The Present Truth, vol. 12

September 3, 1896

“‘Prove All Things’” The Present Truth, 12, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

“Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.” 1 Thessalonians 5:21. A very reasonable exhortation this, and one that should commend itself to everybody’s good sense; yet few heed it, and many of those who profess to regard it misapply it. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 561.1

How are we to prove all things? By what standard shall we test them? Here is where so many fail. Most people would use their own feelings and impulses as the standard. Their natural likes and dislikes determine what they shall hold fast and what they will reject. What they think to be good, they will follow; but since human judgment is naturally controlled or at least biased by inclination and desire, it is an unsafe guide. “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” Proverbs 16:25. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 561.2

For this reason alone, if for no other, it should be apparent to all that we are not to approve all things by sampling them. A thing may taste good, and yet contain a deadly poison. He who makes it his practice to eat everything he sees, in order to find out if it is good to eat, may have his probation cut short. It is far better to apply well-known tests for poisons, and then to eat only that which is proved to be good. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 561.3

So in the mental and spiritual world. A man is not obliged to dabble in every theory in order to prove it. He who thinks that he must prove every form of teaching by trying its effects on himself will fare worse than the one who tries physical poisons on himself. The system cannot stand it. His nature would soon become so corrupted that he would be unable to distinguish the good, even if he got hold of it. But he would never find the good; for the forms of error are infinite, and he who sets himself to the task of investigating all error, so as to know how to avoid it, will never finish. The only thing that he will prove will be his own folly. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 561.4

Just as there are tests for physical poisons, which can be applied without subjecting ourselves to the influence of those poisons, so we have an infallible test of truth and error. “To the law, and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them.” Isaiah 8:20. The Word of God is truth, and whatever is not in harmony with that is of course error. If we become thoroughly familiar with the Word, error will be revealed on its first approach, and we need have nothing whatever to do with it. The Word of the Lord is His voice, and all that is necessary is for us to know that; for we do not need to talk with a stranger hours or days in order to find out if the voice is that of our most intimate friend. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 561.5

Least of all must it be supposed that we are to prove the Word of God itself, to see whether or not we should hold to it, or to how much we should hold fast. No; that is the standard that is already proved. “The words of the Lord are pure words; as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.” Psalm 12:6. “Every word of God is pure.” Proverbs 30:5. The Word itself is good; hold it fast, and prove all things by it, holding only that which the Word declares to be good. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 562.1

“‘When They Shall Say, Peace and Safety’” The Present Truth, 12, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

“But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.” 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 562.2

War has been the history of man ever since sin entered the world. It is so because sin is itself rebellion, and so long as sin is in the world war will be the history of man. The world has been making preparations for war as never before in its history. The mighty men are waking up. The produce of the ploughshare is being turned into swords. The heathen of the East are seeing the necessity of following the example of the professedly Christian nations of the West, and they too are getting ready to act their part in the fulfilment of the third chapter of Joel’s prophecy, describing the preparations for the battle of the great day of God. The great Chinese visitor to Europe has been principally occupied with questions of military and naval training and equipment, and all Europe is anxious to help him prepare his people for war. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 562.3

And yet, with all this, there is more talk of peace and arbitration than ever before. The people are fulfilling that portion of Isaiah 2:The mountain of the Lord’s house is exalted. All Christendom patronises Christianity, that is, as officially interpreted Are not all the nations of the West “Christian”? And the “many peoples” of this chapter say, “Come ye; let us beat our swords into ploughshares; there is to be no more war.” The peace and safety cry is all abroad, and the world is supposed to be coming into a better state of things. But “the whole world lieth in wickedness,” and “there is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.” Knowing what sin and human nature are, and knowing that the Scriptures represent the last days as convulsed with strife and battle, socially and internationally, we need not be at loss to know the meaning of the cry of peace and safety. As it increases it is quite possible that considerable progress may apparently be made toward actual peace, and those whose message is to promise peace and prosperity and lull into carnal security will have considerable surface evidence to appeal to. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 562.4

But the cry is but a trumpet blast to those who watch the times and seasons. It is an indication that the day is at hand. “For when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.” The strained conditions everywhere abounding, the waking up of nations, and the increase of the peace and safety cry in the midst of it all, mark the time when we may look up and lift up our heads, knowing that redemption draweth nigh. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 562.5

