"The preaching of the cross" is that on which the great truth
of grace depends

"The preaching of the
cross" is that on which the great truth of grace depends. Not the death of
Christ merely, but "the cross." Synonyms are few in Scripture, and a
change of words is not to please fastidious ears but to express a different or
fuller thought. "The preaching of the cross is to them that perish
foolishness" (1 Cor. 1:18). This is not so as to the preaching of the
death of Christ, apart from the truths which cluster round "the
cross." The whole fabric of apostate Christianity is based upon the fact
of that death, and by virtue of it the Scarlet Woman shall yet sit enthroned as
mistress of the world. The Saviour’s death is owned as part of the world’s
philosophy. It is a fact and a doctrine which human wisdom has adopted, and
rejoices in as the highest tribute to human worth. How great and wonderful must
that creature be on whose behalf God has made so marvelous a sacrifice! And
thus God is made to foster man’s pride and sense of self-importance.

 

As with the world’s philosophy,
so also is it with the world’s religion. The doctrine of the death of Christ,
if separated from "the cross," leaves human nature still a standing
ground. It is consistent with creature claims and class privileges. Sinners of
the better sort can accept it, and be raised morally and intellectually by it.
But the preaching of the cross is "the axe laid to the root of the tree,"
the death-blow to human nature on every ground and in every guise. The great
fact on which redemption depends is not merely that Christ has died but that
death has been brought about in a way and by means which manifest and prove not
only the boundless and causeless love of God to man, but also the wanton and
relentless enmity of man to God, and that death, while it has made it possible
for God in grace to save the guiltiest and worst of Adam’s race, has made it
impossible, even with God, that the worthiest and best could be saved except in
grace. That death also has measured out the moral distance between God and man,
and has left them as far asunder as the throne of heaven and the gate of hell.
If God will now give blessing, He must turn back upon Himself, and find in His
own heart the motive, just as He finds the righteous ground of it in the work
of Christ. There is no salvation now for "the circumcision" as
such—for diligent users of the means of grace (this expression refers to
ceremonial Christendom’s term for baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and so-called
sacraments, Ed.) for earnest seekers, for anxious inquirers, for a privileged
class under any name or guise. If such were granted special favor, then were
"the offence of the cross ceased" (Gal. 5:1.1) and grace would be
dethroned.

 

Circumcision did not deny the
death of Christ. On the contrary, it betokened covenants and class privileges
granted by virtue of the great sacrifice to which every ordinance in the old
religion pointed. But it utterly denied the cross, and grace as connected with
the cross, for there every covenant was forfeited, every privilege lost. Before
the cross, therefore, circumcision was the outward sign of covenant blessing;
but after the cross, it became the token of apostasy. The cross has shut man up
to grace or judgment. It has broken down all "partition walls," and
left a world of naked sinners trembling on the brink of hell. Every effort to
recover themselves is but a denial of their doom, and a denial too of the grace
of God which stoops to bring them blessing where they are and as they are. The
cross of Christ is the test and touch-stone of all things. Man’s philosophy,
man’s power, man’s religion—behold their work, the Christ of God upon a
gallows! (Religion, power, philosophy:Jerusalem, Rome, Athens:the Jew, the
Roman, and the Greek.)

 

In distinguishing thus between
the death of Christ and "the cross," let me not be misunderstood. It
is not that God ever separates them thus. On the contrary, "the preaching
of the cross" is the emphasizing and enforcing of the very facts and
truths which the heart of man always struggles to divorce from the doctrine of
redemption, but which God has inseparably connected with it. The idea of
redemption was perfectly familiar to the Jew, and every student knows how
entirely it accords with human philosophy. The Jew and the Greek could shake
hands upon it and set out together to seek the realization of it, but the one
demanded signs of Messiahship, and the passion of the other was wisdom (1 Cor.
1:22). The death and resurrection of the Son of God, if accomplished in a
manner which men would deem worthy of the Son of God, might have satisfied the
one, as it did, in fact, satisfy and charm the other as soon as the cross was
lost sight of. But the cross was a stumbling-block to the religious man, and
folly to the wisdom-lover (1 Cor. 1:23). If human philosophy today adopts and
glories in redemption, as in fact it does, it is just because the cross is
forgotten; and if, in spite of what Christianity is in the world and to the
world, the Jew is still unchristianized, it is just because with him that cross
can never be forgotten.

 

It is not, I repeat, that God
ever separates them, but that man always does. A gospel that points to the
death of Christ as proof of God’s high estimate of man, and then turns the
doctrine of that death into a syllogism, so that men, in no way losing
self-respect, can calmly reason out their right to blessing by it, will neither
give offence to any one, nor be branded as foolishness. Such a gospel pays due
deference to human nature and satisfies man’s sense of need without hurting in
the least his pride. Such a gospel has, in fact, produced that marvelous
anomaly, a Christian world. Even in Paul’s day "the many" (2 Cor.
2:17) were but hucksters of the Word of God. Their aim was to make their wares
acceptable, to secure a trade, as it were, and so they sought popularity and an
apparent success by corrupting the gospel to make it attractive to their
hearers. (Such is the meaning of the passage. The word "corrupt"
means, first, "to retail," and then, to resort to the malpractices
common with hucksters, to adulterate or corrupt.) "But as of sincerity,
but as of God, in the sight of God," says the apostle in contrast with all
this, "we speak in Christ." The gospel he preached would have created
a Church in the midst of a hostile world. The gospel of "the many"
has constituted the world itself the Church. And the fable of the wolf in
sheep’s clothing finds a strange fulfilment here, though indeed the
metamorphosis is so complete that we are at a loss to distinguish either wolf
or sheep remaining.

 

Rationalism and Ritualism are
the great enemies of the cross. The First Epistle to the Corinthians touches on
the one; the Epistle to the Galatians deals with the other, A gospel which pays
court either to man’s reason or man’s religion will never fail to be popular.
Well versed, no doubt, in Greek philosophy, and no careless student of human
nature, Paul might have drawn all Corinth after him had he gone there
"with excellency of speech or of wisdom" in announcing the testimony
of God. He did "speak wisdom among them that are perfect," as witness
his letter to the Romans, or indeed his letter to the Corinthians themselves.
His argument for the resurrection . . . would have charmed and won not a few of
the disciples of Plato and the other brilliant men who raised unenlightened
reason to its highest glory at the very time when the voice of revelation was
being hushed amid the sad echoes of Malachi’s wail over the apostasy of
Jehovah’s people. But just because the Greeks were wisdom-worshipers, he turned
from everything that would foster their favorite passion, and became a fool
among them, a man of one idea, who knew nothing "save Jesus Christ, and
Him crucified." The enthronement of Christ on high and the glories of His
return are inseparable from the Christian’s faith, but in Corinth it was the
cross the apostle preached, the cross in all its marvelous attractiveness for
hearts enlightened from on high, in all its intolerable repulsiveness for
unregenerate men (1 Cor. 1:17, 18, 23; 2:1-6).

With the Galatians it was
against the religion of the flesh he had to contend. He testified to them that
if they were circumcised, Christ should profit them nothing (Gal. 5:2). How was
this? Had grace found its limits here, so that if any transgressed in this
respect, they committed a sin beyond the power of Christ to pardon? Grace has
no limits. But there are limits to the sphere in which alone grace can act.
Circumcision in itself was nothing; but it was the mark of, and key to, a
position of privilege under covenant utterly inconsistent with grace. "The
offence of the cross" was that it set aside every position of the kind;
not that it brought redemption through the death upon the tree, but that,
because it so brought redemption, all were shut up to grace. If Paul had so
preached Christ as to pay homage to human nature and to respect and accredit
the vantage ground it claimed by virtue of its religion, persecution would have
ceased, for the cross would have lost its offence (Gal. 5:11; 6:12).

 

Redemption as preached by
"the many" in apostolic days brought no persecution because it left
man a platform on which "to make a fair show in the flesh," but the
cross set aside the flesh altogether. If the death of Christ be preached as a
means of salvation, not for lost sinners, but for the pious and devout, where
is the offence? But the cross comes in with its mighty power to bring low as
well as to exalt, for it exalts none but those whom first it humbles. It calls
upon the pious worshiper, if indeed he would have blessing, to come out from
the shrine in which he trusts, and take his place in the market square beside
the outcast and the vile. It tells the "earnest seeker" and the
"anxious inquirer" that by their efforts they are only struggling out
of the pit where alone grace can reach them. It proclaims to the worthy
"communicant" of blameless life, whose mind is a treasury of orthodox
doctrines, and whose ways are a pattern of all good, that he must come down and
stand beside the drunkard and the harlot, there to receive salvation from the
grace of God to the glory of God. They who do thus preach the cross can testify
that its offence has not ceased in our day and in our midst.

 

Redemption is not, first, an
easy way of salvation for the sinner, and then a display of the character of
God. God must be supreme. A man who makes self his chief aim is contemptible,
but in the very nature of things God must be first in everything, else He would
be no longer God. The obedience of Christ was infinitely precious to God apart
altogether from any results accruing to the sinner, and the cross is the
expression of that obedience tried to the utmost. In this light, His death was
but the crowning act of a life yielded up to God. He was "obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross"—the cross, an expression beyond all
else of agony and contempt to the full, and because it was this, an expression,
too, the most complete and most blessed, of perfect love to God and man. That
death was but the climax of His life. It had another character, doubtless, in
which it stands alone, for there divine judgment fell on Him for sin, and He
became the outcast sin-offering. We do well, truly, at times to think thus of Calvary; but we do not well to think only of it thus. The great burnt-offering aspect of
the cross ought ever to be first, and never to be forgotten.

 

Even as we preach the
sin-offering or the passover, the joy and strength of our own hearts ought to
be the burnt-offering. And thus, whatever may be the results of our testimony,
it will always be itself a continual burnt-offering, "unto God a sweet
savor of Christ" (2 Cor. 2:15). And the burnt-offering could never be
accepted without the accompanying meat-offering. The work of Christ, even in
its highest aspect, must never be separated from the intrinsic perfectness and
majesty of His person. It was the burnt-offering with its meat-offering that
Israel daily sacrificed to God; and this aspect of the cross ought ever to be
before us, and that for its own sake and not because of special need in us.

And how we lower everything! In
the Jewish ritual we find the passover, the dedication of the covenant, and the
sin-offering of the red heifer to be the foundation sacrifices which were
offered once for all. We have further the burnt-offering, the meat-offering,
the peace-offering, and the great yearly sin-offering, besides others still of
which I will make no mention here. Each one of all these many types has found
its antitype in Christ; but what do Christians know of them? The passover alone
would more than satisfy the gospel of today, and even that is humanized and
lowered. Christ has died, and that is everything. How He died is scarcely
thought of, and Who He is who did so die is well-nigh forgotten altogether.

 

The law of the leper may teach
us a lesson here. Two sparrows were sold for a farthing, and no more was needed
for the leper’s cleansing. A farthing! If price was to be paid at all, could it
possibly be less? It is impossible that the outcast sinner can have high or
worthy thoughts of Christ, nor does God expect it from him. The acknowledgment
of Him suffices, if only it be true, how poor and low soever it may be. The
bitten Israelite who looked upon the brazen serpent lived; "as many as
touched Him were made perfectly whole." It was only the leper’s farthing
offering, but it was enough. And so also now:"whosoever shall call on the
name of the Lord shall be saved," and "they that hear shall
live."

 

But after the sinner has been
brought nigh to God and found peace and pardon and life, shall the poor
estimate he formed of Christ and of His sacrifice while he was yet an outcast
still be the limit of his gratitude and the measure of his worship? Shall the
farthing gospel that met the banished sinner’s need, satisfy the heart of the
citizen, the saint, the child of God? The two sparrows restored the leper to
the camp, but it then behooved him to bring all the great offerings of the law.
Christ in all His fullness is God’s provision for His people, and nothing less
than this should be the measure of their hearts’ worship (Lev. 14).

 

Christ has died—that is certain.
Rationalists and Ritualists, Protestants and Romanists, all are agreed that
Christ has died, and that is everything. How He died is or in our Houses of
Parliament, as day by day their sittings are begun in prayer, the death of
Christ is a fact which need not be asserted, for none but an infidel would
question it. But inquire in what way and to what extent sinners are benefited
by that death, and at once the harmony is broken. Upon this every school has
its creed, and every "ism" its theories, and the theme is the signal
for a scramble and a struggle between all the rival banners of Christendom.

 

Here is a master-stroke of
Satan’s guile. That which God intended should be an impossibility to the
natural mind, he has made the common creed of men. In the wildest fables of
false religions, there is nothing more utterly incredible than the story of the
life and death of the Son of God. For one who knows who Jesus was, and what
"the Christ" means, to believe that Jesus is the Christ is so
entirely beyond the possibilities of human reason that it is proof of a birth
from God (1 John 5:1), He who believes that Jesus is the Son of God is a man
with a supernatural faith, a faith that overcomes the world (1 John 5:5). Yet
just as in Him the carnal eye could find no beauty (Isa. 53:2; Mark 6:3) so in
His gospel the carnal mind can see no wonders. But it behooves the evangelist
so to preach that gospel that the Holy Ghost may own the word to reveal thereby
the mighty mysteries and marvels of redemption, not lowering and humanizing it
to bring it within the reach of the natural man apart from the work of the Holy
Spirit. Some preachers seem to bring Christ to the sinner, but the true
evangelist brings the sinner to Christ; in other words, Christ and not the
sinner is the central object in his testimony.

 

If Christians are commonplace in
our day, may it not be because the gospel they believe is commonplace? Divine
faith is faith in the Divine. The difference is not in the faith, but in the
object of it. If we have really believed the gospel of God, we have each one of
us received for himself a revelation from on high, a revelation to which flesh
and blood could never reach. Let us remember this. These pages are proof how
much I value clear and scriptural statements of the truth; but it is not on
clearness, or even orthodoxy, that the power depends. The gospel may be so
sifted and simplified that none shall fail to understand it, and yet sinners
may never be brought to God at all. The preaching that is wanted is not
"with enticing words of man’s wisdom," reasoning out salvation) and
cheapening the gospel to suit the condition of the hearers, but "in
demonstration of the Spirit and of power"—preaching that will be "to
them that perish foolishness," but to the saved "the power of
God."

 

It is one thing to master
Christianity; it is quite another thing to be mastered by it. And it is the
cross that attracts and conquers—the cross, not as an easy way of pardon for
the sinner, not as a "plan of salvation," but as a fact and a
revelation to change a heartless worldling into an adoring worshiper; the
cross, not as the ruling factor in the equation of man’s redemption, but as a
display of the love and righteousness and wrath of God, and the sin of man, to
subdue the hardest heart, and change the whole current of the most selfish and
ungodly life.

