Bible Students Monthly, August 1912
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VOL. IV.
NEW YORK CITY
No. 8.
Religious and Scientific THE LOST KEY OF KNOWLEDGE
** “Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye 'have taken away the Key of Knowledge: ye entered not
' in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.”—Luke 11:52. >
WHAT SHALL WE SAY?
An Editorial by David Starr Jordan, President of Leland-Stanford University, and a Leader In the
Movement for Disarmament and World’s Peace.
As teachers of private and to some extent of public morals, what shall we say to the recent gigantic parade on the Hudson of miles of war vessels on their way from the tax bureau to the junk shop?
Let us look on this mighty array of Ships splendidly equipped and manned by able worthy men, the whole never to be needed and never under any conceivable circumstances to be other than a burden and a danger to the nation which displays it.
We are told that a purpose of this pageant of the ships is to “popularize the navy.” This may mean to get us used to it and to paying for it, which is the chief function of the people in these (great affairs. Or it may mean to work upon the public imagination so that we may fill the vacancies in the corps of sailors and marines who “glare” at us '’‘through their absences.”
By all means let us popularize the navy. It is our navy. We have paid for it, and it is for the people to do what they please with it. “For after all, this is the people’s country.” And perhaps we could bring it nearer to our hearts and thoughts if we should paint on the white side of each ship, its cost in taxes, »it~ uhc uiuOU oiid bWcaC oi vVUikiny iHGti, In the anguish of “the man lowest down."
There is the good ship North Dakota, for example. Her cost is almost exactly the year’s earnings of the prosperous State for which she is named. As to the fine Dreadnoughts who fear nothing while the nation is in its senses and in war nothing but a torpedo boat or an aerobomb, it would please the working man to know that his wages-for 20,000 years would purchase a ship of this kind, and that the wages of 1,600 of his fellows each year would keep it trim and afloat. As the procession moves by, he will see ships that have cost as much as Cornell University, or Yale, or Princeton, or Wisconsin, and almost as much as Harvard or Columbia. And on the flagship at the end, figures might be summed up, the whole costing as much as an American workman would earn perhaps in two million years, a European workman in four millions and an Asiatic in eight millions.
If all this is needed to insure the peace It endangers, by all means let us have it. There is no cost we cannot afford to pay if honorable peace is at stake. But let us be convinced that peace is really at stake, and that this is the means to secure it. There are some who think that Christian fellowship, the demands of commerce and a civil tongue in the foreign offices do more for a nation’s peace than any show force.
Bernard Shaw observed that “Man is the only animal that esteems itself rich in proportion to the number and voracity of its parasites.”—Memphis (Tenn.) Press. ___
WOULD BLOW-UP SEMINARIES.
Canon Henson Says He Can’t Breathe in Denominational Institutions.
The Canon is visiting the Rev. Dr. Francis Brown of Union Seminary, which was once Presbyterian, but now reports to no religious body. He praised the Union and its methods, and said he thought its students were able to get away from the pettiness that characterized so many other seminaries.
“If I could have my way,” he went on, “I’d go about the country with dynamite and blow up every denominational seminary. I cannot stand them. I cannot breathe in them.” The ministers, practically all of them graduates of the seminaries he proposed to blow up, cheered lustily.—New York Press.
BOSTON SOCIETY SCORED.
The pastor of Tremont Temple (Baptist) denounced Boston society for its manner of living.
“Boston society is not living a Christian life today,” said Dr. Myers. “There Is too much gambling and drinking of wine. It well could be called ‘Heathen society.’ ”—Boston Post.
IN the New Testament the word lawyer * has a very different meaning from our general usage. It applied to those religious teachers of the Jews who made special professions of sanctity of heart and earnest desire to know God’s will, as expressed in the Mosaic Law, and to teach the same to the people. The corresponding class of to-day are designated Doctors of Divinity. Our text, therefore, with this correction reads, “Woe unto you, Doctors of Divinity, for ye have taken away the Key of Knowledge; you entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering ye hindered.” “Common People Heard Jesus Gladly."
It was the custom amongst the Jews that lessons from the Law and the Prophets should be read every day in their synagogues. • The people were thus familiar with the letter of the Divine Law and promises. The majority of them, of course, were illiterate, for educational facilities were not what they are now. As a result only a few claimed to have an understanding of the spiritual part of the Law and the Prophets. These were chiefly of the literary and wealthy classes. To these the common people looked for guidance respecting the Divine will and Plan.
As an illustration: When the common people heard Jesus gladly they were unwilling to trust their own judgments, but inquired, “Have any of the Scribes and Pharisees believed on Him?” Have the Doctors of the Law, the Doctors of Divinity, endorsed Him? They have made a study of these things and we would rely more upon their judgment than upon our own. But none of the Scribes and Pharisees endorsed Him, and hence comparatively few of the people believed Him and became His disciples.
The common people were hungry for the Message which Jesus brought. It is recorded that they said of Jesus’ teachings, “Never man spake like this Man.” The nation would have gone over promptly to Jesus had the Scribes and Pharisees, the Doctors of the Law, set the example and given the word. Moreover, the teachings of Jesus harmonized the message of the Law and the Prophets over which the Scribes and the Pharisees and the Sadducees had long wrangled and disputed. Had the Doctors of the Law been as hungry for the Truth as were the people, undoubtedly all of their differences of interpretation of the Old Testament Scriptures would have speedily been solved in the light of the then. Present Truth and knowledge of God, which was shining upon the Bible through the Holy Spirit, Jesus and the Apostles being Jehovah’s mouthpieces.
The Key of Knowledge Buried.
In our text Jesus charged the Jewish Doctors of Divinity with the responsi-b.lity of having taken away the Key of Knowledge, refusing to use it themselves to enter into the great appreciation of the blessings then due, and hiding it from the common people who trusted them so implicitly. We charge that the same thing is true to-day. Not only were the Jewish people typical of Spiritual Israel, and their Age typical of this Age, and their Harvest typical of the Harvest or closing time of this Age, but additionally, now as then, “God’s people perish for lack of knowledge.” (Hosea 4:6.) Now, as then, the Doctors of Divinity will not use the Key of Knowledge themselves, to enter heartily into the wonderful privileges and blessings now due, and additionally they have buried the Key of Knowledge, hiding it from the people under a mass of forms and ceremonies.
