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VOL. XIII. SEPTEMBER 15, 1892. NO. 18

ZION’S WATCH TOWER

AND

HERALD OF CHRIST’S PRESENCE.

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PUBLISHED TWICE A MONTH.

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TOWER PUBLISHING COMPANY,
“BIBLE HOUSE”
ARCH STREET, ALLEGHENY, PA., U.S.A.

C. T. RUSSELL, EDITOR.

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SUBSCRIPTION PRICE $1.00 A YEAR, IN ADVANCE, (INCLUDES ALSO A SUBSCRIPTION TO TWO COPIES OF OLD THEOLOGY TRACTS QUARTERLY)

By Express Order, Postal Money Order, Bank Draft, or Registered Letter. Foreign only by Foreign Money Order.

FREE TO THE LORD’S POOR

N.B.—Those of the interested, who by reason of old age or accidents, or other adversity, are unable to pay, will be supplied FREE, if they will send a Postal Card each December, stating their case and requesting the paper.

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ENCOURAGING WORDS FROM EARNEST WORKERS

New York.

DEAR BROTHER RUSSELL:—You expressed a desire to be informed of the progress of my work in the Hudson river towns. It is quite encouraging to me and the friends of the truth, though as yet not very far advanced. At W__________, where nearly every one knew of the DAWN, and many had the first volume, I sold 200 in about five days. At P__________, in a week and a half, I sold 330 books, besides spending one day delivering—98 degrees in the shade. All praise to the Lord for this measure of success. I am not feeling very strong physically, but his spirit is sufficient to quicken my body.

Brother B__________ and others are quite anxious that I should hold some meetings, and while I may consent to it, it will be with some questioning as to whether it is wise to use much of my strength and time in that direction—especially in towns like this where I expect to remain only a few weeks. I am quite satisfied that those who will not read and understand the DAWN are not very near ripe—if they have any of the wheat quality at all. And I believe the “winds” are being held that the saints may be sealed, not that the world is to become greatly interested now. Hence it seems necessary that we should hasten over the field—”flying in the midst of heaven.”

With kind greetings to the Church at Allegheny, Yours in our Redeemer,

S. D. ROGERS.

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Massachusetts.

DEAR BROTHER RUSSELL:—I write to let you know that my interest and zeal in the Lord’s service are not abated. Perhaps, dear Brother, you have wondered why I, unlike others of the dear workers, do not turn in any money to the Society, but I would say that all I get is not spent selfishly upon myself. I find abundant opportunity to help some of the dear saints around here. There is one sister who at times is very destitute, and who has become very much interested in the truth. She is a widow with two children.

If you could only see how some of the dear ones (this sister included) in S__________ are feasting upon the glorious truth, it would cheer your heart very greatly; and as for myself, I could not express upon paper, nor in language, the joy that fills my heart in perusing the precious things brought out in the TOWER of late. Often my thoughts revert to yourself and dear sister R., and prayers on your behalf, as well as for all saints, ascend to the throne of grace. It often comforts me to think that the Lord knoweth the heart of each one of his children, and whether they are fully in harmony with him and his wonderful plan; and though we may sometimes misunderstand each other, yet the Lord understands us at all times.

With warm Christian love, Your brother in Christ, W. J. THORN.

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Illinois.

DEAR BROTHER RUSSELL:—The TOWER came to hand to-day, and your article on “Enoch, Elijah and the Sentence” has lifted from my mind a load that has been troubling me for some time and I want to thank you. Words fail to express my gratitude to such a kind, loving Heavenly Father, and to you who have been serving him and us so faithfully. God’s justice, love and power are made clearer than ever, and I can exclaim with the apostle, “Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge, of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out.” Praying that he will guide and direct you into all truth, and with love to all the saints, I remain,

Yours in the service,

C. C. WRIGHT.

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VIEW FROM THE TOWER

SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS’ FEARS

Amongst those whom we recognize as God’s children, but from whom we differ as to many of the teachings of our Father’s Word, is a considerable number of Seventh-Day Adventists. Indeed, not a few from this people have received the present truth, brought to their attention through Millennial Dawn and the WATCH TOWER and for the sake of these and others we have on two occasions treated the Sabbath and the Law questions in these columns.

However, their leaders and teachers have woven together so close a net of ingeniously applied but quite mistaken theory based upon the “cleansing of the Sanctuary” (Dan. 8:14) and “the mark of the beast” (Rev. 13), that the majority of their followers, as well as themselves, seem to be hopelessly entangled. Believing that many of them are honest, we feel less disposed to chide them, and more inclined to say to them mildly and kindly, in the Master’s words, “Ye do err, not knowing [understanding] the Scriptures.”

Believing that the Law given to Israel as the basis of their covenant (See Deut. 5:2-7-21) was not given to them alone, but to all the world, they would enforce upon all the Jewish, seventh-day Sabbath—now usually called Saturday. When we point out to them that the Law which is the basis of the New Covenant is briefly comprehended in one word, Love (—instead of the ten commands, as was the Jewish Covenant), they ask, Well, then, if the newer and fuller expression of the Law be Love, and if love implies that we do not steal, kill, etc., does not this New Covenant have a Sabbath also?

Without waiting for an answer, they proceed to say—we, therefore, should keep the Seventh Day, as did the Jews. No one had a right to change it to Sunday, the first day of the week, when God had specified the seventh. Papacy changed the day; and it is, therefore, “the mark of the beast,” etc.; and all who observe Sunday are thus branded or marked, and can have no part among the “overcomers” in the first resurrection.

Few of them are patient enough to hear the answer:—That the seventh-day rest (for the word Sabbath merely means rest) of the ten commandments is contained in our Law of the New Covenant, just as truly as are the other commands included in that Law of one word—Love. Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not violate the seventh-day rest, and all the other commands of the Decalogue, meet with much grander and fuller expression in our New Covenant and its Law. Thus, if we love God and men, we will not blaspheme, nor kill, nor steal, nor bear false witness; and those who have entered into this New Covenant, and found the heart-rest (Sabbath) by faith in Christ and his finished work, so long as they appreciate this rest, can have no desire to break it or even to disturb it by violating any part of their covenant.

