The Present Truth, vol. 13

September 16, 1897

“Lessons From the Book of Hebrews. ‘Declaring God's Name’” The Present Truth, 13, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

We have not yet finished the consideration of the words of Christ, “I will declare Thy name unto My brethren.” We can, indeed, never come to the end, but the present article will finish our present study of the text. Let us read the connection again. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 578.1

“For both He that sanctitieth and they who are sanctified are all of one; for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare Thy name unto My brethren; in the midst of the church will I praise Thee. And again, I will put My trust in Him. And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given Me.” Hebrews 2:11-13. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 578.2

Already have we seen the circumstances under which these words are uttered, and that they are uttered by Christ as a man, for men. He spoke them in the deepest distress and temptation, that we also, or rather that He in us, might he able to make the same declaration. For we must always remember that it was our sins that He bore, and that the fact that He conquered is proof that we may also. To believe that Christ conquered in the flesh 1800 years ago, is to believe that He can conquer in us now in spite of our sins and weaknesses, since the sins that we have to contend with are the very same that He bears. But in spite of them, He declared the name of the Lord. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 578.3

WHAT IS THE NAME OF THE LORD?

In the Bible we see that names have significance. Among us, names are merely a matter of convenience, but not so with God. Whenever He gives a person a name, that name describes the person's character. The name “Jesus” was given to the Saviour, because the word signifies Saviour, and that is just what Jesus is. He is Saviour in His very being. He is a complete Saviour, and nothing but Saviour. He saves by His life, His very existence. Romans 5:10. His name, therefore, signifies just what He is, so that we are saved by His name. Acts 4:12. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 578.4

Jacob received his name because the word signified “supplanter,“ that is, one who catches another by the heels, or by the soles of the feet, and trips him up, and Jacob took his brother by the heel in birth. The name fitted him exactly, for he well understood how to take advantage of his fellow-men, and that he did; but when he gained a complete victory over his evil disposition, God gave him the name “Israel,“ which signifies a warrior, a prince. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 578.5

So the name of God indicates just what He is-His character. “The name of the Lord is a strong tower” (Proverbs 18:10), because the Lord Himself is a “fortress” and a “high tower.” Psalm 18:2. With God words are things, as is indicated by the fact that in the Hebrew Bible we have but one word for the two English words “word” and “thing.” The name of God is not a mere empty sound, but is God's own personality. Therefore when Christ says, “I will declare Thy name unto My brethren” it is the same as if He had said, “I will reveal to them Thy character.” The reason why people do not trust the Lord is that they do not know Him. Some will never consent to become acquainted with Him, but those who do will trust Him, for the Word says: “The Lord also will be a high tower for the oppressed, a high tower in times of trouble; and they that know Thy name will put their trust in Thee; for Thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek Thee.” Psalm 9:9, 10, R.V. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 578.6

CHRIST, THE FATHER's REPRESENTATIVE

“No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.” John 1:18. This is the same thing that is told in our text, “I will declare Thy name.” By declaring the name of God, Christ declares God Himself. And He does because He is “the effulgence of His glory, and the very image of His substance.” Hebrews 1:3, R.V. Therefore it is that God said of Him, “My Name is in Him.” Exodus 23:21. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 579.1

Before He was born into this world, Jesus received the name “Emmanuel,“ which being interpreted is, “God with us.” Matthew 1:33. That is what He is, His presence is God with us. So that when Philip said to Him; “Lord show us the Father, and it sufficeth us,“ Jesus could say, “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? Believe Me, that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me.” John 14:5-11. “For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell,“ even “all the fulness of the Godhead.” Colossians 1:19; 2:9. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 579.2

Because Christ came, not in His own name, but in the Father's name,-because “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19),-His words and works-His very life-were the Father’s, and not His own. “When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am (He), and that I do nothing of Myself; but as the Father hath taught Me, I speak these things.” John 8:28. “The words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself; but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works.” John 14:10. He lived by the Father, (John 6:57), His life was but God's life in Him in its fulness, so that it could be said that God purchased the church “with His own blood.” Acts 20:25. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 579.3