But Is Knowledge Necessary?
In our Lord’s day the Jewish Doctors of Divinity, or Rabbis, contented themselves with telling the people what they should do and what they should not do, but they did not teach the people—they did not help them to any understanding of the deep meaning of the Law and the Prophets. In our text Jesus said to the “D. D.’s,” “You bind heavy burdens on the people, grievous to be borne,” but you do not attempt to carry those burdens yourselves.
It is so to this day with the Jewish Rabbis, as well as with other Ministers; for instance, a minister stands as a representative and mouthpiece of the church creed, which in round-about terms declares that whoever does not live a saintly life will suffer an eternity of torment. Is not this a grievous burden to put upon any conscientious soul ? Has it not caused untenable anguish to many of God’s true people? And has it not repulsed and driven many from God and the Bible, thousands of the most intelligent minds in the world?
As the 'Jewish Doctors of Divinity carried no such burdens, neither do the Doctors of Divinity of Christendom. In private they acknowledge that they carry no such burdens. In public they give the inference that they do—not so much by positive terms as by implication, tone and inflection of voice, and by the general fact that they stand for and as representatives of the creeds which so teach. It does not excuse these influential teachers for them to claim that in their official capacity they lose their personal responsibility and shift it upon those who made the creeds and those who adopted them. The people are no longer trusting the creeds. They realize that the creeds contain many inconsistencies, and that greater light is today shining, from the pages of the Bible, than shone in the days when those creeds were formulated.
The common people trust the Bible— Jesus, the Apostles and the Prophets. They know that all of the creeds of Chiiotci^Joru elaiiii to be built upoxl tire inspired Record. They understand the Scribes and Pharisees of today, the Doctors of Divinity of Christendom, to give assurances that those creeds properly present the teachings of the Bible. The creedal chains would become ropes of sand if all the prominent Doctors of Divinity of Christendom came forward and publicly renounced them, as they nearly all do in private conversation.
It is this matter of misleading the people, deceiving them, that constituted the basis of Jesus’ charge against the Doctors of Divinity of old, and we believe that His judgment is very similar to-day respecting the Doctors of Divinity of Christendom—“Ye have taken away [ye have hidden] the Key of Knowledge. Ye have not entered in yourselves, and them that were elitering ye hindered.”
Christian people today are so disgusted with the creeds which have separated them and their forefathers into six hundred different denominations that they are ready to discard them all, and come together as one Church of the Living God to study the Bible jn its own light.
Systematic Key-hiding.
The Scribes and Pharisees of our day are proving themselves to be the antitypes of those addressed by Jesus in our text, and have a substitute for knowledge. Taking away the Key of Knowledge, they say to the common people, Do not bother your head about doctrines; leave doctrines to the clergy; let the clergy endorse all the creeds, however conflicting they be. We do this in order to lull you to sleep. There is nothing so calculated to disturb the Christian’s rest as the discussion of the doctrines of Christ. If there be in any congregation those who cannot feel satisfied without some kind of Bible study, let them have it, but get them rather to discussing the geography of Palestine and the habits and customs of the people, etc., rather than the prophecies of old or the interpretations of them, as given by Jesus and the Apostles. We ministers will keep aloof from such Bible study; we will not let on but that we understand these prophecies thoroughly, but we will keep a watch upon the Bible classes, and interfere only if some brother therein is inclined to delve after the doctrines of Christ and the Apostles.
>t*xtxxt*xtextx. xtxxtxxtxxtxxfcxtxxfr U THE THIEF OX THE CROSS. X 7J What did Jesus mean by His t£ words, “Verily I say unto thee to-
x| day, thou shalt be with Me in Para- a. x< dise”—if Paradise, lost 6,000 years x| ago, will not be restored until the a xl Second Coming of Jesus and the es- P ”5] tablishment of His Kingdom? ££■
xl The full answer to this question £ ai we shall be pleased to send you upon & xj receipt of postal-card request. Ad- L >4 dress, Bible & Tract Society, 17 & xj Hicks St., Brooklyn, .N. Y.
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One minister, voicing thie opposition tp Bible study, especially along the lines of differences where it would be of special value, said, “The Church is like a great Hospital. Everything like doctrinal discussion must be banished and excluded, just as in a hospital all noise is forbidden, that the patients may sleep, or just as in a nursery noise is excluded that children may sleep.”
Alas! it is too true that the nominal Church of Christ is like a Hospital, many of whose patients are blind and deaf and asleep and mentally confused. But the trouble is: These got into this condition because of a lack of healthful exercise; and keeping them quiet will but turn the present hospital into a Cemetery.
What the churches of all the denominations need is the Word of God—as presented in the words of Jesus and the Apostles: “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." The sin-sick and lame, the blind and deaf and mentally perplexed need to hear the voice of Truth—“Wonderful Words of Life”—otherwise they will become more sick and will perish as Christians, but to become alive perhaps as “lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.”
An Episcopal minister in our hearing urged his congregation to simply rest, not to bother themselves about their own future or that of others. The Holjr Catholic Church, he said, resembled a ship, in which the members should come as passengers to be carried to the heavenly destination. They need not examine the compass, nor the chart, nor the machinery. All they need is to sit down and enjoy the journey, trusting that their bap-t’em and th** Holy Spirit hevc gi”-en them a free ticket to a proper destination.
Why did not Jesus and the Apostles use such an illustration? Because it is fiot a correct one. Why do the modern Pharisees use such an illustration? It is because they wish to hide from the people the Key of Knowledge, and if possible to hinder them from hunting for it.
Many, alas! are satisfied with such un-scriptural presentations and forget the exhortation of Jesus and the Apostles, “Strive to enter in” to the Kingdom. (Luke 13:24.) “So run as to obtain." (1 Cor. 9:24.) “Fight the good fight." (1 Tim. 6:12.) “Grow in grace and knowledge.” (2 Pet. 3:18.) “Put off all these" —works of the flesh and the devil. (Col. 3:8.) “Put on” (Col. 3:12), all these fruitages of the Holy Spirit, desiring “the sincere milk of the Word, that ye may grow thereby,” and be not al way babes but become strong men and partake of the “strong meat” of the Divine Word. —1 Pet. 2:2; Heb. 5:12-14.
