The Present Truth, vol. 10
March 8, 1894
“Waiting” The Present Truth 10, 10.
E. J. Waggoner
Waiting.-Nearly everybody expects to be saved some time. But the fact that they expect some time to be ready to give up to the Lord, makes them satisfied with not being ready. This is what produces the feeling of indifference and lethargy. The Lord will never work with any greater power than He is now using. He is just what He is. He has not two measures of strength. When He works He works with His own power, and He is working now. Those who are expecting some mighty movement to come and sweep them off their feet, and carry them on board to Zion, will be disappointed. God never can increase in power. He is the perfection of power and goodness. Our part is to recognise the power already here, and to yield to it. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 145.7
“Doubt and Murder” The Present Truth 10, 10.
E. J. Waggoner
When Jesus read the prophecy of Isaiah, in the synagogue at Nazareth, and began to say to the people, whose eyes were fastened upon him, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. And all bare Him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth.” Luke 4:21, 22. The Spirit of the Lord was indeed upon Him, and as the result His words produced conviction. Involuntarily they responded to the power of the Spirit. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 145.8
Then came in another feeling. They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” They gave place to doubt. True, the words which Jesus had read and spoken had come with the force of the Holy Spirit, and they had acknowledged their gracious power; but they could not make the gracious words harmonise with their reason and experience, and so they lost the blessing. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 145.9
The same thing is repeated again and again in these days. People hear burning words of truth, which cause their own hearts to burn in response, and then doubt comes in under the guise of “prudence” and “caution.” “We must not be too quick to accept new things;” “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on Him?” “We will not commit ourselves until we see how this thing is going to turn.” “We cannot be too cautious”—these and many other things hold many people back from following the convictions produced by the Holy Spirit. Looking at the matter from a worldly critical point of view, they conclude that the influence of the Spirit was only a sudden impulse, which it would be most unwise to yield to. They are confirmed in this view by the fact that, as the result of their unbelieving calculation, the Spirit’s voice has been silenced, and they no longer feel that response in their hearts to the words of truth. And thus carnal wisdom proves their ruin. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 145.10
But this is not the end. The Gospel narrative tells us that the very people who at first bore witness to the gracious words of Jesus, seized Him a few minutes later, and attempted to throw Him down headlong from a precipice. Murder was in their hearts. That they did not kill Jesus was only because they had not the power. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 146.1
What caused this change?—Nothing but the cherishing of a single doubt. Here is a warning for those who think that doubt is a trivial matter. Every doubt has murder connected in it. Those doubts which seem so perfectly “natural” that you scarcely call them doubt, but only the manifestation of proper caution are the things which if cherished, will cry, “Crucify Him.” It is not a light thing to doubt the witness of the Spirit of God. One of the things which made David a man after God’s own heart, was the fact that he “made haste, and delayed not” to keep the commandments of God, when they were made known to him. Psalm 119:60. Take heed not to quench the Spirit by doubt. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 146.2
“Christ’s Humiliation His Glory” The Present Truth 10, 10.
E. J. Waggoner
Christ’s Humiliation His Glory.—“He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name.” Philippians 2:8, 9. The exaltation of Christ, that which is and will be His highest glory, and which makes angels bow before Him, is due to that which He has done and suffered for us. The prints in His hands, and the wound in the side will be throughout all eternity the tokens of His exaltation and power. When the Lord comes from heaven in glory, it will shine brightest from the side that was pierced. “His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of His praise. And His brightness was as the light; He had bright beams out of His side; and there was the biding of His power.” Habakkuk 3:3, 4, margin. Thus as every eye sees Him in the clouds of heaven, and also that pierced Him (Revelation 1:7), the marks of His humiliation when on earth will be the highest glory. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 146.3
“Healthful Doctrine” The Present Truth 10, 10.
E. J. Waggoner
The marginal readings in the Bible frequently give the more literal rendering of the text, and are often more suggestive than the free translation. In the Revision the marginal rendering of the words, “sound doctrine,” “sound speech,” etc., occurring several times in Paul’s epistles to Timothy and Titus, is “healthful” teaching, “healthful speech,” etc. that is what it is literally. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 146.4
Sin is a disease, a deadly taint that has stricken into the very heart and life. “The whole head is sick and the whole heart faint. From the soul of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it.” Disease is but the working of death and decay, and so it is that the “wages of sin is death.” PTUK March 8, 1894, page 146.5
Thus it is that the remedy for this malady must be “healthful doctrine,” “healthful” words. No words of man can avail anything; for there is no life in human words. Life is the only antidote of death. The word of God is living and vitalising, as Jesus said, “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.” “He sent His word and healed them.” Psalm 107:20. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 146.6
The one who would help his fellow men to escape from sin must declare the word of life as it is, taking nothing from it nor weakening it by putting human interpretations into it. Men may have a doctrine of Christ as a theory, and be for ever arguing and debating about it, but the doctrine of Christ cannot be held as a theory, as it is a life, vigorous and healthful. The man with a theory has a form without life, diseased and revolting, and no matter what the shape may be he cannot give it the warmth and glow of health. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 146.7
The apostle carries this idea of healthful words further in 1 Timothy 6:3, 4: “If any man teach a different doctrine, and consenteth not too heathful words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; he is puffed up, knowing nothing, and doting about questionings and disputes of words.” The word “doting” is put in the margin “sick.” It means that diseased condition of mind and heart that sees in the healthful doctrine of Christ only something to be discussed and argued about, a form of words. This is why it is that only the individual who has been healed by the word and knows the vitalising life of it, can declare the health-giving word of God. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 146.8
There is need of this preaching of healthful words now. Deadly error is stalking about endeavouring to mask itself with the Scriptures of truth, but its emasculated form shows readily enough that there is no health and life in it. Yet human nature that loves sin loves to have it so. Warning of the dangers of the last days, when the apostle was shown that perilous times would come, he tells Timothy to “preach the word,” the healthful word of God; “For the time will come when they will not endure healthful doctrine.” 2 Timothy 4:3. This charge comes to every believer now; for we are in the perils of the last days, and the very word of God is our only safety and health. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 146.9
“Feeling at Liberty” The Present Truth 10, 10.