“Religion for Rhetorical and Political Effect” The Present Truth, 12, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

A noticeable thing in the oratorical and rhetorical speeches made by the Democratic nominee for the Presidency, in the United States, is the exceptionally striking use which he makes of Scriptural allusions. In the closing paragraph of the peroration to the address which gained him his nomination at the Chicago convention, with these words: “You shall not press this crown of thorns upon the brow of labour, you shall not crucify mankind on a cross of gold.” This thought and reference seem to have been taken up almost as a party cry here and there by Mr. Bryan’s adherents. Democratic political processions have adopted the gold cross and a crown of thorns as ensigns of their political faith, and have carried these emblems figured on their banners and transparencies. The resemblance to Roman Catholic ceremonial emblems is very great, and the Catholics have made strenuous protests against the carrying of these insignia in street processions. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 562.6

This is another prominent evidence among the many which are now to be seen continually, of how religion is constantly being made subservient to selfish and personal uses in political affairs, social and business life, and of how, also, in forms, ceremonies, and theological theories, it is becoming more and more a matter of contention. Throughout the entire world there is an increasing use of religious formality and a growing spirit of bigotry. The fact that these things are so and that they coincide with prophecy ought to arouse the attention of every thoughtful mind. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 562.7

“Orthodoxy vs Higher Criticism” The Present Truth, 12, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

The Professor of Biblical Criticism in the Aberdeen University has been asked, so it is reported, to resign on an allowance. The reason given for this is that “the students complained that he was too orthodox, and did not initiate them into the higher criticism,-they could not follow his lectures.” What has happened to the Scotch theological mind, that orthodoxy should be at a discount and “Higher Criticism” at a premium? PTUK September 3, 1896, page 562.8

This sounds very much as if the strongholds of so-called orthodoxy were drifting in the currents of Continental theology. Is there such a demand in Scotland for theological doctrine “made in Germany” that an old and tried Professor must be shelved because he gives his students Biblical teaching rather than Higher Criticism? PTUK September 3, 1896, page 562.9

“Christian Warfare” The Present Truth, 12, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

Christian Warfare .-There is a strange misconception quite prevalent in regard to the fighting which must be done by the Christian. It almost seems as though the idea of many professed Christians is that in order to fight sin must wage war upon some person. So the minister who is the most active in denouncing the doings of men in public position, and who spends the most of his time in enforcing the law upon criminals, or in berating the officers of the law for their laxness in that respect, is eulogised as an earnest fighter of sin. But all this is a mistaken idea of the Christian warfare. “For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12, R.V. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 562.10

“The Promises to Israel. Preaching the Gospel in Egypt” The Present Truth, 12, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

“And Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel; and Aaron spake all the words which the Lord had spoken unto Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people. And the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel, and that He had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped.” Exodus 4:29-31. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 563.1

But they were not yet ready to leave Egypt. They were as yet but stony ground hearers of the Word. They received it with joy at the first, but as soon as persecution arose they became offended. If they could have left Egypt without any hindrance, and could have had an easy passage to the promised land, they doubtless would not have murmured; but “we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God,” (Acts 14:22), and those who do enter in must learn to rejoice even in tribulation. This lesson the Israelites had yet to learn. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 563.2

The message to Pharaoh, “Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let My people go,” of which we shall speak more particularly later on, resulted in a still more grievous oppression of the Israelites. This was really a necessity for them, that they might be the more anxious to leave, and afterward have less desire to return, and that they might see the power of God. The plagues that came upon the land of Egypt were as necessary to teach the Israelites the power of God, that they might be willing to go, as they were for the Egyptians, that they might be willing to let them go. The Israelites needed to learn that it was not by any human power that they were delivered, but that it was wholly the work of the Lord. They needed to learn to trust themselves completely to His care and guidance. And as “whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope,” (Romans 15:4), we should learn the same lesson as we read the story. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 563.3

It is not at all to be wondered at that the people complained at the first when persecution increased as the result of the message brought by Moses. Moses himself seems to have been perplexed by it, and went to ask the Lord about it. “Then the Lord said unto Moses, Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh; for with a strong hand shall he let them go and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land. And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am Jehovah; and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by My name Jehovah I was not known to them. And I have also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their sojournings, wherein they were strangers. And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered My covenant. Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am Jehovah, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments; and I will take you to Me for a people, and I will be to you a God; and ye shall know that I am Jehovah your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. And I will bring you into the land concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it to you for an inheritance; I am Jehovah.” Exodus 6:1-8, R.V. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 563.4

