The Watchtower, April 15, 1920
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Upon the o-orth distress of nations with perplexity: the sea and the waves (the restless, discontented) roaring. men’s hearts tiling them for fear and for lopktn* to the things coming upon the earth (society); for the powers of the heavens (ccelrsiasticism) shall be shaken . . . When ye see these things begin to eome to pasa then know that the Kingdom of God is at band Look up, lift up your heads, n tuiw for jour redemption draweth nigh —Matthew 24:33; Mark 13:29: Luke 21:25~3J
THIS JOURNAL AND ITS SACRED MISSION
THIS journal is one of the prime factors or instrument* in the system of Bible instruction, or “Seminary Extension”, now being presented in all parts of the civilized world by the Watch Tower Bible & Tract Society, chartered A. D. 18S4, “For the Promotion of Christian Knowledge”. It not only serves as a class room where Bible students may meet in the study of the divine Word but also as a channel Of communication through which they may be reached with announcements of the Society’s conventions and of tho <mning of its traveling representatives, styled “Pilgrims”, and refreshed with reports of its conventions.
Our “Berean Lessons” are topical rehearsals or reviews of our Society's published Stldies most entertainingly arranged, and very Helpful +o all who would merit the only honorary degree which the Society accords, viz., Verbi Del Minister (V. D. M.), which translated Into English is Minister of God’s Word. Our treatment of the International Sunday School Lessons is specially for the older Bible students and teachers. By some this feature is considered indispensable.
This journal stands firmly for the defense of the only true foundation of the Christian’s hope now being so generally repudiated — redemption through tho precious blood of “the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransoni [a corresponding price, a substitute] for nil ". (1 Peter 1:19; 1 Timothy 2:0) Building up on this sure foundation the gold, silver and precious stones (1 Corinthians 3: 11-Ij, 2 Peter 1:5-11) of the Word of God, its. further mission is to ‘‘make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery which. . .has tu-eu hid in God, ... to the intent that now might be made known by the church tho manifold wisdom of God”—“which in other ages w not made known unto the sons of men as it is now revealed”.—Ephesians 3:5-9,10.
It stands free from all parties, sects and creeds of men. while it seeks more and more to bring its every utterance into fullest -abjection to the will of God in Christ, ns expressed in the holy Scriptures. It is thus free to declare boldly whatsoever the Lord Hath spoken—according to the divine wisdom granted unto us to understand his utterances. Its attitude is not dogmatic, but confident ; for we know whereof we affirm, treading with implicit faith upon the sure promises of God. It is held as a trust, to ho used only in his service ; hence our decisions relative to what may and what may not appear in its columns must be according to our judgment of his <oort pleasure, the teaching of his Word, for the upbuilding of his people in grace and knowledge. And we not only invite but urge our readers to prove all its utterances by the infallible Word to which reference is constantly made to facilitate such testing.
TO US THE SCRIPTURES CLEARLY TEACH
That the church is “the temple of the living God”, peculiarly “his workmanship” ; that its construction has been in progress throughout the gospel age -ever since Christ became the world's Redeemer and the Chief Corner Stone of his temple, through which, when finished, God's blessing shall come “to all people”, and they find access to him.--l Corinthians 3:16. 17; Ephesians 2:2022; Genesis 28:14, Galatians 3 ; 29.
That meantime the chiseling, shaping, and polishing of consecrated believers in Christ's atonement for sin, progresses; and when the last of these “living stones”, “elect and precious.” shall have been made ready, the great Master Workman will bring all together in the first resurrection ; and the temple shall be filled with his glory, and bo the meeting place between God and men throughout the Millennium.--Revelation 15:5-8.
That the basis of hope, for the church and the world, lies in the fact that “Jesus Christ, by the grace of God, tasted death for every man,” “a ransom for all,” and will bo “tho true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world?*. “in due time”.— Hebrews 2:9; John 1 : 9 ; 1 Timothy 2 : 5, 6.
That the hope of the church is that she may be like her Lord, “see him as he is,” be “partakers of the divine nature’,’ and share his glory as his joint-heir.—1 John 3:2; John 17:24; Romans 8:17; 2 Peter 1:4.
That the present mission of the church is the perfecting of the saints for the future work of service; to develop in herself every grace; to be God’s witness to the world: ami to prepare to be kings and priests in the next age.—Ephesians 4:12; Matthew’ 24: 14 ; Revelation 1:6; 20 : 6.
That the hope for the world lies In the blessings of knowledge and opportunity to be brought to all by Christ’s Millennial kingdom, the restitution of all that was lost in Adam, to all the willing and obedient, at the hands of their Redeemer and his glorified church, when all the wilfully wicked will be destroyed.— Acts 3:19 23; Isaiah 35.
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STOCK UP QUICKLY I
On account of Libor \trike*. >borhigt' of inaieii.il, and other hindrances, we have buui delajed in getting books and Scenarios for several months ; but now the manufacturers are furnishing us a large stock. Indications are that the facilities for shipping in the next few months may greatly hinder the delivery of supplies. In addition to this, tho opportunity has never been so great to get the truth into the hands of the people. We urgently request all classes and colporteurs to replenish liberally their slock, quickly, by sending in orders at once: and that as many more join the colporteur service as can possible do it, taking advantage of the nmo and opportunity of spreading the glad tidings.
REMITTANCES BY CURRENCY
Despite our frequent warnings it not infrequently occurs that ft lends make remittances to us by silver or paper currency, instead of by Postal or Express Money Order or Bank Draft, which are the safest and most satisfactory methods of forwarding money when they are at all procurable. When currency is sent it is not infrequently lost, due sometimes to dishonesty in postal employes, tmt more often to insufficient wrapping or inadequate envelope.
