The Present Truth, vol. 10
February 8, 1894
“Thanksgiving” The Present Truth 10, 6.
E. J. Waggoner
Thanksgiving.—“With thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” Thanks are the basket for carrying away the blessing of God. You will carry away just as much as your thanks show that you believe in. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 81.1
“Looking for Peace” The Present Truth 10, 6.
E. J. Waggoner
Looking for Peace.—“Peace I give unto you, My peace I leave with you.” Have you that peace of God, then? You look for it to see if you have it, and you are alarmed because you cannot find it. That is not the way to know that we have in it. By believing His word, which says He has given us peace, we have His peace. It is not what we can find by looking about, but what we know by the word of the Lord, and in that word we can rest and have peace, for He speaks peace. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 81.2
“The Power of the Cross” The Present Truth 10, 6.
E. J. Waggoner
The Power of the Cross.-The power of the cross is love; but the love of God is the life of God; for “God is love.” God was in Christ reconciling us to Himself, and in the cross it is that He gives us His life. Failure to realise this, is the reason we have failed many times in the crosses we have borne. We bore crosses separated from Christ, and therefore the power in the cross was only the power in our own lives. It was nothing. But when we are crucified with Christ, and thus bear the cross with Him, we get the power of the cross, which is the power of the life of Christ. It was a power that all the hosts of Satan could not affect. It was a power that Satan could not hold in the grave. So when the cross comes, if we share it with Christ, then the power of the cross to us is the power of His endless life. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 81.3
“Counting It Joy” The Present Truth 10, 6.
E. J. Waggoner
Counting It Joy.-Christ is crucified, and as He dwells in the heart by faith, His cross is set up in every heart. So we may count it all joy when we fall into divers temptation; because being crucified with Him, His life is with us, and by His life the temptations are met. And in His presence there is fulness of joy. There is joy in the overcoming of temptations. It is the joy of life. “For the joy that was set before Him,” Christ endured the cross. With the joy set before us, we may endure the cross with Him. Only let us not make the mistake of trying to bear the cross and leave Christ out. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 81.4
“Seeing Objections” The Present Truth 10, 6.
E. J. Waggoner
Seeing Objections.-It is most unfortunate for us when we always see the difficulties in the way of a truth, because then we never get the good out of anything. A person never can get the good out of the Scriptures until he believes whatever truth comes to him from the word, whether he can see an inch ahead or not. The difficulty in the minds of some is, they cannot see it all clearly, in order that we may believe. The spiritual way is to believe, in order that we may see. When the truth comes, seize it, get the good out of it, and you will find that the application of it in your life will open out the difficulties as fast as the Lord wants them opened to you. And that which cannot be known, we may be content to leave unknown. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 81.5
“All Things Freely” The Present Truth 10, 6.
E. J. Waggoner
All Things Freely.—“He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” Where is Christ? “Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion,” in glory. Are we to be groping along in the dark having a hard time of it? “And the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them.” So coming to Him as a living sacrifice, ever slain yet ever living, to you that believe He is precious, and you may walk with Him in the light of His glory. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 81.6
“God’s Love for Sinners” The Present Truth 10, 6.
E. J. Waggoner
“The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with loving kindness have by drawn thee.” Jeremiah 31:3. He loves because He is love. And since His love was manifested in the gift of His son, and since He still loves us, He still gives His Son for us. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 81.7
We must not believe that God is like a man, and that He bases His love on something He has received. Human love, the love of man for his fellow, is based on the good he sees in that other, and what this other man returned in kind. “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” And sometimes we have thought of God as such an one as ourselves. “But God” on the contrary, “commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 81.8
Does the fact of our condition in life, whether as to poverty or wealth, power or influence, or character have anything to do with the fact of God’s love for us? Does He love a rich man better than a poor man? “Let not the rich man glory in his riches.” Does He love a man of one nation any better than another? God “hath made of one blood all nations of men.” Does He not love a man of might and influence better than the man with no influence? “Let not the mighty man glory in his might.” Does He love the wise man more than the ignorant man? “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom.” PTUK February 8, 1894, page 81.9
The preaching of the Gospel to the poor was the highest evidence which the disciples of John the Baptist were to carry to him as proof of Christ’s mission. They were to tell him that the blind saw, the lame walked, the lepers were cleansed, the deaf heard, but above all that, “to the poor the Gospel is preached.” PTUK February 8, 1894, page 82.1
We have the statement that God loved sinners. And that which may be known of God is manifested unto all, because He sends His sun to shine on the evil and on the good, and sends the rain to the just and to the unjust. Then no matter what I have been, no matter what I know I am, there is one fact I may be sure of, that God loves me. Christ “loved me, and gave Himself for me.” We cannot imagine how anyone can deliberately say that, believing it, without feeling a thrill of joy begin to spring up in his heart. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 82.2
“Not Too Short” The Present Truth 10, 6.
E. J. Waggoner
Not Too Short.-The rope of God’s salvation let down to earth is not too short to reach all individuals just where they are. Many who desire to be saved, however, talk as though it were too short. They say that they “want to” live for Christ and “are going” to live for Him, etc., as if it were out of the question for anyone to say that he is now a son of God and has Christ now living in him. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 82.3
What a sad state of things it would be if God had provided a plan of salvation which reached almost to the sinner, but yet stopped just above his reach; if the cord of faith let down from heaven came just to the point represented by “going to,” and there ended! It would be a mockery, which would but add to the horror of our despair. If we could not grasp it now, but had to wait till next week or to-morrow, or even the next hour, how sad would be our condition at the present moment. A man who has fallen to the bottom of a well has no more connection with the means of salvation if the rope that is let down to him stop short just beyond his reach, than as though no rope had been let down at all. He has no connection with safety until he has the rope actually within his hands. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 82.4
The God of all mercy has not left us in such a condition as this. The cord of the faith of Jesus let down from above reaches to the golden moment “now.” For “the righteousness which is of faith” says, “The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in time heart; that is, the word of faith which we preach; that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” Romans 10:8, 9. We have but to grasp it and be safe. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 82.5
“Christ Lifted Up” The Present Truth 10, 6.
E. J. Waggoner
Paul preached Christ crucified. But you say, “Surely he preached something besides that. That would do well enough for an introduction in preaching to the people, but he must have gone on beyond that.” But the apostle told the Corinthians that he was determined to know nothing among them “save Jesus Christ and Him crucified,” and the preaching of that brought out a church in Corinth, a church keeping the commandments of God, instructed in all Christian duty, and possessing in abundant measure the gifts of the Spirit. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 82.6
This is because Christ crucified is Christ alive. He is crucified now; He is the Crucified One; but He lives. It was not possible, says Peter, that having been crucified He should be held in the grave. Acts 2:24. There was, and we thank God for the revelation of that truth, a risk of everything on Christ’s part in coming to this earth in the likeness of sinful flesh, so that every one of us has just exactly as good a chance and prospect of overcoming as He had. But when Christ was crucified, all doubt was for ever settled. The power of the cross settled everything. “It is finished,” He said, and then the complete victory was gained, and the devil was for ever vanquished. His resurrection was assured, for it was not possible for the enemy to hold Him in the tomb, since he had not been able to lead Him to sin. He had “spoiled principalities and powers,” “openly triumphing over them,” in His cross. There was no doubt then of His being raised above all principalities and powers. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 82.7
So when we see Christ crucified, we see Christ the Victor. Then when I am willing to say, “I am crucified with Christ,” I see myself a conqueror, and more than conqueror, through Him that loved me. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 82.8
Christ says that if He is lifted up from the earth, He will draw all men. “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up.” He is lifted up from the earth. So when I am crucified with Christ I am lifted up from the earth. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 82.9
“I rise to walk in heaven’s own light,
Above the world and sin.”
