The Present Truth, vol. 9
April 6, 1893
“Front Page” The Present Truth 9, 7.
E. J. Waggoner
Says one, “I know in whom I have believed.” That is well; but it is much better to be able to say with the apostle Paul, “I know who I have believed.” There is a great deal of difference. One may know who it is to whom he commits a thing, without being personally acquainted with him; but Paul knew the Lord as a personal friend, as did Abraham, and therefore he could safely trust all in His keeping. This acquaintance it is the privilege of every one to have. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 97.1
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God; but much that is quoted for Scripture is not inspired. Nine persons out of ten will speak of wishing to know the Lord, “whom to know aright is life eternal,” and will think that they are quoting Scripture. Christ said: “And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.” John 17:4. The other is not found in the Bible. The Scriptures, just as they are written, without any human addition, are sufficient. Additions only weaken them. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 97.2
If you are going to preach to me, or try to teach me, tell me only what you know, not what you think. Neither waste time telling me what you believe. That is to say, Don’t give me your belief that a thing is so as authority for it. I will take it for granted that you yourself believe what you say, and so you need not take time to assure me of the fact. It will not help me to believe in it, if you do. I don’t care about what you may believe; you may believe the thing that is not so, and whether it is true or not, your believing it is no reason why I should. But if you know it; then tell me the facts, so that I can know it too. The man who teaches as truth that which he does not know to be the truth is guilty of a grievous sin. And if he knows a thing, it is just as easy, though perhaps not so gratifying to his pride, to tell the grounds of his knowledge, as it is to play the pope, and try to get others to accept it on his authority. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 97.3
“The Light of His Countenance” The Present Truth 9, 7.
E. J. Waggoner
“Thou hast set our iniquities before Thee, our secret sins in the light of Thy countenance.” Psalm 90:8. Is this a matter for joy, or for sorrow? for gladness, or for despondency? Doubtless the most of those who read it do so with a feeling of fear and dread. The thought that all their sins are open before God, makes them tremble, and they wish to forget it. They cannot get over the idea that God is a stern, implacable tyrant, ever watching to find some sin to charge up against His creatures. And so in their minds they picture God as keeping a stern eye on those sins, in order that He may exact penance for every one of them. This is judging God by man; it is making Him altogether such an one as themselves. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 97.4
But we are assured that “whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.” Romans 15:4. Therefore it must be that there is hope and comfort in the text first quoted. Let us see what is the result of God’s setting our secret sins in the light of His countenance, for the Scriptures have much to tell us about it. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 97.5
First let us take that wonderful blessing that God commanded Aaron and his sons to pronounce upon the children of Israel: “The Lord bless thee, and keep thee; the Lord make His face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee; the Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.” Numbers 6:24-26. So there is grace in the shining of the face of the Lord. And what does grace do? The grace of God bringeth salvation. Titus 2:11. “By grace are ye saved.” Ephesians 2:9. “In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” Ephesians 1:7. “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound; that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness, unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 5:20, 21. So in the shining of the Lord’s face there is forgiveness and salvation-eternal life. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 97.6
Further, there is peace in the lifting up of the countenance upon us. Peace is the opposite of enmity and strife. Sin is enmity. “The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Romans 8:7. Therefore the giving of peace is the taking away of sin, and the bestowing of righteousness. “And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight.” Colossians 1:21, 22. “For He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition, ... that He might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby.” Ephesians 2:14-15. So in the lifting up of God’s countenance upon us there is the taking away of sin, and the giving of righteousness. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 97.7
The Psalmist said, “There be many that say, Who will show us any good?” and immediately furnished the reply, by saying, “Lord, lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance upon us.” Psalm 4:6. The light of the Lord’s countenance brings good. Therefore when our secret sins are set in the light of His countenance, His goodness comes to take their place. And so, when sin was oppressing the Psalmist’s soul, he said, “Why art thou cast down O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance.” Psalm 52:5. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 97.8
