The Present Truth, vol. 11
December 12, 1895
“Front Page” The Present Truth 11, 50.
E. J. Waggoner
“Envy thou not the oppressor, and choose none of his ways.” Proverbs 3:31. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 785.1
It is so natural to envy such men that the exhortation needs to be often repeated. Again we read, “Be not thou envious against evil men, neither desire to be with them.” Proverbs 24:1. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 785.2
Why does anybody envy wicked men?—The Psalmist tells why he envied them: “I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.... Their eyes stand out with fatness; they have more than heart can wish.” Psalm 73:3-7. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 785.3
But why should we envy “the ungodly, who prosper in the world,” who “increase in riches”?—Again the answer comes, coupled with a repetition of the exhortation: “Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.” Psalm 37:1, 2. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 785.4
On the other hand, it is “the poor of this world, rich in faith,” who are heirs of the kingdom of God. James 2:5. “Evildoers shall be cut off; but those that wait upon the Lord shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be; yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.” Psalm 37:9, 10. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 785.5
“The world passeth away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.” 1 John 2:17. To choose this world, or to envy those who do choose this world, which is quite the same thing, shows a failure to make a right estimate of the value of things. He who knows that he has “in heaven a better and an enduring substance” (Hebrews 10:34), will not be moved to murmur at his own poverty in this world, nor to envy the prosperous wicked. The man who has gold in the bank does not envy the poor imbecile who plays with a glittering toy, and fancies that it is a diamond. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 785.6
People often wonder why the wicked should so often be allowed to prosper in this world, while godly people are in distressing poverty. Why should it not be so? They do have “an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven” for them (1 Peter 1:4), can afford to own nothing in this life; but those who have no hope in the world to come and who will have no inheritance there, surely ought to have all they can possibly enjoy in this world. The true Christian can never envy them. Thus the Christian’s hope in the future, brightens up the darkness of the present. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 785.7
“Hezekiah’s Weakness and Strength” The Present Truth 11, 50.
E. J. Waggoner
There is an interesting contrast in the history of Hezekiah’s conflict with Sennacherib, the ruler of Assyria. It shows how weak a man is when in the wrong, and how strong when in the right. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 785.8
The Ekronites had rebelled against Assyria, and Hezekiah had made himself a partner in the revolt. Therefore Sennacherib, after punishing Ekron, came against Judah. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 785.9
“And Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria to Lachish, saying, I have offended; return from me: that which thou puttest on me will I bear.And the king of Assyria appointed unto Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. And Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord, and in the treasures of the king’s house. At that time did Hezekiah cut off the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord, and from the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria.” 2 Kings 18:14-16. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 786.1
The next invasion of Judah by Sennacherib ended far differently. Doubtless the proud Assyrian expected that the same humiliating submission might be exacted a second time. But this time Hezekiah said to the people:— PTUK December 12, 1895, page 786.2
“Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him; for there be more with us than with him; with him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the Lord our God to help us, and to fight our battles. And the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah king of Judah.” 2 Chronicles 32:7, 8. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 786.3
What made the difference? Before, Hezekiah was in the wrong, and now he was in the right; and all the strength of the right was his. Assyria represented the greatest power on earth, but all the pride of the arm of flesh was humbled in a night by one angel, who smote the thousands gathered about Jerusalem. More power was with Hezekiah than with Assyria. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 786.4
The Lord lives to-day, and it is a blessed truth that the humblest and weakest man or woman who is in the right with God is stronger than the combined strength of all the world. And the world is powerless to coerce into sin. It is the sin within that makes one weak in the day of trial, not the forces without. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 786.5
“Going the Wrong Way” The Present Truth 11, 50.