THE GOSPEL OF DELIVERANCE

We have learned that when God made the promise to Abraham He preached the Gospel to him; it follows, therefore, that when the time comes for the fulfillment of the promise, the seed to whom it is fulfilled must know at least as much of the Gospel as was revealed to Abraham; and we should expect to find the same Gospel preached to them. This was the case. We learn from the Epistle to the Hebrews that the Gospel which is now preached to us is the same that was then preached to them, and in the Scripture last quoted we find it. Note the following points:- PTUK September 3, 1896, page 563.5

1. God said of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, “I have also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers.” PTUK September 3, 1896, page 563.6

2. Then He added, “And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered My covenant.” PTUK September 3, 1896, page 563.7

3. When the Lord says that he remembers a certain thing, He does not imply that that thing has ever passed from His mind, for that is impossible. Nothing can ever escape Him. But, as we find in various instances, He thus indicates that He is about to perform that thing. In the final judgment of Babylon it is said, “God hath remembered her iniquities.” Revelation 18:5. “And great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath.” Revelation 16:19. “God remembered Noah,” and caused the flood to cease, but we know that not for one moment while Noah was in the ark was he forgotten, for not even a sparrow is forgotten. See also Genesis 19:29; 30:22; and 1 Samuel 1:19, for the use of the word “remember” in the sense of being about to fulfil the thing promised. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 563.8

4. It is evident, therefore, from the sixth of Exodus, that the Lord was about to fulfil the promise to Abraham and his seed. But as Abraham was dead, that could be done only by the resurrection. The time of the promise which God had sworn to Abraham was very near. But this is evidence that the Gospel was being preached, since only the Gospel of the kingdom prepares for the end. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 564.1

5. God was making Himself known to the people. But it is only in the Gospel that God is made known. The things which reveal the power of God make known His Divinity. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 564.2

6. God said, “I will take you to Me for a people, and I will be to you a God; and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God.” Compare with this the promise of the new covenant, “I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord.” Jeremiah 31:33, 34. No one questions that this is the proclamation of the Gospel; but it is the very same thing that was proclaimed to the Israelites in Egypt. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 564.3

7. The fact that the deliverance of the children of Israel was such a deliverance as could be effected only through the preaching of the Gospel, is evidence that it was no ordinary deliverance from physical bondage to a temporal inheritance. A most wonderful prospect was opened before the children of Israel, if they had but known the day of their visitation, and had continued faithful. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 564.4

PREACHING TO PHARAOH

It is a truth that “God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with Him.” Acts 10:34, 35. This was not a new truth in the days of Peter, but has ever been true, for God is always the same. The fact that men have usually been slow to perceive it, makes no difference with the fact. Men may fail to recognise the power of God, but that does not make Him any the less powerful; so the fact that the great mass of God’s professed followers have usually failed to recognise that He is perfectly impartial, and have supposed that He loved them to the exclusion of other people, has not narrowed His character. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 564.5

The promise was to Abraham and his seed. But the promise and the blessing came to Abraham before he was circumcised, “that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also.” Romans 4:11. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Galatians 3:28, 29. Therefore the promise embraced even the Egyptians, as well as the Israelites, provided they believed. And it did not embrace unbelieving Israelites any more than it did unbelieving Egyptians. Abraham is the father of those who are circumcised, but only of those who “are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised.” If the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, their uncircumcision is counted for circumcision. See Romans 2:25-29. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 564.6

It should not be forgotten that God did not begin at once to send the plagues upon Pharaoh and his people. He did not propose to deliver the Israelites by killing their oppressors, but rather by converting them, if it were possible. God is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9. He “will have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” 1 Timothy 2:4. “As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live.” Ezekiel 33:11. All men are God’s creatures, and His children, and His great heart of love embraces them all, without respect to race or nationality. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 564.7

Accordingly, at the first, the simple demand was made upon Pharaoh to let God’s people go free. But he impudently and haughtily replied, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice, to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.” Exodus 5:2. Then miracles were wrought before him. These were not at the first judgments, but simply manifestations of God’s power. But the magicians of Pharaoh, the servants of Satan, counterfeited these miracles, and Pharaoh’s heart became harder than before. Yet the careful reader will see that even in the miracles that were counterfeited by the magicians, the superior power of the Lord was manifested. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 564.8

