A. T. JONES
OUR time is so nearly gone that I can call attention only to another phase of this subject. But I hope that this to which I have called your attention will encourage every soul here to get the principle so that we can have it, every one, every day, as we come into the school, or into the church. Let us not continue for a moment in a way that any of the Sabbath-school lessons, in the book of Galatians, or in any other part of the Bible, will be in any sense dry or tedious. If it has been so with any, let it not be so longer. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 547.1
There is a philosophy in bringing to us now this great principle of the book of Galatians. This is in order that we may be able to show to the world the way to the power of God. That is what the Third Angel’s Message is. We must learn it ourselves, before we can give it to the world. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 547.2
There is not only a philosophy in the bringing of the study of this book to us now, but there is a philosophy in the book itself—in the way it is put together in presenting the gospel as it is, and that which annihilates all ceremonialism, root and branch. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 547.3
Look at it. The first thing in the book, after the greeting, is: “Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.” Thus speaks that word always to every soul. Can anybody ever grow weary of drinking in the grace of God and his peace, which are poured out from heaven in a mighty stream? Then accept that word, and drink in of the grace of God, and his peace, in all its fullness,—the peace of God, which passeth all understanding. Then that peace will keep your hearts, and will keep your minds, through Christ Jesus. Many persons are distressed in keeping their minds where they would like to have them. They are anxious, and toiling, to keep their heart in the right way. Oh, just take in the grace and the peace of God, which are given to you in the very first thought of the book of Galatians, and that “peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Then thy peace shall be “as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea.” ARSH August 28, 1900, page 547.4
What is the next thought?—Oh, it is that he “gave himself for our sins,“—gave himself for our sins. For what did he give himself?—For my sins? He paid the price for all the world? Did he buy the sins of all the world?—He did. Then to whom do the sins of the world belong?—To him. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 547.5
Let us leave out the great world now, and count those in this house. To whom do all the sins of all the people in this house to-day belong?—To him. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 547.6
Now let us leave out all the others, and let only you and me be counted. To whom do all your sins belong to-day? Whose are they?—They are Christ’s. All mine are his; every sin that I ever had, every one that the Lord himself could find in me now,—and he could find a host,—whatever sins could be found by the mighty searching of the Lord, belong to the Lord Jesus, because he paid the price for them—he gave himself for my sins. He paid such a price that I could not ask him to forego what he paid. He gave himself for my sins; and in that he gave himself for me, sins and all. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 547.7
That is where many persons mistake. They get it into their heads, somehow,—it is from Satan, of course,—that the Lord will receive them, if only they will separate themselves from their sins, and come to him without sin. But that is a satanic delusion. We can not separate ourselves from our sins. We can choose to have it so; but he is the only One who can take away our sins. He bought us and made us his own, sins and all. You belong to him, sins and all. We all belong to him, sins and all. And he can cleanse us from all sin. Only he can do it. We never can. We have all tried it. “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked,” because the sin is still there, and he (the wicked) can not get rid of it. But when the Lord takes away the sin, and puts his own righteousness in the place of the sin, do you not see that that righteousness, being the very essence, the very quality of God’s own character, imparts righteousness to the believer in Jesus? And through him it is manifested to others. That is just what the Lord Jesus can do; that is what he does, for everyone who will let him have what he bought—himself, sins and all. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 547.8
And what did he do it for?—“Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world.” Oh, who would not wish to be delivered from this present evil world? Who would not be glad, and who is not glad, if he can be delivered from this present evil world? There is deliverance for every soul in the world. Christ has paid the price. He has done the work. And when we allow him to have what he has paid for, he does deliver. [Voice: “Praise the Lord!”] Then let every soul in the house take this deliverance to-day, and let the Lord do what he will with his own. He makes us fit to dwell with him—fit “to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.” He “hath delivered us from the powers of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.” ARSH August 28, 1900, page 547.9
Then he gives us this precious gospel, which an angel from heaven could not improve. And that comes to us “by revelation.” By next Sabbath every teacher can come before his class with that genuine gospel taught to him by revelation of God. it can not be taught to you by men: “they shall all be taught of God.” It must be taught by revelation—the direct revelation of Jesus Christ to the soul. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 547.10
