September 30, 1897
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September 30, 1897
“China's Double Bondage” The Present Truth, 13, 39.
It is not because the power of evil is stronger than the power of good that evil makes its way so much more swiftly in the world, but because the natural inclination of men is to the wrong. Thus, of China, and the blessing and the curse which has come to it from the West, Mr. J. Hudson Taylor, of the China Inland Mission, says:—PTUK September 30, 1897, page 610.1
There are in China tens of thousands of villages with small trace of Bible influence, but hardly a hamlet where the opium pipe does not reign. It does more harm in a week than all our missionaries are doing good in a year. The slave-trade was bad, the drink is bad; but the opium traffic is the sum of villainies. It debauches more families than drink, and it makes more slaves than the slave-trade.PTUK September 30, 1897, page 610.2
The Gospel can save to the uttermost, and Christian missions are rescuing many from the double slavery of heathenism and the opium habit. And Christians owe a double duty to such, as it was in the name of Christian civilisation and trade that China was forced by war to receive the “flowing poison.”PTUK September 30, 1897, page 610.3
“Lessons From the Book of Hebrews. Christ's Faithfulness in God's House” The Present Truth, 13, 39.
“Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus; who verily was faithful to Him that appointed Him, as also Moses was faithful in all His house. For this Man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he that hath builded the house hath more honour than the house. For every house is builded by some one; but He that built all things is God. And Moses verily was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after; but Christ as a Son over His house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.” Hebrews 3:1-6.PTUK September 30, 1897, page 611.1
In this quotation we have in two instances departed from the common version and have used the rendering of the Revised Version instead, since it is more literal, and hence clearer. In verse 4, instead of “some man,“ we have in the Revision “some one,“ which is manifestly the correct rendering. God is not a man, yet He has built a house. Also in verse 6 have we, as in the Revision, omitted the word “own” in the first line, since it is not found in the original. As we shall see, the statement is not that Christ was faithful as a Son over His own house, but that just as Moses was faithful in God's house as a servant, so was Christ faithful in God's house as a Son.PTUK September 30, 1897, page 611.2
“Wherefore.” -Note that there is no break between chapters two and three, any more than between one and two. Indeed, there is no break anywhere, since the entire book is a single letter, written for a special purpose, and having one single grand purpose. To begin reading the second chapter without any thought of the first, would be almost as unsatisfactory as to begin a history lesson with the question, “What happened next?” “Wherefore, consider Christ Jesus,“ is the sum of the first verse. Why, and in what capacity, should we consider Him? Because He has been tempted as a man; we are to consider Him as one of the brethren in all things Iike all the other brethren, only that He was in all respects faithful. No matter how highly Christ is exalted, nor how great His power and glory, if we consider Him as in any degree separated from us, and not as “the Man Christ Jesus,“ we to that degree deprive ourselves of the comfort of the Gospel.PTUK September 30, 1897, page 611.3
Christ Compared to Moses .—Christ was faithful to Him that appointed Him as also Moses was. That is to say, Christ was as faithful as Moses. At first glance one would think that it would be more fitting to compare Moses with Christ, and say that Moses was as faithful as Christ; but that would not be true, for Moses made at least one mistake after he left Egypt, while Christ never made any. But it is perfectly true of Christ, that He was as faithful as Moses; and at the same time it is the highest commendation to Moses that an man could have. People are inclined to belittle Moses, and to speak slightingly of him and his writings; but just to the extent that they do that, they show then selves unacquainted with the Lord. When God foretold the work of Christ, He said to Moses, “I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee.” Deuteronomy 13:16. And Christ said, “Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believe Me; for he wrote of Me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe My words?” John 5:46, 47. Therefore whoever rejects or speaks slightingly of Moses treats Christ in the same manner.PTUK September 30, 1897, page 611.4
Whose House? -Christ was faithful Him that appointed Him, as also Moses was faithful in all His house? In who house?—Evidently in the house of Him who appointed Christ, and we do not need to take time to show that that was God. But we have the word of the Lord, Numbers 12:5-8: “And the Lord came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam; and they both came forth. And He said. Hear now My words; there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make Myself known unto him a vision, and will speak unto Him in dream. My servant Moses, is not so, who is faithful in all Mine house. With him I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold; wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against My servant Moses?” When God thus appears to those who in these days speak slightly of Moses, and calls them to account, they will say, as did Aaron, “We have done foolishly.” But this text makes it clear that it was in God's house that Moses was faithful.PTUK September 30, 1897, page 611.5
What is God's House? -That question is easily answered. The Apostle Paul said to Timothy that he had written to him, “that thou mightest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God.” 1 Timothy 3:15. Moses therefore was faithful in the church of God, that church which He “purchased with His own blood.” Stephen also, filled with the Holy Ghost, said that Moses was “in the church in the wilderness with the Angel which spake to him in the mount Sina.” Acts 7:38.PTUK September 30, 1897, page 611.6