E. J. Waggoner
The religion of Jesus Christ is not simply one of emotions. It does not quench feelings, but it consists of more than emotions. It is a fact. It holds good when a person can have no emotions. It holds good when the body is paralysed, and the nerves are numb,—when there is scarcely enough consciousness left to take notice of anything, and the mind has almost ceased to work. The man who knows Christ does not then have to reason out his hope, but rests in the consciousness of the fact of the life. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 146.10
It is a glorious truth that the religion of Christ needs not to be reasoned out. We do not have to trace evidences, and weigh arguments to know at any time what it is. This does not mean that God discounts the intellect with which He has endowed His creatures, but that faith is superior to reason. Human reason, not guided by the Spirit of God, leads to folly. Faith is a guide of reason; but the truth of the Spirit of God is not to be reasoned out, else there would be partiality; the kingdom of heaven could not in that case be received by a child as well as by a philosopher. But “the world by wisdom knew not God.” 1 Corinthians 1:21. The righteousness of God is not revealed to reason, but to faith. When one is at the very point of death, and the brain so sick and sore that it is a positive task to think at all, one can lie perfectly still and know that he is accepted, not because he feels that he is, but because God has said so. He need not look about to see if his feelings correspond to the demands, but he can rest in the Lord, knowing that he is in His hands. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 146.11
There are times, and it will come to every Christian, when he will not feel that he is free. He may be depressed in body. The weather often has an effect on people, and at any rate we are all still in the flesh. The flesh is still unconverted, and it will always remain so, for it is enmity against God, and cannot be subject to Him. It will demand that we serve it in this and that thing, and will demand satisfaction. Then is the time we want to know that we are free. If there is any doubt then we are in danger. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 147.1
The devil knows the weakness of the flesh, and he will work to regain his position. You say, “I am in doubt, and do not know. The other day in meetings the Lord seemed to set me free; but I do not feel so now. If I were free why should I feel so depressed?” And when we begin to hesitate and temporise, the devil, who is an expert in his art, brings us into discouragement and captivity. It is a fact that the Lord has proclaimed liberty to the captives. He holds the keys still, and the devil never can get hold of them. He has loosed the bonds of every man. David says, “I Lord, truly I am Thy servant; .. Thou hast loosed my bonds,” and it is true of every soul. There is not a soul in the world who might not say with truth, “Thou hast loosed my bonds;” and if he continued to say it on the authority of God’s word, he would continue free; for the Lord has proclaimed liberty to every captive. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 147.2
It is not a matter for feeling, but for practical use. When the enemy comes to destroy, when the flesh would rise up to assert its domination, then is the blessedness of this word, “I am free.” God has freed from that power, and He has power to maintain the freedom. Why should the experience of so many professors be fitful, now rejoicing and then again gloomy and full of doubt? God has declared freedom; will He put us in prison again? PTUK March 8, 1894, page 147.3
How many times we hear people talking about being in the dark; “it was light, but now it is gloom.” They have simply allowed Satan to thrust them into the dark cell, because they wandered near Doubting Castle. Bunyan had the truth of the thing when he told the story of Christian and Hopeful in Doubting Castle. They had been lying there in the dark for a week or more when Christian bethought himself of the key of Promise which he had in his bosom, which opened every door and gate in the castle, and they walked at liberty because they believed the Lord. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 147.4
Now why should we be in doubting Castle when the Lord sets us free and enlightens the gloom? We have the promise that the word is not far off. It is not in heaven, that we should go up to bring it, nor across the sea, that we should send for it. It is nigh thee, even in thy heart. So to everyone that key has been given, and all can be free all the time, if they will use it. The Lord never puts us in bondage, and the time for us to assert our liberty is when the enemy would drag us back into captivity. He would be a strange man who, when the notice came to him in prison that he had been pardoned and set free, should wait until he felt free, before walking out at liberty. It would show that he did not believe in the genuineness of the pardon, or that he doubted its authority. It is because people do not believe God, that they refuse to assert their freedom when He proclaims it to every soul. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 147.5
“Hollow Conventionalities” The Present Truth 10, 10.
E. J. Waggoner
Everybody knows that there is much insincerity and gilt-edged hypocrisy hidden under many of the conventionalities of social life. Greetings are exchanged when face to face, and hard things are often said when parted. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 147.6
“I am glad to see you,” is often spoken when but a moment before, as the visitor entered the gate, the word had been, “There is Mrs. Tiresome; how I do dislike her.” PTUK March 8, 1894, page 147.7
But someone asked, “Would you have people to be discourteous, and give offence to those whom they dislike, and still are obliged to meet?” Not at all. The Gospel lays down no rule for the guidance of people with dislike, hatred, envy, or jealousy in the heart. They must deport themselves as may be most expedient. They have deceit and dissimulation in the heart, and out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak; so dissembling and insincerity must come out. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 147.8
But the one who would follow Christ, and be a Christian indeed, need have no fear about being discourteous by being sincere. The Christian has no business to dislike people. It is not the Christ in him that dislikes his fellow, but the remnants of the old man. The problem is not how to keep the old animosities and get on passably, but how to get rid of the wicked feelings, root and branch. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 147.9
“But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him.... Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any; even as Christ forgave you.” Colossians 3:8-13. With this spirit there will be no hollow conventionalities; and this is what the love of God sheds abroad in the hearts of those who are willing to receive it. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 147.10
Of course some people may be tiresome and disagreeable. But the Lord did not set His love upon us because we were such pleasing company; we wearied Him with our wickedness and heaped reproach upon Him. His kindness was shown to sinners, and as partakers together in sin, and as objects together of love, we all our brethren, and He is not ashamed to call us such. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 147.11
Conventional phrases may sometimes hide malice from others; but they fail to do so more frequently than it is conventional to notice. Those who will not submit to God’s way must struggle along with hollow words as best they can. But the love of God suppresses the symptoms by curing the disease, that the Christian may be “sincere and without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.” John says of those whom he saw in mount Sion, that “in their mouth was found no guile.” It is because their hearts are freed from guile and insincerity. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 147.12
“Unspeakable” The Present Truth 10, 10.
