December 14, 1893

“Front Page” The Present Truth 9, 37.

EJW

E. J. Waggoner

“We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not abideth in death.” 1 John 3:14, Revised Version.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 577.1

This is much more comprehensive than the rendering, “He that loveth not his brother, abideth in death.” Moreover it is identical with 1 John 4:7, “Love is of God,” and verse 19, “We love, because He first loved us.” Perfect love is unselfish, and comes from God alone. It appears in man only when the love of God is shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Spirit. Romans 5:5.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 577.2

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of life. “It is the Spirit that quickeneth.” John 6:63. “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” Romans 8:2. Christ symbolised the Spirit as “living water” (John 7:37, 39), and also said, “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” John 4:14. “If the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.” Romans 8:11.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 577.3

Love and life, therefore, come from God, through His Spirit. This is what is indicated by the text first quoted. Love is the evidence of having passed out of death into life. That is, the new life from above, which begins in those who believe on Christ (John 3:36) is love, and the beginning of that life in man is the beginning of love. True love and real life are identical.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 577.4

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. In giving His Son, God gave Himself. “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself.” 2 Corinthians 5:19. It is the death of Christ that reconciles us to God. Romans 5:10. Therefore God was in Christ in His death. So the elders are exhorted to “feed the church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood.” Acts 20:28. We cannot understand the mystery of it, but the fact remains that God has given His own life for man; and those who pass from death to life receive the life of God. Love is but the outflowing of the life of God.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 577.5

“This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.” 1 John 5:4. “Love worketh no ill to his neighbour, therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” Romans 13:10. We have seen that the life of God is love; and since love is the fulfilling of the law, it is evident that the life of God is the perfect law. So that life, love, and law are identical. “God was in Christ;” in Him the life of God was fully exhibited, so that in the life of Christ we find the perfection of the law. As the hymn says,-PTUK December 14, 1893, page 577.6

“My blest Redeemer, and my Lord,
I read my duty in Thy word;
But in Thy life the law appears
Drawn out in living characters.”PTUK December 14, 1893, page 577.7

What then necessarily follows from the fact that it is the life of God which comes into believers?—Nothing less than that the law comes in with the life, because the life is the law. What that law of life and love is, we see stated in the ten commandments, which Christ spoke from Sinai, and which He lived out in Judea and Galilee. He kept the Father’s commandments (John 15:10), because the law was within His heart. Psalm 40:8. But Jesus Christ is “the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.” Hebrews 13:8. Therefore when He lives in the heart by faith, He will live as He did when on earth eighteen hundred years ago. There will be no change. God changes not (Malachi 3:6; James 1:17); Christ changes not; therefore the law which is but the life of God in Christ, cannot change. “It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.” Luke 16:17.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 577.8

“Witnesses for God” The Present Truth 9, 37.

EJW

E. J. Waggoner

“Ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord, and My servant whom I have chosen; that ye may know and believe Me, and understand that I am He; before Me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after Me. I, even I, am the Lord; and beside Me there is no Saviour. I have declared, and have saved, and I have showed, when there was no strange god among you; therefore ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God.” Isaiah 43:10-12.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 577.9

Coming down to New Testament times, we find very frequent utterances to the same effect. The Saviour impressed this truth upon the minds of His disciples. “Ye shall be witnesses unto Me,” said He, “both in Jerusalem, and in Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Acts 1:9. And Peter writes, “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.” What is our witness to be? For answer we may inquire what it was that Christ witnessed when He was a mortal like ourselves? for His life is our example. And Christ said, when He stood before Pilate, “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.” John 18:37. We also, then, are to bear witness unto the truth.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 577.10

But what is the truth? This question is answered in the prayer of Jesus for His disciples, recorded in John 17:17: “Sanctify them through Thy truth; Thy word is truth.” There is a great controversy raging between truth and error, represented by the forces of God and of Satan. The character of God and the justice of His dealings with His creatures, are on trial before the universe. The rebellion of Satan is based on his assertion, persistently maintained ever since it was first uttered in heaven, that God is unjust and that His system of government is faulty. Jesus Christ came into the world to demonstrate to all intelligences that “God is love,” and that justice and judgment are the habitation of His throne. Psalm 89:14. Therefore it was that the heavenly choir sang at the birth of Christ: “Glory to God in the highest; and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.”PTUK December 14, 1893, page 578.1

Our lives are a constant testimony either for the principles maintained by God, or for the assertions maintained by Satan. The life of Christ was a constant and unvarying testimony to the truth of the words of God and the perfection of His character and government; our lives give a testimony that is strangely inconsistent with itself. At one time we witness for God; at another time we die Him. How deny Him? We read of some who “profess that they know Him, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.” Titus 1:16. We deny God by sinning against Him. Every transgression is a testimony on the side of Satan. It is a testimony on the side of Satan. It is a testimony that under God’s government we cannot do that which is right, that His grace is not sufficient for us, and that the misery and ruin into which we come by transgression are the necessary result of the circumstances, under His government, surround us; for we justify at the time the act by which we transgress. This is in direct harmony with Satan’s claim, for he declared that God’s government was not a just and perfect one, and seceded from it to set up, as he claimed, a better one. This is the true significance of sin. It is a declaration before all the universe in denial of God, and in justification of God’s great enemy.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 578.2

But when we obey God, and when we exercise faith and claim His promised power to enable us to do His will, we testify that sin is without excuse; that God’s government is just and right, and that in it every provision is made for the welfare and happiness of His creatures. This is that which we are to witness for God. What an honour to glorify Him by giving this testimony before men, before angels, and before all the beholding universe!PTUK December 14, 1893, page 578.3

“‘I Am with You’” The Present Truth 9, 37.

EJW

E. J. Waggoner

These are the words left by Jesus Christ with His disciples for their comfort amidst the trials and temptations which beset their pathway here. And how well adapted they are to cheer and sustain His followers through the vicissitudes of their earthly pilgrimage. “I am with you always,”-I, who have all power in heaven and in earth-I, who “am the way, the truth, and the life,” the embodiment of perfect wisdom and grace and righteousness. How full of comfort are such words if we will but believe them and keep them with us.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 578.4

Is your place in life a very humble one, so that you seem altogether beneath the notice of men? The word of Christ to you is, “I am with you.” Is your lot a hard and painful one? Still the assurance comes, “I am with you.” The Saviour condescends to occupy any place, no matter what, that can be filled by one of His disciples. No station is to humble for Him; no lot too trying. Do you suffer for the necessaries of life? Christ knows what it is to feel the pangs of hunger. Are you without friends? He knows what it is to be friendless; in the very hour of His trial, “all the disciples forsook Him and fled.” Are you without a home? The Son of man had not where to lay His head. Wherever you have been as His followers, there He has been; wherever you are, there He is.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 578.5

Christ has passed through lower depths and darker trials than any that ever have been or can be experienced by His earthly children. He did this that He might “save to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him.” He descended to the lowest depths of human woe, that He might reach and save those who were sunken therein, as well as those who had fallen less low.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 578.6

And not only has the Son of God been through all these dark places, but He is in each one of them with you. When you feel, He feels. He identifies Himself with you in all your trials and sufferings. And thus it is that He will say to those who have clothed the naked, and visited the sick, fed the hungry, and in other ways ministered to the necessities of the needy, “Inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye did it unto Me.”PTUK December 14, 1893, page 578.7

The Apostle Paul tells us that “unto you is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake.” Philippians 1:29. But, we are further told, “as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.” 2 Corinthians 1:5. “In all our tribulation,” said the apostle, “we are exceeding joyful.” In suffering, we have fellowship with Him. Philippians 3:10. And therefore we may think it not strange concerning the fiery trial that comes upon us, but rejoice, inasmuch as we are made partakers of Christ’s sufferings; and when the hour of darkness comes, commit the keeping of our souls to Him, as unto a faithful Creator. 1 Peter 4:12, 13, 19.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 578.8

“Not Majority, But Unanimity” The Present Truth 9, 37.