PTUK February 8, 1894, page 82.10
This crucifixion means more to the believer every day. It means death to sin, crucifixion itself. “In that He died, He died unto sin once.” So when I can say “I am crucified with Christ,” it means that that sin, that miserable thing which has been the taproot of all my wicked life, the sin that doth so easily beset me, is crucified with Him. When that can be said from the heart, letting every wicked thing go, then know of a surety that Christ crucified is Christ lifted up from the earth, and ourselves with Him. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 82.11
That crucifixion is a present thing. It never can be in the past. We may say, “I was crucified with Christ.” But so long as we can say, “I am crucified,” in that crucifixion we are lifted up from the earth. “The preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” So when we are crucified with Him, that means that it is the power of God to us. That is the Gospel; for the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation. There are infinite worlds of glory and gladness in the cross of Christ. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 82.12
“Afraid of God” The Present Truth 10, 6.
E. J. Waggoner
How many children have heard words to this effect, “You are a bad boy, and the Lord doesn’t love you.” And the child has grown up believing that the Lord hates bad people, and is only waiting to punish them. The first part was true enough; the last part was the wickedest lie ever told on this earth. Oh, it is a wicked thing to tell a child that. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 82.13
There are multitudes of professed Christians who have been taught that, and who are afraid of the Lord. In order that parents may not convey to their children that impression, even though they are not injudicious enough to say it in words, they must know that God is love, for their children’s sakes as well as their own. They must know that He is love, and that He loves sinners; and they must exhibit that love in their words and actions. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 82.14
The children know they are bad. They do not need to be told that half as much as they need to be told that the Lord loves them. The child who is brought up in an atmosphere of love, by those who know the love of God, and can reveal that love in their lives, will not grow up as one who is taught even indirectly, that the Lord has no love or care for those who are bad. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 83.1
“Having Our Way” The Present Truth 10, 6.
E. J. Waggoner
The only question involved in the problem of right living is whether we will have our way or let God have His way. If we insist on having our own way, it is certain that right living will not follow. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 83.2
The heart of man is very deceitful, and prone to have its own way. Indeed, there is nothing more natural than for a person to think he knows better what is best for him than God does. Of course it is not anything bad that he wants; it is something good and desirable, and he has the best of reasons for wanting it. But that which is good and desirable in itself, may or may not be suited to the circumstances of the individual desiring it. His desire for it is based on the assumption that just the right time and circumstances exist in his case for what he seeks,—an assumption which only the possession of superhuman wisdom could justify. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 83.3
King Hezekiah, one of the best kings of Judah, was at one time “sick unto death,” and received word from the Lord by the prophet Isaiah that he should “die and not live.” Hezekiah, however, did not wish to die, but thought it would be better for him to live; and he “wept sore” and prayed that he might live. He expressed his reasons for desiring to live. “I said in the cutting off of my days, I shall go to the gates of the grave; I am deprived of the residue of my years. I said, I shall not seek the Lord, even the Lord, in the land of the living.” “The grave cannot praise Thee; death cannot celebrate Thee; they that go down into the pit cannot hope for Thy truth.” Isaiah 38:10, 11, 18. Certainly, if reason can ever show a better way than the one indicated in the word of the Lord, it was so in the case of Hezekiah. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 83.4
The Lord heard Hezekiah’s prayer, and sent Isaiah to him with the word that his life should be prolonged fifteen years. But these fifteen years added nothing to Hezekiah, but rather took from the lustre of his reign. For we read that “Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him; for his heart was lifted up; therefore there was wrath upon him, and upon Judah and Jerusalem.” 2 Chronicles 32:25. Also “in the business of the ambassadors of the princes of Babylon, who sent unto him to enquire of the wonder that was done in the land [in causing the sun to return ten degrees backward], God left him, to try him, that he might know all that was in his heart.” Verse 31. And Hezekiah died, leaving on the throne a son that had been born to him during the added fifteen years; and thus the wicked reign of Manasseh followed. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 83.5
It is never safe, even with apparently the best of motives and of reasons, to seek our own way in opposition to the word of the Lord. The only place any person can afford to be in, is the place where God puts him; and when in His providence the time comes, if it does, that we are to be put in the grave, it will not be wise for us to prefer and seek life in preference to death. The language of wisdom is always, “Thy will, not mine, be done;” and “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.” PTUK February 8, 1894, page 83.6
“Meeting the Law” The Present Truth 10, 6.
E. J. Waggoner
We read in the book of Samuel that on account of the apostasy of Israel brought about by the wickedness of the sons of Eli, they were smitten before the Philistines in battle; and that, thinking to make themselves secure against another defeat, they sent to Shiloh and brought from thence the ark of the Lord into the midst of their camp. But they were defeated again by their enemies with great slaughter, and the ark of God was taken by the Philistines. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 83.7
The Philistines were very glad to get possession of the ark, for they knew there was a supernatural power that attended it, and they supposed that, having possession of that sacred chest, they would also have possession of the power. So they took the ark and set it up in the temple of Dagon, thinking that with the power of the ark of the Lord united with the power of their god Dagon, they would make themselves invincible. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 83.8
But the experiment did not work to their satisfaction. Dagon fell down on his face before the ark of the Lord and was mutilated to the extent of ruin; and the judgments of the Lord came upon the men of Ashdod, causing a great destruction, so that they soon became as anxious to get rid of the ark as they had been before to get it in their possession. So they sent it to Gath. And “the hand of the Lord was against the city with a very great destruction.” Next they sent it to Ekron, and “there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city; the hand of God was very heavy there.” 1 Samuel 5. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 83.9
Then the Philistines took measures to send the ark back again from whence it came, and they set it upon a cart drawn by two milch kine, and it came to Bethshemesh. And the men of Bethshemesh (who were Israelites) opened the sacred structure and looked into it, to get a view of the mysterious power that it contained. But terrible was the result; for the Lord “smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the Lord; even He smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men. And the people lamented because the Lord had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter.” PTUK February 8, 1894, page 83.10
All these judgments were not arbitrary acts on the part of God, done to punish the Philistines for taking the ark of the Lord from the Hebrews, or the men of Bethshemesh for the sin of looking into it. They have a deeper significance than that. They teach us what is the inevitable result when the law of God is brought into contact with sinners. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 83.11
The ark of the Lord contained the law of the Lord, written on the tables of stone with the finger of God. This was the potent fact which was the secret of the power that went with the ark. It was the power of the life and righteousness of God; for the law of God is nothing less than His life and righteousness. It was indeed a power very desirable to possess, but no less dangerous than it was desirable. For the sinner to reach out and attempt to take it would be like taking hold of a wire charged with the most powerful electric current. Death, quick and inevitable, would be the result. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 83.12
And this is just what the Philistines, in their sinful ignorance, did. They took the ark, thinking to gain the power that went with it; but they only brought into their midst the holy and terrible law of the Lord. There could be but one result,—judgment and death upon the sinner. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 83.13
The men of Bethshemesh, curious to see more about the power that attended the ark, ventured to open it and look within; when lo, they stood face to face with the terrible law of God, as holy and righteous as Himself! And the law spoke death to them; it could not be otherwise. And more than fifty thousand people perished! When the law of God meets the sinner face to face there is nothing for the latter but death. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 83.14
Happily for us, God has not left sinners to meet His holy law in this way. The plan of salvation is nothing else but the means He has provided whereby sinners may meet the law and live. And that means is Jesus Christ. He stands between the law and the sinner, and in Him, the sinner can meet the law and not die. In Christ, the sinner exchanges his sins for God’s righteousness, which is the righteousness that the law demands. In Christ, also, the penalty for sin has been paid. Christ is the law freed of its terrors, and human flesh divested of its sin. We meet Him as sinners and lose our sin, and also meet the law without meeting its penalty. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 84.1
This idea is presented by Paul in his letter to the Hebrews. “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, His flesh, ... let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.” Hebrews 10:19, 20. Entering into the “holiest,” we enter into the presence of the law of God; and well might the sinner fear to enter there and stand face to face with the law which he has transgressed. But the apostle tells us we may enter in with “boldness” through the “new and living way,” “His flesh.” Jesus Christ is now our High Priest, mediating for us in that temple which John saw “opened in heaven,” and wherein also was seen “the ark of His testament.” Revelation 11:19. In other words, our Saviour is now “a minister of the Sanctuary and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man.” Hebrews 8:1. And in the great Judgment day, all who meet the law in Him will be accounted guiltless, and have life throughout the ages of eternity. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 84.2
Far should it be from sinners to glory in possessing the law of God when it does not come to them in Christ. That was what the Israelites did when they sent and fetched the ark from Shiloh into their sinful camp. When the sacred structure appeared-the symbol of the power and protection of Jehovah-they raised a shout, as if they had won the victory; but when the battle was joined, they were smitten with great slaughter. With the law of God in their midst, it fared much worse with them than it did before. But meeting the law in Christ, the law is a blessing; as it was to Obed-edom, of whom we read, “The ark of the Lord continued in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite three months; and the Lord blessed Obed-edom, and all his household.” 2 Samuel 6:11. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 84.3
“Walking in the Light” The Present Truth 10, 6.
