The Present Truth, vol. 10
December 6, 1894
“What God Desires” The Present Truth 10, 49.
E. J. Waggoner
What God Desires.—“My son, give Me thine heart.” Proverbs 23:26. This is what God asks. It is useless to substitute anything for this,—gold, or talents, or other thing of value that we may possess; it will not be acceptable to Him. He has all the gold, all the talents, all the treasure of every kind that He needs, save only our hearts. It is the gift and the treasure of human hearts that is needed in His cause. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 769.1
“Front Page” The Present Truth 10, 49.
E. J. Waggoner
From South America a missionary sends a description of the Republic of Ecuador, where Rome has its own way, and has made what the late Cardinal described as the model republic. The mystery says:— PTUK December 6, 1894, page 769.2
Ecuador is yet wholly uninfluenced by direct Gospel agencies. There, those who wish to see the Church of Rome in all its glory can find a view to astonish and startle. This is the great stagnated Republic of South America. Its principal marks are a want of morals, of education, and of progress. Priests and nuns and illegitimate children abound. Bibles cannot pass the custom house of Guayaquil. They are refused, or are confiscated, not as heretical, but as pestiferous books. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 769.3
The leading nations of the world spent over 150 million pounds annually on their standing armies. Immense as the sum is it is far overtopped by the money that is spent for drink. In Great Britain alone about the same amount is spent for alcoholic drink and tobacco. And every one who looks at the figures will find that the drink is far more deadly than war. There is in fact no comparison, for self-indulgence is ruining and destroying day and night perpetually. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 769.4
In a contemporary we find the following question, which is one that is often asked:— PTUK December 6, 1894, page 769.5
Do you know of any book that deals with the facts of Christ’s life on earth,—His birth, miracles, resurrection,—suitable for the ordinary reader? PTUK December 6, 1894, page 769.6
We know of nothing that has been written that can take the place of the Bible. It is the only authentic record. One of the worst signs of the times is a craving for something to take the place of the Bible, and the idea that it is not adapted to the ordinary reader. The four Gospels are very simply written, adapted to the comprehension of a child, and whatever of truth one can learn of Christ must come from them, together with the remainder of the Bible. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 769.7
“Betraying Christ” The Present Truth 10, 49.
E. J. Waggoner
Judas Iscariot is not the only person among men who has betrayed Christ. The time and circumstances of that final act in the garden of Gethsemane were not the only ones that have invested or may invest a like tragedy. The Saviour needs not to be personally and visibly seized in order to be betrayed. Christ is identified with His followers. To the persecutor of His Church, He said, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?” His persecution and betrayal are no less real when accomplished in the persons of His disciples. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 769.8
What was the motive that prompted Judas to this terrible deed? Looking at the elements of the evil that stirred his soul, we see first and foremost the trait of covetousness. “What will ye give me, and I will deliver Him unto you?” A very common trait it was, and is to-day. Yet we are not inclined to feel very deeply over the fact (if so it be) that we are covetous. If we were a thief, or a murderer, or an adulterer, in the eyes of men, or in our own eyes, we might regard ourselves quite differently; but covetousness in the heart, that has not yet assumed the form of a heinous overt act, does not look like anything serious. But beware! that was the very thing that led Judas to betray his Lord. In the light of that act, the nature of coveteousness is correctly seen. It may lead us where it did him. Certainly it will lead us in the same direction. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 769.9
Judas did not foresee the crucifixion and death of his Master any more than did the other disciples; but this fact did not lessen his guilt or change the character of his sin. The betrayer of Christ does not always see the consequences of his deed. Judas harboured a spite against his Lord, because by Him his covetousness had been rebuked. Out of his covetousness grew the spite, and the betrayal was its fruit. Covetousness is a fertile soil for every evil seed; and every evil seed is within it. No planting is necessary; it springs up and grows of itself, and must be continually cut off or it will bear its baleful fruit. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 769.10
But cutting off will not cure the evil. That can only be done by a complete removal of covetousness from the heart. So long as that remains, so long shall we have within us the germ of every sin, even such a sin as that of Judas. By allowing this lust to grow and develop until it controls up as it finally did him, we shall be brought where he was brought. By partaking of the spirit that animated him in opposition to the cause of truth and righteousness, we partake also of his sin and condemnation. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 769.11
The assembly of Jews who condemned Stephen were betrayers and murderers of Christ. Acts 7:52. And as certainly as He is persecuted in the persecution of His followers, as He said to Saul, so certainly is their betrayal and murder the betrayal and murder of Himself. There are some who “crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and put Him to an open shame.” Hebrews 6:6. They are far from imagining themselves in the same position of Judas, but in the day when all eyes will be open to the truth, they will know and confess the fact. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.1
Covetousness throws a softening, palliating mirage around the most glaring sins. It is covetousness that makes the human heart “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.” It is covetousness that stands out in most marked contrast to the Spirit of Christ. Philippians 2:5-8. But this spirit, this mind, we may have. We may “let” it be in us, and if we let it in, it will come. And there is our hope and our salvation from covetousness and all the sins to which it leads. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.2
“Of No Reputation” The Present Truth 10, 49.