EJW

E. J. Waggoner

Much is said about majority rule, and most people seem to think that for the majority to rule, even in religious matters is a most just and equitable arrangement. But whatever may be said for it in worldly affairs, it is a fact that the Gospel knows nothing of any such rule. Unanimous action is the only thing recognised in the Bible. Note the following texts:PTUK December 14, 1893, page 578.9

“And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.” Acts 2:1.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 578.10

“And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul.” Acts 4:32.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 578.11

When there was a question under consideration in the church at Jerusalem, “the apostles and elders, with the whole church” were of one mind in regard to it. See Acts 15:22.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 578.12

The Apostle Paul wrote: “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.”PTUK December 14, 1893, page 578.13

Again: “Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus; that ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Romans 15:5, 6.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 579.1

This last text gives the secret of unanimity. It must come from God. “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 2:5. This comes not by discussion and argument, but by prayer for the Spirit of submission one to another. Therefore prayer and the study of the word of God, in which is the mind of Christ is revealed, and not discussion and legislation, is the proper way to settle all the affairs that concern the church of Christ. If there is not perfect unanimity in the church, there is wrong there. The wrong may lie with the majority, or with the minority, or with both; but it is certain that when there is not unanimity in regard to any question, the proper thing to do is to drop that question for the time, and seek the Lord. The “peace of God” is the only thing that should rule in the church of Christ.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 579.2

“Christianity and ‘Christendom’” The Present Truth 9, 37.

EJW

E. J. Waggoner

Christianity and “Christendom.”—Religious journals are not prone to recognise the distinction between a “Christian” nation and one in which Christianity, in form at least, is the prevailing religion; but The Christian, looking across the ocean to semi-civilised lands which have become the field of Christian missionary effort, sees the distinction very plainly, it is led to speak as follows:—PTUK December 14, 1893, page 579.3

The distinction drawn by Dr. Pentecost between Christianity and Christendom, between the followers of Christ, and the inhabitants of so-called Christian countries, is of the utmost importance. The drink and opium traffic, the legalisation of vice, and other forms of evil are not Christian but heathen. There is no Christian nation in the world, in the sense in which the word Christian is used in that classical passage which declares that “the disciples were called Christians first at Antioch.”PTUK December 14, 1893, page 579.4

There is therefore in the Bible sense of the term “Christian,” no such thing as a Christian nation on earth. But will The Christian and other religious journals of England admit this fact when it is not a question of clearing Christianity from the stigma sought to be put upon it by the heathen by the means above mentioned, but of maintaining religious customs and traditions which come down to us with the sanction of very many prominent ecclesiastics and laymen of England, both by precept and practice? Will it be admitted then that the voice of government, which now permits “the drink and opium traffic, the legalisation of vice, and other forms of evil,” is not the voice of Christianity?PTUK December 14, 1893, page 579.5

“The Church—True and False” The Present Truth 9, 37.

EJW

E. J. Waggoner

The Bible contains very little of what is known as “church history.” We find abundant testimony as to what the Church of Christ ought to be, and what it will be when He returns to receive it to Himself; but we find only enough of its history to enable us to see that such a church as the Bible requires is not an ideal affair, but that it did once actually exist; and thereby we may know that it will exist again. There are numerous “Church Histories” in existence, but they are only the history of apostasy. People who study church history to find out what the church should be, are as those who go to a crippled to learn how to walk. Since the days of the apostles, the names and history of the members of the true church of Christ have been written only in the books in heaven.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 579.6

We cannot at this time enter into a study in detail of what the church ought to be. Suffice it to say that the Church of Christ is the body of Christ, and that therefore it draws its life from Him. “He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked.” 1 John 2:6. Of Him it is said that He “did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth; and who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not; but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously.” 1 Peter 2:22, 23. Although He was rich, for our sakes He became poor, that we through His poverty might be made rich. 2 Corinthians 8:9. And the church is exhorted thus: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus; who, ... made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant.” Philippians 2:5-7.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 579.7

To find out, therefore, what the church of Christ must be, we have only to study the life of Christ; “because as He is, so are we in this world.” 1 John 4:17. We may, however, quote a few words that Christ has spoken to His followers. By keeping them in mind, we shall easily be able to discern and be on our guard against the spirit of antichrist whenever we meet it.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 579.8

UNSELFISHNESS AND HUMILITY

At one time two of the disciples made a request, through their mother, for the two highest places in Christ’s kingdom. When the rest of the disciples heard of it, they were moved with indignation against the two. They thought that it was unfair for the two to steal a march on them in a place for preferment. “But Jesus called them unto Him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you; but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant; even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.” Matthew 20:25-28.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 579.9

In the world men seek for place and power for themselves. But in the church of Christ the rule is, “In honour preferring one another.” Romans 12:10. Whenever a spirit of seeking a position for oneself, or a disposition to exercise authority over another, comes into the church, then it is the world, and not the church of Christ. “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” 1 John 2:16.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 579.10

The true church is the body of Christ, “the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.” Ephesians 1:22, 23. Therefore we find this exhortation: “If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, fulfil ye My joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus; who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant.” Philippians 2:2-7.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 579.11

It was the mind that Christ had when He was in heaven, that led Him to do that. In heaven He had the spirit to serve, and it only needed that He should take the form of a servant, for men could not look upon Him in His glory. In Him we see in what His church must be. He “went about doing good,” living among men as one that served. So it is said to us, “By love serve one another.” Galatians 5:13. This mind can be in men only as they yield themselves to the Word of God, for the word is spirit and life. The prophecy concerning Christ was, “I will put My words in His mouth; and He shall speak unto them all that I shall command Him.” Deuteronomy 18:18. And when He came, He took as the rule of His life, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” Accordingly we find that the characteristics of the church at the time when the Spirit of God dwelt in it were humility and loyalty to the word of God. “They were all with one accord in one place.” Acts 2:1. “And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul.” Acts 4:32. Their prayer was that with boldness they might speak the word. Verse 29. When they were dispersed from Jerusalem, they “went everywhere preaching the word.’ Acts 8:4.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 579.12

THE BEGINNING OF APOSTASY

But this state of things did not last long, and change all came through the disloyalty to the word of God. To the elders of the church at Ephesus, the Apostle Paul said, “For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.” Acts 20:29, 30. Notice that the “perverse things” spoken would have the effect of drawing disciples after the speakers, instead of to God. “He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God.” John 3:34. The effect of speaking the words of God, will ever be to draw men to Him; but he that speaketh his own words, draws to himself. It was for this reason that the Apostle Paul through the Spirit gave the solemn charge to Timothy:-PTUK December 14, 1893, page 580.1

“I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom; preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” 2 Timothy 4:1-4.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 580.2

Even in the days of the apostles, the seeds of this apostasy were in the church. Paul wrote, “The mystery of iniquity doth already work.” 2 Thessalonians 2:7. John says, “I wrote unto the church; but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. Therefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words; and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbiddeth them that would, and casteth them out of the church.” 3 John 9, 10. He spoke perverse words, to draw away disciples after Himself.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 580.3

THE CAUSE OF APOSTASY

It was not long before the fine gold had become dim, and a different voice than Christ’s was heard in the church. Within a little more than a hundred years after John wrote, a “Theological Seminary’ was in full operation at Alexandria, spreading the darkness of Egypt over the earth. The two principal teachers at the school were Origen and Clement. To this school young men came from all parts of the world, to learn how to preach; and so great was its influence, that we are told that nearly all the servants of the day were taken either directly or indirectly from Origen. We have only to learn the sentiments of the teachers in that school, to know the kind of husks upon which the churches were fed.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 580.4

Origen wrote a work on the principles of things, from which we quote:-PTUK December 14, 1893, page 580.5

Having spoken thus briefly on the subject of the Divine inspiration of the Scriptures, it is necessary to proceed to the consideration of the manner in which they are to be read and understood, seeing numerous errors have been committed in consequence of the method in which the holy documents ought to be examined not having been discovered by the multitude.-De Principiis, book 4, chap. 1, section 8.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 580.6

Clement also said: “For many reasons, then, the Scriptures hide the sense. First, that we may become inquisitive, and be ever on the watch for the discovery of the words of salvation. Then it was not suitable for all to understand, so that they might not receive harm in consequence of taking in another sense the things declared for salvation by the Holy Spirit.”PTUK December 14, 1893, page 580.7