 

The unseen is real to faith and
to those who believe in the cross, "before whose eyes Jesus Christ has
been openly set forth crucified" (Gal. 3:1, R.V.). They have seen that
marred and agonized face. They have been witnesses to the reproach that broke
His heart, the scorn, the derision, and the hate of all the attendant throng.
They have heard "Emmanuel’s orphan cry" when forsaken of His God. And
in gazing thus upon that scene their inmost being has sustained a mighty
change. Till yesterday, the world and self ensnared their hearts, and filled
the whole horizon of their lives. But now the cross has become a power to
divorce themselves from self, and to separate them from that world which
crucified their Lord.

 

O for power to so preach the
cross of Christ that it shall become a reality to all, whether they accept it
or despise it, that men who never were conscious of a doubt, because they never
really believed, shall see what priests and soldiers and the rabble crowd that
mocked His agonies saw, and seeing, shall exclaim, "It is impossible that
this can be the Son of God!" that some again shall see what John and Mary
witnessed, and gazing shall cry out with broken hearts in mingled love and
grief, "My God, was this for me!" and turn to live devoted lives for
Him who died and rose again.

 

I conclude in borrowed words,
more worthy than my own:"And if I were to tell you of forgiveness of sins
through His mercy, and leave you there; if I preached to you the results
flowing of necessity from the cross to each believer, but not the cross itself,
or the cross itself as a judicial work, but not the Crucified One, I should
leave you still to self, and I desire to save you from self, as well as from
everlasting shame and contempt. But I preach Christ Jesus the Lord, the Son of
God, the brightness of His glory and express image of Himself, on the cross
made a curse and smitten there by the hand of God judicially for the guilty.
See the dreadfulness of that cross and know Who it is that was lifted up on it,
and for whom and to what end He was lifted up. Look steadily; mark, study,
search into those unsearchable moral riches, and blessing after blessing will
come to you, and so freely, from this one object, in which all truth and all
love are alike declared, and in which you will learn to love, to worship, and
to obey, to abhor wrong, to forget yourself and think of Him, and to ‘count all
things but loss,’ as the apostle says, not for the grace of your deliverance
but ‘for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.’"

 

In the first epistle to the Thessalonians we have in the last chapter
very important instruction given to the saints

In the first epistle to the
Thessalonians we have in the last chapter very important instruction given to
the saints. They, like the Corinthians, are an instance of a young church. They
were told to know those that labored among them. Hence all this may be where
there are no elders. Thus in 1 Thessalonians 5:12,13 the apostle writes,
"We beseech you? brethren, to know them which labor among you,
and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you; and to esteem them very highly
in love for their work’s sake." The presence of elders is not requisite in
order to have and to own those who are over us in the Lord, There is much of
importance for us now in that Scripture, for we have elders no more than they.
I think we ought to lay its exhortations to heart. There are, within and
without, not a few ill-instructed souls who hold the notion that, unless there
be official appointment, they cannot have anybody over them in the Lord. This
is all a mistake. No doubt, when a man was officially appointed, there was a
definite guarantee in the face of the church given by an apostle or an apostolic
man; and there was thereby no little weight given to those who were thus
appointed. Such a sanction had great and just value in the church, and would be
of consequence among the unruly. But, none the less, God knew how to provide
instruction for assemblies where there was not yet official oversight. How
merciful for times like the present when, for want of apostles, there could be
no elders!

 

It will be noticed that the
Corinthian assembly abounded in gift, though elders are seen nowhere among
them. The Thessalonians do not appear to have possessed the same variety of
outward power, and again elders or bishops are never hinted at. Yet at Corinth the household of Stephanas devoted themselves regularly to the service of the
saints; and the apostle beseeches the brethren to "submit [themselves]
unto such, and to every one that helpeth with us and laboreth" (1 Cor.
16:16). The Thessalonians he entreats to know those who labored among them, and
presided in the Lord, and admonished them. Evidently this did not depend upon
their being apostolically appointed, which could hardly have been in their
circumstances as the assembly there was newly formed. It is founded upon that
which after all is intrinsically better if we must be content with one blessing
out of two. Surely, if it comes to be a question between real spiritual power
and outward office, no Christian ought to hesitate between them. To have the
power and the office combined is no doubt the best of all, when the Lord is
pleased to give both. But. in those early days we see that individuals were
often and rightly engaged in the work of the Lord before there could be the
seal of an apostle, as it were, affixed; such the apostle encouraged and
commends earnestly to the love and esteem of the saints before and independently
of that seal. How precious that we can fall back on this principle now!

 

Even at Corinth and
Thessalonica, then, those were raised up in the midst of the saints who showed
spiritual ability in guiding and directing others. That was the work of those
to whom one epistle exhorted subjection (1 Cor. 16:16) and whom the other
epistle commended as "over them in the Lord" (I Thess. 5:12). Such
men as these did not labor only, because some might be actively engaged in the
Lord’s work who might not be over others in the Lord, But these manifested
power to meet difficulties in the church, and to battle with that which was
ensnaring souls, and so to guide and encourage the weak and baffle the efforts
of the enemy. They were not afraid to trust the Lord in times of trial and
danger, and therefore the Lord used them, giving them power to discern and
courage to act upon what they did discern. This was part of what fitted them to
take the lead in the Lord. There were such at Thessalonica as well as at Corinth, and yet there is not the slightest intimation that they were regularly installed
as elders. On the contrary there is the strongest evidence that elders as yet
had not been constituted in either place. The regular practice was to appoint
elders after a certain time; indeed it could only be when the apostles came
around, or sent an authorized delegate to choose fit persons and clothe them
before the church with a title which none but the bad would dispute.

 

Need I observe how God has been
graciously providing for the needs of His children? I would draw attention to
His far-reaching wisdom in meeting the difficulties of the day, when a valid
authority to ordain as the apostles did is not left on the earth. Not that His
children are left without help; they have the same Lord and the same ever
present Spirit. Hence there is no need for some change or new invention to meet
the difficulties of the day, but the return in faith to what was and is the
will of the Lord; and this with intelligence of the actual state of the church
and the feelings which become it.

 

FRAGMENT
Although Timothy and Titus were instrumental in appointing elders as overseers,
due to their youth (1 Tim. 4:12, Titus 2:6,7) they did not meet the
qualifications themselves. Also being bachelors they did not have the
opportunity to first demonstrate their governing abilities in the home scene.
(See 1 Tim. 3:4,5.) This in no way reflects on their piety or faithfulness. It
rather emphasizes the necessity to demonstrate certain natural abilities
together with age, before being entrusted with comparable functions in the
local assembly. As we ponder this subject, we would urge a holy caution to any
who would presume to appoint elder brethren as bishops or deacons or assign any
to that place by a majority ballot. Yet, we do confess the need of proper and
able handling of the money and physical properties of assemblies together with
oversight in other matters. We would therefore urge that men, qualified
according to Scripture, readily and willingly assume these functions wherever
the Lord has placed them. May it not be out of constraint as forced upon them
nor for filthy lucre’s sake but, for the Lord’s sake, in happy service rendered
to Himself. May He also stir the hearts of others to recognize these and co-operate
in their work.

"If any one desire to practice His will, he shall know concerning
the doctrine, whether it is of God, or [that] I speak from myself" (John
7:17, J

"If any one desire to
practice His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is of God,
or [that] I speak from myself" (John 7:17, J.N.D. trans.). We learn in
this passage, that honest obedience to God’s will is one way to obtain clear
spiritual knowledge.

 

The difficulty of finding out
what the truth is in religion is a common subject of complaint among men. They
point to many differences which prevail among Christians on matters of doctrine
and profess to be unable to decide who is right. In thousands of cases this
professed inability to find out the truth becomes an excuse for living without
any religion at all.

 

The saying of our Lord before us
is one that demands the serious attention of persons in this state of mind.
It supplies an argument whose edge and point they will find it hard to evade.
It teaches that one secret of getting the key of knowledge is to practice
honestly what we know, and that if we conscientiously use the light we now
have, we shall soon have more light coming into our minds. In short, there is a
sense in which it is true, that by doing we shall come to knowing.

 

There is a mine of truth in this
principle. Well would it be for men if they would act upon it. Instead of
saying as some do, "I must first know everything clearly, and then I will
act," we should say, "I will diligently use such knowledge as I
possess, and believe that in the using, fresh knowledge will be given to
me." How many mysteries this simple plan would solve! How many hard things
would soon become plain if men would honestly live up to their light, and
"follow on to know the Lord" (Hosea 6:3)!

 

It
should never be forgotten that God deals with us as moral beings and not as
beasts or stones. He loves to encourage us to self-exertion and diligent use of
such means as we have in our hands. The plain things in the Word of God are
undeniably very many. Let a man honestly attend to them, and he shall be taught
the deep things of God. Whatever some may say about their inability to find out
truth, you will rarely find one of them who does not know better than he
practices. Then if he is sincere, let him begin here at once. Let him humbly
use what little knowledge he has, and God will soon give him more.

Daniel 4

Daniel 4

 

The present is a moment of great
significance in the world’s history. We often speak of other days as having
been strongly characterized by great importance in the progress of the way of
man and in the unfolding of the purposes of God. Were we in the position to
look at them rightly, the present would be seen as equal to any of them in
importance and meaning.

           

Man is preparing that great
exhibition of himself whereby the whole world is to be ensnared and deceived to
its final, utter ruin. Many situations have already resembled in miniature such
a condition, and nothing has escaped the snare but the man of God led by the
Spirit through the spacious and commanding delusion.

 

In Nebuchadnezzar’s dream there
was a tree, the height of which reached unto heaven and the sight to the end of
all the earth, whose leaves were fair and whose fruit was much. The beasts of
the field had shadow under it; the birds of the air dwelt in the boughs of it;
and all flesh fed on it. It was the admiration and boast of all; their desire
was towards it; the heart of the man who planted it considered it his glory and
joy. "Is not this great Babylon, that I have built?" said King
Nebuchadnezzar.

 

Before long, heaven visited Babylon. The Watcher and the Holy One came down, as the Lord Himself had done in the
earlier days of Babel and Sodom, and inspected this tree of wondrous growth.
With Him it was no object of admiration or worship. He was not moved to desire
its beauty. In His thoughts it was not a tree good for food, or pleasant to the
eye, or desirable for any end, as it was in the thoughts of all flesh. He
looked on this tree as a thing ripe for judgment and said, "Hew down the
tree, and cut off his branches, shake off his leaves, and scatter his
fruit" (v.14).

 

How solemn that in this time of
universal exaltation, when the beasts of the field, the fowl of the air, and
all flesh were glorying in the grandeur of the tree, heaven was dooming it to
destruction. But Daniel was one among men in that day who had the mind of
heaven, the mind of the Watcher and the Holy One (v.13) respecting this tree.
The saint on the earth can have the mind of heaven. All flesh may feed on that
which faith or the mind of Christ in us sees under the sure judgment of God.

 

This is so; and may we
experience it! But moral danger and temptation beset our hearts. "That
which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God"
(Luke 16:15). Even Samuel when Eliab, David’s oldest brother, stood before him
said "Surely the Lord’s anointed is before Him" (1 Sam. 16:6). But
Samuel looked where the Lord did not look. He eyed the countenance of the man
and the height of his stature while the Lord eyed the heart. We too are in
danger (in these days of both religious and secular attractions) of mistaking
Eliab for the Lord’s anointed. Paul was held in some contempt at Corinth because of his "bodily presence" which was "weak." He was no
Eliab. He was unimpressive in outward appearance and even the disciples at Corinth were beguiled away from him. (See 1 Sam. 16:7 and 2 Cor. 10:7.) ,

 

All this is a warning to us in
this solemn and significant day when man’s exaltation of himself is growing
rapidly, and things are judged by the mind of man and in their bearing on the
advancement of the world.

Again, when the disciples
admired the buildings of the temple, we have another occasion of the rebuke
which the mind of man met from the mind of God. One of the Lord’s disciples
said unto Him, "Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are
here! And Jesus answering said unto him, Seest thou these great buildings?
there shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown
down" (Mark 13:1,2). The erring judgment of man spends its delight and
wonder on what the righteous judgment of God has already solemnly renounced. The
Lord was as the Watcher and the Holy One of the prophet, delivering the
sentence of heaven upon the boast and pride of the heart of man. Has not this a
voice in the ear of this present generation?

 

The incident which above all has
my attention at this time is that in Luke 19, in which the multitude are
following the Lord on His way from Jericho to Jerusalem. We are there told of
them that "they thought that the Kingdom of God should immediately
appear" (v.11). This tells us again of the expectation of man’s heart. The
people judged that the present scene, the world as in man’s hands, could get
its sanction from God. They thought the Kingdom would be set up at once. But
this can never be. Christ cannot adopt man’s world. Through repentance and
faith, man must take up with Christ’s world and not think that Christ can take
up with his. The Kingdom cannot come till judgment shall clear the scene of
man’s iniquities and pollutions. But this is not what man calculates on at all.
He judges that the kingdom may immediately appear without any purifying or
change. All that is lacking is a little more progress, and the kingdom will be
fit for God’s adoption. This is the mind of this present generation—like those
who, in this chapter in Luke, "thought that the Kingdom of God should immediately appear." Things are so advanced, so refined, so cultivated by a
multitude of fresh moral, religious, and scientific energies that under the
success and progress of such energies the world will satisfy Christ in a very
little while. But no, it is man’s world still, and this will never do for
Christ. You may sweep and garnish the house, but it is the house of the old
owner still. For all the pains spent upon it, it is only the more fitted for
the old owner’s designs, and not one single bit more suited to God’s great and
glorious purposes.

 

Jesus goes up to Jerusalem. But He finds there a field of thorns and briars; there were moneychangers and
sellers of doves in the temple of God. The house of prayer was a den of
thieves. The rulers, chief priests, and scribes were seeking to destroy the
Just One. The religion of the place was chief in the offence. Jesus wept over
it. Instead of all being ready for the immediate appearing of the Kingdom, all
was ready for judgment. And thus the city, as Jesus said, was soon to be
intrenched, encompassed, and laid even with the ground instead of being the
habitation of glory and the witness of the Kingdom of God. "That which is
highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God." Jesus, as a
Holy One and a Watcher, again on this occasion as in Matthew 24:1,2, inspected
the fair tree of man’s worship and joy and in spirit said, "Hew down the
tree, and cut off his branches, shake off his leaves, and scatter his
fruit."

Has not all this a voice for our
ears in this generation? My soul is deeply assured that Christ is the Watcher
of all the progress, boasted toils, and successes of this present hour. He that
sits in the heavens has different thoughts than men vainly imagine. He is not
about to sanction, but to judge the world in this its day of loftiest
advancement and exaltation.

 

In our last issue we printed a letter written by a prisoner

In our last issue we printed a
letter written by a prisoner. A reader submitted additional information which
is an encouragement foe believers to carry the gospel inside prison walls.

 

Goshen, N.Y. March 19, 1966.