E. J. Waggoner
The amazing condescension of the Son of God in taking upon Himself the nature of humanity and becoming a babe of flesh and blood, is set forth in the declaration that He “made Himself of no reputation.” In heaven His reputation was great, for He was the Son of God, and Creator of all things. But when He came to earth He left all,—His power, His glory, His riches, and His reputation. He began His life again, at the point where each one of thus began ours; and the same path in which He walked, and in which He attained to wisdom and a place at God’s right hand, is open to us. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.3
As a child, He grew and “increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.” Luke 2:52. Each of us had, as a child, the same opportunities. His wisdom was the wisdom contained in God’s word, which is open to us; His strength was the strength of God dwelling in Him, which is also our strength by the power of His word abiding in us. When He was raised from the dead, it was not a taking back of what He had relinquished in heaven; but God declared, “Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee.” In all points He was identified with us, save that He “knew no sin;” and this identity continues, for He is to-day “the man Christ Jesus.” And that He might be identified with us in all things, He took our sins upon Himself, died, and rose again, thus raising man to His own level in the one point where that identity was not complete. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.4
“Studies in Romans. Sons of God. Romans 8:9-17” The Present Truth 10, 49.
E. J. Waggoner
The eighth chapter of Romans is full of the glorious things that God has promised to them that love him. Freedom, the Spirit of life in Christ, sons of God, heirs of God and with Christ, glory and victory, are the words that outline the chapter. Our last lesson closed with the ninth verse, but we will include it in the present lesson in order to get the connection better. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.5
“But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our Spirit, that we are the children of God; and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.” Romans 8:9-17. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.6
QUESTIONING THE TEXT
What have we learned to be impossible for them that are in the flesh? PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.7
“They that are in the flesh cannot please God.” PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.8
Then how can we serve the Lord? PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.9
“But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit.” PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.10
How is it that we are “in the Spirit”? PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.11
“If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.” PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.12
What if one has not this Spirit? PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.13
“If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.14
But if Christ by His Spirit be in us, then what? PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.15
“The body is dead.” PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.16
Why is the body dead? PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.17
“Because of sin.” PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.18
And the Spirit? PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.19
“The Spirit is life because of righteousness.” PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.20
Of what may we be sure if the Spirit of God dwells in us? PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.21
“He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.” PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.22
In the first chapter we learned that we are debtors; but to what do we owe nothing? PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.23
“We are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.” PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.24
For what only can the flesh give us? PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.25
“If ye live after the flesh ye shall die.” PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.26
How shall we live? PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.27
“If ye... do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.28
How are we to mortify the deeds of the body? PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.29
“Through the Spirit.” PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.30
Who are the sons of God? PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.31
“As many as are led by the Spirit of God.” PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.32
What spirit have we not received from the Lord? PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.33
“Ye have not received the Spirit of bondage again to fear.” PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.34
What Spirit have we received? PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.35
“Ye have received the Spirit of adoption.” PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.36
What does this Spirit enable us to do? PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.37
“Whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.38
To what does the Spirit witness? PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.39
“That we are the children of God.” PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.40
What necessarily follows? PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.41
“If children, then heirs.” PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.42
Whose heirs? PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.43
“Heirs of God.” PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.44
With whom do we have common heirship? PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.45
“Joint-heirs with Jesus Christ.” PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.46
Since we are joint-heirs with Jesus Christ, what shall we enjoy with Him? PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.47
“We may be also glorified together.” PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.48
Under what conditions? PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.49
“If so be that we suffer with Him.” PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.50
Opposing Forces.-The flesh and the Spirit are in opposition. These are always contrary the one to the other. The Spirit never yields to the flesh, and the flesh never gets converted. The flesh will be of the nature of sin until our bodies are changed at the coming of the Lord. The Spirit strives with the sinful man, but he yields to the flesh, and so is the servant of sin. Such a man is not led by the Spirit, although the Spirit has by no means forsaken him. The flesh is just the same in a converted man that it is in a sinner, but the difference is that now it has no power, since the man yields to the Spirit, which controls the flesh. Although the man’s flesh is precisely the same that it was before he was converted, he is said to be not “in the flesh,” but “in the Spirit,” since he through the Spirit mortifies the deeds of the body. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 770.51