Here we have a direct contradiction of the words of Christ, who said that the things of God were revealed unto babes, and that they who receive the kingdom of God must do so as little children, and not as philosophers. When Christ was on earth, “the common people heard Him gladly.” Mark 12:37. They could understand the deep things which the learned men found so difficult. But let us read further what these men said. Origen said, “With respect to Holy Scripture, our opinion is that the whole of it has a spiritual, but not the whole a bodily meaning, because the bodily meaning in many places proved to be impossible.”PTUK December 14, 1893, page 580.8

Again He said, in the same book:-PTUK December 14, 1893, page 580.9

The word of God has arranged that certain stumbling-blocks, as it were, and offences, and impossibilities, should be introduced into the midst of the law and the history, in order that we may not, after being drawn away in all directions by the merely attractive nature of the language, either altogether fall away from the true doctrines, as learning nothing worthy of God, or, by not departing from the letter, come to the knowledge of nothing more divine. And this also we must know, that the principal aim being to announce the “spiritual” connection in those things that are done, and that ought to be done, where the word found that things done according to the history could be adapted to these mystical senses, He made use of them, concealing from the multitude the deeper meaning; but where, in the narrative of the development of super-sensual things, there did not follow the performance of those certain events, which was already indicated by the mystical meaning, the Scripture interwoven in the history the account of some event that did not take place, sometimes what could not have happened; sometimes what could, but did not. And sometimes a few words are interpolated, which are not true in their literal acceptation, and sometimes a larger number. And a similar practice also is to be noticed in regard to the legislation, and which is often to be found what is useful in itself, and appropriate to the times of the legislation; and sometimes also what does not appear to be of utility; and at other times impossibilities are recorded for the sake of the inquisitive, in order that they may give themselves to the toil of investigating what is written, and thus attain to a becoming conviction of the manner in which a meaning worthy of God must be brought out in such subjects.-Section 15.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 580.10

And as though this was not enough, he proceeded to say:-PTUK December 14, 1893, page 580.11

Nor even do the law and the commandments wholly convey what is agreeable to reason. For who that has understanding will suppose that the first, and second, and third days, and the evening and the morning, existed without a sun, and moon, and stars? and that the first day was, as it were, without a sky? And who is so foolish as to suppose that God, after the manner of a husbandman, planted a paradise in Eden, and placed in it a tree of life, visible and palpable, so that one tasting fruit by the bodily teeth obtained life? and again, that one was a partaker of good and evil by masticating what was taken from the tree? And if God is said to walk in the Paradise in the evening, and Adam to hide himself under a tree, I do not suppose that anyone doubts that these things figuratively indicate certain mysteries, the history having taken place in appearance, and not literally.-Section 16.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 580.12

THROWING THE BIBLE AWAY

Before noting the necessary results of such teaching, let us see how diligently it has been transmitted to the present time. Many quotations might be given like the following, which is taken from an article by a clergymen, in one of the most prominent religious journals: “The infallibility of Scripture is on a par with the infalliblity of the Pope, and the desire to lean on it is evidence of a like weakness.” Again, “I have been surprised that so little stress has been laid hitherto, except by Dr. Clifford, upon the grave popular mischief that is worked by this doctrine of Biblical inerrancy. It is the Communist stumbling-block to young disciples, and the stoutest weapon of the ignorant unbelievers.... If common man held a reasonable Christian doctrine of Scripture, four out of every five secularist arguments would have no point left.”PTUK December 14, 1893, page 580.13

So Origen thought, and he proceeded to take the point out of secularist objections to the Bible, by throwing the Bible overboard. It was thus that some of the ministers of America proceeded to answer Ingersoll several years ago. When the infidel carped at the flood, and at other things mentioned in the Old Testament, they met it by saying that those things were not believed by educated Christians. That is, they met his objections, by agreeing with him.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 581.1

Bearing in mind the fact that the same thing that Origen taught nearly seventeen hundred years ago, is in the church to-day, let us see what is involved in it.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 581.2

In the first place it is evident that it is the spirit of antichrist, because it directly contradicts the words of Christ, who said that the things of God are revealed unto babes. Then it puts man above God, inasmuch as it claims that God is not able to make Himself understood by common people, without the help of men who have been trained in philosophy. It puts man in the place of God, and really makes man God, since the man who is able to tell when God means what He says, and when He does not, and who is able to find out by his own wisdom “a meaning worthy of God,” must have a mind even greater than that of God.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 581.3

Anyone can see, also, that the result of such teaching must be the same as to take the Bible away from the common people by force. For once get the common people to believe that the Bible is a book that they cannot understand, and that it needs special interpreters, and they will certainly not trouble themselves with reading it. Thus it appears that the result of teaching that the Bible has errors, and that people who read it for themselves, and who believe just what they read, will fall into dangerous errors, is to place all religious teaching in the hands of a few self-constituted interpreters. Thus are fulfilled the words of the Apostle Paul, that men should arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Of course with the Bible practically out of the hands of the people, there was no manner of false doctrines that their teachers could not palm off upon them.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 581.4

Clement’s teaching was that “Before the advent of the Lord, philosophy was necessary to the Greeks for righteousness. And now it becomes conducive to piety; being a kind of preparatory training for those who attain to faith through demonstration.”-Stromata, Book 1, chap. 5. Therefore it followed that in course of time only those who had taken a course in “philosophy,” especially that of Plato, were thought fit to teach the Scriptures; just as in these days a man cannot be counted a “theologian” unless he has taken a thorough course in the heathen classics. The study of heathen writers is considered one of the prime essentials in the preparation of a minister of the Gospel.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 581.5

The result of this philosophical training for the ministry in the early days of the Christian era, was that it let the teachers of religion, “to involve in philosophical obscurities many parts of our religion, which were in themselves plain and easy to be understood; and to add to the precepts of the Saviour not a few things of which not a word can be found in the Holy Scriptures.”-Mosheim. Not only so, but the greater part of the Platonists, imbibing the idea that Christianity was only another system of philosophy, “were led to imagine that nothing could be more easy than a transition from the one to the other, and, to the great detriment of the Christian cause, were induced to embrace Christianity without feeling it necessary to abandon scarcely any of their former principles.”-Ibid.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 581.6

And thus, as a result of departing from the plain word of God, and being turned to fables, the church was utterly corrupted, so that it came to pass that the greatest “heretics” were those who believe the Bible. Everything was perverted. In process of time it happened that even the teachers themselves lost all the knowledge of the Bible that they ever had; for since all that they taught they drew from their own heads, using the name of the Bible to give weight to their opinions, it soon became unnecessary to so much as refer to the Bible. When the priests spoke, the people were led to believe that it was the same as if God Himself had spoken. This will be more apparent when we consider thePTUK December 14, 1893, page 581.7

TRUE PASTORS, OR BISHOPS

In the primitive church, which is the only model for the church in all ages, there were no officers but elders and deacons. Each church had not simply one elder, but several. Thus Paul and Barnabas ordained “elders in every church.” Acts 14:23. Paul wrote to Titus saying, “For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldst set in order the things that were wanting, and ordained elders in every city.” Titus 1:5.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 581.8

The office of elder was identical with that of bishop. Thus when Paul wrote to Titus as above, that he should ordain elders in every city, he proceeded to state the qualifications of the elders,-“if any be blameless,” etc.n-“for,” said he, “a bishop must be blameless.” Titus 1:6, 7. “Elder” and “bishop,” therefore, are but two terms for the same person and office.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 581.9

The word bishop is “episkopos,” from which we have the word “episcopal.” The literal meaning of the word is one who looks over or oversees. Accordingly we find Paul addressing the elders of Ephesus thus: “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood.” Acts 20:28.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 581.10

But although elders are bishops or overseers, they are not to be lords or drivers. They are to feed the flock. To feed a flock is the duty of a shepherd; and so we read the following exhortation:-PTUK December 14, 1893, page 581.11

“The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed; feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.” 1 Peter 5:1-4.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 581.12

