The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, vol. 76

31/52

August 1, 1899

“The Sermon. Christian Perfection” 1 The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 76, 31, pp. 487, 488.

A. T. JONES

(Concluded.)

LET us look again at the statement that the gifts are for the perfecting of the saints, “till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” There is the pattern. The way that Christ went in this world of sin, and in sinful flesh,—your flesh and mine, burdened with the sins of the world,—the way he went in perfection and to perfection, is the way set before us. ARSH August 1, 1899, page 487.1

He was born of the Holy Ghost. In other words, Jesus Christ was born again. He came from heaven, God’s first-born, to the earth, and was born again. But all in Christ’s work goes by opposites for us: he, the sinless one, was made to be sin, in order that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. He, the living one, the prince and author of life, died that we might live. He whose goings forth have been from the days of eternity, the first-born of God, was born again, in order that we might be born again. ARSH August 1, 1899, page 487.2

If Jesus Christ had never been born again, could you and I have ever been born again?—No. But he was born again, from the world of righteousness into the world of sin; that we might be born again, from the world of sin into the world of righteousness. He was born again, and was made partaker of the human nature, that we might be born again, and so made partakers of the divine nature. He was born again, unto earth, unto sin, and unto man, that we might be born again unto heaven, unto righteousness, and unto God. ARSH August 1, 1899, page 487.3

Brother Covert says that makes us as brethren. It does certainly make us as brethren. And he is not ashamed to call us his brethren either. ARSH August 1, 1899, page 487.4

Then he was born again, by the Holy Ghost; for it is written, and was spoken to Mary, “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” ARSH August 1, 1899, page 487.5

Jesus, born of the Holy Ghost, born again, grew “in wisdom and stature,” unto the fulness of life and character in the world, to where he could say to God, “I have glorified thee on the earth; I have finished the work thou gavest me to do.” God’s plan and mind in him had attained to perfection. ARSH August 1, 1899, page 487.6

Jesus, born again, born of the Holy Ghost, born of flesh and blood, as we were, the Captain of our salvation, was made “perfect through sufferings.” For “though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.” Hebrews 2:10; 5:8, 9. Jesus thus went to perfection in human flesh, through suffering; because it is in a world of suffering that we in human flesh must attain perfection. ARSH August 1, 1899, page 487.7

And while growing all the time, he was perfect all the time. Do you see that? There is where many people misconceive the whole thought of Christian perfection—they think the ultimate is the only measure. It is in God’s plan; but the ultimate is not reached at the beginning. Look again at the fourth of Ephesians. This is a suggestion, thrown out to you and me, how we may attain to this perfection,—“the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” I read the thirteenth verse; now couple with that verses 14-16: “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even in Christ.” ARSH August 1, 1899, page 487.8

This is to be accomplished in you and me by growth; but there can be no growth where there is no life. This is growth in the knowledge of God, growth in the wisdom of God, growth in the character of God, growth in God; therefore it can be only by the life of God. But that life is planted in the man at the new birth. He is born again, born of the Holy Ghost; and the life of God is planted there, that he “may grow up into him”—in how much?—“In all things.” ARSH August 1, 1899, page 487.9

You remember that “the kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field.” And “the seed is the word of God.” The seed is planted. He realizes that night and day it grows, he knows not how. But that seed is what?—It is perfect; for God made it. It sprouts presently. What of the sprout? ARSH August 1, 1899, page 487.10

[Congregation: “Perfect, too.”] ARSH August 1, 1899, page 487.11

Is it? ARSH August 1, 1899, page 487.12

[Voices: “Yes.”] ARSH August 1, 1899, page 487.13

But it is not a head of grain; it is not a stalk standing full and strong; it is a mere sprout peeping through the ground. But what of it? Is it not perfect? ARSH August 1, 1899, page 487.14

[Congregation: “Yes.”] ARSH August 1, 1899, page 487.15

According to the rate of its progress, it is as perfect at that point as it will be when its course is finished, at the point of maturity. Do you not see? Let not that misconception abide any more. Away with it! ARSH August 1, 1899, page 487.16

When that sprout peeps through the ground, you stoop to look at it. It is a thing to be admired. It is charming, because it is perfect. That is as perfect a blade as ever appeared on earth, but it is a mere spindling thing, barely peeping through the ground. That is all there is of it; but it is perfect. It is perfect, because it is as God made it. God is the only one that had anything to do with it. Do you not see? It is all right. So you and I, born again of that good seed of the word of God,—born by the word of God and the Holy Ghost, born of the perfect seed,—when that seed sprouts and grows, and begins to appear among men, people see the characteristics of Christ. And what is he?—Perfect. Then what is the Christian right there? ARSH August 1, 1899, page 487.17