This is the real and only Sabbath (rest) commanded

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or provided for under our New Covenant. It was typified in the Jewish Law (which was a shadow of the New Covenant Law) by the Seventh Day—because this rest from sin is to be actually observed in the seventh thousand-year day—in the Millennium. The present REST of believers, trusting in Christ, is not the complete rest, but merely a rest of heart by faith, hoping and waiting for the actual. This the Apostle clearly shows in Heb. 4:2-11—that although the Jews had observed the Seventh Day, it did not profit them, and they did not really enter into the rest which it typified, because they merely held the outward form or shadow, and did not mix it with FAITH so as to discern its antitype—the rest of heart. He concludes his argument by urging—”Let us labor, therefore, to enter into that rest (Greek—Sabbath-keeping), lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief”—set by the Jews who kept the Seventh Day, but never knew what it meant. The time for entering by faith into the real rest came to the Church at Pentecost, when the spirit dispensation began. The time for entering actually into the real rest is just at hand, at the ushering in of the New Dispensation.

As for the claim that no one had a right to change or substitute the First Day for the Seventh Day, that is true. Our Lord and the apostles never authorized any such change: they declared the Jewish Law (which included the Seventh Day) ended at the Cross, and the new and more comprehensive law of the New Covenant thereafter in operation toward all who accepted Christ. The apostles used the Seventh Day as a time for preaching Christ, as they used every day in the week, and especially because on that day the Jews, their most hopeful hearers, met for worship and study. But the apostles nowhere recognized the seventh-day Sabbath as a day of rest, as the Jewish Law Covenant enforced it. On the contrary, they taught (Rom. 14:5-8) that any and all days are acceptable for good works done in the service of God and for the benefit of fellow men.

It is a mistake, too, to claim that the Christian Sabbath was started by an edict of one of the popes. It had its start in the fact that it was on the First Day of the week that our Lord arose from the dead; and that upon that day and evening he met with his disciples, and expounded unto them the Scriptures, until their hearts burned within them. What wonder that, without any command to do so, they thereafter loved so to meet together frequently, and to repeat the simple meal, the giving of thanks and the breaking of bread; recounting one to the other the gracious promises of God through the prophets, and the explanations of some of these which the Lord had given in person, and seeking yet fuller understanding of the same under the leading of the holy Spirit (Christ’s representative), operating to guide them into all truth as it became due.

It was some little time, evidently, from the account, before they realized that the Law Covenant which had so long ruled them was dead (Rom. 7:2-6), and that thus they were free from any obligation to any formal observance of the Seventh Day—that thenceforth all days were alike to them: all to be used in God’s service in doing good, and none to be used for any other purpose.

For a time the two days were observed by Christians, the Seventh-Day from Jewish custom (and because it furnished the best opportunity for devout people likely to be interested in the Gospel) and the First-Day in commemoration of our Lord’s resurrection. Ignatius, A.D. 75, in his writings mentions some approvingly as “no longer Sabbatizing, but living in observance of the Lord’s-Day, on which also our life sprang up again.”

The earliest record of the use of the name Lord’s-Day for the first day of the week found in Scripture is in Rev. 1:10 (A.D. 96). And says Encyclopaedia Britannica (first-class authority) “by that name it is almost invariably referred to by all writers of the century immediately succeeding apostolic times. … The first writer who mentions the name of Sunday is Justin Martyr: this designation of the first day of the week, which is of heathen origin, had come into general use in the Roman world shortly before Justin wrote. (Second century A.D.) … As long as the Jewish-Christian element continued to have any prominence or influence in the Church a

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tendency more or less strong to observe Sabbath as well as Sunday would of course prevail. … The earliest recognition of the observance of Sunday as a legal duty is a Constitution of (the Emperor) Constantine, 321 A.D., enacting that all courts of justice, inhabitants of towns and workshops were to be at rest on Sunday, with an exception in favor of those engaged in agricultural labor.”

So, then, it is a misstatement of fact for our Seventh-Day friends to say that Pope Gregory or any other Pope first by decree instituted Sunday or the Lord’s-Day as taking the place of the Jewish seventh-day Sabbath. Consequently, Sunday-keeping could not be “the mark of the beast,” as they claim. The Decretals of Gregory do enjoin Sunday-keeping, saying, “We decree that all Sundays be observed, from vespers to vespers, and that all unlawful work be abstained from, so that in them trading or legal proceedings be not carried on.” But it will be noted that the Emperor Constantine’s

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decree was in 321 A.D., while Gregory did not become a pope until 590 A.D. And Gregory refers to the fact that the work prohibited was already unlawful: hence his decree is merely confirmatory of the laws of Constantine and other civil rulers preceding him.

The Roman Catholic church does not now and so far as we know never did insist upon a strict observance of Sunday. In Catholic countries to-day priests and people attend service in the forenoon, and give up the afternoon to various forms of pleasure—in beer gardens, parks, etc.

As for ourselves, we delight in the Lord’s work any and every day; and could and would cheerfully accommodate ourselves to any day of the week appointed by any government under which we might be living, to meet specially to study God’s Word and to render him worship; because under the New Covenant no single day is specified, but every day is alike. As it is, we rejoice that one day in the week is so generally observed (no matter what may be the world’s object or thought in its observance), because it affords the world a day of recreative rest and the true believers an opportunity for union and communion of heart and voice. And we are specially pleased that the day set apart by the government under which we live is the First Day of the week, because of the same blessed memories and associations which gave it a special sacredness to the Church in the days of the apostles.

But our friends, the Seventh-Day Adventists, are scaring themselves with the ghosts of certain misapplied symbols of Revelation relative to the Mark of the Beast, etc. They have the Seventh Day “on the brain” to such an extent that they can see nothing else clearly because of the false-importance they give to that subject. Noting the fact that religious people, seeing the growing tendency here toward a European Sunday (which means a Roman Catholic Sunday, spent in part at least in concert and beer gardens), are moving together for uniform laws enforcing present and past prevailing customs for the suspension of business on that day, our Seventh Day friends jump at the conclusion that soon their adherence to the Seventh Day will lead them to the stake, etc. They are getting greatly agitated and attempting to point to these things as fulfilments of their misapplications of Revelation, 12th and 13th chapters. We quote from one of their journals as follows:—

“IT HAS SPOKEN”

“And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.”—Rev. 13:11.

“For many years Seventh-day Adventists have been keeping their eyes upon this prophecy, predicting on the strength of their view that the United States Government would oppress and persecute those who were striving to walk conscientiously before God, as did the “dragon”-spirited powers of earth in by-gone days. Recently it has become manifest that a spirit of intolerance and oppression existed and was growing in this Government, but within the last week an event has taken place which is of the utmost significance in connection with the fulfilment of the words of this text. The Senate and the House of Representatives of the United States have united in saying to this country, and to the world, that the World’s Columbian Exposition shall have joined to it the institution of the Sunday Sabbath. They have declared, speaking with the voice of the Nation, that here in this hitherto free land a religious institution shall be enforced by law; for legislation always means compulsion.