Life in Death.—“And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” Here we have the two individuals of which the apostle speaks in 2 Corinthians 4:7-16. “For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.” Then he says that “though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.” Though our body should fail and be worn out, yet the inward man, Christ Jesus, is ever new. And he is our real life. “Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” Colossians 3:3. This is why we are not to fear them that can kill only the body, and after that have no more that they can do. Though the body be burned at the stake, wicked men can not touch the eternal life which we have in Christ, who can not be destroyed. No man can take his life from him. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 771.1
The Surety of the Resurrection.—“But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.” Jesus said of the water that He gave, which was the Holy Spirit, that it should be in us a well of water springing up unto eternal life. John 4:14; compare John 7:37-39. That is, the spiritual life which we now live in the flesh by the Spirit is the surety of the spiritual body to be bestowed at the resurrection when we will have the life of Christ made manifested in immortal bodies. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 771.2
Not Debtors to the Flesh.—“Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.” We are indeed debtors, but we do not owe anything to the flesh. It has done nothing for us, and can do nothing. All the work that the flesh can do avails nothing, for its works are sin and therefore death. But we are debtors to the Lord Jesus Christ, “who gave Himself for us.” Consequently, everything must be yielded to His life. “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” PTUK December 6, 1894, page 771.3
Sons of God.-Those who yield to the strivings of the Spirit, and continue so to yield, are led by the Spirit; and they are the sons of God. They are taken into the same relation to the Father that the only-begotten Son occupies. “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God; therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.” If we are led by the Spirit of God, we are now just as much the sons of God as we can ever be. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 771.4
Sons Now.-There is a notion held by some people that no man is born of God until the resurrection. But this is settled by the fact that we are now sons of God. “But,” says one, “we are not yet manifested as sons.” True, and neither was Christ when He was on earth. There were but very few that knew Him to be the Christ, the Son of the living God. And they knew it only by revelation from God. The world knows us not, because it knew Him not. To say that believers are not sons of God now because there is nothing in their appearance to indicate it, is to bring the same charge against Jesus Christ. But Jesus was just as truly the Son of God when He lay in the manger in Bethlehem, as He is now when sitting at the right hand of God. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 771.5
The Spirit’s Witness.—“The Spirit itself beareth witness with our Spirit, that we are the children of God.” How does the Spirit witness? This is answered in Hebrews 10:14-17. The apostle says that by one offering He hath perfected them that are sanctified, and then says that the Holy Spirit is a witness to this fact when He says, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord; I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” That is to say, the Spirit’s witness is the word. We know that we are children of God, because the Spirit assures us of that fact in the Bible. The witness of the Spirit is not a certain ecstatic feeling, but a tangible statement. We are not children of God because we feel that we are, neither do we know that we are sons because of any feeling, but because the Lord tells us so. He who believes has the word abiding in him, and that is how “he that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself.” 1 John 5:10. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 771.6
No Fear.—“For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.” “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” 2 Timothy 1:7. “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgement; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear; because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” 1 John 4:16-18. Christ gave Himself to deliver them who through fear of death were all their life subject to bondage. Hebrews 2:15. He who knows and loves the Lord can not be afraid of Him; and he who is not afraid of the Lord has no need to be afraid of any other person or thing. One of the greatest blessings of the Gospel is the deliverance from fear, whether real or imaginary. “I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.” Psalm 34:4. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 771.7
Heirs of God.-What a wonderful inheritance that is! It does not merely say that we are heirs of what God has, but that we are heirs of God himself. Having Him we have everything, as a matter of course; but the blessedness consists in having Him. “The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup.” Psalm 16:5. This is the fact; it is a thing to be meditated upon rather than talked about. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 771.8
Joint-heirs With Christ.-If we are sons of God, we stand on the same footing that Jesus Christ does. He Himself said that the Father loves us even as He loves Him. John 17:23. This is proved by the fact that His life was given for ours. Therefore the Father has nothing for His only-begotten Son that He has not for us. Not only so, but since we are joint-heirs with Jesus Christ, it follows that He can not enter upon His inheritance before we do. To be sure, He is sitting at the right hand of God. But God in His great love for us “hath quickened us together with Christ, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places.” Ephesians 2:4-6. The glory which Christ has He shares with us. John 17:22. It means something to be a joint-heir with Jesus Christ! No wonder the apostle exclaims, “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.” PTUK December 6, 1894, page 771.9
Suffering With Him.—“If so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together.” “For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succour them that are tempted.” Hebrews 2:18. Suffering with Christ means, therefore, enduring temptation with Him. The suffering is that which comes in the struggle against sin. Self-inflicted suffering amounts to nothing. It is not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh. Colossians 2:23. Christ did not torture Himself in order to gain the approval of the Father. But when we suffer with Christ, then we are made perfect in Him. The strength by which he resisted the temptations of the enemy is the strength by which we are to overcome. His life in us gains the victory. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 772.1
The remainder of the verse, concerning being glorified together, may well be left until next week, since it forms the principal part of the verses which follow. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 772.2
“Testimonies of the Centuries. The Fall of Tyre” The Present Truth 10, 49.