 

Dear brother in Christ,

 

This is the record of the
salvation of the prisoner, Theodore McNeil. One Saturday evening about five
years ago, as I went to preach in the county jail, I was accosted by Theodore
with a request to speak to me alone at the end of his cell block. These were
his words. "You know, Brother Cole, I am here for murder. When I was first
picked up by the police, I was placed in the Newburgh jail. I was so scared I
didn’t know what to do. I figured I had gone too far, and now death was staring
me in the face. I had heard about God, but I never knew He had a Son. All the
time I was there, I was calling on God, begging Him on my face and knees.
Saturday morning one of the jailors came in and told me to get my things
together as I was being transferred to the County jail in Goshen. Oh! Brother
Cole, this was no accident. It was God answering my pleading, although I didn’t
know it then.

 

"That night you came into
the jail with your Bible, and three or four of the inmates gathered at the end
of the cell block where you were speaking to them. I thought to myself, ‘I wish
he would speak louder so I could hear.’ Then something inside me said, ‘Go down
where you can hear,’ and I proceeded to do so. You were preaching Jesus Christ
the Son of God, being punished for sins and giving up His life for us, so that
any sinner, no matter how great his sin he could be saved. That night was the
happiest night of as I knelt in my cell and received Jesus Christ as my
Saviour.

 

"The next Saturday night
you came in again, and I was in the background of the group that gathered
there, to hear more. One of the men said to you that nobody could quit smoking
in jail because that is about all they have to do. You told him that you never
told him or anyone else to quit smoking—that you were a preacher of Jesus
Christ and not law. Nevertheless if you came to know Christ as your Saviour and
asked Him to take it away from you and meant it when you asked, you could stop
here as well as anywhere else. That was two months ago, and I haven’t smoked
since that day. The Lord made me know my salvation so that now I can tell you
this with assurance:the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is my
Saviour."

 

Theodore was subsequently tried
and sentenced to die in the electric chair. He was placed in the death house in
Sing Sing, and I was committed to be with him when he was to be electrocuted. A
death sentence draws an automatic appeal so in a measure of time Theodore was
returned to the Goshen jail. In the meantime the Lord was bringing to pass
certain things that in retrospect dovetailed so beautifully with one end in
view, the saving of Theodore’s life as well as his soul.

 

First, the local sheriff and a
couple of other men were suffocated in a hunting cabin. His replacement was a
man who hated the Gospel. The Episcopal chaplain suddenly became a power, and I
was refused entrance to the jail. I had had opportunity to preach Christ to
both the chaplain and his wife who both refused Him, declaring it presumptious
to make any claim of the assurance of salvation before reaching eternity.

 

When Theodore got back to Goshen, I had been shut out. He wrote me and asked why I didn’t come to visit him. I
contacted his lawyer and traded information on the case. That helped to save
Theodore’s life and to get me back into the jail to see him. I saw him from
then on every week until he went to Attica to serve his reduced sentence of
thirty-five years. He grew and is growing by leaps and bounds. I also had the
privilege of baptizing him in a bathtub in the jail.

 

I desire the prayers of all the
saints as the Lord has opened quite a gospel field here, and we can fellowship
with one another by prayer.

 

Your brother in the Lord,

 

Emmett Cole

 

"Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter
into the kingdom of God

"Except a man be born of
water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." (John 3:5)

 

The
common interpretation of John 3:5 which connects it with Christian baptism not
only alters the meaning of the passage, but involves a very glaring anachronism
in that Christian baptism had not yet been instituted. It appears from the 12th
verse that the doctrine pertaining to "earthly things" applies to the
Kingdom as known to Israel. And from verse 10 we learn that the Lord’s word
ought to have been understood by a Jewish rabbi; i.e., that it was truth
contained in the Old Testament Scriptures. The well-taught scribe would at once
have turned to Ezekiel’s prophecy, "Then will I sprinkle clean water upon
you, and ye shall be clean:… and I will put My spirit within you." If
Nicodemus missed the reference at first, the words that follow, "The wind
bloweth where it listeth,…" might well afford the clue to the passage on
which they are so plainly based:"Come from the four winds, O breath, and
breathe upon these slain, that they may live" (Ezek. 36:25-27; 37:9). The
"clean water" alludes, of course, to the rite of the red heifer
established in Numbers 19. Nicodemus claimed his place within the Kingdom by
virtue of his nationality, as Israel might have done had it been faithful. But
because of the carnal and apostate condition of the nation, this claim showed
thorough ignorance not only of the things of God but also of the plain teaching
of the Scriptures. No one could have any part in the Kingdom without the
cleansing typified by the water of purification and the regeneration promised
in Ezekiel’s prophecy. The reference in the Nicodemus sermon is to that rite
and to that promise and not, I need scarcely add, to a dogma (baptism) which
the Church in its apostasy based upon a false interpretation of this very
passage. And if, without this new birth from God, the Jew, even on his high
platform of privilege and covenant, could not receive his promised blessings,
how doubly true must be the word to us, "Ye must be born again.

I think about the past, and feel

I think about the past, and feel

            My heart sink
hopelessly, and fears

Of judgment seize on me; I kneel

            Before my God, and
own that years

And years of deep, dark, deadly
guilt

            Are dragging down my
soul to hell.

I know the wretched hopes I’ve
built

Of
heaven, if His judgment fell

On me, would vanish as a dream:

            Before the dreadful
judgment throne,

Such hopes, I know, though they
may seem

            All fair and right,
when by our own

Poor godless hearts surveyed,
would all

            But serve to prove
what godless hearts

We had, to cling to them at all.

            O God, my life no
hope imparts,

And yet I scarcely dare to hope

            In Thee. My heart is
like a stone;

My soul is dead; I blindly
grope,

            And long for light.
And yet I own

It is not Thee, but only rest

            And safety for my
soul, I seek,

My guilty soul. O God, at best

            I’m godless, even
while I speak

To Thee! Not love but selfish
fear

            It is that brings me
to Thy feet;

My wretched sins are far more dear

            To me — but then,
Thy judgment-seat!

Ah! yes, I own, were there no
hell,

            I would not seek Thy
heaven, O God;

A Father’s love is not the spell

            That draws me, but
Thy judgment rod.

 

O God, I cannot ask for bread,

            For bread, I know,
is children’s fare,

And I’m a dog; I bow my head,

            And own I’m but a
dog:nor dare

I seek to claim a higher place;

            I have no right to
children’s meat;

I only cast myself on grace,

            I lay me prostrate
at Thy feet

O God, have mercy on my soul:

            Before th’ eternal
night begins,

O save my dark and guilty soul;

            Forgive my sins — O
God, my sins!

Hast Thou not given Thine only
Son

            To bear my sins upon
the tree?

And wilt Thou now, when all is
done,

            Refuse my God, to
pardon me?

And, O my God, hast thou not
said,

            "He that
believeth on the Son

Hath life"? and I believe;
though red

            Like crimson are my
sins, and one

By one they rise before me now,

            Sins long forgotten,
and they fain

Would make me doubt Thy word:I
bow

My
head in shame:yet wilt Thou deign

To look on me? If I am lost,

            I need a Saviour:
’tis for such

He came to die; and what a cost

            To pay! ’tis not for
me to touch

That finished work of His, or
seek

            To add a sigh, or
tear, or groan

Of mine to what He bore, or
speak

            Of aught in me but
sin. Alone,

O Christ, Thou hadst to bear my
doom

            To take my deep dark
curse on Thee,

And bear it all; and now there’s
room

            For grace to pardon
even me.

Then look on me, my Father. Yes,

            I call Thee Father,
for I know

Thy word is sure, and humbly
bless

            The grace that
deigned to stoop so low,

That such as I can come to Thee,

            And as a sinner
reconciled

By His most precious blood, for
me

            Once shed, can know
that I’m Thy child.

 

Tis but a moment since I thought

            There scarce was
hope for one like me;

I heeded not the love that
bought

            Me with the blood of
Calvary.

Yet now I dare to look above

            And call Thee
Father; though my heart’s

Defiled, my lips unclean — Thy
love

            Has conquered fear —
though Satan’s darts

Fall thick around me, and within

            I dare not look —
’tis like a sea

That cannot rest, and full of
sin—

            I now can look away
to Thee,

And find in Thee my peace, nor
fear

            To rest my trembling
sin-stained soul

Upon Thy word, and so draw near.

            My Saviour’s blood
has made me whole.

I’m black and worthless, but I’m
Thine;

            My God, I’m Thine;
to Thee I owe

My life, my life to Thee resign.

            O teach Thy child in
life to show

Thy praises forth. I bless Thy
name;

            I worship, magnify,
adore,

And praise Thy great and
glorious name;

            O fill my soul yet
more and more

With praise to Thee. The
"miry clay"

            Still clings to me,
and yet I raise

My triumph song and bless the
day:

            O
fill my soul yet more with praise!

The Bible records "it came to pass in those days, that there went
out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed
[enrolled]" (Luke 2:1)

The Bible records "it came
to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that
all the world should be taxed [enrolled]" (Luke 2:1). This was not a
taxation as we commonly term it today; it was an enrollment or census. In that
day "all went to be taxed [enrolled], everyone into his own city"
(Luke 2:3). Thus our God worked providentially, causing Joseph and Mary to go
to Bethlehem so that our Saviour would be born there, according to prophetic
utterance (Micah 5:2).

 

In these days our
"Caesar" does not require the long trek back to the site of our birth
or hometown, but he does feel the need to number the people each decade. Our
next scheduled census is to be in 1970. We noted recently that

Ross
Eckler, director of the U.S. Census Bureau, announced the 1970 census may
include questions about religious belief. He reported Roman Catholic and
Protestant groups have requested such questions; Jews and Christian Scientists
are opposed.

            United
Evangelical Action, June 1966

           

While we believe it is beyond
the proper scope of government to make inquiry in religious matters, we do not
align ourselves with those who oppose. Some discussion of this matter is in
order.

 

Earlier this century the U.S.
Census Bureau published a Census of Religious Bodies (now out of print). As
best we can gather, the various religious bodies co-operated and submitted
statistics of the gatherings they represented to the Census Bureau. The reports
began with a historical summary and background of the particular religious body
and continued by tabulating various local churches, the population of each
divided into age groups of both men and women, and the geographical divisions.
The financial picture was also volunteered in great detail. Statements as to
ownership of edifices, the indebtedness thereon, and expenditures per year
(which approximated the annual total of weekly collections) were divulged. The
Census Bureau issued these statistics in 1906, 1916, 1926, and 1936. We know of
no successful attempt since then to re-collect and publish such information.

 

We were greatly chagrined to
find that certain Christian publishing houses had co-operated with the Census
Bureau and volunteered such information in great detail for large numbers of
Christians gathered professedly unto the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Although they were professedly unnamed and gathered as such, they were listed
under a heading which categorized them among the many sects of Christendom.
Only the fine print seemed to make some slight distinction. To the common shame
of all of these Christians, they were grouped into numerical divisions and
cataloged with their differences displayed before all.

 

Now if the 1970 Census does include
questions about religious beliefs or identification with religious bodies, we
wonder what restraint our Christian readers will exhibit. Will they assume an
unscriptural sectarian name so that the census will put them in a separate
category? Or will they be content to be simply Christians refusing all other
distinctions?

We are dismayed by the
impression many Christians entertain when they sign up a child for school
enrollment or enter a hospital for medical help. There is a feeling that the
forms requesting religious information require them to list themselves as other
than simply Christian. There is, however, no regulation, local or national,
requiring true followers of the Lord Jesus to take distinctive titles or align
themselves with any faction of Christendom. Would to God that all His own would
gather simply as in the days of the apostles, unto the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and refuse all names, whether in private conversation, application
forms, or national census.

           

It is said that such census
information is of great assistance to Christians showing them what portion of
the population they are reaching and whom they effectively serve. But it would
seem that the enemy may be laying a subtle snare enabling men to collect
information on the various Christian affiliations whereby to better lure
scattered sheep into the folds of that apostate "world church," now
so obviously forming.

 

Our hope is that the true Church
will be united and with her Lord in glory before the 1970 Census. Yea, even so
come, Lord Jesus! If in His longsuffering goodness He chooses to tarry longer,
how will you answer the census inquiries—and other information forms in the
meanwhile? We are not borrowing tomorrow’s trouble, for "sufficient unto
the day is the evil thereof." But while others are proposing what to ask
us, may our hearts be all the more dedicated to honor the Lord and to "be
ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh [us] a reason of the
hope that is in [us] with meekness and fear" (1 Peter 3:15). The
"reason of the hope that is in [us]" is not our ecclesiastical
affiliation but the finished work of Christ, His blood shed for our sins, and
faith in His name. We look forward with joyful anticipation to that heavenly
census "in that day when I make up My jewels"—for "they shall be
mine, saith the Lord of hosts" (Mal. 3:17).

 

We seek, then, not a lobbying
voice in Washington to influence the census query, but an understanding of our
Lord’s will with the needed courage for faithful response.

 

"Neither is he that planteth anything,

"Neither is he that
planteth anything,

Neither is he that watereth;

But God that giveth the
increase.

Now he that planteth

And he that watereth are
one" (1 Cor. 3:7,8).

 "There is that scattereth,
and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it
tendeth to poverty. The liberal soul shall be made fat:and he that watereth
shall be watered also himself. He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse
him:but blessing shall be upon the head of him that selleth it" (Prov.
11:24-26).

 

"If thou forbear to deliver
them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain; if thou
sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not He that pondereth the heart consider
it? and He that keepeth thy soul, doth not He know it? and shall not He render
to every man according to his works?" (Prov. 24:11,12)

 

These Scriptures in the Proverbs
of King Solomon present a responsibility upon every Christian, old or young,
because all around us are people who are perishing. With the great blessings
that God has bestowed upon us through the Lord Jesus Christ—forgiveness of
sins, eternal life, peace, joy, rest, and hope—how our hearts should be stirred
to make known what Christ has done for us.

 

In Luke’s gospel, Chapter 8, we
read of a man who had been possessed with demons, and the Lord Jesus cast them
out of him. "But the man out of whom the demons had gone besought Him that
he might be with Him. But He sent him away, saying, Return to thine house and
relate how great things God has done for thee. And he went away through the
whole city, publishing how great things Jesus had done for him" (Luke
8:38-39, J.N.D. trans.).

 

We should ask the question which
Saul of Tarsus asked the Lord on that eventful day when the Lord Jesus spoke to
him, "Lord what wilt Thou have me to do?" (Acts 9:6)

 

Dr. Cuyler has written regarding
tract distribution, "It is a blessed and heaven-honored agency for doing
good. Everyone who has some spare time, and a tongue, and a little tact can go
out with a bundle of tracts to the abodes of ignorance and irreligion."

 

A preacher in London some years
ago said that the Open-air Mission was doing a much-needed work among the
masses, one feature being the distribution of tracts, and he stated that he
himself had been converted by a tract given to him when attending some races in
a Midland town.