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“We are no longer waiting to hear the sound which shall herald the fulfilment of this prophecy. THE DRAGON VOICE HAS SPOKEN! And how long will it be ere it will speak again?”

This is very absurd. The action of Congress in deciding, when appropriating money for the World’s Fair, that the money should be given subject to the restriction, that the Fair be closed to the public on Sunday, does not mean “that here, in this hitherto free land, a religious institution shall be enforced by law.” Only a mind distorted on this subject could so imagine. It is not an interference with personal liberty. At very most it was a refusal of the government to spend the money collected from the people to forward certain opportunities for pleasure, of which the majority of tax payers did not approve. No fair mind has a right to object to this course. As for the writer’s own opinion, it is that it would have been better to open on Sundays certain departments of the Fair—the flower and art displays at least—leaving closed those portions which would have necessitated human labor, that all might have like opportunities for rest. And no doubt Congressmen generally would have taken as liberal a view of the case had they expressed their own sentiments; but in spending the money did they err seriously in deciding that it should not be used contrary to the consciences of the majority whose tax the money chiefly represented?

Those who ask for Sunday observance are not persecuting the minority. The minority, be it a denomination or an individual, is left perfectly free to observe any day in worshiping God. So far as the writer is concerned he could not conscientiously make any law regarding Sunday observance for the worldly, believing as he does that God made no such law, and that its observance is acceptable to God merely as a volunteer exercise of Christian liberty. But we see no reason why it should be considered persecution for a majority of three-fourths of the people of the land (who believe Sunday to be of divine ordination) to make laws prohibiting labor on that one day of the week which they consider to have the divine approval and command.

The fact of the matter is that our Seventh-Day friends are fanatically anxious for persecution, believing that it is to be the portion of all the faithful. We also believe that whosoever will live Godly (i.e., according to the divine will) shall suffer persecution. But we find plenty of persecution without hunting it; and we remember also the holy words, “Let none of you suffer as … an evil-doer, or as a busy-body in other men’s matters.”—1 Pet. 4:15.

If we say to them, How are you persecuted? How are your consciences interfered with, when you attempt to observe Saturday as a Sabbath or rest-day? They reply, Oh! it is not in that way that we are persecuted: we have full liberty to meet and worship, sing and pray and rest, all day Saturday. It is when Sunday comes and we begin to do our work as upon other days. Then the officers of the law pounce upon us as law-breakers and persecute us.

Well, we answer: If you have the liberty to worship how you please on the Seventh Day, you cannot claim that your consciences are interfered with. You should obey the law—be “subject to the powers that be”—whenever it does not require you to violate God’s law—as in this case. To refrain from work on the First Day of the week surely violates no command of God; and hence you should obey the law; otherwise you are a law-breaker, and instead of suffering persecution for righteousness’ sake you are violating the Apostle’s command, But let none of you suffer as an evil-doer or a busy-body.

But so anxious are they for some suffering, and so fanatical is their method of reasoning, that many of them will reply—Oh, yes! To be idle on Sunday would violate our consciences, because the Scriptures say: “Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work.” How can we labor six days, if we must rest two days in the week, one on the command of the laws of the land, the other on what we believe to be the command of God.

Thus they pervert language to get persecution. If each of the six days contains twenty-four hours (thus they reckon the Seventh Day—from 6 P.M. of Friday until 6 P.M. of Saturday), then, to take the command literally, as they rest twenty-four hours for the Seventh Day, they should labor twenty-four hours a day during

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the other six days. (“Ye that desire to be under the Law, do ye not hear the Law?”—Gal. 4:21.) But every one of unprejudiced mind knows that the command never meant that more than one day might not be spent in rest, but merely that the Jews must rest during the Seventh Day, while during the other six they might labor for their own interests. Thus seen, the cry of persecution for keeping the Seventh Day as a Sabbath is nonsense.

As for the true interpretation of Revelation, 12th and 13th chapters: we gave what we considered to be such in the TOWER issues of January and February, 1883. But as the supply of these is long since exhausted, we purpose soon republishing those explanations in the TOWER.

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THE DANGER A DIFFERENT ONE

But while we find no fault with any laws yet made or attempted to be passed for the prohibition of labor on Sunday, or for the curtailment of intemperance and gambling, and other immoralities, we see a tendency toward a blending of civil and religious matters in such degree as will become burdensome to minorities. A blending of civil and religious authorities would be very desirable indeed were the laws and officers infallible. Indeed such is the very institution which, during the Millennial age, is to bless the world—Christ’s Kingdom. But so long as those in control are fallible and their views on politics and religion are various and imperfect, so long it will be unsafe and unjust toward the liberties and consciences of the minorities to enforce upon them the religious convictions of the majorities.

The Seventh-Day people see this phase of the subject, too, and would be prepared to look for the right things, were it not for their Sabbath bugaboo. This is evident from the following, clipped from one of their Journals:—

“United States senators have declared it to be ‘not wise statesmanship’ to disregard the demands of the churches for legislation deciding a religious controversy as to whether Sunday is the Sabbath or not. Now why shall not this principle apply to other cases? Why shall not the Spiritualists now work up some issue by which they can demand legislation which will decide the question as to whether or not people are alive when they are dead? There are as many Spiritualists as there are church members; and, of course, it would not be ‘wise statesmanship’ to disregard their demands. Besides this, they would have the unanimous and hearty support of all ‘the evangelical churches’ in the country. And as Congress has granted the demands of the churches alone on this Sunday-Sabbath question, how much more would the same body grant the demands of the same ones over again with largely increased numbers with them. For such would only be ‘wise statesmanship,’ according to the latest definition of the term. What queer ideas these gentlemen have of what statesmanship is! The truth is that it is not statesmanship at all. It is sheer demagogism; and that of the worst sort. These gentlemen should be told that statesmanship does not pander to the selfish and arbitrary demands of classes; it creates sound and healthy public opinion.”

As we have heretofore stated, the Scriptures indicate the formation of a great religious combination, which will exercise a measure of political power throughout the world, and especially in these United States, and which will forcibly restrain public expression on religious subjects when contrary to its standards. At that time we expect that the WATCH TOWER publications will be suppressed—the very thing its many enemies would now like to accomplish but cannot; because now, and for some time yet, the “four angels” will hold back the storm—until all the servants of God have been sealed in their foreheads—given an intellectual appreciation of God’s plan. (Rev. 7:1-3.) When the suppression comes we shall be fully resigned to it, and accept it as a sign that the membership of the elect Church, the bride or body of Christ, has been completed. When this occurs we shall understand it to be the shutting of the door of opportunity to membership in the elect Church, mentioned by our Lord in Matt. 25:10. This will probably be some twelve or fifteen years hence. Soon after, the intensity of the great trouble and anarchy may be expected.