So unsuccessful have the hospital and nursery methods proven that comparatively few nominal church members have their senses exercised enough to inquire of such Doctors of Divinity the logic of their advice. Few think to ask which of the 600 different denominational boats, with the several captains, different compasses, different charts, and different crews, is the proper one to take. Or, if they are all alike, and going to the same port, and equally safe, why the competition between them for passengers? Few ask, When were these various ships built? And therefore few get the answer that these theological systems were constructed during the Dark Ages. Few ask, Who gave this authority to the different Captains, seeing that Jesus and the Apostles quote, “One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all,” and one “Church of the First-born, whose names are written in heaven?”—Eph. 4:5, 6; Heb. 12:23.
The illustration is not a good ®ne, else doubtless it would have been used in the Bible. If the illustration were used at all in the Scriptures, it could only be applied to the one True Church of Jehovah, the different members of which would not be passengers, but would constitute the crew co-laboring together for the attainment of the desired haven.
Necessity For Knowledge.
Knowledge of God, the Bible declares, is indispensable for the attainment of the Great Prize of the High Calling. Thus Jesus said, “This is life eternal, that they may know Thee, the Only True God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.” (John 17:3.) We are not to understand this to signify that anyone who has merely been made acquainted with the fact that there is one Crep-tor, and that Jesus is His Son, is on account of this
(.Continued on 2d page, id column.)
^wk^oAv^s Haper PIBMSHEI) AT
8S BEEKMAA ST.. NEW TORE CITY
C. W. Hek, Publisher
An Independent, Unsectarian Religious Newspaper, Specially Devoted to the Forwarding of the Laymen’s Home Missionary Movement for the Glory of God and Good of Humanity.
A PRESBYTERIAN LIVE WIRE.
The Rev. De Mark A. Matthews of Seattle, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, addressed the Monday meeting of the ministers of that denomination in the Presbyterian Building in Fifth Avenue, yesterday, and stirred up plenty of comment and incidentally some resentment. A few of the remarks he made which his hearers noted particularly follow:
“The great curse resting on Presbyterian ministers today is that of timewaste. Ministers seem to have no sense of responsibility for the value of their own time.
“There are more Presbyterian churches in America standing still, marking time, going to pieces because of dead elderships in them, than from any other cause.
“The Presbyterian Church is merely playing at the task of making America Christian. It is merely toying with its part of the responsibility.
“The church ought to be organized as is the public school, with lower and higher grades.”
Dr. Matthews paid his respects to the Trustees of Presbyterian churches, and charged most of them with being godless. He said many church officials were studying almost everything except the Bible, and interested in pretty much everything except religion.—N. Y. Times.
VARIATIONS OF THE GOLDEN RULE.
Do as you would be done by.—Persian.
Do not that to a neighbor which you would take ill from him.—Grecian.
What you would not wish done to yourself do not do unto others.—Chines'e.
One should seek for others the happiness one desires for one’s self.—Buddhist.
He sought for others the good he desired for himself. Let him pass on.— Egyptian.
All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do ye even so to them.—Christian.
Let none of you treat his brother in a way he himself would dislike to be treated.—Mohammedan.
The true rule of life is to guard and do by the things of others as they do by their own.—Hindu.
The law imprinted on the hearts of all men is to love the members of society as themselves.—Roman.
HOW LONG WILL IT LAST?
“Seven hundred and fifty tons of white paper are used daily in New York City alone. That means that some 3,500 acres of forest are cut down each day to print the newspapers, magazines and periodicals that are sent broadcast every hour during the 24, says the Paper Trade Journal. And this is but a small percentage of the total consumption in the United States.
“With one city among a nation of 90,000,000 or more, requiring the stripping of 3,500 acres, how long can we expect the supply to last?”—Exchange.
WHY HIGHER CRITICISM THEN?
Dr. Albert T. Clay, professor of Semitic philology and archeology at the University of Pennsylvania, says, “After receiving all the light that has been thrown on the pages of the Gid Testament by the spades of the excavators and tedious deciphering, we can say that almost every page of the old Book has been verified, and we can Seel certain it is reliable.”
PASTOR RUSSELL’S SCRIPTURE STUDIES
These volumes deserve a careful study by all who are not thoroughly satisfied with the Bible interpretations of the “dark ages.” They can be bought for a trifle, or borrowed free. Address us.
Respecting the first volume of this work “The Atlanta Constitution” says editorially:—
“This wonderful book makes no assertions that are not well sustained by the Scriptures. It is built up, stone by stone, and upon every stone is the text, and it becomes a pyramid of God’s love and mercy and wisdom. There is nothing in the Bible that the author denies or doubts, but there are many texts that he throws a flood of light upon that seems to uncover its meaning.”
The set of six volumes, cloth, 3,000 pages, is supplied by the BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY, NO. 17 HICKS ST., BROOKLYN, N. Y., for the usual price of one such volume, namely, $2. This Includes postage or expressage to your home, anywhere. Address, Bible & Tract Society: Brooklyn, N. Y.
(Continued from 1st page, 4th column.") knowledge to be granted everlasting life. Some think to be able to make void the various Scriptures which tell us of the necessity of making our “calling and election sure,” by so running as to obtain the prize.—1 Corinthians 9:24.
Our Lord’s words do not refer to a knowledge about God, but to a knowledge of or personal acquaintance with God and His Son. And such an intimate acquaintance is not obtained merely by an introduction, but by companionship; it signifies an intimacy of acquaintanceship, a familiarity. Everything in the Divine Word encourages those who accept the Divine invitation to draw near to God, to come into fellowship with Him.
But this knowledge of God which will bring a saintly few to salvation on the highest plane stands related to God’s Word—the teachings of the Bible—for thus God exalted His Word, by making it the channel for spiritual refreshment and personal acquaintanceship with Himself.