The practical help afforded by the light of the Lord’s countenance is thus set forth: “We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work Thou didst in their days, in the times of old. How Thou didst drive out the heathen with thy hand, and plantedst them; how Thou didst afflict the people, and cast them out. For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them; but Thy right hand, and Thine arm, and the light of Thy countenance, because Thou hadst a favour unto them.” Psalm 44:1-3. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 97.9
Read again of the blessings that come with the light of God’s countenance: “Justice and judgment are the habitation of Thy throne; mercy and truth shall go before Thy face. Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound; they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy countenance. In Thy name shall they rejoice all the day; and in Thy righteousness shall they be exalted. For Thou art the glory of their strength.” Psalm 89:14-17. So we see that when the Lord makes His face to shine upon us, mercy and truth are in the glance. His mercy puts His truth in the inward parts of those who walk in the light of His countenance. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 98.1
When the chosen people were captives in Babylon, and their city and temple were in ruins, the prophet Daniel set his face to seek the Lord by prayer and supplications, confessing his sin and the sin of his people, and said, “O Lord, according to all Thy righteousness, I beseech Thee, let Thine anger and Thy fury be turned away from Thy city Jerusalem, Thy holy mountain; because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us. Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of Thy servant, and his supplications, and cause Thy face to shine upon Thy sanctuary that is desolate, for the Lord’s sake. O my God, incline Thine ear, and hear; open Thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by Thy name; for we do not present our supplications before Thee for our righteousnesses, but for Thy great mercies.” Daniel 9:16-18. The shining of the Lord’s face upon His sanctuary, would be its restoration; His looking upon His people’s desolations, would be their deliverance; so when God sets our iniquities before Him, it means forgiveness; and the light of His countenance upon our secret sins will take them all away. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 98.2
“Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, Thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; Thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth. Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh stir up Thy strength, and come and save us. Turn us again, O God, and cause Thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.” Psalm 80:1-3. And the promise is, “Unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings.” Malachi 4:2. “For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory; no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly.” Psalm 84:11. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 98.3
The Lord is a God of glory; but His glory is His goodness. “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23. But for their sin, they would not have come short of His glory; so that the perfect righteousness of God is His glory. And therefore when He gives His Spirit to strengthen His people against sin, and to lead them in the paths of righteousness, it is “according to the riches of His glory.” Ephesians 3:16. His grace brings salvation; but when that has been accomplished, and the saints shine with the glory of God, through the ages to come, the glory with which they shine will simply reveal “the exceeding riches of His grace.” Ephesians 2:6-8. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 98.4
And this is how it is done: “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” 2 Corinthians 4:6. “God is a sun.” His light and glory are seen in Christ, who is “the Sun of righteousness.” As the sun shines upon the earth, and causes it to bring forth fruit, and brings life and health and gladness, so the light of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ, shines in the hearts of men to cause righteousness and praise to spring forth. “For the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth.” Ephesians 5:9, R.V. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 98.5
But God is not partial in His favours. He is no respecter of persons. When we are exhorted to love our enemies, to bless them that curse us, to do good to them that hate us, and to pray for them that despitefully use us and persecute us, the reason given is “that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven; for He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” Matthew 5:44, 45. The sun shines as brightly upon the fields of the infidel as upon those of the Christian. “There is nothing hid from the heat thereof.” PTUK April 6, 1893, page 98.6
