The Watchtower, August 25, 1886

R880 : page 1

EXTRACTS FROM INTERESTING LETTERS.

Michigan, August 25, 1886.

DEAR BROTHER RUSSELL: I have just finished reading

Millennial Dawn the second time, and although the subjects

treated were not new to me, but had been studied and digested

before, I am delighted with the book, and have experienced great

pleasure and profit, and feel like a giant refreshed with new

wine, better prepared and equipped for the conflict.

One feature of the book that escaped my notice before, is the

wise arrangement of the subjects, and the mild and gentle

language used in contrasting the truth with error. Although these

truths set forth so clearly, may still be rejected by the so-called

great teachers in the

R880 : page 2

nominal church it appears to me it would be impossible for any

to take offence. The book is a production well worthy of a

Master in Israel, one whose eyes had been anointed with eye-

salve. The book will be "meat in due season" to all who are true

followers of Christ. I will be anxiously looking for the issue of

Vol. II.

I feel deeply obliged to you for any word of advice,

encouragement or reproof by letter or in the TOWER. Reproof

no doubt is what I need the most, will receive it as from the

Lord. Shall feel deeply thankful to you at all times.

All my sympathy is with you in your labor of love. Yours in

Christ, J. P.

page 2

Brooklyn, Aug. 23, 1886.

DEAR BROTHER RUSSELL: Last evening as I sat home

perusing the August TOWER, I noticed some articles of special

interest, and it occurred to my mind that this number would be a

good one to send around with my name on wrapper, and marked

articles, to many of the members of the church I have left. So

please send me 35 copies and charge to my account. I did think

in the Spring that I would take but one copy, but now I think I

must have three or four regularly. I give one, two or three away

each month.

For the last two months these truths have been clearer to me as a

whole, and I begin to realize (that is quite different from

accepting or believing) the power of these truths.

The Millennial Dawn, two copies, came to hand last week, much

to my satisfaction. The work, as a piece of manufacture, in

clearness of type, fine paper, careful printing and neatness and

beauty of binding, is very excellent.

I have only, as yet, had opportunity to glance over the chapter

headings, but that glance affords much satisfaction, and next

month I shall commence a careful study of these doctrines,

which you here present in such clear and connected form.

I anticipate great profit from your work, which I cannot but feel

that the blessed Lord has directed you in and revealed to you. I

want two more of each of the coming volumes when out.

The TOWER has always much profitable reading in it, and I

particularly like the "View" and "Interesting Letters." That one in

last TOWER from the gunner in India is excellent and very

interesting. How he sees through the shams of worldly

missionary life. These letters do me good and give me new ideas.

I often feel that I do not amount to much, but "every little helps."

I have given away but three Foods lately, but think they are

profitably received. Am hoping for another Christian to ask me,

to whom I gave a July TOWER with a few words.

One earnest Methodist associate has read a number of TOWERS

and some in Food and is giving respectful consideration to the

views. He is quite a student and a Bible class teacher of adults.

I have always had joy in the Lord, but as the years roll on I

rejoice more and more, and realize the privilege of serving him

as I can.

I do not expect you to answer my letter. With all your work,

correspondence, etc., I wonder that you can get time for writing

books, let alone answering occasional correspondents. With

Christian regard, yours in hope, .

DEAR BROTHER RUSSELL: I held a meeting at Bradford,

Pa. on Sunday, and obtained four (4) subscriptions for the

WATCH TOWER. I enclose herewith Post-office Order for

$2.00 and names of the parties. They want me to hold it in a hall

the next time. One party, a hardware merchant, proposes to raise

$25.00 for the hall. This man who has become so deeply

interested, has been a Free Thinker. Yours in the Lord,

S. O. BLUNDEN.

Gait, Cal, July 31, 1886.

DEAR BROTHER RUSSELL: I thank you again for all the

tracts and papers received a short time since. I am constantly on

the alert for opportunities to place them where they will

accomplish most good. Each copy is given or sent with a fervent

prayer, and not carelessly. There is much to remind us that this is

the gleaning time; only a few scattered everywhere will accept

the truth. How precious they are in God's sight. Only the humble

hungry ones, whose eyes are opened to see how vain all their

pleas for God's love according to Sectarianism are, can receive

the truth. Some see a little at first, but when they find how much

they must suffer if they go out of the "pews," they cling to their

creeds with some mental reservations.

Yours in Christian love, .

England, August 9, 1886.

MY DEAR BROTHER RUSSELL: It is with unspeakable

satisfaction I find the long-looked for "Millennial Dawn"

announced in the TOWER for July, which has just reached me. I

hasten to ask you to forward as many copies as you can for the

enclosed amount.

I am sorry I cannot report any marked improvement in the work

here, but every number of the TOWER encourages us to go on

quietly doing what we can, leaving results, though we are

thankful for some evidences of good being done. If men will not

come right out, they confess we are right. Yes, the truth will sink

into honest hearts, and we need not fear that all who have ears

will hear. Your article this month (July) is especially opportune.

You may be more advanced in America, but exactly the same is

rapidly increasing here. If the Lord will may it please Him to use

us to speak a word in season to those who are giving up truth

along with error.

I must not trouble you with a long letter, as I know your time is

well occupied. Your faith encourages us here. Bro. W. and

myself and wife pray that the Master may continue to bless your

labors. We know and realize fully that none but the Master could

give the light we get upon his word through the TOWER.

We send loving greeting to yourself, Sister Russell, and all

whom, though having not seen, we love for the Master's sake.

Affectionately yours in Christ,

A. P. R

Metcalfe Co., Ky., August 11, 1886.

DEAR BROTHER AND SISTER RUSSELL: Your dear

WATCH TOWER seems to be an associated agent with the

blessed Bible, sent forth into the world by the Holy Spirit to

bring to us clearer knowledge of the plan of God. Many thanks

for the chart, I appreciate it more than tongue can tell. I have not

been well for some time, and have the chart on a screen where I

can study it with "Food" as I lie upon my bed. I am trying to

learn it so that I may be able to explain it to others. My interest

in the Restitution is increasing. Oh! how I long for it to be

proclaimed throughout the land that the dark clouds of ignorance

and tradition be driven before the bright Star that is rising.

I love the WATCH TOWER more every day, and am willing to

do anything in my power to circulate it more, or anything of a

similar nature.