E. J. Waggoner
The editor of one of the great London religious journals some time ago told an interviewer that, in his opinion, the Christian press will have to consider the drama; that is, review plays and discuss theatrical matters. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 786.6
It is too great a force, and has too much hold upon the people the preacher addresses, to be ignored. The pleasant fiction that church members do not go to the theatre can no longer be kept up. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 786.7
It will be a bad day when, from merely ignoring the stage, the religious press and the pulpit pass to patronising it. For the fact is too evident that it is not the stage becoming converted to morality, but the conversion of many professors to worldliness that is breaking down the barrier which of old was supposed to separate the Christian from the throngs who find their temple in the theatre and music hall. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 786.8
One has only to see the announcements staring the public in the face from hoardings, or to note the story of the plays in the press, to see that altogether aside from the emptiness and unprofitableness of that which seeks only to amuse, the whole tendency of the stage is vicious and degrading. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 786.9
“Will They Do It?” The Present Truth 11, 50.
E. J. Waggoner
At the annual meeting of the London Nonconformist Council, the president, Dr. Clifford, said in the course of his address that the business of the Free Churches is “to inform as well as to quicken the conscience of men everywhere, ... to put into the category of sins all violations of the laws of God, though they might be sanctioned by the customs and upheld by the inherited prejudices and traditions of men.” PTUK December 12, 1895, page 786.10
Very good. The question is, Will they do it? If they are sincere, let them begin at once to put Sunday observance and Sabbath desecration into the category of sins. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 786.11
The seventh commandment says, “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” and the eighth says, “Thou shalt not steal;” and violations of those commandments are quite generally put into the category of sins; but neither the seventh nor the eighth commandment is so explicit and plain as the fourth, which says:— PTUK December 12, 1895, page 786.12
“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, 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.” PTUK December 12, 1895, page 786.13
Now on what ground of consistency can those who put violations of the seventh and eighth commandments into the category of sins, refuse to put violation of the fourth commandment in the same category? PTUK December 12, 1895, page 786.14
Some one will say, “We do put violations of the fourth commandment into the category of sins, for we call it a sin to labour on the first day of the week, or Sunday.” But to such we will let the Churchman, Dr. Williams, reply:— PTUK December 12, 1895, page 786.15
In the first place we are commanded to keep holy the seventh day; but we do not think it necessary to keep the seventh day holy; for the seventh day is Saturday. It may be said that we keep the first day instead; but then surely this is not the same thing; the first day cannot be the seventh day; and where are we told in Scripture to keep the first day at all? We are commanded to keep the seventh; but we are nowhere commanded to keep the first day.-“The Church Catechism,” p. 534. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 786.16
This is simple fact, and nobody can gainsay it. To it we may add the admission of the late Dr. Dale, who is counted as a pillar of orthodoxy:— PTUK December 12, 1895, page 786.17
The Sabbath was founded on a specific, Divine command. We can plead no such command for the observance of Sunday.-“The Ten Commandments,” Hodder & Stoughton. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 786.18
Or Canon Eyton:— PTUK December 12, 1895, page 786.19
No commandment of God bids us do this or not do that on Sunday; we are absolutely free as far as His law goes.-“The Ten Commandments,” Trubner & Co. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 786.20
The facts are, as admitted by the most eminent Sunday-observers, that the fourth commandment of the law of God does require the faithful observance of the seventh day of the week; while neither that nor any other commandment of God requires any kind of observance of the first day of the week. It is simply classed among “the six working days.” Ezekiel 46:1. Hence the observance of the first day of the week instead of the seventh is a direct and positive violation of the fourth commandment, and is sanctioned only “by the customs and upheld by the inherited prejudices and traditions of men.” Dr. Williams, previously referred to, says:— PTUK December 12, 1895, page 786.21
The reason why we keep the first day of the week holy instead of the seventh, is for the same reason that we observe many other things, not because the Bible, but because the Church, has enjoined it. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 786.22
Nine out of ten persons with whom you talk will defend the observance of Sunday on the ground that “everybody keeps it.” Custom and tradition form its sole support. To be sure they say that “the church” enjoins it; but that is only emphasising the statement that it is “upheld by the inherited prejudices and traditions of men.” The “church” which enjoined Sunday observance is the same church that enjoined the observance of “Ash Wednesday,” “Good Friday,” “Ascension Day,” etc., so that the “Catholic Christian Instructed” well says:— PTUK December 12, 1895, page 786.23
The best authority we have for this ancient custom is the Church. And therefore those who pretend to be such religious observers of the Sunday, whilst they take no notice of other festivals ordained by the same authority, show that they act more by humour than by reason and religion; since Sunday and holidays all stand on the same foundation, viz., the ordinance of the Church. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 787.1
We take the churches at their word. The “Free Churches” say that they desire to have all violations of the law of God, no matter how strongly entrenched in custom and tradition, put into the category of sins, which means, of course, that they do not intend to be guilty of such violations. The Church of England has the ten commandments read every Sunday, with a prayer after each and after them all together, that their hearts may be inclined to keep this law. Both Churchmen and Nonconformists are therefore committed to commandment-keeping; and leading men in both communions admit, what any child can easily see from the Bible, that the seventh day of the week is the only Sabbath of the commandment. The question then is, Will they be consistent with their profession, and keep “the Sabbath day, according to the commandment”? PTUK December 12, 1895, page 787.2
“The Lord said unto me, I have heard the voice of the words of this people, which they have spoken unto thee; they have well said all that they have spoken. O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear Me, and keep all My commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!” Deuteronomy 5:28, 29. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 787.3
“Believing and Receiving” The Present Truth 11, 50.