 

There was a poor boy who came to
a city missionary, and holding out a dirty and well-worn bit of paper, said,
"Please sir, father sent me to get a clean paper like that." Opening
it out, the missionary found that it was a page leaflet, containing that
beautiful hymn, "Just as I am, without one plea." The missionary
asked where he got it and why he wanted a clean one. "We found it, sir, in
sister’s pocket after she died. She was always singing it while she was ill,
and she loved it so much that father wanted to get a clean one and put it in a
frame and hang it up. Won’t you give us a clean one, sir?" That simple hymn
given to a little girl seems to have been, by God’s blessing, the means of
bringing her to Christ.

 

The late J. Denham Smith, with
his wife, was driving along a road. When passing a house, Mrs. Smith noticed an
aged man at the door. She asked her husband to stop and give him a tract. He
replied, "Not now, but when we return." Accordingly, when going back,
they stopped. Mr. Smith, going up to the old man, began to talk and asked if he
knew anything of God’s love to him. "That I do," was the response.
"He does love me, but I have not loved Him long. It is only a short time
ago since a lady came by and left a tract. It told me of the great truths of
the Bible, and led me to see that Christ came to save the lost and, therefore,
to save me." Mr. Smith thought that the writer of the tract would be
thankful to know the result of what he had done, so he asked the old man if he
still had this tract. He went into the house and quickly returned with it.
Great was Mr. Smith’s surprise and joy to recognize it as one written by
himself.

 

Finally, what will be the
results in joy to precious souls, as well as to ourselves? Let King David tell
us by the Holy Spirit:"They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that
goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with
rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him" (Psalm 126:5-6). King Solomon
again speaks by the Holy Spirit:"Cast thy bread upon the waters:for thou
shalt find it after many days. Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for
thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth. … In the morning sow thy
seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand:for thou knowest not whether
shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike
good" (Eccl. 11:1, 2, 6).

 

"Behold, NOW is the
accepted time; behold, NOW is the day of salvation" (2 Cor. 6:2).

 

"As for these four children, God gave them knowledge and skill in
all learning and wisdom:and Daniel had understanding in all visions and
dreams" (Daniel 1:17)

"As for these four
children, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom:and
Daniel had understanding in all visions and dreams" (Daniel 1:17).
"The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him; and He will show them
His covenant" (Psa. 25:14). This principle ever abides—it is seen in all
dispensations. It is first laid down by God Himself in the familiar words,
"Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do . ..? For I know him, that
he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep
the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon
Abraham that which He hath spoken of him" (Gen. 18:17-19). It appears also
in the prayer of the apostle Paul for the Colossians, "That ye might be
filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual
understanding" (Col. 1:9). It is abundantly plain, in other words, that
God gave these four "children" (Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and
Azariah) knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom because of their
separation in heart and life from the defiling evils in Babylon. It is ever
true, that the nearer we are practically to the Lord, the more fully He
communicates His mind to us; and, mark, it is not only in what is generally
understood as "His mind," but it is in all learning and
wisdom. The students of modern days, even Christian students, are too often
betrayed into the thought that for the acquisition of human "learning and
wisdom" they are solely dependent upon their own industry and power. The
consequence is that the years of their student life are often marked by
spiritual declension, if not by open backsliding. The example of the four
"children" might well teach a different lesson.

 

Daniel is singled out from his
fellows, undoubtedly in view of his special work and mission, for we are told
that he had understanding in all visions and dreams. Thereby, too, we are
taught that in all the circumstances and experiences through which God leads
His people, He is forming them as vessels for His service. From the human
standpoint it was a calamity that had befallen Daniel. From God’s standpoint,
as is plainly revealed, this seeming calamity was but the instrumentality which
He had chosen to form Daniel for his mission to carry His testimony into the
court of the mighty Gentile monarch. This testimony concerned the powers which
He had allowed to supercede His own direct government of the earth through Israel and through Jerusalem as His dwelling-place and throne. It is faith alone that can rise up
beyond all secondary causes, connect everything with the hand of God, and at
the same time peacefully rest in Him, assured of His infinite wisdom and love,
and assured that the issue of all events will be according to His own perfect
will.

 

At the end of their training
period all the students were brought into the royal presence, and
Nebuchadnezzar himself examined the students of his college:he "communed
with them; and among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael,
and Azariah:therefore stood they before the king. And in all matters of wisdom
and understanding, that the king inquired of them, he found them ten times
better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm"
(vv.19, 20). They might each have thus adopted the language of the Psalmist:
"Thou through Thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies:for
they are ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers:for Thy
testimonies are my meditation. I understand more than the ancients, because I
keep Thy precepts" (Psalm 119:98-100). Would that the lesson might be laid
to heart by all the young Christians of the present day!

 

FRAGMENT Some of the marks of
the power of the Holy Ghost in an assembly of saints gathered in the name of
our Lord Jesus Christ are:worship, gifts developed, saints agreeing together
in the unity of the Spirit, earnestness, fervency, unselfishness, caring for
others, love to souls, fellowship in the gospel, and taking the place of rejection
with Christ.

 

One of the most world-lauded events of 1965 was the declaration against
anti-Semitism from the Vatican ecumenical council’s last session

One of the most world-lauded
events of 1965 was the declaration against anti-Semitism from the Vatican ecumenical council’s last session. We sought out the text of this declaration to
see what it really stated and present it for our readers’ interest.

 

"Although
the Jewish authorities and those who followed their lead pressed for the death
of Christ (cf. Jn. 19:6), nevertheless what happened to Christ in His passion
cannot be attributed to all Jews, without distinction, then alive, nor to the
Jews of today.Although the Church is the new people of God, the Jews should not
be presented as rejected by God or accursed, as if this follows from the Holy
Scriptures. May all see to it, then, that in catechetical work or in preaching
the word of God they do not teach anything that is inconsistent with the truth
of the Gospel and with the spirit of Christ.

 

Moreover,
the Church, which rejects every persecution against any man, mindful of the
common patrimony with the Jews and moved not by political reasons but by the
Gospel’s spiritual love, deplores hatred, persecutions, displays of
anti-Semitism, directed against Jews at any time or by anyone." (Look
magazine, Jan. 25, 1966, p. 23).

 

This declaration might seem
placid enough were it not accompanied by a detailed exposure of all the
political maneuvering that brought it about. A more complicated background of
changes, reversals, and contradictions from otherwise "infallible"
sources, could hardly be described than that which the magazine article
revealed.

 

No matter what this declaration
actually says or what its writers intended, it is being construed far and wide
as the acquittal of the Jews in the death of Christ. Late last December, Jewish
leaders were interviewed regarding their appreciation of the Vatican council’s
statement. One acclaimed it "a modern miracle" that the Pope should
come forth with a statement so long overdue. The rabbi further declared that
present day Jews feel no more guilt in the death of Jesus than do modern Greeks
in the death of Socrates. History records the tragedy of Socrates’ execution as
a distinct miscarriage of justice. But to rank this as comparable to the cross
of Christ is an outrage against Holy Writ. We perceive that beneath all the
clamor of innocence lies an indelible sense of guilt.

 

The Bible records, "When
Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he
took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of
the blood of this just person:see ye to it. Then answered all the people, and
said, His blood be on us, and on our children" (Matt. 27:24,25). Those who
said this and their children have been attempting Pilate-like hand washings ever
since. But the Lord told Pilate, "He that delivered me unto thee hath the
greater sin" (John 19:11).

 

Another has written, "Who
would dare to aver that the atoning efficacy of the death of our divine Lord,
however accomplished, could be less than infinite? But mark the emphasis which
Scripture lays upon the manner of His death. It was ‘the death of the
cross.’ No element of contempt or hate was wanting. Imperial Rome decreed it,
but it was the favored people who demanded it. The ‘wicked hands’ by which they
murdered their Messiah were those of the heathen master, but the responsibility
for the act was all their own. Nor was it the ignoble rabble of Jerusalem that forced the Roman government to set up the cross on Calvary. Behind the mob
was the great council of the nation. Neither was it a sudden burst of passion
that led these men to clamor for His death. Hostile sects forgot their
differences in deep-laid plots to compass His destruction. The time, moreover,
was the paschal feast when the Jews from every land were gathered in Jerusalem. Every interest, every class, every section of that people shared in the great
crime. Never was there a clearer case of national guilt. Never was there
an act for which a nation could more justly be summoned to account.

 

"But infinite mercy could
forgive even that transcendent sin, and in Jerusalem Itself it was that the
great amnesty was first proclaimed. Pardon and peace were preached, by divine
command, to the very men who crucified the Son of God!

 

About this time of year certain
prophets of Christendom are quick to declare that if the Lord Jesus were living
in our day, our laws would more than protect His rights and that a Man
pronounced three times innocent by court of law would not be led to death upon
a cross. What is this but to again alleviate the Gentile guilt and cast the
blame for the untimely appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ upon the very throne
of God. The Scripture says, "In due time Christ died for the
ungodly," and again, "When the fulness of time was come, God sent
forth his Son." Our Lord reproached the Pharisees, hypocrites of old, for
saying, "If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been
partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses
unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the
prophets" (Matt. 23:30-31). "Fill ye up then the measure of your
fathers," was the taunt of our Lord, who knew that when they laid hands on
Him to put Him on that cross they would fill up that measure to the brim and
overflowing.

 

We have long been aware that Rome blasphemously claims the authority to forgive the sins of its penitent confessors.
Heretofore we could not imagine that the Papal See would even attempt to
relieve the guilt of the death of Christ from that nation which is still as
impenitent and unbelieving as ever! Israel’s position then was manifestly one
of rejection of Jesus as their Messiah. If present day rabbis represent that
people as a whole, we cannot see that Israel’s position is one whit changed
from the day they clamored for His blood.

 

God’s present sentence of
LO-AMMI (not my people) is not an eternal stigma upon that people. Isaiah
proclaims "comfort" to Israel (Isa. 40:2) but not until she has
received "double for all her sins," and the future "time of
Jacob’s trouble" is past (Jer. 30:7). For any who truly desire to see
Jewish suffering lessened and anti-Semitism diminished, we urge you to proclaim
the gospel of the grace of God to that people. Those Jews who now receive that
message will enlarge the present "remnant according to the election of
grace" (Rom. 11:5) and be raptured to glory in the church. The rest will
go into the "great tribulation" referred to by Daniel the prophet and
our blessed Saviour. That three and one half years of horror will pale all
anti-Semitic persecutions of recorded history. Those days will be so terrible
that unless they are shortened no flesh should be spared alive. Only a part of
the faithful remnant will survive that awful future scourge.

 

We also deplore all anti-Semitic
feeling and persecution. But the only way that judgment and punishment can be
removed from the guilty is for them to confess their guilt and receive
forgiveness through "the precious blood of Christ." Only the gospel
of the grace of God proclaims that "by Him all that believe are justified
from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses"
(Acts 13:39). Thank God for the good news of salvation for the guilty— not the
innocent—"to the Jew first, and also to the Greek."

 

Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle
[dove] and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but My
people know not the judgment of the LORD

Yea, the stork in the heaven
knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle [dove] and the crane and the
swallow observe the time of their coming; but My people know not the judgment
of the LORD. How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us?
Lo, certainly in vain made He it; the pen of the scribes is in vain. The wise
men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken:lo, they have rejected the word
of the LORD; and what wisdom is in them? Jeremiah 8:7-9

 

The end of the year is near. The
swallows are gone; the cold blasts ,of winter are come; but not one swallow is
left behind. We saw them gathered together, and they  were seen to fly higher
as the time to depart drew nearer. No one saw them go. But they are gone to
sunny lands of the south. The frost and the snow, the sleet and piercing winds
of winter never reach them there. Very remarkable is this instinct of the
birds. "Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the
turtle [dove] and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming;
but My people know not the judgment of the LORD."

 

Is there not a lesson for us in
this instinct of the birds? It was pleasing to watch the swallows as the winter
drew near, gathering in companies, seeming to wait for the wanderers. Then they
would fly high as wanting to be gone. We thought, Is not the Holy Spirit now
gathering Christians together in little companies to Christ? Now here, now
there, a wanderer is coming in. Should we not fly higher? We, like the
swallows, are about to leave this scene below. Already signs of this world’s
judgment begin to flit across its autumn sky. And now every swallow soars ready
to depart, moved by one common instinct. Oh that every Christian were seen
manifestly ready to depart, moved by the Spirit of God.

 

But will it be with the whole Church of God as with the swallows? Yes, the Holy Ghost is already gathering souls in
little companies to Christ. He has revealed to them afresh, after many
centuries, the heavenly Bridegroom and the heavenly calling of the Church. He
is leading their thoughts and hearts higher and higher yet. And soon, very
soon, though the world will not see them go, every believer shall be gone, not
one left behind. "For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a
shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God:and the dead
in Christ shall rise first:  then we which are alive and remain shall be caught
up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air and so shall
we ever be with the Lord" (1 Thess. 4:16, 17). Are not these the inspired
words of sober reality? Yes, brethren, we shall all be gone — not one left
behind — to be forever with the Lord. As the swallows gone to more sunny
shores, oh, what will it be to be caught up away from the scenes of this world’s
wintry woes, and judgments, and in peaceful rest enter the glory of our Lord!

 

And if God never fails to take
at the appointed time, the stork, the crane, and the swallow, can He possibly
fail at the appointed time to take the saints to meet their Lord? Is it not sad
and humbling that the Lord should have to complain that though the swallows
know their appointed time "[His] people know not the judgment of the
LORD"? Is not this as true now of Christendom as it was of Israel then? What profound ignorance there is on this important subject "My people
know not." Men go on dreaming of continual summer, yes, of increasing
sunshine, peace, temperance, prosperity — just at the very time when the saints
are about to be gone like the swallows of autumn, and the storms of this
world’s wintry blasts are about to take all that remain by surprise ( 1
Thess.5:1-9).

It is incredible how utterly
unaware the learned of this world are of the wintry judgments about to be
poured out on the nations of the earth. "How do ye say, We are wise, and
the law of the LORD is with us?"

 

Never was there a day of more
boasting:"We are wise." It is quite true that the Word of God is in
men’s hands, but who believes it? The rapture of the Church before the day of
the Lord is clearly revealed. God has said it. He has made perfectly clear both
the departure of His saints to meet the Lord in the air and the terrible
judgments that shall follow. Has He made it clear? Yes, but “Lo, certainly in
vain made He it; the pen of the scribes is in vain;" Yes, in vain has God
spoken in His Word; men will not believe Him. "Making the word of God of
none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered:and many such like
things do ye" (Mark 7:13).

 

Let us now pass on to the
December of this world before the new era of the millennial kingdom begins
(Jer. 8:9). "The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken:lo,
they have rejected the word of the LORD; and what wisdom is in them?"

