picture to yourself the situation. Tramp, tramp, the whole multitude went round the city, and then went into camp. Again and again they repeated this, with no apparent result. The walls stood as high and as grim as before; not a stone had fallen, not a bit of mortar had been loosened. Yet not one word of complaint was heard from one of the people.

We can well believe that for the first day or two the sight of that great host marching silently about the city filled the inhabitants with dread, more especially as they had previously been terrified by the reports of what God had done for those people. But as the march was repeated day after day, seemingly to no purpose, it would be most natural for the beleaguered ones to pick up courage, and regard the whole affair as a farce. Many would begin to mock, and to taunt the Israelites with their senseless methods. The history of warfare furnished no precedent for such a mode of proceeding to capture a city, and it would have been contrary to human nature if some of the people of the city had not openly ridiculed the marchers outside.

But not a single word of retort came from those ranks. Patiently the children of Israel bore whatever taunts may have been hurled at them. Not a voice was heard saying, "What is the use of all this?" "What kind of general is this man Joshua?" "Does he suppose that by our measured tread we can set the walls to vibrating so that they will fall down?" "What's the use of tiring our legs and wearing out our shoes in this child's parade?" "Well, I am tired of this fooling, and shall stay in my tent until we can do something worth the while." Anyone who knows anything of human nature knows that these and similar expressions would freely be uttered under such circumstances by the most of people; and it would be remarkable if there were not open revolt against the proceedings. This would have been the case with the children of Israel forty years before; and the fact that they patiently and quietly marched around the city thirteen times, seemingly with no object, is proof of the most remarkable faith that the world has ever known. Think of an entire nation among which there was not one fault-finder, not

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one to utter a word of complaint when put to inconvenience which he could not understand, and which was apparently useless.

The seventh day was nearly gone, and the thirteenth round of the city was completed. Everything remained just as at the beginning of their march. Now came the last, the crowning test of faith. "And it came to pass at the seventh time, when the priests blew with the trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, Shout; for the Lord hath given you the city." Joshua vi. 16.

Why should they shout?-Because the Lord had given them the city; they were to shout the victory. But what evidence was there that the victory was won? they could see no gain. Oh, faith is "the evidence of things not seen." The victory was theirs, because God had granted it to them, and their faith claimed it at His word. Not a moment did they hesitate; their faith was perfect, and at the word of command a triumphant shout rose from that vast assembly. "And it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat." Joshua vi. 20.

The promise to those people was the very same that God now extends to us; and all things recorded of them are for our learning. "They got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them" (Ps. xliv.), but the Lord's right hand saved them. Even so will He grant unto us that we shall "be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us," that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life. Luke i. 68-75. This deliverance is through Christ, who is now, as well as in the days of Joshua, the "Captain of the Lord's host." He says, "In the word ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." John xvi. 33. "And ye are complete in Him, which is the Head of all principality and power." Col. ii. 10. Therefore "this is the victory that hath overcome the world, even our faith." 1 John v. 4.

"'Could Ye Not Watch with Me?'" The Present Truth 12, 53.

E. J. Waggoner

When the last supper was prepared, and, in the evening, Christ and the twelve had seated themselves and were eating, He said to them, "Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray Me." Later, when they had finished this, their last meal together, and their hearts were warm and tender from the loving acts of service from the Master, which followed the supper, they sang a hymn and went out upon the mount of Olives. Then Christ said to them, "All ye shall be offended because of Me this night." But Peter replied, "Though all men should be offended because of Thee, yet will I never be offended." Whereupon Christ foretold to him the thrice repeated denial of Him which he should make before the morning light. This roused Peter to the still stronger assertion. "Though I should die with Thee, yet will I not deny Thee." All the disciples, also, said the same thing.

They were apparently very positive,-it seemed that they spoke with absolute assurance. Nothing, not even the fear of an immediate and ignominious death, could influence them to deny Him. But when they had come to Gethsemane He said to them, "Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder." And selecting Peter, James, and John, for a more special test of their love and tenderness toward Him, and additional opportunity for its expression, He went with them on yet a little farther and there left them with the request that they stay and watch with Him. The words with which He prefaced this request were enough to have filled their hearts with such a tender earnestness of anxious affection as to have driven sleep from their eyes,-"My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." Yet, in both mind and heart, they so failed to realise and appreciate His anguish and its cause, that they not only did not watch and pray with Him, but slept. Three times He repeated to them their opportunity, and yet they still slept,-returning, then, to the others, they all were sleeping. They had all forsaken Him, already, in their ignorance and self-assurance. They were positive in their assertions that they would never deny or forsake Him.