E. J. Waggoner
Unspeakable.-Many who have recognised the goodness and preciousness of the Lord feel a diffidence about testifying to others, because they cannot express in words what they see and know. But if it could be fully expressed, it would not be a true Christian experience. The apostle says, “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.” If it were not more than can be expressed in human language, it would not be more than we could think. But the Lord gives us more than we can ask or think. And the Spirit of the Lord reveals it to us. And just so the Spirit of the Lord takes the feeble expressions of one in whom that Spirit dwells, and conveys to the hearer all that is in the heart of the speaker, but which his words are inadequate to express. Christ spoke the language of the common people; His words were very simple; but the power of the life behind His words, clothed them with authority, so that those who heard Him said, “Never man spake like this man.” PTUK March 8, 1894, page 147.13
“‘Have Faith in God’” The Present Truth 10, 10.
E. J. Waggoner
These words were spoken by our Saviour to His disciples when they had expressed their surprise at the sudden withering of the barren fig tree. Mark 11:22. They are no less applicable to each one of us to-day than they were to the little companies who followed Jesus in His walks about Judea. They are the words of eternal life to the sinner sitting in the darkness and shadow of death. They are the sum of all that God, by the various ways in which He communicates with man, speaks to the human soul. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 148.1
Have you faith in God? Do you know that you have it? Are you certain that you know what faith is? The disciples thought they had faith, but in the time of test and trial they were found wanting. Faith stands every test; but that which is not faith, does not endure the test. If you have faith, you will abide unshaken the storms and temptations of this mortal life; but if that which you think is faith is only a counterfeit of faith, when the storm beats hard your house will be overthrown. It is all-important to know now whether your house is built upon the sand, or on the solid rock. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 148.2
The solid rock is the word of God; and there is no such thing as faith without this word. The rock is Christ, and Christ is the Word. John 1:1, 14. That word may not seem to you to be solid; nevertheless it is. We are not accustomed to think of words as being substantial like rocks, but this is true of the word of the Lord. That word is as substantial as God Himself. And while the earth and earthly things shall pass away and be no more, the word of the Lord will abide as firm as the eternal throne. By that word they came into existence, and by that word will they be dissolved and vanish away. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 148.3
Faith is composed of two elements,—belief, and the word of God. Counterfeit faith has only one of these elements; it always lacks the word. It rests upon something else,—some feeling, or impression, or hope, or desire, or process of reasoning, or upon the word of some man. Faith accepts the word of God, no matter how it reads, without questioning. Pretended faith is often obliged to explain the word away. Genuine faith “worketh by love.” Pretended faith either works not at all, or by some motive which has its root in self. What love is, we are told in the thirteenth chapter of 1 Corinthians. With these facts in mind, it becomes an easy thing to determine whether you have faith in God or not. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 148.4
The Saviour said that he who had faith should ask whatsoever he would of God, and it should be given him. He who has faith, will ask according to God’s will, and God will always hear such a petition and answer it; for faith always rests upon God’s word, which is the expression of His will. And he who asks in faith, will believe that he receives the things he asked for, basing his belief upon the promise of God. He not only believes that he has them, but he does have them, really and literally. So it makes all the difference in the world with an individual, in the truest sense, whether or not he has faith. It is only the blindness and perverseness of the natural mind which makes a person who admits and knows the substantial benefits that come from faith in man, think there is nothing substantial to be derived from faith in God. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 148.5
“Visited and Redeemed” The Present Truth 10, 10.
E. J. Waggoner
When Zacharias, filled with the Holy Ghost, prophesied at the birth of John the Baptist, he said, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for He hath visited and redeemed His people.” Luke 1:68. John’s message was to prepare the way of the Lord. It is specifically prophesied of in Isaiah. “The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” Isaiah 40:3-5. Further on it says, “Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and His arm shall rule for Him: behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him.” PTUK March 8, 1894, page 148.6
The work which John began, therefore, was not only to prepare people for the first advent of Christ, but was to continue until the Lord should come with strong arm to redeem, bringing His reward with Him. See Revelation 22:12. So the same work is still going on. “The glory of the Lord shall be revealed,” and we have it revealed to us now in the things which God has made. The everlasting Gospel is but a call to worship Him that made heaven and earth and all things. The light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon all men. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 148.7
Then we may say the same thing which Zacharias spoke by the Spirit, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for He hath visited and redeemed His people.” Anyone can say, “He hath visited me, and redeemed me.” We have redemption through His blood in the forgiveness of sins, because the blood of Christ stands for the life of Christ. We have redemption through His life, for He gave His life a ransom for many. Matthew 20:28. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 148.8
When did He visit us? Long He has been saying to every one, “Behold I stand at the door, and knock; if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.” Revelation 3:20. He is a welcome visitor, too, because He brings His provision with Him, when we have nothing. When we say continually, Lord, abide with us, He does abide. He will stay as long as we are willing to have Him, and His presence is life and redemption. This is as really true to-day as when Zacharias spoke; and whoever believes it must be as happy over it as he was. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 148.9
Redeemed! A slave set free! It requires no great stretch of imagination to see how a slave, a captive, driven, scourged, and bound, would feel with his fetters removed, and his freedom given to him. He would be a happy man. He would not receive the news of freedom stoically, and with a long face-not if he believed the message. His heart would be so full he would leap for joy. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 148.10
The Lord wants us to rejoice; not because we think we ought to rejoice, but because we have so vivid a sense of His redemption that we know it to be a fact. We have been captives of a cruel master, and now we are redeemed. We know it because the Lord says so. He has bought us, and given us His own life. Now when the enemy comes in the form of doubt, in the form of indifference, envy, pride, slavish fear,—in a thousand different forms, — trying to force us back into bondage, we are to maintain the fact that we are free. Eternal life is our right, through Christ. Let us stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 148.11
“Courage” The Present Truth 10, 10.