Thus it is with God. “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men.” Titus 2:11. Or, as in the Revision, “The grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation to all men.” There is not a soul on earth upon whom the sunlight of God’s grace does not shine. “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” Romans 5:20. “God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8. And “He died for all.” By the grace of God He “tasted death for every man.” Hebrews 2:9. In the judgment it will appear that upon every man has the glory of God’s grace shone, more than sufficient to take away all sin. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 98.7
The question will be asked, “Then why will not all be saved, if the Sun of righteousness shines upon all, and there is salvation in the light of His countenance?” The answer is at hand. Read the words of the Apostle Paul: “Having therefore such a hope, we use great plainness of speech, and are not as Moses, who put a veil upon his face, that the children of Israel should not look steadfastly on the end of that which was passing away; but their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remaineth unlifted; which veil is done away in Christ. But unto this day, whensoever Moses is read, a veil lieth upon their heart. But whensoever it or man shall turn to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit.” 2 Corinthians 3:12-18. R.V. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 98.8
After the Lord had spoken the law to the people, He called Moses up into the mount to receive it. Moses was with the Lord forty days and forty nights. When he came down to talk with the people, they were afraid to come near him, because his face shone so brightly, although he himself did not know it. So he had to put a veil on while he talked with them; but when he returned to talk with God he took it off, and talked with the Lord with unveiled face. See Exodus 34:29-35. It is from this circumstance that the apostle draws the lesson. Note the following points. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 98.9
The mount upon which the Lord descended could not be approached by the people; to touch it was death. Yet Moses ascended it in safety. The people could not look upon the face of Moses, because of the glory of God which it reflected, yet Moses talked with the Lord with unveiled face. Why this difference? It was not any difference in constitution, nor because God was partial to Moses, but because Moses had faith, and they had not. “By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible.” Hebrews 11:27. But their minds were blinded; and blindness of mind is unbelief. If they had taken the veil of unbelief off from their hearts, they could have beheld the reflected glory of God in the face of Moses, as well as he could behold the glory more directly. Indeed, they could have beheld the same glory that he did, and their faces would have shone also. So we see that while the face of the Lord is shedding glorious beams of grace upon all the people of the earth, many receive none of its life-giving warmth, because they cover themselves with a veil of unbelief. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 98.10
Still further; unbelief is self-exaltation, but faith is humility. “Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him; but the just shall live by his faith.” Habakkuk 2:4. Humility acknowledges Him as all-wise, all-powerful, and all-righteous. It acknowledges that He alone is good. It says with the prophet, “O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto Thee, but unto us confusion of face, ... because we have sinned against Thee.” Daniel 9:7, 8. Faith always means humility of heart, and confession of sin. Unbelief always exalts self, and refuses to acknowledge sin. So unbelief is a veil that covers up sin. “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper; but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.” Proverbs 28:13. Unbelief covers them, but faith in the mercy of God acknowledges them, and lets the light of His countenance shine upon them to take them away. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 99.1
The glory of the Lord will always consume sin. It is true that for a time men may seem to conceal it, but when the Lord comes He “will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the counsels of the heart.” 1 Corinthians 4:5. Then all the wicked, who have exalted themselves against God, shall be consumed with the Spirit of His mouth, and destroyed with the brightness of His coming. 2 Thessalonians 2:8. The glory of the Lord will utterly consume all sin, and those who have kept it covered in their own hearts until that time, and have held it as a part of themselves, will be consumed with it. But those who by acknowledging it, have disavowed it, and have laid it open to the light of His countenance, find salvation in the glory of the Lord. The wicked will call for the rocks and mountains to fall on them, to hide them from the face of Him that sitteth upon the throne (Revelation 6:16); while the righteous, when His glory shall be revealed, will “be glad with exceeding joy.” PTUK April 6, 1893, page 99.2
Therefore let us heed the exhortation: “Seek the Lord, and His strength; seek His face ever more.” Psalm 105:4. “When Thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.” Psalm 27:8. “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple. For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; in the secret of His tabernacle shall He hide me; He shall set me up upon a rock.” PTUK April 6, 1893, page 99.3
“Hear and Live” The Present Truth 9, 7.