E. J. Waggoner
WHAT INFIDELITY IS
Christ, the Word, who was in the beginning with God, and who was God, in whom all things were created,—as the life and the light of the world,—“was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name; which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” John 1:10-13. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 787.4
Worldly Ignorance.—“He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not.” “The world by wisdom knew not God.” 1 Corinthians 1:21. The wisdom of this world does not reveal Christ, but conceals Him. No man can ever learn of Christ by worldly wisdom. It is Mr. Worldly Wiseman that turns Christian out of the right way. “The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.” 1 Corinthians 3:19. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 787.5
The Depths of Ignorance.—“The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib; but Israel doth not know, My people doth not consider,” says the Lord. Isaiah 1:3. Therefore the wisdom of this world does not rise to the level of the intelligence of brutes. Yes, it sinks men below the level of brutes, when it is given full chance to develop; because when men “became vain in their imaginations,” “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.” Romans 1:21-23. It is impossible that men should rise above the object which they worship, and the description which follows the scripture just quoted shows that the worshippers of beasts and creeping things did actually fall below them. But all that was simply the full development of worldly wisdom. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 787.6
True Wisdom.-The Bible does not discredit wisdom or science. It is only “science falsely so called,” and the boasted wisdom of the world, which is not wisdom at all, but only foolishness, that is spoken against. “The Lord giveth wisdom; out of His mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous.” Proverbs 2:6, 7. “The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding.” Job 28:28. “If any man willeth to do His will, he shall know.” John 7:17. It is by faith that we understand. Hebrews 11:3. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 787.7
The Cross and Knowledge.-Wisdom comes from God alone. To know Him embraces everything that is worth knowing or having. “Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me.” Jeremiah 9:23, 24. But by the Spirit of the Lord Paul said, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, whereby the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” Galatians 6:14. Since we can glory only in the knowledge of God, and only in the cross, it follows that it is only in the cross that we can learn to know God. The world knew not Christ, because they wanted glory without the cross. Whoever shuns or rejects the cross, refuses to know God. Whenever in anyone’s Christian experience a cross presents itself, and he refuses to accept it, he thereby says, “I know as much of the Lord as I wish to,” and then he begins to lose even that which he has. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 787.8
“His Own.”—“He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.” In the Greek there is a clearly marked distinction between the two expressions, “His own,” the first being neuter, and the second masculine. The “His own” to which He came is distinct from the “His own” who did not receive Him. The English does not show this difference, except by a more full rendering, as is given in the Revised Version: “He came unto His own, and they that were His own received Him not.” He came to His own inheritance, but His own people rejected Him. Jesus set this forth most clearly in the parable of the vineyard which was let out to husbandmen, who killed the heir when he came. See Matthew 21:33-44. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 787.9
The Inheritance.—“The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof, the world, and they that dwell therein.” Psalm 24:1. The earth was given to man in the beginning, for a possession. But it was given to a perfect man, not to a fallen man. Man lost it when he fell. But Christ has purchased it. Ephesians 1:14. We see Jesus, because of death, “crowned with glory and honour” (Hebrews 2:9), just as man was when the dominion was given him. It is His by right, although those to whom it has been entrusted for a little while cast Him out when He came to it. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 787.10