May the blessings of heaven rest upon you and your work in the

Lord, is the prayer of one who remains,

Yours truly, M. E. S_

Uniontown, Pa., Sept. 2, 1886.

DEAR BRO. RUSSELL: Some time since I met Mr.

, who told me of your work, and gave me a few of

your teachings in regard to the Word. Now I am filled with a

desire to know all. Am a Baptist-professing Christian, but I want

the truth, and I will try to recognize it wherever I see it. Please

send me a list of all publications that has been or is put out by

ZION'S WATCH TOWER. I never have been so moved in mind

as I have been within the last few months in regard to spiritual

things. "FOOD" has opened much light to me, and I am

hungering after the rest. I expect to do missionary work, or as I

understand it better, colporteur work. I hope the Lord has some

sphere in which I may cast my mite of work for his honor and

glory. I am very poor in this world's goods, but I want to buy as

soon as I can all of your publications, including, if possible, the

back numbers of the TOWER. God willing, I want to get down

to the Bible class and other meetings in Allegheny. Yours truly

for God and his glory, J. H. G .

Flora, Ills.

DEAR BROTHER: I notice by my last TOWER that the first

volume of "Millennial Dawn" is ready. I do not ask you to send

it to me now, for I have not the ready money, but I expect to

have it by the middle of next month, when I will send it. I write

to ask you to reserve a copy by all means. I have not yet sent my

subscription for the TOWER, but, dear brother, do not stop it. I

could not do without it, nor can I do without "Millennial Dawn."

Next month, or sooner if I can get the money, I will send what I

can, two or three dollars if possible. I must have them all. I can't

do without them. My mind craves the truth (spiritual food) as

much as my worn-out body craves natural food. With lasting

gratitude to you and Sister Russell for my present enjoyment of

the glorious light now bursting upon the sleeping Christian, I

sign myself,

Your Brother in Christ, .

A Swedish Brother writes:

DEAR BROTHER IN CHRIST: "Millennial Dawn," which I

received some time ago, I prize very highly, and nothing in the

world would please me better than to see it in the hands of every

professing Christian, and I think it would make real Christians

out of many of them. I thank God and you that I have a copy of

it.

Dear Brother, as far as human companionship is concerned, I am

alone out here; but then I do not feel lonesome in the least, for I

can truly say that Christ our Redeemer is my companion (in

mind) a good deal of my waking time. And then again, I am

often with you and Sister Russell (in mind) thinking and almost

seeing you working away with might and main to prepare and

send out the glad tidings of great joy, and by this means I do not

feel lonesome after all.

Amboy, Ohio, Aug. 26, 1886.

DEAR FRIEND: I embrace the first available opportunity to

acknowledge the receipt of the "packets," and also the

"Millennial Dawn." I have read it almost through, and consider it

a wonderful production. It makes the truth so plain that I can

hardly wait to finish the reading of it, feeling so desirous that

somebody else should have it, for it seems to me they cannot fail

to see the reasonableness and truthfulness of the subjects therein

discussed. Yours in Christian love, F. E. R .

New Lisbon, O., August 24, 1886.

DEAR BROTHER RUSSELL: Enclosed you will please find

one dollar, for which you will please send me Vol. I, of

"Millennial Dawn." I have seen a copy of the book and am much

pleased with its appearance externally and delighted with the

contents so far as I was able to examine it. A few of us here are

doing what we can to proclaim the glad tidings. The greatest

opposition we find comes from the sources we least expected,

that is from the churches. And those claiming to be the most

advanced and most liberal seem to be the most bitter. I am not

surprised at the action of the church of Ephesus in expelling

those members who differed from them. Probably if they had

kept quiet they could have remained in the church. That seems to

be the rule of the "Disciples' Church" here. I thank God to-day I

am free from all such organizations, and I intend to speak out

what I believe as I have opportunity, and to do all I can to

advance the cause of the Master. Wishing you success, I remain,

Your Brother in Christ,

W. F. F

Easton, Pa., August 26, 1886.

DEAR BROTHER RUSSELL: I am sure you are always pleased

to hear from the little flock, still on account of your arduous

duties I have heretofore refrained from writing, but can do so no

longer. Bro. Blunden was with us last night and preached on The

Restitution of all things. (Acts 3:21.) The number present was

not as large as we could have wished, but they were much

pleased. It is our intention to have Bro. B. preach for us each

time he comes, (this was the second time) and some are

becoming interested. I want to do all I can to bring them and

others into this marvelous light of the Gospel. In compliance

with your request, I herewith send the names of some whom I

know are Bible students.

Yours in grace, F. P. G .

September 1, 1886.

DEAR BROTHER RUSSELL: Will you send me four more

copies of Millennial Dawn for the amount enclosed. When I loan

them I ask my friends to read them carefully by chapters and in

their regular order, and then to give me their opinion. At the

same time I caution them, that if they do not critically examine

the contents of the book as suggested, I shall not care for hearing

their opinion, neither should I desire any criticisms based upon

an imperfect understanding of portions read and examined

disconnectedly, for the reason that such criticism would be

entirely unworthy of consideration.

I would very much like to ascertain from honest, intelligent

skeptics and infidels, their convictions regarding the existence of

a supreme, intelligent Creator, and regarding the Bible as a

divine revelation, after reading the whole book in the manner

suggested. Also, I would like to ascertain from my unbigoted

Christian brethren (of the household of faith) their convictions as

to whether the character of our God, as demonstrated in these

pages, is not such as to incite to greater reverence and veneration

for him; and whether the plan of God, as the unfoldings of truth

have revealed, and to which their attention is called in this

volume, does not enable them to recognize these unfoldings to

be in perfect harmony with his justice, wisdom, love and power,

and to realize more clearly than ever before that the Bible is

indeed God's Word.

Will you please let me know how my account stands with the

Z.W.T. Tract Fund? There will be no danger of my wanting to

"sound a trumpet" (Matt. 6:2), for I know the amount must be

shamefully small; but the reason I ask for the information is,

because it has occurred to my mind that I ought to give at least

no less than I used to give to the support of the sect to which I

belonged. Indeed, we who have been helped out of Babylon, and

thus freed from her shackles, ought not to forget how the truth

first reached us, and we ought to do all in our power to have it

reach others.