[Congregation: “Perfect.”] ARSH August 1, 1899, page 487.18

If we be born again through the power of Jesus Christ, and God himself directs the work, what will that be which appears?—It will be perfect. And that is Christian perfection at that point. Jesus Christ presents you holy, unblamable, and unreprovable, before the throne at that point. ARSH August 1, 1899, page 487.19

That sprout grows and stands above the ground; presently another blade shoots off; there are two of them, and each is just as handsome as the other. The third one appears; it is now a stalk, and still grows. It now presents another picture altogether from that which it presented at first. Another picture indeed, but no more perfect than before. It is nearer to ultimate perfection, nearer to God’s accomplished purpose; but, though nearer to ultimate perfection, it is no more perfect, as it stands now, than it was the moment that it peeped through the ground. ARSH August 1, 1899, page 487.20

In time it grows to its full height. The head is full-formed. The bloom appears upon it. It is more beautiful on account of it. And at last appears the full head of grain, perfect; and the grains of wheat, each one perfect. The work, God’s work, is finished upon it. It is perfected. It has attained unto perfection according to God’s mind when he started it. ARSH August 1, 1899, page 487.21

That is Christian perfection. It comes by growth. But the growth can be only by the life of God. And the life of God being the spring, it can grow only according to God’s order. Only he can shape the growth. Only he knows, in perfection, the pattern. Christ is the pattern. God knows perfectly the pattern; and he can cause us to grow in perfection according to that pattern; because the same power, the same life, is in this growth that was in the growth of the original pattern, Jesus Christ. ARSH August 1, 1899, page 487.22

And as Jesus began, at his birth, as a little child in human flesh, and grew up and finished the work that God had given him to do; so you and I, born again, growing up in him in all things, come presently to the day when we, as did he, shall say, and say in righteousness, “I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work thou gavest me to do.” For it is written, “In the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished.” We are in that day. We have that mystery given to us to give to the world. It is to be finished for the world; and it is to be finished in those who have it. ARSH August 1, 1899, page 487.23

But what is the mystery of God?—“Christ in you, the hope of glory.” “God... manifest in the flesh.” Then in these days that mystery is to be finished in one hundred and forty-four thousand people. God’s work in human flesh, God being manifested in human flesh, in you and me, is to be finished. His work upon you and me is to be finished. We are to be perfected in Jesus Christ. By the Spirit we are to come unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. ARSH August 1, 1899, page 487.24

Is not that worth having? Is not the Lord’s way a good way unto perfection? Oh, then, “leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, LET US GO ON UNTO PERFECTION; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.” He has freed us from the unstable foundation that we had when in sin. Let the only foundation be that of the service of righteousness unto holiness, and the end, everlasting life. ARSH August 1, 1899, page 487.25

And to every soul who will face the Judgment, and hold himself in the presence of the Judgment, surrendering himself to crucifixion and destruction, that thing will be accomplished in God’s own way, and in the short time in which he has promised to bring us unto righteousness. Then it is only God, God’s estimate, his standard, and Christ the pattern, and his the work, always, in all things, everywhere and forever! Then be of good cheer. Let is be Christ first, last, and all the time. The way if told beautifully in verse:— ARSH August 1, 1899, page 487.26

“When times of temptation bring sadness and gloom.
I will tell it to Jesus my Lord;
The last of earth’s treasures borne out to the tomb,
I will tell it to Jesus my Lord.
This earth hath no sorrow, for to-day or tomorrow.
But Jesus hath known it and felt, long ago:
And when it comes o’er me, and I’m tempted so sorely.
I will tell it to Jesus my Lord.
ARSH August 1, 1899, page 488.1

“When out on the hilltops, away from all sin
I will tell it to Jesus my Lord;
When joyous and happy, the sunshine within,
I will tell it to Jesus my Lord.
To know I’m forgiven is a foretaste of heaven,
And Jesus is dearer to me than before;
Such peacefulness fills me, such an ecstasy thrills me.
I will tell it to Jesus my Lord.
ARSH August 1, 1899, page 488.2