But all their protestations had been made purely in the assumption that each was able to carry out his intention in his own strength. Here was lacking entirely the humility of faith and trust in the power of God to supplement their expression of their intention to be faithful with the necessary strength and wisdom to remain so indeed. The truth is they were still unconverted men. They did not yet realise the weakness of man,-nor yet understand the power of God. They had not yet distinguished things material from things spiritual. That they were so dull of heart and soul of understanding increased their sorrows and multiplied their trials, while it deprived them of the joy, almost supernal, which might have been theirs to have been in loving sympathy with the Master in those last hours of agony. They must have afterwards felt that the utter self-abrogation and service of their whole after lives could not atone for any one of the lost moments of watching and prayer which they allowed to pass so carelessly then.

But that which Christ said to them, He still says, and to all,-Watch! Pray! Carry My Gospel to the people! It is just as possible for us to lose the great opportunities offered us now, as it was for them then. The victories to be gained over self and Satan are just as great now as then. The work to be done, in our own hearts, and in the world, is no less-but there is less time in which to do it. Yet, at the same time, the love of God is the same, without diminution or variance, and to Him all things are possible, so, therefore, to us, through His love and omnipotence.

The disciples failed pitifully when they thought they were able, in their own strength, even to profess Christ only, to the world. The lesson to us is that we should fall into no such error, but, asking, receive from Him day by day the necessary strength and wakefulness in which to watch, and pray, and work with Him until the end.

"The Lesson of Calamities" The Present Truth 12, 53.

E. J. Waggoner

"When Thy judgments are in the earth," says the prophet, "the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness." Indifference to eternal things is the sin of all ages. Men rush on after the unabiding things of this world and the ears are closed to any message of the abiding truths of the Gospel. But as the coming of the Lord draws near, and as Satan works with greater power to destroy, and as men withdraw themselves more and more from the protection of the Lord, increasing calamities will startle many into giving attention to those things which concern their salvation. On the other hand, the great mass of mankind will refuse to allow the very judgments of the Lord to turn them from the pursuit of temporal profit and pleasure. For the prophet continues, "Let favour be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the Lord." Isa. xxvi. 9, 10.

The Review of Reviews describes some of the great calamities which marked the year just past, and which follow us into the new year. After referring to the Indian famine, it says:-

"If Asia has been scourged by the land refusing to yield a harvest owing to the heavens denying the fruitful showers, without which the most fertile loam is as barren as alkali, her sister continent has this year suffered from a disaster hardly less appalling. The rinderpest, said to have been introduced into Abyssinia by plague-smitten cattle sent to supply the Italian army with food, found Africa as virgin soil for its ravages. From the mountains of Rasselas it began its march southward, eating up as it went nine-tenths of the hoofed beasts, wild and tame, of the African Continent. The herds upon which the natives of the interior depend so largely for their sustenance were mown down as the

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meadow-grass falls before the scythe, only the fringes being spared. Nor does the rinderpest discriminate between the domesticated and the wild cattle. The savage buffalo wallowing in the marsh found no method of escape from the invisible Death. Nor were swift-footed antelope able to elude the swifter darts of the deadly archer. Three out of five species of antelope died like rotten sheep. The others, for some cause not yet discovered, seem to be immune.

For some time it was hoped that the broad waters of the Zambesi would offer an insuperable barrier to the southerly-marching rinderpest. But the subtle contagion leapt the might river and began its ravages in Rhodesia. It is the fashion to speak of war as the sum of all evils. The war in Matabeleland was a picnic to the horror of the cattle plague. It is computed that out of 200,000 cattle in Rhodesia it has not left 15,000 alive. The milk, the beef, the leather, and the transport of the country were all destroyed. Faring southward, the rinderpest struck Khama's country, a land which is far richer in beeves than Rhodesia. The Bechuanas and Bamangwato were mighty herd-men. They numbered their cattle at one million. When the rinderpest left them, 800,000 beast lay dead on the veldt, and Khama rejoiced that the percentage of mortality was, comparatively speaking, so low. From Bechuanaland the deadly scourge is travelling to Cape Colony, where it is expected it will eat up the cattle down to the sea. So terrible a visitation, extending over so wide an area, is almost unknown in the annals of Africa. The grievous murrain that smote the herds of Pharaoh was but a parochial epidemic compared with this continental catastrophe.