And how is it done?—Oh, “it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son IN me,“—“Christ in you, the hope of glory,“—Christ in the life, the power of God,—Christ in the life, the wisdom of God,—Christ in the life, “all the fullness of God.” That is this gospel. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 547.11
And it is all put into the first chapter, to prepare you to see and to receive the truths in the following chapters. And, I pray you, do not pass by the first chapter of Galatians without finding the power of God. If you do, you will not be prepared to receive the truths in the chapters that follow, and you will be at sea all the way through. God has put that book together in such a way that you and I, going through the book, shall be brought into the way of God,—into the way in which he wishes us to go,—to be delivered forever from the very principle, root and branch, of ceremonialism, in whatever way it may manifest itself in the world. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 547.12
Then, for your soul’s sake, brethren and sisters,—for the sake of the sifting that will come to this whole denomination, through the very study of this book of Galatians,—let every one seek the Lord with all the heart, and receive the truth that is given in the lessons before you in the first chapter. Do not go into the second chapter,—do not think of going there; you are not prepared to go there,—until you have received what God has for you in the first chapter. Then, having received the gospel as given in the first chapter; having received the power of God to deliver from this present evil world; having found God revealing his Son in you,—then you can with joy and ever-increasing light go through the following chapters of the book. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 547.13
Then let there be such an awakening in this time as God calls for, in this time when the world is sunk in the condition of formalism, of the form of godliness without the power of God. God has raised us up to convey to the world the message of the true gospel,—that gospel which is indeed the power of God, because in it the righteousness of God is revealed. If that is not what we are here for, then we have no place at all. But how can we do that unless we ourselves have in very truth that true gospel, that power unto salvation? ARSH August 28, 1900, page 547.14
Therefore, to prepare us for the loud cry, the crisis of the message that must be sounded to a world sunk in the form of godliness without the power, the Lord sends to us these studies in Galatians, this gospel that is so pure and true that even an angel from heaven could not improve it, that we may first be completely delivered from the form of godliness without the power. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 547.15
Let us accept and study this gospel. And when it shall be allowed to reign in our everyday lives in everything, our lives will be filled with the power of the Lord in all his grace and all his goodness, and we shall be saved from all formalism. Christ in us, the hope of glory, will be revealed; and “the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets.” ARSH August 28, 1900, page 547.16
IN the events of the first four of the Seven Trumpets, the Western Empire of Rome was completely blotted out. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 552.1
Out of the tribes of barbarians, which, like mighty tides, in succession overflowed the territory of Western Rome, ten established themselves in ten independent kingdoms, and there stood as independent kingdoms in A. D. 476, when the last vestige of the Roman Empire had vanished. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 552.2
The Western Empire of Rome was gone, and just ten nations stood in her territory, in her stead. The ten stood thus:— ARSH August 28, 1900, page 552.3
1. The Alemanni in North Switzerland, Swabia, Alsace, and Lorraine. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 552.4
2. The Franks in all Gaul north and west of the Moselle. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 552.5
3. The Burgundians in west Switzerland and the valleys of the Rhone and Saone in southeast Gaul. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 552.6
4. The Suevi in that part of Spain which is not Portugal. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 552.7
5. The Vandals in North Africa, with capital at Carthage. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 552.8
6. The Visigoths in Spain and southwest Gaul. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 552.9
7. The Angles and Saxons in Britain. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 552.10
8. The Ostrogoths in Pannonia—what is now Austria. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 552.11
9. The Lombards in Norcum, between the Ostrogoths and the Alemanni. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 552.12
10. The Heruli in Italy. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 552.13
The details of this any one can trace out, any day, on any map that he will but hold before him and mark as he reads the history of the fall of the Roman Empire. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 552.14
