Calendar:Sept. 16th to Oct. 15th.
DAILY BIBLE READING:……… Sept. 16th, 2 Cor. 2; Sept. 30th, Gal. 3; Oct. 15th, Col. 2. MEMORY WORK:……………………….John 14.
GOOD READING:"The Fruitful Bough," C. Knapp. This little book will open up the typical meaning of Joseph's history as it relates to Christ. Paper, 25 cents., cloth, 60 cents.
MONTHLY QUESTION:-What important differences do you find between the epistles to Galatians and Ephesians?
Our Memory Work
These chapters of John's Gospel which we are now memorizing should be very precious to us. They give the last conversation of our Lord just before He suffered. In them He opens His heart to us in a wonderful way, so that we may enjoy that communion with Him which He so much desires. Note the different ways in which He speaks of coming (vers. 3,18, 23, 28). Then there are the three questions, and the Lord's answers:the coming and abiding presence of the Spirit; the obedience to which love impels; the way in which practical enjoyment of the blessing is realized.
Our Daily Bible Reading
We read four important epistles during this month:2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, and Philippians.
In 2 Corinthians the great subject is ministry. As might be expected, the character, ways and experience of a true minister are presented throughout, and this in connection with Paul himself as the great pattern of a true servant of Christ. In chaps. 1 and 2, the work of ministry is accompanied by suffering, whether from the world or the state of the church, in which, however, the comfort, mercy, and power of God are realized. Chap. 3 gives the distinctive character of the New Testament ministry, contrasted with the law. Chaps. 4 and 5 set forth the vessels used in this ministry; the glorious deposit given to them, yet their utter weakness; their experience, yet confidence through God, and the issue in glory. Then, in view of our glorious hope, faith triumphs even over death, and presses upon men to be reconciled to God, in view of th? judgment to come. In chap. 6 we are given to see the manner and conditions of faithful ministry as exemplified in the apostle's own life. He then pleads for the believer's separation from the world of unbelievers and idolaters, in answer to God's own character, so as to be openly owned of Him as His children. The apostle then, in chap. 7, speaks of the relief or comfort brought him as to the Corinthian assembly by the report of Titus, who had just returned from Corinth.
Chaps. 8 and 9 show the practical character of Christianity in caring for one another's temporal needs. The ministry of the glory does not lead to forgetfulness of this, rather does it emphasize such sacrifices as well pleasing to God. In the closing chapters Paul vindicates his authority and ministry in various ways; lastly appealing to the Corinthians themselves as proof of Christ speaking through him.
Galatians unfolds the gospel of grace in contrast with law. Promise and the Spirit connect with the former; bondage and curse with the latter. Chaps. 1 and 2 show Paul's apostleship and ministry as not from man, but as commissioned and taught directly from heaven by revelation of Jesus Christ. He shows that the principle of faith, not works of law, is the ground of our blessing and relationship with God (ch. 3). Sonship in freedom, characterized by the Spirit's presence, is the prominent line of truth in this epistle (chs. 4-6).
Ephesians presents the counsels of God, the calling of the saints, their relationships according to eternal purpose, their present heavenly portion and future place with Christ as His body (chs. 1-3). Chs. 4-6 set forth the practical walk of those who through grace are partakers in this heavenly calling. Philippians portrays Christian experience as triumphing over all the difficulties or trials through which the child of God may be called to pass. It really presents the practical life of one who is living in the power and joy of association with Christ. His heart is occupied with Christ's interests (ch. 1), His mind (ch. 2), His glory (ch. 3), His power (ch. 4). It rules the life, throughout; and this is given as the apostle's own experience-the pattern Christian.
In many respects these epistles set before us the most wonderful part of New Testament revelations. In them, God's richest grace and fullest glory are disclosed. Is it not a marvelous, yet solemn thing to have thus revealed to us the knowledge of His will! He has called us into this by the ministry of the apostle Paul. What value do we set upon it? How do we respond to it? What measure of control does it exercise over our minds and affections? May it be true of us that we are increasingly "filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that we might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God."
Some differences between the Bible and other ancient literature.
First:the Bible, though not a book of science in the ordinary sense of the word, is not in conflict with the established facts of science. In this it differs widely from other ancient literature.
There is no line of the great sciences which may not be taken up to illustrate this difference.
The fantastic views and teachings of the ancients, which prevailed in the centuries during which the Bible was written, stand out as grotesquely ignorant when contrasted with the wonderful results of modern research. How is it, then, that the Bible references to any of the matters treated of in these great branches of scientific study cannot be shown to conflict with twentieth century knowledge? That which appears to Moderns as most ridiculous in the writings of the ancients, does not appear upon any of the Bible's pages, does not mar any of its beautiful descriptions of nature in any of the departments to which it refers. How were its writers preserved from the absurd vagaries which dominated the intellectual, the scientific, and the religious world of their day? How is it that their statements stand the test of present-day facts when these have shown the folly of all other literature -Egyptian, Indian, Chinese, Grecian, Roman? It is God-breathed, is the only true answer.