Rejected of Men.—“He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.” Isaiah 53:3. Mark this, He not only was despised, but “He is despised and rejected of men.” It is a thing still going on. Multitudes of those who delight to be called by His name, are rejecting Him. How?—In rejecting His cross. They are willing that He should suffer, but they are not willing to suffer with Him; and in rejecting the cross, they are rejecting Him. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 787.11
The World Unchanged.-The world is not converted, and never will be. There is an everlasting difference between Christ and the world. “The friendship of the world is enmity with God.” “Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” James 4:4. “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.” 1 John 2:16, 17. Therefore the world ever rejects Christ. The world is as much opposed to Christ to-day as it was eighteen hundred years ago. His people are chosen “out of the world.” John 15:19; Galatians 1:4. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 788.1
Believing and Receiving.—“As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God.” And who are they who receive Him?” Them that believe on His name. “Whoever believes, receives. Whoever receives Him becomes thereby a son of God. Therefore every one who is not a child of God is rejecting Christ. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 788.2
What Is Infidelity?-Many people think that it consists in a railing against God and Christ and the Bible. But there are thousands of infidels who have never said a word against Christ, and who would be shocked at the suggestion that they do not believe the Bible. The word “infidelity” is the Anglicised form of the Latin infidelitas, through the French infidetite, meaning unfaithfulness. Infidelity is simply lack of faith. Now whoever has faith has Christ, for the text says that those who believe Christ receive Him. Ephesians 3:17. Therefore that man in whose heart Christ does not dwell as “the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27), is an infidel, even though he be a professed Christian. “Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” 2 Corinthians 13:5. Instead of reviling those who do not profess to be anything except infidels, it becomes professed Christians to keep the exhortation of the Spirit, “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith.” PTUK December 12, 1895, page 788.3
Waiting to be Received.-Jesus, “the faithful and true witness,” says, “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. How shall we open the door?—Simply believe Him. If we believe Him, we receive Him. How often He has knocked, and we have sent word that we were “not at home.” Let us no longer be false to our most faithful Friend. Let this day be our day to receive. “To-day if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts.” PTUK December 12, 1895, page 788.4
From Servant to Son.-When we receive the Lord Jesus, then He dwells in us. His presence transforms us. Remember that we receive Him believing Him. We feed upon Him by taking the Word. By the “exceeding great and precious promises,” we become “partakers of the Divine nature.” 2 Peter 1:4. Thus it is that receiving Christ makes us sons. “If children, then heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together.” Romans 8:17. In the parable of the vineyard (Matthew 21:33-44), the servants slew the heir, in order that they might seize on the inheritance, and thereby they lost it and their own lives as well. If they had only known the day of their visitation, and had received the heir, they might have received the adoption of sons. “Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.” Galatians 4:7. How little those who reject Christ, in order to win the world, know what they are losing! In rejecting Him that they may win all, they lose all. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 788.5
Born of God.-Those who in simple faith receive the Lord thereby becomes sons of God. Not only are they called sons, but they are actually sons, since they are made “partakers of the Divine nature.” “Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” John 1:13. “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” 1 Peter 1:23. This receiving of the Word makes God our Father as actually as is the father by whom we were begotten according to the flesh. Just as our earthly parents transmitted to us their nature, so in the new birth God transmits to us His nature, and this is “renewed day by day” while we believe it. We are heirs of God Himself, and therefore all that is His. With what joy, then, the true believer may sing:— PTUK December 12, 1895, page 788.6
“Blessed assurance-Jesus is mine!
Oh, out what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God;
Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.”
PTUK December 12, 1895, page 788.7
“The Three-Fold Confederacy” The Present Truth 11, 50.