REPORTS OF MEMORIAL CELEBRATIONS
As in past years, we would be very pleased 1o have reports from all the class secretaries, stating, say on a card, the number of those who partook of the Memorial emblems in each little gathering. Such reports are greatly approtiated, since they are of valuable assistance to u* in keeping the interest of tho Lord’s work nt large in mind
STUDIES IN THE SCRIPTURES
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VIEWS FROM THE WATCH TOWER
HI’KCHIANITY is failing; Christianity is advancing,” said the Reverend Doctor Lyman Abbott recently in New York. Hardly could a voice be found to deny the first proposition; but many could be found to take issue with the second. Of course the real purposes of Christ arc advancing; but Christianity, in the sense of being a powerful inlluence in the formulating of the world's ideals and thinking, is doing anything but advancing, hollowing we offer some testimony, first, the best we can find calculated to show that Christianity is making forward strides, then other evidence to the contrary .and all from the daily papers.
A huge union of twenty-two church organizations is planned in the United States. It is organic union which is aimed at. The hope is expressed that:
“The evangelical churches may give themselves with a new faith and ardor to the proclamation of the gospel, which as the only hope of our stricken world, and to all those ministries of Christian love and leading for the community, ’he nation, and the nations, by which they shall reveal to ■men the mind of Christ and hasten the coming of his kingdom.”
The Cleveland Plain Dealer in a series of articles admits that the church of today is a vastly different church from what it was forty or fifty years ago. Some space is spent in wondering what the cause is that has led away from “sky religion”, and finally it is stated:
“In describing great evolutionary changes such as this, It is impossible to proceed by the methods of dates and places. No two historians would agree as to the starting point of the church's modern swing toward social emphasis.
“Possibly it began when the higher criticism, in the closing years of the eighteenth century, hurled Its first Jarring blow at religious dogma, lint there is no question that it took immense strides forward with the general acceptance of the Darwinian theory of the descent of man, in the final quarter ■of the nineteenth century."
Proceeding with another phase, the same series says: “In pioneer dots. church-going formed almost the solo outlet for the social and recreational instincts, although the ministers of that generation would probably have been horrified to hear the matter put thus bluntly. They would have preferred to think that their hearers came exclusively to be edified, but such was hardly the fact. The weekly and semi-weekly gatherings of farmers and their wives offered a longed-for opportunity of exchanging news and gossip and of realizing the perfectly human desire for companionship.”
RAMPANT HIGHER CRITICISM
Very present instances of higher criticism are easily picked out in the daily press. The Denver Post, reporting a sermon in the First Congregational Church of Denver, delivered bj the Reverend Robert Hopkin, records the Doctor as saying:
‘T do not hesitate to say that I believe with the great majority of earnest Christians in that process which bear* the name of evolution. On the pages of the book of Nature the Creator writes creation’s story far more fully and plainly than is the story which we find in Genesis.
“Man was never created perfect, and away back in that misty and mysterious time which we call the beginning, he was a great deal farther from t>erfection, physically, mentally, morally and socially, than he is today."
The Manchester (England) Guardian carries an article by another advanced ( ?) ecclesiastic, a part of which says:
“God did not kill Gzzali for putting out his hand to save the ark, and the narrative which says he did is simply man's mistaken interpretation of what happened. It was a day of great national rejoicing and excitement, and just at the moment when the oxen stumbled and Uzzah put forth his hand, as sometimes happens in a great excited throng to-day, he fell stricken with some fatal disease. And immediately the people, with their exaggerated ideas of the ark’s sanctity ami their mistaken ideas of God’s character, Jumped to the conclusion. It is God's doing, and it is because he touched the ark’.”
The Kansas City ■Journal adds this bit:
" 'All this talk about the end of the world is frantic nonsense. and so is the expectation of the second coming of Christ,’ said the Rev. C. F. Aked, D. D.. L. L. D., in a recent discussion. He added that the study of what is called unfulfilled prophecy is, on the part of sane persons, based upon an entirely erroneous conception of the nature and purpose of prophecy, and a misunderstanding of the Bible from beginning to end. But the majority of persons who make a life study of the ‘unfulfilled prophecy', he declared, ‘are either crazy when they began or go crazy before they finish’ ”
TO THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
Some ecclesiastics are exerting themselves againsf'Bol-shevism”—which term as applied to this country means nothing more nor less than unrest. The Buffalo Evening Eeirs tells of the planning of an immense religious drive to end unrest :
“American businessmen and philanthropists stand ready Io put millions of dollars into a nationwide campaign to stimulate interest in religion as a means of combating Bolshevism.
“A campaign is under wav which contemplates ('very means of 'bringing the people back Io the Ten Commandments' from the old-time revival on a hitherto unprecedented scale to the endowment of schools and colleges where religious teaching is emphasized.”
" ‘Our object is to bring the people back to the Ten ('omnmndments and to accomplish this we have secured the backing of some of the biggest men in the business and civic world.’ "
We wonder how it would do to have the Lord's backing along with that of these eminent men of affairs. What would they revive, it is asked? Not belief in the Bible surely, for that is written in part by a "Bolshevist”, as Dr. Case, of the University of Chicago Divinity School, warns us. Possibly it is just a revival of the revival, a sort of substitute of one hysteria for another. “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision ”—Psalm 2: 4.
The Interchurch World Movement, which is the working phase of the Church Federation in this country, has just launched an immense drive for one billion thirty-three million dollars, only they do not call it a drive. It is a “united simultaneous financial ingathering”. It is hinted that contributions to this ingathering may be deducted from the taxable incomes on the returns to the government. This religious trust purposes to perfect a great card index system of every man, woman, and child in the United States, with all kinds of intimate information about them.
DECLINE OF ECCLBSIASTICISM
On the other side of the question the newspapers are well sprinkled with items which are frank confessions of the decadent state of ecclesiasticism.