How Many Churches? -We have already seen that the house of God is the church of God. But the church is the body of Christ, as we are told in Ephesians 1:32, 23 and Colossians 1:15. There are therefore just as many houses or churches as there are bodies. In Ephesians 4:1-6 we read, “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as also ye were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all.” Since there is but one body, and the body is the church, it follows that there is but one church which is the house of God. And so it still further follows that Moses and Christ were both workers in the same house, or in the same church. They both belonged to the same church.PTUK September 30, 1897, page 612.1
The Builder .—“He that built all things is God.” But by whom did He build? He “created all things by Jesus Christ.” Ephesians 3:9. Christ is “the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1:24), and in Proverbs 8:29, 30, Christ, in the capacity of the wisdom of God says that when God marked out the foundations of the earth, “then I was by Him as a Master Workman.” R.V. Thus it is that “this man”—Christ-“was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house.” Christ built the house, and Moses was a part of the house, as we shall see later on.PTUK September 30, 1897, page 612.2
The Christian Church .—It is quite common to date the beginning of the Christian Church at Pentecost, which is about as nearly correct as if one should date the creation of the world at Pentecost. We have already seen that there was a “church in the wilderness” in the days of Moses, and that the church is the house of God, in which Moses was faithful; else that there is but one church;-one house of God;-so that both Moses and Christ were faithful in the same house, or the same church, the one as a servant, the other as a Son. But the church in which Christ is a Son is of course the Christian Church; and as there is but one church, it is plain that “the church in the wilderness” was the Christian Church. Moses, who esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt (Hebrews 11:36), was such a Christian as anybody in those days might well be glad to be. The man who has a good Christian record as Moses had, will in no wise miss the kingdom of heaven.PTUK September 30, 1897, page 612.3
What is the Church? -The word rendered “church,“ is from the Greek compound word ekklesia, which occurs in the English word ecclesiastical, meaning to pertain to the church. The word means “called out.” The church, therefore, consists of those who are called out, and who come out. Ancient Israel was called out of Egypt, from which all God's people must come, for the word concerning Christ is, “Out of Egypt have I called My Son.” Matthew 2:15. In the Old Testament we have the word “congregation,“ and it would he much better if it were used in the New, instead of “church;” for those who come out in response to the call, naturally come to the One who calls them, thus con-grega-ting, flocking, or gathering together. “Congregation” is derived from two words that signify an assemblage or herd of cattle; and this idea is retained in the Church of Christ, which is His flock, over which He is Shepherd. 1 Peter 5:4; Acts 20:28. All therefore who hear the Shepherd's voice, and follow Him, are His flock, His church. He was called out of Egypt, and those who really came out of Egypt, formed His church of old. If we hear His voice, then we are His house. But as there is but one house, it follows that all Christians must be in full fellowship with those who served God in the days of Moses.PTUK September 30, 1897, page 612.4
We are His House .—Moses was faithful in God's house as a servant, but Christ as a Son; both however in the same house. “Whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.” Christ is the Living Stone, and when we come to Him we also as living stones are built up a spiritual house. 1 Peter 2:4, 5. But the same Stone, the spiritual Rock, was in the desert of Sinai,-the Rock on which Christ's church is built. The same house in which Moses served, and over which Christ is Son, is the house of which we become a part, if we accept and retain the anointing of the oil of gladness.PTUK September 30, 1897, page 612.5
God does not change. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever. Therefore God's requirements do not change; His plans are always the same. Men despise the name of Jew, and scorn to have any connection with the people whom God brought out of Egypt. So it was in ancient times. It was a reproach to be connected with the children of Israel; but it was the reproach of Christ, and Moses found more delight in it than in all the treasures of Egypt; “for salvation is of the Jews” (John 4:22), since Christ is King of the Jews, and as such was “despised and rejected of men.”PTUK September 30, 1897, page 612.6
He is Faithful .—“If we believe not, yet He abideth faithful: He cannot deny Himself.” 2 Timothy 2:13. He is faithful to Him that appointed Him He was faithful as a Son over God's house. But we are that house, and sons, too, if we are Christ’s. “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our Spirit, that we are the children of God; and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ. Romans 8:16, 17. The same thing is referred to by Christ, where He says that if we continue in His Word we are truly His disciples, and we shall know the truth, and the truth shall make us free. John 8:31, 32. This being made free, is being adopted as sons; for the bondservant abideth not in the house for ever; but the Son abideth ever. As sons in God's house we are to exercise the same faithfulness that Christ did, and this we can do because He gives us His own faith. “The life which I now Iive in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God.” Galatians 2:20. Christ dwelling in the heart by faith, exercises His own faith, by which He kept the Father's commandments, and abode in His love; so that it can be said: “Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Revelation 14:12. This faith alone overcomes the world. “Wherefore, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to Him that appointed Him,“ “as a Son over His house.”PTUK September 30, 1897, page 612.7
We need not fear the hardness of others’ hearts; our own heart is the one to fear. When fully saved ourselves, we can go to any Pharaoh.PTUK September 30, 1897, page 612.8
“Uncovering Sins” The Present Truth, 13, 39.
