ABOUT the only proof that many people can give that they are free, is that they are residents of what is called a “free country.”AMS July 29, 1897, page 465.4

CONGRESS, in combination with the sugar Trust, is just now affording the country some object lessons on the point of what may be expected of a “Christian nation.”AMS July 29, 1897, page 465.5

THE great gold mines just discovered in the Klondike region are as nothing in comparison with the gold mines the Trust magnates of the country have discovered in the pockets of the masses who are compelled to buy their commodities.AMS July 29, 1897, page 465.6

THERE are plenty of people in the world who are willing to “contend” for the faith, by argument or by the sword, and even to lay down their lives for it on the field of carnal strife. But it is living for the faith—living out the faith in its meekness and gentleness and longsuffering—that tests the character.AMS July 29, 1897, page 465.7

GREAT attention is being given in the religious world to some alleged sayings of Christ heretofore unknown, discovered among documents recently unearthed at Behneseh, Egypt. If people would only give as much attention to the authentic record of Christ’s sayings which they have in the Bible, their time would be spent to better purpose. There is plenty of meaning yet in the familiar sayings of the Lord which remains to be discerned. It is just as well and perhaps better to discover new truth in an old saying, as to discover some new saying, especially when the authorship of the latter is involved in great uncertainty.AMS July 29, 1897, page 465.8

THE world lost freedom in the beginning by departing from the truth, by turning to paganism; and those who would regain that freedom must turn from paganism to the truth—the gospel.AMS July 29, 1897, page 465.9

“Pagan or Christian—Which?” American Sentinel 12, 30, pp. 465-467.

ATJ

IN view of the facts of the every-day history of Greece and Rome, it is strange that anybody would ever think of giving the professed wisdom of these nations any place whatever in any system of education.AMS July 29, 1897, page 465.1

Yet, however such a thing may be excused in an education that is altogether of this world, and whose goal is only this world—education by the State—it is impossible to justify it in education that makes any claim whatever to being Christian.AMS July 29, 1897, page 465.2

Greece and Rome were absolutely pagan. Their education, their ideals, their literature, were essentially pagan. And what place can paganism ever properly have in Christian education? Pagan text-books in a Christian school! Pagan standards in a Christian education! The things are positively contradictory.AMS July 29, 1897, page 465.3

Christianity and paganism are at the most extreme opposites. Christianity came from heaven: paganism came from beneath. Christianity is of God. Paganism is of the devil. To give pagan literature preference over Christian literature, is plainly to prefer paganism to Christianity. To give the pagan classics a more prominent place in any study than is given to the Bible, is certainly nothing else than to allow that the author of paganism is worthy to be believed and followed more than is the Author of Christianity.AMS July 29, 1897, page 465.4

In the Bible, God reveals himself as a teacher. “I am the Lord thy God which teacheth thee to profit.” “Who teacheth like Him?” “Learn of me.”AMS July 29, 1897, page 466.1

Shall it be for one moment allowed then, and of all people by those who profess to believe in the God of the Bible, that Socrates, or Plato, or Cicero, or any other pagan, or any other man, is a better teacher than God is?AMS July 29, 1897, page 466.2

In the Bible, God reveals himself as the Source of the highest and best, indeed of all true, wisdom. His word, the Bible, is the storehouse of this wisdom which he has given to the children of men.AMS July 29, 1897, page 466.3

Shall, then, the words of men, and of such men as were the authors of these classics, be given the preference over the word of God? Why should the words of these men, or of any other men, be given, or allowed, more prominence in any line of study, than is given to the word of God? and of all people by those who profess to believe the Bible to be the word of God?AMS July 29, 1897, page 466.4

Are the doubting queries of the proud ignorance of Socrates worthy of more consideration than are the certain truths of Him “that is perfect in knowledge”? Are the vain imaginings of Plato to be accepted and studied as philosophy in preference to the original ideas of Him who is very Wisdom itself? Shall the dark abominations of the mythology of Homer and Virgil and other Greek and Roman poets occupy the minds of the youth, rather than the pure glories of the heaven which has been opened to men through the moral perfection of Jesus Christ? What right to the name of Christian has any school, institution, or scheme of education, that does do the things here indicated?AMS July 29, 1897, page 466.5