E. J. Waggoner
With the exception of the fourth and fifth commandments, all of them begin with the words, “Thou shalt not.” They are not merely negative, however, for they are all summed up in the two great positive commandments, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind,” and, “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” PTUK April 6, 1893, page 100.1
Too often these are regarded as mere arbitrary commands, but they are much more than that. There is a power in them that does not pertain to ordinary words. It is the power of the word of God, which is life itself. Christ said, “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” John 6:63. Being the very Spirit of life, they give life to all who hear them. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 100.2
Of the life-giving power of the word of the Lord, we have instances in the resurrection of Lazarus and the ruler’s daughter. Christ said: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live.” John 5:25. And then follows the statement that as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself, so that when the hour comes all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 100.3
“Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Romans 10:17. “With the heart man believeth.” So that the hearing of faith puts the words of God in the heart. But Christ dwells in the heart by faith (Ephesians 3:17), because His Spirit is in His word; so that the hearing of faith brings the life of Christ into the heart, and that is righteousness. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 100.4
But this is the putting of the law in the heart; for when Moses exhorted the people to keep the commandments he said, “For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.” Deuteronomy 30:11-14. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 100.5
In the tenth of Romans, just before the apostle’s conclusion that faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, this passage from Deuteronomy is quoted, and it is shown that the “commandment” refers to Christ, who is the soul and substance of the law. And that this is what Moses meant by the words is shown from Paul’s statement that the words of Moses are the language of “the righteousness which is of faith.” And further, by the words of Moses himself: “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live; that thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey His voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto Him; for He is thy life, and the length of thy days.” Deuteronomy 30:19, 20. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 100.6
Life comes through keeping the commandments (Matthew 19:17; Revelation 22:14); but Christ is the life of the law, and He dwells in the heart by faith in His word. Thus the law as the real righteousness of God, and not the mere form, is life, and has power to give life. David said, “This is my comfort in my affliction; for Thy word hath quickened me.” Psalm 119:50. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 100.7
“Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord; and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart.” Deuteronomy 6:4-6. How in the heart? By faith. And how does faith come? by hearing. The idea is that, just as at the last day those who hear the voice of God will be raised to life, out of their graves, so now those who really hearken to His commandments will receive the life of them. Accordingly the Lord testified as follows: “Hear, O My people and I will testify unto thee; O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto Me, there shall no strange God be in thee; neither shalt thou worship any strange god.” Psalm 81:8, 9. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 100.8
If the children of Israel had only listened to the Lord continually, He would have assured their salvation. While they were listening to Him, He would have taken upon Himself the responsibility of keeping them free from idolatry and all sin. So when in the law, He says “Thou shalt not,” He means not simply to forbid our doing the things spoken of, but also to assure us that we shall not do them if we but hear in faith, recognizing Him in them. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 101.1
So through the prophet he says, “O that thou hadst hearkened unto My commandments; then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea.” Isaiah 48:18. And again He exhorts, “Incline your ear, and come unto Me, hear, and your soul shall live.” Isaiah 55:3. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 101.2
This is a comforting assurance. But one thing should not be lost sight of, and that is that the righteousness which comes by the hearing of faith is not a mere passive righteousness. It is the active righteousness of God. And, moreover, it is just that righteousness which is demanded in the ten commandments, without any variation. He who hears must hear the very words of God, and the ten commandments are the words that God spoke with His own voice. He did not say, “The first day is the Sabbath of the Lord,” but He did say, “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.” Since God never commanded the observance of the first day of the week, no one can hear those words at His mouth; consequently there can be neither life nor righteousness in such observance. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 101.3
“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God;” “He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear.” But “take heed how ye hear.” PTUK April 6, 1893, page 101.4
“God without Christ” The Present Truth 9, 7.
E. J. Waggoner
God without Christ.-We very often hear of some man who believes in God, but not in Christ. Such an one is called a deist, in distinction from one who does not profess to believe in God at all, who is called an atheist. It seems to be generally considered that a man is pretty well along on the way of truth if he professes to believe in God, although he rejects Christ. As a matter of fact such belief is simple paganism. Christ said, “No man knoweth the Son but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him.” Matthew 11:27. “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.” John 1:18. God is revealed only in Christ. Therefore the man who says that he believes in God but does not believe in Christ, thereby proclaims that he does not believe in the true God, the God of the Bible, but in a god of his own imagination. Men make many fine distinctions between different grades of unbelief, but in the judgment there will be but two classes: Christians and heathen,-those who know God, and those who know Him not. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 101.5
“‘Christian Nations’” The Present Truth 9, 7.