E. J. Waggoner
THE PERFECTION OF LIGHT
In the account which the beloved disciple gives of his vision of the new heavens and the new earth, we read: “And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God.” PTUK February 8, 1894, page 84.4
“And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God; and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal.” “And I saw no temple therein; for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it; for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it; ... and there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth.” Revelation 21:2, 3, 10, 11, 22-27. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 84.5
In the sixtieth chapter of Isaiah we have similar language with reference to the same thing: “Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise. The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee; but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself; for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light.” PTUK February 8, 1894, page 84.6
These Scriptures show us that the light of the new Jerusalem will be the glory of God and of the Lamb. Not only will the city be lighted by the glory of God, but the whole earth as well. “As truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.” Numbers 14:21. “Blessed be His glorious name for ever; and let the whole earth be filled with His glory.” Psalm 72:19. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 84.7
The glory of the Lord, therefore, is not a mere name, but is a real thing. The light that shines from God is light by which people can seek to carry on the affairs of life. The nations of the saved shall walk in the light of God’s glory. It will be to them, especially in the new Jerusalem, in the place of the sun. “For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly.” Psalm 84:11. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 84.8
That will be simply the perfection of light. “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be with brightness and with gloom; but it shall be one day which is known unto the Lord; not day, and not night; but it shall come to pass that at evening time there shall be light.” Zechariah 14:6, 7. R.V. The light will not be fitful, but continuous, because the curse will be removed. The Lord will be the everlasting Light, and all men will gladly walk in that light. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 84.9
EFFECT OF THE LIGHT
Light is life. God is light, because He is the source of life. The beloved disciple says: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (for the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us). That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. This then is the message which we have heard of Him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.” 1 John 1:1-5. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 84.10
Comparing the first, third, and fifth verses of the above text, we see that the light of God is the life of God. The apostle says that he has seen and handled and heard the Word of life, and that which he has seen he declares unto us, and then he tells us that the message which he has to declare is that God is light; thus showing that the Word of life is the light of God. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 85.1
This is what we learn elsewhere. Of Christ, the Word God, it is said, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” John 1:4. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world; he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” John 8:12. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 85.2
From this we learn that the light of that “perfect day” on the new earth, in which the nations of the saved will walk, will be the life of God and the Lamb. God Himself will be the life of all men, and His life will be their light. God’s life cannot only be their wisdom and their righteousness, but it will be everything to them: their food, as they eat of the tree of life; their drink, as they partake of the water of life which flows from God’s throne; and their light by which they see. They will draw continually from the fountain of life, and it will be literally true of all that in His light they will see light. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 85.3
In the fifth chapter of the Ephesians we are exhorted to be followers of God. We have already learned that he who follows the Lord will have the light of life. So the apostle continues: “For ye were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord; walk as children of light; (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth).” Verses 8, 9, R.V. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 85.4
The fruit of the light of the life of God in man, is righteousness. Therefore it is that it is said of the people in the new earth, where God’s glory shines undimmed, that they “shall all be righteous.” Wherever the light of God is fully recognised, righteousness must be the result. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 85.5
THE LIGHT NOW SHINING
We have seen that in the land of perfect day, where the light is not alternating brightness and gloom, the people are all righteous. We have seen also that righteousness is the fruit of the light. And we have also read that there shall in no wise enter into that land anything that defileth. All the inhabitants are made righteous before they enter, and they are made righteous by the same light in which they will then walk. Accordingly we read,—“Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people; but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.” Isaiah 60:1-3. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 85.6
Notice that it is the glory of the Lord, by which the people addressed are to shine,—that same glory by which the holy city and the new earth are to be lighted. And that glory shines even now, when darkness covers the earth, and gross darkness the people, in order to turn them from the darkness of sin to the light of righteousness. That is, it is by the light in which people will walk in the new earth, that they are to be prepared for that glorious state. “The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” Proverbs 4:18. One light is not to be exchanged for another; but the same light in which the righteous now walk, will increase until it develops into the perfect day. So the Apostle Peter described himself as “a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed.” 1 Peter 5:1. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 85.7
DECLARING THE GLORY
“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork.” Psalm 19:1. “O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth! who hast set Thy glory upon the heavens.” Psalm 8:1. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 85.8
These texts tell us that in the sun, moon, and stars, we may even now behold with our natural eyes some of the light of God’s glory. We could not now look upon the glory of God’s immediate presence, and so He reveals to us all the glory that we can endure, in order that by it we may be enabled to see more. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 85.9
Christ says, “I am the light of the world.” This is a simple statement of fact, and is literally true. It was by Him that all things were created (John 1:1-3; Colossians 1:16, 17); and therefore it was by His word that light first shone upon the earth. “Darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light, and there was light.” Genesis 1:2, 3. God’s word is light (Psalm 119:105), because it is life. John 6:63. That word went forth into the darkness of the earth, and carried with it the light by which we now live. Thus it is true in the most literal sense that Christ is the light of the world. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 85.10
Light was sent forth into the world on the first day of creation, and on the fourth day God made the sun, moon, and stars to be bearers of the light. So we read again, “O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth! who hast set Thy glory upon the heavens.” Psalm 8:1. But it is the glory of God, as we have already learned, that is to be the light of the new Jerusalem, and the new earth; therefore we learn that the glory which is seen in the sun, moon, and stars, is some of the same light by which the holy city will be illuminated. Who that realises this fact can fail to regard the light of the heavens with new interest? PTUK February 8, 1894, page 85.11
THE LIFE OF THE EARTH
All life on earth comes directly from the sun, moon, and stars, the sun, of course, being the chief source. The sun, however, does not originate its own light, but is simply the agent by which some of the light of the glory of God is transmitted to this earth. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 85.12
Light is life and health. Without it there can be neither plant or animal growth. Shut a plant or an animal up in a perfectly dark place, and keep it there, and it will waste away. Plant seeds in the earth, and then shut away from that portion all the light and heat of the sun, and the seeds will never germinate. Physicians and nurses understand that sick people must have plenty of light. It was once thought that in certain diseases, at least, light must be shut away from a patient; but now it is known that sunlight is necessary in all cases. Sunlight destroys disease germs, simply because it is a part of the light and life of God, who alone conquers death. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 85.13