If we know these things, happy are we if we act accordingly, and engage in the harvest work during harvest-time. “The time is short.”

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MOSES AND ELIAS

The transfiguration of Jesus in the presence of three of his disciples is a point of interest to many, not because they see its lesson and significance, but because they do not see them. We read that there “appeared” to the disciples Moses and Elias, talking with Jesus. (Matt. 17:1-9.) Our Lord was transfigured (changed in appearance). His face did shine as the sun and his raiment was white as the light. A bright cloud overshadowed and surrounded them, and a voice out of the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.” “And when the disciples heard it they fell on their faces and were sore afraid. And Jesus came and touched them, and said, Arise, be not afraid. And when they had lifted up their eyes they saw Jesus only.”

We might wonder and speculate about how Moses and Elijah came to be on the mountain, how the disciples, who never saw either of them, could know them, etc., etc.; but all such speculation is set at rest by Jesus telling the disciples that they had seen a vision. As they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying: “Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead.” (Matt. 17:9.) To the disciples the vision seemed a reality, just as to John at Patmos the various visions recorded in Revelation were clear and distinct; but our Lord certainly knew all about it, and we will rest on his testimony that it was a vision.

To think otherwise would involve the contradiction of sundry plain Bible statements; for instance, Jesus was not yet crucified, hence had not risen from the dead, and we know that he is the “first-born from the dead.” But if Moses had already been resurrected, our Lord Jesus was not the first-fruits of them that slept. (1 Cor. 15:20.) The bringing back to life of Lazarus and others, we have heretofore shown, is not called resurrection, because they were not entirely delivered from the power of death—but died again.

But let us see, if we can, what lesson was taught or what important truth was illustrated by this transfiguration scene or vision. Doubtless in that way we shall see a reason for the presenting of Moses and Elijah in the vision.

Peter, who was one of those present on the occasion, mentions it in his letter long afterward. He says: “We have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory: ‘This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’ And this voice we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.”—2 Pet. 1:16-18.

We understand Peter to tell us, then, that the transfiguration vision was an illustration or presentation in vision of the “majesty” and “power” of his presence (parousia—here translated coming). It is, then, to be understood as representing the establishment of the Kingdom at our Lord’s second presence. Therefore, from our standpoint, it is an illustration of the present time, in which the King is present and the Kingdom being established. Moses, we have seen, represents the human element of the Kingdom (“Moses, verily, was faithful in all his house as a servant”—Heb. 3:5); while Elijah represents the entire Gospel Church—the spiritual house of sons. Elsewhere we have seen that there will be these two classes in the Kingdom—an earthly and a heavenly—over all of which, the orderer of both phases, will be Christ Jesus; and this fits perfectly with the vision—Moses and Elijah, with our Redeemer in the midst, transfigured and shining.

So now, in his presence, we see not only the evidences of the spiritual Kingdom in the harvesting and sifting of the wheat, but also preparation being made for the establishment of the earthly or perfect human phase of the Kingdom. This is no cunningly devised fable, and was not only shown to Peter and others in vision, but “we have also a more sure word of prophecy,” which bears the same testimony, “whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place.”—2 Pet. 1:19.

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WHO IS WISE AMONG YOU?

“Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you?” inquires the Apostle James (Jas. 3:13); and the question is one which all may consider with profit. Many indeed are endued with considerable knowledge, who display but little wisdom. Knowledge truly is of great importance, but it is only as it develops wisdom—sound judgment and pure and high-toned sentiment. This is the main object of God’s revelation of himself to us. And the wisdom that comes thus, through the channel of divine truth, the Apostle describes as, “first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.”—Verse 17.

Such a character is the result of the transforming influence of divine truth. God’s revelation is a mirror of his character, in which we see reflected his purity and love and goodness; and as we therein trace the lines of his glorious character the desire grows and strengthens to be more like him whom we thus learn to admire and love. The sincere heart, accepting the divine plan and its gracious provisions of salvation and blessing through Christ, at once begins to fashion itself in conformity with God’s character by first putting away sin and then by striving daily to live a life of purity and holiness. With this effort come in the peace of God and the love of God, to rule and take possession of the whole man. And when the heart is thus cleansed and filled with God, the fruits of such an indwelling life-principle become very manifest to all beholders, in gentleness, mercy, goodness, and pure and holy friendship with all who are like-minded.

In contrast with this wisdom which cometh down from above the Apostle mentions another kind, which he describes as earthly, sensual, devilish. It is a wisdom or low cunning which is prompted by a spirit of envy and strife, and is always productive of “confusion and every evil work.” Pride and selfishness are the inspiration of this kind of wisdom, just as in the case of Satan; and therefore let every one who names the name of Christ keep very humble. To harbor such a spirit of malice, of bitter envy and strife, while still professing to have the spirit of truth, the Apostle describes as “lying against the truth.” God forbid that it should find place in the hearts of any who have thus far been faithful and have run well.

How carefully we need to guard our hearts against the slightest rising of pride and worldly ambition, and against every root of bitterness which, springing up, might trouble us. There are thousands of occurrences and circumstances in life which are calculated to bring us into bondage to the spirit of the world, and only those who keep a vigilant watch and an ever-prayerful attitude can hope to be kept in this evil day. Temptations and trials seldom give us warning of their approach, and therefore our armor of righteousness must ever be adjusted and securely buckled on.

“Leave no unguarded place,
No weakness of the soul;
Take every virtue, every grace,
And fortify the whole.”

Heed carefully the Apostle’s instruction—”Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him show by honorable conduct his works with meekness of wisdom.” It is by our conduct and not by our professions that we are to be judged; and if any man have the true heavenly wisdom which is always coupled with meekness—humility—it will surely manifest itself in a straightforward, manly, honorable course of conduct, dictated by the wisdom which cometh down from above, which is always pure [unselfish], peaceable, gentle, compassionate and sincere.

May the Lord grant to all his loyal sons an abundance of this heavenly wisdom and the rich rewards of grace and peace that always accompany it. Put away all these—Malice, Envy, Hatred, Selfish-ambitions—and put on those adornments of Christ’s spirit—Humility, Gentleness, Generosity, Meekness, Love. “If any man have not the spirit of Christ [in some degree] he is none of his.” And he in whom these graces are not being cultivated and increased

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will soon lose them and be choked with the selfish and ignoble spirit of the world.