 

Let us anticipate what these
learned men, these rejecters of the Word of God will say:"How strange
this is; those Christians we despised are all gone, like the swallows of
autumn. Not one of them can be found on earth. How we laughed and hated their
gathering together! What fools we thought them because they would fly higher;
for they said their Lord was coming to take them. They spoke of their heavenly
calling and would have nothing to do with our earthly societies and politics.
We scorned them because they would not join our various schemes for the
improvement of man. We hated the thought that we were not to glory save in the
cross of Christ. They gathered together — poor little despised companies —- and
told of the coming Saviour to the wanderers all around. No one saw them go, but
they are gone. And now the world’s wild, fierce, wintry blasts are blowing.
Where is all our boasted wisdom? Peace is taken from the earth. All that we
hear on every side is that men are killing one another. Famine and pestilence,
sword, hunger, and death are all around. Woe, woe to us, the winter of this
world is come.

 

"And the kings of the
earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains . .  hid
themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the
mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth
on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb" (Rev. 6:15,16).

 

"We rejected the Word of
the Lord, but now the Christians are gone, and the great day of His wrath is
come; we seek death and do not find it (Rev. 9:6). Where is now our boasted
wisdom? We are worshiping devils and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and
stone, and of wood’ (Rev. 9:20). And what is the end of all our politics? What
strange events since the winter set in and the Church is gone! It is not yet forty-two
months since the new last head of the Roman Empire appeared. But oh, what
months. The dragon has given him his power. Ten kingdoms have sprung up and
given their power to this Satanic head. When he opens his month it is to
blaspheme. All that dwell on earth worship him; all that refuse are boycotted
and put to death. It is true that all this was distinctly foretold in
Scripture, but we were far too wise then to believe what God said to His
servants in Revelation 6, 9, 13, and 17. Certainly there never was such a
winter as this since the beginning of the world, no, nor ever shall be. Jesus
said it would be so, but we did not believe Him" (Matt. 24:21).

Yes, "The wise men are
ashamed, they are dismayed and taken:lo, they have rejected the word of the LORD;
and what wisdom is in them?"

 

And now, beloved reader, where
are you, and what is the condition of your soul? Are you cleansed by the blood
of the Lamb, and ready to be gone like the swallows in autumn? Are you
following the wise men of this world, who will so soon be ashamed and
confounded? Is Christ the center of attraction? Are you separated to Him and
waiting for Him from heaven? Great is the last effort to draw Christians from
Christ to join the confederacies of men. Oh, let us seek to get higher and
higher. The Word of God is utterly disregarded. On no account will men have
Christ alone. They would have Christ and circumcision, Christ and the world’s
various confederacies, or even Christ and profanity. All these things hide the
coming of the Lord to take His saints. Every doctrine of human improvement
denies the utter ruin of man through sin and the fast approaching winter of
divine judgment on the rejecters and despisers of the Word of God. It is
solemnly true of the great men and the wise of the world, “They have rejected
the word of the LORD.” The mark of a Christian is, "Thou. . . hast kept My
word and hast not denied My name" (Rev:5:8). Which is true of you,
beloved reader? Whatever name you may bear, if you have not kept His Word you
are not a Christian and will surely be left behind when the Christians depart
like the swallows that are gone.

 

Can you for a moment admit that
the instinct of a bird is more sure than the words of the Saviour? As this
world’s winter approaches, let us then dwell on the words of Jesus. He cannot
fail to fulfill His promise. We may not know where the swallows go; but Jesus
says to us, "In My Father’s house are many mansions:if it were not so, I
would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare 
a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I
am, there ye may be also" (John 14:2,3). Do we hear you saying, ”Yes,
Jesus says so, but our learned, wise teachers do not say so"? Remember the
word, "They have rejected the word of the LORD; and what wisdom is in
them?"

 

It is a solemn fact that God by
His Spirit has sent forth the midnight cry, "Behold, the bridegroom; go
forth to meet him" (Matt. 25:6, J.N.D. trans.) and they have rejected the
Word of the Lord. God grant that we may not put our trust in man, for what
wisdom is in him?

 

May the saints of God be now
gathered together like the swallows in autumn, May we love to dwell on His
sweet words of promise. Has He not gone to prepare the place? Oh, those scenes
of radiant glory, far away from earth’s cold wintry blasts! And will He not
come to take us to Himself? With Himself! How soon, like Moses and Elias, shall
we be talking with Him! Glorious reality! Soon we shall be gone; not one will
be left behind,; and poor deceived apostate Christendom will be left to
"become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a
cage of every unclean and hateful bird" (Rev. 18:2). Blessed comfort—-
"the Lord knoweth them that are His" (2 Tim. 2:19), and none shall be
left behind.

 

"Wherefore He saith, Awake
thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee
light" (Eph. 5:14).

 

"But I buffet my body, and lead it captive, lest [after] having
preached to others I should be myself rejected" (1 Cor

"But I buffet my body, and
lead it captive, lest [after] having preached to others I should be myself
rejected" (1 Cor. 9:27, J.N.D. trans.).

 

Here is a Scripture which has
often led many dear children of God to think that even the Apostle Paul himself
could be lost after having been saved. It has been said that if it was possible
for him to be lost then certainly it must also be possible for the believer
now. To escape this interpretation of this verse, many others, enlightened as
to the believer’s security through many other Scriptures (John 5:24; 10:27-29;
Eph. 4:30; etc.) have said that this rejection refers not to Paul himself but
to his service. Others have said that the word rendered "rejected"
simply means "disapproved." Let us examine the verse and see what it
really does say and what it does not say.

 

"But I buffet my body, and
lead it captive," The apostle says he buffets or disciplines the body. He
does not express any fears that he may not be able to do this.

 

"lest [after] having
preached to others" He does not say, "after having been saved,"
or "born again," or "having had eternal life" "I
should be myself rejected," but simply "after having preached to
others." "I should be" It is what he is, not what he might
become.

 

"myself" He does not
say "my service" but "myself."

 

"rejected." This word
"rejected," rendered "cast-away" in the King James Version,
has been said to mean "disapproved." Looking at this word in a Greek
concordance we find that this same word "adokimos" is translated
"reprobate" in Romans 1:28, 2 Corinthians 13:5,6 and 7; 2 Timothy
3:8; and Titus 1:16, and "rejected" in Hebrews 6:8. The reference in
2 Corinthians 13:5 reads, "Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus
Christ is in you, except you be reprobates?” Here surely the reference is not
to the disobedient Christian but to a false professor. A look at the other
references will also confirm that the word "adokimos" is used only
for a false professor or an unsaved person. The word then in our verse cannot
be "disapproved," but "rejected" or "reprobate."
We have noticed that with surprising regularity those who interpret
"rejected" to mean "disapproved" also misquote
"be" substituting "become," i.e. "become
disapproved."

 

It should be quite clear then
that the Apostle Paul is saying that it is not enough for one to preach to
others:one must also buffet the body and lead it captive. What then does he
mean by buffeting the body and leading it captive?

 

The apostle had been writing, in
the preceding verses, of the athlete’s need for temperance in all things. The
athlete must buffet or discipline his body, not allowing it to control him. He
must deny himself ease and self-indulgence. This is a necessity if he is to
contend for a prize or crown, corruptible though it may be. Paul now applies
this spiritually to himself. Through the power of the Spirit he mortified the
deeds of the body instead of living according to the flesh (Rom. 8:13). His
life was characterized, not by the fulfilling of fleshly desires and
gratifications of the body, but by self-denial and suffering. "If any man
will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it:and whosoever will lose his
life for my sake shall find it" (Matt. 16:24,25).

This then, I believe, is the
spiritual meaning of buffeting the body and leading it captive. There must be the
practice consistent with the preaching or profession. For it is surely possible
to preach to others and yet be rejected, and it is surely possible to profess
Christ and yet in works deny Him. But those who thus do are not those who
buffet the body and lead it captive.

 

What a solemn warning for those
in that day who were preaching among the Corinthians. Paul buffeted his body
and led it captive. Did they? And how much more solemn in our day as we think
of the many preachers whose lives bear a sad contrast to their preaching.

 

Paul, therefore, has in mind the
professor as he applies this principle to himself. He had no fears for himself
but for those, among them who needed this warning. This warning is also
continued in the verses which follow in 1 Corinthians 10, where the apostle
shows that outwardly partaking of spiritual blessings does not in itself
guarantee salvation or security. No! the only security for a soul is Christ
Himself. The soul that knows Him as Saviour need never fear as to his final salvation.
"For ye have died, and your life is hid with the Christ in God. When the
Christ is manifested who [is] our life, then shall ye also be manifested with
him in glory" (Col. 3:3,4, J.N.D. trans.).

 

It is interesting to notice that
in the address to the Corinthians, Paul includes professors when he says,
"with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our
Lord" (1 Cor. 1:2). Before the epistle closes there is another warning:
"If any one love not the Lord [Jesus Christ] let him be Anathema
Maranatha" (or accursed at Christ’s coming). Such are the warnings to
those whose confession of Christ is false —both then and now.

 

May we then be more exercised
today to deny ourselves and take up our cross and follow Him. The Corinthians
were seeking ease and comfort (1 Cor. 4:8) and in our day it is the same. May
we be content with His path of rejection, shame and suffering, knowing that we
shall soon see Him face to face.

 

FRAGMENT   The things by which
Christian fruitfulness are most seriously affected are apt to be, not so much
things positively evil (these, for the most part, bear their brand upon their
face, and the conscience, if it be not dull indeed, is roused against them); it
is rather the negative than the positive quality which is dangerous. It is
occupation with that which simply has not Christ in it, which (tolerated for
its very harmlessness) insensibly steals away the vigor of spiritual life.
Lawful things, as the apostle reminds us, may bring us thus under their power;
and even the name of "duty" may be invoked to cover with its sanction
what is in reality only the slipping of the heart away from its first duty to
Him who has redeemed and purchased us with His blood.

 

We have been encouraged by our readers’ response to the last editorial

We have been encouraged by our
readers’ response to the last editorial. Realizing that a question openly
voiced by one is often in the hearts of many, we undertake to discuss questions
sent in response to the Income Tax article in the March issue.

 

A reader writes, "As to the
matter of a name . . . would you consider it unscriptural to list our
contributions on our tax return as having been given to ‘Christian
Brethren’?" There are many terms used in Scripture to designate believers
in the Lord Jesus Christ which are meant to distinguish them from the world or
unbelievers. Since the early Christian testimony consisted of only Jewish
converts, they were identified as being simply "of the Way" (Acts
9:2; 19:9, 23, F. W. Grant trans.). These were persecuted by Saul of Tarsus.
The name "the Way" seems to be uncomplimentary in its use. It was
later in Gentile Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians (Acts
11:26). Later when King Agrippa used this term, it does not seem that it had a
particularly complimentary character either (Acts 26:28). Other scriptural
terms used to describe believers in general are saints, elect, called ones,
disciples, brethren, friends, etc. The Church is termed variously, the "church of God," the "assembly," the "body" of Christ, etc. We know
of no scriptural objection to applying these terms to Christians today. What
then is the objection to Christian groups assuming such names today?

 

In the days of the apostles when
any of the above terms were applied to believers or to the church, they
included all the Christians, and the term merely identified them in contrast
with the world. But never in Scripture is such a term sanctioned to designate
one company of Christians to the exclusion of other Christians. Some said they
were of Paul, Cephas, Apollos, and Christ and drew forth inspired rebuke (1
Cor. 1:12).

 

Today many of these scriptural
terms are used in a sectarian way:that is, they are rightly applied to
believers but limited in intended scope so as not to include all believers.
Suppose I were to ask you, "Are you one of the friends?" You might
answer, "No," thinking I meant the Quakers. Yet if you knew that by
the term "friends" I meant simply believers, as in 3 John, you would
have answered, "Yes." Or again suppose you are asked if you are one
of the brethren. How do you answer? Every Christian can scripturally answer,
"Yes"!

 

Our inquirer asks about the name
"Christian Brethren." Surely if this is but a general term to
describe the recipients of contributions, there can be no objection. But if it
is a term assumed to designate some company of Christians in distinction from
the rest of the body of Christ, and if this company is registered as a
religious body by that name with the government, then would it not seem but
another instance of an acceptable name applied in a sectarian way? This is the
distinct danger of any particular name being applied restrictively to only a
portion of the body of Christ.

 

If the Lord’s people meet in
public quarters, it is proper that the meeting place or room be named or
identified by any convenient designation. It is important in those instances
that the name pertain to the building (Gospel Hall, Bible Truth Hall, etc.) and
not to the people (Christian Brethren, Friends, etc.).

 

Another sincere question put to
us is, "What Christian testimony could we possibly give to government
employees who audit our income tax returns if we all took no church
contribution deduction or if we all took the standard 10% deduction? Wouldn’t
we be placed in the same category as atheists and infidels?" We impute to
this inquirer none but the best intentions before God and his fellow men. Would
to God that more of the Lord’s people so thought of every aspect of their
lives, even the income tax form, as testimony for Christ. On pondering the
question further, let us consider the testimony rendered to "government
employees who audit our income tax returns." Suppose, being concerned for
the Lord’s glory as we are, one has given not only the 10% commanded by Moses’
Law but also 20% or even the legal maximum allowable as a deduction, 30% of the
adjusted gross income. If the "government employee" in looking over
our tax form is impressed with our generosity, is not this exactly what our
Lord cautioned us against—the praise of men? (See Matt. 6:1-4). We do not
impute such a motive to our inquirer, nor to any for that matter. Yet, we are
to commend "ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God"
"by manifestation of the truth" (2 Cor. 4:2). If it is the truth that
our contributions are to be given in secret, let us manifest it with
contentment knowing that "thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall
reward thee openly."

 

Another question we received is
as follows:"As stewards of the money which the Lord entrusted to us, why
should we pay more to the government than the law requires, when we know that
over 50% of the taxes goes for military purposes?" In answer, we will
divide this question into two parts. First, neither we nor the government feel
we should pay more than the law requires. Our previous editorial discussed the
question of how far the Christian and the local assembly feel free to comply
with Internal Revenue Service regulations in order to be allowed tax deductions
partially compensating our contributions. We do not feel that the Christian is
bound in any way to render any more to Caesar than Caesar’s law claims.

 

The second part of this inquiry
questions our attitude as Christians rendering to the government, "when we
know that over 50% of the taxes goes for military purposes." No doubt many
Christians share a disappointment to find their taxes being spent in these
ways. But, what saith the Scriptures? We are impressed with the appropriateness
of Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, wherein he takes up the subject of the
Christian’s relationship with government while world-ruling Caesar was on the
throne. After plainly instructing us to be in subjection to the "higher
powers" or governments, we are told that the rulers are ministers of God
to us for good. Furthermore, it is added, "He (the government) beareth not
the sword in vain:for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute
wrath upon him that doeth evil" (Romans 13:4). "For this cause
pay ye tribute also" (Rom. 13:6). What cause? "This cause?’
pertains to Caesar’s efforts to "execute wrath" as he wields
"the sword" in suppressing evil, thus serving God. In plainer
language, we are exhorted by God to pay tribute (or taxes) to support Caesar’s
police or military efforts. Strange words indeed to peace-loving Christians!
But not so strange when we realize that God uses governments to restrain evil,
internal as well as international. Caesar is therefore responsible to God as
His servant. Christians are not responsible for what Caesar does with tax money
but are to pray for him and "all that are in authority; that we may lead a
quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty" (1 Tim. 2:2) and to
pay taxes to support his military efforts required to accomplish just that.