All the fruits of the earth are the result of the light of the sun. The rain that waters the earth is first drawn into the sky by the power of the sun; and the rich juices of the fruit, as well as the bloom upon the outside, and the beauty of the flower and leaf, are the product of the sun’s rays. If the sun’s rays could be shut completely away from the earth for a year, the earth would be destitute of life. So Moses, in his inspired blessing upon the children of Israel, said to Joseph: “Blessed of the Lord be his land, for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and the deep that coucheth beneath, and for the precious fruit brought forth by the sun, and for the precious things put forth by the moon.” Deuteronomy 33:13, 14. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 85.14
By the sun the glory of the Lord is declared in all the earth, and the fruit of that glory is everywhere seen in the abundance that the earth brings forth; for “there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.” Psalm 19:6. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 86.1
LIGHT, LIFE, AND LAW
“My son, keep thy father’s commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother; bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck. When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee. For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life.” Proverbs 6:20-23. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 86.2
The same truth is expressed by the Psalmist: “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” Psalm 119:105. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 86.3
The law is the life of God, as we learn from the following: “Out of the heart are the issues of life.” Proverbs 4:23. The law of God was in the heart of Christ (Psalm 40:8), and therefore was His life; but He lived by the Father (John 6:57), and therefore the law which was His life, was simply the life of God. The law of God is not a mere set of rules in a form of words, but is a living thing; it is the life of God. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 86.4
But we have already learned that the life of God is light. “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all,” because with Him is “the fountain of life.” It is in His light, or life, that we see light. The same life is in Christ, and that life is the light of men. He is the light of the world, because He is the life of the world. He says, “He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” PTUK February 8, 1894, page 86.5
But we have also seen that Christ’s light is not a mere figure of speech, but is a real thing. His light it is that lightens the earth; it is His light that shines in the sun. And as the sunlight is the life of the earth, and of all mankind, so it is that Christ is actually the life of every created thing. The true light is that which “lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” PTUK February 8, 1894, page 86.6
Since the light of the life of Christ shines in the sun, and the life of Christ is the law of God for all men, it follows that the law of God is revealed in the light which shines from the firmament of heaven. It is not as a figure of speech, but as an actual fact, that the Bible tells us that “righteousness shall look down from heaven.” Psalm 85:11. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 86.7
LAW FROM THE SUN
Let us now see how this lesson is taught in the nineteenth Psalm: “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath He set a tabernacle for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it; and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof. 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 February 8, 1894, page 86.8
Why is it that Inspiration connects the law of the Lord so closely with the heavens? Because “the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light.” The heavens declare the glory of God, and His glory is His righteousness, which is His law. This is shown by the fact that those who sin-transgress the law-come short of the glory of God. The law is the life of Christ, and that life is the light of men, and that light, or as much of it as men can endure, is revealed in the heavens. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 86.9
God has designed that everything in nature shall teach men of His righteousness and salvation. In the tenth chapter of Romans the Apostle Paul quotes Psalm 19. For, as evidence that the Gospel has been everywhere preached. After saying that all have not obeyed the Gospel, he asks, “But I say, have they not heard?” and answers, “Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.” Romans 10:16-18. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 86.10
Suppose, now, that a man recognises God in all His works. He receives the light of the sun not merely as a gift from God, but as the very life of God. Wherever the light greets his eyes, he recognises this without being grateful. Then as he knows that all life on this earth comes immediately from the sun, whose light is a part of the light of the life of God, he will know that He lives directly from God. He will know, as the Apostle Paul has said, that “in Him we live, and move, and have our being.” Acts 17:28. And the continual recognition of this fact-the recognition of it in every act of life-constitutes the whole of the Christian life. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 86.11
For example, a man is tempted to do an evil thing, but he says within his heart: “I am living by the life of Christ; His life is in me, and I must not pervert it. This thing is contrary to His life, and therefore ought not to be done by me. I acknowledge His life as mine, nay, I claim it as mine; ‘Christ liveth in me,’ and I will let him live His own life in His own way; I will not presume to divert it to my own selfish ways.” It is very evident that one who thus continually acknowledges God, will have his paths directed aright. As the light is diffused everywhere, he will always be conscious of the presence of the life of Christ, and will “walk openly as in the day.” PTUK February 8, 1894, page 86.12
Thus we see that in the nineteenth Psalm there is no change in the subject, but that the heavens in declaring the glory of God do indeed proclaim His law. He who walks in the light of day, “as He is in the light,” seeing Christ in the light, will be a doer of the law. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 86.13
THE SUN AND SUNDAY
In the first chapter of Romans we read that “the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.” Then we are told that the power of God is seen in “the things that are made,” and that “that which may be known of God” is revealed to all men by this means. This is just what our study in the preceding sections has led us to. Then follows the description of the descent from the knowledge of God into the abominations of heathenism, in these words:— PTUK February 8, 1894, page 86.14
“When they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves; who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator.” Romans 1:21-25. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 86.15
Men sought power in the things that God had made, but they failed to recognise that power as the power of God, and so they did not glorify Him as God. They attributed the power to the thing itself, and so worshipped the creature instead of the Creator. Of the creatures thus worshipped the sun was chief, as its influence was greatest and most widespread. So it, as the immediate source of all life on earth, was the centre of all heathen worship. The heathen god Apollo was one representation of the sun as the life-giver. The Egyptians worshipped the sun under many forms, chief of which was the bull Apis. Many other names in heathen mythology might be cited as illustrating the statement that they “changed the glory of the incorruptible God,” which is seen in the sun, “into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.” PTUK February 8, 1894, page 86.16
Note the statement that the truth of God was changed into a lie. There is mighty power manifested in the sun, and in all of God’s works. The truth of God is that this power is the direct power of God, acting through His created instruments; this truth is changed into a lie when the power is attributed to the instruments themselves; and this lie is continued to the present day in the teaching of philosophy. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 87.1
As the sun, the chief light-bearer, was worshipped as the chief god, so the first day of the week, on which the light first shone, was taken as the day of the sun, and stood as the emblem of sun-worship. Since the worship of the sun was the result of changing the truth of God into a lie,—the attributing of the power of the Creator to the creature, and thus exalting the creature above God,—it was most natural that the day which should be chosen as the symbol of that worship, and ultimately as a day of rest, should be a day which even God Himself could not have made a Sabbath. For while God could have made the heavens and earth in one day, and rested on the second, He could not have made it in one day, and at the same time have rested on that day as a memorial of finished creation. Therefore Sunday, “the venerable day of the sun,” stands as the mark of all religion that sets forth the creature as able to exist independently of the Creator; which represents man as having life in himself, and as being able to evolve righteousness out of himself. The fact that it is regarded by the majority of the Christian world as the true Sabbath, does not at all disprove this statement, but shows the extent to which heathen customs have permeated professed Christianity. It was Constantine, whose presiding deity was Apollo, the sun, who effected the union of the Christian Church with the heathen State, thus paganising Christianity; and so Sunday observance inevitably characterises every phase of professed Christianity which does not utterly repudiate the idea that civil power has of right any voice in matters of religion. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 87.2