There are some of the children of the world who have cultivated outward gentleness and benevolence for policy’s sake, whose hearts, as privately expressed, are full of bitterness, envy and selfishness; and there are some of God’s children who naturally are very selfish and mean, but whose changed hearts are fighting against the weaknesses of the flesh, and who afterward repent of selfishness and meanness. But let such press along the line and seek for grace to help in every time of need. Their progress toward the likeness of Christ will gradually manifest itself to them and to others. “If the spirit of Christ dwell in you, he [God] that raised up Christ from the dead [has also the power and] will also quicken [to activity in his service and to his praise, in the present life] your mortal bodies.”

Here, then, we have the earthly wisdom which is based upon selfishness contrasted with the heavenly wisdom based upon love and service to others. Whoever is really wise will choose the heavenly—the end of which, in Christ, is everlasting life.

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FUTURE PROBATION FOR THE DEAD

“This is the Second Death, the Lake of Fire”

(Rev. 20:14.) To these words the sentence is added, “Whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the Lake of Fire.”

Though the prospect here looks sad indeed, must Hope be altogether relinquished? “The miserable have no other medicine, but only Hope.” True those words may be of this life and death, but will hope animate the breasts of those upon whom this awful sentence of the second death is passed, as it did the breasts of our first parents, when incurring the sentence of the first death they rested on the word that “the serpent’s head should be bruised?”

That such a sentence may not or will not be the lot of any who have had the opportunity “in due time” of fully knowing the truth by realizing the effect of the Ransom that Love gave in their liberation from death’s captivity, I do not undertake to say; I can and do most heartily hope it will not be, yet I feel that such prophetic threatenings as abound in the Scriptures, though known at one time only to Jews, and in subsequent times, though very partially, to the nations, yet in a coming period to be clearly and fully known, cannot be meaningless ones.

That character hereafter may be largely affected by the character displayed here on the part of the unconverted is a most likely thing, thus making it a solemn thing to live; because whatever may be the environments of the man in resurrection, however really he may be physically and mentally “made whole or saved,” the same man morally, and knowing himself to be such man, is raised from the dead; and false appearances will stand us in no stead hereafter. All deceptions will be removed from man then, and “the mask fall from him.” Nero will not rise a John, nor Cleopatra a Mary, nor the Caesar Borgia a Peter, even though he wore the Fisherman’s ring. A man, dying out of Christ a wicked man, will not rise “in Christ,” as some fancy from a misinterpretation of those words in 1 Cor. 15:22. Sodom rises, not a people whose “sin was destroyed” by their destruction, even in type, but the same persons who died, and who, though restored to Adamic life, could not and will not be ipso facto restored to innocence and holiness. But as a tree renewed in springtime would be the same tree, yet would require not a cutting off of its old branches, but a grafting of another or a new kind of life into it, in order to bring forth another and a different kind of fruit from that which it had formerly borne, so with Sodom and Samaria and Israel, as Ezekiel shows, 36:23-27, etc. The man “made whole” at Bethesda’s Pool received with his healing the solemn warning, “Go and sin no more, lest a worse thing befall thee.”

It is this “worse thing,” then, that we are now to consider: for as that whole transaction was a “sign,” the words carry some deep import. To me they have the import, or are a sign, of the future death; for to him the present

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life was dear when possessing it even in its misery; and the first death would inevitably overtake him, however reformed he became; which would not be the “worse thing” set before him, save in type in the sign. It is this subject that the student of the future of man must not leave out of his careful reflections when dealing with the subject of coming judgment, for it occupies much space in the word of Prophecy.

Here again the caution in interpretation is needed, “Distinguish the periods and the Scriptures will agree;” for as in other matters confusion has arisen from want of attention to that sound axiom, so the first and second deaths have also been confounded.

The strength of Calvinism lies in its grasp of the Sovereign Power and Grace of God; that of Arminianism in the use God makes of instrumentalities; and the strength of Universalism in the prominence it gives to the fatherly love of God. But each has its weak points (as what has not that man formulates?)—Calvinism, from not taking into full consideration the points of Arminianism and Universalism; and Arminianism, from not understanding how to arrange rightly the truth that the former so sternly and unlovingly upheld. Universalism, by far more true than either to the fatherly conception of Almighty God, has never, to my mind, squared itself fairly with the oft-repeated threatenings of the personal destruction of the wilfully disobedient sinner; nor with the stern decree of the sentence, “the soul that sins shall die.”—Ezek. 18:20.

Now whilst allowing all due force to the suggestive thought which Universalists maintain to-day (some in so many words, and, I think, all mainly so in spirit), that “the destruction of the sinner” means the destruction of sin in him, I would ask: Can the thought be honestly maintained according to the natural laws of language, the harmonious interpretation of figures, and the character of judicial threatenings to evil-doers?

As Locke says, in his “Reasonableness of Christianity,” with regard to the figurative practices of theologians concerning God’s warnings to Adam: “It seems a strange way of understanding a law, which requires the plainest words, that by death should be meant everlasting life in misery;” so one may say of such modes of interpreting subsequent threats. It is a strange way of understanding God’s judicial code of penalties for wilful sin in the future, that such words as “the soul that sinneth, it shall die”—shall incur the indignation of the devouring fire, shall be destroyed—mean destroying the sin, not the person himself.

This is not a matter of our hopes and desires, it is a matter of interpretation, or of understanding what is the judicial penalty for sin threatened in the Word of God when man has arrived at “the full knowledge of the truth,” and when sin, being “full grown, bringeth forth death.”—Heb. 10:26; James 1:15.

When Paul says, “The end of those [sinful] things is death,” as “the end of holiness is eternal life; for the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God eternal life in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6), does the death clause here refer to the first death? seeing that the holy and the sinful alike die that death. That it includes the former, it may be; but seeing that the true antithesis to eternal life is eternal death, it would appear that Paul’s language extends farther than at first sight it may seem to do. In this respect, to let language have a fair range and potency, it may be well to note a few of the plain words of Scripture, and the figurative ones also, expressing the same thing.

That man is not annihilated at the first death is clear from our Lord’s words in Matt. 10:28; but that man can be destroyed should he sin after resurrection is as plainly affirmed in that same sentence. Gehenna was the place of burning outside Jerusalem for corrupt things, offerings, or sacrifices of persons in idolatrous worship (Jer. 7:31; 19:6, etc., also Isa. 30:33); and appears to be used as a type of the real Gehenna, or Lake of Fire, unquenchable till its work is done.

