The Present Truth, vol. 12

December 3, 1896

“Rooted in Him” The Present Truth, 12, 49.

E. J. Waggoner

“I am the root,” Jesus declares, by His angel. Revelation 22:16. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 769.1

What is the office of the root? It gathers from the soil the elements needed for the growth of the plant. It takes in the moisture and the various minerals used in varying quantities by different plants in building up the stalk, and colouring the leaf or flower, and producing fruit. For instance, two different plants in the same soil may need different elements to feed upon, and the root of each will take the necessary proportions, choosing or rejecting materials, like the wise builder that it is. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 769.2

It is the intelligent working of the Divine word which in the beginning caused the earth to bring forth plants, each after its kind. But the thought is that the root supplies the nourishment. The root provides the life that runs up into the plant and causes the beauty and fruit to appear. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 769.3

“I am the root.” Jesus wants all to know that to every believer He is what the root is to the tree. He assumes the responsibility of sustaining life, and He knows what is essential to vigorous growth and fruit-bearing. This root cannot die, and in seasons when it would seem as though the hot winds of sin and trial were determined to blast and whither the life, the tried one need never fear a drying up of the supply. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 769.4

“Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.” Jeremiah 17:7, 8. The heat beats upon the tree, but its root is a way beneath the soil, drinking in the life-giving water from the river, and sending it on to the outmost branches. Our Root, Jesus, the root springing up out of the dry ground, as Isaiah says, is planted by the water of the river of life, which flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb. No “blast of the terrible ones” can affect the life-giving supply, and as the branch receives sap from the vine and the tree from the root, so every soul that trusts God receives from Jesus of the very water of life that makes glad the city of God. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 769.5

No wonder, then, that the leaf is green in the time of heat; that the fruit of Christ’s life appears in the midst of the drought which withers the distrustful until they are as the heath in the desert, having no living root. Jesus is the root. Leave the work and office of the root to Him, and let the life glorify Him by bearing fruit for which the root supplies and materials. “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in His law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not whither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.” Psalm 1:1-3. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 769.6

“Christ as Teacher” The Present Truth, 12, 49.

E. J. Waggoner

“And many of the people believed on Him, and said, When Christ cometh, He will do more miracles than these which this man doeth? The Pharisees heard that the people murmured such things concerning Him; and the Pharisees and the chief priests sent officers to take Him.” John 7:31, 32. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 769.7

The trouble with the Pharisees and chief priests was that their character and teaching suffered by comparison with that of Jesus. “Never man spake like this man,” was the testimony of the officers who were sent to seize Him. “He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.” The people listened to Him more readily than to them, and this aroused their jealousy. And the people knew that the priests sought His life. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 769.8

Yet the priests and rulers might have retained the confidence of the people, even in the presence of Jesus, if they had only been willing to learn of Him, and accept His spirit and the wisdom that filled Him. For that, however, they were too proud, and so they took away the key of knowledge; they entered not in themselves, and those that would enter in, they hindered by every means in their power. Luke 11:52. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 770.1

There was another reason why the wrath of the leaders of the Jews was aroused against Jesus. It was that the people who heard His living words of truth, not only lost relish for the old traditions that the elders retailed, but they actually came to know more than the leaders themselves. “If any man willeth to do His will, He shall know the doctrine.” The rulers were not willing to do, and therefore they did not know; while the poor people who desired to do God’s will knew the truth. David said, “I understand more than the aged, because I have kept thy precepts.” Psalm 119:100. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 770.2

It is the earnest desire of every true teacher that the people shall learn, and the more they learn, the better he is pleased. If in time they surpass him in knowledge, then he will be but the more pleased. Even that is a testimony to the idea of his teaching. This will often be the case when one leads its hearers to the Word. If he does not limit by his own construction, but opens it, and allows the people to see for themselves, it will often be that souls will see more than he does. He who is not willing that this should happen, seeks his own glory, and not that of God; he preaches himself, and not the Word. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 770.3

“The Bible in Spain” The Present Truth, 12, 49.