Thus Jesus prayed for us, His followers, “Sanctify them through Thy Truth, Thy Word is Truth.” Any who neglect the Divine Word will fail of the sanctifying power and thus fail of the ultimate acquaintanceship with God which alone will guarantee everlasting life. The reason why the Lord has thus arranged the matter and made knowledge of the Scriptures essential, doubtless is that thus His faithful people may be benefited; and they alone receive the instruction which will profit them alone, but would more or less injure others. Thus it is written, “Ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free.”
To this class our Lord says to-day, as He said to His Jewish followers eighteen centuries ago, “To you it is given to know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of God, but to all outside these things are spoken in parables and dark sayings, that hearing they might not understand and seeing they might not perceive.” To the outsiders—the Doctors of Divinity—is not permitted the Key of Knowledge. “Even so, Father, for so it seemeth good in Thy sight.”—Matthew 11:25, 26.
What Constitutes the Key?
The Key of Knowledge consists of the faithful study of God’s Word, with an honest purpose to know the things that are freely given unto us of God. This implies a consecration of heart, for none others would really desire that they might do the Divine will. And this implies also a faith in our Lord’s promise that He that doeth “the will of My Father shall know of the doctrine.” (John 7:17.) It is this consecrated, conscientious Bible study that is lacking to-day—that is being discouraged to-day by the great teachers and Doctors of Divinity.
Everything calculated to help Bible
COMFORTING WORDS OF LIFE
“Comfort one another with these words.”—1
Thess. 4:18.
ANE of the wonderful things about the Bible and the Christianity founded upon the Bible’s teachings is the fact that it contains so much sympathy—comfort for the bereaved, the sorrowing, the troubled. This is not true of any other book nor of any other religion in the world. And who is there that does not at some time in life need sympathy, need encouragement, need a powerful and loving friend such as the Bible assures us our God is to all who will accept His favor?
But our great Adversary, Satan, seeks to make the light appear dark and the darkness appear light. He seeks to negative the testimonies of God’s Word, and, to a very great degree, his deceptions have been successful, as is witnessed by the creeds of Christendom. Practically all of our creeds, even though they assert that God is gracious, merciful, kind and loving, contradict this description of Him and His Plan for humanity in monstrous terms, fiendish in the extreme.
The majority of creeds tell us of His foreordination and pre-arrangement of whatsover comes to pass and that this signifies that a saintly handful will gain eternal life in joy in heaven, and that the unsaintly thousands of millions of heathendom and Christendom are equally foreordained to spend an eternity of torture foreknown, fore-intended and provided for before their creation. Is there comfort in this? Is such a plan Godlike or Satanic? Could any intelligent and good being rejoice in such a plan of damnation or sincerely worship an Almighty God who would so misuse His unlimited power to distress His creatures, “born in sin, shapen in iniquity; in sin did their mothers conceive them”?
The minority of Christian creeds declare the same results, but that they were not designed of God, not foreknown by Him, not predestinated. They tell us in other words that we have an incompetent God, well-meaning, but deficient in wisdom and in power. Is there any comfort in this? Would it assuage the grief and pain of those suffering in eternal torment if they could be assured that their lot was such, not because of Divine premeditation and design, but because of Divine incompetence? Surely there is no comfort to be had from such a view!
After all, we Protestants did not make much of an improvement upon the theory held by our forefathers against which we protested in the sixteenth century. Surely study, to get rid of the darkness of the creeds and superstitions of the past, is opposed—but not openly. The Doctors of Divinity of our day, like those of Jesus’ day, are wise and act as though they do know. But they do not know; they oppose real Bible study—not openly, but secretly, “for fear of the people.” (Mark 11:32; 12:12.) The great religious leaders of the Jews were marked by our Lord as being less conscientious, less honest, than the masses of the people. Concerning the people we read that “Jesus was moved with compassion when He beheld the multitude, that they were like sheep without a shepherd.”—Matt. 9:36.
And is it not so to-day also? Are not many of God’s people hungering and thirsting for the Truth, and greatly perplexed and discouraged because, going time after time to the religious leaders, they have received instead of bread “a stone,” instead of a fish “a serpent”— a false doctrine, a devilish misrepresentation of the Almighty’s character and Plan in respect to humanity? These devilish doctrines of the Dark Ages St. Paul calls “doctrines of demons,” because the demons, the fallen angels, evidently have propagated them. They are to be found amongst all of the heathen, but nowhere in any worse form nor as bad as amongst Christians of all denominations. Is there not therefore a great responsibility resting upon every conscientious minister of the Gospel, that he should step out from amongst the mass of the Doctors of Divinity, who are hiding the Key of Knowledge and misleading the Lord’s trusting sheep of nominal Christendom?
“Impossible to Deceive the Very Elect.”
As we have already shown, they cannot keep penned, nor keep asleep, nor keep the knowledge from the saintly ones who constitute “the very elect.” Our Lord, speaking of this time, said that the deceptions would be such that they would deceive, if possible, “the very elect,” but in their case deception will not be possible, for the True Shepherd Himself will help them. But, oh, what weeping of disappointment, and what a chagrin and gnashing of teeth will come shortly to the “false shepherds,” to the Key-hiding Doctors of Divinity, when they find that with all their endeavors to bolster up shams and superstitions in which they themselves do not believe, the entire fabric of Churchianity will collapse, as the Scriptures predict!
It is quite unnecessary that we press the lesson of this text; we leave the matter before you. God will urge and press the “Pearl of Great Price” upon' no one. It is for sale to tljose who will give the price—all that they have. God has adopted plans and methods which will demonstrate and prove the class worthy of a share in Messiah’s Kingdom.
purgatorial tortures of a few centuries are no worse, no less comforting than our Protestant conceptions of an eternity of torture for all the non-elect! Our Catholic forefathers manufactured Purgatory without a shred of Scripture upon which to base the theory. They built it in their imaginations; they invented its fires and tortures. Our Protestant forefathers, using their imaginations, gave us an eternal torment hell—not more tangible, not more Scriptural than Purgatory. They did indeed use a Scriptural term —sheol, hades, hell—but, overlooking the fact that these words all signify the state of death, the condition of the dead, they wrested the language and warped it in an unscriptural manner to signify torture.