E. J. Waggoner
At the recent public meeting of the Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade, the Hon. W. S. Caine, M.P., said that nothing in the world could exceed “the villainy of the excise statutes of the Christian Government of India.” PTUK April 6, 1893, page 101.6
We were reminded of a remark said to have been made by a Rhode Island Baptist, in the colonial days of America. Riding through the country, in the border of Connecticut, he drew up by the side of a group of men in a village, who were officially engaged in whipping a Quaker for nonconformity. After looking on for a few moments, he said to the men. “You serve the Lord as though you had the devil in you;” and then he prudently put spurs to his horse, and road over the border into Rhode Island, where deviltry was not legally dignified with the name of Christianity. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 101.7
It is strange how strong a hold the idea of “Christian nations” and “Christian Governments” has obtained upon the minds of people. So wedded have they become to the idea that certain Governments are Christian, that they can speak of the most villainous acts, deliberately and persistently perpetrated, as the acts of a “Christian Government.” The English Government engages in the production and sale of opium, having made a market for it by the use of cannon and bayonets; the United States for nearly a century kept millions of men, women, and children in cruel slavery, and coolly disregards its treaty with China, and yet both are called Christian nations. When once a nation has been by some mystical means baptised “Christian,” nothing that it afterwards does can ever deprive it of its “Christianity.” PTUK April 6, 1893, page 101.8
The simple truth is, that people mistake a certain grade of civilisation for Christianity. China and Japan have been very exclusive, not wishing any intercourse with foreigners. That is set down to their benighted condition. The United States excludes the Chinese, and proceeds to prohibit all immigration for a year, and that is wise statesmanship. Where is the difference? PTUK April 6, 1893, page 101.9
This idea that certain nations are Christian has been and must ever be a serious hindrance to missionary effort. In the first place, if the missionary goes to a foreign country imbued with the thought that his country is a Christian nation, then it naturally follows that the standard of his missionary effort will be to a certain degree his own country, and not the simple truths of the Bible. He will try to Anglicise or Americanise the natives of that country, rather than actually Christianise them, because he will labour under the mistaken idea that to do so is to Christianise them. And when that foreign country can be brought to establish its laws somewhat after the English or American model, or, better still, can be brought under the “protectorate” of one of those nations, then it is a “Christian nation.” The only result of all this is to lower the standard of Christianity, and to call every act of those nations a Christian act, no matter how “villainous” it is. Still further, it lowers the standard of Christianity, by fostering the idea that every man who obeys the laws of the land is a Christian, and that Christianity goes no further than the outward profession of morality. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 101.10
Again, the idea that certain nations are Christian is a hindrance to missionary work, because it forces missionaries to make apologies when they ought to be proclaiming the truth with authority. American missionaries to Africa complain that when the heathen ask them why their “Christian Government” sends out rum to poison people by the same ships that bring the missionaries, they are put to shame, and cannot reply. This, they say hinders their work. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 101.11
Miss Soonderbai Powar, in her plea for justice for her people at the hands of the English Government, in the matter of its opium traffic in India, says: “When your missionaries go to preach to my country people, they often reply, ‘Go and convert your Christian Government first, and then come and tell us about your Christ.’” PTUK April 6, 1893, page 101.12
Now there can be no apology for the opium and the liquor traffic. The effect is to destroy both soul and body. But the missionaries ought not to be troubled by it in India and Africa any more than they would be if laboring in England or America. What should they say when the natives of those countries tax them with the inconsistency of their “Christian” Government? Simply that the Governments are not Christian in any sense of the word, and that it is an utter impossibility that there should ever be on this earth such a thing as a Christian nation. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 101.13
Then if the missionaries are asked why they have left their own land to convert the heathen in India or Africa, while there are heathen at home, they can say that they have left many missionaries at home, labouring for the heathen there, and that they came to where the need is greater. They should teach them from the very beginning that Christianity is an individual and not a national matter; that “God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with Him.” Acts 10:34, 35. They should teach them that Governments as such have nothing to do with religion, and that every man is answerable to God alone for himself alone. When this is done, a higher type of Christianity may be seen. It may be galling to one’s feelings of “patriotism” to acknowledge that the country from which he comes is not a Christian nation, but that it is, so far as the Government is concerned, essentially heathen; but “patriotism” should not take the place of loyalty to God and to His truth. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 101.14
But some suppose that the recognition of God in the laws of the nation, and the supporting of religion, makes it a Christian nation. On the contrary that is a mark of a heathen nation. In the very beginning of earthly Government, the people incorporated into their laws the recognition of God, and required all to worship him. But it was only their conception of God that was recognized, and their interpretation of His laws that was enforced; and man’s conception of God is an idol. Whoever thinks to make God his God, simply makes a caricature of God, and worships that. We are to let God be our God, as He says He will be. In that case we take Him for all that He is, in all His inconceivable greatness, without attempting to define Him. But when we propose to make Him our God, we immediately limit Him, and enthrone that which our minds conceive. Thus all the abominable idols of the nations have been formed. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 101.1
Moreover, since God is Spirit, and His law is spiritual, it is absolutely impossible that His worship can be enforced by civil Government; for human Governments cannot make the man spiritual. They cannot define spirituality. Therefore the laws which are passed in favor of religion are altogether different from Christianity. It is spiritual, but they are carnal, springing from the mind of man. But whatever is different from Christianity is heathenism. Therefore, as stated before, the characteristic of a heathen nation is its presuming to interfere in matters of religion, and dictating how men shall serve God. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 101.2
There will yet be a Christian nation on this earth, but not in its present state. It will be when Christ shall have gathered His people out of all the nations of earth, and when, the wicked having been destroyed, He Himself will reign over the earth made new. Then the will of God will be done on earth as it is done in heaven. It will not be a forced service, but it will be a service of love. It will be a Christian nation, not because compulsion will be exercised to make men conform to righteous laws, but because the law of God will be in the heart of every man, as his very life. For that blessed state the Lord is now preparing men by the preaching of His word and the power of the Holy Spirit. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 101.3
“Some Contrasts” The Present Truth 9, 7.
