The Present Truth, vol. 15
August 31, 1899
“The Mercy of the Lord” The Present Truth 15, 35.
E. J. Waggoner
“For Thy name's sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great.” Psalm 25:11. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 545.1
How different that is from the way persons uninstructed by the Holy Spirit would come to the Lord. Ordinarily, when we are asking for mercy we minimise the offence as much as possible; plead great provocation and extenuating circumstances, and thus cover up for the moment the extent of the sin until it is passed over and forgiven. But in this prayer David makes no excuses-“Pardon mine iniquity, for it is great.” PTUK August 31, 1899, page 545.2
No matter how much we know about the Lord, we need continually to be reminded of the basis of pardon, or we shall get discouraged, give up, and fall out of the way. The only thing, that keeps us in the way, is the one thing that starts us in the way. We, can never get discouraged so long as we are holding on to that which started us, and the more we get of that the stronger we are. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 545.3
When we sin, the only way of escape is to be lifted out by the Lord, and have the sin forgiven and taken away. Jesus can do that, and the way He does it is by putting righteousness in the place of sin-Christ putting Himself there, taking the sin on Himself, and swallowing it up. Although He had the sin of the world upon Him, no one ever saw anything but righteousness. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 545.4
It is as though all the refuse matter and corruption were cast into a pit, yet the pit swallows up everything, hides it away, disinfects it, so that no miasma, foul odours, or disease come from it. So with Christ. All the disease and sin and filth of the world were put upon Him, yet nobody ever saw it there. There is the marvel, for with men “the works of the flesh are manifest;” they are visible in the very flesh of men, women, and children as you pass them on the street, even though not a word be uttered. Christ puts Himself in our lives, and that takes the sin away. It is buried. And the magnitude of the sin makes no difference. He can pardon a great offence as well as a small one. To limit the Lord when He says He pardons, is to say that He will pardon up to a certain point, and then will go no further. This would make Him a finite being. That was the sin of ancient Israel-“they limited the Holy One of lsrael.” PTUK August 31, 1899, page 545.5
Look at it in another way. The true physician is the one who can give relief in the most critical cases. It is the cases of extremity that need help; but if the help fails when it is most needed, what is it good for? “If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.” The Lord never fails. So we can come to Him with this thought right before us-“Lord, my sin is great-greater than I can measure, therefore, I want pardon;” and because it is great; is the reason why the Lord pardons. It is our great need that commends us most to Him. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 546.1
Again: If we were to follow an army as nurse, to help the wounded-extend our aid to all alike, friend or foe, after a battle,-it would be the most urgent cases that we would help first. Those who were but slightly wounded we would leave till the last. Or, if a house were on fire, or a flood coming, those who were in the greatest danger would appeal first to us for the help we could give. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 546.2
It is just this that most recommends us to the Lord. In Isaiah, the first chapter, the Lord speaks of His people as a sinful nation, laden with iniquity, the whole head sick, the heart faint, from the sole of the foot, even to the crown of the head there is no soundness; but wounds and bruises and putrifying sores. This is no figure of speech, for at the very last, when men have filled up the measure of their iniquity, and there is no hope for them, the very next thing is that a “noisome and grievous sore” break out upon them. It is even so now, for sin will break out upon men who have rejected God. And even though the body may appear fair to look upon, yet when sin is there inside, to the Lord that body has within it a loathsome ulcer, and that is the condition, in God's sight, of all mankind whom the blood of Christ has not cleansed. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 546.3
In the thirteenth chapter of Isaiah we find another characteristic of this rebellious people brought out. In the first verse we read: “Ye take counsel, but not of Me; ye cover with a covering, but not of My Spirit.” And in the 9th verse and onward: “This is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord. Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things; prophesy deceits. Get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to come from before us.” PTUK August 31, 1899, page 546.4
Yet in the face of all that-to this people, unsound from head to foot, lying children, rejecting the Lord altogether, to them it is said: “And therefore will the Lord wait, that He may be gracious unto you.” What loving-kindness, what tender mercy! PTUK August 31, 1899, page 546.5
“Notes on the International Sunday-School Lessons. The Desire of All Nations. Haggai 2:1-9” The Present Truth 15, 35.