THE SUN AND THE SABBATH
Turn now to the truth of the matter. The sun is only a creature. Its glory is the glory of its Creator, and it shines for the sole purpose of declaring His glory. But he recognises God in all His works,—who humbly acknowledges that no creature, not even man, has any power whatever in itself,—will, when he beholds the sun, naturally think of the Creator and Preserver, and of the time when all things were created. And as soon as he does that, he will remember that “in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.” PTUK February 8, 1894, page 87.3
In the record of that fact he will learn that “the seventh day is the Sabbath,” and that it was given to men, as the Lord says, “to be a sign between Me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them.” Ezekiel 20:12. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 87.4
Moreover, he will learn that “no man knoweth the Father save the Son, and He to whomsoever the Son shall reveal Him” (Matthew 11:27), so that the power and glory of God are known only as Christ is acknowledged. He is the One by whom all things are created, and it is His power and glory which the heavens declare. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 87.5
The Sabbath, therefore,—the seventh day,—is the mark of the Divinity of Christ; for God is worshipped as Creator only as Christ is honoured as Creator. As the sun declares the glory of God, teaching us that He alone is the source of all life and power, so it is designed to teach us of the true Sabbath, which stands as the sign of perfect dependence upon God. True Sabbath keeping, therefore, is the mark of the most complete separation between religion and the State, God being recognised as the sole director and upholder, without any mediator except Jesus Christ. As no man has any power in himself to do right, so he cannot be made to do right by pressure brought upon him from without. Arbitrary rules and force may restrain him from open violence, but have no power to repress the desires of the flesh and of the mind, nor to cause the weakness of the flesh to produce active righteousness. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 87.6
Although the truth of God as declared by the sun has been changed into a lie, that very fact assures us that he who will daily with grateful reverence recognise the glory of God in the sun, will inevitably be led into the observance of the Sabbath of the Lord, which is indeed the Lord’s rest, the rest which remains for the people of God. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 87.7
CHANGED BY THE GLORY
“But we all, with open face, beholding as in a class the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, and even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 3:18. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 87.8
The heavens reveal the glory of God, which He has placed upon them. But this glory of God is seen only through Christ, for no one can know the Father except as the Son reveals Him. Christ is the light of the world, and His light is His life. His life is the law of God. But the light of the firmament is simply the light of Christ’s life; and so, if we receive it, the sun shines the law of God directly into our lives. How this is in the case of the Sabbath, has been briefly indicated. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 87.9
He who continually recognises the sunlight as light from Christ, thus acknowledging that his life comes wholly from Christ, will yield himself to the Lord, so that whatever he does may be to God’s glory. Such recognition and yielding must kill all pride and self-exaltation. Christ will be considered in everything. Of course food and air, which comes from God, serve the same purpose, but we are now considering only the light. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 87.10
It is by beholding the glory, that we are changed into the image of God, which is righteousness and true holiness. The influence of the sun is the most widely diffused of anything that God has made. It is emphatically the life of all things. Now he who daily and hourly recognises this, giving thanks not to the sun, but to the Creator, the power of whose life the sun reveals, will inevitably be led in the right way. “In all of thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct by paths.” Proverbs 3:6. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 87.11
So the Christian goes along, continually looking up, walking in the light,—“heaven’s own light,”—and rejoicing in it because God is in the light; and thus the transformation proceeds daily. He himself will be unconscious of the change, even as Moses was unconscious of the glory that shown in his face, because he will be absorbed in beholding the glory of God. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 87.12
Peter described himself as a “partaker of the glory that shall be revealed.” This is the case with every true child of God; for Christ said in His prayer to the Father, “The glory which Thou gavest Me, I have given them.” John 17:22. This glory is now imparted in the form of grace, awaiting the time when it shall be “revealed in us.” Romans 8:18. Those who trust God for the accomplishment of this work, are content with it. They care not if their bodies are not attractive, because they have the promise that when He shall appear He will change their vile bodies that they may be fashioned like unto His glorious body; and they are content with the meek and quiet Spirit of Christ, with which that glory even now adorns them. Those who have not this hope, are driven to adorn their bodies with gold, pearls, diamonds, feathers, etc., as a substitute for the glory of God. A poor substitute it is indeed. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 88.1
But while the Christian is looking up, lost to himself in the contemplation of the glory of God, the coming of the Lord draws near. Christ is soon to be revealed in person in the heavens “in the glory of His Father,” sitting upon the throne of His glory. The saints of God are looking up, expecting Him. In this looking up, beholding His glory, their characters become completely transformed, and made like Christ’s. While still looking, the light in which they have walked blends into “the perfect day,” as Christ appears in the fulness of His glory. They are not dazzled by the sight, for it is the glory which they have been beholding, and as it bursts upon their vision, the first glance completes the transformation that has been going on, their vile bodies are changed “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,” and thus “the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” PTUK February 8, 1894, page 88.2
And so the heavens which now declare the glory of God, and the firmament, which showeth His handiwork, impart their glory to those who fully trust and acknowledge the Lord, until even their bodies shall shine “as the brightness of the firmament,” and “as the stars for ever and ever.” PTUK February 8, 1894, page 88.3
“The Song in the Heart” The Present Truth 10, 6.
E. J. Waggoner
Often those who are glad in the Lord for the revelation of what He is to all men, feel diffident about telling of His goodness, because they feel unable to frame their thoughts in words. It is like the tune, the air of which runs in the mind, but which the person cannot sing audibly. But the apostle speaks of “singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” God understands the language of the heart. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 88.4
We read that the saved sang a new song before the throne, which none could learn except those who had gone through that experience. Sometimes the trouble is that when we sing the Lord’s song, we want to put it into our own words. But He furnishes the music, and He will furnish the words also. Let Him do it. So if we cannot sing that song in the words we would choose, let Him put the words in our mouth. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 88.5
Perhaps it may not sound so finished and elegant in phrase, but sometimes the Lord will let us be fools for His sake. Let it be so. Sometimes we interfere with the Lord. He fills our heart with a song of joy and gladness, and we attempt to sing it in our own way, instead of in His way. David said, “He hath put a new song in my mouth.” The Lord put it there. Suppose David had said, “Lord, these are not just the words I was going to use; I think it ought to be put in this way.” Just leave the Lord free, and He will make it all right. He who is a fool for the Lord’s sake is a blessed one. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 88.6
We have all heard those simple, broken testimonies that came with more power and did more good than the most finished exhortations. It came from the heart, and it was the power of the life of God in them that was manifest. One of the most eloquent testimonies we remember was one where the individual could not speak a word. The heart was too full for expression. The Spirit of the Lord understood the language of the heart, and translated it into language that all who knew the voice of the Spirit could understand. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 88.7
“Confessing Unseen Sins” The Present Truth 10, 6.