The penalty or “wage of sin is death.” They made of it torture everlasting, without the slightest authority of Scripture except a misunderstood and misapplied parable, which, rightly understood, teaches a totally different lesson. The false Gospel has surely lost its power. People are becoming too intelligent to endure it. As a consequence attendance at Churches is decreasing and reverence for God is diminishing. Infidelity, called Higher Criticism, etc., is increasing.
The need of the hour is the Gospel of comfort. St. Paul declares what we all know, namely, that “the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now, waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God.” Here we see the necessity for this Gospel of comfort. We see also that God has provided it and that it is coming to the world in the end of this Age—in the dawning of the new Age. It will come to the world in general as soon as the elect Church shall have been selected and, by the “First Resurrection” power, glorified with her Lord as His Kingdom class, as the glorified sons of God, whose mission it will be to bless all the families of the earth.
“Father of Me’rcles—God of All Comfort.”
When St. Paul says, “Knowing the terrors of the Lord,” he evidently refers to the fact that our Creator has declared that “the wage of sin is death” (not eternal torment); that “the soul that sin-neth, it shall die” (not live in torment); that “all the wicked will* God destroy” (not preserve in fire); and that only such as come into vital relationship with the Redeemer can have everlasting life. Knowing these things respecting the Divine government we persuade men everywhere, “Be ye reconciled to God”—and thus attain the only eternal life which He has promised.
But, on the other hand, note the kindly description of our God which the Apostle furnishes, “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all of our tribulation, that we may be' able to comfort them that are in any tribulation, by the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our comfort also aboundeth by Christ. And whether we be afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation * * ♦ or whether we be comforted, it is for your comfort and salvation, * * ♦ knowing that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the comfort.”—2 Cor. 1:3-7.
What a wonderful statement respecting the Divine intentions for the comfort of the world and the comfort of the Church, all proceeding from “the God of all comfort”! Nothing written in any sacred books of any people at any time reveals such a God as the God of the Bible—a God infinite in Justice, Wisdom, Power and Love. It is He that is “working all things according to the counsel of His own good will,” for the ultimate comfort and salvation of as many of His creatures as will accept His favors, after being brought to a knowledge of the Truth respecting them.
The Church is now comforted during this Gospel Age (saved to the highest plane of the heavenly nature) and during the coming Age the world is to be comforted and saved to the human nature— as many as will. For the world this means the glorious opportunity of the Mediatorial reign of Christ which will constitute their “time of restitution,” uplifting, resurrection to all that was lost in Adam and redeemed by the precious blood of Christ.—Acts 3:19-21.
“Comfort—With These Words.”
In order to appreciate the meaning of our text we must consider the words of the Apostle preceding it, beginning with the 13th verse. He declares, “I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.” All Christian people agree that the word sleep here refers to those who died. They are not asleep in heaven, of course, for there all is wakefulness and intelligence and joy. They are not asleep in Purgatory, of course, for, according to our Catholic friends, sleep there would be an impossibility. They are not asleep in an orthodox hell, for, according to the description given by Protestants, none could sleep there.
Where, then, are those who are “asleep”? St. Paul says that we should not be ignorant concerning them. Have we not been ignorant in the past—foolishly ignorant? We have ignored the Apostle’s words. We have refused to believe that any are asleep and claim that all are awake, alive—a few in heaven, the many in Purgatory or eternal torture.
But St. Paul was right! The entire Bible teaches that all who die fall asleep. Thus we learn of .St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, that he “fell asleep” (stoned to death). We read of the good and bad, kings and peasants, falling asleep in death. We read that King David slept with his fathers—some of them good, some of them bad. We read that Abraham slept with his fathers— some of them heathen. The Bible tells us where they sleep and that they will all be awakened from the sleep of death in due time—in the resurrection, during Messiah’s reign of a thousand years. The Prophet declares that “Many that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to life everlasting and some to shame and lasting contempt.”—Dan. 12:2.
Those who will be awakened from the sleep of death unto resurrection of life will be the blessed and holy, the saintly, who will be associated with Messiah in the Kingdom work for the blessing and uplifting of the non-elect. Those who will be awakened from the sleep of death to shame and Age-lasting contempt will be the non-elect world. Their shame will be in proportion as they have enjoyed light, knowledge and opportunity and have failed rightly to appreciate and use these. They will have contempt from their fellows, in proportion as their shortcomings of the present time will be shown up.
Many highly esteemed amongst men will be awakened to that shame and Agelasting contempt. But their case will not be a hopeless one. Much of their weakness and dereliction were the result of Adam’s transgression and the sinful conditions which have resulted, including unfavorable environment. God has provided in Christ redemption for all from the sins and weaknesses resulting from Adam’s disobedience, and thus the entire race of Adam is guaranteed an individual trial under favorable conditions—for life everlasting or death everlasting.
All who will render obedience to the laws and regulations of Messiah’s Kingdom will begin to rise up, up, up, out of
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copy of this paper in which this interesting subject is treated in a manner sure to satisfy. Address, Bible & Tract Society, Brooklyn, N. Y. their fallen, degraded condition of sin, and be brought back to all that was lost in Adam and redeemed at Calvary. In proportion as they will retrace their steps and come back into Divine fellowship their shame will decrease and their contempt also. Finally in the consummation of that Age all who will may have attained full restoration and regeneration and freedom from shame and contempt. The unwilling and disobedient and rebellious will be destroyed in the Second Death—“twice dead, plucked up by the roots’’—without hope of any further resurrection or restitution.
St. Paul urges that Christians should not be ignorant concerning those who are asleep—that they “sorrow not even as others who have no hope.” It is bad enough to think of millions of the heathen as being totally extinct, hopelessly dead, without any prospects of a resurrection; the same would be true respecting our neighbors and friends, parents and children, brothers and sisters, who are not saintly, who are not. in “Christ Jesus,” who are not walking after the Spirit, who are not heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ our Lord. And if it would be a sore trial to think of them as utterly destroyed in death and without hope of resuscitation, resurrection, how much worse would it have been when, in our misunderstanding of God’s plans, we thought of them as being in either Purgatory or eternal torture! Such a false conception of the Divine Plan is worse than to believe them without hope and extinct.