E. J. Waggoner
Two kings have reigned in Persia since the period of our last lesson, and one of them, Artaxerxes in response to complaints to assist those who were not allowed to assist in rebuilding the temple, has given orders that the work of restoration is stopped, “So it ceased unto the second year of the reign of Darius, king of Persia.” In that year, Haggai and Zechariah began to prophesy unto Judah and engaged them to go on with the work of rebuilding the temple. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 546.6
It is evident from the first chapter at Haggai that the people had become discouraged. They were saying that the time had not come for the Lord's house to be built. Yet they were building goodly houses for themselves. It was just as true then as it is now that those who seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness will find all other necessary things added to them. The prophet called the people to consider their ways. He reminded them. “Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink, ye cIothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. Why? saith the Lord of hosts. Because of Mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house.” Haggai 1:5-11. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 546.7
We may find in this lesson an explanation of much of the misfortune that attends the plans of men in these days. A lack of liberality toward the cause of God is no economy. “There is that withholdeth more than is meet but it tendeth to poverty.” “He that watereth shall be watered also himself.” Proverbs 11:24, 25. It is true that there were a great many very serious obstacles in the way of building the temple, but because of this the people were not justified in concluding that it was not yet time to build the Lord's house. Faith is that which connects us with God. No one can come to Him who does not believe Him. Hence it is important that faith shall be able to endure testing and trial. Men would like to escape this experience and go right into heaven without a trial, but if they did, it would not be heaven very long. Israel desired to go straight from Egypt into the Promised Land, but till the influences of Egypt and the love for the ways were taken out of their hearts they would have turned Canaan itself into a copy of Egypt. In the building of the second temple, God was not so anxious to see the completion of an erection of wood and stone, as to see in the hearts of His people that preparation for a pure and spiritual worship which would make it possible for Him to bless them. The people had not arrived at this state, and it was necessary that they should be schooled and disciplined by the trying of their faith, that this being much more precious than gold that perisheth, or even the structure of a magnificent temple, might be found unto praise and honour and glory. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 546.8
For this reason, they were tried, to see whether, in the face of difficulty and temptation, they would still seek first the kingdom of God, or make the food and raiment of chief account. That they did the latter, showed them lacking in the first principles of the service of God, but they were not for this rejected. They needed instruction, and prophets were sent to teach them the right way. The words spoken by these prophets are for us also, that we may not make the mistake of letting the service of God become secondary to anything else. Nothing is more foolish than for a man to weigh his chances of getting a living against the call to obey God. It is true now, as it was in Haggai's day, that faith must be tested, but there is no question about the Word of God being sure. The only uncertain element is our confidence in that Word. When we believe it and obey it with all our heart, our welfare is assured, for it rests upon the security of promises which cannot be broken. We must learn now to trust God's Word, even in the face of adverse circumstances, for the unbelieving and fearful never enter the city of God. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 547.1
Even after the Jews had set to work on the temple, their hearts were discouraged when they remembered how far short it fell of approaching the splendour of Solomon's temple. Some of the people had seen this before the captivity, and they despondingly compared these two. But this was a small matter. The Lord sent a message by Haggai to all the people of the land bidding them work and be of good courage. The most splendid temple that men could have built would have fallen far short of God's grand purpose. This was that men themselves should be His temple. “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?” Isaiah 66:1. Solomon had recognised how impossible it was to build a habitation meet for the God who had created all things. In his prayer of dedication he had said, “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee; how much less this house that I have builded?” 1 Kings 8:27. God's chosen dwelling place is not in temples made with hands. He Himself has constructed a temple, a living one, in which He may reveal His glory. “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you.” “The temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.” 1 Corinthians 3:16, 17. We cannot make ourselves holy; God has done that already; but we can defile the temple of God by enthroning idols in the holy place where God has chosen to dwell. The sacredness of the human body can only be measured by the holiness of Him who dwells there. “I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a humble and contrite spirit.” Isaiah 57:15. But in this same verse, we read, “Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity.” Think how much is brought into God's temple. There is the loftiness and height of God, as well as His eternity. So we read that we are to comprehend the length and depth and breadth and height of the love of Christ, that we might be filled with all the fulness of God. Ephesians 3:18, 19. God will infinitely enlarge the life that is submitted to Him, so that it shall be a fit temple for Himself in every respect. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 547.2