E. J. Waggoner
The worldling may associate gentleness and meekness with lack of firmness and strength; but in this is shown only the folly of worldly wisdom. Love vaunteth not itself and makes no display that appeals to the senses and passions, but it is an element that stands firm when all else is shaken. The Christian character is the firmest and most unyielding thing in this world; because it is the life of Christ within, the power that upholds all things, the word indwelling which stands though heaven and earth pass away. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 149.1
“He that ruleth his own spirit,” is better “than he that taketh a city.” Mere physical courage cannot fathom or comprehend moral courage. Many a soldier who is nourished by the peculiar fighting passion of the battle field to engage superior numbers or storm a battery amidst a shower of shot and shell, has been too great a coward to yield to the convictions within that told him he ought to read his Bible and pray even though his companions showered ridicule and harmless abuse upon him. Physical courage may enable a man to kill somebody else, but only moral courage strengthens him to crucify the flesh with its lusts and ways. True courage is of God; wars and fightings are of the devil. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 149.2
No such battle was ever fought, and no such courage ever required as in the Christian warfare, which is waged “not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, again spiritual wickedness in high places.” The strength for this battle is given of God, and with it the courage of God. It is strength and courage every hour for the conflict with sin. One who fights this battle, and allows the Lord to lead him as He pleases, will not be engaged in fighting against the flesh of others. There will be no time when he can draw off his forces to combat somebody else. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 149.3
The man who yields most fully to the gentle life of the Lord will be firmest in standing for that which is right and truth. With Christ he can say, “The Lord God will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded; therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.” The lack of firmness and strength, and the timidity, is not because of humility and meekness, but is an evidence that we have not learned to distrust ourselves and put our trust in God. Christ said, “I will put My trust in Him” (Hebrews 2:13), and to us is given “the faith of Jesus,” the same trust, that like Him our faces may be set like a flint, and that like Him also there may be nothing of hardness in the disposition, but only gentleness, meekness, love. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 149.4
“Confessing Christ in the Flesh” The Present Truth 10, 10.
E. J. Waggoner
WHAT CONFESSION IS
“Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God; and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God.” 1 John 4:2, 3. Confession means, speaking the same thing; acknowledging that which is said; agreeing together. The confession of sin is the acknowledgment of sin that has been pointed out. The Holy Spirit comes as a convicter of sin, and says, “You have sinned in this thing,” and we confess our sin when we speak the same thing, and say, “Yes; that is true.” PTUK March 8, 1894, page 149.5
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” An instance of this is found in the case of David, who had slain Uriah in battle, and taken his wife. Nathan the prophet was sent to rebuke him, and by means of a parable he made the enormity of the sin stand out vividly before the king. Then he said to him, “Thou art the man.” “And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord.” There was confession. And there was faithfulness in forgiving, according to the promise; for immediately Nathan replied, “The Lord also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.” 2 Samuel 12:13. David agreed with the Lord, speaking the same thing. That was true confession. Confession, therefore, means the acknowledging of what has been made known to us. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 149.6
CHRIST IN HUMAN FLESH
“Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God.” It does not say that every spirit that openly denies it, but every spirit that does not confess it. Bearing in mind what is meant by confession, we learn from these verses in John’s epistle that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a fact, whether we confess it or not. “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” John 1:14. “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same.” Hebrews 2:14. “For verily He took not on Him the nature of angels; but He took on Him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succour them that are tempted.” Hebrews 2:16-18. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 149.7
The Apostle Peter exhorts us by this fact. “Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind; for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.” 1 Peter 4:1, 2. He who arms himself with the same mind as Christ, will not, even while remaining in the flesh, live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of the flesh; because although Christ suffered in the flesh, being tempted in all points like as we are, yet it was without sin. He the Son of God, coming in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, “condemned sin in the flesh.” Romans 8:3. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 149.8
NATURE OF THE FLESH
We have here the statement of Scripture that Jesus Christ, the Word, who was in the beginning with God, and who was and is God, “was made flesh and dwelt among us,” in us, “full of grace and truth.” In being made flesh, He took upon Him the same kind of flesh that we have, the flesh of man, which is sin, for Paul said on Mars Hill (Acts 17:26) that God “hath made of one blood all nations of men.” The Revised Version has it that God has made us one, that is, one person, Adam, all persons, thus showing emphatically that all human flesh is the same. The apostle also says that there is “one kind of flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another flesh of birds, and another of fishes.” 1 Corinthians 15:39. So that there is but one flesh of man; so that whether white or black, yellow or another-colour, whether dwelling in Europe, Asia, or Africa, all men are of one flesh. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 149.9
“Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like.” Galatians 5:19-21. This is the description of human flesh. Whatever we may know of man and of the wickedness of men in the flesh, we may each one know this, that is the wickedness of our flesh. This is something which should ever keep down pride and self-exaltation in the human heart. The cruelty and abominable deeds that startle us, are the natural works which spring spontaneously out of just such flesh as we all have. When we hear of deeds of savagery, whether among civilised or uncivilised people, all feel the indignation which we must all feel, we are reminded when our indignation begins to boil over into condemnation, that there is but one flesh of man. So we have nothing to boast of over another. Boasting is excluded, and our indignation turns to ..., because such are we by nature. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 150.1
BEARING CURSE
And now we read that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, when He took upon Himself the nature of man; was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, “in all things like unto His brethren” (Hebrews 2:17); and more than that, we read that even now He is “touched with the feeling of our infirmities” (Hebrews 4:15), our weaknesses. He has not forgotten the temptation and suffering which He felt when upon the earth; but He knows and feels it still. Seven hundred years before Christ was manifested in the flesh, Isaiah said by the Spirit, “the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Isaiah 53:6. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 150.2