One who feeds a flock is a shepherd; therefore the elders are called shepherds, feeding the church under the direction of Christ, the Chief Shepherd. Shepherd is the same as pastor, the latter being the Latin word for shepherd. As shepherds, the elders are to have the oversight of the flock, thus exercising the office of bishop, still under the direction of Christ, who is Shepherd and Bishop of our souls. 1 Peter 2:25.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 581.13

In the above text, therefore, we find that elders, pastors, shepherds and bishops, are all one and the same thing. The church of Christ knows no higher office than that of the elders, or presbyters, which is simply and Anglicised form of a Greek word for elder. Peter declared himself to be an elder.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 582.1

These elders were not to exercise lordship over the church. They were to be esteemed very highly in love, for their works’ sakes; but they were not to assume any airs, nor to claim any respect as “superior” officers. The church of Christ knows no such thing as rank. So the Apostle Peter continues his exhortation, “Likewise ye younger submit yourselves to the elder; yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothee with humility.” 1 Peter 5:5. Remember the words of Christ, “He that will be chief among you, let him be your servant.”PTUK December 14, 1893, page 582.2

EXALTATION OF THE BISHOPS

As already intimated, the exaltation of the bishops grew out of and was parallel with the withdrawing of the Bible from the people. The idea that the Bible needed to be “interpreted,” naturally led to what Neander describes as “the formation of a false sacerdotal caste in the Christian church.” The body of bishops regarded themselves as far above the common people, whence arose the terms, “clergy,” and “laity.” The word “clergy” is from the Greek word klaros, meaning a lot, or an inheritance,-a heritage,-and the application of this term to themselves by the bishops, show that they regarded themselves as the heritage of God, while all the rest were simply the “laity,” that is, the people. It was the old heathen Roman distinction of patricians and plebeians. On this point we read the following from Hase’s Church History:-PTUK December 14, 1893, page 582.3

It seemed desirable to increase the generation which necessarily attends the virtues and a faithful performance of official duties in the church, by mysterious forms of ordination, by connecting them through various associations with the Old Testament priesthood, and by external tokens of peculiar sanctity. The result was that even in the second century the priests were represented as the official mediators between Christ and the congregation. To speak in the church, and to administer holy rites, were conceded to be the special prerogatives of the clergy, although learned laymen were sometimes heard in the public assembly, with the consent of the bishop.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 582.4

But this was not enough. Ambition is never satisfied, but only grows with each successive step in its gratification. The bishops were not content with being as a body above the people, but they must strive for supremacy, one over another. Accordingly one of the elders in the church assumed and was granted the sole right to be called “Bishop,” while all the others retained the simple title, “presbyters.” Thus the two names for the one office were made to indicate two different offices. The deacons were an order below the presbyters, and still below these were added, in course of time, several other orders; because the introduction of new orders among the “clergy,” raised the rank of those already existing.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 582.5

Another step in the exaltation of the bishops was the distinction that was made between the bishops residing in the city and those over country churches. The churches in the villages and the country round the city, were considered as territory to the larger body, and the bishops as under the bishop of the city church. They were considered as above the presbyters, but beneath the chief bishop.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 582.6

COUNCILS

Still another step was the holding of Councils. “For by then, in the first place, the ancient rites and privileges of the people were very much abridged; and on the other hand, the influence and authority of the bishops were not a little augmented. At first the bishops did not deny that they were merely the representatives of their churches, and that they acted in the name of the people; but by little and little, they made higher pretensions, and maintained that power was given them by Christ Himself, to dictate rules of faith and conduct to the people. In the next place, the perfect equality and parity of all bishops, which existed in the early times, these councils gradually subverted. For it was necessary that one of the confederated bishops of a province should in those conventions be intrusted with some authority and power over the other; and hence originated the prerogatives of Metropolitans. And lastly, when the custom of holding these councils had extended over the Christian world, and the universal church had acquired the form of a vast republic composed of many lesser ones, certain head men were to be placed over it in different parts of the world, a central point in their respective countries. Hence came the Patriarchs; and ultimately a Prince of Patriarchs, the Roman pontiff.”-Mosheim.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 582.7

All this would have been avoided if the Bible had been held. Truth does not depend upon majorities, nor on great men, the Bible is the truth, and it makes no difference how unlearned and despised a man is who states truth in the language of the Bible; it is just as true, and has as much authority as though it were stated by a council of Doctors of Divinity.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 582.8

THE CHURCH PAGANISED

The limits of this article do not allow the statement of all the errors that crept into the professed church. It is sufficient to say that they were all the abominations of heathenism, gilded over with the appearance of Christianity. This was inevitable, for when it came to be a settled thing that the study of heathen philosophy was the necessary preparation for the teaching of religion, it could not be otherwise than that the religion taught after that preparation had been gained, should be the religion of heathenism. Thus it is that the Catholic Church is simply the continuation of ancient heathenism under the name of Christianity. Not but that there are thousands of people in that church who are as sincere as men can be, and who have the spirit of loyalty to the truth, as far as they know it; but the church itself is paganism. This may be seen in the fact that the clergy of the church gladly accepted all the homage that had previously been paid to the heathen priests. Cæsar gave the following account of the priests of Gaul in Britain:-PTUK December 14, 1893, page 582.9

The Druids are in great honour among them; for they determine almost all controversies, public and private; and if any crime is perpetrated, if a murder is committed, if there is a contest about an inheritance or territories, they decide and determine the rewards or punishments. If any one, whether a private or public character, will not submit to their decision, they debar him from the sacrifices. The Druids are not accustomed to be present in battle, and argue they pay tribute, with the other citizens; but are exempt from military service, and from all of their burdens. Allured by such privileges, and from inclination, many embrace their discipline, and are sent to it by their parents and friends.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 582.10

In a note to Mosheim’s Ecclesiastical History, Schlegel shows how naturally this homage paid to the Druids came to be transferred to the bishops of the church. He says:-PTUK December 14, 1893, page 582.11

That these pagan nations had been accustomed to treat their idolatrous priests with an extraordinary reverence, is a fact well known. When they became Christians, they supposed they might show the same respect to the Christian priests. Of course they honoured their bishops and clergy as they had before honoured their Druids; and this reverence disposed them to bear patiently with their vices. Every Druid was accounted a very great character, and was feared by everyone; but the chief Druid was actually worshipped. When these people became Christians, they supposed that the Bishop of Rome was such a Chief Druid, and that he must be honoured accordingly. And this was one cause why the Roman Pontiff obtained in process of time such an ascendancy in the Western countries. The patriarch of Constantinople rose indeed to a great elevation; but he never attained the high rank and authority of the Roman patriarch. The reason was that the people of the East had not the same ideas of the dignity of Chief Priest as the people of the West had.-Cent. part 2, chap. 2, section 7.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 582.12

When the reader remembers that heathen philosophy had taken the place of the Bible, and that great numbers of learned heathen had been led to accept this paganised Christianity, thinking, as was true, that it was only another form of paganism, and that they did not think it necessary to change any of their practices and principles, it will not be difficult to see how the Papacy became so firmly established.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 583.1

TAKING THE PLACE OF GOD

But the “Fathers” of the church had prepared the way for this long before. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, had written: “The church is founded upon the bishops, and every act of the church is controlled by the same rulers.”-Epistle xxvi. Again he wrote in his sixty-eighth epistle: “They are the church, who are a people united to the priest, and a flock which adheres to its pastor. Once you ought to know that a bishop is in the church, and the church in the bishop; and if anyone be not with the bishop, that he is not in the church.” And yet again he made the following blasphemous claim, putting the bishops on a level with God:-PTUK December 14, 1893, page 583.2

But deacons ought to remember that the Lord chose apostles, that is, bishops and overseers; while apostles appointed for themselves deacons after the ascent of the Lord into heaven, as ministers of their episcopacy and of the church. But if we may dare anything against God who makes bishops, deacons may also dare anything against us by whom they are made.-Epistle lxiv.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 583.3

But let it not be thought that the fault lay wholly with the bishops. They grasped for power, but they could not have gained the power that they did, if the people had not given it to them. If the people had held fast to the Bible, no ambitious priests could ever have brought paganism into the church. But the truth is, that the majority of people desire a pope fully as much as anybody desires to be one. Just as we read of antichrist, and then read that there are “many antichrists in the world,” so we may know that although there is one who is universally known as the Pope, there are many popes in the world. So strong is the pope-making spirit in the world, that the truest minister of the Gospel must needs exercise all the grace that God gives him, in order to keep from being made a pope against his will. Let us see how this is done.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 583.4