He that covereth his sins, says the Lord, shall not prosper. He is not genuinely repentant, and does not know the Lord, or would know that nothing can be hid from Him. The Lord wishes us to deal frankly with Him. The old Anglo-Saxon version of Mark's Gospel (1:5) says that the people went down to John's baptism “naming their sins.” That is what confession is. An evangelist tells the following story, illustrating the manner in which men sometimes try to generalise with the Lord, and so miss the blessing that comes when sin is uncovered in the light of God's countenance to be consumed in mercy:—PTUK September 30, 1897, page 615.1
“A member of the church once got drunk. He sought to go back to God and get his peace restored. He could not find the Saviour, so he sought again. His minister called upon him. The minister said, ‘You pray again.’ They knelt down together.PTUK September 30, 1897, page 615.2
“‘O God, Thou knowest Thy servant in a moment of unwatchfulness was overtaken by a sin!’PTUK September 30, 1897, page 615.3
“‘Nonsense,’ said the minister, ‘tell the Lord you got drunk.’PTUK September 30, 1897, page 615.4
“That was another matter; he could not bring that up. He began again: ‘O Lord, thou knowest Thy servant in his weakness and frailty was overtaken by a besetment!’PTUK September 30, 1897, page 615.5
“‘Nonsense! tell the Lord you got drunk.’PTUK September 30, 1897, page 615.6
“At last the poor fellow said, ‘O God, have mercy on me; ‘I got drunk!’PTUK September 30, 1897, page 615.7
“Then very speedily that man was at peace with God again.”PTUK September 30, 1897, page 615.8
“Signs of the Times in the Business World” The Present Truth, 13, 39.
It is an age of confederacies and “trust.” The rich form them to add to their riches, and the poorer are joining together for common action against those holding the means of production. In it all, the rights of the individual are not considered, and the tendency is toward the tyranny of the combination over the individual. The Scripture foretells the troubles that will come in the last days because of the rich heaping together their riches. In the end they will be for “booties” unto the oppressed, Habakkuk warns them, and the prophet James pronounces the woe upon them for their covetousness, at the same time showing that all the Lord's people will keep clear of both sides in the controversy, and wait patiently for the coming of the Lord.PTUK September 30, 1897, page 615.9
The signs of the coming struggle are apparent everywhere, but in America they are most plainly to be seen. An American correspondent of the National Review says that the commercial world is full of rumours of the creation of new trust so gigantic and so far-reaching in their cope that those trusts already in existence are mere pigmies compared to them.PTUK September 30, 1897, page 615.10
One trust now controlling the oil, iron ore, and sugar industries of America, purposes adding several other businesses, having so great an income that it can easily buy the industry. Thus business and wealth in the United States are coming more and more into the hands of a few. The National Review says of this:—PTUK September 30, 1897, page 615.11
It is difficult to see what the end will be an when this process of absorption will end. There are perhaps two solutions which may be looked forward to during the next quarter of a century. One is a universal trust with a few men controlling all the industrial activities of the United States, and with the bulk of the American people its employees. The other is a repetition of the French Revolution, but the revolution of 1925, if it comes, will be more terrible in its consequences and more destructive in its results than that of 1793, because to-day the people are more numerous, more determined and more intelligent, and their power to work good or evil has increased tenfold since the days of Robespierre and Danton.PTUK September 30, 1897, page 615.12
The one thing that would hold in check these elements of violence, both as to the lawless greed of the capitalists and the lawless covetousness of the poor, is the Gospel. But the world does not want this generally. And too often the churches-and this is the general tendency in America-distrusting the power of the Gospel, are going in for political reform. But the more the churches enter the arena of political strife the less power of God for righteousness will they have to wield for peace. One of the signs of the Lord's coming was to be the “distress of nations, with perplexity.” We see it in more directions than one, and men's hearts are alarmed as they look into the future. It is a good time to persuade men to put their trust in God. He has a care for the individual.PTUK September 30, 1897, page 615.13
“Items of Interest” The Present Truth, 13, 39.