This was the truth which God desired to teach Israel. So long as they got no farther than to build Him a temple of wood and stone, it was evidence that they could not see His purpose or enter into it. “The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing.” Hebrews 9:8. The lesson will be learned when God's people enter the New Jerusalem, for John says, “And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.” There is no shadow needed there of the good things to come, for the good things have came. Then we know even as also we are known. “The tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them.” The relation between God and His people, in their perfect union, is typified by the relation of the bridegroom and the bride. These are one flesh, yet each can see the other as a separate person. In a perfect marriage there is perfect union so that both lives are merged in one, yet the happiness is wonderfully increased by reason of the separate existence of the loved one. Thus not only do the heart and will and judgment find enjoyment, but also the senses that convey impressions from the inner life. So, “as in a glass, darkly,” does the Lord instruct us how we may be temples for His indwelling, and yet see His face, and find in Him our temple, wherein we may dwell always, and go no more out. “At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you.” John 14:20. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 547.3
This was the truth which God spake to the Jews through Haggai, if they had had ears for it. “I am with you, saith the Lord of hosts: according to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so My Spirit remaineth among you.” God does not withdraw His Spirit from men, though they grieve it more, and resist its working. Psalm 139:7-10. He dwelt in Israel, and that fact made them an holy people unto the Lord their God. Deuteronomy 7:6. Now the Lord assures Judah that His Spirit remains among them still; therefore they are holy, if they will but acknowledge it. The same thing is true to-day. Men have lost the knowledge of God and think that to be saved, they must purify themselves. But “in returning and rest shall ye be saved.” It is true that God requires holiness, but how shall it be gained? God sanctifies every place where He dwells, and what men need to learn is what God does not cast off, but that He dwells in them still, and therefore they are holy. The holy place may be defiled, the sanctuary trodden underfoot, but He who dwells there can cleanse it, and He alone. We are called to rest in a work which has been completed from the foundation of the world (Hebrews 4:3); and to show our faith in God's finished work, by resting on the seventh day, whereon God rested from all His works. The Sabbath is a sign between God and His people “that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctifies them.” Ezekiel 20:12. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 547.4
Because God has formed every man for His own dwelling place, and implanted in every soul desires that can only be satisfied by the fulness of God dwelling within, Christ is truly “the Desire of all nations.” Men are ever in a state of unrest, seeking variety for satisfaction in the things of this world, “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,” but, as we have seen, man was made for “the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity;” consequently nothing short of this gives lasting satisfaction. The wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest; there is no peace for them; because they do not receive the one thing that brings peace and rest,-the fulness of God. Do we hunger and thirst after something we have never yet attained? It is the crying out of our heart and our flesh after God, like a thirsty land. Perhaps we have same ambition or longing, which, if we can only get it satisfied, will, we think, be all we desire. It is not so. Let no grasp longer after fleeting shadows, but take the substance that is freely offered, and which makes the receiver “satisfied with favour, and full with the blessing of the Lord.” The highest stage of Christian life is to be “filled,” and by the infinite greatness of that which fills, we may learn the insatiable character of the desire which God has placed in men. It is folly to think of finding satisfaction in the broken cisterns of this world. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 547.5
“I will fill this house with glory.” It was to this building, though much enlarged by Herod, that Christ came so many times in His earthly life. The Son of God, whose glory could not be contained by the heavens and the earth, filled the temple with His sacred presence. The mere adorning with silver and gold was nothing compared with this. “In this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts.” Christ, came to give peace to every restless, unsatisfied, longing heart. Malachi foretold that the Messiah, whom Israel desired, should suddenly come to His temple, but “who shall stand when He appeareth?” PTUK August 31, 1899, page 548.1
Jesus Christ has come to the temple which was building I Haggai's time, but that does not fulfil the prophecy in its completeness. “Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake all nations.” The Lord will come to His temple, the men and women who are His dwelling-place, and fill them with glory. but how will it affect them? “Who may abide the day of His coming? for He is like a refiner's fire.” Those who have defiled His sanctuary with their detestable things, will desire to be hidden from the wrath of the Lamb. His glory is to them a consuming fire; and they are “punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power.” 2 Thessalonians 1:7-10. It is not that they did not obey His law. They “obey not the Gospel.” The Gospel declared that they were the holy temple of God, and made known to them His sanctifying rest in the Sabbath, but they would have none of it. God is no respecter of persons, and it is His life that has been revealed in all mankind. Those who have confessed that Christ has come in their flesh and have acknowledged Him in all their ways, when He appears in His glory, are made like Him, for they see Him as He is. 1 John 2:2. “He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe,” but the disobedient are unable to bear the revealing of His glory. Christ must fill all things, and it is for those whom He has chosen for His dwelling-place to decide whether He shall purify them form sin now, that they may be without spot or wrinkle or any such thing; or whether they will forget that they are not their own, defile His temple, and be consumed when he gathers out of His kingdom “all things that offend, and them which do iniquity.” PTUK August 31, 1899, page 548.2
“The Gospel of Isaiah. Preparing the Way of the Lord. Isaiah 40:3-5” The Present Truth 15, 35.