These statements, when connected with evil-doers, are indicative, not of purifying the persons by the destruction of the evil in them, but rather of purifying the world by their own actual destruction, or removal by “the second death.”

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I have heard great stress laid on the view that “God wills not the death of a sinner;” and, misplacing the somewhat inaccurate quotation, they attach it to the statements made in Ezek. 18 and 33. Now, God does not say He wills it not, but “I have no pleasure in the death of him that dies.” The quotation alluded to occurs thus in 2 Pet. 3:9: “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, but is long suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

This statement is in harmony with the one given by Paul, that “He wills all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth;” and His will undoubtedly will be accomplished, otherwise one can be sure of nothing, and could repose no confidence in His Word; but I do not know that anywhere He implies that He wills not the death of him who dies, i.e., in the coming age, for his own sin, but that He “has no pleasure or delight” in it, which is a very different sentiment; for it is evidently His will that “the soul [or person, so restored in the resurrection time] that sinneth [wilfully] shall die.”

Some say the only way that death can be known to have been destroyed or rendered null is by the release or resurrection of every captive. At first sight this appears to be of considerable weight, because as darkness can be destroyed or rendered null only by light, so death must be by life; and in one sense such view is fundamentally correct; because all that have been its captives will, ere the destruction of Death itself, have been released from its grasp. Yet upon looking into it more closely, it does not appear to be a sound argument; for the Power which destroys Death in the Lake of Fire is that which is afterward exercised upon those not written in the Book of Life: thus making the position false which assumes that because destroyed they are therefore still under the dominion of Death rather than the dominion of Death’s Destroyer. Such a view therefore

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demands too much when it maintains that its solution of the question is the only true one.

The warning voice of Jude is not without great significance in regard to this matter. He writes: “I will therefore put you in remembrance, though you once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of Egypt, afterwards (literally, the second time, or secondly) destroyed them that believed not.” It would seem, therefore, that Israel as a type (see 1 Cor. 10:11) is here presented to view, particularly in that part of their history. In this light they had passed through death and resurrection in the Red Sea when “baptized into Moses” (as that ordinance denotes, according to Paul, death and resurrection—Rom. 6), and were on their way to the Rest of God; and it was not in their first sad condition of bondage and misery in Egypt that the anger of the Lord was thus manifested, but in their delivered and saved condition out of it.

In summing up, I may say it is clear that the first death terminates the first life [and would, were there no redemption and resurrection, be death in its real import]. Does not all reasoning by analogy therefore require us to believe that the second death ends the second life; and that, if no resurrection therefrom follows, it becomes as absolute a termination to life as the first death would have been under similar circumstances?

We can see how perfectly equitable is the arrangement, that as the first death entered and spread throughout all the race entirely independent of human will or personal act [except Adam’s], the recovery by redemption and resurrection extends as far. (Rom. 5:18.) But the second death enters under totally different conditions, and is not independent of each man’s will or personal act. (Jer. 31:29,30.) So that a radical difference exists between the two conditions: experience of good and evil, and knowledge of the truth, will take the place of ignorance; and every facility and inducement to resist evil and follow that which is good will be given.

To say the sacrifice of Christ covers also the second death goes beyond Scripture (Heb. 10:26); and not only so, but such a statement does not appear to be in harmony with reason, in the face of all the advantages accruing under the new order of things following.

As the Lord said by Isaiah concerning Israel:

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“What could have been done more to My vineyard that I have not done in it?” so likewise concerning that period of “restitution of all things,” we may say of man so restored, “What more could have been done?” A full ransom freely given for all; a recovery from death extending as far as the sin; a full knowledge of the truth acquired; the whole environment of restored man, without and within, in his favor; and in such a condition a full trial or probation for life evermore!

Should such incur the second death by wilful sin, would not the echo of God’s solemn appeal be heard, “What more could have been done?” Have those solemn words, regarding such as have partaken of “the powers of the age to come” and apostatized, no force? “It is impossible to renew them again unto repentance, seeing they crucified unto themselves the Son of God afresh and put Him to an open shame.”

It is a sad picture! this closing scene portrayed in Rev. 20:15—the second death. Our first parents had the cheering word from Love upon which Faith could fasten and Hope subsist; but in vain we search everywhere for words from God, for Faith and Hope. Adam and Eve went out of Eden, and in due time reached the Valley of the Shadow of Death, with the blessed words of resurrection life still sounding in their ears, “The woman’s seed shall bruise the serpent’s head.” I can hear no sound from the depths of the second death; but I hear, as it were, God’s appeal to the universe, “What more could have been done?” “Just and true are Thy ways, O King of Ages!” —W. Brookman.

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STUDIES IN THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

—INTERNATIONAL S.S. LESSONS—

SUGGESTIVE THOUGHTS DESIGNED TO ASSIST THOSE OF OUR READERS WHO ATTEND BIBLE CLASSES, WHERE THESE LESSONS ARE USED; THAT THEY MAY BE ENABLED TO LEAD OTHERS INTO THE FULLNESS OF THE GOSPEL. PUBLISHED IN ADVANCE, AT THE REQUEST OF FOREIGN READERS.

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DORCAS RAISED TO LIFE

FOURTH QUAR., LESSON II., OCT. 9, ACTS 9:32-43

Golden Text—”This woman was full of good works and almsdeeds which she did.”—Acts 9:36

This lesson presents two instances of the exercise of the gift of healing on the part of the Apostle Peter. In the one case there was the restoration to health from a long and severe illness, and in the other case the restoration to life of one who had succumbed to the power of disease and was dead. The result of the miracles in both cases was faith on the part of the people who saw in them the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name they had been accomplished; and faith in Peter as a servant of the Lord, and in his teachings concerning Christ and his coming kingdom, and the blessings promised to all them that believe in him.

And this was the object in the performance of these miracles—viz., to establish the authority of the apostles’ teachings by thus showing to all men that the Lord was working with them and thus endorsing them.

It is also noteworthy that in every such instance of the manifestation of divine power the effect was the same: there was a large increase in the number of believers. And yet we find that this potent agency for the conversion of the world did not survive the days of the apostles; and consequently the world is full of doubting Thomases who would believe if they had some more tangible evidences of the divine purpose and power. How shall we account for this seeming indifference on the Lord’s part in the matter of the world’s conversion?