"Until 3914,” snys the New York Globe, "it was possible to believe that the world was undergoing a gradual civilizing process which in the end would make it Christian in fact If not wholly in name."
But it is not possible for the observant one to believe that any longer.
The Raleigh (N._ C.) News and Observer recently printed this item:
" ‘The decline of religon' in the United States was discussed by Rev. Joseph Fort Newton, in a sermon today at the Church of the Divine Paternity [New York], in which he dechired that ‘twenty percent of the pastors who were with us before the war have resigned to enter other occupations’.”
The Sandusky (Ohio) Register has some reflections on the situation:
"One clergyman the other day suggested a clerical strike, but he withdrew the suggestion on the ground that the public would not perhaps feel Itself sensibly inconvenienced by such a withdrawal of labor. He doubted, that is to say, whether parsons were necessary."
The Cleveland Plain Dealer quotes one churchman as saying:
“ ‘The church is not what it was because it has degenerated into a club, or at best a charitable and philanthropic organization. It will never regain its lost prestige until it quits meddling in these affairs and goes back to preaching Christ and him crucified."’
The same article adds that the recent statistical survey “found cases where ministers for years had been reporting as many as two hundred deceased members out of a total of five hundred or six hundred”.
ECCLESIASTICAL CAMPAIGNS
Not all ministers approve of the extensive financial drives which have become so familiar these days as frequently to breed contempt. The Denver Post says:
“Dr. George A. Gordon, of the Old South church of Boston, rises up and calls the church drives ‘wildcat campaigning by ecclesiastics’.”
“ ‘First, it is the boldest and the most ruthless piece of autocracy that 1 have ever known. Certain men whose names I have been unable to learn have for years, or for a long time, been devising a scheme by which every moral and religious need of the inhabitants of the planet shall be investigated and tabulated, and the condition of every Protestant in this country learned.’ ”
" ‘Not a word of all this has been submitted to the churches. Probably not one minister in twenty In this commonwealth knows anything about the scheme.’ ”
The Cleveland News tells ef Protestant conditions in Ohio:
"Declaring that Protestantism is losing ground with alarming rapidity in all parts of Ohio, and that for every 1,000 persons there is but one minister of any denomination in the rural districts of the state, B. F. Lamb, Ohio state rural supervisor, made his survey report Thursday to members of the Interchurch World Movement of North America, in session at Old Stone church.
“In one district, his investigation showed, the Baptist denomination lost 3,000 members In the last year, and 17S churches In the district were without pastors."
The church lacks something else besides pastors and members, according to the Reverend Haldeman, Pastor of the First Baptist church of New York, in the Newark News:
“ ‘An educational, social and athletic campaign is being waged by the churches of today. The structures originally set aside to serve as places of worship are rapidly being turned into community centers, lecture halls where polities, civics and ethics are discussed, and in them the churchgoer may learn everything but the Word of God.’ ”
Churches without pastors, without members, and without God leave much to be desired I
The Buffalo News reports from Rochester:
“That more than half the rural churches in New York state are in a state of decline, one in every nine literally dead and three In every nine dying, was the statement made by Henry S. Huntington, editor of Christian Work, In hte presentation of the rural survey of the Interchurch World Movement before the evening’s session of the opening day’s meeting of the state pastors’ three-day conference here ”
METHODISTS HEAVY LOSERS
“The Methodist Episcopal Church lost 60,000 members last year,” according to a statement published in the Pittsburgh Gazette Times made by the Reverend Edgar Blake, Executive Secretary of the Centenary Program.
The Evening Day of New London (Conn.) carries this bit of information which seems to lend substantiation to the old adage that “Cleanliness is next to godliness”:
"Conversion of several churches in various parts of England into moving picture theatres has resulted from decreasing church attendance and the consequent disorganization or amalgamation of congregations. At Torquay on* former place of worship has been turned Into a laundry.”
But converting a church into a laundry is not nearly so far-reaching as turning the pulpit into a soap box. as an item in the Detroit News suggests:
“Leather-lunged, intemperate proclamation of the ‘gospel of hate’ during the war brought the pulpit into contempt and caused the preacher and preaching to lose ground, the-Rev. Dr. George II. Combs, of Kansas City, Mo., the distinguished author-preacher of the Disciples denomination, told the Detroit Pastors’ Union at its monthly meeting this morning at the Y. M. C. A.
“ Tn the name of patriotism the pulpit was converted into a soap box and we are now paying the penalty for it,’ he added.”
Everywhere preachers are quitting their posts, some to become farmers, some to sell windmills and farming machinery, some to work at trades, etc., etc. Not only the lowlier ones are getting out, but even the prominent ones too. There are, or were recently, five vacant sees in the Church of England, the bishops of Lincoln, of Oxford, of Chester, of Truro, and of St. Albans having resigned.
NEED OF THE CHURCHES
Life offers a few thoughts on preachers:
"The great need of the churches is to get the clergy interested in religion, and to contrive that a larger proportion of them shall know something about it, and have more of It in them than they can comfortably contain. When (>eople have so much religion in them that it keeps spilling over naturally into other people's minds, they are in about the right state to be preachers. But what usually happens is that the ministers, like other people, have to pump up religion for use as occasion requires. They know about organization, sanitation, legislation, penology, theology, how to raise money and how to spend it, but those that know the road across from the visible to the unseen are fairly scat co, and doubtless always were. So, probably, the most important thing that can be done for the churches is to got the ministers really interested in religion.”
QUIJAMANIA is becoming quite prevalent, if we are to believe reports here and there. Only a few weeks back there was widely published a story of four cases of insanity from the use of the ouija \ 1 i.'J board in one family. We quote from ' the Newark Evening News:
"After their arrest as insane suspects as the result of a twenty-four-hour stance with ouija boards. Adeline Bottini, her mother, Mrs. S. Bottini, Mrs. Joseph Holdavini, and Mrs. Edward Morro were committed to state hospitals for the Insane by the Superior Court here [Martinez, Cal.] yesterday.