"Items of Interest" The Present Truth 12, 53.

E. J. Waggoner

-The cholera epidemic In Bombay continues to increase.

-The Spanish forces in the Philippines heavily engaged the rebels last week, and were repulsed with severe loss.

-A ton of the water of the Dead Sea, when evaporated yields 187 pounds of salt; a ton of the water of the Atlantic Ocean, 81 pounds; a ton of water of the Pacific, 81 pounds.

-The longest distance to which a projectile has been thrown was at Shoeburyness, on April 15, 1888, when a Longridge wire-bound gun threw a shot 21,858 yards, or 12 miles 238 yards.

-The word "dun" is said to owe its origin to one Joe Dun, a famous bailiff about 1500. He is said to have been so shrewd and dexterous in the collection of dues that his name became proverbial.

-The Czar is presenting the Emperor of Abyssinia with a complete collection of musical instruments horn grand piano down. Russia is making efforts to get a footing along the Red Sea, so as to act as protector of Abyssinia.

-In the Russian Army two days a week are observed as partial fasts-Wednesdays and Fridays-on which days all the soldier gets in the way of food is lentil soup and black bread, and a drink consisting of water in which rye bread has been absorbed.

-An Imperial Bourse law comes into operation in Germany on January 2, 1897, which is very strict in its terms and is intended to do away with the dealing in "options" and "futures," and make all stock gambling hereafter more difficult and less profitable.

-The world's production of gold in 1896 will reach at least ?44,000,000. The output is unprecedented. It is over twice as large as that of 1886, nearly equal to that of gold and silver combined in that year. Furthermore, the indications all point to a steady increase in the world's production for years in the future.

-One of our missionaries in India says: "In the province of Bengal alone there are to-day 1,641,519 pupils in the schools. Of this number, 152,414 are in English colleges and schools. If the same proportion holds throughout India, there are at the present time more than six million scholars, over half a million of whom are in English schools. There are supposed to be five million English speaking natives in this country, and this number is rapidly increasing year by year.

-It is estimated that the people of these British isles spend during the Christmas season an extra amount yearly, over and above what their ordinary expenditure would be, of ?16,000,000. Of this immense sum the statistics of trade show that by far the larger amount goes in extra food and drink. One large firm takes on an extra Christmas stock, which it expects to dispose of during the holidays, of 15,000 dozens of champagne; 80,000 gallons of spirits; 1,350,000 cigars; 2,950,000 cigarettes; and 12,000 pounds weight of tobacco.

"Back Page" The Present Truth 12, 53.

E. J. Waggoner

A little while ago I placed a large lump of coal on the grate. If I had attempted to break it in pieces before putting it on the fire, it would have required several sharp blows of the hammer; yet now, behold, by the quiet action of the fire, without any noise or display of force, there are deep fissures through it in every direction, and with the slightest touch it falls to pieces. Thus the Word of God acts upon hard hearts, when they are brought into contact with it, and left to it alone. "Is not My word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?" Jer. xxiii. 29.

"In Argentina" The Present Truth 12, 53.

E. J. Waggoner

In Argentina .-One of our workers in Argentina says of the conditions there:-

Locusts appear by the millions, and they look like great clouds in the distance. Whole fields of wheat have been destroyed, and yet they continue to come. In addition, caterpillars are adding their forces in cutting down whole fields of wheat. The Lord is taking away the things in which man is so liable to trust. These misfortunes are having a good effect; for some are led to inquire what they shall do to be saved.

He reports most encouraging results following a preaching tour in Northern Argentina. Many are hungry for the word.

"Bargaining with the Lord" The Present Truth 12, 53.

E. J. Waggoner

Bargaining with the Lord .-There are wonderful promises in the Word of what God will do to sustain those who trust Him. But the man who says, "Now I will trust God, and see if He will not give me something," is only experimenting, not trusting, and can get nothing. So, too, the man that reads God's promises and says, "Now I will serve the Lord in order to get what He promises," is not serving God and cannot claim the promises. He reasons that if he will do this or that God will give him something. He is trying to make a bargain over the counter with the Lord, and will make a sad failure. The man who finds his reward in the joy of the knowledge of God and His salvation can never be disappointed.

"Vain Confidence" The Present Truth 12, 53.