E. J. Waggoner
The Lord sometimes reproved us for sins which did not seem to be sin to us, and we have refused to confess. The Lord said it was wrong, but we could not see that it was so, and so we would not confess it until we could see it; for we thought that that would be dishonesty. We were so intensely loyal to the truth, as we thought, that if we could not see the thing to be a sin, we would not say it was, no matter what the Lord said. The devil is very glad to have us honest in this way, and he will do his best that we may never see what we profess to be willing to see. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 88.8
“In Thy light shall we see light.” The word of the Lord is light. Then it is our business to say what the word says. Suppose the Lord points out in His word, by whatever means His word comes to us, that a thing is wrong; or it may be a duty to be performed as, for instance, Sabbath-keeping. The Lord says the seventh day is the Sabbath. Someone says, “I do not feel as though it was. As soon as I feel so I will acknowledge it, for I always follow my convictions.” When we talk in that way in the course of action we practically say, I always follow my own mind; I never deny myself; I always have my own way. Many people mistake inclination for conviction. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 89.1
When the Lord speaks we have no business to feel about it. The Lord says a thing is so, and he who will confess it to the Lord simply says that the Lord speaks the truth. We know He cannot speak falsely, and when we take His word as the light that it is, we shall see light always. If we believe His word, that word will enable us to see. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 89.2
“The Desperate Condition of Sicily” The Present Truth 10, 6.
E. J. Waggoner
It seems as hard for nations as for individuals to learn the extreme folly of trying to keep pace in appearances with their neighbours who possess several times their wealth. We have already several times alluded to the example furnished by Italy in this respect, in her efforts to maintain her part of a “triple alliance” with Austria and Germany; but the following particulars, said to be furnished by an eye-witness, afford a more vivid picture of the actual state of things than could be given by general statements. We quote from Public Opinion:— PTUK February 8, 1894, page 89.3
“An eye-witness, writing from Chiaramonte, in the province of Syracuse, reports that he has seen the messi (rate collectors) sees the most necessary articles of daily life from the impecunious peasant, upon them for a fifth of their value, and then proceed to further seizures on their next official round. ‘I have seen them,’ he says, ‘tear the ragged cloak from the shoulders of the miserable defaulter; I have seen them snatched from him the only coverlet that served not so much, perhaps, to keep off the cold as to hide the squalid misery of his hovel; I have seen them take the cattle or pot from over the few burning sticks in the fireplace, an empty on the ground a thin soup which was all that stood between the wretched household and starvation. Well-nigh every week, and within the Palazzo Communale (the Communal Hall) itself, I have looked on at the sale of household goods seized and pawned by the rate collectors. These goods have been valued at about a fifth (or less than a fifth) of what they are worth. A handful of knavish confederates “stand in,” and make a show of bidding against each other; they raise by a few centimes up set price; and the article is knocked down to one of them, who passes it on, often to the collector himself. At harvest time, at the vintage, at the gathering in of the olive crop, seizures are made of the fruit as it hangs from the tree, and this is placed in pawn. The owner, as frequently as not, finds this process has been carried out against him behind his back-having had no notification from the depositario, who often enough exists only pro forma in the writ. On auction day itself he is apt to be still ignorant that he has been made the object of such proceedings, and he finds all too late that the fruits of his labour passed into the clutches of the speculatori sulla miseria (traders in misery). Nor is that enough. ‘As often as not,’ continues the eye-witness, ‘after the small farmer or wine-grower has been thus perfidiously plundered, after he has had snatched from his mouth the bit of bread he has earned with such crushing labour, after he has been reduced to something more than despair, he is informed by the collector that his goods sold by auction have not sufficed to cover his debt and costs, and that he must at once pay up the balance if he does not want the whole process to be the gun again.’” PTUK February 8, 1894, page 89.4
And all this in order that Italy may make as big a show as her powerful neighbours and her army and navy! What wonder that the poor Sicilians cannot wholly restrain their feelings of desperation. What have they to gain by a “triple alliance”? And what have the people, individually, to gain by the wars of nations? How much longer can this state of things go on, before the appearance of the “Prince of Peace,” who “maketh wars to cease unto the ends of the earth,” becomes an actual necessity? Certainly the time is short. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 89.5
“The First Sabbath” The Present Truth 10, 6.
E. J. Waggoner
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” Exodus 20:8-10. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 93.1
We have learned that on the sixth day God formed the beasts and creeping things, and man and woman, and that He planted the Garden of Eden. The work of creating things was now finished. In six short days the Lord had made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that in them is; and “God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good.” Surely “among the gods there is none like unto Thee, O Lord; neither in the works like unto Thy works. Thou art great, and doest wondrous things; Thou art God alone.” Psalm 86:8, 10. “For all the gods of the nations are idols; but the Lord made the heavens.” Psalm 96:5. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 93.2
Could man ever forget such a God? It does not seem possible. But God, in His wisdom, saw that men would be tempted to forget Him as the One who gave them all their strength, and power to do right, and He knew that if they did thus forget Him they would learn to trust in the other gods that could not help them, and they would then become wicked and unhappy, and finally be destroyed. He knew that without Jesus no one could be good, or truly happy. God so loved the beings whom He had created that He wanted them always to live and be as good and happy as they then were. He therefore made and gave them something to remember Him and His wonderful works by;-something beautiful, pure, and good; something that would follow them to any part of the earth, and that would present itself to them fresh and new every few days. What a strangely beautiful gift it must be! Look in the second chapter of your Bible and you will find what it is, and how it was made. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 93.3
It says that the works of creation were all finished, so that instead of working on the seventh day when it came, God rested from all His work which He had created and made. Verses 1-3. God did not rest because He was tired (Isaiah 40:28), but because He wanted to make the seventh day into a Sabbath or rest-day for man,—not that man’s body might get rest, but that his heart might have time to drink in new strength to do right, and might receive special help and refreshing in the presence of Jesus. This Sabbath was a wonderful gift that He was going to give man to remember Him by. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 93.4
Instead of calling the next day after the seventh the eighth day, and the one after that the ninth, and so on, they were to begin all over again, calling the next day after the seventh the first day, and the one after that the second, and so on, until they counted seven again. This they were to do all the time. Every time the seventh day came it was to be the Sabbath to remind them of their God, and of His wonderful works for them,—a sign of what He was able to do for them every day. In this way, you see, they would be strongly reminded of Him again and again every few days. As they were to call every seven days a week, the Sabbath, therefore, would come upon the last day of every week. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 93.5
After God had rested upon the seventh day, He put a special blessing upon it such as He did not put upon any other day in the week, and He sanctified, or made it holy, by putting His own life and presence into it. (He is so holy and good that His very presence makes a place holy. Exodus 3:1-5; Joshua 5:13-15.) The Sabbath, therefore, was made to be the glory of the whole week, the holiest of all, set apart and appointed for the special dwelling-place of God, and for a special blessing to man. But whoever should dare to enter it with sinful hearts or their own works would pollute it and bring a curse upon themselves as surely as did the priest who bought and sold in God’s temple in Jerusalem. God therefore told man to “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” PTUK February 8, 1894, page 93.6
That all might know just when it begins and ends, the Lord says it is to be kept from “even to even” (Leviticus 23:32), from the going down of the sun to the going down of the sun. Deuteronomy 16:6. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 93.7
Men now call the first day of the week Sunday, the second day Monday, the third day Tuesday, the fourth Wednesday, the fifth Thursday, the sixth Friday, and the seventh Saturday. But God gave a name to the seventh day Saturday. He named it His holy Sabbath day. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 93.8
The Sabbath was made not only for Adam, but for “man” (Mark 2:27), and that means all men. It was made for even little children like you, for we read in Exodus 20:10: “In it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man servant, nor thy maid servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates.” You see it is for us all. How we ought to praise God for His wonderful token of remembrance! We cannot lay it away and forget to take it with us, for it comes to us every week, no matter where we may be. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 93.9
And this is what the Sabbath says to you every time it comes: “I come with a message from God; He says to you, ‘Think of Me.’ I still love you as I did when I created man in Eden. I am just as strong and wise as I was then, and as able to care for, and help you to do right. I am willing to use all of My power to help you if you want it. Colossians 1:11. Look around you and see how powerful I am. I still uphold the shining worlds above, and cause the grass and flowers and trees to grow; I care for the beasts, and scatter food for the tiniest creatures that I have made. If you use the Sabbath day in not doing your own ways, or finding your own pleasure, nor speaking your own words, and call it a delight, you will delight yourself in Me, for I am in it; and I will bless you greatly. Isaiah 58:13. You then cannot forget Me and worship idols, for My Sabbath will be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am the Lord your God, who can save you from sin and death.” Ezekiel 20:12, 20. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 93.10