E. J. Waggoner

A missionary in Spain gives a few facts to show how little Roman ecclesiastics in that country know of even their own corrupted version of the Bible. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 770.4

“The archbishop of the see of Santiago Campostela, the capital of Galicia, one of the most important diocese of all Spain, on one occasion promised to give to a Protestant of that parish a Roman Catholic Bible in exchange for his Protestant Bible; but after spending a long time in looking for one, he had to confess that he could not find one in the episcopal palace-that he would ‘have to send for it to Barcelona,’ all across the peninsula!” PTUK December 3, 1896, page 770.5

One day a minister was talking with a priest. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 770.6

“Allusion was made to the second commandment; and when he quoted the words, ‘Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them,’ the honest priest, instead of arguing, as an astuter man would have done, that Roman Catholics do not worship images, nor bow down to them, but only to the being or the spirit that they represent or suggest, he frankly admitted that they do worship them, and that their worship was permitted if not taught by the church; and he declared that he could not believe that the words quoted by my friend were to be found in the Bible, and much less in the Roman Catholic Bible. So a copy of the Bible sanctioned by his church was produced. He read and reread the fatal words, and could hardly believe his own eyes. At last, with hands clenched and teeth set, he turned on his heel, and with intense feeling exclaimed: ‘God made a mistake when He put that into the Bible!’ Poor man! he could not believe that his church could be guilty of deliberately suppressing that part of the Decalogue from its liturgies and from its catechisms; he could more easily believe that God had blundered! ‘And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.’” PTUK December 3, 1896, page 770.7

“God’s Handwriting” The Present Truth, 12, 49.

E. J. Waggoner

In two instances of special interest the handwriting of God has been made visible to men,-when, engraved by His own finger on tables of stone, it came from out the clouds and thunders of Sinai, and again, when Christ, looking calmly and searchingly from eye to eye throughout the crowd of the pharisaic accusers assembled about Him, in silent dignity stooped and wrote with His finger in the sand. In the first instance, “He gave unto Moses, when He had made an end of communing with him upon Mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.” Of this unparalleled scene a writer has said,- PTUK December 3, 1896, page 770.8

“God purposed to make the occasion of speaking his law a scene of awful grandeur, in keeping with its exalted character. People were to be impressed that everything connected with the service of God must be regarded with the greatest reverence.The Lord said to Moses, ‘Go unto the people, and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes, and be ready against the third day: for the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai.’ During these intervening days all were to occupy the time in solemn preparation to appear before God. Their person and their clothing must be freed from impurity. And as Moses should point out their sins, they were to devote themselves to humiliation, fasting, and prayer, that their hearts might be cleansed from iniquity.... On the morning of the third day, as the eyes of all the people were turned toward the mount, its summit was covered with a thick cloud, which grew more black and dense, sweeping downward until the entire mountain was wrapped in darkness and awful mystery. Then a sound as of a trumpet was heard, summoning the people to meet with God; and Moses led them forth to the base of the mountain. From the thick darkness flashed vivid lightnings, while peals of thunder echoed and re-echoed among the surrounding heights. ‘And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.’ ‘The glory of the Lord was like devouring fire on the top of the mount’ in the sight of the assembled multitude. And ‘the voice of the trumpet sounded long, and waxed louder and louder.’ So terrible were the tokens of Jehovah’s presence that the hosts of Israel shook with fear, and fell upon their faces before the Lord. Even Moses exclaimed, ‘I exceedingly fear and quake.’ PTUK December 3, 1896, page 770.9

“And now the thunders ceased; the trumpet was no longer heard; the earth was still. There was a period of solemn silence, and then the voice of God was heard. Speaking out of the thick darkness that enshrouded Him, as He stood upon the mount, surrounded by a retinue of angels, the Lord made known His law. Moses, describing the scene, says: ‘The Lord came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them; He shined forth from Mount Paran, and He came with ten thousands of saints; from His right hand went a fiery law for them.’” PTUK December 3, 1896, page 770.10