Yet the truth is that that which professes to be Christian education, does do these very things all over this and other professedly Christian lands. One of the leading infidels of the United States was graduated from the theological department of a college which was “founded for the purpose of fitting young men for the ministry” of the gospel, and in which all the teachers had to be Christians. And of the instruction there given he has made the following extremely suggestive statement:—AMS July 29, 1897, page 466.6

“It struck me as rather curious that in a Christian college the main drift of all its teachings was to pagan literature. Hardly any attention was given to the Bible except in a formal way. That which really interested the students and professors was Greek and Latin. Homer, Zenophon, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, Livy, and Cesar, entirely superseded Moses, Abraham, David, Solomon, and even Jesus. The spirit of the college corriculum [sic.] was non-Christian writings.”AMS July 29, 1897, page 466.7

In this statement, the students in nine tenths of the professed Christian, and even theological, institutions in our land will readily recognize their own experience. The result of such training cannot possibly be anything other than infidelity. True it may not in all cases be the positive, outspoken, and professed infidelity of the one from whom we have quoted the above passage. It may be the infidelity of the “higher criticism,” of the “Ethical ... ture,” of the “scientific,” or of the “philosophical” school. Yet it will none the less be infidelity. It will be paganism as really as was that of the authors, in whose “learning” they have been trained.AMS July 29, 1897, page 466.8

It is a recognized fact that “first impression are most lasting.” It is a law of the mind that first impressions shall be the most lasting. In the study of a strange language, the student enters a world as entirely new as was the real world when he first became conscious that he was in it. The first thoughts and impressions that he gets in that language will be the most lasting and will inevitably color all that ever come after. Let the first thoughts that a student ever obtains in Greek, be pagan thoughts, then let him being the study of the Bible in Greek, and the pure and exalted thoughts of the works of the Lord will be over-shadowed and darkened by the pagan notions that have already pre-occupied the mind. This is the whole secret of the “Higher Criticism,” the so-called scientific study of the Bible. The first studies of these men in Greek, for instance, were in pagan Greek. All their thoughts in Greek were pagan thoughts. The whole mold and impress of their mind, in Greek, was pagan. Then when they come to read the Bible in Greek, instead of reading it with God’s thoughts in it they read it with pagan thoughts only. Thus God’s Greek was in their minds, dragged down and confused with the pagan Greek. And as they knew full well that the world has got far beyond the ideas of the Greeks, when God’s Greek is confused with pagan Greek, it is easy enough for them to “see” that the world has also got “far beyond” the Bible. Thus as it is perfectly proper and scientific to test pagan Greek by advanced views, and accept or reject its statements accordingly, so when God’s Greek is confused with pagan Greek it is equally proper and “scientific” to test the statements of the Lord in the same way.AMS July 29, 1897, page 466.9

Thus once more, and by precisely the same means, it has come to pass that what the Greeks new is sought after as wisdom, while what God has said is considered foolishness. And what God has said is considered foolishness just because of the fact that what the Greeks produced is accepted as wisdom. And the same result is fast coming to pass, that came before—by this very “wisdom”—the world does not know God.AMS July 29, 1897, page 466.10

At the first, when Greek thought prevailed, “the world by wisdom knew not God.” It was by means of that very Greek “wisdom” that the world was caused not to know God. This same result will surely follow to-day wherever Greek thought is allowed to prevail. And as it is indisputable that in the great mass of the educational institutions of the land—professed Christian as well as other—the whole educational system is corrupted with this same Greek and Roman “wisdom,” the result can be nothing else than that the world will again be caused not to know God: and the end of it must be only that which came to Greece and Rome.AMS July 29, 1897, page 466.11

The sum of it all is, that in anything and everything that makes any claim to bring Christian education, the word of God—the Bible—must be given the leading place in every line of study that may be proposed or undertaken. And any would-be teacher who is not prepared to give to the Bible just this place in every line of study, it not fit to teach in any Christian school. Such teaching only is truly scientific as well as truly right. Only such a school can be truly called a Christian school.AMS July 29, 1897, page 467.1

“The Power of Christianity” American Sentinel 12, 30, p. 467.