E. J. Waggoner

At this season of the year the religious journals feel it their duty to tell what wonderful advance the world has made since the day when the angels sang, "Peace on earth, good will to men," and it is right that people should know what ground there is for such optimism. The following extracts from an article in the Spectator show the exact facts of the case:-

The Continental world is positively crushed down with armaments; every new discovery in explosives cost millions in new artillery and new rifles; while the outlay on ironclads and quick-firing marine-guns advances as if the nations believed that the one which voted the last shilling must inevitably be the victor. . . .

So deep is the fear, so imperfect the self-reliance, that a change of the smallest moment in one country is instantly imitated in another; that forces and guns are counted down to half-dozens; that the portentous news, "Herr Krupp is making experiments," excites a thrill in half a dozen first-class capitals, and, if confirmed, will set all dealers in destructive chemicals agog. It is a certainty that if anyone invented a rifle 10 per cent. better than those new used, the whole of Europe would adopt it, whatever the cost, and would believe sincerely that the Power which obtained its supply first would instantly invade the others, probably without a declaration of war. . . .

That single fact, that in every city of the Continent the rough populace will seize and maltreat or kill any strange artist seen sketching any portion of a fortress, is a measure of the depth of the fear which, however it may be veiled, universally prevails. . . .

All Europe is in the state in which the women of our southern counties were when Bonaparte was widely expected to land, a state compounded of fury, nerves, credulity, and a very clear idea how terrible the results of an invasion actually would be. . . .

The cure? The very worst of the situation is that there is no cure.

But the trouble is not limited to Europe. The New York Independent, one of the most optimistic of religious journals, in its outlook upon the future, says:-

In a word, there is discontent in this country of the most perilous kind; and it has been created, not by the natural laws of trade, but by corrupt politics, directed by men who have made and expended fortunes in "exploiting the imperfections of the law."

Yet on the preceding page from the foregoing, the same journal indulges in the following rhapsody:-

The Prince of Peace has come down again to earth, He dwells in His Church. He is possessing the hearts of parliaments and kings. His are the forces of civilisation, through locomotive and steamship and dynamo know it not. His peaceful army is preparing to possess and rule the twentieth-century. . . . Blessed are the eyes that shall see the middle of the twentieth-century; blessed are our eyes that we see the Lord already returned to earth, and setting up His kingdom among His saints.

It sounds like irony, but it is not; the men who write these prophecies of peace actually believe them. Why?-because "they are drunken, but not with wine." The vision of the prophet is to them a sealed book, and they see no danger in the gathering clouds. The worst of it is that the ungodly, instead of being awakened, are being lulled into a false security-dancing on a burning ship.

The Gospel has not failed, and will not fail, although evil men and seducers wax worse and worse, and nation rises up against nation and kingdom against kingdom. The Lord has given us no warrant to look for general peace in this world, but has assured us that the universal war, instead of universal peace, would be the last seen in the drama. Nevertheless the announcement of "Peace on earth" is winning souls to the ranks of the Prince of Peace, and in the new earth, wherein righteousness shall dwell, the meek "shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace."

"Periodical Goodness" The Present Truth 12, 53.

E. J. Waggoner

Periodical Goodness .-In an article on the use of the Sunday before Christmas as "Peace Sunday," we read: "As Christmas Day approaches, every Christian should carefully cast out of his heart every form of vindictiveness and ill-will." Everybody likes to be good-at certain times; and if people were only as good all the time as they imagine they are at those special seasons, it would certainly be well with them. Unfortunately this periodical goodness is only imaginary goodness. Evil is cast out of the heart only by the presence of Christ dwelling within, and the Christian is the one who does not limit the indwelling of Christ to Sundays and holidays. The Gospel knows no such thing as holiday religion. An apostate Church has invented and adopted many days and seasons for special goodness; the Lord says: "If any man love Me, he will keep my words; and My Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him." John xiv. 23.

¹ *Haran. The Hebrew letter beginning this name is a guttural, difficult to represent by Roman letters, and difficult for English people to pronounce. It is much like the German ch. In the English Bible it is sometimes represented by the letter "H" and sometimes by "Ch." Compare the proper name "Rachel" in Jer. xxxi, 15 and Matt. ii. 18.

² It should be understood that no man, nor any human power, neither the Church nor the State, has anything to do with requiring people to pay tithe. "The tithe is the Lord's" and with Him alone people have to do in the matter of tithes. Tithes do not belong to the State, nor is the State empowered to collect them for the Lord. Whether or not a person will pay the Lord's tithe to the Lord, is a matter for himself alone to decide, just the same as whether or not he will worship God at all, whether he will keep the Sabbath or not, etc.