Thus the law came from the hand of God, graven with His own finger. In the second instance no clouds shrouded the skies, no thunders shook the heavens, no quaking mountain threatened to overwhelm those who beheld the strange scene. The only darkness and tumult were the hatred and fear in the quaking hearts of those who again read their own sins in the written words of God, but this time mercifully written in the sand, where a sweep of the hand would efface the faint traces of the terrible words which bore conviction, shame, and terror, to the heart of each, as in turn their eyes rested on the writing on the ground. But though the immediate cause of their confusion was known only to each individual heart, that they were confound it was clearly evident to many. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 770.11

The occasion which the scribes and Pharisees chose, and which became their own undoing, was public. It was when Jesus was teaching in the temple, and “all the people” had come unto Him, that they brought before Him the guilty woman, and said,-“Now Moses and the law commanded us that such should be stoned: but what sayest Thou.” But while the assembled people looked on and listened with wonder, doubt, misgiving, pity, anxiety, to hear what reply He should make, no audible answer came from Jesus’ lips. He only stooped, with saddened face, and wrote with His finger in the sand. Then lifting Himself, with one piercing glance which each one felt pass into his very heart, He simply gave judicial utterance to the requirements of the law,-“He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” He said no more,-than stooping He wrote again in the sand. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 771.1

Did each man see copied there the page of his own record from the book of Judgment which should be opened at the last day, that, in the same order in which it will come to them, each, beginning with the eldest, read there his unanswerable reply, and went from His presence without a word? Utterly confounded before God and in their own hearts, and in the eyes of the public, the Pharisees went out speechless. Clothed now in simple human flesh, and not in the clouds and thunders of Sinai, He who gave the law, as agent of the Father, stood before them here and interpreted, in stern and God-like tenderness, the application of that law to their individual hearts and lives. And it was the word of God to them individually, audible only in the depths of each heart, while the assembled people looked on and wondered. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 771.2

Yet while He emphasised here the fact of the immutability of the law, graven in tablets of stone, at the same time by word and act He showed how that the sins of the individual, whether it be of the sinful and repentant woman or the cruel and haughty-hearted Pharisees, God writes in sand, that if the delinquents but repentant turn from them, and so permit the effacement of the record, it may be obliterated and for ever blotted from sight and memory. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 771.3

God is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever,-when He wrote the law on tables of stone and the sins of the wicked Pharisees in the sand,-the same. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 771.4

“The Promises to Israel. Mount Sinai and Mount Zion” The Present Truth, 12, 49.

E. J. Waggoner

“Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of His holiness. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the Great King. God is known in her palaces for a refuge.” Psalm 48:1-3. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 771.5

These words are sung in praise of the dwelling-place of God in heaven; for “the Lord is in His holy temple, the Lord’s throne is in heaven” (Psalm 11:4), and of Christ “who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,” (Hebrews 8:1) the Lord says, “Yet have I set My King upon My holy hill of Zion,” or, “upon Zion, the hill of My holiness.” Psalm 2:6. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 771.6

Jesus Christ, the anointed King in Zion, is High Priest as well, a “priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek.” The Lord has said of “the Man whose name is The BRANCH,” that “He shall build the temple of the Lord; and He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon His throne; and He shall be a priest upon His throne; and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.” Zechariah 6:12, 13. So as He sits upon His Father’s throne in the heavens, he is “a Minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not man.” Hebrews 8:2. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 771.7

It was to this place-to Mount Zion, the hill of God’s holiness, and to the Sanctuary upon it, His dwelling place-that God was leading His people Israel when He delivered them from Egypt. When they had safely passed through the Red Sea, Moses sang these inspired words: “Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of Thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which Thou hast made for Thee to dwell in, in the Sanctuary, O Lord, which Thy hands have established.” Exodus 15:17. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 771.8

But they did not get to Mount Zion, because they did not “hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.” “So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” Yet God did not forsake them, for even “if we believe not, yet He abideth faithful; He cannot deny Himself.” So He instructed Moses to tell the people to bring offerings of gold and silver and precious stones, together with other material, and said, “Let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. According to all that I show thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.” Exodus 25:8, 9. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 771.9