"The women were in a group of seven men and women arrested in a house at El Cerrito, near here.
“The three men of the party testified at the hearing that they had tried to induce the women to cease the ouija stances, but without effect. The men admitted that the last stance in which they participated had lasted for twenty-four hours and they were so devoted to the boards that they did riot take time off to eat and sleep.’"
To this the New York Evening World adds:
“The village of El Cerrito [Cal.] is ready to-day for an alienist examination for ‘ouijamania'. A mass meeting in the town hall last night decided that every one of the 1,200 citizens should be examined by mental experts to determine if the ouija board craze had got them. The meeting decided to bar the ouija board, as pernicious, from the city limits.
"'El Cerrito’s action followed the arrest of seven persons here on charges of insanity after they had become ouija fiends."
The danger of the ouija board is commented on by the editor of the Petersburg (Va.) Evening Progress thus:
‘Sir Oliver Lodge, who is now in America lecturing on spiritism and the possibility of communicating with the spirits of the dead, warns against what may be termed "dabbling’ in this subject. He says that persons of weak mind may suffer lasting serious consequences ns a result of "fooling" and ‘projecking’ In this direction.”
DESTRUCTIVENESS OF SPIRITISM
But even in most expert hands dynamite is not always safe. So thinks Dr. Hickson, of Chicago, as reported by the Chicago Daily Newt:
"You'd better tie a can to your ouija board and kiss your favorite spirit control good-bye—unless you want to end up in the psychopathic, laboratory, struggling desperately to pass the moron test. Dr. William J. Hickson, director of the world’s leading psychopathic laboratory, which is located right here in the city ball, is watching the ouija board craze with a keen interest. Dr. Hickson is considered the leading psychopathologist in America.
“ ‘We've been getting dozens of spiritualists in here,’ he explained, ‘as well as ouija board fans and seance habituds. They are, of course, prmco cases to begin with Iiefore they go in for listening to the ghost rattle the tambourine ami watching him spell out the messages from the other world on the ouija board. If they weren't they wouldn't go in for such imbecilities.
“‘It is not exactly inexplicable- the other world craze. The world is continually full of prtvcox victims. A priecox is a person whose innate desire is to get away from the world of fact, to evade his material responsibilities. He resorts to curious devices for the fulfilling of this ambition. Hallucinations, obsessions and a hat not seize upon him. The ouija and the stance offer escape also,
“‘The advertising spiritualism has received, is slowly turning the attention of all the pr.-eeox victims to it and if it keeps on we will find practically every demented, semidemented. underdeveloped and pr.mcox ease in the country talking with the other world.’
“As Dr. Hickson was talking a woman came into the laboratory. Site smiled and chatted for a moment and then broke suddenly into a singsong, apostrophising God and his angels and wailing lugubriously of the spirits beyond.
“ ‘Slade to order,' said Dr. Hickson, ‘an advanced case— this one. however, lias religious hallucinations. We get dozens of them.’ "
“According to a general estimate hundreds Of Chicagoans are daily losing their rationality if not their reason over the ouija board and spook craze.
“ ‘People are riot too solid mentally to experiment with such things in safety,’said Dr.Hickson. ‘Ordinarily seemingly sane people will break under the strain and nervousness of the ouija board business. We have had dozens of cases of persons coming in here who have gone to pieces only in the last few months—through ‘ouijaing’.’”
Affairs are not any better in England, it seems. The Richmond (Va.) Times Dispatch gives us material for thinking that they are fully as bad or worse, even though they do not have the same mongrel population as we have :
“One hundred thousand cases of insanity in Britain have been caused by spiritualism, according to Dr. A. T. Schofield, a prominent London physician."
Even Sir Oliver Lodge in his tfRaymond” book says:
“Granting the existence of a spirit world, it is necessary to be on our guard against the. invasion of run- will by a lower order of intelligence and morality."
Bernard Shaw thinks that spiritism adds new terrors to death :
“Fancy," says he, “the poor dead having to spend their time tilting tables for people in this world I and ringing bells and sending messages. Why, it adds new terror to death!"
ALESTINE rabbis met a short time back in conference in Jerusalem for the first time in fifteen hundred years. The Philadelphia Press has this item:
“For the first time in 1,500 years a conference of Palestine rabbis has just been
held in Jerusalem. It was called to
gether at the instance of the Jerusalem Rabbinical Office, with the support of the Zionist Commission. Its chief aim was the healing of the breach which the Zionist project has opened in the ranks of Palestine Jew- How successful it was remains to be seen "
MASS IMMIGRATION IMPENDING
The Des Moines Register gives us some further news ibout the prospects of immigration to Palestine:
“One hundred thousand Jewish families, averaging five persons to a family, are ready to emigrate from Poland to Palestine, it was announced to-day by the Zionist Organization of America in behalf of Dr. Jerzy Rosenblatt, a member of the Polish Diet, who is in New York conferring with Zionist leaders.
“Many Polish Jews have liquidated their property in order to move. The Zionist Organization is discouraging the movement until the Jewish state is established by the league of nations or the peace treaty with Turkey.”
Evidently some of them are not heeding the entreaties to stay where they are until the political situation is more settled. Quite possibly the Lord knew that they would not heed them. We are indebted to the Ottawa (Can.) Valley Journal for this bit of news:
“A band of 564 Jews from Southern Russia, who pooled every cent of their life savings to charter a steamer at Odessa with the 3,000,000 roubles they raised, have landed at Jaffa, in Palestine, according to a despatch made public here today by the Zionist Organization of America. The immigrants broke through the governmental and Zionist restrictions holding them back until ibe land is opened to immigration by the signing of the treaty of peace with Turkey, the despatch said.