It will always be true that God created the heavens and the earth, that He is as powerful now to help us as He was then. Since there will never be a time when we do not need to remember this, there will therefore never be a time when Jesus will not want us to keep the Sabbath. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.1
We read that those who keep it faithfully here and love God with all their hearts will finally live on the new earth; and even then they will come together every Sabbath to worship the Lord. Isaiah 66:22, 23. Dear child, you may be among that happy company if you now take Jesus for your best Friend, and now remember His Sabbath day to keep it holy. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.2
1. In how many days did God create the heavens and earth and all things therein? Exodus 20:11. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.3
2. Has any other being ever done such a wonderful thing? PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.4
3. Who alone can create?—The One who made the heavens and earth. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.5
4. Then what must He be?—The only true God. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.6
5. How many days are there in a week? PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.7
6. What did God do on the seventh day? Genesis 2:2. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.8
7. Was He tired? Then why did He rest? PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.9
8. What did He do to the day after He had rested upon it? Genesis 2:3; Exodus 20:11. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.10
9. What only can make a place or thing holy? Exodus 3:1-5; Joshua 5:13-15. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.11
10. Why did God give a Sabbath day to man? Ezekiel 20:12. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.12
11. Why did He want man to remember Him and His great power? PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.13
12. Why would a day help him to remember God better than some other gift? PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.14
13. How often would it search him out and present itself to him? PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.15
14. Was Adam the only man who should keep the Sabbath holy? PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.16
15. Name over a few of those to whom He has given this precious token of remembrance. Exodus 20:10. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.17
16. Do little ones like you need to keep His Sabbath that you may remember Him and love Him as you ought? PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.18
17. Which day of the week is the Sabbath? Exodus 20:8-10. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.19
18. How can we know just when to stop our work and play and begin to keep it? PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.20
19. How can we know when it is at an end? Deuteronomy 16:6. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.21
20. How much of the Sabbath is holy? And how much does God say we are to keep holy? PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.22
21. How, then, do you suppose it makes God feel when He sees us neglect to get ready for the Sabbath in time, and work a little while after the Sabbath begins? And how when we begin our work again before the sun is down in the evening? PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.23
22. What does the Sabbath say to you every time it comes? PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.24
23. Why should it make us love God and be glad when we think of His great power, and that He is willing to be our Friend? PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.25
24. If we love the Sabbath and use it as God says, what does He promise us? Isaiah 56:2; 58:13, 14. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.26
25. How long will it be true that God created the heavens and the earth in six days? PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.27
26. How long will we need to remember God and His great power? PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.28
27. Then how long does Jesus want us to keep the Sabbath? PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.29
“Interesting Items” The Present Truth 10, 6.
E. J. Waggoner
-A German professor claims to have discovered the bacillus of chronic rheumatism. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.30
-A return shows that 1,055 lives were lost in the coal mines of the United Kingdom last year. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.31
-A strong agitation is reported in Lisbon against the increase of license fees and other taxes on industry. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.32
-Whistling is not permitted in the streets of Berlin. A page-boy who blow a whistle to hail a cab has been fined. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.33
-The German Government will in all probability soon pass a bill to punish all persons caught engaged in capturing or dealing in slaves. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.34
-According to the Etoile Beige, of Brussels, the Congo Free State has decided to construct a telegraph line from Boma to Lake Tanganyika. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.35
-Serious Anarchist disturbances are still reported from various portions of Europe, notably Zurich, Berlin, Paris, Barcelona and Madrid PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.36
-The Russians are erecting a tower or the loftiest point of the Mount of Olives, so big that both the Mediterranean and Dead Seas can be seen from the top. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.37
-The Queen of Italy has imposed on herself a year of self-denial. She will refrain from buying pictures, jewellery, etc., and will hand over the sum thus saved to the poor. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.38
-The Anglo-Jewish authorities have resolved that in future February 4th shall be kept in honour of the re-settlement of the Jews in this country by Oliver Cromwell. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.39
-The Panama Canal scandal has been revived by fresh disclosures from Dr. Cornelius Herz, which are said to touch several prominent Frenchmen not heretofore implicated. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.40
-At an extraordinary sitting of the Congregation of Rites at the Vatican, on Jan. 27, the beatification of Joan of Arc was decided upon. The Pope has since confirmed the decision. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.41
-A spark set fire to a great cotton mill at Oldham, doing damage to the extent of ?100,000. The mill contained 80,000 spindles. So sudden was the outbreak that the operatives had to be rescued by fire-escapes. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.42
-Three hundred students of Brussels University have addressed a protest to the Pro-Rector, expressing their sympathy with their expelled comrades, and declaring that they will not enter the university until the present council is dismissed. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.43
-A Glasgow barque laden with a valuable cargo of copper ore from Southern California, went ashore Jan. 28 in Tralee Bay. In spite of every effort to save them, the captain and crew, twentyfive all told, were drowned, and the vessel went to pieces. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.44
-King Christian of Denmark has issued a deems to the inhabitants of Iceland stating that the Bill for a new constitution in the island, recently passed by the Icelandic Althing, cannot receive the royal sanction even should it pass the newly elected Althing. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.45
-Lighting St. Paul’s by electricity is to be tried afresh, this time on a more extensive scale than during the previous experiment, which failed. Fourteen strong are lamps will be placed in the dome, incandescent lamps a little lower down, and musters of lights on the columns. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.46
-A London magistrate has decided that idleness is a crime. A young woman had positively refused to work, and in three years had entered the workhouse on twenty-three occasions. She was sentenced to one day’s imprisonment, and consented to enter an industrial home. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.47
-Telegrams from Nagoya, Gifts, Osaka, Kyoto, Kofu and Tattozi, in Japan, report violent earthquake shocks at all those towns. Houses were overthrown, and there was some loss of life. In many places the people fled from the neighbourhood of the houses and camped out in the open. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.48
-The American Tariff Bill, with the Internal Revenue Bill, including the income-tax, was adopted Feb, 1, by the House of Representatives, amid a scene of great excitement by 200 votes against 185. The heavy duty imposed by it on diamonds has caused a panic among diamond dealers in America. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.49
-Mob opposition to open air preaching in Dublin, which seems to augur so ill for religious equality under a Home Rule Government, was renewed Jan. 28. in spite of a letter from Mr. Davitt urging that the Evangelists should not be molested; they were driven back to their rooms, and a large force of police had great difficulty in clearing the streets. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.50
-Serious agricultural distress is reported from South-Eastern Spain, which it is feared may lead to the spread of the Socialist movement. At a town of 10,000 inhabitants in the province of Seville, the agricultural labourers resolved to appropriate a quantity of private land and proceeded to divide it among themselves by lot. A force of gendarmes was sent to the spot and the ringleaders were arrested. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.51
-The question of religious instruction is more and more deeply engaging the attention of the London School Board. Recently a nine-hours’ discussion took place over a proposition by the School Management Committee to send a circular to the teachers in the service of the Board, telling them that the religion to be taught in the schools was the Christian religion, and defining what the committee conceived to be the Christian religion. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.52
-The Imperial Courts of Europe are in dismay. The Shah of Persia has announced his intention to visit Berlin, St. Petersburg, Paris and Vienna during the present year. He will start in May or June and remain in Europe several months. The occasion for the dismay is the fact that he always carries with him a very large retinue, and entertaining him is more expensive than entertaining any other monarch; yet they can hardly decline the honour. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.53
-The chief incident of the week in connection with the Brazilian revolution has been the vigorous action of the American commander Admiral Benham in Rio harbour is protecting American merchantmen engaged in landing cargoes. The insurgent vessel Guanabara having fired at an American barque which was making its way under American escort to the Sandre piers, the United States warship Detroit after a warning shot, fired a small shell into the stern-post of the Guanabara. The latter then signalled that she would cease firing. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 94.54
“Back Page” The Present Truth 10, 6.