This was not “the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched,” but one made by man. The tabernacle and its furniture were only “the patterns of things in the heavens,” and not “the heavenly things themselves.” Hebrews 9:23. It was but a shadow of the real substance. The cause of the shadow will be considered later on. But the believing ones of that olden time knew as well as Stephen did in later years, that “the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands,” as saith the prophet, “Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool; where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of My rest? Acts 7:48, 49. Solomon, at the dedication of his grand temple, said, “But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee; how much less this house that I have built?” 2 Chronicles 6:18. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 771.10

All of God’s really faithful children understood that the earthly tabernacle or temple was not the real dwelling-place of God, but only a figure, a type. So of the furniture which the sanctuary contained. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 772.1

As God’s throne is in His holy temple in heaven, so in the type of that temple on earth there was a representation of His throne. A very feeble representation, it is true, as much inferior to the real as the works of man are inferior to those of God, yet a figure of it, nevertheless. That figure of God’s throne was the ark which contained the tables of the law. A few texts of Scripture will show this. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 772.2

Exodus 25:10-22 contains the complete description of the ark. It was a box made of wood, but completely covered, within and without, with fine gold. Into this ark the Lord directed Moses to put the Testimony which He should give him. This Moses did, for afterward, in recounting to Israel the circumstances of the giving of the law, together with their idolatry, which led to the breaking of the first tables, he said:- PTUK December 3, 1896, page 772.3

“At that time the Lord said unto me, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and come up unto Me into the mount, and make thee an ark of wood. And I will write on the tables the words that were in the first tables which thou brakest, and thou shalt put them in the ark. And I made an ark of shittim wood, and hewed two tables of stone like unto the first, and went up into the mount, having the two tables in mine hand. And He wrote on the tables, according to the first writing, the ten commandments, which the Lord spake unto you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly; and the Lord gave them unto me. And I turned myself and came down from the mount, and put the tables in the ark which I had made; and there they be, as the Lord commanded me.” Deuteronomy 10:1-5. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 772.4

The cover of this ark was called the “mercy-seat.” This was of solid, beaten gold, and upon each end of it, a part of the same piece of gold, there was a cherub with wings outstretched. “Toward the mercy-seat shall the faces of the cherubim be. After these directions, the Lord said: “Thou shalt put the mercy-seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee,” which Moses did, as we have read. “And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy-seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.” Exodus 25:17-22. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 772.5

God said that He would speak to them from “between the cherubim.” So we read, “The Lord reigneth; let the people tremble; He sitteth between the cherubim; let the earth be moved. The Lord is great in Zion; and He is high above all the people.” Psalm 99:1, 2. The cherubim overshadowed the mercy-seat, from which place God spoke to the people. Now mercy means grace, so that in the mercy-seat of the earthly tabernacle we have the figure of “the throne of grace” unto which we are exhorted to come boldly, “that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” Hebrews 4:16. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 772.6

FOUNDATION OF GOD’S GOVERNMENT

The ten commandments on the two tables of stone were in the ark, under the mercy-seat, thus showing that the law of God is the basis of His throne and government. Accordingly we read, “The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad thereof. Clouds and darkness are round about Him; righteousness and judgment are the foundation of His throne.” “Justice and judgment are the foundation of Thy throne; mercy and truth go before Thy face.” Psalm 97:1, 2; 89:14. R.V. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 772.7

Since the tabernacle and all that it contained was to be made exactly like the pattern given to Moses, and they were “the patterns of things in the heavens,” it necessarily follows that the ten commandments on the tables of stone were exact copies of the law which is the foundation of God’s true throne in heaven. This enables us to understand more clearly how it is that “it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.” Luke 16:17. As long as God’s throne stands, so long must God’s law as spoken from Sinai remain unchanged. “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” Psalm 11:3. If the ten commandments-the foundation stones of God’s throne-were destroyed, the throne itself would fall, and the hope of the righteous would perish. But none need fear such a catastrophe. “The Lord is in His holy temple; the Lord’s throne is in heaven,” because His word is settled for ever in heaven. That is one of “the things which cannot be shaken.” PTUK December 3, 1896, page 772.8

Now we are able to see that Mount Sinai, which is a synonym for law, and which at the giving of the law was really the embodiment of the awful majesty of the law, is also a type of God’s throne. Indeed, for the time being it was actually God’s throne. God was present upon it with all His holy angels. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 772.9