When we begin to count up the prejudices and errors that the

Z.W.T. publications have been the means of divesting us of, and

when we begin to reflect upon the liberty we have been called

unto and enjoy, and upon the floods of heavenly light that have

been pouring in upon our understandings, we look back and feel

as though there had fallen from our eyes, as it had been scales.

(Acts 9:18.) And as Paul done, so should we, for straightway he

began to preach the truth he had received, and he increased in

strength, confounding the Jews who dwelt at Damascus. So may

we confound those who dwell in the cities (sects) of mystic

Babylon. As the truth reached us, we have good reason to

believe that it may yet reach others, and in the same manner. If

we can not write it, or tell it, may we not by contributing our

means thus aid you in publishing it, until it has reached all who

have ears to hear, and brought them into the enjoyment of that

liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free?

Still trusting in God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy, I

remain, your brother in Christ. Grace be with you, and with all

your fellow-laborers.

W. C. MACMILLAN.

R849 : page 2

"WHEN you make a mistake, don't look back at it long. Take

the reason of the thing into your mind, and then look forward.

Mistakes are lessons of wisdom. The past can not be changed.

The future is yet in your power."

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THE true Christian is like the sun, which pursues his noiseless

track, and everywhere leaves the effect of his beams in a blessing

upon the world around him. —Luther.

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A BRUISED REED.

Lord, all thy wondering saints have told

Thy faithfulness from years of old;

Yea and amen, thy word shall be,

Though flame devoureth land and sea,

That changeless word my trust I make,

'A bruised reed he will not break.'

When tempests sweep the noon-day sky

And bow the forests with a cry,

Though trembling in the rush I wait,

So weak, so lone, so desolate,

Sure shelter still this rock doth make,

'A bruised reed he will not break.'

When in the midnight gloom I fear

The nameless terror prowling near,

Out of the night's immensity

This star of promise shines for me;

My refuge in this word I take,

'The bruised reed he will not break.'

A bruised reed! a worthless thing,

With every light breeze shivering!

By earth forgotten or unknown,

Yet sheltered by a heavenly throne,

His promise all my trust I make—

'A bruised reed he will not break.'"

R880 : page 3

"GOD IS LOVE."

1 JOHN 4:16.

The Bible statement that God is love, and also its teaching that

he is wise, just and almighty is very generally accepted by

Christian people. Our ideas of the great Creator of the Universe

admit of nothing short of perfection in each of these respects.

But laying aside the Bible and its declarations as to God and his

plans, what visible proofs have we of this character of love

which the Bible ascribes to him.

Look about for a moment; creation everywhere speaks of God's

power and wisdom. We look at distant worlds and note the

harmony and beauty of the entire arrangement; "Day unto day

uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There

is no place nor language where their voice is not heard." (Psa.

19:2.) They all declare with united voice, The great Creator is

infinitely wise and almighty. If we look at the mountains and

oceans of earth, they repeat the story of God's wisdom and

power. If we look at the insect and its wisdom and skill, or if we

look at man, even in his fallen condition, we are forced to admit

the wisdom and skill which have so perfectly adapted to their

functions our various members; and thus again we are told of

God's wisdom and power.

In regard to the justice of God, we have one awfully impressive

illustration which should, as God designs, last us to all eternity;

and not us only, but all his intelligent creatures. This illustration

is found in mankind itself. The aches and pains and sorrows

which are associated with the great enemy death, which as a

great monster has been swallowing up the race for six thousand

years, speak to us of God's justice; for we realize that we are

sinners, and recognize the justice of his law which declares the

just wages of sin to be death.

Hence, while groaning and travailing in pain together, and

crying, O, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from

this state of bondage to corruption, we recognize the justness of

our penalty, that the law which condemns us is holy, and just,

and good; that the fault is with us, and that "just and right is he."

We wait for Jehovah's favor, hoping for forgiveness, hoping that

he will excuse our sin and receive us back into fellowship. But

after waiting over four thousand years, we see that God's justice

was so great, so perfect, so unalterable, that even he, could not

violate his own just law, but to clear the guilty he must provide a

ransom~a corresponding price. Had not the justice of the

Almighty been equaled by his wisdom in arrangement, sad and

hopeless would man's case have been. But wisdom had foreseen

and a Redeemer was provided, who gave himself a ransom for

all, on account of which all shall go free.

Ah, yes; we have abundant proof of the completeness of God's

justice as well as of his wisdom and power. But now let us look

at the proofs of God's love. What are they? Think them over. Can

you not think of any proofs of God's love? Surely those who

claim that God is all love, and that his wisdom, power and justice

are small in comparison to his love, should be able to give many

proofs of it, many more than the few we have just given of his

wisdom, power and justice. Will they not mention some of the

proofs of God's love?

Ah, says some one, I will mention the proofs: the rain, the

sunshine, the heat and the cooling breeze, life, health and

strength, are proofs of the love of God to men.

Nay, my brother, you err there; these are not proofs. He sendeth

his rain upon the just and upon the unjust, and causeth the sun to

shine upon the evil and the good. Life, health and strength are

not found in our groaning and dying race, unless we use the

words in a modified and accommodated sense. And then we find

these inapplicable as proofs of God's love; for the most healthy

are oftenest the wicked, of whom it is declared: "God is angry

with the wicked." —Psa. 7:11.

Then again, what should we say of these proofs when we

consider that the sun shines too hotly sometimes, and men are

overcome by the heat. Are they overcome by the love of God?

When the rains fall in torrents and cause immense destruction of

life and property, is that a proof of the love of God? Who will

say that there are proofs of the love of God about us, visible and

tangible to the sense of mankind as the evidences we have of his

wisdom, justice and power? Day after day, year after year,

century after century, cyclones, tempests, hurricanes and

earthquakes manifest power, but speak not of God's love.

Cholera, small pox, yellow fever, typhoid fever, scarlet fever,

malaria, diphtheria, croup, consumption, dyspepsia, and a list too

long to repeat, known to all by bitter experiences, weary

watchings, and sad partings in death, surely these do not prove

God's love.

Notice one thing dear reader: all of these things do prove that

God is not so overbalanced in love, that he cannot permit justice

to thoroughly scourge the race of condemned sinners. And in the

scourgings his justice and power are manifested, though his love,

and often his wisdom, are yet veiled. Nevertheless all are there.

These things prove that God's love does not override and

overthrow his justice, and surely blind must be the mind which

sees in the dealings of God past and present, a God wholly love

and devoid of justice. Lame indeed is the world's hope if it

depends upon God's love to overthrow his just sentence against

the race, and thus release from condemnation and death.