E. J. Waggoner
A voice crieth: In the wilderness prepare ye the
way of Jehovah!
Make straight in the desert a highway for
our God!
Every valley shall be exalted, and every moun-
tain and hill be brought low;
And the crooked shall become straight, and
the rough places a smooth plain;
And the glory of Jehovah shall be revealed;
And all flesh shall see together the salvation
of our God;
For the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it.”
PTUK August 31, 1899, page 549.1
Psalm 119:1-3: “Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they that keep His testimonies, and that seek Him with the whole heart. They also do no iniquity; they walk in His ways.” PTUK August 31, 1899, page 549.2
Psalm 125:5: “As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity; but peace shall be upon Israel.” PTUK August 31, 1899, page 549.3
Psalm 103:7: “He made known His ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel.” PTUK August 31, 1899, page 549.4
Psalm 25:9: “The meek will He guide in judgment; the meek will He teach His way.” PTUK August 31, 1899, page 549.5
Psalm 18:30: “As for God, His way is perfect.” PTUK August 31, 1899, page 549.6
Psalm 145:17: “The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and holy in all His works. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 549.7
John 14:6: “Jesus saith unto Him, I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by Me.” PTUK August 31, 1899, page 549.8
Psalm 77:13: “Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary; who is so great a God as our God?” PTUK August 31, 1899, page 549.9
1 Corinthians 3:16: “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” PTUK August 31, 1899, page 549.10
Luke 1:76-79: “And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest; for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare His ways; to give knowledge of salvation unto His people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” PTUK August 31, 1899, page 549.11
Luke 1:16, 17: “Many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God. And he shall go before Him in the Spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the father to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” PTUK August 31, 1899, page 549.12
Malachi 4:5, 6: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord; and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse,” or “utter destruction.” PTUK August 31, 1899, page 549.13
Psalm 85:13: “Righteousness shall go before Him; and shall make His footsteps a way to walk in.” Revised Version. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 549.14
Psalm 19:7, 8: “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.” PTUK August 31, 1899, page 549.15
Let us not forget, in studying this lesson, that while all Scripture is always true, and the Gospel is always applicable, this prophecy of Isaiah has special application in these last days. This message is one to make ready a people prepared for the coming of the Lord in glory, to give reward to His servants, and to give every man according as his work shall be. Do not make the mistake of thinking that because it was written twenty-five hundred years ago, it does not specially concern us. The Word of the Lord is living, and never loses any of its force. Its exhortations are more emphatic “as we see the day approaching.” PTUK August 31, 1899, page 549.16
Remember also what we have learned concerning the message of John the Baptist. It reaches till the coming of the Lord in glory, and all who love the Lord and His coming are commissioned to proclaim it. John the Baptist therefore stood not as a single individual, having a work to do that ended with his death, but as the type of a great movement embracing tens of thousands of people, and reaching till the end of time. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 549.17
The command to the voice is, “Prepare ye the way of Jehovah!” It is to prepare the way for the Lord's coming. Well, what hinders His coming now? Why could He not have come at any time in the past? Simply because the people were not prepared for His coming. The condition of His professed followers hindered His advent. The way of the Lord is in the sanctuary, and His sanctuary is His people, therefore we see that the way of the Lord is prepared only by the preparation of His people,-by the cleansing of the sanctuary. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 549.18
The words “straight” and “right” are really the same. The Latin word rectus, from which we derive our word “right,” as seen in the word “rectitude,” the meaning of which everybody knows, means literally, “straight,” as can be seen from the word “rectilinear.” A “right” line is a straight line, just as a “rectangle” is a right or straight angle. To make the way of the Lord straight is therefore to make it right. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 549.19
But all the ways of the Lord are right; His way is perfect. Therefore there is nothing about the Lord that needs correcting. Everything with which He has to do is as good as it can be. But we have refused to allow the Lord to have His way, for “we have turned every one to his own way.” Isaiah 53:6. His rightful way is in us, but we have kept Him back by our unrighteousness. We have made our ways crooked. So the Lord sends His messengers to straighten us out-to make us right before Him, so that there may be nothing to hinder His complete possession of us. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 549.20
God is light. The characteristic of light is that it proceeds in straight lines. So with God, who is “the Father of lights,” there “can be no variation, neither shadow that is cast by turning.” James 1:17, R.V. Consequently all in whom He has His way must be sincere, that is, clear and transparent, so that the beams of the Sun of righteousness may not be hindered in their course. The work of this Gospel message is to “give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.” “Ye were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord; walk as children of light.” Ephesians 5:8. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 549.21