“The entire Jewish community of Jaffa greeted this, the first large group of Jews reported to Imve reached Palestine, as the advance guard of a ‘world mass’ of Jews to the Holy Land, it was stated.”
LARGE SYNAGOGUE INCREASES
Zionist hopes., and nothing else, have been responsible for the increased activity in Jewish religious circles here. Jewish synagogues show a remarkable membership gain. We take the following from the Springfield (Mass.) Daily News-.
“Jewish synagogues made :i larger percentage of gain u» members in Massachusetts for the ten years from 1906 to 1916 than all other religious organizations combined, according to the report on religious bodies of the federal census bureau, just made public. This has been discovered by comparisons drawn up and made public today by the Interchurch World Movement In preparing data bearing on it* religious survey of Massachusetts now in progress.
“Here are the figures: Jewish synagogue members gained 781 percent, . . . Eastern Orthodox. 43 percent, . . . Roman Catholic, 30 percent, . . . Protestant, 11 percent.”
“NOT AS THE WORLD GIVETH”
“Jehovah’s portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he compassed him about, he cared for him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.
As an eagle that stirreth up her nest, that fluttereth over her young, he spread abroad his wings, he took them, he bore them on his pinions. Jehovah alone did lead him, and there was no foreign God with him.”—Deuteronomy 32:9-12, R. V.
^HE venerable Moses, under the inspiration and guidance of the holy spirit, here gives us a picture of Jehovah’s dealings with Israel, and, since Israel was “for a testimony of the things which were afterward to be spoken” (Hebrews 3:5), we may well and profitably apply the lessons, herein illustrated, to ourselves as members of spiritual Israel, now on trial and trusting that we shall not “fall after the same example of disobedience” which fleshly Israel left u>.- Hebrews 4:11.
In verse 8 of the song Moses shows how God from the beginning had overruled the events of all nations in such a manner as to keep their expanse and growth subservient to the welfare of his coming people Israel. When the territories of the nations were divided by speech or climatic conditions, or whatever means the Lord employed therefor, Israel is described as falling to Jehovah, and as becoming his allotted portion.- — Deuteronomy 7: 6.
Verses 10-12 show how Jehovah led and sustained the infant nation in its wilderness experiences, both literal and figurative. As in tracing the course of a river, the skilled topographer pays no heed to the vast morasses and the great stagnant pools which may stretch out over the lowlands, but only to the moving water; so the skilled discerner of God’s purposes in and among the nations of earth pays little heed to the vast and imposing stretches of ancient Egypt, Assyria, Nineveh, and Babylonia, but does observe with keenest interest every move of Israel, the tiny rivulet of humanity which was to move on until it should fulfill the purposes of him who worketh all things according to the counsel of his own will.—Ephesians 1:11.
THE CHURCH IN THE WILDERNESS
The experiences of the church in the wilderness (Acts 7: 38) were doubtless given that all the blessings might be seen to be from divine and not from human sources; for there they had no union with any part of the outside vorhl, with a view to securing either food or learning -Johoiah furnished it all. No foreign god, such as Baal or Ashtaroth, lent any help.
Moses proceeded to use an illustration which must have been familiar to him, that of a mother eagle in her treatment of her young. In verses 10 and 11 two different phases of a mother eagle’s activities are referred to. Jehovah is portrayed as the mother bird, first as warming, nourishing, and protecting his fledgling people, and second as taking that eaglet nation abroad, teaching it to fly, and guarding it against every mischance. It takes motherhood as well as fatherhood to illustrate Jehovah’s relationship to his children; and this is one of the instances where that tender yet wise kinship is pictured.
Israel was found by Jehovah (compare the figure of the exposed child in Ezekiel 16: 3 - 6) at a time when he was homeless and might have perished from want; Israel was tenderly taken charge of by him, and eventually brought to a land abundantly provided for hi* needs.-—Jeremiah 2:6, 7.
The following clause depicts the perils of the wilderness— its barren desolation, and the howling beaste wliich frequonted it. (Deuteronomy The word here rendered waste implies a wild and desolate expanse. (See Psalm 107:4) Furthermore the Lord surrounded or encompassed Israel; he encircled him with his protection (compare ILulni 32: 10) ; as the apple, or pupil of his eye figurative of vhat i< tenderest ami dearest Jehovah guarded him with jealous care. P<alm 17:<S.
TRAINING FOR FAITH
The word eagle in our common version Bible?. is translated from the Hebrew word nesli.er, which really is not an eagle at all but a kind of vulture called the griffon vulture, which is very prevalent in Palestine, never being quite out of sight, whether on the mountains or on the plains. It is the largest and most magnificent of the vulture tribe, but since it is nearer to being an eagle than to being a vulture such as is generally known in the western hemisphere, the translators were probably justified in using the word eagle. It is the same bird, however, as mentioned by our Lord in Matthew' 24: IS; for an eagle is not a carrion bird.
The figure of Exodus 19:4 is here developed by Moses so as to illustrate Jehovah’s paternal affection in training Israel to a faith that would not be dependent on any given set of circumstances, but on him alone. As a bird stirs up its nest, with the object of encouraging its young ones to flight, but at the same time hovers over them so as to be al hand to support them on its own wings, in case their strength fails and they are in danger of falling, so Jehovah had spread out his wings and borne Israel upon them until his infant people had its powers more matured, or at least had the opportunities for development.
The aeeinaey of this picture as it applies to either the vulture or tin' eagle is vouched for by several naturalists. One writer says : “When her young are. old enough to fly, the eagle breaks her nest in pieces in order to compel [the young] to use their powers of flight, fluttering over them, that, by imitation they may learn how to employ their wing: but, when unwilling to fly, spreading abroad her wings, she bears them upward in the air, and then shaking them off, compels them to use their own exertions”.