But again we ask, is there no evidence of God's love~no proof?

If so man's case is hopeless. Justice could never clear those

whom it had condemned as unworthy of life. Nor could it grant

them another trial as though its present sentence were unjust. Is

there no proof to corroborate the Apostle's statement that "God is

love?" Must we take it on blind faith, without a single proof?

Thank God, dear reader, there is one proof of God's love, and it

is so grand as to be overwhelmingly convincing to him that hath

an ear to hear. That proof is Jesus. The fact that God sent his

only begotten Son, that at so great a price God "redeemed us,"

"bought us," is proof of his love, beyond all question. Here we

have the proof, the very proof that was in the Apostle's mind

when he wrote, God is love; for he declares

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again, "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved

us and sent his Son to be the propitiation [Greek, hilasmos, THE

SATISFACTION] for our sins." 1 John 4:10.

Though the Bible repeats over and over again that God is love,

and promises that he will prove it by and by, only those who

accept of the RANSOM as the expression of his love, and the

central feature of the plan of salvation, can see any proof of

God's love. The more clearly we grasp the plan of which the

cross, the ransom is the centre, the more truly we see light in

God's light, for this is the only manifestation or proof of God's

love yet given to the world.

The confidence of the saints in God's love and care cannot be

offered as proof to others; for it is such proof as faith alone can

accept. By faith we see proofs of his love and care where others

see just the opposite; we walk by faith and not by sight. By our

faith we are enabled often to see love, care and providential

blessing in adversity, tribulation, opposition and persecutions,

and to realize as true, God's assurance that all things good and

bad are being overruled for good to us. Hence we see by faith in

God's promises what we cannot say has yet been demonstrated,

except in the one instance mentioned, the gift of his Son to be

our ransom price, and thus to become in due time our Deliverer.

The next age will DEMONSTRATE in a practical manner the

love of God as fully and clearly as the past has demonstrated his

other attributes; but as yet his love is entirely a subject for faith.

A faith which is instructed out of God's Word has for its

foundation the Bible's explanation of present circumstances,

namely, that the disturbances of nature, (earthquakes, cyclones,

etc.) as well as the ravages of death in various forms of disease,

are all parts of the curse or death penalty to which our race

became subject through the disobedience of our first

representative in Eden. From that standpoint also, it looks out

into the future with confidence and hope to the promised

Restitution, vouched for by the RANSOM.

A faith to be able to appreciate the love of God must grasp God's

explanation of the justice of the curse, and must reach forward

and grasp also the as yet unfulfilled assurance that the ransom

given by our Lord fully met the obligations of the sinner, and

that in consequence the curse shall be removed and be "no

more," and all the race shall be blessed when the due time shall

come. On the contrary, the mind which sees in the catastrophes

and curse of the past the love of God, and from these facts draws

the inference that his love overbalances his justice, and

concludes that he could not, in the exercise of his justice, blot out

the willful sinner, because his love would hinder it, would

compel him to violate his own decrees and just arrangements

regarding the cutting off of willful sinners from life—that mind is

in even a worse condition, and more blinded than that which

believes that God inflicts these calamities, this "curse," unjustly

upon beings innocent of any fault in the matter; who claim that

man never was perfect, never was tried, and never fell, but was

created imperfect and then cursed and subjected to evil, that he

might develop (evolve) greater perfection than God was able to

give him in his creation.

How weak and foundationless both of these theories, when

examined in the light of facts and God's Word. Both contradict

them, and furnish the only reasonable explanation, as well as the

strongest imaginable ground for faith and love. Thus seen, God

is love, God is just, God is wise, God is almighty. Oh, the depths

of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!

R881 : page 3

A WORD OF WARNING.

We live in a time when it is considered discourteous, and a sign

of narrowness and bigotry, for a speaker or writer to criticize the

teachings of others, no matter how erroneous they may be. This

common sentiment has grown out of an attempt on the part of the

various Protestant denominations to effect an outward union, or

at least an agreement not to antagonize each other, by ignoring

doctrinal differences, instead of harmonizing them by an appeal

to the Bible. And it has been nourished by independent thinkers

both in right and wrong directions who have come to differ from

their denominations, and yet because of sectarian popularity

have desired to stay within the pale of the nominal church.

These, when called to account, to defend their position, raise the

cry of "bigotry" and "narrow-mindedness," against those who

attempt to call them to account for their deviation from their

ordination vows to the sect under whose name and auspices they

hold forth.

The worldly who predominate in every sect, favor the newer and

so called liberal views, and those who hold firmly to a doctrine,

true or false, fear the epithet, bigot, so much that they yield, and

think and act as quietly as possible.

To such an extent is this true, that the leading pulpits of the

leading sects are filled with men who though brilliant and able,

not only act a lie regularly every week, (for they would not

profess to believe or teach the doctrines of the sect they

represent) but what is even worse, some of them do not even

claim to believe the Bible, nor the plan of salvation therein set

forth. They take a text from it as a matter of form and custom,

but quote its statements in the same breath with quotations from

Shakespeare with evidently the same ideas concerning the

inspiration of both. They teach openly what others teach

privately, that the plan of salvation is a step in a general process

of evolution. They deny a fall from and loss of innocency and

perfection, and life, on the part of a representative, Adam, and

also the ransom of all from that loss, by the DEATH of Christ

Jesus, man's second representative. (Rom. 5:17-19. Matt. 18:11.)

One of these openly declared to his congregation, "If you believe

the old scheme of theology that men fell in Adam, then you have

not any room to believe anything I am telling you and my

preaching is idle."

They thus construct out of evolution, or as they term it,

progressive development, a new gospel, a new different hope

from that which Jesus and the Apostles preached (1 Cor.

15:21,22. Heb. 2:9),

R881 : page 4

~a salvation to be accomplished by a resurrection, and brought

about by the death of Jesus a ransom for all.

Yet these utterances go almost unchallenged, because, first,

"Orthodoxy," so called, furnishes no clear cut, sharp, powerful

arguments, among its various and clashing creeds, which could

successfully meet these infidel heresies: and secondly, because

these anti- scriptural evolutionary theories, are popular among the

rich and cultured and fashionable, who constitute the "back-

bone" of each denomination; and the opposer would in any event

be considered a narrow-minded bigot, an obstructer of reform

and progress.