E. J. Waggoner
Although it is interesting to study the great lines of prophecy which show the rise of the successive empires and kingdoms of the world, it is no less interesting to study the prophecies concerning individual nations and particular cities. In all of them God has borne witness of Himself, of His power and His wisdom; but the history of Tyre is remarkable in its fulfilment of prophecy. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 774.1
Tyre, “whose antiquity is of ancient days” (Isaiah 23:7), was founded by a colony from Sidon (verse 12), about twenty-five miles south of the mother city on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. It was “placed in a pleasant place” (Hosea 9:13), and in the days of Isaiah, 715 B.C., she was “the crowning city,” “a mart of nations,” and her merchants were princes, and her “traffickers” were “the honourable of the earth.” As early as the time of Jehoram, 904-896 B.C., Tyre, in company with the Philistines, invaded the land of Judah and took silver and gold and “goodly pleasant things” and carried them into her temples; “the children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem” she sold unto the Grecians that she might remove them far from their borders. Joel 3:4-6; Amos 1:6, 9; 2 Chronicles 21:16, 17. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 774.2
The builders of Trye were so accomplished that they are said to “have perfected her beauty.” A thousand years before Christ, when Solomon was about to build the temple of God in Jerusalem, he wrote to Hiram, the king of Tyre, saying: “Send me now therefore a man cunning to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in iron, and in purple, and crimson, and blue, and that can skill to grave with the cunning men that are with me in Judah and in Jerusalem, whom David my father did provide. Send me also cedar trees, fir trees, and algum trees, out of Lebanon; for I know that thy servants can skill to cut timber in Lebanon; and, behold, my servants shall be with thy servants, even to prepare me timber in abundance; for the house which I am about to build shall be wonderful great.” King Hiram answered: “I have sent a cunning man, endued with understanding, of Huram my father’s, the son of a woman of the daughters of Dan, and his father was a man of Tyre, skilful to work in gold, and in silver, in brass, in iron, in stone, and in timber, in purple, in blue, and in fine linen, and in crimson; also to grave any manner of graving, and to find out every device which shall be put to him, with thy cunning men, and with the cunning men of my lord David thy father.” 2 Chronicles 2:7-9, 13, 14. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 774.3
Five hundred and eighty-eight years before Christ, Tyre was so rich that she could afford to make all her ship-boards of fir, and their masts of cedar of Lebanon; their oars of oak of Bashan, and their benches of ivory; their sails of fine linen with broidered work from Egypt, and their coverings of blue and purple from the isles of Elishah. The inhabitants of Zidon and Arvad were her mariners, her own wise men were her pilots, and her army was hired from Persia, Lud, Phut, and Arvad. Her traffic was so great that she enjoyed a continual “world’s fair.” PTUK December 6, 1894, page 774.4
Because of the multitude of all kind of riches, and the multitude of the wares of her own making, Tarshish came to trade in her fairs with silver, iron, tin, and lead. Javan, Tubal, and Meshech (Greece, Lybia, and Russia) came with persons of men and vessels of brass. The house of Togarmah (Armenians) came with horses, horsemen, and mules. Dedan (bordering on the Persian Gulf) came with horns of ivory and ebony, and with precious cloths for chariots. Syria came with emeralds, purple and broidered work, and fine linen, and coral, and agates. Damascus came with the wine of Helbon and white wool; Judah and Israel with wheat, and honey, and oil, and balm; Arabia came with lambs, and rams, and goats; Sheba and Raamah (parts of Arabia) came with chief of all spices, and with precious stones and gold; Babylonia and Assyria came with all sorts of things in blue cloths and broidered work, chests of rich apparel bound with cords and made of cedar; and she enriched the kings of the earth with the multitude of her riches and her merchandise. See Ezekiel 28. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 774.5
And yet for all this, she coveted more. As though this was not enough, she envied Jerusalem the trade that passed through her gates; and when Jerusalem was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, Tyre rejoiced and exultantly exclaimed: “Aha, she is broken that was the gates of the people; she is turned unto me; I shall be replenished, now she is laid waste.” Ezekiel 26:2. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 774.6
Then it was that Ezekiel uttered the following prophecy concerning Tyre:— PTUK December 6, 1894, page 774.7
“Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come up. And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers; I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock. It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea; for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God.... For thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will bring upon Tyrus Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, a king of kings, from the north, with horses, and with chariots, and with horsemen, and companies, and much people. He shall slay with the sword thy daughters in the field; and he shall make a fort against thee, and cast a mount against thee, and lift up the buckler against thee. And he shall set engines of war against thy walls, and with his axes he shall break down thy towers. By reason of the abundance of his horses their dust shall cover thee; thy walls shall shake at the noise of the horsemen, and of the wheels, and of the chariots, when he shall enter into thy gates, as men enter into a city wherein is made a breach. With the hoofs of his horses shall he tread down all thy streets; he shall slay thy people by the sword, and thy strong garrisons shall go down to the ground.” Ezekiel 26:3-11. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 774.8
When this prophecy was spoken Ezekiel was at Babylon, and Nebuchadnezzar had just completed the destruction of Jerusalem, 587 B.C. Soon afterward Nebuchadnezzar invaded Phoenicia, and all the towns hastily submitted, except Tyre, which made such stout resistance that it required of the armies of Nebuchadnezzar a siege of thirteen years, from 585, to take it. The main part of the city was on the mainland, but on an island about half a mile from the mainland, there was the temple of the chief god of the Tyrians, and there was a considerable settlement on the island also. Although the siege lasted so long, and was so persistently pressed that by the continuous wearing of the helmet “every head was made bald,” and by the constant working of the battering-rams “every shoulder was peeled,” yet the city was finally utterly ruined. And although they at last acknowledged the authority of Nebuchadnezzar, “yet he had no wages, nor his army, for Tyrus, for the service that he had served against it” (Ezekiel 29:18), because the remnant of the people removed with all their valuables to the island. By the work of Nebuchadnezzar there was fulfilled that part of a prophecy which said that they should destroy the walls and break down the towers, and that with the hoofs of their horses they should tread down all her streets; but there were yet two important statements unfulfilled; these were: (1) “I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her life like the top of a rock;” (2) “and they shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the water.” PTUK December 6, 1894, page 774.9
After its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar, the Tyrians rebuilt the city, but they rebuilt it on the island instead of on the mainland, and left the old city lying in its ruins. The new city in the course of time regained much of the glory that had so exalted the old, and one of her principal articles of traffic was fish, for when Nehemiah was rebuilding Jerusalem, 445 B.C., he says: “there dwelt men of Tyre also therein, which brought fish, and all manner of ware, and sold on the Sabbath unto the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem.” Nehemiah 13:16. It was built very strong, being “completely surrounded by prodigious walls, the loftiest portion of which on the side fronting the mainland reached a height not less than a hundred and fifty feet.” Thus it stood, a mighty city, when, in 332 B.C., Alexander the Great, in his course of conquest, was compelled also to besiege it, or leave behind him a powerful enemy. He determined to take the city, and accordingly began “one of the most remarkable sieges ever recorded,” which lasted seven months. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 775.1
His first move was to build a solid mole two hundred feet broad from the mainland to the city, and, says Grote, “he had stones in abundance” from Old Tyre, for the work. And here was the perfect, literal fulfilment of the prophecy, spoken more than two hundred and fifty years before, that “they shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the water;” for to make that mole the troops of Alexander the Great did literally lay the stones and the timber and the dust of Old Tyre in the midst of the water. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 775.2
Nor was that all, for the prophecy had also said that they should “scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock.” There was abundance of material there to have made the mole as first designed, only two hundred feet broad, without any very close scraping, if all had gone well. But the channel was exposed to the full blast of the wind, and the work was often broken by the heavy waves. Besides this, as soon as the Tyrians began to see that the enterprise really threatened them, they applied all their power and ingenuity to defeat it by annoying the builders, burning the timbers, and breaking down the mole and scattering the stones in the water. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 775.3
And when, even against all these hindrances, the mole had been carried almost to the city wall, on a stormy day the Tyrians, pouring out their whole naval force in ships and little boats of all kinds, drove a great fireship loaded with the most combustible materials against the two great protective powers that defended the advancing mole, setting them on fire, while at the same time every Tyrian who could get in a damaging blow at the mole itself did so. They burnt the towers, and drove off the workmen, tore out the woodwork that held the mole together, and the waves being dashed against it, the greater part of the structure was broken to pieces and sank in the sea. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 775.4