E. J. Waggoner
“There is no use denying the fact,” says the Indian Witness, “that opium has gained immensely in popular estimation through the Opium Commission.” This simply shows again how readily apologists for almost every species of wickedness can be found in all walks of life. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 96.1
Apropos of the School Board agitation, Archdeacon Sinclair deplores the scandal of having sacred truth “dragged into a heated election contest through the arena of the pothouse and the sporting club.” But truth can never be dragged into such surroundings. It is only error or the form of truth that men get hold of, when they get into debating as an electoral contest. The truth is in Jesus, and nowhere else, and men cannot make Him King by force, nor compel a knowledge of Him by the ballot box. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 96.2
The Pope charges the social disorder in Italy to those who have broken with the rule of the Vatican. But the same social discontent exists in Spain to almost as great a degree, and Spain is most loyally Catholic. The apparent reason why Italy should be more deeply in the mire than Spain is that it has been sporting such a heavy military armament; but it was the fear of and knowledge of the intriguing hostility of the Papal court which, more than anything else, led the Italian statesmen to join the Triple Alliance. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 96.3
This is the Roman Catholic plan for the future of America, according to the Catholic Times and Catholic Opinion: “The Catholics of America have of late years consolidated their force, and with an almost universal determination have agreed that the opportunity America gives them is to make their country from sea to sea Catholic.” The people of America, notably the professed Protestant churches have indeed given the Catholics opportunity, and they have used it so well that the task is now almost completed. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 96.4
A native physician of India, an old man of thirty years experience in his profession, testified before the Opium Commission to the terribly destructive nature of the opium habit. Concluding he said:— PTUK February 8, 1894, page 96.5
I would not stop with opium alone; I would include alcohol just as thoroughly, as the rapid and alarming spread of alcoholic intemperance among the people during the last few years has led to the reproachful saying that “England found India sober and made her drunk.” PTUK February 8, 1894, page 96.6
A Correspondent of the Christian, speaking from experience in theological colleges, says that the study of the Scriptures is relegated to a small place in the course because the time of the student is occupied with other studies which “it is hoped” may better fit him for Bible study. And after beginning work in the pulpit the preacher is expected to read the principal books against the Bible by the learned critics, and so he does not get time for real Bible study. This is given as accounting for the common habit of “regarding the Bible as a collection of ‘texts,’ each of which was useful in proportion as it set flowing the fountain of original thought in the servant manufacturer.” And the people and the learned critics are perishing for lack of knowledge. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 96.7
“‘Great Words’” The Present Truth 10, 6.
E. J. Waggoner
On Sunday, Jan. 28, the Pope held a reception in St. Peter’s, at which in response to an address, his secretary read a discourse previously prepared by the Pope. In this discourse, after deploring the present afflicted condition of Rome and Italy, he indulged in the following blasphemous claim for himself:— PTUK February 8, 1894, page 96.8
It is to be hoped that people will at least profit by bitter experience to see the first origin of the evil, and the most efficacious remedy. It is useless to dissimulate that the ruin of religion, designedly accomplished, has opened the way to moral and material ruin as well. Not only justice, therefore, but political common sense demands that those responsible should retrace their steps, restore religion to the honour in which it was held by our ancestors, and approach with confidence and without suspicion him who holds from God the supreme religious magistracy, for the words of eternal life, of which the Pope is the dispenser, have also the virtue of rendering prosperous even this our mortal existence.” PTUK February 8, 1894, page 96.9
“Hungering and Thirsting” The Present Truth 10, 6.
E. J. Waggoner
Hungering and Thirsting.—“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness.” But surely there would be no blessing in it if it were simply to hunger and thirst. We do not like to be hungry, and be unable to get anything to eat. It is intolerable torture to be thirsty, and to go hour after hour finding no water. The Saviour says, that they that hunger and thirst after righteousness are blessed, “for they shall be filled.” The blessing is that He has such an abundance that He satisfies the hungry at once. “They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy house; and Thou shalt make them drink of the river of Thy pleasure.” Hungry and thirsty, yet satisfied with good things, and full of delights. The Lord says, “Eat ye that which is good; and let your soul delight itself in fatness.” PTUK February 8, 1894, page 96.10
“Making Mistakes” The Present Truth 10, 6.
E. J. Waggoner
Making Mistakes.-The fact that God dwells in an individual, as He does in every one that believes on the name of Jesus, does not preclude that individual from exhibiting the limitations of humanity. It keeps him from sin, but not from all the mistakes that arise from the limitations of human vision and judgment. The mystery of godliness is God in man,—God manifested in the life of righteousness and man manifested in the frailties of the flesh. The one contrasts with the other, and by the very contrast it is manifest that the life is not of man, but of God; and that to Him alone belongs the glory. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 96.11
“Wanting at Last” The Present Truth 10, 6.
E. J. Waggoner
Wanting at Last.-People say they want to serve the Lord; want to be consecrated; want to do right; want the blessing of the Lord, etc. That kind of service will find one wanting at last. Wanting, wanting, wanting,—and never getting; thanking the Lord that we want to do this or that, and never doing it. That experience cannot result in anything at last, but, “Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.” If you want blessings, take them. The Lord has given them to you. If you want the Lord, take Him; for He is yours whether you have acknowledged it or not. And you are the Lord’s whether you want to be or not; for He has bought you with His own blood. PTUK February 8, 1894, page 96.12