The Scriptures answer that it is because “the Lord hath appointed a day”—a set time—in which he purposes to give to all men just the kind of evidence which their doubting and unbelieving condition of mind requires. Then—in the Millennial age or Times of Restitution—he will say to all, Open thine eyes, and reach hither thy hand, and behold the manifestations of my power, and be not faithless but believing. And then will follow the speedy conversion of the world to God. These manifestations of divine power will come first in a great time of trouble (Dan. 12:1) which will completely revolutionize the whole present social order of the world and bring in a new and better order, based upon sounder principles of justice and truth. Then will follow manifestations of power in the healing of the morally and physically sick and infirm, the lame, the halt, the blind and the deaf, and the awaking of all the generations of the dead to life. When these mighty works are done in the earth there will not be

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room for a single doubt as to God’s purpose and plan and power, and of his glorious and righteous character; for then “all shall know the Lord from the least to the greatest,” and the way of life will be made so plain that “the wayfaring men though unlearned shall not err therein.”—Jer. 31:34; Isa. 35:8.

But we call to mind the words of the Lord to Thomas after giving him the tangible evidence that his weak faith demanded, saying, “Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed”—whose confidence in God is simple enough to take him at his word without the evidence of their senses. It has been for the purpose of selecting out from among men such strong and fearless characters, and granting to them the special blessedness of joint-heirship with Christ, that the appointed time for manifesting the divine power to the world is delayed. The Gospel age now closing has been the appointed time for the selection of this “blessed” class; and when this work is fully accomplished, the enlightenment, conversion and blessing of the world will follow.

There is another fact noticeable in connection with this narrative; and that is, that when Dorcas came to life again, although she was a good woman and a child of the Lord, and therefore one whom all the creeds of “Christendom” would send to heaven as soon as she died, yet when she was awakened to life she had no wonderful experiences or mysterious visions to relate, nor any disappointment to express at being recalled to this mundane sphere. She simply opened her eyes and recognized Peter, and, accepting his helping hand, sat up and received the congratulations of her friends. And the same may be observed in every case of awakening from death. See the accounts of the awakening of Lazarus, of the son of the widow of Nain, of Jairus’ daughter and others. And then let the student remember the clear statements of the Scriptures—”The dead know not any thing;” “His sons come to honor, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he perceiveth it not of them;” and “No man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man;” “There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave whither thou goest.”—Eccl. 9:5; Job 14:21; John 3:13; Eccl. 9:10.

With these statements and observations before us, call to mind also the prominence given in the Scriptures to the doctrine of the resurrection—how Paul said that except for the promise of a resurrection our hope and faith would be vain; and how when he had finished his course he did not expect to go to heaven, but to await the Lord’s return to earth, when he and all the faithful would be rewarded by having part in the “first resurrection.”—1 Cor. 15:13,14; 2 Tim. 4:7,8.

Thus in the light of the Scriptures death is seen to be just what God intended it should be—an “enemy,” an undesirable thing, a penalty

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for sin. And we are then able to thank God for the victory over this enemy, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by a resurrection from the dead; and with the early Church to appreciate and look forward with joy to his second appearing, when the resurrection of the dead will be accomplished. The few instances of awakening to life recorded in the Scriptures, but never repeated since the days of the apostles, were not resurrections in the full sense of the term anastasis, which signifies a full raising up to perfection of life and health, never again to relapse into death, as all of these died, because the appointed time for full restitution had not yet come. These instances were given to aid our faith in looking forward to the full restitution or resurrection promised at the time appointed, as well as to divinely endorse the teaching of the Lord and the Apostles and some of the Prophets.

In the life of Dorcas, of which this brief narrative gives us a glimpse, we see an example of Christian benevolence and zeal well worthy of imitation in spirit if not in exact detail. There often are temporary necessities now among poor neighbors and friends for the use of the needle in works of charity; but such necessities are far less common now than they were in the days here referred to, being superseded by public benevolence on a much larger and more effective scale. But there is always the still more important work on hand of feeding the hungry soul with the bread of life and clothing the naked with the robe of Christ’s righteousness—a work in which this good woman doubtless engaged also, at the same time that she sought to relieve the temporal necessities of the needy poor.

When Dorcas was dying she was surrounded and ministered to by the loving hands of the Lord’s people, the saints, and many poor widows whom she had lovingly sought out and ministered to previously. And when she was restored to life these were there to bid her welcome. How suggestive the thought—If we live the life of self-sacrificing love and devotion to God and his cause, sweet will be the awakening and the blessed re-unions beyond these scenes of sorrow and suffering. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord; and blessed and holy are all they that shall have part in the first resurrection.

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SALVATION REACHES THE GENTILES

LESSONS III. & IV., OCT. 16 AND 23, ACTS 10

Golden Text—”Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons.”—Acts 10:34

In this lesson we have an account of the first presentation of the gospel to the Gentiles. It will be remembered that all the teaching of the Lord and of the apostles had been, up to this time, confined to Israel; that when Jesus sent out his twelve disciples to preach the gospel of the kingdom, he strictly charged them, saying, “Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not; but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt. 10:5,6); that when a Gentile woman besought the Lord to heal her daughter he replied, “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. … It is not meet to take the children’s [Israel’s] bread [favor] and to cast it to dogs” [Gentiles—for such the Jews termed their Gentile neighbors], though when the poor woman was willing to accept a morsel of favor merely as a crumb from the children’s table, she received her request.—Matt. 15:24-28.

This was because the appointed time had not yet come, according to God’s plan, for favor to be shown to any people but Israel. God had abundant favor in store for “all the families of the earth,” but his plan of salvation and blessing is a systematic, orderly arrangement, all the times and seasons and circumstances and details of which were planned and fixed by unerring wisdom for the accomplishment of a glorious purpose. According to that plan, seventy weeks of years (490 years) from a certain definite period were marked off as a special divine favor to Israel (Dan. 9:24); and those seventy weeks ended three and a half years after the death of Christ, from which time the gospel message was no longer to be confined to Israel, but might go to the Gentiles also, as it did, beginning with Cornelius, who was the first Gentile who received divine favor as a Gentile, without becoming a Jewish proselyte. Previous to this time even the Lord Jesus, whose work was strictly in accordance with Jehovah’s plan with reference to both time and method, could not show favor to the Gentiles, and would not therefore have granted the Gentile woman’s request for the healing of her daughter had she not been willing to receive it humbly as a crumb from the children’s table, thus acknowledging that she was not a recognized child of God or heir of his favor, but willing, as an alien and an outcast from the commonwealth of Israel, to accept her portion as an unworthy “dog.”