These ten kingdoms were first mentioned in the prophecy of Daniel, especially in the “ten horns” of the “fourth beast.” Daniel 7:7, 24. They are referred to later in the book of Revelation, in the description of the dragon, and also of the Beast, having “seven heads and ten horns.” Also, in the prophecy of Daniel it is related that there would come up among these ten another one, and by it three of the ten would be “plucked up by the roots.” The three which were plucked up, were the Heruli, who occupied Italy; the Vandals, who occupied North Africa; and the Ostrogoths, who had been instrumental in rooting up the Heruli, and who occupied Italy in their place. That “other one,” before whom these three were rooted up, is described as having “eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things;” and was, and is, the papacy. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 552.15
Take three from ten, and seven are left. And these seven of the original ten kingdoms that divided Western Rome are in that territory to-day, and are the Powers of Western Europe to-day. The Saxons, the Franks, the Alemanni, the Burgundians, the Visigoths, the Suevi, and the Lombards are the powers respectively of Britain, France, Germany (in the French language, and with the French people of to-day, the Germans are only Allemands, and Germany is only Allemagne), Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, and Italy of to-day. For after the plucking up of the third of the three kingdoms, the Lombards removed from their place on the Danube, and established their kingdom in Italy, and to a considerable portion of that country “communicated the perpetual appellation of Lombardy.” In the middle ages, Lombardy “was, indeed, for a time, the name for Italy itself.” Thus the Powers of Western Europe to-day are as definitely pointed out by the prophecy as they could be without specifically naming them. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 552.16
Of these seven, some are very powerful, such as Britain, France, and Germany; while others are weak, such as Switzerland, Spain, and Portugal; while Italy stands, as it were, between strong and weak. So these seven of the original ten, stand just where Daniel, from the dream that was given to Nebuchadnezzar, said they would stand. They stand there in precisely the condition in which that prophecy said they would stand—“partly strong, and partly broken,” or weak. Britain, France, and Germany have spread their power over the whole world, and have so intertwined themselves in the affairs of the whole world that what touches the world touches them, and what touches them touches the world. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 552.17
And these kingdoms, with the papacy, are the elements that compose the Beast and his power, against whose work, with that of the Image of the Beast, the Third Angel’s Message utters its solemn warning. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 552.18
Thus, in one way, through the Seven Trumpets we find the place of the great nations of Western Europe, as they are to-day. And, in another way, we thus find, through the Seven Trumpets, the basis of the Third Angel’s Message. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 552.19
And, in yet other ways, we shall find these same things through the remaining three of the Seven Trumpets. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 552.20
“FOR we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.” ARSH August 28, 1900, page 552.1
Notice, it is not that we wait for righteousness by faith. This is the free gift of God, always open to every soul in the world, and does not have to be waited for a moment. Rather, it waits, in the longsuffering of God, for men to awake to receive it. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 552.2
The word is, We “wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.” That is, righteousness by faith is the foundation of a “hope” not yet realized, but which is certain to be realized. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 552.3
What, then, is this hope?—It is the inheritance, which none can receive except they have eternal life. And none can have eternal life—the life of God—who have not eternal righteousness—the righteousness of God. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 552.4
This hope was referred to by Paul in his answer before King Agrippa: “And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers: unto which promises our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come. For which hope’s sake, King Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews.” Acts 26:6, 7. The promise made of God unto the fathers was the promise to Abraham, which embraces the world, even the world to come. As it is written: “By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” Hebrews 11:9, 10. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 552.5
Paul said that it was for this “hope’s sake” that he was accused of the Jews, when he made his answer before King Agrippa. But before Paul was brought before Agrippa, he had also stood before Festus the governor; and before that, he had made answer before Felix the governor. And in his word before Felix, he said, I “have hope toward God, which they themselves also allow, that there shall be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and unjust.” Acts 24:15. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 552.6
But even before this, Paul had been obliged to stand before the Sanhedrin and answer; and there “he cried out in the council, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee: of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question.” Acts 23:6. Of the hope of the dead, and the resurrection of the dead; that is, even the dead have hope, if they be of the righteousness of faith; for it is written: “The wicked is driven away in his wickedness: but the righteous hath hope in his death.” Proverbs 14:32. Therefore again it is written: “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.” 1 Corinthians 15:19. Not only in his life, but in his death, he who is in Christ has hope; and, being dead, his flesh rests in hope as did that of him in whom all the hope and promises of God are yea and amen. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 552.7