“He made known His ways to Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel.” Ways and acts are the same. When we say of a person that we do not like his ways, we mean that we do not like his habits, his actions. So the way of the Lord is His manner of life. He made His ways or acts known to Moses and the children of Israel, in revealing to them His law. “Thou camest down also upon Mount Sinai, and spakest with them from heaven, and gavest them right judgments, and true laws, good statutes and commandments; and madest known unto them Thy holy Sabbath, and commanded them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses Thy servant.” Nehemiah 9:13, 14. The law of the Lord is His way, as we learn from Psalm 119:1-3. The way of the Lord is prepared, therefore, by putting His law into the hearts of the people. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 549.22
When the Lord comes in the clouds of heaven, it will be with glory. “The hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth. The heavens declare His righteousness, and all the people see His glory.” Psalm 97:5, 6. Since God is light, and dwells in light, being clothed with light as a garment, it follows that wherever He goes the glory must be revealed. So we read that when the way of the Lord is prepared, the glory of the Lord shall be revealed. This will be because that when His way is prepared He Himself will go in it. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 549.23
The way of the Lord is in His sanctuary, and His sanctuary is His people. The idea prevails that the coming of the Lord is an arbitrary affair; that He will come when He is ready, regardless of the condition of people on this earth. That is a great mistake. The coming of the Lord is but the consummation, the crowning act, of a great work. It is the natural and inevitable result of what has preceded. Christ came to reveal God to men, so that they might know His will concerning them. It is God's will that men shall be like Him, so as to be fit companions for Him, and to this end Christ was once manifested, to reveal God to men, in man; and the possibility of this was secured by His death. His coming to this earth was the emptying of Himself, really His death, so that it is only by the death of Christ that God can be manifest in the flesh. The whole work of the Gospel is to secure this revelation of God in man. It is the work that God began at the creation, when He made man in His own image; and to restore this image is the work of the Gospel. The “new man” is after God “created in righteousness and true holiness.” Ephesians 4:24. But the heavens must retain Christ “until the times of restoration of all things.” Acts 3:20, 21. His coming means the restoration of the earth; but this cannot be until the new man is made ready for it-until it has a ruler,-and so before the coming of the Lord in the clouds of heaven, He must be fully revealed in His people. The shining forth of the Lord from heaven is but the fulness of His revelation. “He shall come to be glorified in His saints.” 2 Thessalonians 1:10. He cannot come, therefore, until in the church the ways of God are seen as perfectly as they were in Jesus of Nazareth. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 549.24
When the way is prepared, the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all flesh will see it. This is because as soon as the way is prepared, the Lord goes in it, and wherever He goes the glory must be revealed. But His way is in His people, therefore His glory is to be seen in them. “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.” 2 Corinthians 4:6. Why has God shined in our hearts?-To give the light of the knowledge of His glory. To give the light of the knowledge of His glory to whom?-To others, of course; for no candle shines for the purpose of giving light to itself. God shines in our hearts in order that others may take knowledge of His glory. “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” Matthew 5:16. Good works are the light, according to these words of Christ. So again we see that God prepares the way by putting His law in our hearts by His Spirit; “for the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light.” Proverbs 6:23. The preaching of the law of God as revealed in the life and character of Christ, must precede the coming of the Lord. When the last message shall have been completed, these words will be uttered: “Here is the patience of the saints, here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Revelation 19:12. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 550.1
“And all flesh shall see it together.” When the glory is revealed, it will be seen. That will be the testimony to the saving power of our God. In the inanimate things that God has made, His power and Divinity are seen. Romans 1:20. Although man has proved unfaithful, and has even imposed his evil traits upon the creation that was given into his care, God has not left Himself without witness. “The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth His handiwork.” Psalm 19:1. But that is not enough. Man, the highest creature of God, ought to give the most perfect testimony to His power and goodness, and this will be the case before the Lord comes. Not only must all the works of God praise Him, but His saints must bless Him. When the voice in the wilderness has completed its message, then will the work for which Christ ascended to heaven, namely, “that He might fill all things,” be accomplished, and He will come. Then all creatures, animate and inanimate, will unite in saying, “Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever.” Revelation 5:13. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 550.2
“Little Folks. The Blessed Hope” The Present Truth 15, 35.