Jesus Christ “was foreordained before the foundation of the world.” 1 Peter 1:20. He is the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” Revelation 13:8. It is by Him and in Him that we have lived and do “live, and move, and have our being.” Acts 17:28. He is the true light that “lighteth every man that cometh into the world” (John 1:9); and that light is the life of men. Verse 4. It is only by the life which is given to men through the grace of God in Christ, that men have the power to commit the evil deeds which we see and know. It is the breath of life which God breathed into man’s nostrils, and which He still continues to them, that men use in blaspheming the name of God. It is the power which not only comes from God, but is the life of God, which men pervert in fulfilling the lusts of the flesh and of the mind. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 150.3
PERVERTING GOD’S LIFE
When God in His mercy gave to sinful man a probation, and permitted him to live on this earth, so that he was not blotted out of existence in the very act of sinning, He simply continued to him for a time a portion of His own life, with which to live that probation. He gave man His own life, so that he might show whether he would live that life to the glory of God, by allowing Christ to direct the life, and live it in him, or whether he would take it and still pervert it to his own base uses. In Him all men live and have their being, and so “the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Thus it is that the Lord says, “Thou hast made Me to serve with thy sins.” Isaiah 43:23. That life of Christ is in every man that comes into the world, the life by which he lives and moves, and it is that which every man uses and perverts in the commission of sin. So that every sin committed in the flesh since the fall of Adam is a sin charged up to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is laid on Him. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 150.4
THE SOURCE OF ALL GOOD
This serves to explain the good traits, the generous impulses, and the desires for righteousness, which are manifest to a greater or lesser extent in all men. Even the wickedest men show at times good traits, and have times of yielding to better influences. These good traits and impulses and occasional longings for righteousness, are the result of the Divine light-the life of Christ-which is given to every man. They are the strivings of the Spirit. The flesh itself is totally corrupt, and irreclaimable, so that every good thing must come from God. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 150.5
Christ has not forgotten, and cannot forget the sufferings of the temptations incident to sinful flesh; because He still lives, and His life is still given to man, and will continue to be given to all men, even to sinners, as long as probation continues. All men still live by it, and therefore He is now identified with human flesh, and is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. Inasmuch, therefore, as He suffered in the flesh for sin, and yielded up the life which had been perverted by men in sin, “He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him.” Hebrews 7:25. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 150.6
THE MYSTERY OF GODLINESS
When Christ was here on the earth in the flesh, it was God manifest in the flesh. “Believest thou not,” He said, “that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?” God was in Him in the flesh which He voluntarily took,—the only begotten Son abode in the bosom of the Father, and therefore He knew no sin, although in sinful flesh. This is “the mystery of godliness.” PTUK March 8, 1894, page 150.7
So we have this glorious fact, the confession of which will lift the soul up to God, the fact that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, that all iniquity is laid upon Him and charged up to Him, and that He bears all the weaknesses and sinful tendencies of the flesh of man. He accepts it. And He still bears it, neither will He lay it off until He comes “the second time without sin unto salvation.” Hebrews 9:28. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 150.8
This being a fact by the word of God, whosoever confesses the fact, whosoever “confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of God,” and whosoever “confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is not of God.” But it is a fact whether it is confessed or not. It is a glorious truth,—one with which one can go to the outcast and tempted,—that although Christ has “gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto Him,” yet He still abides with men. Before the first advent His life was the light of men, and upon Him was laid the iniquity of all. And when He came to earth revealed as a man, it was simply in the line of giving to us a larger manifestation of the fact, and showing to us what God in the flesh, unhindered and not denied, means. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 150.9
Jesus Christ witnessed a good confession before Pontius Pilate. And that confession, and that witness to the truth, He maintained throughout His life,—that He was the Son of God, and that the Father dwelt in Him. He confessed the Father’s name before the world. In Psalm 22. it is written, “I will declare Thy name unto My brethren;” and in John 17:26 Christ repeats it, “I have declared unto them Thy name.” Every moment of His life He was confessing and never denying that He came from God and went to God, always acknowledging that the Father was in Him. He confessed, “I can of mine own self do nothing.” John 5:30. “The words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself; but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works.” John 14:10. He confessed continually that God had come in His flesh, and showed to us what the life of God in human flesh means when it is always confessed, never denied, and never perverted. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 151.1
HELP FOR THE TEMPTED
And now He “is come in the flesh.” You can go to the tempted and outcast with that, and assure them that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, and that every sin that they have committed, and even the sinful nature which led them into those sins, He takes upon Himself, and identifies Himself with it, assuming all the responsibility for the sins committed with the life which has been perverted. Oh, the blessedness of the fact that God hath made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:21. Tempted, and suffering as no man ever yet suffered in the flesh for sin, He knew no sin. Again and again He said of Himself He could do nothing, but He trusted God; and when we read that Jesus Christ came and took all the weaknesses of sinful flesh, we also read that these weaknesses never manifested themselves in His life. Therefore when from the heart we confess the fact which the Scripture tells us, that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh even now, and even in us, because we are in the flesh, the recognition of that brings also the other fact with it, that in Him was no sin while in the flesh; therefore His life, while we confess it, cleanses us from sin. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 151.2
This is not a fact to be passed over once for all. It is not something to be experienced one moment, and then to be looked back upon as an experience, as many regard conversion or the new birth. Present experience is what counts. He that “confesseth”-is confessing-is of God. He that confesses it day by day, and hour by hour, and moment by moment, living continually in the recognition that Christ is in him, and that it is His life that he has,—He is of God. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 151.3