-The plague is now increasing in Bombay. Harvest prospects in India are said to be very favourable.PTUK September 30, 1897, page 622.1
-The yellow fever is causing consternation in the southern United States.PTUK September 30, 1897, page 622.2
-About forty deaths from cycling have been reported in England this summer, and 100 persons were seriously injured.PTUK September 30, 1897, page 622.3
-If the earth was equally divided between its inhabitants, about twenty-three and a-half acres, it is said, would fall to the share of each person.PTUK September 30, 1897, page 622.4
-It is said that the United States pension list is a greater expense than the support of the German army. And the list increases instead of decreasing.PTUK September 30, 1897, page 622.5
-The Athens mob is for defying the Powers and resuming the war with Turkey. But the authorities have found that the mob cannot be depended upon to do the fighting.PTUK September 30, 1897, page 622.6
-Great discontent prevails in Greece over the award of the Powers to Turkey. Greece pays ?4,000,000, and all the strategic points on the frontier pass to Turkey.PTUK September 30, 1897, page 622.7
-A cyclone in Italy last week killed forty people. These tornadoes were formerly heard of only in America, but several have been reported during the last year in Europe.PTUK September 30, 1897, page 622.8
-After a millionaire in Paris had died of shock, on finding that he had lost everything but 100,000 francs, a poor relative, hearing that he had inherited the 100,000 francs, died of the shock too.PTUK September 30, 1897, page 622.9
-Rumour says a war between Spain and the United States is considered inevitable in Madrid. The States intimate that they must intervene in Cuba if the Spanish do not subdue the island by November.PTUK September 30, 1897, page 622.10
-The latest returns indicate that every month of the year, alike in summer and in winter, over 1,200 houses are erected in London. -Between August 1896 and August 1897 the number of houses erected was 14,591.PTUK September 30, 1897, page 622.11
-A cargo of wheat arrived at Plymouth in May last from San Francisco. The owners of the ship held it for wheat to rise in price, and they have just sold the cargo for ?8,000 more than they would have received in May.PTUK September 30, 1897, page 622.12
-The report of the Lunacy Commissioners shows a large and continuing increase in the number of persons in England and Wales who are known as officially insane, the total being 99,365, the year's increase being 3,000.PTUK September 30, 1897, page 622.13
-The outlook for the Russian peasantry is said to be very serious, owing to agricultural depression. Multitudes have had to dispose of horses and cattle in order to live, and have no way of working their farms save to get deeper into debt to the trading class, which is getting richer as the peasantry gets poorer. Half of the land-owning nobles are also said to be impoverished to the verge of ruin.PTUK September 30, 1897, page 622.14
“Back Page” The Present Truth, 13, 39.