E. J. Waggoner
“Where is the promise of His coming?” for “all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” This, dear children, is what will be said in the last days, the Apostle Peter tells us, by “scoffers” who do not believe the Word of the Lord that tells them of His coming, of which we talked a little last week. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 554.1
From “the beginning of the creation,” from the days of Adam and Eve, God's people have looked forward to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. This has been their one great hope and comfort through all the ages. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 554.2
Enoch, “the seventh from Adam,” prophesied of this time, saying “Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of His holy ones.” Job who lived very early in this world's history, spoke also of the game “blessed hope,” in these beautiful words:- PTUK August 31, 1899, page 554.3
“I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth; and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I me God.” PTUK August 31, 1899, page 554.4
He knew that although his body should go into the grave and crumble into dust, yet at the coming of Jesus, “the Resurrection and the Life,” he should awake from his long sleep to “see God.” PTUK August 31, 1899, page 554.5
In another beautiful passage he tells us what was to waken him in that glorious day for which he longed: “Thou shalt call, and I will answer Thee.” Yes; at the voice of Jesus, even the dead awake, and answer to His call. He “calleth the things that be not as though they were,” and immediately they are. He calls the dead, and they live.” PTUK August 31, 1899, page 554.6
Perhaps you are thinking of how He showed His power to do this when He was on the earth,-how he stood at the grave of Lazarus, and cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” “And he that was dead came forth,” even though he was “bound hand and foot with grave clothes.” PTUK August 31, 1899, page 554.7
Oh, there is power in His Word of life, dear children, power that can overcome death and every obstacle, and cause all things to be just what He says. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 554.8
Before this Jesus had told His disciples, “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth, but I go that I may awake him out of sleep;” and they answered, “Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well.” They did not understand that his was the sleep of death,-a sleep from which Jesus alone could wake him. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 554.9
Jesus said to Martha, the sister of Lazarus, “Thy brother shall rise again,” and she answered, “I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus said: “I am the Resurrection and the Life.” PTUK August 31, 1899, page 554.10
It was just as easy for Jesus to call Lazarus forth then as it will be at “the last day,” in “the hour that is coming when all that are in the graves shall hear His voice and shall come forth.” PTUK August 31, 1899, page 554.11
The Apostle Paul tells us not to sorrow as those that are without hope, over “them that are asleep.” For “the Lord Himself shall descend form heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise.” And again he tells us that at the coming of the Lord, “the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible.” PTUK August 31, 1899, page 554.12
Think how much, then, dear children, depends upon the coming of the Lord Jesus. Think of the thousands of His children still sleeping in the dust, waiting for His mighty voice to shake the earth, and rend the tombs, and form them again from “the dust of the ground,” out of what He made man in the beginning by the power of His Word. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 554.13
As you, little ones, fall peacefully asleep at night, knowing that in the morning you will hear the voice of your mother calling you from your slumbers to the light and joy of a new day,-just so peacefully, and in the sure hope of a joyful awakening, did those holy men of old, of whom you love to read in your Bibles,-Abraham, Jacob, Samuel, David, Daniel,-lie down to rest when their appointed time came to “sleep with their fathers.” PTUK August 31, 1899, page 554.14
And of the “early Christians,” those who lived in the centuries just after the time when Jesus was on earth, we are told that “they were accustomed to bid their dying friends ‘Good night,’ so sure were they of their awakening in the Resurrection morning.” PTUK August 31, 1899, page 555.1
But what a long, long night, you will think; thousands of years for some of God's children, and, still “all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation,” and “Where is the promise of His coming?” PTUK August 31, 1899, page 555.2
Read the third chapter of the second Epistle of Peter, where you will find his answer to the “scoffers” who say these things, and we will perhaps talk it over together next week. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 555.3
“Jottings” The Present Truth 15, 35.