E. J. Waggoner
ROMANISM, FALSE PROTESTANTISM, SPIRITUALISM
Reunion ideas are in the air. We are familiar enough with the question through the efforts that are being made to bring the Anglican and Roman Catholic Churches together. And the Nonconformist Churches have not been entirely left out of the programme. It is the dream of the Papacy to see herself once more the recognised queen of Christendom. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 788.8
The details of the scheme are really non-essential. Uniformity may come only in a few great principles. But this we know of the Papacy, that before the coming of the Lord “the wine of the wrath of her fornication” will have corrupted all nations, so that the Spirit and principles on which the Papacy is founded will sway the world. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 788.9
The issues which are bringing professed Protestantism into line with Rome, and leading to the enforcement of the mark of Rome’s authority-the Sunday-in Protestant lands, have frequently been set forth in these columns. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 788.10
We have outlined in Revelation 13. the work of the Papacy, something just like it, though distinct from it, even as that action of professedly Protestant peoples in enforcing an institution of Rome in an exact reproduction of the workings of the Papacy. And in connection with this, the prophecy speaks of the wonder-working power by which the people are deceived and led to the bitter end in the fight against God and truth. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 788.11
The miracle-working power of Satan has always been manifested in sustaining his deceptions. Wherever in ancient times we find sun-worship and idolatry, there also is found witchcraft, sorcery, etc. It was one of the sins of Nineveh and of Babylon. It is not surprising, therefore, that this is the agency employed in the gathering of forces for the last conflict. The Papacy was the result of the corruption of the church by the errors which prevailed in ancient Babylon, and which spread from Chaldea into all the heathen world. Along with these errors come the old error which is the foundation of Spiritualism-the belief in the conscious state of the dead. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 788.12
Thus Rome and the great body of Protestantism are ready for the doctrines of Spiritualism; in fact they are already thoroughly permeated with them, unconsciously often, but none the less really. One may hear purely Spiritualistic teaching from the pulpits on every side. And when Rome and Protestantism join hands in setting aside the Word (and it is beginning to be done in earnest over the Sabbath question), it awaits only the full manifestation of the third partner, Spiritualism, and then under the influence of this three-fold confederacy the forces of the world will unite against God. Revelation 16:14. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 789.1
And not a few bold pioneers in the confederacy are already willing to go the full length, till the “reunion” cry takes in not merely Roman Catholic and Protestant, but all the pagan world as well. Thus the editor of the Review of Reviews declares that “Borderland” principles alone will meet the case, and that means, as most people know, the principles of Spiritualism. Thus he says:— PTUK December 12, 1895, page 789.2
It seems to me that what the Pope and the Primate and other good men are fumbling after, while it is a very good thing in itself, it is an unattainable thing, and even if it were obtained it would leave more than one-half of the human family out of the fold of the unity of the faith. The true goal is a Catholicism that will be really catholic, a unity that will be universal. On no Apostles’ Creed nor on any such narrow foundation can we hope to rear the temple of the federated faiths of man. To us of the Western World the Apostles’ Creed may be the highest attainable embodiment of the maximum of Divine truth which we are able to assimilate. But to the Hindoos it may be foolishness and useless for good compared with familiar formulae in which their own saints and sages have embodied the same essential truth.... The Fatherhood of God, the Brotherhood of Man, Redemption through Sacrifice, the Ministry of Unseen Intelligences, and a Future Life in which the soul will have to answer for the deeds done in the body-the key to these things is to be found in the Borderland across which we must venture boldly if we would re-establish the waning faiths of man in the existence of the soul. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 789.3
All the religions of paganism are based on “Borderland” principles, and Spiritualism is the bond that will link all together. The world is ready for just such a federation, and it will come. Those who know what it means should sound the warning against it by telling what the Word of the Lord declares. The prophet Isaiah left a record for a time just such as this, when every spirit of evil is seeking to draw the whole world into the great confederacy of final apostasy from the Word. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 789.4
“Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces.... Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand; for God is with us. For the Lord spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying, Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of hosts Himself; and let Him be your fear.... PTUK December 12, 1895, page 789.5
“Bind up the testimony, seal the law among My disciples. And I will wait upon the Lord, that hideth His face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for Him.... And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter; should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? [R.V., “on behalf of the living should they seek unto the dead?’] To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” Isaiah 8:9-20. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 789.6
There are these two voices in the world, one saying, A confederacy, and turning men toward the abominations of witchcraft, or Spiritualism; the other cries: “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit.... Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sin, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” Revelation 18:2-4. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 789.7
These voices will sound with ever-increasing volume to the end. Let each one know for himself which is the voice of the Lord, and follow it though all the world opposes. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 789.8
“Items of Interest” The Present Truth 11, 50.