WE IN CHRIST's STEAD

Jesus said, “Now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world.” John 17:11. He also said, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” Verse 14. He who recorded these words said, “As He is, so are we in this world.” 1 John 4:11. And Christ said in the same prayer just referred to, “As Thou hast sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.” John 17:18. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 579.4

We are therefore in the world for the same purpose that Jesus was, namely, to declare the name of God, to represent God's own character to the world. Note the similarity of John 1:18 and 1 John 4:12, 13. The first says, “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.” The second is, “No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit.” No one hath seen God at any time, but Christ came into the world to reveal Him. But now for “a little while” (John 17:17) Christ is invisible, and therefore the world must learn God's character through Christ's followers. As they abide in love, they also are “in the bosom of the Father,“ so that they also can declare Him. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 579.5

Christ was filled with all the fulness of God, but it was as “the Son of man.” It was “God with us,“ that is, God with man. The same thing is for us, for the Apostle Paul by direction of the Spirit, prayed for us, “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might ye filled with all the fulness of God.” Ephesians 3:16-19. Although Christ was here to represent God to men, He was also here as the representative Man, to show what men should be, and what by God's grace they may be. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 579.6

Therefore God has given us the same word to speak that He gave to Christ. “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath put in us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech (you) by us; we pray (you) in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.” 2 Corinthians 6:19, 30. The exhortation is, “If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God.” 1 Peter 4:10. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 579.7

Not only has God given us the same word to speak that He gave to Christ, but He has given us the same work. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on He, the works that I do shall He do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto My Father.” John 14:12. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 579.8

Christ was, and is, the brightness of God's glory, and the very image of His substance. Hebrews 1:3. But He says, “The glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them.” John 17:22. He is crowned with glory and honour, in order that He might bring “many sons to glory.” In Him we “put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created Him.” Colossians 3:10. In Christ therefore we also are to be the very image or impress of the Father's substance. In 2 Corinthians 3:17, 15, we have the image and the glory united, thus: “Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit.” R.V. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 579.9

All this, however, is by virtue of Christ, and not of us, “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.” 2 Corinthians 4:6, 7. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 579.10

This it is to declare the name of God to represent His character to the world through the Spirit's indwelling. As He put His name in Christ, so He puts His name in us, for those who are saved have the Father's name written in their foreheads. Revelation 14:1. And this is true not merely of a few, but of all; for the promise is without limitation: “Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall go no more out; and I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God; which is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from My God; and I will write upon him My new name.” Revelation 3:12. This is not something that is done merely at the last, but takes place now, for here and now must we overcome. Now it is that we are “builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit,“ growing “unto an holy temple in the Lord,“ (Ephesians 2:31, 32), and Jerusalem which is above is even now our mother (Galatians 4:26), so that even now we have her name. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 579.11

What more could God do, that He has not done? Well may the apostle pray that we may have the eyes of our understanding enlightened by the Spirit, so that we may know the hope of His calling. It is no small thing that God has called us to. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 580.1

God is revealed in His works, and has been ever since the creation of the world. Romans 1:19, 20. Even the “eternal power and Godhead” of God are seen in the things that He has made, in which man must be included. But man has rebelled and does his utmost to deface the image so as not to represent God. Other things, however, are obedient to God's will, so that in the changing seasons and the fruitful earth God has witnesses. Acts 14:17. This is not enough, however. Not only by a portion of His creation, but by the whole, must God be represented; and the witness to God's love and power and Divinity will not be complete until man, the chief of God's works, represents Him in His fulness. That this may be accomplished is the object for which Christ has a church in the world. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 580.2