The Apostle proceeds to point out the basis of this hope in these words, “If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring (from the dead) with (by) Him.” (1 Thess. 4:14.) So, then, the Apostle deciares', the resurrection hope is the Christian hope, and the basis of the hope of this resurrection is that Jesus died that He might be man’s ransomer—that He arose from the dead that He might be the great Deliverer of mankind, the Prophet, Priest and King of God, and that He might gather to Himself the Elect Church, the Bride, the Lamb’s Wife, as His joint-heir.
Christians, of course, in thinking of the resurrection of the dead, would primarily, chiefly, consider their dear one 3 of the household of faith; hence the Apostle continues his argument, saying that those of the Church living at the time of the Second Advent will not precede or hinder those members of the Church who have died during the past centuries, for the dead in Christ shall arise first—shall be awakened first from the sleep of death.
"Them That Sleep in Jesus."
We cannot think that the Apostle refers merely to the Church in this case, for uniformly, in speaking of the resurrection of the dead, he refers both to the Church
COUNTING THE COST
"Whosoever he be among you that renounceth not all that he hath, he cannot be My disciple.” Luke 14:33.
THE bane of true Christianity is that * doctrine of devils respecting the eternal torment of all who are not Christ’s disciples—of all who, according to our text, renounce not all that they have to follow the Lord. This unholy, unscrip-tural teaching has not only cost pain, sorrow, perplexity and confusion to the Lord’s true people, but it has injured the world as well. It has been the spur and lash which the Adversary has used in connection with exciting revivals to the injury of many; more are in insane asylums on account of this false doctrine than is generally supposed. Others, of stronger minds, recover from the excitement only to fall into a calloused and hardened condition, where they are more difficult than ever to reach along the proper Scriptural lines—more difficult than ever to convert truly to the Lord and to His cause.
Morality and Christianity.
This lash of superstitious fear the Adversary used to build up the various sectarian systems to their present proportions. They stand chiefly for good morals, irrespective of religious profession. We are to distinguish between Christianity and morality. Many noble men and women, total unbelievers according to their own professions, have been moralists. Our Lord was not a revivalist according to the ordinary acceptance of that term. He never attempted to work His hearers into a spasmodic enthusiasm; He never carried the lash over them to drive them through fear to the Mercy Seat. On the contrary,’ He took a course which positively repelled those who were not in a right attitude of heart to receive His message. He continually held out before those to whom He preached the extreme difficulties associated with discipleship.
Our text is another illustration of this principle of hindering those who might think lightly of the responsibilities of discipleship. He would have them understand that not everyone who saith, “Lord,
WHERE ARE THE DEAD!
I,
This article was published in Vol. hr The great demand for St
No. 3.
V copies of it has been remarkable. A x! sample copy will be mailed to any v one free. Address, Bible Society, 17 d Hicks Street, Brooklyn, N. Y. and to the world, the "resurrection of the just and of the unjust.” So in this case •he evidently refers both to the Church and to the world as “asleep in Jesus.” The expression will be noted as different from another one of his respecting those who “sleep in Christ.” The latter expression evidently refers to the Church as the glorified members of The Christ. But in speaking of those asleep in Jesus he evidently has reference to the whole world of mankind. The whole world died in Adam without having a voice in the matter of their birth or trial or condemnation. “Condemnation came upon all because of one man’s disobedience.” Likewise justification is to pass upon all of our race through the precious merit of Christ’s sacrifice. The fact that He “died, the Just for the unjust,” constitutes His death a satisfaction price for the sins of the whole world.
From this standpoint, therefore, the whole world not only died in Adam, but now sleeps or waits unconsciously for a resurrection of the dead through the merit of our Redeemer’s sacrifice. If we believe that Christ died for our sins and laid the foundation thus for His great work of blessing the world of mankind, including the Church, the First-fruits, let us believe also that God who began His good work will not stop until He shall have brought forth judgment unto victory —until all the redeemed world shall be brought to a knowledge of the Redeemer and of the Heavenly Father and to an opportunity for life everlasting through obedience. The world died in Adam—“In Adam all die.” Jesus is the Redeemer of the world. “Even so all in Christ shall be made alive.”
TJhe message has reached the Church only, as yet. In due time it will reach every member of the race. The Church is already reckonedly quickened from the dead by the Holy Spirit and will shortly be born from the dead in the “First Resurrection.” The world, therefore, from the Divine standpoint is not dead in Adam now, but merely asleep in Jesus, waiting for the glorious time when, His Kingdom established, He shall call all mankind from the prison-house of death, from the tomb, that each may learn of the grace of God in Christ, and have opportunity for attaining life everlasting.
These are the words in which we are to comfort one another—words of hope respecting the resurrection of the dead, both the just and the unjust—words of sympathy, words of assurance, words that show that God is better than all our fears; that y^t in a little while He that shall come will establish His Kingdom— first the Church in glory and secondly Israel and all the families of the earth through them. Everything connected with the Divine Message is full of hope, full of encouragement, full of blessing, to those in the condition to receive it.
Lord,” should enter into the Kingdom, but he that doeth the will of the Father. He would have them understand that to do the will of God under present conditions, during the present Gospel Age, signifies the abandonment of earthly aims and hopes and ambitions, and the substituting for these of heavenly hopes and ambitions, which will change them in character-likeness from glory to glory, preparing them for a share in the First Resurrection.
Our Lord’s Illustrations.
To make the matter particularly plain, our Lord gave two illustrations in the verses preceding our text. He points out that any man intending to build a tower would, if exercised by a sane mind, sit down and calculate whether or not he could afford to build it and whether it would pay. Undoubtedly the Lord’s method of preaching the Gospel was the correct one, and those who follow any other method or standard are in error, no matter how conscientiously they may believe they do God’s service. Revivalists in general attempt excitement, and sometimes evidently have the Adversary’s assistance in producing hypnotic results. Many evangelists without the more special gifts of miracles possessed by our Lord and His Twelve Apostles, and the Seventy also, gathered during the three and a half years of our Lord’s ministry—the total number being stated as five hundred brethren. But the Lord gathered no “tares”—only wheat.