Moreover, the awful terror of Sinai is only the terror of God’s throne in the heavens. John had a vision of the temple of God in heaven, and of the throne, with God seated in it; “and out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices.” “And the temple of God was opened in heaven; and there was seen in His temple the ark of His testament; and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake and great hail.” “A fire goeth before Him.” PTUK December 3, 1896, page 772.10

The terror of God’s throne is the same terror that was at Sinai-the terror of the law. Yet that same throne is “the throne of grace,” to which we are exhorted to come with boldness. Even so “Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was” on Sinai. Exodus 20:21. Not only Moses, but “Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel” went up into the mount; “and they saw the God of Israel; and there was under His feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven in his clearness. And upon the nobles of Israel He laid not His hand; also they saw God, and did eat and drink.” Exodus 24:9-11. If it had not been so, then we should not have had a positive demonstration of the fact that we may indeed come with boldness to the throne of grace-that awful throne whence comes lightnings and thunderings and voices-and find mercy there. The law makes sin to abound, “but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” The cross was at Sinai, so that even there was God’s throne of grace. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 772.11

For let it be remembered that it is only “by the blood of Jesus” that we have “boldness to enter into the holiest.” Hebrews 10:19. But for that blood it would be as certain death for us to come to God’s throne and take His name upon our lips, as it was for anyone who should lightly approach Sinai. But Moses and others did draw near to God on Sinai, even into the thick darkness, and did not die, a sure evidence that the blood of Jesus saved them. The living stream from Christ was flowing at Sinai, even as “the pure river of water of life, clear as crystal” proceeds “from the throne of God and of the Lamb.” Revelation 22:1. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 772.12

That stream comes from the heart of Christ, in which the law was and is enshrined. Christ was the temple of God, and His heart was God’s dwelling-place. We know that the stream-living water for the people-came from Christ at Sinai, and that the blood and the water, which agree in one, came from His side at Calvary-a living stream for the life of the world. Yet although the cross of Calvary is the highest possible manifestation of the tender mercy and love of God for man, it is a fact that the terrors of Sinai-the terrors of God’s throne-were there. There was thick darkness and an earthquake, and the people were filled with an awful dread, because there God displayed the fearful consequences of violation of His law. The law in its terror to evildoers was at Calvary as well as at Sinai or in the midst of the throne of God. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 773.1

When John saw the temple in heaven, and God’s awful throne, he saw “in the midst of the throne” “a Lamb as it had been slain.” Revelation 5:6. So the river of water of life from the midst of the throne of God, proceeds from Christ, even as did the stream from Sinai and Calvary. Sinai, Calvary, and Zion, three sacred mountains of God, all agree in one to those who come to them in faith. In all we find the terrible, death-dealing law of God flowing to us in a sweet and refreshing stream of life, so that we may sing: PTUK December 3, 1896, page 773.2

“There’s a wideness in God’s mercy,
Like the wideness of the sea,
There’s a kindness in His justice
That is more than liberty.” PTUK December 3, 1896, page 773.3

“Catholic and Mohammedan” The Present Truth, 12, 49.

E. J. Waggoner

The conflict between Catholic and Mohammedan has, from the earliest times, been a bitter one, in which it is difficult to say which side has been less merciless than the other. “Quarter was seldom given in the field,” says Gibbon of the ninth century wars; “those who escaped the edge of the sword were condemned to hopeless servitude, or exquisite torture; and a Catholic emperor relates, with visible satisfaction, the execution of the Saracens of Crete, who were flayed alive, or plunged into caldrons of boiling oil.” PTUK December 3, 1896, page 773.4

“Baptism” The Present Truth, 12, 49.