It then became necessary to begin the mole nearly anew, but, nothing daunted, Alexander at once set to work not only to rebuild the mole, but to make it broader and stronger than before. Of course the work that had been destroyed formed good foundation upon which to make the new one both broader and stronger. But every reverse made it necessary to have more stones and especially more dust, and so it came about that in the very nature of the case the builders were compelled to literally “scrape” the dust from Old Tyre, and at the last to leave her “like the top of a rock.” PTUK December 6, 1894, page 775.5
But even yet there was one more word of prophecy unfulfilled. “Thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon,” and it is evident that this refers to the city on the island rather than to that on the mainland, for another passage says, “It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea.” Ezekiel 26:14, 5. This was not fulfilled by the capture of the city by Alexander. Although he took the city he did not destroy it, and although Alexander sold many of the people into slavery, yet the place was soon repeopled, and regained much prosperity. Under Roman rule Tyre was a free city till the reign of Augustus, who for seditious conduct deprived her of this liberty. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 775.6
At that time she is described by Strabo as a city of great wealth, which was chiefly derived from dyeing and selling the Tyrian purple. He also says that the houses consisted of many stories, even of more than the houses at Rome. It is often mentioned in the Gospels, and there was a company of Christians there with whom Paul stayed a week as he made his last journey to Jerusalem. Acts 21:3, 4. The number of Christians multiplied till Tyre became the seat of a bishop in the second century. And in the fourth century Jerome called it the noblest and most beautiful city of Phoenicia, and wondered at what seemed to be the non-fulfilment of the prophecy that pronounced its desolation. In the time of the crusades it sustained a long siege, and was taken in 1124, and was made an archbishopric; but from the conquest of Syria by Selim I., A.D. 1516, its decline was rapid, and soon its ruin became complete. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 775.7
In A.D. 1610-11 it was visited by Sandya, the traveller, who said: “This once famous Tyre is now no other than a heap of ruins; yet they have a reverent aspect, and to instruct the pensive beholder with their exemplary frailty.” In 1697 Maundrell visited it and said of it: “On the north side is an old Turkish ungarrisoned castle, besides which you see nothing here but a mere Babel of broken walls, pillars, vaults, etc., there being not so much as one entire house left; its present inhabitants are only a few poor wretches, harbouring themselves in the vaults, and subsisting chiefly upon fishing.” PTUK December 6, 1894, page 776.1
In 1820 Joliffe wrote of it: “Some miserable cabins ranged in irregular lines, dignified with the names of streets, and a few buildings of a rather better description, occupied by the officers of government, composed nearly the whole town.” And in 1838 Dr. Robinson spent a Sunday there, and wrote of it thus: “I continued my walk along the shore of the peninsula (formed by the mole of Alexander the Great), part of which is now unoccupied, except as a place to spread nets upon, musing upon the pride and fall of ancient Tyre. Here was the literal isle once covered by her palaces, and surrounded by her fleets; but alas! thy riches and thy fame, thy merchandise, thy mariners, and thy pilots, thy calkers and the occupiers of the merchandise that were in thee-where are they? Tyre has indeed become like the top of a rock. The sole tokens of her ancient splendour-columns of red and grey granite, sometimes forty or fifty together, or marble pillars-lie broken and strewed beneath the waves in the midst of the sea; and the hovels that now nestle upon a portion of her site, present no contradiction of the dread decree, ‘Thou shalt be built no more.’” And those who have visited it since “all concur in the account of its general aspect of desolation.” PTUK December 6, 1894, page 776.2
Thus the word uttered by Ezekiel nearly twenty-five hundred years ago, concerning Tyre, has been completely and literally fulfilled. Ezekiel said that they should break down her walls and destroy her pleasant palaces. Fifteen years afterward it was done. Ezekiel said they should lay her stones and her timber and her dust in the midst of the water, and they should scraper dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock. Two hundred and fifty-five years afterward it was done. Although the city was rebuilt in the midst of the sea, Ezekiel said in 587 B.C. that Tyre should be like the top of a rock, and should be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea. That is what she was in A.D. 1697, and that is what she is at the present time, and she shall be built no more. The word spoken by Ezekiel, 587 B.C., is the word of God. Empires perish, nations fall, cities are brought to ruin, the grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God shall stand for ever. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 776.3
“News of the Week” The Present Truth 10, 49.