Let us particularize under several heads.
Astronomy
It is a commonplace to say that all the ancient treatises and systems of whatever class, and even the speculative scientific views of nearly all the Church Fathers, are of no account to-day in the light of present knowledge. Modern optical instruments have opened up the heavens, so that we know that the Milky Way is not a disused path of the sun; that the earth is not shaped like a table; that the stars are not inflamed clouds, or like pumice-stones, or crystal; that the sun is not about the size of the earth and merely reflects the light of this globe; that the moon is not a mixture of air and fire, for it has neither atmosphere nor heat and that it is not larger than the earth, which greatly exceeds it in volume. And there is much more, as to which even our school-children know better.
Not a statement of the Bible bearing upon astronomical subjects can be shown at variance with the facts of this science-and it freely treats of various phenomena in this connection. How comes Job to speak of the empty place in the north (16:7), for it is there we are told the telescope can discover no stars? Again (38:31), the loosing of the bands of Orion is spoken of, and not till recent years was it discovered, as astronomers tell us, that our planetary system is moving away from the constellation in which Orion is chief. The ancients said the earth must rest on pillars or elephants or other animals. In Job it is recorded that God "hangeth the earth upon nothing." The Bible does not limit the number of stars, nor speak foolishly of their distances, but the ancients did both. It has perfectly escaped their many errors; no other ancient literature has. Its statements harmonize with recent discoveries; those of no other ancient book do. Whose book is it? "Scripture cannot be broken."
Geology.
This comparatively modern science has yet reached a high state of development, and presents a wonderful array of facts. The ideas of the ancient sages as to the origin and formation of the earth are crude, to say the least. " The wisdom of the Egyptians" in these matters now appears utter foolishness. Moses was learned in it all, but how is it that some of this foolishness did not creep into the Pentateuch? The ancients of Greece, India, China, gave no better account of things than did those of Egypt. The Babylonians and Assyrian; were no exception.
When the Bible was written all of these now rejected ideas concerning the earth and its orders of life held complete sway over the most intelligent. How is it that the Bible is not tainted with them, and that what it gives us can not even now be proved to conflict with the established results of modern science, whose light had not come upon men of previous centuries? Concerning its record of creation and the order presented in it, Dana remarks:" There is so much that the most recent readings of science have for the first time explained that the idea of man as the author becomes utterly incomprehensible. By proving the record true, science pronounces it divine ; for who could have narrated the secrets of eternity but God Himself ?" Herschel said, "All human discoveries seem to be made only for the purpose of confirming more and more strongly the truths contained in the Holy Scriptures."
The sublime account of creation given in Scripture presents nothing which astronomy or geology can show to he false; there is a striking harmony, rather, with what they establish. That God is presented as the Creator of all, is a cause for cavil for some, but even the grossest evolutionist always reaches the point where only a great "First Cause" will meet the case. The greatest of scientific men have at least acknowledged God.
Natural History
In the great field embracing Zoology, Botany, Meteorology, the contrast is still evident. The way in which Scripture classifies animal life, and refers to plant life, gives details concerning the habits and characteristics of animals and plants; as it treats of rivers, seas, winds, rain, snow, hail-all is found to be above criticism; it is without parallel in ancient literature, and not to be improved upon even to-day. The Bible is not full of mistaken speculations. It is free from the errors which ruled the world when it was written. In its multitude of references to the phenomena of nature, its operations and effects, there is no inaccuracy, though the language is not scientific, as men would say, but is full of poetic beauty and color.
Wonderful Book! full of the words, ways, and works of God! His love, His light, His power, His majesty, His glory, all shine forth from its precious pages. Do we not join the Psalmist in saying, "I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right?" (119:128). We quote the following from F. W. Grant:"How valuable must Scripture be for the knowledge of Nature! It should in every way be the firm ground of the naturalist, and its induction as reliable as that directly from nature; the microscope also being as great a revealer in the one case as in the other. Ah, how little patient, believing work has been done in this direction with regard to Scripture! the neglect of which has shut us out so much from the light it could have given in matters hidden from the mere man of science . . . What a thing it would be to have a faithful company of devout explorers giving themselves to explore nature with the light of Scripture, and Scripture also, one may reverently say, in the light of nature. For both are God's books and both alike truthful, and Christ the theme of and the key to both."
Correspondence for the Y. B. Dept., please address to Mr. John Bloore, care of Loizeaux Brothers.