MAKING POPES

Instead of believing the promise of God, that He will give the Holy Spirit to everyone who asks, and that the Spirit will make known the words of God, people prefer to go to their minister, to find out his opinion. In short, they put the minister in the place of the Spirit of God. Now while it is his duty to open the word of God, and to hold forth the word of life to the people, he is not to hold forth himself. He is to give them only the word of God, and not the word of man. But the people find it much easier to let somebody else do their thinking for them, and so, attaching themselves to some minister in whom they have confidence, they take his words as the words of God. Of course this reverence and deference is very pleasing to the natural man. It is very soothing to have one’s opinions received, without question, as the settlement of all controversies, and therefore the man who is not on his guard will, without realising it, be pope to as great an extent as his influence extends. Most people are bound to have a pope. Instead of studying the word of God for themselves, they will beseech a minister to tell them what this or that means, to give his opinion upon this text of Scripture, and to tell them what they ought to do in this or that matter. Many a good man, therefore, who can scarcely find language strong enough to condemn the Papacy, are themselves popes without being conscious of it.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 583.5

We need not expend all our indignation on the Pope of Rome. The man who puts his trust in man instead of in God’s word, is as culpable as the Pope, inasmuch as they who make popes are as guilty as those who consent to be made popes. A Protestant Papacy is no better than a Roman Catholic Papacy. The evil of the Papacy does not consist in the special errors that are held by it, but in the fact that man is put into the place of God. All the errors spring from that. Therefore repudiating some false doctrines of the Papacy, does not necessarily mean a repudiation of the Papacy itself. A man may cry out against all the false doctrines of the Papacy, and still be in reality a part of that false system. For whenever there is the spirit of exaltation of self, or the trust in man, there is the Papacy.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 583.6

The word of God is the only safeguard. “Thy word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against Thee.” Psalm 19:11. “Concerning the works of man, by the word of Thy lips I have kept me from the path of the destroyer.” Psalm 17:4. Of the righteous it is said, “The law of His God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide.” Psalm 37:31. Therefore the only work of the minister of the Gospel is to hold forth the word. He is to resist every attempt to make him a pope, by teaching the people that the man who puts his trust in man is cursed. It makes no difference if the fact which they get from man is the truth. He who accepts any truth on the authority of man, has not the truth on that point; for he has not received it as God would give it to him. Moreover he who receives a truth on the authority of man, will just as readily receive an error on the same authority. And there is no man in the world who is infallible. Therefore the people are to be taught that no man’s opinion is of any value whatever, in religious matters. Not only is a man to refrain from giving his opinions about the Bible to other people, but he is as strictly to refrain from giving his own opinions to himself. He is not to put his opinions into or upon the sacred word. He who approaches the Bible with any opinion of his own, will learn only from himself, and not from God. Such are walking in sparks of their own kindling, and not in the light of God.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 583.7

Let everyone understand, then, that the Papacy is all contained in deviation from the word of God; in putting man in the place of God. Let them know that Protestantism does not consist in denunciations of the Pope of Rome, nor is it simply anti-Catholicism. True Protestantism is positive, not negative. It consists in perfect loyalty to the word of God. “Whoso keepeth His word, in him verily is the love of God perfected; hereby we know that we are in Him.”PTUK December 14, 1893, page 583.8

“Love the Manifestation of the Life of God” The Present Truth 9, 37.

EJW

E. J. Waggoner

Since love is the manifestation of the life of God in the soul, and that is righteousness, it should be evident to everybody that righteousness cannot be forced. No man can force another to do right; no man can even compel himself to do right. Neither good resolutions in individuals, no laws in the State, can make people righteous, or contribute anything toward it. Societies, in which the members bind themselves to love one another, or even to love those who are not of their number, are of no account. Love is a growth, not something tied on; it is from within, not from without. It flows spontaneously from the heart. When the love of God is in the hearts of men, they do not have to resolve to love one another, neither do they love only those of their own class.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 583.9

“Shunning Evil” The Present Truth 9, 37.

EJW

E. J. Waggoner

A very baneful but popular error which has obtained the sanction even of ministers of the Gospel, consists in supposing that an evil, to be shunned, must first be seen and examined. In America recently a prominent minister of Ohio illustrated from his pulpit the “three-card-monte” game or trick before an immense audience which had assembled to witness the exhibition. Of course, his purpose was to expose the evil of card gambling, but whether he did not turn more minds in his audience in the direction of gambling than he turned away from it, is more than questionable. Ministers sometimes go to the theater in order to be prepared to expose its evils before their congregations; and some, like the “Rev.” Dr. Parkerhurst, of New York, investigate even worse places than that, in order that they may be able to preach against them effectively! Such methods are altogether unscriptural, and thus result in more harm than good.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 584.1

The Bible rule is, “Abstain from all appearance of evil.” Moral evils are not in this world to be studied, but to be shunned. The devil, of course, who introduced them, wants people to look at them and “investigate” them, because he knows that aversion, through the magic power of constant beholding, changes to pity and then to love, as expressed in the well-known lines of Pope. But moral evils, to be seen and realised in their true character, must be looked at in the light of that which is pure and righteous; they must be studied by contrast, and not by themselves.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 584.2

And therefore the only proper method of treating people to shun them is to familiarise them with that which is good and pure; as the Apostle Paul says, “Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” Philippians 4:8. When we are familiar with these things, as God by His Spirit will make us familiar if we will let Him, we shall have no trouble in instantly recognising and shunning evil in any of its forms.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 584.3

“The Bible Sabbath” The Present Truth 9, 37.

EJW

E. J. Waggoner

Last weekly we published some statements about the Sabbath, from the Catholic Mirror, under the heading, “Rome’s Challenge to Protestants.” Following is a further portion of the hard problem which it sets for Sunday-keeping Protestants, who profess to take the Bible as their sole guide. The idea of the Mirror is to demonstrate the insufficiency of the Bible; we hope, however, that our readers will hold to the Bible, and wholly repudiate Roman Catholicism. The Scripture quotations in the following are of course from the Douay Version:-PTUK December 14, 1893, page 585.1

Conformably to our promise in our last issue, we proceed to unmask one of the most flagrant errors and most unpardonable inconsistencies of the Biblical rule of faith. Lest, however, we be misunderstood, we deem it necessary to premise that Protestantism recognises no rule of faith, no teacher save the “infallible Bible.” As a Catholic yields his judgment in spiritual matters implicitly and with unreserved confidence, to the voice of the church, so too, the Protestant recognises no teacher but the Bible. All his spirituality is derived from its teachings. It is to him the voice of God addressing him through his sole inspired teacher. It embodies his religion, his faith, and practice. The language of Chillingworth: “The Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible, is the religion of Protestants,” is only one form of the same idea multifariously convertible into other forms, such as, “The Book of God,” “The Charter of our Salvation,” “The Oracle of God,” “God’s Text-book to the Race of Mankind,” etc., etc.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 585.2

It is, then, an incontrovertible fact that the Bible alone is the teacher of Protestant Christianity. Assuming this fact, we will now proceed to discuss the merits of the question involved in our last issue. Recognising what is undeniable, the fact of a direct contradiction between the teaching and practice of Protestant Christianity (the Seventh-day Adventists excepted) on the one hand, and that of the Jewish people on the other, both observing different days of the week for the worship of God, we will proceed to take the testimony of the only available witness in the premises; viz., the testimony of the teacher common to both claimants, the Bible. The first expression with which we come in contact in the sacred word, is found in Genesis 2:2: “And on the seventh day He [God] rested from all His work which He had made.” The next reference to this is to be found in Exodus 20., where God commanded the seventh day to be kept, because He had Himself rested from the work of creation on that day; and the sacred text informs us that for that reason He desired it kept, in the following words: “Wherefore, the Lord blessed the seventh day and sanctified it.” Again we read in the thirty-first chapter, fifteenth verse: “It is an everlasting covenant,” “and a perpetual sign,” “for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and in the seventh He ceased from work.”PTUK December 14, 1893, page 585.3