“For Christ also hath suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.” 1 Peter 3:18. It was in order that we might abide in Him, and His life be perfectly manifested in us. That part of it Christ has performed. “I in them,” yes, in sinful flesh. Now He wants us to acknowledge that fact continually, that we may thus be in Him. He in us means that He has taken all of our sins and carried our sorrows,—that our burdens are upon Him, and that He feels them. We in Him means that we are made “the righteousness of God in Him,” and that all His righteousness which He had in the flesh is ours. All our sin is His, all His righteousness is ours. He in us to bear the sin, that we may bear the righteousness. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 151.4
There is everlasting glory and life in that confession; for “this is life eternal that we might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.” John 17:3. This weakness of ours He feels; for Christ is come in the flesh. This sin He has borne. He knows all about it. Not only did He bear it then, but He bears its still, since it is His life that He has given us. He gave it to us, because He “tasted death for every man,” and it is His life that feels and meets the pressure of this sinful flesh of ours. Those evil desires, that thirst for liquor, that craving of appetite, the longings of the flesh,—He has felt it all, and even now identifies Himself with us, and says, “I know that. It touches Me. I am come in the flesh, have identified Myself with it, and every sin is laid on Me.” PTUK March 8, 1894, page 151.5
Just as soon as we can know that, and while we continue to know it, the soul is filled with joy unspeakable. It makes known to us the fact that the One who feels that sin, who identifies Himself with us in it, is the glorious Son of God in whom is no sin, and therefore all His righteousness is ours, and we are in Him as He is in us. For the knowledge that He bears the sin, is the knowledge that we are freed from its guilt and power. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 151.6
A PRESENT SAVIOUR
“Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God.” It is not every spirit that says that it is not a fact, not every spirit in whom it is not a fact; for it is a fact. But every spirit that does not confess that Christ is come-not has come, but now is come-is not of God. It is always now. And when we confess this fact, that Jesus Christ identifies Himself with us in our sinfulness, He also confesses us before the Father in His righteousness, and we are one with Him. So the righteousness of faith speaketh on this wise, “Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is to bring Christ down from above!)” He is come down in the likeness of sinful flesh. “Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is to bring up Christ again from the dead.)” He is risen. “But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy 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 10:6-9. Confess what?—That Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. There is something in that which every man in this world may lay hold of and find in it a lifting up. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 151.7
CHRIST’S LIFE GOD’S LIFE
We confess that His life is ours. Everything then is to be brought to the touchstone of the life of Christ. We confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, and His righteousness is ours, because His life has no sin in it. Sin is “the transgression of the law,” and the law was in His heart (Psalm 40:8), and “out of the heart are the issues of life.” Proverbs 4:23. So the life of Christ is the law of God. He said, “I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.” John 15:10. Therefore when we confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, it means that the life we live is the life of Christ,—“Christ liveth in me,”—and we cannot confess that unless we are letting Him live the life in His own way. We must not be so presumptuous as to think that we can live the life of Christ ourselves. We have no power to do it. Therefore we shall find that to confess the life of Christ, to confess that He is come in the flesh, is to confess that while in the flesh He kept the commandments of God; and while we confess that, we confess allegiance to the law of God, that He may live it in us. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 151.8
Let us see what is involved in the confession that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, and that in the perfect example that He has set us in the flesh, He kept the Father’s commandments. What will He live in us when we confess that He is come in our flesh, and when we by continually confessing that fact, allow Him to live the life in His own way? PTUK March 8, 1894, page 152.1
BELIEVING UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS
“Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.” The tempter showed to Jesus all the kingdoms of the world, and said, “All these things will I give Thee, if Thou wilt fall down and worship me.” But the Saviour said, “Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.” Matthew 4:8-10. Therefore when the devil presents himself to us in any form, to bring something between our soul and God, if we confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, then He says in us and for us, “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.” “Then the devil leaveth Him,” and so he must leave us when Christ living in us commands him to depart. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 152.2
“Thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.” Christ said to the Father, “I have declared Thy name unto My brethren.” And not in vain did He do it, for Christ came not in vain; He did not suffer in vain. So we find wrought in us, the utmost reverence for the name of God. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 152.3
“Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” There was once a time when the Pharisees accused Jesus of breaking the Sabbath day, as the disciples were allowed without rebuke to pluck the ears of corn, thrashing out the grain and eating it as they walked through the fields. But He said that the Son of man is Lord of the Sabbath day; He had not broken it, because it was His day. Then at another time a man was healed on the Sabbath day, and the Jews accused Him of breaking the Sabbath; but He told them that it is “lawful to do well on the Sabbath days.” Matthew 12:12. It is one of the commandments of God of which He said, “I have kept My Father’s commandments.” He was not a breaker of the Sabbath commandment which says, “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; in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; for 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.” Exodus 20:8-11. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 152.4
That is the day on which Christ said it was lawful to do well; not to do ill. It is the seventh day of the week, the last day, which the Jews profess to keep, but did not. Christ kept it, and He comes in our flesh for the purpose of keeping it in us. So when we have confessed for years, it may be, that Christ is come in the flesh, that His life is in us, there comes to us at last the fact that He always kept the commandments, and it dawns upon us that the fourth is one of them, and that it enjoins the observance of the seventh day, the Sabbath. But it will be inconvenient for us to keep it, and will cause the loss of friends, and possibly the loss of our very means of gaining a living. Suppose we say, “We will still confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, but we cannot go so far as to keep the Sabbath of the Lord,—the seventh day.” How will that do? “He that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God;” but all the time Jesus was in the flesh, the will of the Father was perfectly done in Him. It is not with the mouth alone that confession is made. “My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.” 1 John 3:18. Of some it is written, “They profess that they know God, but in works they deny Him.” Titus 1:16. It is from the heart that the true confession comes. “He that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God.” But Jesus Christ in the flesh always did and does the will of God; therefore we confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh,—our flesh,—when we yield to everything that the Scriptures reveal to us in His life. Whenever a new feature of His life appears, we are to say to Him, “Live this in us also by Thine own life. Keep the Sabbath in us, even as Thou didst in the flesh in Judea and Galilee.” PTUK March 8, 1894, page 152.5