 

It is a lively topic of the day
to debate the propriety of this nation’s international involvement, especially
in Viet Nam. We do not profess to have the insight or wisdom to proclaim in
these matters of state. We do see that the Scriptures are plain, however, in
our supporting the government financially and in being subject to its laws.

 

Be it
plain that this position in no way alters the Christian’s personal position of
having no involvement in Caesar’s police efforts or military service. Our
mission is to hold forth the words of life (Phil. 2:16) lifting up holy hands
in prayer (1 Tim. 2:18) and to turn the other cheek to personal aggressors
(Matt. 5:39). Caesar’s position is manifestly the opposite. Thank God for
citizenship in this highly favored land, and above all, for heavenly
citizenship in a sphere beyond this scene (Phil. 3:20, J.N.D. trans.) of the
strivings of the potsherd of the earth.

Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to
the churches of Galatia, even so do ye

Now concerning the collection
for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye. Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as
God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come, 1 Cor. 16:1,
2.

 

The apostle lays down a weighty
exhortation as to collections for the saints. He puts it on the ground of their
being prospered in any degree and connects it with the special day of Christian
enjoyment, when they gather together for the communion of saints, "Upon
the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath
prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come." Need it be said
how human influence has dislocated the truth there? No doubt this was precisely
what the apostle, or rather the Holy Ghost, discerned to be at work at Corinth. The same mistake that has wrought so malignantly in Christendom, that is to say,
personal rank, learning, eloquence, or a great name (as of an apostle for
instance) is invoked to call out the generosity of the saints (perhaps even of
the world) and increase the proceeds by all these or like means.

 

But is there not another danger?
Is there no snare for us, beloved brethren? When persons are more or less free
from the ordinary burden of tradition, when they are not so much under the
influence of excitement, and of those appeals to the love of being known and of
pleasing this or that man, or the cause, or any of those human motives that
often do operate, I apprehend that they are exposed to danger in a wholly
opposite direction. Do we sufficiently make it a matter of personal
responsibility to the Lord to give, and that in connection with the first day
of the week and its blessed surroundings and objects when we meet at His table?
Do we every one of us give as we are prospered by the way?

 

It is very well to keep clear of
human influence, but let us see to it that we do not forget that "the Lord
has need" of our giving for the proposes He loves here below. And of this
I am sure, that if we have rightly cast aside mere human calls, and if we do
thank God for the deliverance from worldly influence, and from the power of
custom, and public opinion, it would be a deep reproach if we did not give
twice as much now under the grace
that confides in us as we did under the law that used to govern us. Your own
consciences must answer whether you can meet the Lord about this matter. I
believe that we are in no small danger of settling down in the conviction that
our old way was quite wrong and simply keeping the money in our pockets. It
does seem to me, I confess, that bad as human pressure may be in order to raise
money, bad as may be a variety of earthly objects in this way or that, bad as a
worldly lavish expenditure is, after all, a selfish personal keeping to
ourselves of what we have is the worst thing of all.

 

I am
quite persuaded that the danger of the saints of God who have been brought
outside the camp lies here — lest, delivered from what they know to be wrong,
they may not seek in this an exercised conscience. Standing in the
consciousness of the power of God’s grace, they need to be continually looking
out that they be devoted to Him. To cease doing what was done in a wrong way,
and sometimes for wrong ends too, is not enough. Let there be zealous and
vigilant exercise of soul, and inquiry how to carry out right objects in right
ways, and so much the more, if indeed a simpler, fuller knowledge of God’s
grace and of Christ’s glory has been given us.

Our hope as believers is the personal return of the Lord to fetch us to
Himself, as He said, "I will come again, and receive you unto Myself"
(John 14:3)

Our hope as believers is the
personal return of the Lord to fetch us to Himself, as He said, "I will
come again, and receive you unto Myself" (John 14:3). Ah, that is it.
Himself coming is our "blessed hope," and Himself in the Father’s
house and we like Him, as He is morally (1 John 3:2), and bodily (Phil. 3:21),
our richest blessings.

 

Death cannot touch the
"blessed hope." Some are waiting with the Lord in His own immediate
presence; others are waiting on the earth for Him. Whether, therefore, we
"wake or sleep," we wait for the Lord to come. Death may change the
"waiting room," but not the waiting position itself. The sleepers
will accompany Jesus on His road to glory and the kingdom equally with the
living (1 Thess. 4:14). Jesus is "expecting" (Heb. 10:13), and if I
am called into His presence, I will wait with Him, for we are called to share
in His kingdom and in His patience (Rev. 1:9).

 

The hope of the Church is the
personal return of the Lord to claim "His own." He will come from
heaven into the "air," and with "shout," "voice,"
and "trump" gather His people from every land and every clime, from
tomb and sea. Not one redeemed through the precious blood of Christ shall be
left behind, whether alive on the earth or resting in the grave. All will be
caught "up" in clouds to meet the Lord in the air—our trysting-place
with our adorable Lord and Master  (I Thess. 4:17). Thus will the Christ
present to Himself His Church all glorious and spotless, without sign of age or
decay, holy, too, and blameless (Eph. 5:25-27; Col. 3:4). What is the hope of
the Bride but the coming of the Bridegroom? (Rev. 22:17) Now espoused to
Christ, what is her hope but to have the relationship of wife established? (2
Cor. 11:2, with Rev. 19:7) What a hope! Christ, will come personally to take us
to Himself, displaying His Church in the coming ages in joint-heirship over
creation (Eph. 1:10, 11), and forming in us everlasting bridal affections and
establishing eternal relationship (Rev. 21:2).

 

The hope of the servant is to
find the fruit of his labor in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His
coming (1 Thess. 2:19). "And now, little children, abide in him; that when
he shall appear, we (the servants) may have confidence, and not be ashamed
before him at his coming" (I John 2:28). The crown of glory will, on the
appearing of the Chief Shepherd, be set on the brow of the faithful laborer,
now toiling among the flock of God (1 Pet. 5:1-4). The crown of
righteousness will be bestowed as reward of service, and to all who love His
appearing (2 Tim. 4:7,8).

 

There are four crowns held out
as reward and encouragement. Every Christian will receive a crown of gold (Rev.
4:4). The faithful witness gains the crown of life (Rev. 2:10). The devoted
servant earns the crown of righteousness (2 Tim. 4:8). The crown of glory (1
Pet. 5:4) will be a rich recompense to the faithful pastor.

 

Heralds
of the grace and glory of the risen Jesus, may ye be ready when thy Lord cometh
and knocketh, to open unto Him "immediately" (Luke 12:36).

It is important to bear in mind, in reading every part of the word of
God, that there is nothing brought in without the direct inspiration of the
Holy Ghost

It is
important to bear in mind, in reading every part of the word of God, that there
is nothing brought in without the direct inspiration of the Holy Ghost. There
is one particular passage in I Corinthians 7, where the apostle asserts
expressly, that it was not the Lord, but himself, who gives a certain judgment
about the natural relations of believers. But even the apostle did not write
thus without the Holy Ghost. He was inspired to say it was not the Lord, but
himself. Hence there is not the slightest contrariety, even in so exceptional a
manner of speaking. Again, take the Book of Job, where you have Satan speaking,
as well as elsewhere. But then, while no intelligent person would assert that
what Satan said was inspired, yet the writer of the book was inspired to give
it to us perfectly; the writer was thoroughly led of God to present just so
much of what those concerned said—good or evil, man, Satan, or the Lord
Himself–as would accomplish the divine object in that writing. Thus there is
no exception whatever in the Bible to the grand truth that "all scripture
is given by inspiration of God." This is not a mere deduction of man, but
the positive doctrine of God Himself. Everything coming under the designation
of "Scripture" (pasa graphe) is inspired of God. Such is the express
statement of the Apostle Paul in his last epistle (2 Tim. 3:16), not limiting
it, I apprehend, to what was already extant, but leaving room also for what was
to be written, such as the Apocalypse. "All scripture is given by inspiration
of God." Whether what had been given, or the little that remained in order
to close the canon of the Bible, all was equally from God; not all is equally
lofty in its character, not all taking the form of doctrine, not even all
revelation—for revelation and inspiration are two different things. In giving
the account of our Lord’s life, the writers occasionally, of course, report
what they themselves saw and heard. It was inspired, but a revelation is that
which a man never knew. When the Apostle Paul says, It is by the word of the
Lord I declare unto you, that the Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout,
that is not merely an inspired portion but a revelation. So, of course, all
prophecy is necessarily a revelation; and it was only in case of a positive
revelation that there was any licence to hinder a person who might be speaking;
no matter how important what he was communicating, if something was revealed to
another who was sitting by, he was entitled to stop the speaker (1 Cor. 14:30).
This is necessarily, it seems to me, at an end now. Revelation being complete,
any attempt to act upon it would be not only irregular and indecent but also a
virtual pretension to a new revelation, which is positively false, and a
dishonor to the old. When there was still a part of the mind of God yet to be
imparted, God maintained the sovereign right of His Spirit to introduce a
revelation. But when all the mind of God was thoroughly revealed in His word,
such a line of conduct would naturally terminate. Accordingly, although a
person might have what was most truly from God, it would be his duty to wait
till the due time came:flesh, Satan might hinder, but God is above all
difficulties.   

How much the future has before us

How much the future has before
us! What is hidden in this year on which we shall soon enter, if the Lord
tarry? We know not what a day may bring forth. But we do know this, that there
are good things to come in the future. The good things of Christ will be
sufficient for us for the rest of our lives. Look on down the whole vista of
your life until the very last moment when you will be ushered into the presence
of the Lord. Is it not only good things to come all the way through? And then,
dear brethren, as faith looks upward, and we think of the glory that is just
beyond, where He is, that eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have
entered into the heart of man, surely the good things are yet to come. As
eternity rolls on, we will never, never exhaust the fulness of blessing that
the heart of God and the love of Christ have secured for us. And you can write
over the portals of heaven itself, GOOD THINGS TO COME. There will be perennial
enjoyment and fresh surprises as we share with our blessed Lord the fruits of
what He has won for us.

 

Contrast
those "good things to come" (Heb, 9:11), the fruit of redemption,
with that awful word of judgment, "wrath to come." {Luke 3:7). (Some
may need just such a word.) You remember John the Baptist said to those who
insincerely came out to his baptism, "Who hath warned you to flee from the
wrath to come?" There is wrath to come. Fortunes may be increased,
pleasures may be indulged in, but there is "wrath to come." Years of
God’s patience, years of mercy despised, of warnings unheeded are treasuring up
wrath against the day of wrath. And when comes the end of time, looking back
upon a Christless life and forward into a Christless eternity, oh awful
thought, it is wrath to come! Ah, dear friends that place of wrath, in the outer
darkness where there is weeping and the gnashing of teeth, is no temporary
banishment nor purifying fire. It is no place from which he will one day emerge
a wiser man, ready to accept the finished work of Christ. The day of grace will
be eternally past, and throughout eternity, solemn and awful thought, it will
be still WRATH TO COME. As you think of it, should it not fill the heart with
yearning, with longing for the salvation of souls? Should it not make us
instant in season, out of season? Daily we meet men who are going on to the
wrath to come and we are going on to the good things to come. Shall we not,
knowing the terror of the Lord, persuade men? Shall we not entreat them, yea,
shall we not go out and compel them to come in?" "Turn ye, . . . for
why will ye die?" (Ezek. 33:11)

Evolution, man says, is a result of accidental changes (mutations) in
the genetic make-up of an organism

Evolution, man says, is a result
of accidental changes (mutations) in the genetic make-up of an organism. This
genetic make-up is the organism’s "blue print" which tells the cells
of the developing embryo what structures to make in order to become an
offspring similar to its parents. If an accident occurs such that the
organism’s blueprint is different from that of its parents, it will "grow
up" into an organism which differs from its parents. Evolution says that
if such a difference is beneficial toward the organism’s survival, the
difference would tend to persist from generation to generation. If other such
beneficial mutations occur, still more changes would take place, and over
billions of years, such accidental changes could result in the formation of a
man whose ancestry could be traced back to a unicellular protozoan. Such is
man’s reasoning as to his origin. The evolutionist thus attributes his
existence to accidental mutations. He exists only by chance.

 

But, man shows his own folly of
such faulty reasoning with regard to the question of differentiation (the
process by which a two-celled zygote is transformed into a child). The early growth
of a fertilized egg (the zygote) takes place by simple cell divisions which
produce many cells which are similar to each other. Hence we might suspect that
the genetic blueprint for these cells must also be similar. If this is true, a
zygote could never develop into a child, for the genetic blueprint would know
nothing of bone, muscle, nervous tissue, etc. But, we now could use the same
reasoning as man does with regard to evolution, that
is, "accidents" occur which change the blueprint as the embryo
develops, thus enabling it to form the complex structures of the body, just as
accidents occurred in the protozoan blueprint which resulted in the formation
of man. Such reasoning sounds utterly foolish, and rightly so. Man himself
realizes that such a complex organism as a child could never be thus produced
from a zygote merely by accident; yet, he claims his ancestry to be one of mere
chance. Man thus condemns his own carnal reasoning as to evolution by his
reasoning in connection with differentiation.

 

What a
contrast we have in God’s word, where the "fear of the Lord is the
beginning of wisdom." Man apart from God can not even attain to this
beginning of wisdom. It is not therefore surprising that he is so far from the
truth so many times. God says, "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of
the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a
living soul" (Gen. 2:7). What a resource! What a rock to stand on in the
midst of man made follies which would say otherwise! We ought to hearken to
God’s word rather than man’s for surely the wisdom of
this world is foolishness with God.

A CHALLENGE

 

How could an amoral
process, evolution, produce a moral being—man?

 

There is not a maze
of falsehood, not an error by which Satan has deluded man, and kept him thus
from God, which is not met in the Word.

 

Let us speak of the Saviour whenever we meet,

Let us speak of the
Saviour whenever we meet,

No theme is so precious, So
stirring and sweet,

 So kindling and quickening to
faith and to love,

As Jesus, Lord Jesus, in glory
above

Let us speak for the
Saviour wherever we go,

Displaying our colors to friend
and to foe;

Exalting His person, His work,
and His ways,

His
cross, and His coming, and  — all to His praise!

Ecumenism, a new word not found in older dictionaries, is the cry of the
day

Ecumenism, a new word not found
in older dictionaries, is the cry of the day. What does it mean? As it applies
to the Church it means a church of world-wide influence and scope. Ecumenism is
the spirit of the day attempting to reunite Christendom.

 

The Church, as man sees it, is
divided into many fragments such as denominations. These divisions have
occurred from basic differences in teachings from the Bible, various practices
in conduct, acts of discipline not acceptable to all, and a host of other
reasons. Each division serves to mar the unity of the outward testimony of the
Church. The lack of unity in Christendom causes shame to every humble Christian
as well as adds perplexity to the earnest inquirer. We can surely say with the
householder, "An enemy hath done this."