In the Old Testament, reference is made one hundred and twenty-six times to the Sabbath, and all these texts conspire harmoniously in voicing the will of God commanding the seventh day to be kept, because God Himself first kept it, making it obligatory on all as “a perpetual covenant.” Nor can we imagine anyone foolhardy enough to question the identity of Saturday with the Sabbath or seventh day, seeing that the people of Israel had been keeping the Saturday from the giving of the law, A.M. 2514 to A.D. 1893, a period of 3383 years. With the example of the Israelites before our eyes to-day, there is no historical fact better established than that referred to; viz., that the chosen people of God, the guardians of the Old Testament, the living representatives of the only defined religion hitherto, had for a period of 1490 years anterior to Christianity, preserved by weekly practice the living tradition of the correct interpretation of the special day of the week, Saturday, to be kept “holy to the Lord,” which tradition they have extended by their practice to an additional period of 1893 years more, thus covering the full extent of the Christian dispensation. We deem it necessary to be perfectly clear on this point for reasons that will appear more fully hereafter. The Bible-the Old Testament-confirmed by the living tradition of a weekly practice for 3383 years by the chosen people of God, teaches then, with absolute certainty, that God had, Himself, named the day to be “kept holy to Him,”-that the day was Saturday, and that any violation of that command was punishable with death. “Keep you My Sabbath, for it is wholly unto you; he that shall profane it shall be put to death; he that shall do any work in it, his soul shall perish in the midst of his people.” Exodus 31:14.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 585.4

It is impossible to realise a more severe penalty than that so solemnly uttered by God Himself in the above text, on all who violate a command referred to no less than one hundred and twenty-six times in the old law. The ten commandments of the Old Testament are formally impressed on the memory of the child of the Biblical Christian as soon as possible, but there is not one of the ten made more emphatically familiar, both in Sunday-school and pulpit, than that of keeping “holy” the Sabbath day.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 585.5

Having secured with absolute certainty the will of God as regards the day to be kept, and from His sacred word, because He rested on that day, which day is confirmed to us by the practice of His chosen people for thousands of years, we are naturally induced to inquire when and where God changed the day for His worship? For it is patent to the world that a change of day has taken place, and inasmuch as no indication of such change can be found within the pages of the Old Testament, nor the practice of the Jewish people who continue for nearly nineteen centuries of Christianity obeying the written command, we must look to the exponent of the Christian dispensation; viz., the New Testament, for the command of God canceling the old Sabbath, Saturday.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 586.1

We now approach a period covering little short of nineteen centuries, and proceed to investigate whether the supplemental divine teacher-the New Testament-contains a decree canceling the mandate of the old law, and at the same time substituting a day for the divinely-instituted Sabbath of the old law viz., Saturday. For inasmuch as Saturday was the day kept and ordered to be kept by God, divine authority alone, under the form of a cancelling decree, could abolish the Saturday covenant; and another divine mandate appointing by name another day to be kept “holy” other than Saturday, is equally necessary to satisfy the conscience of the Christian believer. The Bible being the only teacher recognised by the Biblical Christian, the Old Testament failing to point out a change of day, and yet another day than Saturday being kept “holy” by the Biblical world, it is surely incumbent on the Reformed Christian to point out in the pages of the New Testament, the new Divine decrees repealing that of Saturday and substituting that of Sunday, kept by Biblicals since the dawn of the Reformation.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 586.2

Examining the New Testament from cover to cover, critically, we find the Sabbath referred to sixty-one times. We find, too, that the Saviour invariably selected the Sabbath (Saturday) to teach in the synagogues and work miracles. The four Gospels refer to the Sabbath (Saturday) fifty-one times.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 586.3

In one instance the Redeemer refers to Himself as “the Lord of the Sabbath,” as mentioned by Matthew and Luke, but during the whole record of His life, while invariably keeping and utilising the day (Saturday), He never once hinted at a desire to change it. His apostles and personal friends afford to us a striking instance of their scrupulous observance of it after His death, and while His body was yet in the tomb. Luke 22:36 informs us: “And they returned and prepared spices and ointments, and rested on the Sabbath day according to the commandment.” “But on the first day of the week, very early in the morning [they came] bringing spices and ointments they had prepared.” The “spices” and “ointments” had been prepared Good drew near.” Verse 54. This action on Friday evening, because “the Sabbath the part of the personal friends of the Saviour proves beyond contradiction, that after His death they kept “holy” the Saturday, and regarded the Sunday as any other day of the week. Can anything, therefore, be more conclusive than that the apostles and the holy went women never knew any Sabbath but Saturday, up to the day of Christ’s death?PTUK December 14, 1893, page 586.4

We now approach the investigation of this interesting question for the next thirty years, as narrated by the evangelist, St. Luke, in his Acts of the Apostles. Surely some vestige of the cancelling act can be discovered in the practice of the apostles during that protracted period.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 586.5

But, alas! We are once more doomed to disappointment. Nine times do we find the Sabbath referred to in the “Acts,” but it is the Saturday (the old Sabbath). Should our readers desire the proof, we refer them to chapter and verse in each instance. Acts 13:14; same chapter, verse 27; again, verses 42, 44. Once more, chapter 15, verse 31; and chapter 17, verse 2; and chapter 18, verse 4. “And He [Paul] reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded the Jews and the Greeks.” Thus the Sabbath (Sabbath) from Genesis to Revelation!!!PTUK December 14, 1893, page 586.6

Thus it is impossible to find in the New Testament the slightest interference by the Saviour, but on the contrary, an entire acquiescence in the original arrangement, nay, a plenary indorsement by Him while living; and an unvaried, active participation in the keeping of that day and no other by the apostles, for thirty years after His death, as the Acts of the Apostles have abundantly testified to us.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 586.7

Hence, the conclusion is inevitable; viz., that of those who follow the Bible as their guide, the Israelites and Seventh-day Adventists, have the exclusive weight of evidence on their side, while the Biblical Protestant has not a word in self-defence for his substitution of Sunday for Saturday.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 586.8

“The Sun, Moon, and Stars” The Present Truth 9, 37.

EJW

E. J. Waggoner

“And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth; and it was so.” Genesis 1:14, 15.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 589.1

How bright, and sparkling, and beautiful! Did you ever wonder how they got up in the sky, and what makes them so bright?PTUK December 14, 1893, page 589.2

The Bible says that God placed them there on the fourth day. You remember that He made light on the first day, but on the fourth day He placed the sun, moon, and stars, in the sky, put the light upon them, and took them to hold it for Him; and ever since then they have been God’s light-bearers (light-carriers) for the earth.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 589.3

The moon does not really have a light for itself, but it reflects the light that the sun shines upon it, just as a looking-glass reflects the light that the sun shines upon it. Because the sun is so much larger and brighter than the other lights, and rules the day, he is called the King of day. Because the moon is a lesser light and rules the night, she is called the Queen of night, and the stars her attendants.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 589.4

Besides holding the light to warm the earth, to cause things to grow and ripen, and to make it pleasant that we may see, God says that He placed these lights in the firmament to divide the day from the night, to tell us when the days, weeks, months, years, and seasons begin and end, and to be for signs.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 589.5

Men say that the days begin in the middle of the night, when people are asleep, but God makes everything so plain that there is no need of making a mistake. He says that every time the sun goes down in the west, a new day begins (Leviticus 23:32; Deuteronomy 16:6). What a wonderful clock to be placed in the sky? It never goes too fast nor too slow, and all the people in the world can tell by it just when their old day ends and their new day begins!PTUK December 14, 1893, page 589.6

The earth, you remember, is round like a ball, therefore the sun cannot shine all over it at once. It shines on this side of the earth, and then the earth turns on and allows it to shine on the other parts of it. The sun and moon look as though they come up in the east and pass over us and set in the west; but they do not. The earth turns round so fast that it makes the sun, moon, and stars look as though they were passing us, when we are really passing them, just as the railway trains go so fast when we ride upon them that it makes the trees and houses look as though they were passing us instead of our passing them.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 589.7