We seek to walk in the Master’s footsteps, and to make known His message, and to expect that it will specially appeal only to the “very elect,” the “Israelites, indeed, in whom there is no guile.” But we are not seeking to build up a sect or party. We recognize the Church of Christ as one and not many. We recognize that the Lord gave no commission to us or to anyone else to establish sects and parties and churches. It is not our desire, therefore, to build up a glorious earthly system, nor to draw the worldly by preaching such things as would be attractive to the world. It is our commission to preach the Gospel of Christ.
What It Means to "Forsake All."
Our text speaks of forsaking all to be the Lord’s disciples. This does not mean merely to forsake all forms of sin. No
A Dark Cloud and Its Silver Lining !
(By John G. Whittier)
In the minister’s morning sermon he told of the primal fall,
And how, henceforth, the wrath of God rested on each and all;
And how, of His will and pleasure, all souls, save a chosen few,
Were doomed to eternal torture, and held in the way thereto.
Yet never, by Faith’s unreason, a saintlier soul was tried,
And never the harsh old lesson a tenderer heart belied.
And after the painful service, on that pleasant, bright first day,
He walked with his little daughter thro’ the apple blodm of May.
Sweet in the fresh green meadow, sparrow and blackbird sung;
Above in its tinted petals the blossoming orchard hung.
Around, on the wonderful glory, the minister looked and smiled: “How good is the Lord, who gives us these gifts from His hand, my child. Behold in the bloom of apples, and the violets in the sward,
A hint of the old lost beauty of the Garden of the Lord.” |
Then upspake the little maiden, treading on snow and pink, “O father! these pretty blossoms are very wicked, I think.
Had there been no Garden of Eden, there never had been a fall;
And if never a tree had blossomed God would have loved us all.”
“Hush, child!” the father answered, "By His decree man fell;
His ways are in clouds and darkness, but He doeth all things well.
And whether by His ordaining to us cometh good or ill,
Joy or pain, or light or shadow, we must fear and love Him still.” “Oh, I fear Him!” said the daughter, “and I try to love Him, too; But I wish He were kind and gentle—kind and loving as you.” The minister groaned in spirit, as the tremulous lips of pain, And wide, wet eyes, uplifted, questioned his own in vain.
Bowing his head, he pondered the words of his little one;
Had he erred in his life-long teachings, and wrong to his Master done?
To what grim and dreadful idol had he lent the Holiest Name?
Did his own heart, loving and human, the God of his worship shame? I And lo! from the bloom and greenness, from the tender skies above, I And the face of his little daughter, he read a lesson of love.
No more as the cloudy terror of Sinai’s Mount of Law,
But as Christ in the Syrian lilies the vision of God he saw.
And as when, in the clefts of Horeb, of old was His presence known, h
The dread, ineffable glory was Infinite goodness alone.
Thereafter his hearers noted in his prayers a tenderer strain,
And never the message of hatred burned on his lips again.
And the scoffing tongue was prayerful, and the blinded eyes found sight, ! And hearts, as flint, aforetime, grew soft in his warmth and light.
one has a right to commit sin, whether he be Christ’s disciple or anybody’s disciple. True forsaking of sin and moral living are connected with all decency of life as well as with discipleship to Christ. To get the picture before our minds the Scriptures speak of Satan as being the Prince of Darkness and of the world as lying in darkness. Sin of every form is related to this period of darkness, and we are bidden to hope for the glorious epoch to come, in which sin shall be utterly banished from the world; and instead of Satan being the prince of this world, Jesus shall be the King of Glory, the Light of the world, Immanuel. We are taught to pray in harmony with these hopes set before us in the Gospel.
The Lord is seeking for those who love righteousness and hate iniquity, and now —in a time when “darkness covers the earth and gross darkness the heathen”— is the time best adapted for finding those whom the Scriptures denominate the Children of the Light—that is, those who have a special love for righteousness, purity, truth, etc. These the Lord is calling, drawing, encouraging, assisting, and leading from glory to glory, because they love Him, preferring to stand with the Lord on the side of right and Truth and holiness and purity at the cost of the sacrifice of earthly things, earthly pleasures, earthly aims and earthly hopes. These the Scriptures denominate the Lord’s “jewels,” whom He will gather at His Second Coming.
What a manifestation of Divine wisdom we have in the fact that the Church is sought during this period of darkness, of sin, before the clouds ro ! way, before the great Adversary, Sata.1, is bound! Now we see from this sta..2point why the Lord did not emphasize the forsaking of sin, and why He did emphasize the forsaking of all and the taking up of the cross. Our Lord was calling only for the class that would be so in accord with Himself and His mission, so in accord with the principles for which He stood, so in harmony with the Light as children of the Light, that they would be willing to forsake all—even life itself. Manifestly, any one who would renounce all to be associated with Christ in His work of opposing and putting down sin would not require to be exhorted to oppose sin in his own heart. Sin would have no place in such a heart. The heart that has renounced all the works of the flesh and the Devil, all of the things of darkness, is the heart of the true disciple of Christ.
Note that the Apostle calls attention to this matter, saying, “How shall we who are dead to sin live any longer therein?” Describing the condition of some of the children of darkness he says, “Be not deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolators, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.” (1 Cor. 6:9, 10.) This description does not merely cover the gross violations of righteousness; the words effeminate, covetous, revilers, extortioners, take in a vast multitude of proceedings more or less countenanced by the world, more or less the practice of all except the sanctified.
Treasure in an Earthen Vessel.
A point here needs to be guarded along lines set forth in the Bible: We are not to judge others nor even to judge ourselves wholly by the possibilities of the flesh. We are to remember that ha’ving been begotten again by the new mind, by the Holy Spirit, old things have passed away and all things have become new to our minds, to our hearts, to our wills, to our intentions. But we are also to remember that the old body has not passed away and that it will not pass away until death* and we are not to trust it too far. We are to keep continual guard over it, realizing its weakness and tendency toward! sin through the Fall. Nor are we left la this battle entirely to ourselves. It is th® Lord who has declared, "My grace is sufficient for thee, My strength is made perfect in your weakness.” It is the Lord’s promise that He will not suffer us to b® tempted above that we are able, but with the temptation will provide a way of escape.