The next article in this series of studies on the Everlasting Gospel will deal with that much-talked-of question of how Pharaoh’s heart was heardened. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 564.9

“The Adversary, the Devil” The Present Truth, 12, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

How much it must please the enemy of souls to have men conclude that he does not exist. No better device could he invent to put men off their guard and work his way in them unconsciously to themselves. The notion that the adversary is a mere principle of evil rests on that old method of interpretation which Origen introduced into the Church in the early centuries, by which it was maintained that the Bible does not mean what it says, but that some hidden mystic sense must be found in it. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 564.10

As we view the controversy between Christ and Satan we learn the terrible reality of the latter’s existence and devices. He “abode not in the truth,” said Jesus, showing that at one time he had been “in the truth.” Then came that “war in heaven,” in which Michael and His angels expelled Satan and his host Revelation 12:7-9. And then Jesus “beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven” (Luke 10:18), cast out with his sympathisers-“the angels which kept not their first estate,” (Jude 6)-into the earth, which has been the scene of the conflict ever since men joined the rebellion against God. These fallen angels are those “spirits of devils working miracles” which go forth into all the world leading men to destruction. Revelation 16:14. And probably no miracle of deception could be better calculated to advance his interest, then that by which Satan-notwithstanding the evidence of his workings-blinds the eyes of those who do not believe the testimony of the Lord so that they may even deny his very existence. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 564.11

“But we are not ignorant of his devices,” said the apostle. Just now has he come down “in great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.” Revelation 12:12. Thank God the time for his working “with all power and signs and lying wonders” is to be short. But if it is a short time for him, so it is also for all the world. “The time is short.” The “god of this world,” “the prince of the power of the air,” knows it, and is working as never before. So, too ought we to know it, and work as never before. And the hope in the conflict is that it is between Christ and Satan. The battle is His, and by His faith and the word of His testimony the victory is won. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 564.12

“Resist the devil, and he will flee.” PTUK September 3, 1896, page 564.13

“‘There Shall Arise False Christs’” The Present Truth, 12, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

Fanatical movements in the West have now and then shown the need for Christ’s warning against false Christs and false prophets which should try to personate His second coming. It is in the Orient, however, that we have most often seen the rise of these fanatical movements, which have been the life of the Mussulman religion. Dr. Haweis has a paper in the Contemporary Review, describing an interview with a Persian statesman, which shows how this Messianic idea pervades the whole Mussulman world, and is responsible for such outbreaks as that which has made trouble in the Soudan in recent years. It is an element that no statesmen can control in their efforts to preserve quiet and peace in the Orient. If only the Gospel could go in amongst these people with the hope of the true Messiah and Deliverer, what a blessing it would bring to those who believed. Dr. Haweis gives this report of the Persian’s words:- PTUK September 3, 1896, page 566.1

“If these oppressed hordes in Persia, Turkey, Morocco, have endured patiently so many bad governments, it is because they are sure that a Mahdi will sooner arise to remedy all these evils. They are crying out, like the Jews, for a saviour and a deliverer. All the different Mahdis, past and present, those of the Sultan as well as all the others, are but the expression, more or less incomplete, of this central doctrine of a miraculous Messianic deliverer. And here comes in Babism. According to tradition, the true Mahdi will be preceded by sixty fourerunners-John Baptist or Eliases-called Babs (Bab means the door, through which enters Messiah). As a rule, these holy personages-Ulemas, or descendants of the Prophet, who end by setting up themselves as the Messiah-begin by calling themselves only Babs, or doors, and if they meet with success and are accepted, they then pose as the actual Mahdi.... A vast underground agitation is going on throughout our Mussulman population, of which Europeans can gather but the faintest and vaguest idea; but one thing is undeniable, that this movement is daily and hourly gathering momentum throughout the Mussulman world. What has shattered movements like this, and rendered abortive in the past all such aspirations, is the absence of a scientific programme. Ignorance of European methods, absence of organisation and constructive purpose, have hitherto drowned these movements beneath the sterilising waters of Asiatic abstractions. But a new era has dawned.” PTUK September 3, 1896, page 566.2

“A Colony of Vegetarians” The Present Truth, 12, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