THE EAGLES IOUNG
The naturalist, Davy, makes the following observations from the top of a mountain: “Two parent eagles on Ben Nevis were teaching their offspring, two young birds, the maneuvers of flight. They at first made small circles and the young imitated them; they paused on their wings, waiting until they had made their first flight, holding them on their expanded wings when they appeared exhausted, and then took a second and larger gyration, always rising toward the sun and enlarging their circle of flight, so as to make a great ascending spiral.”
It will be noted that as there are four parts or courses in the elementary schooling of the Lord’s people, (1) they are “found”, (2) they are “encompassed”, (3) they are “instructed” or cared for, and (4) “guarded”, so there are four points in the more advanced course of instruction given; (1) the nest is stirred up, (2) the mother bird flutters over the young, (3) she spreads abroad her wings, and (4) she beats them on her wings So the Lord in training his nestling people to fly nourished them tenderly and fed them until they were able to undergo more strenuous methods of instruction, something more of the divine discipline of life.
EARTH'S DESERT SOCIE1 V
The' term “desert hind" is suggestive of barrenness, aridity, loneliness. A desert i~ a part of the earth which has been deprived of its water .-.apply, and as the earth is a symbol of human society, so a desert is a symbol or picture of human society in its present state, with the refreshing and quickening waters of truth very hard to find. This barren and arid state is traceable to the influence of Satan in earth's affairs; for he “made the world as a wilderness" (Isaiah 14: 17). by making 11 difficult for men to get bold on and to retain the truth
Somewhere in this condition of estrangement from God, somewhere among those who suffer a dearth of fellowship, especially between themselves and Jehovah, all of the Lord’s people in all ages have been found. We know too well the sad story of sin and condemmd ion and sorrow and suffering and death. And as a insult the whole world is a wilderness, “the whole world lieth in wickedness” (1 John 3;19), all come short of the gloiy of. and hence full fellowship with. Cod the Father.
Not only is it a wilderness, but it is a waste howling wilderness; so intense is the lack of divine fellowship that thousands, ves millions all -aie dying, while doing the best they can to live by bread alone. How our hearts rejoice when we learn of the glad message that this desert shall not always he; for it is the same desert from which streams shall gusli forth, as the Prophet, in a burst of joyous anticipation, tells us. (Isaiah 33 : (>) The wilderness and the solitary place shall then be glad, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. No more shall mankind wander about, famished foi want of the water of truth and of the bread of life.
WISDOM AS INSTRUCTOR
The eagle is used in the Scriptures to represent the heavenly attribute of wisdom. (Revelation 4:7) So here it may be understood that the eagle represents God's providential dealings, which are directed and planned by his wisdom. As the wings emanate from the body of the bird, so there are special providential sustenances provided for us in times of greatest weakness.
The uniqueness of Jehovah’s instructions on behalf of his people is clearly to be seen in his dealings with fleshly Israel. They were found in the desert land; they were compassed about; they were instructed and guarded, down in the Egyptian nest. There were pleasant and unpleasant experiences; there were feathers of divine favor and sticks of Egyptian persecution, but “the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew”. (Exodus 1: 12) And that was just the purpose of the Lord in having them in the nest. There they grew and developed nationally to a marvellous degree; in fact, the Scriptures intimate that their multiplication was well nigh miraculous.
Bye and bye divine wisdom saw that it was time for. Israel to learn to fly. to cease to depend on the old set of circumstances which surrounded them in Egypt, and to learn that Jehovah is God entirely apart from environment, circumstances, position of birth, or whatever. So the Egyptian nest was broken up and the infant nation pushed out, not with a view to injuring it, but that its faith might be developed to a point which would have been impossible while merely growing and expanding.
EGYPTIAN NEST BROKEN UP
Israel was led out under Moses, as described in Exodus 19:4: "Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself”. The Psalmist records that they derived only temporary benefit from this miraculous deliverance and says that they did not allow it to work in them the needed faith; as it is written: "He saved them from the hand of him that hated them, and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy. And the waters covered their enemies; there was not one of them left. Then believed they his words; they sang bis praise. [But] they soon forgot his works; they waited not for his counsel; but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted God in the desert. And he gave them their request; but sent leanness into their soul.”—Psalm 106:10-15.
By their conduct they said: We wish we were back in the Egyptian nest; we are tired of hopping about from one crag and one treetop to another. Why did God bring us up here, away from that homey nest, though it did have sticks in it? They leaned to their own understanding. They provoked God, and they became an example of murmuring and profitless eaglets. Israel never really 'learned the lesson of complete faith in Jehovah—and what an opportunity they lost! Time after time they were borne on eagle’s wings; time after time divine protecting care was manifested on their behalf, until they developed a full suit of feathers in the glory of Solomon’s reign. But the nation had more feathers than strength, more show than faith, so that they were eventually found unworthy of continuance under the tutelage and guidance of heavenly wisdom and unworthy of the chiefest prize.
SPIRITUAL ISRAEL INSTRUCTED
The figure undoubtedly applies to fleshly Israel, but let us look at the experiences of spiritual Israel, the church, and see whether they had such instructions and guidance. The eagle egg had long been laid, the divine plan had long been expressed in the Abrahamic promise, and its incubation waited merely for the proper time and conditions.
For many centuries the egg had lain apparently sterile, showing no signs of life. Finally the promise concerning the seed hatched out, it gave signs of life, as respects the body of that seed, at the time of Pentecost. Thereupon the fledgling church was fed and cared for and trained as only a tender mother might, and all this an the Jewish nest, even as fleshly Israel had been raised to size and strength in the nest of Egypt.