We thank God for liberty of conscience, for freedom from the

stake, for reform and progress in the study of his word, for

ability to rightly divide its precious truths, and for the light now

shining from it, exposing traditional errors and revealing the

divine plans. But as for that Liberal Christianity now so popular,

which counts the Christians of the world at 350,000,000 and

includes in that number every shade of belief and unbelief in the

Bible and out of the Bible, and confessedly "includes all the

speckled and streaked" characters of Christendom, thank God we

have knowledge enough of his word to utterly repudiate it as

opposed to his teachings. And he that by silence or action

biddeth God speed to any error, or its advocates, is a partaker in

the evil.

This same false sentiment prevails in religious journalism,

though to a less degree, for the same reason. There are to-day

numbers of journals whose doctrines, though moral, are like

those above referred to-evolutionary and in opposition to the

Scripture Gospel of a restoration from a FALLEN state by the

payment of a ransom or corresponding price for all, in the death

of our Lord Jesus.

We claim no liberty to deal with the personal affairs, or the

private character, of any of our contemporary editors, but we do

claim the fullest liberty to criticise their public teachings, and

accord to them the same liberty. And while we would not harm

them personally, but rather do them good, we will use our best

endeavors to knock to pieces, and show up to God's children

their sophistries, and to expose the deceitful and ensnaring

manner in which they would set aside the ransom and the cross

of Christ, in its place leaving the idea that we are reconciled to

God by our own death to sin, as they are pleased to call it-each

upon his own daily cross.

To frame an argument, they say, Adam died to righteousness and

Christ died to sin, and we become acceptable to God by

following Christ's example and dying to sin. Thus they form an

argument which few can see the weakness of, because death is

sometimes used in a figurative, as well as in a literal sense by the

Apostles. If some of their readers enquire whether then they

believe that Jesus was a sinner, that he could die to sin, as Adam

died toward righteousness, they quickly quote the Scripture

which declares that "In him was no sin," and leave the argument

there safely, because few can see through their sophistry; and

thus they go over and over the same thing, admitting in one

breath that Jesus had no sin in him, and claiming in the next that

he died to sin in the same way that Adam died to righteousness,

and that we should die to sin as he did.

We can scarcely believe that these teachers are deceived by their

own sophistry, and unable to see that since in Jesus was no sin,

his dying to it in

R882 : page 4

any figurative sense would be a totally different figure from that

of our death to sin; for in the sense in which we become dead to

sin, we were alive or active in sin once. Consequently if Jesus

never was alive in sin, he could not die to sin in the same sense

that we may be said to die to, or cease to live in sin.

Suppose for argument's sake we should admit their claim, and

say that Adam died toward righteousness when he began to live

in sin; it would surely imply that he was alive toward

righteousness before he could die, or cease to live in that

condition; and since our Lord Jesus was never alive in or toward

sin, is it not evident to all that he could not die to sin in the same

way Adam died to righteousness? -in the sense of leaving or

abandoning it? Hence it is evident that such an argument instead

of being logical is sophistical—a deceptive arrangement of words

to convey a false idea and cause it to appear reasonable.

What then is the meaning of the statement of Rom. 6:10 "In that

he died, he died unto sin once?" We answer, He did die for [or

because of] sin once, not however metaphorically but actually,

really and on a literal cross-as a sacrifice for or because of our

sins. And when we realize the completeness of the price thus

paid, and that in rising from death he did not take back that price,

but was raised by the Father to a new nature, we are prepared to

realize that we who were under the condemnation of death, are

fully redeemed from that penalty, and that by a resurrection we

will regain life. And realizing this now, by faith we may reckon

ourselves as though we had passed through the ordeal which our

Lord passed -as though we had died, and had then been made

alive by God. (Rom. 6:11.)

As a matter of fact, the wages of sin is total extinction, but Christ

having paid our penalty, has assured us a life from the dead.

Thus, so far as we are concerned the effect is the same as though

God had repented and remitted our penalty, and after having

taken life from us according to his threat, had relented and

restored us to being, and to his favor.

The effect, we say, is the same so far as we are concerned, but it

has been accomplished in a just and righteous way on God's part.

God could not thus violate his own laws and decrees: to do so

would indicate imperfection, change, vacillation, and injustice.

But he gives us the same blessed results, and maintains the honor

of his just law-Yea, says Paul, the just law of God is magnified,

and shown as unalterable and grand, while his love and wisdom

are also displayed by the method used in the recovery of the lost

and condemned— through the ransom.

But says one, Do you not teach that it is the privilege of believers

to present themselves living sacrifices, and to become dead with

Christ? Yes, truly; it has been largely our aim and work to set

before the Church her joyful privilege of filling up that which is

behind of the afflictions of Christ, and becoming dead with him,

if she would live with him. This we have repeatedly shown to be

the high-calling of the age just closing, a distinctive feature

which marks and distinguishes this from the past and future ages

and dispensations of God's plan. We have shown it not only from

the apostles' words, but also from the types of the Jewish service.

But we always claimed, and have proved repeatedly, from the

apostles and the law, that all members of the Adamic race are

sinners under the curse or penalty of sin- death-and imperfect

and unacceptable before God. Our claim and proof has been that

the ransom which our Lord Jesus gave for all men, provides a

full release for all, from all that was lost through Adam's sin; and

that we who now accept it in this age, are reckoned of God as

perfect and spotless, covered with the imputed righteousness of

Christ as with a robe, and that BECAUSE of this justification,

those who during the "accept-able time" presented themselves as

sacrifices and became dead with him were accepted of the Father

as the Bride and joint-heir of Christ Jesus our Lord.

And this it is, which our contemporaries have taken up, and they

are attempting to make the sacrifice of each individual, the price

of reconciliation with God, and Jesus' sacrifice of no value

except as it set an example of how all men should sacrifice and

make themselves acceptable to God.

This, at very most, is what the Jews sought to do for over

eighteen hundred years, and failed. They attempted to justify

themselves and become holy and acceptable to God by works.