E. J. Waggoner
-There is great distress in large sections of Central India because of lack of rain. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 558.1
-A great fire at Victor, Colorado, on the 21st instant, destroyed eight hundred buildings. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 558.2
-The plague has broken out in Hong Kong, and twenty-three deaths occurred last week. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 558.3
-The coast of North Carolina was recently visited by a hurricane. Sixty lives were lost and much damage to property done. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 558.4
-A manufacturers’ trust to control the price and output of wall paper in England has just gone into operation, with ?3,000,000 capital. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 558.5
-On the 20th instant there was a riot in Paris, in which 380 persons were more or less injured, and considerable damage done to property. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 558.6
-Terrific gales and floods are reported from Santiago. A passenger train fell into the river when crossing a bridge, and fifty people were drowned. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 558.7
-There are new cases of the plague at Oporto, and the city has been quarantined. There were 1,076 deaths from the plague at Poona during the past week. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 558.8
-According to the official reports just issued, the number of lunatics in England and Wales has increased 105 per cent. since 1869, although the population has increased but 45 per cent. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 558.9
-On the 19th instant there occurred at the Llest Colliery, in the Garw Valley, South Wales, a terrible explosion, by which nineteen lives were lost, and a number were seriously injured. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 558.10
-A dispatch from Ponce (Porto Rico) states that as near as can be determined 2,500 victims of the late hurricane there have been buried. 1,000 persons were injured, and 2,000 are missing. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 558.11
-Anti-Imperialism is so strong in America that a convention has been called to frame a policy for the next presidential campaign, making a declaration against territorial expansion its chief plank. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 558.12
-Captain Welby, who recently made a journey of exploration through Abyssinia and regions to the southwest of the country, reports on his return, that he discovered a tribe of immense stature, most of the men being seven feet in height. They had long hair extending to their waists. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 558.13
-Major Ronald Ross, head of the Malarial Mission, which left Liverpool a few weeks ago for Sierra Leone to investigate the cause of the malaria in that section, has sent back word that it has been discovered in a particular kind of mosquito which frequents the malarial swamps. The mosquito injects the germ into the human body with its sting. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 558.14
-The strike of the street-car company's employés in Cleveland has assumed the form of a general boycott. Not only are merchants and business men punished if they use the streetcars, but they are warned not to sell to any who do ride under threat of losing the trade of the union men. At New York 2,000 newsboys struck against selling papers because of some grievance. To win them over, one of the leading dailies made them a present of all the papers of a certain edition that they could sell. After the papers were handed to them, with one accord they tore them up and shredded the pieces in front of the office, declaring that to sell them would be a “violation of their principles.” PTUK August 31, 1899, page 558.15
“Back Page” The Present Truth 15, 35.