Then again the Lord says, “Honour thy father and thy mother.” And Jesus said, “I honour My Father.” And further we read in Luke 2:51, that as a child Jesus was subject unto His parents. So a child as well as older people confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, and, confessing that, they will have His obedience lived in them: Christ learned obedience, and will impart to them obedience. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 152.6
“Thou shalt not kill.” Christ said, “The Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” Luke 9:56. So far was He from taking men’s lives, that He laid down His own life to save them. So then He who from the heart confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, will be ever careful of the welfare of others. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 152.7
“Thou shalt not commit adultery.” Jesus is of purer eyes than to look upon evil. He was pure in heart. So, knowing that He felt the strivings of the lusts of the flesh, because He was tempted in all points as we are, but yet without sin; if when we are tempted, we confess that Jesus Christ is in our flesh, we know that by the power of the endless life which dwelt in Him and enabled Him to put down and condemn sin in the flesh, we also are made the righteousness of God in Him. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 152.8
“Thou shalt not bear false witness.” Jesus said, “For this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.” John 18:37. “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” John 14:6. When we intelligently confess that He is in us, we shall allow Him to witness to the truth, in us. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 152.9
“Thou shalt not covet.” So far was Christ from coveting, that He would not even hold on to that which He had. “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not to be a thing to be grasped to be on an equality with God; but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death, yea, the death of the cross.” Philippians 2:5-8. In Him was no grasping after the things of others, but all meekness and lowliness. And when day by day and hour by hour we confess that Jesus Christ is come in our flesh, all these graces He brings into us, identifying Himself with our sins, that we may be in Him identified with all His righteousness. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 152.10
THE SPIRIT OF ANTICHRIST
“Every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.” The spirit of antichrist is described in 2 Thessalonians 2:4, exalting itself and opposing itself “above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” This is that spirit of antichrist, confessing not that Jesus is come in the flesh to subdue and keep it under, but exhibiting the very lusts of the flesh, domineering and using force, building up self continually. We exhibit that spirit of antichrist when we would bring everything to our standard, and judge every man by ourselves. Jesus said, “I judge no man.” How wonderfully the principle of freedom and religious liberty is manifested in the life of Christ. We get that glorious liberty when we confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 152.11
Whose life were we prostituting all the years that we have lived in sin? It was the life of Christ. In Him all men live and have their being. He gave us His own life, all the while knowing that He was the standard of everlasting righteousness, and yet He did not compel or force us in any way. He simply drew us all the time by His everlasting love. Such wonderful freedom was never known among men. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 153.1
Men say, “There are many of us that believe thus and so. We as a people, as a church, as a nation, hold this to be truth. Those who do not believe as we do must be compelled to do so. If they cannot be compelled to believe, we will compel them to act as though they did, and to conform to our customs. It is an offence to us that men should thus act contrary to what we believe. It disturbs us, and they must be forced to stop.” PTUK March 8, 1894, page 153.2
TRUE RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
But Jesus Christ lived with us all these years, while we were sinning. Did it not disturb Him that we sinned, that we blasphemed His name, and perverted the life He gave in endless ways? Most surely it was a grievous offence to Him; yet He said, “If any man hear My words and believe not, I judge Him not.” John 12:47. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him.” Not by one hair’s breadth will He compel us to act contrary to our own will. That will He has set for ever free. He has besought us. Long and lovingly He has pleaded with us to accept Him; but never did He seek to compel. In Him we learn the perfection of religious liberty. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 153.3
Now He says, “If ye continue in My word, then are ye My disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:31, 32. So if we have been bound down by the chains of the flesh, and the dominion of the flesh has asserted itself over us (and that dominion is only a manifestation of that same dominion that men in the flesh have asserted over others), we know that Christ was compassed with the infirmities of the flesh, and yet was free. He was the Word of God, and the word of God is not bound. And when we confess Him in our flesh, we know that He steps in and takes that burden, and the burden of sin is ours no longer; it is His. “The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” The burden we have not known how to carry, the bondage of evil that will overshadow us, He will take upon Himself, and show us how to be free. He will show us what He can do with sin. That weakness is His; He will show us how His strength can be made perfect in weakness. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 153.4
Whatever the difficulty and temptation, we confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, and He accepts us and says we are in Him and He lives in us. “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” 1 Timothy 1:15. Yes, because He, the chief among ten thousand, the One altogether lovely, came down and suffered as the chief of sinners, because He bore the sins of all. The chief in heaven, He died the chief of malefactors. So we are the chief of sinners, that in us, as chief, Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering and salvation. Oh, let everything that hath breath praise the Lord, and let all say, “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.” PTUK March 8, 1894, page 153.5
GLORIFYING GOD
Tell it to the world, not to the people, to the devil himself when he comes to tempt us, “Jesus Christ liveth in me.” “I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20. What will be the result of this confession; when Jesus wrought a wonderful miracle, the people glorified God who had given such power unto men. Matthew 9:8. He Himself was passed by, and God was glorified. The Apostle Paul said, “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by His grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood.” Galatians 1:15, 16. And when to Paul it was revealed that the Son of God was in him, in order that he might confess Him before the world, the brethren heard that he now preached the faith which he once destroyed, and they glorified God in him. Galatians 1:21. When Christ is revealed in us, men will glorify God because of what is seen in us, even as they did in the cases of Jesus and Paul. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 153.6
Christ is the light of the world, the light which lighteth every man which cometh into the world; and so He says, “Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works (the fruit of that light) and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” PTUK March 8, 1894, page 153.7
“Free in Christ” The Present Truth 10, 10.