And then what? do they place a higher standard upon sacrifices

of the Church than we teach? Nay, verily, but a lower standard;

for their claim is that in dying to sin it is the sins merely that they

are crucifying. It is their sins and sinful desires that they place

upon the altar before the Lord, but the stench is surely an

abhorrence. Alas! this has ever been the tendency; the things

which are condemned of God, the sins which they have no right

to keep or indulge, these they place before the Lord and call it

sacrificing. So Saul brought the flocks and herds he was

commanded to kill; of these he would make a great sacrifice to

the Lord, but they were not acceptable. So, too, the poor Jew

would bring the Lord the blind and lame and weakly, but they

were not acceptable. Cain did better even than this: not the

weaknesses and imperfections did he attempt to offer to God, but

his first fruits of the field, symbolic of good works. He was not

acceptable, because, first of all, the lesson must be taught that a

death was needful (typical of Jesus' sacrifice) to redeem us and

open up communication with God, so that our good works would

be acceptable.

Our sacrifice must be one without blemish; not our filthiness and

sins can we offer; we must be justified freely from all things and

be "holy" through the cleansing that is in the blood of Christ, if

we would be acceptable to God," (Rom. 12:1) and then we may

offer ourselves and be acceptable sacrifices.

But note again the inconsistency of their position: they claim that

Christ is the example of how to thus die to sin; or, as they call it,

sacrifice. Was he? did he put away his sins and offer them to

God, if he had none? What inconsistency! what absurdity!

What, then, is our position? We answer: Sins and weaknesses,

and the self-denial of things which are wrong, (sinful things) and

which, therefore, we have no right to, were not at all a part of the

sacrifice of our Lord Jesus, nor are they a part of our sacrifice, as

his followers and imitators. His sacrifice consisted in self-denials

of rights, privileges, comforts and liberties, in the service of

God's plan, and the crowning feature of all, and the end and

completion of it all, was the surrender of existence, to which he

had a perfect right, because in him was no sin. And so with the

body of Christ, the little flock, who now unite in sacrifice and

death with him, that they may share also in his glory and in

dispensing to the world the blessings which his ransom-sacrifice

made possible. They deny themselves lawful pleasures, liberties,

etc., in the present life, and in death they lay down an existence

to which, through Jesus' ransom, they have a right. They lay

down human nature and all its privileges forever, as the Master

showed them, and have his assurance of awakening in his

likeness, which is the express image of the Father's person—the

divine nature.

Thus the adversary seems to grasp and attempt to turn against the

truth, every point of truth as it becomes due. Truly it has been

said that he transforms himself into an angel of light [truth]. His

methods vary but his principles are always the same; and since it

is the children of light whom he seeks to stumble and ensnare, he

selects the best of them that he can get to be his agents and to

forward his cause.

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REPROVE, REBUKE, EXHORT.

"Reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long-suffering and doctrine;

for the time will come when they will not endure sound

doctrine. "..."And of some have compassion, making a difference;

and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire." 2 Tim.

4:2,3,15-17; Jude 23,24.

It is not our province to judge men's hearts [motives]; we can

judge only by their words of profession and their course of

action; we must leave the rest to be revealed by the great Judge.

Hence, when our fellow-creatures profess to desire the truth, we

must always be ready to meet them and assist in the search, in

the spirit of the Master, ready to give to every man a reason for

the hope that is in us with meekness.

We believe that very many, even of those who, after having

tasted and known the truth, and having appreciated and been

sanctified by the "blood of the covenant" (Heb. 10:29), seem to

reject the blood by denying the ransom, are merely blinded by

the cunning sophistries which Satan constantly uses to deceive ~

himself, his agents, and his doctrines, being so clothed as

messengers of light, and so wrapped in fragments of truth, as to

deceive, if it were possible, the very elect. (2 Cor. 11:11-14.) Of

these, the truly consecrated, earnest ones we believe, will surely

be brought in contact with the antidote, or cure of the poisonous

errors they have imbibed, and restored to the ROCK of salvation

the ransom which God provided, which

R883 : page 4

Jesus gave, and which all who will not perish in the second

death, must climb upon and build upon.—John 3:15,36.

Our part must always be to be ready at all times to help such

back; because we know not the willful rejecters from those

merely deceived and ensnared. We, however, have the assurance

that so far as the willful ones are concerned, all our efforts will

be in vain; because "It is impossible to renew them again unto

repentance. "~Heb. 6:4-6.

It is far from our desire to think of any fellow-creature as

rebellious against God's plans and methods, and rejecters of the

one and only remedy for sin; but even as infinite wisdom and

love, which provided the sacrifice and the resulting favor of

everlasting life, has guarded it and arranged that only those who

will

R883 : page 5

accept it as provided shall have it, so we, as faithful ministers of

God, must make plain the one condition upon which only

seekers may have the gift of life. And as God states the fact that

some, after being fully enlightened in this Gospel Age, as well as

some in the Millennial Age, will reject the favor in the way it is

offered (Heb. 6:4-6; 10:29-31,38,48,39; Rev. 20:9; Matt. 25:41),

so, while hoping and believing that the number of willful

rejecters will be small, we are "warning every man, and teaching

every man, in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect

in Christ. "--Col. 1:28,29.

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REASON AND FAITH.

W. G. MONCRIEF.

"Come, now, and let us reason together." Isa. 1:18.

In the domain of religion there has been a persistent tendency to

wrap everything in mystery, and to leave common sense on the

outside of the boundary line. Terms in constant use, and

universally understood, have been forbidden to carry their

natural import in the region of what are usually called spiritual

things, and any amount of classifying and defining has been

employed to render that clear which needed no explanation. As a

result, what in ordinary life is level to the humblest range of

intellect has been confounded and darkened beyond all

apprehension. The design of the teachers we may assume to have

been good, but, alas! for those under their guidance; they have

been landed in a maze.

Faith is one of the terms that has been so dealt with, till the very

sound of it is a terror and a despair to many serious persons. It is

a depth they cannot fathom —a mountain they cannot climb~a

problem they cannot solve. They have heard it so frequently

explained-professedly explained~till they grew stupid under the

shower of theological verbiage, and perhaps fled from the

subject and the term as something beyond their grasp, let the

consequences come as they might. "Revelation! "--they mutter;

"in our forlorn state, we have had darkness enough already!" So

the blame is cast on the All-Merciful, and souls eager for truth

and rest find none, because the obscurations of mortal instructors

are substituted for heaven's light in the human consciousness,

and in the simple page of gospel truth.