E. J. Waggoner
It is not great learning and wisdom that gives a person knowledge of the Bible, but it is knowledge of God's Word that gives wisdom and understanding. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 560.1
The Lord makes everything so simple and this is one reason why men do not come to the knowledge of the truth and accept salvation,-it is so simple, and yet infinite. Men know that it must be a mighty thing, and so they think that it cannot be found in simplicity. Yet the least thing that God has made is mighty and shows forth His power. There is no simple thing that does not show the everlasting power and divinity of God just as much as the sun or the planets. In simplest things God reveals His infinite salvation. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 560.2
The thing which supplies the most news for the columns of the daily papers, and which is a constant subject for editorial comment, is “the Dreyfus Affair.” The attention of all the world is directed toward this celebrated case, and many thoughtless and unjust statements have been made about the French people. Now it ought to be known that the French people have nothing to do with that piece of evident injustice. It is the army, and the army only, that has to do with it. The military power has acquired the supremacy, and proposes to hold it; and the death of a few innocent persons is not considered as worth taking into account. The same acts of injustice would occur in any other country where militarism prevails. There is nothing more mercilessly cruel than the military spirit. It was the army that ruined ancient Rome, and every nation on earth to-day that is zealous to strengthen its army, will ere long find that it is simply planning for its own destruction. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 560.3
There are few people who can speak eloquently as the world counts eloquence; but to live eloquently is within the reach of all. Jesus spake as never man spake; but the reason He could do this was because He lived as never man lived. Who does not respect a man, eccentric though he may be, if he lives in his everyday life what he preaches? The reason that so few would be reformers fail to accomplish anything is that they have not first learned to reform themselves. The one that lives the Gospel, without a word, preaches sermons a thousand times more effective than the most eloquent discourse from one known to be a hypocrite. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 560.4
While in prison, John the Baptist, hearing concerning the works of Christ, sent two of his disciples to Him to inquire, “Art Thou He who should come, or do we look for another?” Instead of answering him as we would naturally think he would, He simply replied: “Go, show John again these things which ye do hear and see; the blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the Gospel preached unto them.” In this case it was the works that testified to the true messiahship of the Saviour. So to-day, it is the “works we do and the words we utter” that tell for or against the Gospel. May they all be wrought in Jesus Christ, so that whether we eat or drink, or whatsoever we do, we may do it to the glory of God. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 560.5
The Lord supplies all our needs. So many people do not believe this. If they would but open their eyes, they might see the illustration of it on every hand. Not very long ago a rat, by accident, got into a cold storage house, and when discovered, had on its tail a thick, heavy coat of hair. Why? Simply to protect it from the cold. There it was, in a cold place, no way to get out, it needed more covering than it had, and so the Lord supplied it. Why do certain birds leave when cold weather approaches? Who tells a young robin six or eight months old that cold weather is coming, and that warm weather is in the south? Now, if God supplies all the needs of the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, why should we, who are of infinitely more value in His sight, worry and be anxious concerning our needs? Let us stop it, and from this time forward believe the Lord. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 560.6
Sin is so destructive. It comes in the guise of a friend, but proves to be an enemy. It first ministers to the enjoyment, but after leads its victim away in utter bondage. Dr. Taylor tells how once he read in the memoirs of a detective, that having discovered his man, he joined himself to him as a boon companies, went with him to his haunts, seemed his confidence by long friendship, until at length, when all suspicion had been allayed, he got him, as a mere jest to try on a pair of handcuffs, and then trapping the spring that locked them, he took him, all helpless as he was, an easy prisoner. On every hand the devil is handcuffing men and women-not alone those of the world, but even God's professed people. It takes diligence to keep out of his entanglements, and only those can succeed whose “life is hid with Christ in God.” PTUK August 31, 1899, page 560.7
“A Parable” The Present Truth 15, 35.
E. J. Waggoner
A Parable .-A locomotive, drawing behind it a loaded train, was speeding along the line, when a large fly came against it with an angry buzz-z-z. The locomotive paid no attention, but continued on its course. The fly, however, returned to its companions, almost bursting with a sense of its own importance, and said: “I challenged that locomotive, and even attacked it, and it did not dare strike me back, but ran away as fast as it could. It recognises that I am the champion!” But the locomotive did not so much as know of the existence of the fly. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 560.8
This is the parable, and we will give the interpretation thereof. Some time ago some one sent us a little book attacking the Sabbath of the Lord. We paid no attention to it, because there was nothing in it worth noticing, and the PRESENT TRUTH does not exist for the purpose of advertising error. Now we have received a letter form a friend who has zeal for the Sabbath, asking us to reply to the statements of the book, because the writer of it is stating that the silence of the PRESENT TRUTH concerning it indicates that it is unanswerable. We are not alarmed. “The foundation of God standeth sure.” The PRESENT TRUTH has a fixed course to pursue, and cannot turn aside to struggle in profitless controversy. The truth is as unconscious of attacks upon it as the locomotive is of the buzzing of the fly. The truth does not need to be defended, because it is of God. The heathen must defend their gods, but our God is the defence of His people. We would not give anything for faith or religion that needed to be defended by us. Let it be attacked on all sides; if it cannot by its very existence withstand all attacks, it cannot save us. But the truth is not in danger; it will stand for ever, flourishing when all its enemies have perished, and their names are forgotten. Blessed are all they who take it for their shield and buckler. PTUK August 31, 1899, page 560.9