E. J. Waggoner

Baptism .-In a recent historical address, Dr. Sinclair, Archdeacon of London, commented on the attitude of the Church of England as regards the substitution of sprinkling for baptism. He said:- PTUK December 3, 1896, page 774.1

We may point out that the universal modern practice of baptizing by sprinkling, which has put one weighty and popular argument into the hands of the Baptists, is not in accordance with the mind of the Church of England. She permits sprinkling in exceptional cases, but she requires immersion as her rule. We may argue from this permission quite fairly that she considers sprinkling sufficient; but if the clergy of the Church of England would adhere to the rule of the Church, they would not only remove a cause of scruple to some minds, but to all minds they would give a new force and meaning to the symbolical language of Holy Scripture which was founded on the ancient and fuller ceremonial. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 774.2

It illustrates very aptly the result that must follow whenever the church attempts to put itself in the place of Christ, and begins to issue permissions or commands regarding doctrine. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 774.3

“Items of Interest” The Present Truth, 12, 49.

E. J. Waggoner

-It has been found that nearly all the rivers in West Africa, within 100 miles east and west of Ashantee, yield gold. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 782.1

-The proprietor of the London Echo has devoted all its profits for twenty years to the erection of public libraries, cottage hospitals, etc. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 782.2

-The subject of duelling has been discussed hotly on the Continent recently, and public opinion seems inclined to call murder by duel by its right name. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 782.3

-The highest place in the world regularly inhabited is stated to be the Buddhist monastery Heine, in Thibet, which is about 16,000 feet above sea level. The next highest is Calera, a railway station in Peru, which is located at a height of 15,635 feet. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 782.4

-Late rains in a portion of the Indian districts threatened with famine have improved the crop prospects very much. The affected area is so large, however, that there seems no escape from severe suffering among the natives, which has already begun. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 782.5

-By way of illustration of the size of London, it may be stated that last year there were 13,141 new houses built, 21,461 fires, and 44,742 persons involved in street accidents. Of these latter 1,298 were killed, about twelve times as many as the passengers killed in a year on all the railways of thr United Kingdom. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 782.6

-English is spoken by 45,000,000 persons in the British Isles, by probably 57,000,000 of the 60,000,000 inhabitants of the United States, by 4,000,000 persons in Canada, by 3,000,000 in Australia, by 3,700,000 West Indians, and by 1,000,000 in India and other British colonies, bringing the total of the English-speaking race to over 100,000,000. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 782.7

-A great dock strike was declared in Hamburg last week. About 10,000 men struck, and it is said that a great strike is imminent in this country also. The dock workers have been perfecting an international organisation, and they expect to be able to secure united action in America, England, and on the Continent. It is the largest federation of workers yet formed. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 782.8

-Siberia promises to become an important mining field, as it is rich in all kinds of minerals. The discovery of valuable iron deposits has just been reported from Eastern Siberia, and experts say that it is capable of making steel that cannot be surpassed. The railway is changing the prospects of the country, and altogether it would seem that Russia is to lose its great prison district. The change may enable many convict colonists to better their conditions. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 782.9

-It is said that the cities in Russia are rapidly increasing in population, the tendency there being from the country to the towns, and manufacturing is increasing. In 1867 Warsaw contained less than 200,000 people; to-day it contains nearly 600,000. Moscow contained 650,000 in 1867; in next year’s census it is likely to show a population of 1,500,000. The railways are spreading everywhere ; 40,000 miles are now finished, and they are rapidly increasing PTUK December 3, 1896, page 782.10

“Back Page” The Present Truth, 12, 49.

E. J. Waggoner

“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth.” Matthew 7:7, 8. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 784.1

If we seek, with this assurance, it is worth while to know what to seek; what it is that is worth finding. The same One who gives the assurance that we shall find, tells us what to seek. “Seek ye the Lord while He may be found.” Isaiah 55:6. “Seek the Lord, and His strength; seek His face evermore.” Psalm 105:4. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 784.2

Here is something that is certainly worth finding. If we find the Lord, we find His strength. He is the Almighty, therefore whoever finds Him becomes “strengthened with all might according to His glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness.” Colossians 1:11. In His presence is fulness of joy. Not only so, but “in Him all things consist” (Colossians 1:17, R.V.), and therefore he who finds the Lord has with Him all things. Romans 8:32. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 784.3

But is the Lord, with all this treasure, hard to find? Nay, quite the contrary; “he that seeketh, findeth,” because He is not far from every one of us. Acts 17:27. More than this, He is seeking us; “for the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Luke 19:10. Since He is seeking us, what can possibly hinder us from finding Him, if we also seek Him; each seeking the other, we are sure to come together. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 784.4