The sun, moon, and stars were to be for signs. You know what a sign is. The shoemaker puts a large wooden boot in front of his shop, or boots and shoes in his window; this is a sign that he has boots and shoes for sale. A little green bud comes on your rosebush; and you know that it is a sign that a rose is coming. The leaves come out on the trees, and we know that it is a sign that summer is coming. Jesus hung out in the heavens the sun, moon, and stars for His signs. He says that when the sun and moon are darkened, and the stars fall from heaven that it is a sign that He is soon coming to this earth the second time, and that His coming is near, “even at the doors.”PTUK December 14, 1893, page 589.8

Now we know that He has not yet come the second time, for we read that this time when He comes, “every eye shall see Him” (Revelation 1:7). “For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” (Matthew 24:27.)PTUK December 14, 1893, page 589.9

How earnestly, then, ought we to study the sun, moon, and stars, for they show us not only the glory and wonderful handiwork of the great Creator, but they tell us when to look for His second coming, not the day and hour to be sure, but when it is very, very near. And this time He comes not to suffer and die, but to receive all who are ready, and take them to live with Him in His beautiful home.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 589.10

What a dreadful thing it would be if we were not ready! He is waiting now for us to get ready (2 Peter 3:9), but when He finally comes He can wait no longer, and if we are not already and looking for Him we shall have to be left behind.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 589.11

And we have not long in which to prepare, for the stars have already fallen, many are now living who saw them fall; the sun and moon also have been darkened, you could read about it in many different books and papers. We therefore know that the Lord is coming very soon.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 589.12

Those who are ready when Jesus comes will not have a single spot of sin about them (2 Peter 3:14). They will have given themselves to Jesus, and will have allowed Him to come into their hearts by His Spirit and take away all their naughty habits, and use them to do good instead of evil. They will be kind and gentle and helpful and lovely like Jesus. They will be washed in blood from all their sins, and clothed in His purity and righteousness.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 589.13

Oh, shall we not now, before it is too late, ask Jesus to cleanse us and clothe us and help us to get ready?PTUK December 14, 1893, page 589.14

1. Have you learned anything more about the grass and trees and flowers this week?PTUK December 14, 1893, page 589.15

2. In what way are we like the grass?PTUK December 14, 1893, page 589.16

3. Then have we any reason for being proud?PTUK December 14, 1893, page 589.17

4. What should we always remember when we look at the lily?PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.1

5. In what way are we like fruit-trees?PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.2

6. What kind of fruit does Jesus love best? Kind words, loving acts, etc.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.3

7. What does the grape-vine teach us?PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.4

8. Has the sun always shone upon the earth?PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.5

9. When did God first make the sun, moon, and stars His light-bearers for the earth? Genesis 1:14-19.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.6

10. Where did He tell them to stay while they held the light for Him? Genesis 1:17.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.7

11. What do we sometimes call the sun? The moon? Why?PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.8

12. Can you count the stars? Who can tell the number of them, and call them all by their names? Psalm 147:4.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.9

13. Do they shine only here where we live? Psalm 19. For-6.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.10

14. Where do they always appear to rise? Where do they go down?PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.11

15. Do they really rise in the east and pass over our heads and go down in the west?PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.12

16. What makes them appear?PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.13

17. How do we know when every day begins?PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.14

18. Then how do we know when to stop work and begin to keep the Sabbath? Leviticus 23:32; Deuteronomy 16:6.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.15

19. For what else are the heavenly lights good?PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.16

20. Did you ever see a shoemaker’s sign? What is a sign of summer?PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.17

21. What wonderful signs has Jesus hung out in the sky?PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.18

22. When the sun should be darkened and the stars should fall, of what did He say that would be a sign?PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.19

23. Has the sun ever become dark? Yes, on May 19, 1780.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.20

24. And have the stars fallen? Yes, on Nov. 13, 1833 in the Western world, and in 1866 in the Eastern world.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.21

25. Then of what may we be sure? That Jesus is in coming. Matthew 24:29, 30.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.22

26. For what is He coming? Hebrews 9:28; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.23

27. What must be we do to get ready? 2 Peter 2:14; Romans 13:11-14.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.24

“Studying Our Mercies” The Present Truth 9, 37.

EJW

E. J. Waggoner

Even the darkest, saddest life is endowed richly with the Divine mercies. God is not angry with us if, when He has seen fit to allow some terrible misfortune to befall us, we temporarily forget them to some extent. He understands and pities us while He chastens. But as soon as we recover our mental and spiritual balance sufficiently, we can see that they have not failed us. We even come to perceive it usually that our very distresses were mercifully sent.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.25

These and kindred truths often are admitted freely, and not only by professed Christians. They ought also to be studied attentively. It is more than merely worth one’s while to appreciate them. What would be thought of a merchant who should make careful estimate of his debts and of the possibilities of a commercial disaster, and should refuse or neglect to reckon up also his assets and the reasonable probabilities of future prosperity? Does not the same principle apply in spiritual things? No one can rightly understand his actual relation to either God or man, or face the future calmly and cheerfully until he is counted and weighed his mercies.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.26

We also owe it to ourselves to deal justly by our Heavenly Father. We are bound in honour to recognise gratefully the blessings which come to each of us from His hand. We dwarf our own better natures and we wrong Him if we fail to appreciate His goodness. Too much of the depression which seems to engloom some lives is wholly needless. There are even some people who seem to hug their misery and to refuse such cheer as is offered. Studying our mercies habitually, prayerfully, never fails to sweeten the bitterest lot and to illumine even more the brightest experience of life.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.27

“Interesting Items” The Present Truth 9, 37.

EJW

E. J. Waggoner

-The insurgents are still gaining ground in Brazil.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.28

-It is rumoured that Satolli, the Papal delegate to America, is soon to be made a Cardinal.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.29

-A severe hurricane has visited the Province of Cordova, and has caused great devastation.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.30

-A dispute has broken between Ecuador and Peru, and there is some fear that the outcome will be war.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.31

-The steamship Nyanza has been wrecked off St. Ives, and her crew of 22 men are supposed to have been drowned.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.32

-In France there are 781 localities which have Protestant houses of worship, and 887 pastors in charge of congregations.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.33

-Signor Zanardelli, to whom was entrusted the formation of a new Italian Cabinet, has failed in his task, and King Humbert has sent for Signor Crispi.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.34

-An International Exhibition is being organised at Antwerp for next year. The buildings are already completed, and are of very large extent.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.35

-Professor Tyndall, the famous scientist, died at Haslemere in his seventy-fourth year. An overdose of chloral is supposed to have been the cause.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.36

-The British ship Jason, of Greenock, was wrecked on the night of Dec. 5, off Boston, Massachusetts, and her crew, with the exception of one man, perished.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.37

-The Servian Government is wrestling with the problem of the formation of a new Cabinet. General Gruich will, it is thought, be the central figure when the task is finished.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.38

-The latest news from Matabeleland shows that the force of the British South African Company is still pursuing Lobengula, and the early capture of the king is expected.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.39

-Intelligence from Warsaw states that a number of Russian students and several ladies have been arrested at Kieff and Czernikoff on suspicion of being concerned in Nihilist plots.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.40

-It has been decided to let the World’s Fair buildings at Chicago remain standing until next Spring.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.41

-The Swiss federal Council has authorised the issue of a new Swiss Loan for twenty million francs, most of which will be devoted to needed improvements in the national defences.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.42

-The steamer service of the Peninsula and Oriental Steamship Company is such that less than a month is now required for the transmission of mail from Bombay to London and return.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.43

-Some Scotch forests were almost swept away during the recent storm. The trees blown down in two counties alone numbered close upon a million and a half, the damage being estimated at £282,683.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.44

-The invitation for the Universal Week of Prayer observed during the early days of January has been issued by the Evangelical Alliance. The document bears the signatures of representatives of branches of the Alliance throughout the whole world.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.45

-The serious character of the coal dispute in Scotland is becoming intensified. At Glasgow the miners’ delegates decided to call out the 17,009 then who had received the 1s. advance; also to appeal to Mr. Gladstone to intervene, as in the case of the English lock-out.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.46

