The Lord and the Law

The Lord had given a beneficent law to Israel, incorporating in it a day out of seven-the seventh-for complete rest. The good of man was in His mind. In the third chapter of Mark they are watching whether that same Lord will heal a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath day, that they may be able to condemn Him for violation of the law. The very thing He had given them for good, they are now ready to use against His doing good. This is always the mind of the Pharisee-the legal mind. The Lord, bent upon the good of man, is against that mind. He first calls up the precedent of David eating the showbread, which it was not lawful for him and his men to eat, but of which in their need they had nevertheless eaten. Then, while His wounded love is angered at their hardness of heart and want of sympathy toward a suffering neighbor, He boldly asserts His superiority over all law by commanding the man, "Stretch forth thy hand." The legalists may be angered and plot together to destroy Him, but grace has triumphed over law, and love has had its own way in spite of difficulties. And so it is still. It is easier to press some passage of Scripture to the bitter end than to search patiently into all the mind of the Lord as revealed in the Word concerning the circumstances through which we may be passing. There is no need of spirituality or prayerful mind for the first; there is for the other.

"Pastor Russell'

There was recently left at our door in Plainfield, N. J., an advertising sheet which, because it professes to be Christian, demands Christian examination and judgment. It presents a picture of the American continent emerging from the waters, and, most prominent of all, the picture of "Pastor Russell" himself as the showman in his "Photo Drama of Creation." Beneath his picture are the following printed words:

NEW YORK-BROOKLYN-WASHINGTON LONDON

World-famed as editor, author and lecturer; forty years on the public platform; a profound Bible scholar; the world's most famous "Anti-Hell-fire preacher."

His writings on the Divine Plan of Creation cover more than 5000 pages, and record the labors of a life-time.

You can reap the benefit of all this in a few hours by seeing the Photo-Drama of Creation.

International Bible Students' Association, London, England; Brooklyn, N. Y.

We have little comment to make. We read in Scripture of two striking characters. Of one it is said, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus :who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" (Phil. 2:6-8).

The other is thus described:"But there was a certain man, called Simon, which beforetime in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that Himself was some great one" (Acts 8:9).

We leave it to our readers to judge which of these two characters is portrayed in "Pastor" Russell's advertising sheet. Our own mind is that should the poor " pastor " become born of God some day, and the light of Christ shine into him, as once into Saul of Tarsus, like Saul he will have, we fear, a dark retrospect to go over, when, instead of thinking himself " some great one," he may have to call himself "the chief of sinners" of his times. May this grace be granted him before it is too late, for when our Lord carries out His threat, " Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels," He will have no more regard for "the greatest anti-hell-fire preacher " than for any other sinner; nor will He be moved by any juggling with the Greek.

The "pastor" uses an abundance of pictures to caricature the doctrines of Scripture which he hates. It is easy in this day of universal rebellion against all government to excite men into rebellion against God's; but oh, that men would pity themselves and not run amuck against a power which they can no more resist than the rising of the sun or the incoming of the tide.

" Pastor Russell," like the pope, though in an opposite direction, has found the road to men's pockets, and it is evident he enjoys it. And no wonder, for he knows absolutely nothing of the Christian's heavenly calling. All is earth and earthly things with him. Even in the eternal state, he knows nothing more than a restored Edenic condition, with all its earthly bliss. Nor is his conception of Christianity, as expressed in the advertisement of his show, out of keeping with this. Listen to it:
"Brains, time and money invested for you. Free exhibitions; an education in one day." God takes our lifetime to educate us by His Word and Spirit, and through many trials and exercises of heart and conscience. This man can do it all up in one day by a "movie." Surely the U. S. can boast of celebrities! Since the advent of Joe Smith they have followed in quick succession.

Our readers will find on the last page of this number a series of pamphlets, laying bare the devious teachings of this "pastor." We recommend a wide distribution of them.

Wars and rumors of Wars

The "friends of peace," whose hope has been so to educate men as to make an end of wars, must feel cast down at the present conditions in Europe. Those who believe God and are governed by His word, know that instead of the world moving on by human training toward a millennium of peace, it is nearing day by day a deluge of blood. When the disciples asked the Lord concerning the signs of His coming again, He told them plainly that they would "hear of wars and rumors of wars:see that ye be not troubled:for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows " (Matt. 24:6-8). If men believed the word of God how undeceived they would be. How it would prevent their running after phantoms.

Unprecedented wars and catastrophes are then to take place at the close of this dispensation, introductory to the establishment of the kingdom of the Son of Man. The " gospel of the kingdom," that is, the announcement that the Lord as King of kings is about to return from heaven to rule this world from east to west and from pole to pole, will be made throughout the world, and then shall He appear. Thank God, throughout that season of dire distress in the earth, the Church (the company of all redeemed people), will be safely sheltered, being, before the worst comes, translated to heaven, where her home is-where Christ has gone and prepared her a place. "Wars and rumors of wars " therefore need not put us in anxiety, though we may well pity this poor world, and especially the Jews, who will be the chief sufferers in the coming tribulation, and pray for them.

It is doubtless out of the chaos produced by such a dreadful conflict of mighty nations that the first Beast of Rev. 13 comes forth-a man of extraordinary powers who, with the second Beast of the same chapter, are the devil's exponents of his hatred of God and the testimony for God in the earth. They cause "the great tribulation," of which the Lord warns the Jews (Matt. 24:21), and bids them hide from its violence (Matt. 24:16-20). Immediately upon this the Lord Himself appears and takes all in hand (Matt. 24 :29, 30). How 'near must be the rapture of the heavenly saints! Solemn and sweet are these closing days. We have waited long, but our hope is about to be fulfilled. Then too, like the Lord, over Jerusalem, we may weep over the fields which we have evangelized and which have turned away from God's entreaties.