³ Abraham was seventy-five years old when he left Haran (Gen.xii. 4), and the promise was first made known to him before he left Mesopotamia. Acts vii. 2.

⁴ From "The Great Controversy between Christ and Satan," by Mrs. E. G. White, International Tract Society, Ltd. The work is sold by subscription, and may be obtained from any of our own agents.

⁵ That he was not a little child, as our ideas of the word "lad," might lead us to suppose, is evident from the fact that he was able to carry the wood for the sacrifice up the mountain. Josephus says that he was twenty-five years old, and that age is indicated by the chronology in the margin of our Bibles.

⁶ "Blessing I will bless," and "multiplying I will multiply," is the literal translation of a very common Hebrew idiom. Emphasis in the Hebrew is denoted by repetition. Put into ordinary English, the text would read "I will surely bless thee, and I will surely multiply thy seed." Similar instances may be seen in the margin of Gen. ii. 16, 17, "eating thou mayest eat," and "dying thou shalt die," for "thou mayest freely eat," and "thou shalt surely die." In Ex. iii. 7, "I have surely seen," the same idiom occurs, "Seeing I have seen.' In Acts vii. 34, this emphatic repetition is preserved in "I have seen, I have seen."

⁷ The thoughtful reader will see in this an exhortation to avoid lawsuits. If one would sue you for your coat, it is better to settle it by giving him both your coat and your cloak than to go to law. This is practical wisdom. Lawsuits are like lotteries; a great deal of money is spent on them, and very little gained. Of course it will be said, "If we don't defend our rights people will take away everything we have." And so it would be if God had no care for His people. But defending one's rights does not by any means always preserve them, as many a man has proved to his cost.

⁸ I beg the pardon of the intelligent reader for referring in this connection to the stone in the coronation chair in Westminster Abbey, which is by some supposed to be the stone on which Jacob slept, and which, by its position in the coronation chair, is supposed to identify England with Israel, and to make the Anglo-Saxon race heirs of the promise to Jacob. Saying nothing of the unfounded and unprovable assertion that the stone in question is the one on which Jacob slept, the absurdity of the idea that the possession of it could make any people heirs of the promises to Israel is paralleled only by the medieval superstition that a man could inherit the sanity of a departed saint by wearing his old shirt.

⁹ Many hard speeches have been uttered against the children of Israel, and even against the Lord, because of the word "borrowed," which is found in the common version. It is a mistaken rendering of the original. The children of Israel had worked hard and long for nothing, and now they asked for something in return, and it was given them. What they received was theirs by right.

¹⁰ Some have thought to build an argument on the word "added," supposing that it indicates something entirely new added to the provisions which God had previously made. A reference to Deut. v. 22 will show the sense in which it is used. After having rehearsed the ten commandments, Moses said: "Those words the Lord spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice; and He added no more." That is, He spoke so much, and He spoke no more. The same thing is shown even mere plainly in Heb. xii. 18, 19: "For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more." Compare Ex. xx. 19. The Greek word rendered "spoken" in this instance is identical with that rendered "added" in Gal. iii. 19, and the Septuagint rendering of Deut. 22. So to the question, What was the use of the law, since it made no change in the covenant? the answer is, "It was spoken because of transgression."

¹¹ There is in the Hebrew text of this passage no word indicating "generation," which is supplied by the translators. It is most evident, however, that it is the word required by the sense, and attention is called to it only to point out the fact that the construction is the same as in the next clause, where the word "generation" is not expressed, but where it belongs as surely as in the first. Some have hastily supposed that the "thousands" refers only to individuals, and so have erroneously concluded that God's chastisements outlast His mercy. Not so. He visits the iniquities of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Him, but shows mercy unto unnumbered thousands of generations of them that love Him and keep His commandments. His wrath is soon appeased, while His mercy flows on to eternity. Other versions than the English state it very plainly.

¹² The reader will notice that the word "covenant" is used, as in the Revision, rather than "testament,' as in the old version. The words "covenant' and "testament," as found in the common version of the Bible, are both from one and the same Greek word. Much confusion has resulted because the translators have arbitrarily rendered it "covenant" in some places, and "testament" in others. The rendering should be uniform; and since the reference is to that which in the translation from the Hebrew is always called "covenant," that word should always be used. Let it be remembered that wherever in any translation of the Bible the word "testament" is found, "covenant" is the word that should be used. The rendering "testament" is utterly indefensible and is misleading.