Because the church has not known and appreciated its calling, that is, because individual professors have not, many sincere souls are in doubt as to God's character, and even His very existence. But note again the verses with which we began, to see what is the result of this declaration of God's name in the lives, and not only by the lips, of Christ's people. God's name is declared through their putting their trust in Him, and the result is thus stated, “Behold I and the children which God hath given Me.” That is, when God's professed people declare His name even as Christ did, and as He now waits to do through them by the Holy Spirit, then will the world soon be lightened with the glory of the Lord, and they can see the result of their testimony in the souls that are prepared to meet their God. May every professor so sincerely desire this time that God may be given leave to bring it speedily. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 580.3

Give God your moments, and He will make your day a success. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 580.4

“Not Seeking Power from on High” The Present Truth, 13, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

Still reports come from Russia of agitation among the clergy for greater power from the State. Let all who favour religion by law in England-and Non-conformists are as much for Sunday laws and other varieties of legal religion as are Churchmen-reflect that the principle is no worse in Russia than in England or America. The Berlin correspondent of the Chronicle says of a recent Russian synod:— PTUK September 16, 1897, page 582.1

“Numbers of new sects have recently arisen hostile to the Orthodox Church. The means at the disposal of the clergy are considered insufficient for repressing them. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 582.2

“The opening of schools for “sectaries,“ it was urged, should be forbidden; those at present in use to be closed or assigned to other management. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 582.3

“Orthodox persons are recommended not to employ ‘heretical’ servants. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 582.4

“Numbers of the clergy in congress stated that the Stundist movement has again begun to show signs of activity. It was recommended that Stundist children should be taken from their parents to be placed under Orthodox tutelage and evangelical clergy-men. Lutherans in Stundist districts, it was suggested, should be forbidden to preach in the Russian language. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 582.5

“It is evident that whatever liberal influences may be present in the councils of the Czar's secular advisers, the clergy remain as intolerant as ever.” PTUK September 16, 1897, page 582.6

“The Difference” The Present Truth, 13, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

The Sultan's oflicial letter, expressing in terms pious and devout his thanks to God and the Prophet Mohammed for his victory in Thessaly, was treated by the press as an amusing document. It seems strange to the West to hear a Mohammedan talking so piously about his success in war. But the letter, with Mohammed's name struck out, might very readily have come from any European ruler after a successful campaign. Do not professedly Christian governments thank God for success in killing their enemies? The Sultan does so at least consistently, as his prophet's religion is Islam and the Sword; but Christians acknowledge the Prophet who said, “Put up thy sword,“ and “Resist not evil.” Yet in the name of the religion of Jesus, guns are dedicated and victories over men wholly unprepared to die are celebrated with religious rejoicings. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 582.7

“The Comfort of God” The Present Truth, 13, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

True it is, our Lord is not here personally present, as He was when upon the earth; but He has not left us orphans; His Holy Spirit, the blessed Paraclete, dwells in every soul that desires the life presence of God. In the development of faith and character, it is better, it is expedient, that Christ should not he here in person. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 583.1

When He was here, men limited His power to His bodily presence. “Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died,“ was the limit of faith. It was a Roman centurion who saw the great truth which God's people could learn only by Christ's absence. “Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldest come under my roof, but speak the word only and my servant shall be healed.” PTUK September 16, 1897, page 583.2

“Poisoned” The Present Truth, 13, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

The boy who learns to smoke very soon feels a craving for tobacco. That is a sure sign of diseased nerves caused by the poison. So many boys are now smoking, and the injury to their health is so plainly seen that some countries are making laws to forbid the sale of tobacco to boys. A medical journal describes the case of a boy who recently came to a hospital sick unto death with tobacco-poisoning. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 589.1

“His whole body was sick; the poison in the tobacco had gone all through him. His skin was yellow, his nerves were weak, and he had to be sent to the hospital; but the doctors could not help him. He said just before he died: ‘Oh, if all the boys could see me now, and see how I suffer, they would never smoke.’” PTUK September 16, 1897, page 589.2

It is strange how any clever boy, who can put two and two together can think it a bold or manly thing to form a habit which injures every one and kills hundreds who are not able to bear the poison. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 589.3

“Items of Interest” The Present Truth, 13, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