The resurrection of the dead is an essential part of “the hope” which rests on righteousness by faith—this hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers. Indeed, the resurrection is the essential means of receiving “the hope.” For, though God promised to Abraham the land in which he sojourned, yet “he gave him none inheritance in it, no not so much as to set his foot on,” though “he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet ye had no child.” Acts 7:5. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 552.8
And even at that time, the Lord taught Abraham that it was through the resurrection of the dead that he was to receive the inheritance. For, in his call to the offering of Isaac, in whom was called the promised “seed,” he was brought to the point wherein he accounted “that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.” Hebrews 11:19. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 552.9
It was through the seed only that Abraham was to receive the promised inheritance. And thus, in his receiving that seed “from the dead,” “in a figure,” upon his accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead, he was taught the resurrection of the dead. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 552.10
There is another bright element that enters into this hope which is begotten by righteousness by faith. Without the coming of the Lord there can be no resurrection of the dead. For he said to his disciples: “Wither I go, ye can not come.” (John 13:33); but, “let not your heart be troubled... I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” John 14:1-3. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 552.11
And so all the fathers, “having obtained a good report through faith,” “died in faith, not having received the promises,” “God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.” Hebrews 11:39, 13, 40. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 552.12
Therefore, “this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 552.13
Thus the second coming of the Lord is the crowning essential in “the hope of righteousness which is by faith.” We can not have the inheritance without the righteousness of God, we can not receive the inheritance without the resurrection of the dead. And having the righteousness of God, and the hope of the resurrection of the dead, there can not be the resurrection of the dead without the coming of the Lord in power and great glory. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 552.14
Therefore, they who have the righteousness of God, which is by faith, are ever “looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.” Titus 2:13. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 552.15
And, so, it is the present truth forever that “we, through the Spirit, wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.” ARSH August 28, 1900, page 552.16
IN the note of July 3, announcing to the world the policy of the United States in regard to China, it is declared:— ARSH August 28, 1900, page 553.1
The policy of the government of the United States is to seek a solution which may bring about permanent safety and peace in China, preserve Chinese territorial and administrative ENTITY, protect all rights guaranteed to friendly Powers by treaty and international law, and safeguard for the world the principle of equal and impartial trade with all parts of the Chinese Empire. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 553.2
Study that statement clause by clause, and you will get a glimpse of the mighty task which this nation has assumed in Asia. As a leading journal remarks:— ARSH August 28, 1900, page 553.3
Here the administration has conceded that its policy means the entrance of the United States into Asiatic politics. For no one can suggest how America can work actively for the ends outlined, without plunging into the politics of Asia up to the neck. The United States can no more preserve the “entity” of China without being a force in the complications of Oriental politics than it could set out to preserve the “entity” of Turkey without entering the politics of Europe. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 553.4
That the program is somewhat colossal will not be seriously disputed. In the first place, the United States is to seek for “permanent safety and peace” in China. Now a state of “permanent safety and peace” is manifestly an impossibility in the most advanced and well-governed of Western nations. The alien nation that seeks to keep China in a condition of perpetual peace must always be in China, prepared to prevent or put down civil war. To preserve Chinese “entity,” you must be ready to do a great many other things such as enter foreign alliances that mean business. To keep China’s territorial domain as it is, you must be prepared to oppose the Slav coming down from the north, and the German pushing in from the sea. And when you “safeguard for the world,” instead of for the United States alone, the principle of equal and impartial trade, you pass beyond the realm of national interests, which alone concern properly the statesman. Just why the United States should set out to “safeguard the world’s” trading interests in China is a mystery. If the United States safeguards its own trade, it will do its full duty. ARSH August 28, 1900, page 553.5
It is not enough now to say that the United States is one of “the kings of the East;” but that she is, or at least proposes to be, the very chiefest of these. And so there are now no kings of the East, except the kings of the West; and these are “the kings of the earth and of the whole world.” ARSH August 28, 1900, page 553.6