Jerusalem and Judsea and the Jewish customs all constituted the nest, or condition of moral support, throughout the tender youth-time of Israel after the spirit. How would the early church have been sustained had it not been for the general belief in one God, for the general acceptance of the prophets, and for the presence of the Messianic hope among the Jewish people? The house of sons could hardly have survived had it been cast at once on the bare and rocky crags of paganism. Not too rudely nor too soon was the eaglet church pushed out of its surroundings. The space pf time from Pentecost to the desolation of Jerusalem and Judaea furnished a grand opportunity for the bringing of apostolic food to the open mouths of early believers, that the church might have the time to assimilate their teachings and to realize that an absolute change of dispensation had come. Possibly this was the very reason for the holding together of the Jewish polity many years after special favor to the nation and to individuals had expired.
But it was not designed that the eaglet church remain always in the nest. The time came for experiences more vast; and when it had become sufficiently strong and developed to enter into those experiences with safety, the nest was stirred up. As in the literal case, the nest itself was not specially valuable. It was valuable only as it related to its purpose, and that purpose was to sustain and to furnish a? basis of operations for the little eagles of the gospel age.
CHURCH PREPARED FCjtl FLIGHT
Had Jerusalem remained, We may safely suppose that God's plan for the scattering of the gospel and for the activities of the church in western countries would have had to be fulfilled in some other way. When the nest was torn to pieces by the beak and talons of the Roman army, then all believers were compelled to look more steadfastly to the heavenly Father. Truly it was a crisis. But has the gospel-age church lost because it was compelled to forget the nest? Neither history nor the suggestion of our first text would indicate that it has.
The early church profited so fully by the words and spiritual assistance of the apostles that soon they were enabled to have the full use of their wings and to soar far above the dark clouds of turmoil and persecution and strife which covered the earth, and to reach into the pure ether of exceeding joy (1 Peter 1:8), like "an eagle in the air”. (Proverbs 30: 19) Later on, during the wilderness times of the church, during the dark ages, the church had use for these eagle wings, for the special emanations of divine wisdom; for on them she could be sustained and borne to safety to the extent that she had made them hers and knew how to use them.—Rev. 12:14.
. Toward the latter end of the gospel age the church had forgotten her exalted mission; she had tired of soaring around in the pure air of spiritual hopes and aspirations, and had taken to roosting in the old nest of moralistic and humanitarian righteousness. She had and has been perching on the treetops and crags of “Christian citizenship” ; and even walking boldly on the ground, having jazz music and vaudeville, in sore danger of the snare of the fowler. Again the true church has been pushed out and helped to develop her strength of wings—her faith.
OUR NATURAL-BORN STATE
But how -ver aptly our text applies to the Lord’s dealings with his people collectively, it seems to suit our individual experiences even more plainly. Every one of us has been found in this desert condition of earth, under divine disfavor, without the moisture of truth, separated by “wicked works” from full fellowship with the father. (Colossians 1: 21) But while in this desert condition, we came to be out of harmony with it. The experiences of life so reacted upon us that we ceased to admire and approve the glittering toys of earth. We came to the point where we were seeking for springs of water (Acts 17:27) and for shelter from the burning sun of divine condemnation which came down upon us because wo were members of Adam’s race. Romans 5: lb.
But, if the Lord is able to behold the evil and the good (Proverbs 15: 3), and if there is no creature that is not manifest in his sight (Hebrews 4: 13), how can it be said that he could over find us? The answer is that we were not always there, as one of his people or even as those who were feeling after him. We were found very much as one might find a few heads of early ripe wheat. We pass through a field time after time on one day and find nothing, and on the next day find a few heads which in the meantime have turned. They were then1 as heads on the day before, but they were not there as ripe heads, and nothing but ripe heads were suited to our purpose. Because of the influences to which they had been subjected, they had been changed from the general unripe condition of the field to a condition in which they were attractive to u.s.
FOUND OF JEHOVAH
So Jehovah at one time looking over the earth may have seen us, but did not see that which he desired. Our hearts were not out of accord with the world and its ideals and in accord with righteousness. Subsequent influences and experiences changed this, however, and we committed ourselves to the Father’s arrangements. ’Phen he began to give us a series of blessed helps and lessons. He encompassed us with his benign arrangement for our justification in Christ Jesus; in fact, all of his kindnesses are extended to us through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 8:6) We were sheltered in “the shadow of a great rock in a weary land” (Isaiah 32:2); and the little moisture of truth there was appreciated by us and increased to us because of our relationship to Christ Jesus, the Rock. In that moistened soil of the heart has fallen the good seed of the kingdom, from which the cheering and refreshing influences shall ultimately emanate for the blessing of the residue of mem
Oh, that we may do nothing to stunt the growth in this little oasis in the desert 1 Oli, that we may do everything to build one another up in the most holy faith, that we may not be found “springs without water” 1
2 Peter 2:17.
INSTRUCTED AND GUARDED
Next the Lord in his goodness instructs us: he gives us enough knowledge to aid us in making a consecration, and then enough knowledge to enable us to be faithful in that consecration, even unto death. It is not likely he will give us much more, for knowledge is not dealt out merely to satisfy our curiosity.
He keeps, or guards, us as the apple of his eye. The pupil of the eye is most remarkably shielded, to be an exposed and sensitive organ. Through that little orifice filters all the light which stimulates the sense of sight. It is covered with the tough but transparent cornea, and surrounded by a bony framework, which is double-arched and very strong. If an object of size approaches the eye, it must break this bony outer guard before it can injure the eye. If a small object approaches the eye and comes within the line of vision, the eye will automatically shut, m) that it is protected in that manner. Evidently the Lord would have us believe that no circumstance can form so swiftly, no exigency of life can arise so suddenly, but that divine wisdom and divine power can ably divert or direct it in such a manner that no injury will come to the eternal interests of the new creature. We are assured that no temptation shall befall us but such as we shall be able to bear (1 Corinthians 10:13); and further, that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose”. Romans 8:28.