“More than half the total wealth of the country,“ says a London journal of the United States, “is in the hands of some 45,000 people.”PTUK September 30, 1897, page 624.1
We are glad to learn that the German organ of our Society, the Herold der Wahrheit (Herald of Truth), of Hamburg, has a circulation of 18,000 copies.PTUK September 30, 1897, page 624.2
A writer in a theatrical paper remarks a change in the attitude of Nonconformity toward the stage, and says that the success of some recent plays “is owing even to Nonconformist patronage.”PTUK September 30, 1897, page 624.3
Of the composition of this year's Church Congress, being held at Nottingham this week, a correspondent of a Protestant paper says: “In the list of readers and speakers I am only able to find the names of seven Evangelicals; while, on the other hand, I am able to identify the names of no fewer than thirty-two High Churchmen and Ritualists.” The church congresses seem every year to have less of Protestantism and more of Romanism in evidence.PTUK September 30, 1897, page 624.4
The church leaders threw the apostles into prison. “Howbeit many of them which heard the Word believed,“ about five thousand men. The Word of God was not bound. Again, when thrown into prison when the Lord had work outside for them to do, the angel brought them out saying, “Go, stand and spealk in the temple all the words of this life.” The church at Jerusalem was getting, and persecution arose and scattered the believers. Doubtless the rulers thought that they had broken the power of the movement. But wherever believers went they carried the Word, and souls were saved and the truth spread the more. No wonder the disciples asked David's question, “Why did the heathen rage and the people imagine vain things?”PTUK September 30, 1897, page 624.5
“Outside the city of Foochow, on the way to the favourite mountain summer resort called Ku-shan,“ says a writer in the University Magazine, “there is a small pond, like a horse-pond, under the shadow of a large banyan tree; at the foot of the tree was a stone, engraved with the words, ‘Girls may not be drowned here.’”PTUK September 30, 1897, page 624.6
The person applying for a position in business must possess certain qualifications, and if these are lacking he is rejected. But the Lord says, “Him that cometh unto Me, I will in no wise cast out.” The one qualification is that it shall be acknowledged that there is no qualification.PTUK September 30, 1897, page 624.7
“It is impossible for anyone,“ says Sir John Lubbock, to contemplate the present naval and military arrangements without the gravest forebodings. Even if they do not end in war, they will eventually end in bankruptcy and ruin. The principal countries of Europe are running deeper and deeper into debt.”PTUK September 30, 1897, page 624.8
“A homicidal wave seems,“ says the Daily Chronicle, “to be passing over the country.” Newspapers have also marked the suicidal wave. The restraints of the moral law of God are being loosened, and the lawless one is making manifest the nature of his rule.PTUK September 30, 1897, page 624.9
A recent German Catholic Congress which advocated the restoration of the Pope's temporal sovereignty, and demanded the repeal of the law excluding Jesuits from Germany, received the congratulations of the Pope and the German Emperor.PTUK September 30, 1897, page 624.10
It was hoped a few months ago the plague in India was being stamped out, but now the cable news states that it is spreading from hamlet to hamlet, and the situation is very grave. With famine, earthquake, war, and pestilence, India has this year been sorely smitten. Who that is watching the signs of the times can fail to see in the multiplication of these calamities in the earth a sign that the judgments of the latter days are abroad?PTUK September 30, 1897, page 624.11
Going about London one may see general renovating and enlarging of public houses. The bar-rooms are often fitted up gorgeously, when all about are houses in which there is apparent lack of comfort and conveniences. The crowds that fill the glittering public bars often return to cheerless homes. It is strange that they cannot see that the elegance of the bar-rooms is paid for from their own pockets. Men are ready enough to strike on some issues, but the great mass stupidly go on robbing their own houses of comforts to build gin palaces and send brewers to the House of Lords.PTUK September 30, 1897, page 624.12
We are glad to see by a colonial newspaper that the sanatorium established by our friends in South Africa, near Cape Town, is compelled to enlarge its facilities. The Wynberg Times says:—PTUK September 30, 1897, page 624.13
The patronage has been so great that the trustees and managers are now taking active measures towards the erection of an extensive addition to the main building, the present capacity being inadequate to accommodate the increasing number of applications. These new additions will consist of no less then thirty rooms; a large dining room, four time, the capacity of the present one; a gymnasium and other valuable rooms.PTUK September 30, 1897, page 624.14
“In Earth” The Present Truth, 13, 39.
In Earth .—The war debts of Europe have risen from ?4,000,000,000 in 1870 to ?6,000,000,000 now, representing an unthinkable sum not put into useful enterprises, but worse than thrown away. Sir John Lubbock further says:—PTUK September 30, 1897, page 624.15
In fact, we never now have any real peace; we live practically in a state of war, happily without battles or bloodshed, but not without terrible sufferings. Even in our own case, one-third of our national income is spent in preparing for future wars, another third in paying for past ones, and only one-third is left for the Government of the country. Our interests at stake are enormous, and the interests of nations are so interwoven that every war now is in fact a civil war.PTUK September 30, 1897, page 624.16
“In Heaven” The Present Truth, 13, 39.
In Heaven .—The truth is, we have reached the time spoken of in Revelation 11:18, the time when all things point to the soon coming of the Lord, and when “the hour of His judgment is come.” “The nations were angry,“ says this text, “and Thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead that they should be judged.” While the solemn court of Heaven is deciding the fate of all the dead since Adam, passing upon the warriors and great of past ages, who filled the earth with violence to satisfy the lust of conquest which is never satisfied, the nations of the present day are irritated and angry, and destroying the earth with their feuds. What a spectacle to the angels! And Christendom, that professes to be serving the Lord, is leading in the strife. The Lord calls Christians out of all this world-spirit into His kingdom of righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.PTUK September 30, 1897, page 624.17