-President Cleveland’s Message to Congress was read in both Houses. In the references to foreign affairs allusion is made to the action taken by the American representative at Hawaii in connection with the disposition of the Queen, the President announcing that the wrong will be redressed.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.47

-There is prospect of a repeal of the anti-Jesuit laws now in force in Germany. A motion to that effect recently passed the Reichstag, and it is said that although the immediate acceptance of such a measure, by the government is not to be expected, the proposal will receive important support in the Bundersrath.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.48

-A despatch from Barcelona announces that several more arrests have been made there in connection with the bomb outrages. Two foreign Anarchists were arrested of Tuesday, and subsequently three more were taken into custody, one being the proprietor of a beershop where Anarchists were accustomed to meet.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.49

-The official inspection of the Manchester Ship Canal was made December 7, by the directors, prior to the opening on January 1st. The steamship Snowdrop, containing the directors, left the landing stage, Liverpool, at an early hour, and as the vessel passed Runcorn and Warrington, there were various demonstrations of pleasure by the people.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.50

-Bishop Tucker has arrived in London from Uganda. Speaking of his work there, he said: “The Church is now almost fully equipped. If one could see the native deacons raised to the rank of presbyters, then its equipment would virtually be complete. The native ministry is now at work; we shall, I hope, see priests as well as deacons, and in time even a native bishop.”PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.51

-The famous Tchoodova Monastery in Moscow has again been robbed of a quantity of silver lamps and other valuable Church furniture. The robbery on this occasion took place in the Church of the Miracle of the Archangel Michael, the same in which stolen jewels and money were discovered hidden inside the altar last May, when the Tchoodova Monastery was robbed of treasure valued at over 1,000,000 roubles.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.52

-A “safe deposit,” or subterranean fortress, has been opened in the heart of London. It covers half-an-acre, and extends to two floors underground. The strong rooms and safes are, constructed of impenetrable steel plates. It is provided with the electric light. A guard with loaded rifles will patrol the place at night, although the place is regarded as impregnable, proof alike against burglars and fire.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.53

-The discovery of a new explosive, fulgurite, is announced. The discoverer is M. Pietet, a Swiss engineer, who was a pupil in Paris of Berthelot, the famous chemist. He has experimented with his explosive at Thun and Fribourg, in the presence of a military and scientific commission. He claims for fulgurite (says the Daily News correspondent) equal power with dynamite as an explosive, and greater power if used as a gunpowder. It is smokeless, and gives out relatively to older explosives but a small quantity of deleterious gas. Weather and water do not injure this explosive.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 590.54

“Back Page” The Present Truth 9, 37.

EJW

E. J. Waggoner

The Vicar of Old St. Pancras (London), has determined to bring before his parishioners “the duty of commemorating the faithful dead,” and has received the permission of the Bishop of London for a “celebration of the Holy Eucharist, to be offered annually on behalf of the departed.” From praying for the dead, it is only a short step to praying to the dead.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 592.1

It is good to know that there are still many people with sentiments like the following from a correspondent of The Freeman:—PTUK December 14, 1893, page 592.2

I grow a little weary of this talk about “the spirit of this century.” The spirits of this world have ever been anti-Christian. We are not to be saved by the spirit of the age, but by the Spirit of the Lord. When the Apostle Paul was instructing Timothy, he did not tell him to adapt the Gospel to the spirit of the times. The instruction of our Lord abides for every generation,-“Except a man be born of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”PTUK December 14, 1893, page 592.3

In the opinion of General Sir Archibald Alison, the great European war cannot be long delayed. The strain of constant preparation will soon become unendurable, and a break must come. When it comes, Russia and France will be able to put into the field 5,437,971 men, 9,920 field guns, and 1,480,000 horses. The Triple Alliance-Germany, Austria, and Italy-can oppose them with 5,914,276 men, 8,184 field guns, and 813,996 horses. We are given the “comforting” assurance that “England will remain neutral so long as her interests are not directly involved.” No doubt, and so will all the other powers.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 592.4

The apostles said: “Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.” Acts 6:2-4. Accordingly “they chose Stephen, a man full of the Holy Ghost, and Philip,” etc. “And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.” Moreover, the adversaries, “were not able to resist the wisdom and Spirit by which he spake.” Philip, also, approved to be an excellent evangelist, by the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The obvious lesson is that while a minister of the Gospel cannot consistently employ any of his time in mere business affairs, even though it is the business of charity, business men may be full of the Holy Ghost, and are not shut out from the ministry of the word.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 592.5

“Bomb-Throwing in the French Parliament” The Present Truth 9, 37.

EJW

E. J. Waggoner

Bomb-Throwing in the French Parliament.-Anarchy, with its terrible accompaniment of bomb-throwing, has made its appearance in the French Chamber of Deputies. On the afternoon of December 9, a bomb thrown from the gallery was exploded on the floor of the Chamber, causing injuries to fifty deputies and visitors. Such an event is a warning to every country that it will be called on to meet an attack of this foe to human life and civilisation, for every such deed will be a stimulus to anarchists all over the world. Meanwhile we hear frequently of the discovery of some new and more deadly explosive. And thus the troubles augment which darken the pathway of statesmen, and cause men’s hearts to fail them for fear and for looking after the things that are coming. Luke 21:26. Happy is he who can see in these portentous events the fulfilment of the word of prophecy, and look up, knowing that his redemption draweth nigh. Luke 21:28.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 592.6

“The Fighting Instinct” The Present Truth 9, 37.

EJW

E. J. Waggoner

The Fighting Instinct.-One of the most prominent novelists of the day, whose standing is indicated by the fact that he delivered an address before the Reunion Conference at Grindelwald, last summer, and has addressed other religious gatherings, writes to the Daily Chronicle a defence of prize fighting. The Chronicle had declared that the prize ring developed only bullies, and not heroes, which the novelist denies, saying, among other things:-PTUK December 14, 1893, page 592.7

It is time enough to discourage any instinct when it has ceased to be of use to the community. With all Europe one armed camp, the fighting instinct is as necessary in this country now as ever it has been; and the day may be coming when we may find that our ancestors had some reason for its systematic encouragement.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 592.8

If the nations of Europe are “Christian nations,” then of course their standing armies must be Christian institutions; and so we need not be surprised to see the prize ring, which helps to develop the “fighting instinct” by which these “Christian nations” are maintained, upheld as a Christian institution when properly “regulated.” Perhaps the “Boy’s Brigade” will be the form it will assume in the future.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 592.9

“The Pope Defending the Scriptures” The Present Truth 9, 37.

EJW

E. J. Waggoner

The Pope Defending the Scriptures.-The religious world is being treated to the amazing spectacle of the Pope of Rome constituting himself a champion in defence of the authenticity of the Scriptures, against the “Protestants” who by the “higher criticism” and other inventions of disguised infidelity, are doing all they can to cast discredit upon the Bible. What a comment upon the “Protestantism” of our times!PTUK December 14, 1893, page 592.10

Of course, the Pope does not aim to lead people to come direct to the Bible as the word of God; the sacred word is to be “interpreted” in harmony with the teachings of the “Fathers” and the rules laid down at the Council of Trent, and with the aid of the study of ancient languages and monuments. But in the public mind it will serve the purpose intended-that of making the Pope appear as the great champion of the Scriptures, and therefore the one who is more in accord with their own principle of “the Bible and the Bible alone” than the Protestants themselves! By standing upon the ground of Rome, and clinging to the institution of Sunday, and upon that of infidelity, by discrediting the truthfulness of the Biblical record, Protestants (so-called) have placed themselves in a position where Rome can attack them with the certainty of complete victory. And Rome knows all this, and is preparing to act accordingly.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 592.11

We say “so-called” Protestants; because there is a true Protestantism maintained by the remnant of the worshippers of Jehovah, who neither cling to an institution of the Papacy nor question the infallibility of the Scriptures, but accept them as the word of God and not of men, to be interpreted and understood, not by the wisdom of man, but by the “Spirit of truth,” which is promised to guide the believers into all truth. The true Protestantism still has its champions. There yet remain in Israel seven thousand men that have not bowed the knee to Baal.PTUK December 14, 1893, page 592.12