“When weary with telling, and ready to faint,
I will tell it to Jesus my Lord;
He never refuses to hear my complaint,
I will tell it to Jesus my Lord.
I’ll cheerfully bear it, when I’ve Jesus to share it;
His yoke, it is easy; his burden is light.
When life becomes dreary, and I’m footsore and weary,
I will tell it to Jesus my Lord.
ARSH August 1, 1899, page 488.3

“When darkness is dimming my path to the sky,
I will tell it to Jesus my Lord;
When helpers shall fail me, and comforts shall fly,
I will tell it to Jesus my Lord.
Though blurred my life’s pages, by my sin and its wages.
He’s, yesterday, now, and forever, the same;
I’ll not be forsaken, though my life should be taken;
I will tell it to Jesus my Lord.”
ARSH August 1, 1899, page 488.4

“Editorial” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 76, 31, p. 492.

THE subject in the book of Galatians is the gospel. Galatians 1:8, 9. ARSH August 1, 1899, page 492.1

In the way the subject is discussed, however, it is two gospels,—the true gospel as against a false one,—the one or another, which indeed is not another,—the true gospel as against a perversion of that gospel. Verse 6, 7. ARSH August 1, 1899, page 492.2

Now the true gospel is the gospel of the true way of salvation from sin. And as the subject in Galatians is the true gospel as against a false one, therefore the subject of the book of Galatians is the true way of salvation from sin as against a false way,—the true way of salvation as against a perversion of that way. ARSH August 1, 1899, page 492.3

Accordingly, we there read that when Peter and others “walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel,” and Paul withstood Peter to the face on account of it, these are the words with which he withstood him: “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall be justified.... I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.” Galatians 2:16, 21. ARSH August 1, 1899, page 492.4

And when his appeal is made directly to the Galatians themselves, it is in these words: “This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith.” Galatians 3:2. ARSH August 1, 1899, page 492.5

Again: “Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?Verse 3. ARSH August 1, 1899, page 492.6

Again: “He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?Verse 5. ARSH August 1, 1899, page 492.7

Again: “That no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.” Verse 11. ARSH August 1, 1899, page 492.8

And again: “Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.” Galatians 5:4. ARSH August 1, 1899, page 492.9

It is therefore perfectly plain that the subject of the book of Galatians is the true gospel—the gospel of salvation, of justification, of righteousness, by FAITH—as against a false gospel; as against a perversion of the gospel of Christ,—a gospel of salvation, of justification, of righteousness, by works by LAW, by THE FLESH. ARSH August 1, 1899, page 492.10

The question in the book of Galatians is solely the question of salvation by grace, not by law; by faith, not by works; by the Spirit, not by the flesh; by Christ, not by self. ARSH August 1, 1899, page 492.11

Now let all who are interested in “the law in Galatians,” or in the gospel in Galatians or anywhere else, read the book of Galatians through seven times with this thought in mind, and they will be better prepared for some studies in Galatians, which we may give in these columns soon. ARSH August 1, 1899, page 492.12

“Editorial Note” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 76, 31, p. 492.

LAST week we reprinted here an impressive statement, by the Chicago Times-Herald, on the prevalence of strikes just now. There is, however, one very important feature of the strikes, which was not noticed by the Times-Herald, that is, the violence and rioting that invariably attend them. Where the strikers themselves do not engage in the violence and rioting, their wives and children and the hoodlum element generally do so. Street-cars are smashed to pieces with stones, or blown up with dynamite, workmen who accept employment in the places the strikers have left are beaten to death if possible, and the lives of innocent passengers are regardlessly endangered by the dynamite explosions to destroy the cars and tracks of the company against which the strike is made. Such is the record of the strikes that are now prevalent: so that the prevalence of strikes, so forcibly put by the Times-Herald, simply means the prevalence of violence and rioting. ARSH August 1, 1899, page 492.1

Nor is that all: there is another feature of these strikes that is most significant. When the police attempt to stop the violence or to quell the rioting, they are defied, and the militia—an armed force—has to be called out. This demonstrates that the strikers have no respect whatever for any civil authority, but only for military power. And this has been carried so far that at times even the militia has been hooted at and utterly disregarded, so that regular troops of the standing army had to be called out. Because of this very tendency, garrisons of the regular army have lately been removed from the frontiers, and established close to the large cities. All this points unerringly to the establishment of government by military force, instead of by civil authority, as certainly as strikes and violence continue, and continue to grow as they have lately. And these will continue to grow as certainly as the scripture is true that “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse.” ARSH August 1, 1899, page 492.2

“Science Falsely So-called” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 76, 31, p. 492.