At Oranienburg, near Berlin, says a newspaper, a colony of vegetarians was started some years ago and is growing slowly but steadily. Founded in 1892 by seven enthusiasts on the subject, there are at present forty-seven homesteads, where thirty-seven families and ten single men have built houses and raised their crops. Outside of the vegetables necessary for their own food, they have planted 35,000 fruit trees and 15,000 berry bushes, and have fenced in the entire property with a hedge of hazel nuts. From a financial standpoint they are doing very well, because they realise excellent prices for the products of their truck farms, the quality of the vegetables raised by them being the best to be obtained in the district. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 574.1

“Items of Interest” The Present Truth, 12, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

-There are 26,000 breweries in Germany. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 576.1

-A war upon Italian settlers is reported from Brazil. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 576.2

-Three slight shocks of earthquake have been felt in Southern Greece the past week. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 576.3

-Over 250 prisoners have been in custody in Barcelona, bald for the bomb outrage there. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 576.4

-The property loss by fire in the United States, for the year 1895 was more than ?28,400,000. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 576.5

-Vesuvius has been for some time in a state of active eruption. At present the flow of lava is increasing. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 576.6

-An Antarctic iceberg has been seen that is twenty miles wide, forty miles in length and 800 feet in height. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 576.7

-Spain is troubled by a conspiracy in the Philippine Islands, next to Cuba her most it portent island possessions. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 576.8

-The birthday of Mohammed, August 22, was celebrated in London by a company of Moslems from India, Egypt, Turkey, the Transvaal, and Cape Colony. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 576.9

-There were 3,491 fires in London during the year 1895, an increase of 572 upon the preceding year. The amount of water used in extinguishing fires during 1895 was 23,000,000 gallons. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 576.10

-In Belgium alone there are at the present moment 600,000 racing pigeons, which, in case of a war, would be placed at the disposal of the Government. Every bird of this number is admirably trained. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 576.11

-The people of Cuba who wish to be neutral have a hard time of it. The insurgents burn their crops if they do not pay a consideration, and the Spanish authorities now forbid gathering any crops so as to prevent payments to the rebels. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 576.12

-The British Empire has an area of 11,899,316 square miles, and a population of 402,514,800 persons, the former being equal to 21 per cent. of the supposed surface of the land, the latter 27 per cent. of the population of the world. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 576.13

-The fiftieth report of the Commissioners in Lunacy shows the increase in the number of lunatics under restraint in England, during the year 1895, to have been 2,365, being a much larger increase than in any previous year. There are also fewer recoveries than heretofore. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 576.14

-An investigation has been made into the practical results of the anti toxin treatment for diphtheria in hospital and private practice in America, with the result of showing that whereas the average of deaths in this disease had formerly been from 48 to 56 per cent., under this treatment they only averaged from 8 to 18 per cent. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 576.15

-Professor Geikie has estimated the amount of sediment carried to the sea by the Thames in a year at one minim eight hundred and sixty-five thousand nine hundred and three cubic feet, while it is estimated that the Mississippi deposits in the sea in a year solid matter weighing eight hundred and twelve billion five hundred million pounds. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 576.16

“Back Page” The Present Truth, 12, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

The organ of our Society in South Africa, the South African Sentinel, is having a good circulation, as also the Dutch edition of it, De Wachter. It reduces our own circulation in the Colony, but we are glad to see the prosperity of the local organ, which is a lively journal. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 576.17

Russia is said to be hopeful, now that the State has become the public-house keeper, of deriving sufficient from the trade to support the army and navy. It is eminently fitting that the revenues which are the price of their people’s life and morals should be used to fill their war chests. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 576.18

It was stated authoritatively that the Cretan insurgents had burned Turkish villages, but now it is authoritatively denied from Athens. “The Christian insurgents burned no Turkish villages during the recent conflicts, but only set fire to a few hamlets.” When the press and pulpits of Christendom make such use of the word Christian, what shall we say? PTUK September 3, 1896, page 576.19

Constantinople has drawn all eyes during the past week. The terrible scenes there show how suddenly the fall of the Turkish power may come at any time. And when “he shall come to his end” it means more than even statesmen who are straining every nerve to help them to stand have ever realised. Then comes the “time of trouble” for all nations. Daniel 11:45; 12:1, 2. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 576.20