The statement that the Lord came to seek the lost, points to the fact that man was once with Him, but wandered away. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way.” Isaiah 53:6. When people sin, they imagine that God is angry with them, and that He has turned away from them. Not so; it is they who turn away and hide from Him, while He seeks them. Adam and Eve, after their sin, “hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” Genesis 3:8. But the Lord did not hide from them; on the contrary, He sought them, and when they responded to His call, they found each other. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 784.5

Therefore, since it is we who “hid as it were our faces from Him” (Isaiah 53:3), and He is all the time seeking us, it is evident that all we have to do to seek and find Him is to turn around and look up. How easy the way, and how blessed the result! Let each one, then, make these words his own: “When Thou saidst, Seek ye My face, my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek,” assured that the finding will be sure, speedy, and glorious. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 784.6

It seems that early in the century Fulton, the inventor of the steamboat, had devised a torpedo, and tried to get France and then England to adopt it in naval warfare. It was rejected on the ground that it was contrary to military and naval codes to use such atrocious methods of destruction. What progress in the art of killing the nations have since made, in these days of torpedo-boats and dynamite guns. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 784.7

“A Roman Catholic has been elected to a tutorial fellowship at Balliol, Oxford. This is the first instance,” says the Daily Mail, “of a Roman Catholic being elected to such a position, and it is worthy of special note that he is to be a Tutor in History.” Roman Catholics are able to report many significant “first instances” nowadays. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 784.8

Two milk-carriers were called before the Lambeth Police Court last week for crying and selling their milk on Sunday. The action was taken by the Quiet Sunday Society, under the Act of Charles II., as amended by the Sunday Prosecution Act of 1871, which, although it lasted but one year, has been continued by the Expiring Law Continuance Act every session since. Disapproval of the summons by the Court were shown by the fact that only a bare conviction was granted, though costs being allowed, or penalty affixed,-a warrant for the forfeiture of the goods, permissible under the law, being also refused. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 784.9

“There is none other name,” the Word says, than that of Jesus, by which salvation comes. How effectually Mary has been placed by Roman Catholics in the stead of Christ is seen by the statement in the Roman Breviary, “Mary, thou art the only hope of Christians.” PTUK December 3, 1896, page 784.10

The man who is too proud to acknowledge that he has been in error, is simply ashamed to declare that he knows more to-day than he did yesterday. Therefore the one who rejects the reproof which shows him his error, despises wisdom; but “he that heareth reproof getteth understanding,” and “abideth among the wise.” Proverbs 15:31, 32. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 784.11

Signs indicate that a new era in strikes is dawning. They are to become international, and one of the greatest strikes in industrial history is threatening. The labour world is becoming more and more familiarised with the notion of meeting injustice with revolution, and the elements are at work which will surely lead to scenes of violence. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 784.12

Four trained nurses are to sail this week for Calcutta, to reinforce our Society’s workers in India. PTUK December 3, 1896, page 784.13

“Trust in Adversity” The Present Truth, 12, 49.

E. J. Waggoner

Trust In Adversity .-God’s saving grace is not for prosperous times only. Yet the natural thing is to distrust God when adversity comes-the very time of all times when the confidence should be held fast, without wavering. “Although the fig tree shall not blossom,” says Habakkuk, “neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet will I rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.” PTUK December 3, 1896, page 784.14

“‘Give ye them to Eat’” The Present Truth, 12, 49.

E. J. Waggoner

“Give ye them to Eat.” -The world is so large and the people who do not know that the Word of the Lord is food are so many that not one who is partaking of the Lord’s bounty can forget that He is debtor to all men. In the populous countries of Asia, with their great need, the missionary feels this keenly. One of our Indian workers writes: “Think of the awful procession of eight and a half million persons in this land who go down through the gates of death every year, the great majority of whom die in their sins, and die unwarned. The figures are too vast to appreciate. Stated another way, it means that about one thousand souls in this land die every hour of the year.” PTUK December 3, 1896, page 784.15