One of the Lord’s illustrations is that of a king with a small army going forth to battle against a* king with a greater army. How necessary it would be to count th© cost, if defeat would be avoided! So with us; it is well that we count the cost and see our own weakness and our own littleness and our own inability to cope with and to vanquish the world and the Adversary and our own imperfect flesh. Not until we do see this will we be properly ready to become the Lord’s followers. If we once learn this lesson properly and make our alliance with the Lord, with the full realization of His words, “Without Me ye can do nothing,” then our course will be the right one and success will be ours through our Lord in the end.
The Importance of Little Things.
Make straight paths for your feet, the Apostle admonishes. - He has arranged your affairs so that you will not be stumbled in the Narrow Way. Put away the things that would remind you of the pleasures of sin, that would tend to preserve the pride and fond desires of the flesh. Become what your worldly friends would consider an extremist to the extent that you will copy the Lord and the Apostles and their instructions. Cultivate humility instead of pride, meekness instead of boastfulness, generosity instead of selfishness, loving kindness instead of hypocrisy. Seek the companionship of th® good, the pure, the consecrated, and especially the companionship of the Lord Himself. Speak to Him frequently in prayer and seek for His answer in the inspired Scriptures. Be faithful in the little things of life. Realize that you cannot, as a New Creature, measure yourself by the standards of the world.
If while pursuing this course you fall into various trials and difficulties, take them patiently, realizing that this is another evidence of God’s favor toward you, an evidence that He is pruning and testing you to make you ready for His further use either in the present or in the future life. Thus you may “bear a son® away” and find each day a happy one, because it brings you a little nearer to the grand ideal standard and to the glorious time of your “change.”
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Send postal-card request to Bible p xj & Tract Society, 17 Hicks St., Brook- m 7) lyn, N. Y., for free copies of this p xj paper. Some of the interesting sub- w, Tj jects you may have for asking are: p xl Calamities—Why Permitted?
7| Creed Idols Smashed!
x! Spiritism is Demonism!
A Cardinal Gibbons’ Sermon.
x] Prince Lucifer of Old Now Prince g.
of Demons.
_jd The Hope of Immortality.
Do You Believe in the Resurrec- p V tion ?
Most Precious Text.
N Our Lord’s Return.
71 Which Is the True Gospel?
* X|X X|ON XJX W W
FOLLOWING HIGH STANDARDS
“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.”—1 John 2:15.
UR text clearly indicates that there are ” two kinds of love in the world, with votaries for each—the love for the world versus the love for God. The two are stated to be opposites to such a degree that they cannot be blended. We must be on one side or on the other side. As our Lord on one occasion declared, “Ye cannot serve God and Mammon,” and as the Apostle declared, “His servants ye are to whom ye render service.”—Matt. 6:24; Rom. 6:16.
Did the Holy Spirit, speaking through the Apostle, mean to teach us that we should not love those things in the world that are beautiful, beautiful landscapes, flowers, birds, etc., etc.? Some in times past and at present take this view and go into cloisters and shut themselves away from things beautiful and pleasing to their senses. A few people are inclined to feel that if they take pleasure in anything of an earthly kind it signifies sin in the sight of God. Those who have taken such a view of life have usually done so from a misunderstanding of our text and others of similar import.
The Present Evil World.
The Scriptures everywhere contrast what they denominate this world or present order of things with the world to come or future order of things, assuring us that the present social order or arrangement is imperfect, unsatisfactory, sinful, and that it must give place in God’s due time to the perfect order or arrangement, under the dominion of the Messianic Kingdom, for which we pray, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.” It is in accord with this that the Apostle speaks of the conditions as the present evil world, and refers to the future condition of things as “the world to come in which dwelleth righteousness.” The thought then prevalent throughout the Scriptures is that unrighteousness is reigning or governing among men at the present time, and will hold sway until the Second Coming of Christ, who will overthrow the present order of things and establish the reign of righteousness—the world or order of things promised to come.
Many in the world are totally unable to see why present conditions should be designated “evil.” They suit them well enough. They would be sorry to see them discontinued or set aside or changed in any manner lest the results to themselves would be less favorable.
Our thought on the subject is expressed by the Psalmist when he declares, that "all the foundations of the earth are out of course.” (Psa. 82:5.) His words mean that all the basic principles of the present social structure are distorted out of proper relationship to each other, are in confusion. Society for centuries has been endeavoring to serve its interests as wisely as possible, yet selfishness—inherent in the entire human family since the fall— affects, influences, warps and twists the judgment on every subject. As a consequence, while it has endeavored to have matters right and just and true, while it has endeavored as a whole to regulate its affairs on lines of justice, sympathy, truth and equity, hevertheless individual selfishness and class preference have distorted the whole arrangement, until we have the condition which prevails to-day.
The history of the whole world shows that this condition of things is bound to continue so long as selfishness reigns in the human heart, and so long as the present order of society continues.
We are not advocating political, social and financial doctrines, revolutions, etc. Quite to the contrary; we claim that the present condition of things as a whole is about as good as it is possible for men to make it. We hold that any attempt to establish Socialism, and to deprive the most intelligent and most wealthy of the advantages which they possess, would result in violent trouble and anarchy, and that on the whole the best that the poor world can do for itself is to seek to hold matters as nearly level as possible, without provoking the anarchy and strife—to get all of the riches and liberty and justice properly belonging to the whole people into their hands so far as this can be done along peaceable lines.
Love for Present Order of Things.
The Apostle, in our text, intimates that we should search our hearts diligently to
3 THE RICH MAX AM) LAZARUS p ■W All Christians have wondered re- 4-x] specting this parable. When taken L >1 literally it seems unreasonable. Why &• x] should a man suffer torture merely L because he was rich, well clothed, and bountifully fed? And why should L
M another man be carried to glory xj simply because he was sick and poor L « and a companion of dogs? In the xj clear light now shining, this parable
is luminous and beautiful to such J? xj an extent that one is compelled to y >3 laugh at his own foolish misunder- S’ X standing of it in the past. L
*4 The full explanation of this par- jx x! able is given in another number, )x *4 which we shall be glad to send you. |x free of charge,' upon postal-card request. Address, Bible & Tract
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