Having made faith a mystery, Reason next has been

authoritatively outlawed. The very word has grown into a

bugbear. It savors of infidelity, atheism, impious conceit: in

short, of every execrable odor. Confessedly reason is not a terror

in the shop, the warehouse, the market-place, in the councils of

the nation, at the bar, on the bench, or in the haunts of science

and philosophy. But in religion! —beware of it as an enemy in

ambush-a snake in the grass! Reason not! Have faith, only have

faith; if, (it should be consistently added,) by any chance you can

understand what the thing or the function is.

Certainly have faith as God enjoins, but whereby should reason

be scorned and driven away from the camp? The two are not at

variance in their office. They ought to be co-operators in the

highest concerns appealing to man, as they are in every secular

interest and pursuit. A faith without reason honors not God, nor

is it worthy of an intelligent being. Faith divorced from reason as

its ally, and support, and shield, is merely grovelling

superstition, which ought to be shunned by us with inflexible

purpose. There is a difference between them as there is between

the hand and the mouth; but as these act conjointly, the hand

feeding the mouth that the mouth may masticate the food for the

nourishment of the body, so reason ministers to faith and faith

profits by its counsels. When harmony between them is

established, in accordance with the design of him who appointed

each its post, and its duty, the human actor may be expected to

acquire that sobriety of thought and steadiness of purpose which

lead to success in whatever field he may employ his energies.

While the two, Reason and Faith, were intended by the Creator

of man to co-operate in his history, the proper order of their

action is, as we have just now placed them, reason first and then

faith. In some way, or to some extent, faith presupposes the

action of reason; and is maintained by its strength, as well as

invigorated by its own exercise and experience. Were it not the

antecedent, then the mind would believe and trust without a

reason, or before it was supplied with such, which would reduce

it to a position truly absurd and humiliating.

It does not accord with fact to assert that the reason or ground of

faith must ever be valid, as we may say, a faith-warranting

reason; for men often err in their inferences and judgments, and

so the faith-power with which they are gifted is inevitably

misled. In that case they believe when they should not believe,

trust when they should not extend confidence.

Still the statement holds good that the natural and consistent

order of the two functions is as we have described it, reason first,

faith second. Reason, then, has a conspicuous part to fill. It is the

guide of faith, as in a dark night one going with a lantern before

a traveler shows him the road and the dangers to be avoided.

Reason investigates, seeks for and weighs evidence, or warrant,

and announces the result to faith. Faith merely receives the

report, but, from its special character, makes no independent

observations and inquiries. The responsibility for faith's actions

is entirely suspended on reason. The rational power may be led

astray, and the being in whom the double process goes on loses,

as in the reverse circumstances he gains, by the faith which the

evidence-collecting faculty seemed to justify.

In ordinary affairs, let us now observe how the two, reason and

faith, naturally co-operate, as by Divine arrangement they were

formed to do. In describing their action in that region a

sufficiently correct view of their respective functions and spheres

can be exhibited, and one more likely to impress and satisfy

those who have small taste for metaphysical analysis and

description. Our aim is practical. We shall therefore try to make

things as simple as possible, in order that what seems so

important for every one to understand may be comprehended

without an effort.

Here is a farmer, we shall suppose, who has a thousand dollars

he wishes to deposit in a bank for safety, and at the current rate

of interest. Safety in such a transaction is the main point to be

considered; and to that end his reason must first be satisfied as to

the stability of any particular institution before entrusting his

money to its keeping, if he is to act like a man of sense and

forethought. He inquires, he discovers how a certain bank is

rated in public esteem, what value its stock carries in the market,

what reputation its chief officials have earned for themselves,

and if its dividends are punctually paid. These and other things

being satisfactory to his mind, he feels warranted to trust the

institution, through an exercise of reason; in other words, he has

acquired faith in it, and accordingly the sum is delivered to its

charge. Should he trust without investigation; that is, should he

act without reason, the chances are that his property will be lost

forever. The law of security is, reason first, and then faith in a

man or in an institution. This co-operation of the two brings, so

far as certainty can be attained in fragile, human affairs, the

desired result. In the farmer's case, that would be the

preservation of his cash, or, which is the same thing in another

form, he was sure of the interest when due, and sure also that his

deposit would be returned to him on demand.

Be it considered that the man who loses his money by handing it

over to a rotten institution sees it vanish like smoke, from no

imperfection in his faith. He loses it simply because he had faith

when there was nothing for it to rest upon. That was believed to

be strong and reliable which was feeble and ready to perish, after

the fashion of kindred swindles in years gone past.

Again, let us imagine one feeling so unwell that he deems it

necessary to call in medical assistance for his relief. And who

shall be summoned? is the proper question first to be considered.

He has never been threatened with serious illness before, and

knows little of the practitioners at hand except their names. Who

among them has insight, skill and humanity? Who has triumphed

often and remarkably at the sick bed? Our sufferer is so wise as

to consult with his friends, and they provide him with facts,

among them details gathered from their

R884 : page 5

own experience. He considers, reasons with himself, finally

concludes that a certain physician is the proper one for the

occasion; a choice justified and rewarded by his speedy

recovery. Here is intelligence, or reason, in co-operation with

faith; and when they co-operate in this way all probabilities

warrant expectation that if skill and medicine can avail in any

given case the patient will be requited for his confidence in the

physician engaged. Had our patient hastily entrusted himself to a

practitioner of small discrimination and feeble resources, to a

brainless bungler, in short, can we not in a moment anticipate the

issues? The time would be lost, money would be lost, and, worst

of all, the patient might in the end have lost his life. And why?

because there was reliance without a proper basis for it. Reason

was given to shelter him, but he acted unreasonably, and a

tragedy ended his mistake.

Once more, be it noted that the man who trusts his case to the

gifted physician is not saved by having a right sort of faith in his

attendant, but by having faith in the right sort of a man so as to

employ him in the hour of danger. He who commits himself to

the mercy of a blunderer may unfortunately have equal faith in

the incompetent as another has in a physician of distinguished

merit; but his trust, his faith, happens to be in an incapable

person, and that makes all the difference.

Is there any difficulty in comprehending in such a case, and in all

like cases, the spheres and forces of reason and faith? We repeat,

enlarging somewhat, when acting in concord and in their proper

order, both minister to human welfare in terrestrial things. Each

in its place is excellent, and when they are duly exercised,

civilization presses forward, while social and friendly and

domestic harmony abound. They are lofty endowments granted

by the Creator to our kind, and may we doubt that he appointed

them to be prized and called into activity without fear and

without suspicion in all the conditions in which his intelligent

offspring are placed?