-The potato crop in Ireland is said to be generally a failure. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 590.1

-The Trades Congress, which met in Birmingham last week, represented 1,033,690 workers. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 590.2

-Korea, over which Japan and China had their war, is now the hone of contention between Japan and Russia. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 590.3

-Report comes of a French secret revolutionary society in Canada, working on lines similar to the Fenian societies. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 590.4

-The war still desolates Cuba. Spanish soldiers die in large numbers in the climate, and make little headway against the Cubans. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 590.5

-Crete is still under blockade of the Powers. The Moslems keep to their districts and the Cretan insurgents are in possession of the interior. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 590.6

-Native Princess in India have offered the Government their services and troops in fighting the tribesmen over the frontier. This shows that they are not in sympathy with disloyal elements. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 590.7

-The Ameer of Afghanistan has a working arsenal in his capital. Not long ago he sold 80,000 rifles of his own make to the tribesmen who are now resisting the British advance into their country. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 590.8

-After President Faure and the Czar met to speak the fateful word “alliance,“ the German Emperor and the King of ltaly met to declare the integrity of the Triple Aliance. All the nations talk of peace, but all prepare for war. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 590.9

-While Great Britain is pressing on from north and south in Africa to reach the Equatorial provinces and paint the map of Africa with a streak of British red from Egypt to the Cape, France is pushing on from east and west for the middle districts. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 590.10

-The troops in the employ of the Congo Free state have revolted, killing over fifty Belgian officers and soldiers, and are raiding right and left. They have learned how to use weapons for the Europeans, now they use them on their own account. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 590.11

-The Egyptian expedition has found that by boring in the desert water may be found in abundance. This greatly simplifies the work of railway building. A line from Berber, which the troops have just occupied, to Suakim on the Red Sea is proposed. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 590.12

-The French wheat crop falls this year nearly 100,000,000 bushels below last year's harvest. And in Russia the harvests are so reduced that they fear famine must come this winter. It is not strange, therefore, that the price of the loaf goes up. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 590.13

-When Baron Rothschild's yacht visited St. Petersburg the other day it was only by a special passport furnished by the Russian Ambassador in London that he was permitted to enter Russian territory. Jews not living in Russia or having connections there are prohibited. Probably a Rothschild could make trouble for the Russian financiers if he were excluded by the barbarous act against the Jews. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 590.14

“Back Page” The Present Truth, 13, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

“We sorrowfully express the opinion,“ says the Irish Daily Nation, “that since ‘Black Forty-Seven’ the Irish labourer never had to face a winter more full of privation.” This gloomy forecast follows the report of failure of the potato crop in many districts. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 592.1

The Roman Catholics are celebrating the mission of Augustine to England this week with the most elaborate ritual seen in this country since the Reformation. By the same show of banners and gowns and services savouring of the heathen mysteries the pagan Kentish king was led to favour Augustine when he landed oil these shores. The Romanists are celebrating their own triumphs, at least, and are more consistent than the Archbishops and Bishops of the Anglican Church who had an Augustine celebration a few weeks ago. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 592.2

The superintendent of a Manitoba Sunday school a few months ago saw the truth in the matter of God's Sabbath and began keeping it. Recently, perhaps with the idea of showing him his error in obeying the fourth commandment, the Presbyterian minister with four of his elders appeared against the man in court on the charge of violating the Sunday law. Very naturally he was convicted. Several other similar cases are reported from Manitoba by the last American mails. The Dominion churches are waking up and resorting to that last argument of error-physical force. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 592.3

In 2 Corinthians 11:24-33 the Apostle Paul gives the catalogue of his extraordinary perils and experiences of hardship. In another place he calls these things but “light afflictions.” Of course he meant what he said. They were light because in the scale with them was the “eternal weight of glory.” Paul's epistles are brimful of joy and courage. When one lets go of self and the world and enters the service of the Lord with the whole heart he is not walking with heavy feet a painful way; no matter what comes of hardness and affliction and weakness, he can glory in it all because the power of Christ and the joy of the Lord are more than sufficient to make the highway of holiness a delightsome one. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 592.4