After having brought desolation upon the Armenian villages, and having failed to accomplish their revolutionary purpose, the Armenian leaders organised a disturbance in Constantinople last week, attacking the Ottoman Bank with revolvers and dynamite bombs, and holding it against the authorities. After considerable bloodshed, they were captured, and are to be exiled, it is said. It is this lawless agitation that has brought upon guilty and innocent Armenians together the awful vengeance of the Turks. Yet these men pose as Christians, and appeal to the churches of Christendom to support them. Let it never be forgotten that whatever may be the misrule of a Government, Christians follow Christ and can never be revolutionists. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 576.21

The annual Pastoral Address of the Wesleyan Conference expresses disappointment at their decrease in church membership during the year. But it says that on the other hand there are evidences of an increase of the influence of Methodism in civic and social affairs, and growing numbers of Methodists are taking part in local government organisations and in councils of the State. We would say that possibly this accounts for the decrease in membership. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 576.22

Two more West-end bakers were fined last week for baking on Sunday, one a Jew the other evidently an Italian. The prosecutor in the Jew’s case was another baker who evidently bakes on Saturday, when his rival rests, and makes use of this wicked law to deprive his fellow of one day’s work and forces him to keep Sunday, so far as lies in his power. The magistrate approved of this and remarked: “It would be a very serious case for the British public if there were one law for the Jew and another for the Christian.” Yet that is exactly what it is when the “Christian,” merely because he has the power and the inclination to use it, denies to the Jew what he claims for himself. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 576.23

Luther was not the first priest whose visit to Rome, where he expected to find the highest piety, convinced him that it was the very seat of Antichrist. More than a century before his day Milicius, a Bohemian archdeacon, went to the “Holy City” to find peace; but when he left he wrote over the door of one member of the Sacred College, “Antichrist is now come, and sitteth in the Church.” If it had not been for fear of a popular uprising in his town of Prague, the Pope would have made him feel the vengeance that was frequently visited upon those who dared to tell the truth about the papal church. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 576.24

“The Coming Millennium” The Present Truth, 12, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

The Coming Millennium .-“We spend 30s. per head of population on the army and navy yearly; 7s. per head on education. How far, far off that millennium is! And does it not grow daily dimmer as the expenditure on blood increases with every annual Budget?” So says a London newspaper. Instead of showing that the millennium is a long way off, these things are evidences of its nearness. But the popular idea of a thousand years of peace and plenty in the earth is not the Bible teaching regarding the millennium. That period is ushered in, not by the conversion of the world, but by its destruction. “The nations were angry, and Thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead that they should be judged, and that Thou shouldest give reward unto Thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear Thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.” PTUK September 3, 1896, page 576.25

During the Millennium .-The coming of the Lord brings the translation and resurrection of the righteous, who are caught up in the air to meet the Lord (1 Thessalonians 4:15, 16), to accompany Him to those mansions in the Father’s house, according to His promise (John 14:1-3). There they live and reign “with Christ a thousand years,” during which time the earth is desolated; for only the righteous are raised at the coming of the Lord (Revelation 20:6). “The rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.” With the righteous reigning with Jesus in the heavenly Jerusalem, and the wicked in their graves, Satan finds himself bound, and helpless to carry on his work of deception. He can meditate on the fruits of rebellion in the midst of the chaotic desolation which he has brought upon the world once fair and beautiful. Then comes the resurrection of the wicked, at the end of the thousand years, the coming down of the New Jerusalem from heaven, the gathering of a host of the wicked to war against the city, and then the final destruction of sin and sinners and the author of sin, “the second death.” Then from out the purifying fires of the final judgment will spring the new heavens and the new earth, wherein will dwell righteousness.” 2 Peter 3:13. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 576.26

“Demoralising Militarism” The Present Truth, 12, 36.

E. J. Waggoner

Demoralising Militarism .-Of the influence of militarism on the people the Countess von Krockow, of Berlin, says:- PTUK September 3, 1896, page 576.27

The army may be acted upon by the intellect of the nation, as its friends say; but it is quite undeniable that, in return, it reacts brutally upon the popular way of thinking. This, I think, is proved by the striking fact that in our day the worst literature comes from the two most military States, the nastiest fiction from France and the most cynical, material philosophy from Germany. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 576.28

Of course no other than a brutalising influence can be exerted by continuous and scientific training for killing people. PTUK September 3, 1896, page 576.29