 

Many attempts have been made
toward Christian unity. Until recent years these have generally met with
failure and resulted in added confusion. However, in recent years various
national and world councils of churches have been formed giving a broad basis
for co-operation and partial unity of action. The apparent success of at least
a partial unity has been widely acclaimed as a great stride in Christian
brotherhood. We are supposed to believe that heaven is pleased with the progress
toward unity so far realized here on earth. Certain church mergers have been
consummated; others are in progress, and who knows what is in the planning. We
recognize all these mergers as efforts to make the church more world-wide or
ecumenical. The obvious end, when the goals are realized, will be a Babel-like
unity representing all Christendom under one head — not Christ in Heaven but a
presumptuous earthly vicar.

 

There is little cause for fear
that Bible-believing, God-fearing Christians will be ensnared in the more
glaring apostasies and the more obvious unholy alliances. Yet, we have
perceived "ecumenical movements" among just such groups of Christians.
The spirit of the day is one of uniting human forces, instead of casting
ourselves on God, in order to combat the influence of the National Council of
Churches and the larger World Council. Even these smaller church councils seem
willing to unite with too many in order to increase the power of their voice.

 

We have said little of the place
the Word and truth of God are given in these unitings. We rarely, if ever, hear
of an occasion where God-wrought repentance and confession of error form the
basis for such comings together. The common basis of merger seems generally to
be that a political face-saving is arranged by the hierarchy, and the doctrines
stated so broadly as to encompass both previously opposing views on various
issues.

 

Confessing, as we must, our part
in the failure of the Church as committed into the hands of man, we can only
lament all these compromises between truth and error, uniting the precious with
the vile, under light so dim as to make the difference between sheep and wolf
hardy perceptible. What shall we say, however, when the leaven of the spirit of
ecumenism has influenced some among the Lord’s people such that one
occasionally hears the plea to forget the past (and it does cause distinct
sorrow to review or remember it), letting bygones be bygones, and come together
or unite simply as Christians?

 

The history of the Church cannot
be reviewed without a sense of sorrow as to the many failures of God’s people.
But let us not be tricked by subtle conceit to think that our presence in
earlier days would have altered the course of events. We who are perplexed by
present problems are not in any wise inherently more immune to repeating past
failures than those who were involved in them. That certain separations between
Christians should never have happened, most readily admit. But it is another
matter to confess our part in that failure in much humiliation and repentance.
God in His sovereignty may see fit to bless such penitent confessors with a
true healing of some of the breaches of the past. But we cannot return the
testimony of the Church to the earlier pristine brightness and unity of
Pentecost. The word of God to Rehoboam as to the division between Israel’s tribes was, "This thing is from me" (1 Kings 12:24). Although not
pleased with the resulting division in itself, we are persuaded that God
allowed it. It also seems that the Lord will suffer the blemishes of division
to remain on the visible Church until He raptures His own to Himself,
presenting His bride then without spot or wrinkle or any such thing as
division.

 

In the
meantime, while He tarries, as we watch and wait, may our hearts be enlarged to
love and help all who are fellow members of that body while keeping our feet in
the path of separation and ourselves free from the spirit of the day — even
ecumenism.

"Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long
hair, it is a shame unto him

"Doth not even nature
itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? But if
a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her:for her hair is given her for a
covering" (I Cor. 11:14-15).

 

In nearly every New Testament
passage in which the word "hair" occurs, the underlying Greek word is
thrix, meaning hair of any sort. However, in 1 Cor. 11:14-15 there is a
different Greek word for hair which appears only in this one passage in the New
Testament. The Greek word corresponding to the expression "have long
hair" is komao. According to W. E. Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New
Testament Words and Greek lexicons by Bagster and by Liddell and Scott, the
word komao means variously:"To have long hair," "to wear the
hair long," "to let the hair grow long." The third occurrence of
the word "hair" in our text comes from a derivative of the same word,
komao, and also has the meaning of "long hair."

 

Since a single, special Greek
word is used here to express the thought of the hair growing long, it would
seem to imply long hair in an absolute sense. Now, many persons would like to
think of the modifier "long" as a relative term and would make the
verses read thus:’If a man have longer hair than have women, it is a shame
unto him; but if a woman have longer hair than have men, it is a glory to
her." But the alternative meanings of komao, "to wear the hair
long" or "to let the hair grow long," contradict this thought.
Thus one who has just had her hair cut shorter certainly cannot say she is letting
her hair grow long.

 

Some have also suggested that
God’s reason for specifying long hair for women and short hair for men is that
the sexes may be thus more easily distinguished. The Scripture nowhere gives
this as God’s reason. We rather believe God’s reasons are both spiritual and
deeper than so superficial a thought.

 

The spiritual reason why wearing
long hair is a glory to the woman is taught in earlier verses of 1 Cor. 11. It
all goes back to creation, where Eve was made from Adam, not vice versa. We
have this in verse 8 of our chapter:"the man is not of (that is, made
from) the woman; but the woman of the man." So in verse 3, "the head
of the woman is the man." The woman’s hair, given as a natural covering
for her head (verse 15), symbolizes her subjection to the man, her true head.
We read in the Scriptures that the woman’s place is a hidden place (1 Peter
3:4), a place of subjection (Eph. 5:22-24, Col. 3:18, 1 Peter 3:1), and of
silence and meekness (1 Peter 3:4, 1 Tun. 2:9-11). Her long hair, as covering
or hiding her head, betokens this bidden, subject place given her in creation.

 

These are days in which we see
women’s hair being cut off shorter and shorter and men’s hair styles tending to
get longer. Do not we correspondingly see women becoming less subject to their
husbands, and men giving the place of head of the household over to their
wives. How honoring to God to see a woman take her God-given place of
subjection and meekness. Also, how pleasing to the Lord it would be to see more
women let their hair grow long, both as a symbol to others and a reminder to
themselves of their desire to manifest their true place in this life. May
Christian men also be diligent to assume their God-given place of headship and
the attending responsibilities and keep their hair short as symbolizing this
place.

As a final remark it should be
pointed out that the covering mentioned in. verses 4-6 and 13 is not the
natural covering, the hair, but an additional covering, such as a hat, scarf,
or veil, worn on the head when one is praying or prophesying. "Every man
praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonoreth his head. But
every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoreth her
head:for that is even all one as if she were shaven. For if the woman be not
covered, let her also be shorn:but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or
shaven, let her be covered." "Judge in yourselves:is it comely that
a woman pray unto God uncovered?" (1 Cor. 11:4-6, 13). This double
covering for the woman seems to emphasize that she owns and acknowledges the
truth of her subjection to the man. A woman might wear long hair, as given her
by nature, without understanding the truth that is in this symbol. Thus when
praying or prophesying, the Scripture teaches that the  woman display the added
testimony of a covering, showing her recognition of the truth. The man, on the
other hand, is told in these verses that (in addition to having short hair) he
should remove any other covering from his head when praying or prophesying, as
representing his Head, our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Where
there is spirituality, the heart finds a command in the barest hint and the
most remote example of the Word of God; where there is not, all the commands in
both Testaments would be in vain to form Christian obedience.

William Farel was a faithful man of God during the struggle of light
against spiritual darkness in Switzerland

William Farel was a faithful man
of God during the struggle of light against spiritual darkness in Switzerland. In the year 1536 he learned that John Calvin had come to Geneva.

 

Farel had been long praying for
help; he believed that God had now sent it. He had read Calvin’s Institutes,
and in his mind Calvin was the very man to consolidate the work so well begun.
Farel contacted him and learned to his dismay that Calvin could stop only one night.

 

"Why seek elsewhere for
what is now offered you? Why refuse to edify the church of Geneva by your faith, zeal, and knowledge?"

 

Calvin shrank from it, saying at
last, "I cannot teach:on the contrary, I have need to learn. There are
special tabors for which I wish to reserve myself. This city cannot afford me
the leisure I require."

 

"Study, leisure, knowledge!
What, must we never practice? I am sinking under my task:pray help
me."

 

Calvin said he was weak and
needed rest.

 

"Rest! Death alone permits
the soldiers of Christ to rest from their labors;"

 

Calvin said he was timid. He
could not battle with such strong spirits as the men of Geneva.

 

"Ought the servants of
Jesus Christ to be so delicate as to be frightened at warfare?"

 

Calvin was moved at the thought
that he should be a coward but begged to be let go his way.

 

Farel reminded him of Jonah and
the punishment he received but still could not get Calvin’s consent. Then
Farel, as if inspired, put his hand on Calvin’s head and with a piercing look
said, "May God curse your repose! May God curse your studies, if in such a
great necessity as ours you withdraw and refuse to give us help and
support"

 

Calvin broke down and shook in
every limb. He felt as if God had seized him. He must obey. He was won for Geneva,

 

Calvin, once settled in Geneva, soon took the lead. He had a very difficult task. The whole populace was now
supposed to be Protestant and nominally Christian, but many were unconverted.
Calvin attempted to enforce at least morality on the people, but many rejected
even this. They desired to please themselves and to be religious only as far as
it suited them. On this account Calvin with Farel and Courad (a minister from Paris) said they could not give the Lord’s supper to some of the people. The council, being
appealed to, met and ordered the three ministers to leave Geneva.

 

The foregoing, slightly altered,
taken from Lights and Shadows of the Reformation presents briefly the
conditions existing in those stirring times. The exercises of these men, who
sought to be faithful with the light they had, brought them into conflict with
the almost overwhelming tide of Romish tradition and practice. God in His mercy
delivered many from mere religion to salvation through Christ and His work on
the cross of Calvary.

 

It appears from records,
however, that Calvin was not clear on some vital doctrines, teaching that by
baptism all became a part of the church and insisting that baptism was "to
give us an entrance into the church of God" and the Lord’s supper was
"to keep us in it."

 

Farel’s faithfulness toward
Calvin, leading him to step into the crisis that then existed when he felt his
great weakness and would excuse himself to less strenuous work, is worthy of
recognition. William Farel was not martyred as so many of God’s faithful ones
were in those times. But he often suffered for the truth’s sake, and had not
the Lord come in and protected him he would have been killed on a number of
occasions.

 

Farel’s pronouncement of a curse
upon Calvin’s lethargy and self-consideration reminds us of what we read in the
song of Deborah and Barak after the battle and victory over the Canaanites
recorded in Judges 5:23. "Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the LORD,
curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of
the LORD, to the help of the LORD against the mighty." They could sit by
complacently and let others carry on and fight for the Lord.

 

Oh, how much the Lord’s people
might do to help the cause of Christ even in this day, by prayer communication,
and helpful encouragement.

 

Zebulun and Naphtali jeoparded
their lives and were commended (Judges 5:18).  Two women, Deborah and Jael (the
wife of Heber), were also commended for faithful service in their own spheres.

 

 

"Brethren," said the speaker in closing, "how must we appear in the sight of God, who loved us
to the extent of giving His only Son to die for our sins, when it is possible for one to live long,
weary years in our midst with none to tell him of Jesus? Can we expect ever to hear from His lips
the welcome plaudit, ‘Well done!’ when we are no more zealous than this for the souls whom He
came to save? Can it be true that we are selfish to the extent of being satisfied simply with our
own salvation, when His heart of infinite love and compassion is yearning over the lost?

"We have the opportunity now which angels may well covet, that of leading souls to Christ. This
priceless privilege is intrusted to us only for the brief time of our earthly existence, and how we
should prize it above all things else! Consider the fact that our happiness and capacity for enjoying
Christ and heaven depend upon the manner of our spending this present vapor called life. . . .

"It seems a paradox that it is possible for one to be a Christian without having a consuming
passion for souls. But in reality the whole matter centers not upon our love for those around us,
but upon our love for the Lord Jesus Himself."

I gave My life for thee,
My precious blood I shed
That thou might ransomed be,
And quickened from the dead;
I gave My life for thee:
What hast thou done for Me?"

Matthew 20:17-28 begins as it ends, with an announcement of the cross. We are first told what
our Lord would do, then that He came to do it.

Between the two announcements the disciples display their eager interest in that which savors of
worldly honor, and receive the needed correction from Him who came not only to give "himself
for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity," but also to "purify unto himself a peculiar
people, zealous of good works" (Titus 2:14).

En route to Jerusalem, where the nation should have rejoiced to welcome and honor Him as their
Messiah, He privately instructs the twelve as to what is before Him:(1) arrival with them at
Jerusalem, despite its enmity; (2) betrayal unto the Jewish leaders, not naming the traitor; (3)
condemnation by them, even unto death (contrast Rom. 8:1, "no condemnation" for us now); (4)
delivery (same word as "betrayed") to the Gentiles; (5) mistreatment at their hands; (6) crucifixion
_"even the death of the cross"; (7) third day, resurrection.

He does not here speak of the accomplishing value of His sufferings, but only of the fact, followed
by out-resurrection. If they loved Him_and they did, Judas excepted_was not this enough to stir
them to the very depths? Nor was this the first time He had so spoken (see Matt. 16:21;
17:9,22,23). How slow were they to understand! How like ourselves! Does He not identify the
trouble exactly, when in Luke 24:25 He says to the two, "O fools, and slow of heart to believe"?

Mark 10:35 tells us the request for exalted positions at either side of our Lord came from James
and John; Matthew, that the petition was presented for them by their mother. They apprehended
His announcement sufficiently to feel assured that "thy kingdom" and "thy glory" (Mark 10:37)
would be realized beyond the cross; at the same time their self-seeking showed that they had no
proper conception of either.

What! His kingdom one in which places of honor are occupied by those who are merely shrewd
enough to anticipate them and first apply for them? Far be the thought! Rather, "thy will be done
in earth, as it is in heaven" will characterize the kingdom (Matt. 6:10). Why, even in our human
bodies "hath God set the members every one of them . . . as it hath pleased him" (I Cor. 12:18);
how much more will all arrangements in the glory reflect the surpassing wisdom of God!

The two disciples would use their mother, who appears willing enough to serve, as a mediatress
to gain their point. Is He, in whose exaltation they crave such a large part, a King who bestows
favors thus? Will they imitate Adonijah (I Kings 2:13-17), forgetting that "a greater than Solomon
is here"?

Legitimate natural relationships are of God, who said, "It is not good that the man should be
alone." In providing for this need, He tells us it is "an help meet for him" whom He "builds" and
brings to the man; such an help as could not be found in the animal world beneath man, but must
be taken from Adam’s opened side (Gen. 2:18-24). The possession by man of a social nature,
then, is a display of the wisdom and the goodness of God. The object of social surroundings is the

"help" of man.