E. J. Waggoner
There is a general idea that people who want to rest on Sunday cannot do so unless others who do not want to rest on that day are compelled to. The President of the Wholesale Newsagents’ Association thinks that Sunday newspapers ought to cease, so that his men can rest on Sunday. In reply to the question, “Do you object to their being published at all, then?” Mr. Moseley replied:-“Certainly I do. The publican and the shopkeeper are compelled to rest on the Sunday; I think the newspaper-producers-printers, publishers, and everybody else-should be made to rest too. It sounds somewhat ‘large,’ perhaps, but I think an act of Parliament ought to be passed to prohibit the publication of newspapers on Sunday.” PTUK April 6, 1893, page 102.1
Another man makes the same plea. He wants to close his news stands, but he says that he “must open in self-defence.” How is that? Oh, if he doesn’t, somebody else will make a little more money than he does. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 102.2
But there was never yet a plea for the necessity of Sunday laws that was not offset by somebody else in the same business as those making the plea. Mr. White, manager for W. H. Smith & Sons, the great news-dealers, on being approached regarding Sunday newspapers, said that he could not tell about their sale because that firm did not handle them. And being asked if this was from principle, he replied:- PTUK April 6, 1893, page 102.3
“Yes. We have never asked our employés to work on Sunday, and we certainly see no reason for making a new departure now. We have always refused to supply any Sunday papers whatever.” PTUK April 6, 1893, page 102.4
Thus the fallacy of the notion that men cannot abstain from work on Sunday without a law compelling them and everybody else to do so, is once more exposed. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 102.5
The fact that there are thousands of people in all parts of the world who keep the seventh day of the week,-the Sabbath of the Lord,-not only without there being any civil recognition of the day, but with the laws and the customs of the people generally against it, is sufficient proof that there is no necessity for a civil law in order that men may rest. Although these people are numbered by thousands, they are nevertheless an exceedingly small minority of the people in any community. They are found in nearly every large city of Europe and America, where business is most thriving on the seventh day, yet they keep the day, worshipping in peace and quiet. The fact that other people ignore the commandment of the Lord, does not hinder them from obeying it. They do not ask for the passage of civil laws to enable them to rest on the Sabbath day, and would most earnestly protest against any proposal to pass such laws, even if they were in a majority in any community, and Local Option were in vogue on the Sabbath question. The Law of God is sufficient warrant for them to keep the Sabbath, and the power of the Creator-the maker of the Sabbath-is sufficient for their support in so doing. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 102.6
RELIGION-that is the religion of Jesus Christ-is wholly a matter of love. Its power is wholly the power of love. God’s law is a law of love. People have a wrong idea of the Government and the Law of God. His Government is not one of force. His law is not for the purpose of enforcing men to do right. “His commandment is life everlasting.” John 12:50. Its power is that of the sunshine and the rain upon the earth. It is gently shed abroad in the heart of the one who will yield to the influence of the Spirit of God, and brings forth its own fruit in the life. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 102.7
But there can be nothing of this kind in the religion enforced by civil law. That is a religion of force, and not of love, for the power of the civil law is simply the power of the State, and that is represented by its officers, and the number of men that can bear arms. The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation. That religion which does not depend wholly on the power of God for its propagation, is not the Gospel. And right here it is worthy of note, that in all history there is no instance of the civil power ever having been invoked to enforce the observance of any precept of the Lord. In fact, such a thing would be impossible. Whenever human law has been called into requisition in connection with professed Christianity, it has been for the purpose of compelling the observance of some purely human dogma, or of some ordinance that has been perverted. The pure religion of Jesus Christ does not lend itself to the actions of Parliaments and Courts. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 102.8