ATJ

THE Christian religion is simply a manifestation of the life of Christ. The Christian is “dead,” and his life is “hid with Christ in God.” Colossians 3:3. As expressed in the language of Paul in his letter to the Galatians, “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” Galatians 2:20. As “God was in Christ,” revealing himself to the world, and “reconciling the world unto himself,” when Jesus walked through Judea, so Christ is in his followers, and thereby God is still manifest to the world in human flesh. Colossians 1:27.AMS July 29, 1897, page 467.1

This is the testimony which the world has that Christianity is true and that Jesus Christ exists to-day as the Saviour of fallen men. The world beholds him in the person of his true followers; and beholding him, they see also his Father, of whom he is the express image. John 14:9, 10.AMS July 29, 1897, page 467.2

Christ does not give to the world hearsay evidence concerning himself. He does not ask men to believe on him because it is recorded that over eighteen hundred years ago he lived as a man on the earth, teaching the kingdom of God and working miracles. He does not ask them to believe because some person says that all this is true. To the question, Is there a Christ, the Christian answers, Yes. And to the query, How do you know? he replied: Because he is living with me. And that answer would be accepted as primary evidence in any court of law.AMS July 29, 1897, page 467.3

The world may scoff at the doctrines and creeds of the churches. It may ridicule the statements of Scripture and appeal to history and to “reason” to prove that Christianity is all a myth. But when it meets Christ face to face, it finds evidence which it cannot gainsay. All its specious arguments fall to the ground, and it is obliged to confess that there is a “mystery of godliness”—God manifest in human flesh. It sees a life that it knows is not the life of the individual as he once was—a life which bears the unmistakable stamp of the divine.AMS July 29, 1897, page 467.4

The Christian knows that Jesus Christ lives, by the evidence of his own experience; for he has been crucified, buried, and raised to life again with Christ; and Christ living in him, the world has also visible evidence that Christianity is true, and that its Saviour is no myth. It matters not that but few of those who profess Christianity have been “born again,“—that the vast majority of nominal Christians give to the world no sign of the life of that divine One whose name they have taken. If in but one individual there is presented the mystery of God dwelling in human flesh, the claims of Christianity are proved. And now, as in all ages, there are a number scattered through all lands and among all races, through whom this testimony of a living Christ is given to the world.AMS July 29, 1897, page 467.5

This is the power of godliness which is to convince the world and draw men and women from it into the pathway of righteousness. If all the church were but in this condition, Christianity would sweep all countries like a mighty tidal wave. But when the church seeks for power from the State, as she is doing in all lands to-day, she denies before the world that Christ exists and justifies the world in its unbelief.AMS July 29, 1897, page 467.6

“The Christian Warfare” American Sentinel 12, 30, pp. 467, 468.

ATJ

FOR what does the Christian soldier fight? A Roman Catholic journal, The Pilot (Boston), answers the question thus:—AMS July 29, 1897, page 467.1

“The Christian soldier fights for his country, sustained not by the hope of subsequent political rewards, nor even by the nobler expectation of the gratitude of posterity, but simply for the love of his country, and his conviction that it is his duty before God to lay down his life for her at need.”AMS July 29, 1897, page 467.2

And this is about the idea which many Protestants hold on the same point. But it is not Bible doctrine. The very first thing Christianity requires of any person, under all circumstances, is that he lay down his life. He must be “dead,” and his life “hid with Christ in God.” Colossians 3:3. “Subsequent political rewards” and the “gratitude of posterity” are ruled out altogether. And God never calls an individual to lay down his life for the sake of his country. He must lay it down because it is full of sin, and take in its place the life of Christ, which is all righteousness. “Whosoever will save his life,” said Jesus, “the same shall lose it.” The truly Christian soldier lets Christ live in him (Galatians 2:20), and by that life wages ceaseless warfare against all sin.AMS July 29, 1897, page 467.3

July 22, 1897

August 5, 1897