But, thank God, though both Jews and Gentiles have been unworthy of his favor, his love and grace abounds through Christ toward us all. And in the clearer light of a fuller development of his plan we now see that even the exclusiveness of his favor to unworthy Israel for an appointed time was a measure of his wisdom—a necessary feature in the glorious plan for the blessing of all the families of the earth in due time.—See Millennial Dawn, Vol. II., Chapter III.

God chose a very striking method of calling the attention of the Apostle, as well as of Cornelius, to the fact that God’s due time for extending his favor beyond the Jews to the Gentiles had come.

It will be observed from this lesson that God puts a very different value to the words “saved man” from that generally given to those words by Christians to-day, who by reason of an erroneous view of the divine plan misuse the words. Cornelius was a good, devout man, one who believed in God and prayed to him, and who gave much alms to the poor, and who had built a synagogue or chapel for some poor Jews. Many to-day would say to Peter, Why go to that man? He is a saved man already. Go, spend your time more profitably laboring with publicans, harlots, vagabonds and prodigals; for this man already is good and devout and a believer. So, too, they often say to us to-day—marvelling that we teach the way of the Lord more perfectly to some who already have some knowledge of God.

From God’s standpoint, which must be the true one, Cornelius was not a saved man, although a well-meaning, benevolent and praying man. God puts great stress upon faith—not only upon a faith, but upon the faith. He sent word by an angel to Cornelius, saying, Send for Peter and he shall “speak unto thee” and “tell thee words WHEREBY thou and all thy house shall be saved.”—Acts 10:32; 11:14.

A false idea of “lost” has gotten possession of men’s minds since the great falling away from the simplicity of the primitive Church; and hence “saved” also has a distorted meaning. Under the false but common view, “lost” means condemned to eternal torment, and “saved” means released from such an awful calamity. No wonder, then, that with such wrong ideas people in general should to-day conclude that “a devout man, who prayed to God and gave much alms to the poor” ought to be a “saved” man. Such a man certainly ought to be saved from eternal torment, according to every one’s concept of fair-dealing.

The fact is that “lost” does not mean sentenced to eternal torment; and hence “saved” cannot mean recovered from such a fate. The

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loss or penalty of sin is to be “lost” or cut off from divine favor and blessings, as strangers and aliens; and hence to be under the penalty of death—loss of life. And “saved” means to be removed from that alienated condition—to be brought nigh to God and recognized no longer as sinners but as sons; and as such to have his blessing, which includes the favor of lasting life.

All Gentiles were in this “lost” or alien and condemned to death state from the time of Adam’s sin. Only the one nation, Israel, had been restored to divine favor and fellowship (and that as a type), accepted through a typical covenant, based upon a typical cleansing, by typical sacrifices. When the true sacrifice had been offered, three years and a half of exclusive favor remained to Israel under God’s promise, although the great Sin-offering or ransom price given was not for Jews only, but for “all“—”every man.” Cornelius was the first Gentile received back into the divine favor as a son: the first “saved” or delivered from separation from God and the sentence of death, to fellowship, and heirship in the promises of God of eternal life through Christ.

Next notice what were those important “words,” the believing of which “saved” or delivered Cornelius from condemnation and alienation. They were the simple statement (briefly recounted in Acts 10:34-43) of the facts: How God had anointed Jesus with the holy Spirit and power at his baptism; how after using this power for the good of others he had been crucified; how God raised him from the dead and appointed him to be the Judge of the living and the dead (—which implies a new trial for all who had been sentenced when judged and tried as a race in the loins of Adam). Peter explained these facts in harmony with what the prophets had witnessed to on the subject (See Isaiah 55), no doubt quoting: “He poured out his soul [being] into death.” “For the iniquity of my people was he smitten.” “He made his soul an offering for sin.” “The Lord let fall upon him the iniquity of us all.”

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“He was bruised for our iniquities, and by his stripes we are healed.” Then, applying all this (verses 36 and 43), Peter showed that this is a preaching of “peace” and “remission of sins” to all who believe these facts and accept by faith this grace of God in Christ.

A simple message, truly; yet very necessary to be told to and to be believed by Cornelius and his household before they could be Christians or brethren, or “saved” in God’s sense of that word.

So, too, it must be with all, whether in this age or in the next age: in order to be “saved” they must believe; and in order to believe they must hear, in some way, this same gospel declared to Cornelius. And it must “be testified to ALL in due time,” that “there is one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all.”—1 Tim. 2:5,6.

What a rebuttal this lesson is to the theory of some, that the heathen may be “saved” without having heard of Christ. Let us hold close to the Lord’s way and the Lord’s time for giving to all this gracious testimony of the peace and forgiveness effected by the blood of the cross for every one that believeth. To the Jew first it was given, and since to many Gentiles; but ultimately, “in due time,” it is to be made known fully and clearly to every man.

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PERFECT THROUGH SUFFERING

God never would send you the darkness,
If he felt you could bear the light;
But you would not cling to his guiding hand
If the way were always bright;
And you would not care to walk by faith,
Could you always walk by sight.

‘Tis true he has many an anguish
For your sorrowful heart to bear,
And many a cruel thorn-crown
For your tired head to wear;
He knows how few would reach heaven at all
If pain did not guide them there.

So he sends you the blinding darkness,
And the furnace of seven-fold heat:
‘Tis the only way, believe me,
To keep you close to his feet—
For ’tis always so easy to wander
When our lives are glad and sweet.

Then nestle your hand in your Father’s
And sing, if you can, as you go;
Your song may cheer some one behind you
Whose courage is sinking low;
And, well, if your lips do quiver—
God will love you better so.

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WHILE A SAMPLE COPY OF “ZION’S WATCH TOWER” OR ONE OF OUR FREE “OLD THEOLOGY TRACTS” MAY START A HUNGRY SOUL TO INVESTIGATING, IT CAN DO LITTLE MORE. TELL SUCH THAT THE HELP THEY NEED FOR UNDERSTANDING THE BIBLE IN THE LIGHT OF PRESENT TRUTH IS “THE PLAN OF THE AGES”—OVER 300,000 ALREADY PUBLISHED—350 PAGES. TELL THEM OF THE BENEFIT IT HAS BEEN TO YOUR OWN HEART AND HEAD, AND HOW YOU VALUE IT, AND THAT IT IS ONLY 25 CENTS POST-PAID—OR LOANED TO THOSE TOO POOR TO BUY—AND URGE THEM TO SEND FOR IT AT ONCE.

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