STILL MORE LESSONS
Thus far the Lord leads us and schools us with a view to helping us grow and be able to undergo a more advanced course of instruction— the school of aviation.
As an eagle, in training her young nestlings to fly, first stirs them up or rouses them from the nest, so the Lord stirs up the nest of our old conditions,habits,hopes, and ambitions, and pushes us out of those accustomed surroundings for our own benefit and instruction. When the mother eagle stirs up the nest with her talons and tears the sticks apart, the little ones cry and look pitifully at their mother. Hitherto she has seemed to them to be the embodiment of tenderness and considerateness; but her heart is now apparently of stone and she is deaf to their appealing cries. The little ones are forced out and, not knowing how to use their pinions, they begin to fall. But the mother bird swoops down and under them, bearing them on her back to give them assurance; then lets them drop off again, until the little birds discover the use of their wings and learn how to fly for themselves.
There are times when the flesh quails before the providences of the Lord. It says, as the eagles say in action: Oh, you will hurt me; here is where I have been brought up; here is where I am acquainted; I do not want to leave these nice sticks and feathers. You can sing to me and feed me, but don’t, don’t stir up the nestl How little do they realize that the very purpose of all their feeding was that they might become strong enough to undergo and to experience this very nest-stirring episode. So all the food and all the primary lessons which the Lord gives us are with the single view of strengthening us to the point where we are able to leave the old conditions of the world, the old environments and tendencies of our minds.
VARIOUS NESTS STIRRED UP
Perhaps it was a nest of preconceived and long-entertained ideas; perhaps it was a denominational-church nest; perhaps it was special family ties, or a particular coterie of friends, which had to be stirred up in our case. Those of the Lord’s spirit-begotten ones who have not been pushed out by the Lord's love will, sooner or later, be pushed out by his power, but too late to develop their .vings in full.
Perhaps the Lord had to push us out into some phase of his work. It may be that the circumstances were brought to our attention quite forcibly, and in such a {manner as pleased the flesh not at all. The flesh registered its objections and refused to appreciate the project. Hut the young eagle quality, the new mind, the new will, gladly cooperates with the arrangements of divine wisdom.
At first we do not know bow to live by faith, how to be sustained by the spirit of God’s promises. We may feel ourselves falling. But specific promises are brought to our attention under the Lord’s providence, and on these we rest until our assurance is restored. As wo gain more and more of experience, the strength of the. Word, its spirit, the truth, permeates our spiritual beings and our confidence grows stronger and stronger until it becomes customary and habitual with us, and we are not overcome with terror at any change that comes into our lives.
THE EVERLASTING ARMS
How would we ever know the full truth of his promises; how would we ever know that "underneath are the everlasting arms” (Deuteronomy 33: 27) if we were never cast upon them to prove them; and how could we be cast upon them if we always abode in the nest, in a hazy, dreamy, lethargic state ? Haze and dreams have their proper place, no doubt, but they have very small place in the mind of a footstep follower of the Lord. Thank God, there are enough glorious facts to dim the most untrammelled products of the imagination. How can we ever “mount up with wings as eagles” (Isaiah 40:31), how can we ever be delivered from “the snare of the fowler” (Psalm 91:3), if we cannot fly? How can we be gathered together where the carcase is (Matthew-24 : 28) if these nest-stirring, wing-developing experiences had not taken place, if the Lord had not at some time or in some manner pushed us out of the old ruts of thought, or out of the old surroundings ?
LESSONS IN PART BY OBSERVATION
As we observe examples of the Lord’s instructive providences for his people, can we not learn something by observation ? Can we not see and appreciate to some extent the wisdom of administering hardship as a factor in the development of character? Surely we can. All these examples are given us for our admonition (1 Corinthians 10:11; 1 Peter 1:10-12), as the apostles assure us. So we may be sure that when such experiences come, divine wisdom will be hovering over us to watch and to encourage our timid efforts; divine power will receive us when drooping, and carry us to ease us when weary and exhausted with unv.sual strain.
Shall we be instructed in part by the examples which the Lord has given us, and shall we be prepared to cooperate with the nest-stirring experiences when they come; or shall we be obliged to learn altogether by experience some things which we might have learned by humbly accepting the testimony which these examples bring to our minds?
As Abraham was faithful and profited by his experiences, shall we do less who have so much more of encouragement? And if the Jews failed to profit by their lesson, if they failed to learn how to depend in full confidence on Jehovah, we can at least hold them in mind as a warning example. “Let us labor, therefore, to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the sameexample of unbelief-Hebrews 4 : 11.
A NOBLE EXAMPLE
In the Nev Testament we have the inspiring figure of the Apostle Paul. To what .heights of sublime faith and trust he was able to soar! for he says: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? (As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are. counted as sheep for the slaughter) Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things io come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”.— Romans 8:35- 39.
The Apostle was high above his daily experiences, though those experiences were such dramatic things as being imprisoned, being beaten with stripes, fighting with wild beasts, etc. Whether the incidents were pleasant to the flesh, he still had the same measure of faith and hope, of confidence and trust in the Lord. What a noble example!
What, then, shall we gather from all this? Manifestly this: That God expects us to be able to live under different and varying circumstances as he may see best for us, and expects that we learn to adhere to the glorious and basic principles to which he himself conforms, that we learn to be fastened to nothing save to that which is eternal. Thus and thus only can we bo prepared for the greatest change of all. when we leave the earth in which we, as God’s fledgling new creation, have been nurtured and fed, and when we shall be given a new and higher point of view from which we can know and minister to the needs of mankind.
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