From the very beginning of the race, we have a divinely given test for every social appeal which
may present itself:Is it a "help"? In the light of the known will of God, whom we are responsible
to glorify, and considering all man’s interests_physical, moral, spiritual, temporal, eternal_is
this thing which asks our attention really "good" for man? If it is not, then we must refuse it,
avoid it, flee from it, and witness against it. Young Christians, young people who are saved, all
fellow-believers to whom this may come, let us have our "senses exercised to discern both good
and evil," exercising ourselves like Paul, "to have always a conscience void of offence toward
God, and toward men," remembering that "whatsoever is not of faith is sin" (Heb. 5:14; Acts
24:16; Rom 14:23).

It was part of Adam’s failure that he allowed a natural relationship, legitimate enough in itself and
in its proper place, to come between himself and the known will of God (see Gen. 3:17). So Isaac,
Solomon, and how many others!

James and John would here intrude natural ties into spiritual matters_the Lord should exalt them
because their mother presents their application! No qualifications are submitted to show their
fitness for such positions; no outstanding achievements, even, are referred to, in support of her
plea; still she asks for the places_they are her sons! And this from Him who had made it clear
that He acted on quite other principles (John 2:4; Matt. 12:46-50).

We expect to find, but nevertheless despise, such procedure among men of the world; how
unbecoming to find it among the people of God! Would we introduce these earthly ways into "the
glory" and "the kingdom"? Would it be the kind of glory for which our spirits yearn, if such
principles had a place there? Neither have they any right in Christian fellowship here. How careful
we need to be, lest allowing considerations of family or friendship to enfeeble our sense of the
claims of love and righteousness, we promote favoritism, lose the confidence of our brethren,
grieve and dishonor Him who cannot but rebuke such ways.

To the two disciples our Lord replies, "Ye know not what ye ask." Their request has displayed
not only their selfishness, their desire to outstrip their companions, their willingness to bring the
glory down to the level of earthly politics, but also their ignorance. They are beyond their depth.
The kingdom is morally superior to all their thoughts of it; position there involves more than they
have realized, and is enjoyed on the basis of principles quite different from those which they
propose.

Their mother drops out of the picture; the Saviour will not negotiate through a third party. He will
deal with the principals themselves, and bring them face to face with the deep underlying issues
involved.

One question would He ask, which will bring them to consider the earthly path of suffering which
precedes the kingdom:"Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized
with the baptism that I am baptized with?" Thus He calls them back to His announcement of the
cross, and raises the question of their ability.

Eager to qualify for the coveted honor, they reply, with self-confidence which reminds one of
Peter, "We are able." Assertiveness may make a place for us among men; but it is the "meek and
quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price" (I Pet. 3:4).

He gives, and does not give. He gives them the privilege of suffering, but the place in glory it was
neither theirs to ask nor His to give. He will not express a preference on such a matter, being
entirely satisfied with the Father’s will.

They asked for glory; He grants them suffering, which He will not fail to recompense. They have
ambitions for the future; he points to a path for the present, which leads on to the future. In the
Father’s perfect will, the Saviour’s glory lay beyond the cross; they, and we, should be armed
with the same mind.

O, the perfect harmony manifested in the Godhead! The Son finds His delight in doing the
Father’s will, and in awaiting that will, while the Father finds and expresses His delight in the
Son. Harmony and happiness for His people, here on the earth now, and then in the glory, are to
be found in subjection to His will.

And when those "for whom it is, prepared of my Father" are at last assigned their positions in the
kingdom, the saints meantime having been glorified and therefore having come to know as we are
known, will we not then recognize the divine wisdom as seen in the various appointments, and
praise Him for having so "prepared"?

As we will then enjoy the spiritual enlargement to appreciate and approve the divine arrangements,
quite apart from envy, rivalry, or worldly ambition; may we not even now by faith anticipate that
happy scene, devoting ourselves contentedly to the diligent pursuit of the opportunities which our
present divinely "prepared" circumstances afford? "But as God hath distributed to every man, as
the Lord hath called every one, so let him walk"; for hath He not said "godliness with contentment
is great gain"?

The ten disciples are not content to leave the affair where the Word of the Lord has put it; they
must show their "indignation against the two brethren" who have sought to gain an advantage over
them. What kind of zeal is this? It but classifies them with the others in needing the Lord’s
correction.

He "called them unto him," that it may all be settled, as a matter between brethren, in His
presence. Happy for the saints if all our problems had been settled thus! Then, He "said." His
will, made known in His Word, is the answer to every difficulty among His people. "Thy word
have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee." "If a man love me, he will keep my
words" (Psa. 119:11; John 14:23).

The disciples need to learn that the principles of His kingdom are not those of the nations.
"Dominion" and "authority" go with greatness in Gentile circles; not so in that precious sphere
which He refers to by the words "among you," occurring thrice in two verses.

"Among you" is not exactly the assembly as such, though it is the material of the assembly, and
on earth. The desire for greatness here properly expresses itself in ministering to others; the one
who wills to be "first" is to take the low place of the love bond-slave in serving his brethren. For
love delights to serve, to promote the well-being of the objects loved, "vaunteth not itself, is not
puffed up … seeketh not her own," as is witnessed in the case of the perfect Servant, the Son of
man. As Son of God, Creator, Upholder of all things, Redeemer, Head of the assembly, King of
Kings, and Lord of Lords, surely He is entitled to universal uninterrupted homage. Yet in His
deep love for His own He "came not to be ministered unto, but to minister."

Under the administration of our blessed Lord Jesus Christ, the ten need have no fear that James
and John will succeed in gaining any advantage over them by resorting to unbecoming methods;
nor is their "indignation" therefore re-required, or profitable.

The various kinds of service are not enlarged upon here; the emphasis being rather upon the spirit
of the service. Love will find enough to do, and ways of doing it, enlightened by the Word and
guided by the Spirit, following in His steps.

It remains to notice that there is that in Him which separates Him infinitely from us. As in nature
He is Son of man as is none other, and Son of God as well; so in work He alone could and did
"give his life a ransom for many." This takes us to the value of His work upon the cross. He
provided redemption, shedding His precious blood for our sins.

If anyone reading these lines has not yet accepted Him as your own Saviour, will you not do so

now, by faith, and be saved?

"If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then
live" (Ezek. 33:10)? If they are upon us, how can we live? "For mine iniquities are … as a heavy
burden; they are too heavy for me." "The burden of them is intolerable." It is the burden itself
which cannot be borne; no one could bear his own iniquity without being sunk lower and lower,
and at last to hell, by it. It is only not felt WHEN the very elasticity of sin within us keeps us from
feeling the weight of the sin upon us, or when
the whole burden, our absolutely intolerable burden, is known to be laid upon another.

If this burden be upon us, we cannot walk in newness of life, we cannot run in the way of His
commandments, we cannot arise and shine for His glory.

"If"! But is it?

It is written:"The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." On Jesus it has been laid; on Him
who alone could bear the intolerable burden. Therefore it is not upon His justified ones who
accept Him as their Sin-bearer.

This burden is never divided. He took it all; every item, every detail of it. The scape-goat bore
"upon him" all their iniquities.

Think of every separate sin_each that has weighed down our conscience_every separate
transgression of our most careless moments, added to the unknown weight of forgotten sins of our
whole life, and all this laid upon Jesus, instead of upon us. The sins of a day are often a burden
indeed, but we are told in another type, "I have laid upon thee the YEARS of their iniquity."
Think of the years of our iniquity being upon Jesus. Multiply this by the unknown but equally
intolerable sin-burdens of all His people, and remember that "the Lord hath laid on him the
iniquity of us all," and then think what the strength of His enduring love must be which thus bare
"the sins of many."

Think of His bearing them "in his own, body on the tree," in that flesh and blood of which He
took part, with all its sensitiveness, because He would be made like unto His brethren in all things;
realize that this "bearing" was entirely suffering (for He "suffered for sins"); and then praise the
love which has not left "our sins upon us."

We cannot lay them upon Him. Jehovah has done that already, and "his work is perfect."
"Nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it." "The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity
of us all." "He hath done this." We have only to look up and see Him bearing the iniquity for us.
To put it still more simply, we have only to believe that the Lord has really done what He says
He has done.

Can we doubt the Father’s love to us, when we think what it must have cost Him to lay that
crushing weight on His dear Son, sparing Him not, that He might spare US instead?

The Son accepted the awful burden, but it was the Father’s hand which laid it upon Him. It was
death to Him, that there might be life to us. How the thought of our sins being "laid on him,"
should draw out our love! "He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto
themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again."

"On Thee the Lord
My mighty sins hath laid,
And against Thee Jehovah’s sword
Flashed forth its fiery blade.
The stroke of justice fell on Thee,
That it might never fall on me."

But in this new, forgiven life, there must be growth; the command is, "desire the sincere milk of
the word, that ye may grow thereby." Real desire must prove itself by action. By the Word we
shall grow in the knowledge of Christ. How do we come to know more of anyone whom, having
not seen, we love? Is it not by reading and hearing what he has said and written and done? How
are we to know more of Jesus ‘Christ if we are not taking the trouble to know more of His Word?

It says, "beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in ALL the scriptures
the things concerning himself." Let us ask that the Holy Spirit may take of these things of Jesus
and show them unto us, that we may grow in "the knowledge of the Son of God."

"The words that I speak unto you they are spirit, and they are life" _ quickening and life-giving
words. We want to be permeated with them; we want them to dwell in us richly. Jesus Himself
has given us this quick and powerful Word of God, and our responsibility is tremendous. He has
told us distinctly what to do with it; He has said, "Search the scriptures"! Now, are we substituting
a word of our own, and merely reading them? He did not say, "Read them," but "Search." The
devil is very fond of persuading us that we have "no leisure so much as to eat," when it is a
question of Bible study.

We are solemnly responsible for the mental influences under which we place ourselves. "Take
heed what ye hear" must include take heed what ye read. "Lead us not into temptation" is "vain
repetition" when we walk straight into it.

"Let me, then, be always growing,
Never, never standing still,
Listening, learning, better knowing
Thee, and Thy most blessed will;
That the Master’s eye may trace,
Day by day, my growth in grace."

In Psa. 50:5, the Psalmist says:"Gather my saints together UNTO ME; those that have made a
covenant WITH ME by sacrifice." There are two expressions in this verse to which I wish to draw
your attention. The first_UNTO ME_gives the Person to whom the saints are gathered; the
second_WITH ME_gives the authority for their gathering. We must never confuse these two
truths, nor reverse their order. In Matt. 18:20 (J.N.D. Trans.) we have the same order:viz.,
"UNTO MY NAME" and "THERE AM I IN THE MIDST OF THEM."

By referring to Lev. 18:3,4, we see that the children of Israel were not to do after the manner of
the Egyptians, in whose land they had dwelt; nor were they to do after the manner of the people
of the land of Canaan! whither the Lord was bringing them. They were to be safeguarded by doing
the judgments of the Lord and keeping His ordinances, to walk therein; for "I am Jehovah your
God" (J.N.D. Trans.). There was no gathering to the Lord’s name in Egypt or in Canaan by the
people of those lands. Consequently, the people of God must preserve their distinct character as
such by refusing to be linked with them in their religious practices.

It was impossible for the Israelites to remain with the Egyptians or Canaanites and be gathered
UNTO HIS NAME to God’s glory. All Christians are right positionally _i.e., "in Christ"; but
to be right practically, we must seek to be gathered according to Deut. 16, "in the place which the
Lord shall choose to place His name there."

In I Cor. 12:12,13, we learn that there is one body, that we are all baptized by one Spirit into one
body, and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. This unity, thus briefly described, is in the
sight of the Lord, whatever may be the outward condition as seen by men. The question is:Are
Christians so gathered that the oneness of the body of Christ, as taught in the Scriptures, is made
manifest to God’s glory?

Coming to the New Testament, we see the Lord calling and gathering disciples to follow Him.
Andrew and Peter, Philip and Nathanael are seen following Jesus in John 1, while James and John
are noticed in Matt. 4:21,22. By the time we reach Matt. 10, the number has increased to twelve.
Passing into the Acts, we see the grand culmination of this wonderful truth in the formation of the
Church; and all with the specific purpose of having a people together to His glory, as they follow
Him in this world.

One very subtle form of temptation which the enemy employs in seeking to get the people of God
to dishonor Him is an appeal to what is natural. This is seen in Pharaoh and his several
propositions. In Exodus 5, Moses and Aaron tell Pharaoh that they are commanded to go three
days’ journey into the wilderness to hold a feast to the Lord. Pharaoh bluntly refuses to let them,
whereupon the taskmasters lay upon the children of Israel even heavier burdens than before.

Finally, in chapter 8, Pharaoh proposes a compromise:"Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land."
Then later, he says he will let them go to sacrifice in the wilderness, "only ye shall not go very
far away."

In chapter 10, after further judgments have been visited upon Egypt, Pharaoh’s servants tell him
to "let the men go," inferring that their families be left behind. Then, lastly, Pharaoh proposes that
they take their little ones with them, but leave their flocks and herds in Egypt. How subtle is the
enemy in seeking to hinder the people of God! Let us never be deceived or misled by any of his
wiles!

Regardless of reproach or persecution, let us always remember that the path of obedience to the
Word of God is the path of blessing in every age.

Him will I make that overcomes
And stems the advancing flood,
A pillar of might, with glory light,
In the temple of my God.

Then may each saint his courage take
From Thee, victorious Lord;
And still hold fast, to the very last,
Thine own most sacred word.

For yet a few short hours of toil,
And the conflict will be o’er;
And echoing cries of triumph rise
From the glory-lighted shore.

A doctor was once asked by a patient who had met with a serious accident:"Doctor, how long
will I have to lie here?" The answer, "Only a day at a time," taught the patient a precious lesson.

The same lesson God taught His people, and the people of all ages since, through the method of
His provision for Israel during their wilderness journey:"The day’s portion in
its day"(Exodus 16:4, marg.). Day by day the manna fell, enough for each day, and no more and
no less.

So God promises us_not "as thy weeks," or "as thy months," but_"as thy days, so shall thy
strength be" (Deut. 33:25). And that means Monday’s grace for Monday, and Tuesday’s grace
for Tuesday, and so on through the week. Why, then, borrow trouble for the future? We are
especially told by the Lord, "Take therefore no thought for the morrow:for the morrow shall take
thought for the things of itself" (Matt. 6:34). The true rule_the life of faith_is to live by the day,
to live a life of trust.

The law of divine grace is "Sufficient unto the day." The law of divine deliverance is, "A very
present help." The law of divine guidance is, "Step by step."

One who carries a light on a dark road at night sees only a step before him. If he takes that step
he carries the light forward and that makes another step plain. After awhile he reaches his
destination in safety without once stepping into darkness. The whole way was made light to him,
though only a single step of it was made plain at one time. This is the method of God’s
guidance_one step at a time.

It is a blessed secret, this living by the day. Anyone can carry his burden, however heavy, till
nighttime. Anyone can do his work, however hard, for one day. And in the strength of God,
anyone can live trustingly, lovingly, and purely till the sun goes down.

"Day by day the manna fell;
Oh! to learn this lesson well."

"The inward man is renewed day by day" (2 Cor. 4:16).