E. J. Waggoner
-Nearly 70,000 gallons of fresh milk and cream were imported from Holland into Great Britain last year. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 798.1
-The wealth of this country is estimated to be ten thousand million pounds, and it is increasing at the rate of 150 million sterling yearly. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 798.2
-Many lives have been lost in Russia by terrific storms, which have recently desolated the districts about the Black Sea, and the Caspian. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 798.3
-England has now, for the first time, a larger population than France, the deaths in the latter country of late years greatly outnumbering the births. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 798.4
-It is expected that the Mikado of Japan will visit England next year, and will be the that representative of that ancient dynasty to leave his dominions. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 798.5
-A collection of water lilies was sent to the Queen by an Australian florist in August. They were frozen in a cake of ice, and a fortnight ago were presented at Windsor, the flowers being perfectly preserved. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 798.6
-Next year will be recognised as the tercentenary of the potato, three centuries having passed since the first tubers produced on English soil were grown in a garden at Holborn, then a rural suburb of London. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 798.7
-The quantity of wheat required for our use per annum is over twenty-five million quarters. In 1863 we grew seventeen millions, but this year the estimate is less than five millions, consequently the nation’s reserve of wheat at the present time must be very small indeed. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 798.8
-It is estimated that the money circulation of the world is ?874,978,000 gold, ?475,212,000 silver, nickle, and copper, and ?930,872,000 paper, making a total of ?1,780,582,000, besides ?446,915,000 gold and ?233,372,000 silver hold by banks and States principally to secure paper issues. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 798.9
-The use of apples is increasing. In the past ten years we have imported over thirty-three and one-half millions of bushels of apples, valued at about nine and one-half millions sterling. In the same period the area under orchards in Great Britain has increased by 20,000 acres, the total for 1884 being returned at 214,187 acres. The area devoted to the cultivation of small fruit is 65,487 acres. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 798.10
-The Lancet declares that the idea of bringing a supply of sea-water to London for drain-flushing purposes has much to recommend it. As things now stand 10,000,000 gallons of purified drinking water are used every day for the conveyance of sewage. One advantage of using sea-water, besides the great saving of water suitable for drinking, cooking and cleansing purposes would be that in case contamination of water supplies occurred, the presence of saline matter would decide the question of pollution, and the leak could readily be traced. Salt-water again would modify the offensive character of sewer emanations, and would render typhoid germs less dangerous. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 798.11
“Back Page” The Present Truth 11, 50.