Now let us ascend to the contemplation of Reason and Faith in

the matter of religion, and more particularly of personal

salvation. He that believeth, or has faith, shall be saved; and is it

conceivable that anything appertaining to the specified condition

can be enveloped in mystery, hard to be understood, at the least?

That would be a reflection on him whose name is Love. Surely

here, if anywhere, the Holy Spirit will utter words that the

feeblest may comprehend. In other language, calls he not upon

men to do towards God what they are doing every day towards

each other? Men reason about and confide in one another, and

we maintain that they are, being first profoundly awed, to reason

about the Lord of mercy, and to trust him exactly in the same

manner, though on infinitely surer grounds, because it is

impossible for God to lie.

To step up closely to this vital point, let our minds be fixed on

this delightful saying (John 3:16)--"God so loved the world that

he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him

should not perish, but have everlasting life." What has the

reasoning self to do, when such an assurance falls on human

ears? Believe, believe at once! and obtain the blessing, vast and

unspeakable. But stop! The hearer may have questions to submit,

questions in themselves fair and innocent. He may demand, first,

What do the words mean?

That can be determined at once, if he will only take them in a

simple, literal way. So dealt with, he may soon extract the idea,

that the world of men is spoken of, in which he himself, being

one of the number composing it, is certainly included. Then with

as much facility he may understand that he and all the rest are

exposed to perishing, to the loss of life and conscious being, for

that is "the wages of sin." To avert this terrible fate from the

world, God even gave his only -begotten Son, gave him up to

death, as other Scriptures with an excess of fulness blessedly

confirm.

[In one sense the calamity of death is not averted; it has passed

upon all our race, all are perished forever unless a ransom and

recovery shall save them from (out of) that fate. God loved his

justly condemned creatures so much that he provided their

ransom. Nevertheless he has made their full recovery dependent

upon their faith in and acceptance of the Redeemer. Whether in

this age or the next (in which all shall be brought to a full

knowledge of the truth) none will fully escape from death, from

perishing, except by laying hold upon this Redeemer and his

finished work, by faith, believing, trusting and obeying him.

(Acts 3:23.) God gave his only begotten Son as our ransom, in

order that "whosoever BELIEVETH IN HIM might not perish

but have everlasting life." All will perish who will not accept of

Jesus' finished work, the ransom sacrifice which he gave; but

their perishing

R884 : page 6

will be as a "second death," because all must at some time be

brought to a knowledge of this truth [the ransom] and must reject

it, and the life (or escape from perishing), which it offers. --

EDITOR OF TOWER.]

But our inquirer may insist on additional light. Is it true? Is it the

beautiful dream of a self-deluded human enthusiast? Is it the

invention of a fiend in mortal guise who would mark those

conscious of guilt as they look out on despair? These and

kindred queries he may lawfully advance. Reason suggests the

need of inquiry, and the Almighty endowed him with reason to

shield him from the assaults of imposition in whatever form it

might appear. That which may and ought to appease his every

demand is nigh him and level to his captivity. When reason is

satisfied it will communicate with faith, but faith is under no

obligation to accept even a gospel message till its verdict is

known. The order is, reason first, and then faith. That he may

discover how perfectly reliable he whose words have been

transcribed is, let him consider that millions have found them

true in their experience, and of transporting, transforming power.

Let him candidly examine into the character of the Witness, and

a marvelous Witness he will be found. Ever calm, ever truthful,

ever self-sacrificing for the good of friend or stranger; ever

devout, ever humble, ever the antagonist of oppression and

cruelty, in fact, of sin, whatever shape it may assume; ever ready

to exercise superhuman and resistless might to feed the hungry,

to cure the diseased; sometimes employing it to recall the dead to

the sweetness of life and the love of their friends. Near him the

careworn find rest, and outcasts the tenderest pity. Then he may

behold this Divine Benefactor expiring on a cross, then buried,

then resurrected, as he had foretold he would be, and then in a

few days carried aloft from the midst of his chosen attendants to

the heavenly abodes. The witnesses who reported all this for the

world's benefit, afterwards resigned their lives rather than retract

one syllable of their testimony to the Master whom they loved

and adored.

The story an honest inquirer may very well admit is credible. It

bears the impress of truth, it is sober as it is sublime. It embodies

as its essence the vast love of their Creator for the tribes of

mankind in every age and on every shore.

It is sad that so many will not use their reasoning talent in this

correct and God-honoring way. If the plan we have suggested be

adopted by any human brother, realizing his demerit as a sinner

and wishing to live on through endless years, how can he remain

in unbelief? He who accepts the glad news as a message from the

Eternal King, with Jesus as its centre, and the fountain of its

grace, shall find it to allay his dread as one deserving wrath, and

open his lips in contrite praise. The gospel is thus a saving

message because it reveals a Saviour and his salvation, free to all

as is the light of morning, or the ocean of oxygen in which we

have our being.

Many have sorely agitated themselves over the question, product

of an ignorant theology, "Oh, have I saving faith?" Now, the

truth is, he who accepts Jesus as a gift from God, just as he

would receive a present from an earthly friend, has such faith

simply because it is faith or trust in him who is the only Saviour.

The virtue is in the Saviour, not in our faith in him. Then with

the loving Redeemer alone let each of us be concerned now and

ever. "Behold the Lamb of God!" Restitution.

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"NO MAN has any right to live on the toil of his neighbors; no

man has any right to be a useless burden on others; no man,

unless he be utterly base, will sit down at the feast of life and

meanly rise up and go away without paying the reckoning. I need

hardly pause to correct this abuse. I trust that all of us, of every

rank, of every age, have learned the dignity of work, the

innocence of work, the holiness of work. I trust that the very

poorest person here present has a healthy scorn for the unworthy

indolence of the drunkard, the idler and the tramp. "--Archdeacon

Farrar.

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SEED TIME AND HARVEST.

Order is heaven's first law. And to those who have been brought

to a knowledge of God's wondrous plan, its orderly arrangement

is in most striking contrast with the disorderly, confused ideas of

God and his doings, entertained by the vast majority of

Christians. As we now glance at the plan of God as a whole, we

see its various appointed times and seasons, and the appointed

work of each, and that all that was to be accomplished in the

seasons now past, has been done in exact accordance with the

…