E. J. Waggoner
-Russian railways have ladies’ smoking cars. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 782.1
-Japanese children are taught to write with both hands. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 782.2
-During the last fortnight the north of Italy has been visited by severe earthquakes. Vesuvius has also been showing increased activity. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 782.3
-The Nihilists have issued a proclamation in Russia, announcing that Nihilism is not dead, and warning the Czar and Government that it has been gathering strength, and means to assert itself. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 782.4
-The Turkish authorities indignantly deny the first reports of the massacre of Armenians by the Kurds. “The total loss of life,” they say, “amounts to but 2,000 persons, and any higher figures are untrue.”! PTUK December 6, 1894, page 782.5
-The natives on the Afghan frontier are said to be rising in revolt against the British outposts. Further troops have been sent forward to aid in meeting the uprising, and the Indian Government are preparing to send a still larger fertile forward if necessary. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 782.6
-After a stormy two years the Hawaiian Islands have apparently settled down as an established republic. Last month an autographic letter from. Queen Victoria recognised the republic, and it is now declared that the late Hawaiian Queen has no following that can make trouble. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 782.7
-Professor Petrie, who has been excavating on the shores of the Red Sea, says his investigations show that the early inhabitants of Egypt were a very mixed race. There are marks of invasions by races from Asia Minor or India, and the Egyptians at the time of Moses were, he claims, a cross between the aboriginal Africans and their Asiatic conquerors. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 782.8
-An Italian priest, Rossignoli, after having been in captivity since the fall of Khartoum, escaped recently from the Dervishes, by the aid of an Arab guide, who piloted him to Assouan. A few other Europeans are still held by the Mandists. The Mandi’s forces are preparing an attack upon the Italian position at Kassala. The Dervishes number about 11,000 fighting men. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 782.9
-To sustain its dignity the Japanese Government refused to see the commissioner sent by the Chinese Viceroy, Li Hung Chang, to discuss terms of peace. The suit for peace must come from the Emperor. The Japanese are said to have refused a proposition that China should pay forty million pounds indemnity. They demand fifty millions sterling, together with an amount to cover all their war expenditure. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 782.10
-The courts have recently had to consider a number of attempts to wreck various railway trains. In each instance the disaster and loss of life were averted by the obstructions being thrown off by the engine. The trials have shown no special motive for the attempts, but merely bring out the fact that there are men in the world who would sacrifice perhaps scores of lives of people whom they do not know simply out of a desire to do something mean and wicked. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 782.11
-The French papers are discussing the apparent friendliness which is remarked between Russia and England just now. However, one journal puts the general French verdict as follows “Jealousy finds no place in our feelings towards Russia. We could not be displeased if our friend were to attract Great Britain outside the orbit of the Triple Alliance. But we doubt this sudden tenderness between two countries which do not love one another, which clash in Asia, and whose qualities have nothing in common.” PTUK December 6, 1894, page 782.12
-To signalise his accession to the throne and his marriage, the new Czar has issued proclamation granting amnesties in certain offences, shortening terms of imprisonments, and remitting taxes due to the Crown. At his instigation also it is said that a bill is being prepared for the introduction of elementary public instruction throughout the country. Altogether he has given evidence of a desire to grant reforms. The greatest thing which makes for oppression is the Orthodox Church, which even a liberal Czar cannot, if he would, make other than a bitter persecutor of religious dissenters. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 782.13
“Back Page” The Present Truth 10, 49.
E. J. Waggoner
A vigorous missionary campaign is being carried on in England, and in London especially, by Roman Catholics, as a part of Cardinal Vaughan’s plan to win back England to the papal fold. Many able speakers are continually engaged in setting forth Catholic doctrines to mixed audiences of Catholics and Protestants. Concerts and dances, at popular prices, are also among the church’s attractions. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 784.1
It is stated that the Bishop of Worcester has withheld the license of a Birmingham curate, on the ground that the curate has put himself out of the church by been baptized, that is, immersed. The Bishop, of course, calls it re-baptism, since the curate had been sprinkled in infancy. But the significant feature is the Episcopal dictum that a man puts himself out of the church if he presumes to follow the plain letter of the Bible. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 784.2
The Chairman of the London School Board favours the support of Voluntary Schools, that is, Church of England and Roman Catholic denominational schools, out of the rates. He says that this will very soon become a political question. He said that the commission of churchmen appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury is at present sitting to consider and formulate proposals, and that “the demand will come from them, as it has from the bishops of the Church of Rome, and that soon.” PTUK December 6, 1894, page 784.3
In view of the efforts which have been made in recent years by the Vatican to draw the Greek Church in relations with Rome, one incident in connection with the Czar’s marriage is significant. Reuter says:— PTUK December 6, 1894, page 784.4
Besides stopping to receive the blessings of the Orthodox clergy at the entrance of the Kazan Cathedral, while on their way to the Anitchkoff Palace yesterday, the Emperor and Empress caused their carriage to halt in front of the Roman Catholic church, where the clergy, who were assembled in full canonicals at the entrance, advanced towards the carriage and blessed the imperial pair. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 784.5