E. J. Waggoner
It has been discovered that the present Pope, while a cardinal, wrote a book which was placed in the index as unsound. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 800.1
Workers in the island of Trinidad, West Indies, report that a good interest in Bible truth is springing up among the coolies, or Indians, many of whom are found in the West Indies. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 800.2
A letter from a correspondent in Hamburg says that it is probable that the young German Sabbath-keeper in Danzig, who refuses to drill on the Sabbath, will have to spend some years in military prison. If the Lord wills it so it means that our brother can preach truth more effectively there than at liberty. The letter states that he is of good courage, and well he may be. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 800.3
Rulers and statesmen who hold the helm of State know that storms are ahead. Last week the German Emperor plainly hinted at the possible need for his army at home as well as abroad. Earthly powers which are encouraging the war spirit under the name of “patriotism” cannot avoid reading, to their own sorrow, the fruits of the spirit of hatred and strife and lawlessness which they hoped to turn upon foreign enemies. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 800.4
The fashion of displaying feathers in the headgear is common enough among barbarous peoples, but so far as we know, no tribes of wandering nomads ever reached such a refinement of fashion as to demand the feathers from a living bird. The other day a Chronicle correspondent wrote on the subject, and an editorial comment on the matter sets out the cruelty of the modern practice as follows:— PTUK December 12, 1895, page 800.5
We have received some letters from our readers enforcing the words of Mrs. Aria as to the cruel price that has to be paid for the ospreys’ feathers which are in vogue just now in woman’s headgear. Mrs. Phillips writes to point out that these feathers can only be obtained at breeding time. The plumage is torn from the living parent birds on the nest, which are then flung aside to die, while the young birds are left to starve. Could anything be more horrible! There are whole heronries-the osprey is a species of heron-in Florida, which have been swept away in this fiendish search for the latest fashion. A bare recital of these facts should be enough to put an instant stop to such a merciless trade. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 800.6
There is a matter for thought in the words of a missionary in Calcutta, “The devil has gone out of many things in India as a barbarous demon, but he has come back as a polished and civilised fiend; and he is more difficult to fight in the latter guise.” Civilisation is not by any means Christianity, although it is often thought to be. The highest civilisation is in itself nothing but polished heathenism. The devil as an angel of light is more dangerous than when he appears as the foul fiend Apollyon. Not civilisation, but “Jesus Christ and Him crucified,” is the one thing needed in all lands. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 800.7
The Catholic deputation to Lord Salisbury last week declared that Roman Catholics would never rest until the whole expense of the secular education of their schools was borne by the State. The religious education controversy has been doing a good work for Rome. These demands could never have been made so openly had not the Churches as a body compromised themselves by insisting that the State is qualified to teach religion in its schools, and is justified in paying for religious instruction out of the public funds. The Romanists ask only that the State pay for the secular education, leaving them free to devote all their strength to religious teaching. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 800.8
A popular preacher recently said that the Bible is the greatest of all books, and gave as proof of its vitality the fact that it has remained unshaken by the panics which every now and then seemed to overcome the Christian Church. As an instance of the panics which it has passed through, he said that “when it was discovered that the world was not made in six days, great multitudes of people were terribly alarmed.” PTUK December 12, 1895, page 800.9
That “discovery” was not made in the Bible. The Bible tells us more than once that the world was made in six days. “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 20:11. Therefore the boasted modern “discovery” that the earth was not made in six days amounts to a plain declaration that the Bible is false; and yet the Bible remains unshaken. What other book could remain unshaken after it had been “proved” to begin with a false statement? PTUK December 12, 1895, page 800.10
And yet it is a fact that the Bible does remain unshaken, and ever will, for “the word of the Lord abideth for ever.” “For ever, O Lord, Thy word is settled in heaven.” Has nothing then been shaken? Oh yes, the people, even many of the professed church of Christ, together with the ministers, have been shaken by a “wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error.” Ephesians 4:14, R.V. God’s Word is “true from the beginning” (Psalm 119:160), not excepting the first chapter of Genesis and the fourth commandment; and the “discovery” that the world was not made in six days, is simply one of Satan’s lies, which he has induced people to swallow. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 800.11
In the same connection the speaker told his hearers that “if they wanted to learn theology the last book to go to was the Bible.” He said that “theology was a science,” not derived from the Bible, but “the pure work of reason.” That was a frank admission, and lets us know the tendency of this theology; for the first chapter of Romans gives us the history of the “pure work of reason,” and that in connection with the question of creation, too. Read Romans 1:20-32. The choice which the Church must make is between theology and the Bible. PTUK December 12, 1895, page 800.12
There is a reason for denying the truthfulness of the scripture which says that the world was made in six days, although many do not know what it is. It is that the Sabbath of the fourth commandment rests upon that fact. The Sabbath is the memorial of God’s creative power-of His Divinity and His power to save. It is given that men may know that He is the God that sanctifies. Ezekiel 20:12. It is for this reason that Satan has directed his subtle attack against the first chapters of Genesis. Let it be clearly understood that the Sabbath question is simply the question of the truthfulness of the Bible. It is the question of whether men shall follow the Word of God or their own inventions. Which do you choose? PTUK December 12, 1895, page 800.13