E. J. Waggoner
Free in Christ.-If you have Christ, you must be free; for no fetters can bind Him. He is free and abideth ever free. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 160.1
“Enjoying Freedom” The Present Truth 10, 10.
E. J. Waggoner
Enjoying Freedom.-It is said that when the Czar of Russia goes for his outing in Denmark, he may be seen almost every morning, by those who rise early enough, tramping across the meadows, with osier basket on his back, in quest of mushrooms for his breakfast. For a short time he is a free man. Very generally the poor peasant with frugal fare, a thatch to cover his head, a strong arm, and a free heart, knows more of the real enjoyment of life than those who wear soft raiment and are found in kings’ palaces. Even this natural life is a great leveller, and we have the poor rich and the rich poor breathing the same free air. “Better is little with the fear of the Lord than great treasure and trouble therewith.” Proverbs 15:17. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 160.2
“Furious Athleticism” The Present Truth 10, 10.
E. J. Waggoner
Furious Athleticism.-True recreation is re-creation, a building up and healthful process for mind and body. But when it degenerates into an end, administering solely to pleasure, athletic exercise is sadly perverted, and becomes simply “sport.” However great may be the difference in the particular forms in which the passion for “sport” manifests itself, the brute instinct exhibited so frequently shows that all the world is akin. We in northern lands are accustomed to denounce the Spanish bull-fights as barbarous. But a Spanish writer who has watched one kind of football contests says: “Be still! You can say nothing of the barbarity of the Spaniards. In bull-fights they disembowel brute beasts; in football they destroy men-respectable and studious youth, as if they were mad dogs. The handsome youths attack one another, tread upon one another, they bruise, they wound, they dislocate the joints of one another, they break each other’s noses, they kill one another.” This is the way it appears to the Spaniard. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 160.3
“Beer and Milk” The Present Truth 10, 10.
E. J. Waggoner
Beer and Milk.-In prosecutions for adulteration, according to an annual report on the workings of the Food and Drugs Act, watering the milk is considered by the magistrates a small thing as compared with the grave offence of watering beer. A shilling is often the penalty of the former, while as much as ?50 is frequently exacted for “adulterating” beer with water. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 160.4
“Worshipping the Creature” The Present Truth 10, 10.
E. J. Waggoner
Worshipping the Creature.-Mrs. Besant’s lectures in India show how far one may go when refusing to see God in His works. The path leads straight on to the worshipping of the works of our own hands. Glorifying Hinduism, she “spoke in appreciative terms of the idol worship of the Hindus. The idol was endowed with magnetic energy, working good to those around it-it was a living centre of blessing to whole villages and towns. In going to some of their temples, the lecturer said, she had found but a faint wave of the magnetism imparted to idols by the sages of old. But the possibility of revival was not lost.” PTUK March 8, 1894, page 160.5
“Complicated” The Present Truth 10, 10.
E. J. Waggoner
Complicated.-It might be supposed that anywhere in the British Empire the marriage contract would be a very simple affair, so far as solidity is concerned, when the parties thereto are acting voluntarily and intelligently. But in Malta the Catholic authorities have disputed the validity of mixed marriages, that is between a Catholic and Protestant, unless celebrated according to the religious rites of the Catholic church. The question is being argued before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, and is said to involve “canon law, civil law, matrimonial law, Maltese law, Colonial law, and international law.” All this because of the effort to force men to recognise a religious ordinance. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 160.6
“Passive Instruments” The Present Truth 10, 10.
E. J. Waggoner
Passive Instruments.-To know the power of God, we must be passive in His hands. To live, we must first die. We must die unto sin, as did our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 6:10. When Christ was dead He was passive in the hands of God (as He always had been), and God raised Him from the dead, and He lived. So must we become passive instruments in God’s hands by dying unto sin, that we may know the power of His resurrection. “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Verse 11. If we will be passive in the hands of God, as a dead man is passive in the hands of an earthly friend, God will make us alive and active by the power of His glory, which raised up our Lord from the dead, in all things pertaining to salvation. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 160.7
“Back Page” The Present Truth 10, 10.
E. J. Waggoner
In a recent sermon on “Christ and Democracy,” the Dean of Ely gave expression to a religio-political confession of faith, one of the articles of which reads thus:— PTUK March 8, 1894, page 160.8
We believe that in any truly Christian city there would undoubtedly be a bye-law of the council suppressing the scandalous indecencies of the Divorce Court, and the brutalising horrors of the Police Court, in the public prints, and prohibiting the publication in any newspaper of all betting lists, the odds on sporting events, and any information likely to stimulate gambling, whether on the turf or the Stock Exchange. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 160.9
But the query is, How could such a bye-law be necessary in any “truly Christian city”? Can a “Christian city” have a standard different from that of a Christian man? and would the good Dean think it consistent for a Christian man to bet and gamble, or to be connected with “the brutalising horrors of the Police Court”? The statement is a most significant one, as it unconsciously reveals the nature of all so-called “Christian governments.” They are simply those in which the wickedness is done under cover, so that it does not appear. And it cannot possibly be otherwise, because law can never give people more than a form of godliness, without the power. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 160.10
A law has been enacted in Guernsey providing that religious instruction in the elementary schools “shall be in conformity with the doctrines of the Anglican Church, and shall be under the direction of the ecclesiastical authority.” The school money is raised by compulsory rates. Nonconformity is strong in the island, and protested vigorously, but to no avail. The legislature is not elected, and paid no attention to the protest. PTUK March 8, 1894, page 160.11