The less is blessed of the greater, and when the head of the Greek Church theatrically solicits the blessing of the Roman authorities he makes an acknowledgement of which Rome knows how to make use. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 784.6
Following is from a letter addressed to Cardinal Vaughan by the Cardinal Archbishop of Toledo, Spain. The letter appeared in the Tablet:— PTUK December 6, 1894, page 784.7
Your Eminence may rely that Spain, though agitated on all sides, will be ever the worthy help of the doctrines and the imitator of its forefathers in offering up prayers, penances, sacrifices, and tears, for the conversion of England to the mother and mistress of all churches, the Holy Roman Church. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 784.8
The zeal of Spain for the conversion of England was shown in the fitting out of the Armads. There is no doubt but that Rome has always been ready to make sacrifices for the conversion of “heretics.” Whenever she was successful in her efforts, the sacrifices were usually in the form of whole burnt offerings. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 784.9
The school question is destined to bring on such a religio-political fight as has not been known in England for long years. The Roman Catholic Bishop of Middlesbrough in a recent speech intimated that if Catholics did not succeed in securing for their schools a share of the public rates, they would “make a stand and refuse to pay the unjust rates.” A correspondent of the Catholic Times, commenting on this utterance, says:— PTUK December 6, 1894, page 784.10
I venture to express the hope that their Lordships will forthwith see their way to send an ultimatum to Parliament, giving notice that if, after a reasonable interval of stipulated time (say six or twelve months), Catholics are left without some assurance that their claim to the rates will be considered, they will be advised in the various dioceses to refuse to pay the School Board levy, and to throw the onus of the prosecution on the local authorities. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 784.11
Another priest goes still further, and says, “We Catholics must be ready, if need be, to part with our lives.” He says that in the event of their demands not been granted, “resistance to blood and death would be the order of the day.” PTUK December 6, 1894, page 784.12
Not to be behind in the fray, the editor of the Methodist Times writes a stirring article, entitled, “Nonconformists! Close Your Ranks,” in which he says:— PTUK December 6, 1894, page 784.13
And what are we to do? Not to waste our time in useless laments, but to prepare at once, and with all our might, for the next pitched battle. The Church of England has now declared herself the warm friend of Rome and the implacable enemy of Evangelistic Nonconformity. She has made her choices, and we have made ours. She talks about Laud, and we will remember Oliver Cromwell. When the friends of freedom and pure Christianity were united in their earlier encounters with Charles and Laud, Oliver Cromwell did not waste his time in unworthy lamentations, but he quietly organised his ironsides, who ultimately crushed tyranny and clericalism. We, too, must quietly organise. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 784.14
As between the two there is nothing to choose. While they look to Laud and Cromwell, we must look to Christ, “who, when He was reviled, reviled not again, when He suffered, He threatened not.” He is the only example of pure Christianity. “The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.” PTUK December 6, 1894, page 784.15
This is the notice which was issued by the Vicar of old St. Pancras, London, and the service described doubtless took place on November 18:— PTUK December 6, 1894, page 784.16
On the twenty-sixth Sunday after Trinity, with the permission of the Bishop of London, we have arranged to hold the second of a series of Celebrations of the Holy Eucharist, to be offered annually (D.V.) in Solemn Commemoration of the Faithful Dead, whose bodies are lying within our own church or churchyard, or have been buried in any of the other St. Pancras cemeteries. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 784.17
This is the way the custom of praying to the dead arose in the first centuries. It will be seen that the act is sanctioned by the highest authority, which shows the tendency of the principal part of the Church of England. From copying Rome so closely, it is but a short step to Rome itself. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 784.18
“The Pope and Sunday” The Present Truth 10, 49.
E. J. Waggoner
THE POPE AND SUNDAY.-As a recent Catholic meeting, presided over by the brother of Cardinal Vaughan, this question was asked:— PTUK December 6, 1894, page 784.19
In the Bible we find that God set apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, in the church; but we read nothing about a Pope. Why the silence, if the Papacy is of God? PTUK December 6, 1894, page 784.20
To this question the priest replied, truly, that it would be an anachronism if the name “pope” were found in the Bible; and then he retorted, “Where do find anything in the Bible about keeping Sunday?” PTUK December 6, 1894, page 784.21
The questioner subsided; but if he had only been Protestant enough to reply, “We do not find anything about Sunday in the Bible, and therefore we do not keep it,” he would not have left the priest in possession of the field. The Papacy and the Sunday are two institutions that go together, and both are unwarranted by the Bible. The Roman Catholics have an unanswerable argument for the Papacy, for those who believe in Sunday observance. But they have no ground at all against those who hold to nothing that is not written in the Bible. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 784.22
“Basis of Reunion” The Present Truth 10, 49.
E. J. Waggoner
In America, as well as in England, there are beginning to be seen open overtures on the part of professed Protestants for union with Rome, which is of course standing with outstretched arms. In a recent sermon Cardinal Gibbons said:— PTUK December 6, 1894, page 788.1
Thank God there is a yearning desire for reunion. I myself have received several letters from influential Protestant ministers, expressing the hope of a reunion, and inquiring as to the probable basis of a reconciliation. The conditions of reconciliation are easier than are generally imagined. Of course there can be no compromise on faith or morals. The doctrine and moral code that Christ has left us must remain unchangeable. But the church can modify her discipline to suit the circumstances of the case. PTUK December 6, 1894, page 788.2