Science falsely so-called has decided that man has “progressed” from the animals, through barbarism, to his present state. All the discoveries in Chaldea and Egypt, the most anciently inhabited lands, instead of revealing barbarism, show always “a high state of civilization’—that even “poetry and literary art had reached a high proficiency in days which were credited with a liberal amount of barbarism.” ARSH August 1, 1899, page 492.1

THUS the evidence proves that man began his career as a man of fully developed faculties, instead of as an animal, or even as a barbarian. The truth of God tells the same thing. But instead of the professed scholarship of the day believing the truth of God, and accepting the evidence from the most ancient inhabited lands, it sets aside all of this, at the mere dictate of “science,” and hols so tenaciously to the theory that man began only a half step or a step from the apes, that it will push back thousands of years the time of his appearance upon the earth, in order gratuitously to blot it all out before the existence of this high state of culture and civilization in the oldest inhabited lands. ARSH August 1, 1899, page 492.2

That this is all done at the mere dictate of “science” is clearly shown in the following confession of Lyman Abbott, D. D., who is a representative of the mass of evolutionists:— ARSH August 1, 1899, page 492.3

It is true that I am an evolutionist, and inclined to be a radical evolutionist. Perhaps my correspondents have a right to know why; and, in so far as it is possible, I am quite willing to tell them why,—to give an account to others of a change which has taken place gradually and almost unconsciously. ARSH August 1, 1899, page 492.4

In the first place, all biologists are evolutionists—probably without a single exception. They are not all Darwinians; that is, they do not all regard “struggle for existence and survival of the fittest” as an adequate statement of the process of evolution. Indeed, it may be said that this is no longer by any regarded as a complete summary of the process, even if it were so regarded by Darwin himself, which is doubtful. I am not an expert biologist; few ministers are. We are not competent to pass any independent judgment of value on the question. What is the process of life in its earlier forms? We have not the scientific habit of mind which enables us to sift the evidence and reach a conclusion. How many of those who read this article could pass a creditable examination on the question at issue between the Ptolemaic and the Copernican theories of astronomy, or the atomic and undulatory theories of light?—Probably but few. We accept the testimony of the experts when they have reached a conclusion. This is my first reason for being an evolutionist. Practically all scientists, I believe absolutely all biologists, are evolutionists. They have proved themselves careful, painstaking, assiduous students of life. I assume the correctness of their conclusion. I have, indeed, studied somewhat the writings of Darwin, Huxley, Haeckel, Tyndall, and the later epitomes of LeConte, Drummond, and Tyler, and have read something of the criticisms on the other side,—enough to see that the hypothesis of evolution has a groundwork of face and reason. But I accept evolution, as a statement of the process of physical life, not from a personal scientific investigation, which I have not the training to conduct, BUT upon the substantially unanimous testimony of those who have such training.—The The Central Union Outlook, February 6, 1897. ARSH August 1, 1899, page 492.5

Thus it is plain that the word—the “conclusions”—of men is accepted instead of the word of God. Human conclusions are received rather than divine truth and positive and direct evidence. And that it is altogether the word of men that is taken, and that instead of the word of God, is demonstrated by the fact that the scientists—“the experts”—who formulated the theory of evolution, and whose conclusion it is that is accepted,—Darwin, Haeckel, and Tyndall,—were (or are, as Wallace is still living) all, without exception, infidels, men who had no faith at all in any revelation of God, nor even in any God. ARSH August 1, 1899, page 492.6

What can the ministers think that either they or the world can gain by accepting the word of men instead of the word of God? Where can be the gain to any soul, in accepting the conclusions of men, which he acknowledges he does not know, and which he can not know to be the truth, instead of the word of God, which he can know to be the truth? ARSH August 1, 1899, page 492.7

“When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” For “faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” ARSH August 1, 1899, page 492.8

“Back Page” The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 76, 31, p. 500.

IT has perhaps been noticed that we have had very little opportunity to acknowledge, in the REVIEW, contributions to the fund for the circulation of Present Truth in England. We supposed that the large number of brethren and sisters who have come to this country from England, and who now love present truth, would be glad to contribute to the spread of Present Truth in England. We are wondering why it is not so. The same might be said also of our French brethren and sisters regarding the French tract fund; though of course all are invited to contribute to both. ARSH August 1, 1899, page 500.1