One of our workers in Jamaica says that in the mountains of the western part of the island he has been preaching to the most primitive people he has ever met. With a native assistant, a good work was done, and the little church of about seventy members at once began building a house of worship. The material had all to be carried up the mountains on the heads of carriers, but in forty days the house was in use. The people have come from miles away to attend the meetings. It is interesting to see the interest among those who have had little or no advantage in hearing the word. There are multitudes of such waiting for help to come to them, who hear the voice of God when He speaks. The first shall be last and the last first. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 592.5

“Divine and Human” The Present Truth, 13, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

Divine and Human .—The demand for Sunday laws illustrates just the difference between the Sabbath and Sunday. Sunday was made a rest day by human authority, and human authority is resorted to in order to make men keep it. The Sabbath of the Lord is the Lord's day, made the day of Sabbath rest by Divine authority. The Word maintains the Sabbath, and all the powers of earth cannot overthrow it. Of Sunday it is freely said that it is endangered if not protected by human law. Religious people testify in court that they are, disturbed if thy see some one working on Sunday, especially if he keeps the Sabbath; while one who keeps the Sabbath may enjoy perfect Sabbath rest in the Lord with all the world at work. The difference is that, between purely human religion and Divine religion. One day is God's appointed rest, and the power of the Gospel is sufficient to establish it in the hearts of all who desire it. The other day belongs to the Papacy by best right, and has to be enforced by papal methods. One is the sign of God's power to save, the other of man's assumed power to save himself. The Sabbath stands for justification by faith, the Sunday for justification by works. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 592.6

“Earth Dwellers” The Present Truth, 13, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

Earth Dwellers .—The Bible definition of the word heathen is that he is one who knows not God. The word means literally, in the old Anglo-Saxon, a dweller on the heath, a countryman. The word pagan has a similar signification in the Latin original. In common use this original meaning is lost in these words, but it is strictly true of the, heathen or pagan, in the Bible sense, that he is an earth-dweller. His life, his hopes, his efforts are here. The Christian is a pilgrim and a stranger here, and his citizenship is in heaven, he is not seeking to build upon an earthly foundation, but his affections are set on things above. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 592.7

“A Sad Momento” The Present Truth, 13, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

A Sad Momento .—Excavator in the streets of Herculaneum, which was buried along with Pompeii by the eruption of Vesuvius just over eighteen centuries ago, have recently dug out the notice board of a theatre. The bills of the plays are posted, one over another, quite after the modern style, and all goes to show that the reign of pleasure and folly was at its height when the awful doom fell upon the cities to bury them for centuries. Both history and modern excavations show that the towns were full of vileness, and the fiery destruction is a lesson like that of the fate of the cities of the plain. But the world will not learn the lesson. Still the rush for foolish pleasures goes on, and the theatres are leading a corrupt social taste still deeper into evil. As it was in the days of Noah, and as it was in the days of Lot, and, we may add, as it was in the days of Pompeii and Herculaneum, even so will it be in the day when the judgments of heaven fall upon a world in which evil men and seducers from the right way of the Lord will “wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.” PTUK September 16, 1897, page 592.8

“What Salvation Is” The Present Truth, 13, 37.

E. J. Waggoner

What Salvation Is .—The one trouble in the world is sin, which is “the transgression of the law.” The one object of Christ's Gospel is to bring men back to obedience, and He has power to do it. “Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.” There is another gospel being industriously preached nowadays, which insists, that so far from saving men from transgressing God's law, Christ's work is actually to make them free to transgress it with impunity. This was Satan's gospel in the beginning and is characteristic of this latter time when the “man of sin,“ the “mystery of lawlessness” is to be revealed in all deceiving power to mislead all who receive not the love of the truth, but have pleasure in unrighteousness. But every one who wants salvation from sin may know that the Father of our Lord Jesus has “sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.” Acts 3:26. PTUK September 16, 1897, page 592.9