In this may be found the secret of the case with which Sabbath-keepers can keep the seventh day, without the aid of any civil law, as contrasted with the difficulty which Sunday-keepers find in keeping the first day, even with a civil law back of it. Sabbath-keeping rests on the living law of the living God. It is a recognition of the power of God to uphold all things, and carries with it the assurance of support from the Creator. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 102.9
With Sunday it is different. There being no Divine sanction for it, there is no life in it. Thus men who have been taught to think that they ought to rest on Sunday, and who profess that they want to, do not do so because others do not. They are afraid that somebody else will get some of their business if they close on Sunday. So they plead for a law that will enable them to close their business on Sunday without any fear of loss. They virtually say to Parliament, “I will do what I think I ought to do, if you will pay me for it.” That is the religion of Sunday legislation. It is strange that professed ministers of the Gospel have so low a view of what real Christianity is, that they can take pleasure in such service as that, and can think that those who keep Sunday on such a basis as that are any gain to Christianity. Do not these things show that there is great need of the preaching of the true Gospel, and even in so-called Christian lands? Men need to be directed to the power that made the heavens and the earth in six days, and rested the seventh day, so that they may say, “Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” Psalm 124:8. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 102.10
“Paternalism in Government” The Present Truth 9, 7.
E. J. Waggoner
There seems to be quite general agreement with the statement in Mr. Cleveland’s inaugural address, that the function of government does not include support of the people. Commenting on his attack on “paternalism” in government, the Christian Commonwealth says: PTUK April 6, 1893, page 103.1
“Just here he touched a most vital point, and it needs emphasis in this country as well as in America. The people are in constant danger of acting upon the principle that it is the duty of the Government to support them instead of it being their duty to support the Government. Nothing is more common than to suppose that a Government is capable of helping all those who are in difficulty or need, and in order to meet the expectation of the people many members of Parliament are constantly attempting to do the impossible. Hence the evils of class legislation and legislation in the interests of them who think the Government should exercise a paternal care over them.” PTUK April 6, 1893, page 103.2
“At present very many hold the Government in authority for the time being responsible for all the ills that come upon the people. But nothing could be more absurd than this. The prosperity of the people must depend very largely upon themselves. Government has its proper function, and when faithfully exercising that function is entitled to the fullest support of all loyal citizens. But when Government assumes the function of paternalism it at once becomes an evil instead of a good. Let us not make a mistake at this point. Most of the evils of society can be cured only by making each individual what we would wish the whole to be.” PTUK April 6, 1893, page 103.3
All this is good, but unfortunately it will not be carried into practice. None of those who applaud such sentiments seem to imagine that Sunday legislation and other religious legislation is the very worst form of paternalism in Government. If it is wrong for Government to support the people pecuniarily, how much worse it must be for it to carry them religiously. Nothing can be more demoralising to the people. The Comnonwealth might well have said that not only “most” but all “the evils of society can be cured only by making each individual what we would wish the whole to be.” If it is desired that all the people should be religious, or should adhere to some special form of religion, it is lawful to labour with them individually to that end; but when the Government undertakes to become responsible for the religion of all the people, we have an exhibition of paternalism that is the worst sort of despotism. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 103.4
“Theosophy” The Present Truth 9, 7.
E. J. Waggoner
Mrs. Besant has returned to England after a three months’ tour in the United States, where she has been delivering lectures on Theosophy, which is a sort of sugar-coated Spiritualism. She states that the Theosophical movement has made great progress in America, and everywhere great audiences were eager to hear her. In New York she lectured to audiences of 4,000 to 5,000 persons, and in Yale College she had a large audience. The report says that “Mrs. Besant considers that there is a great future before the Theosophist movement in America, as it fills a widely expressed want amongst thoughtful Americans-the need for some certainty as to the problems of life beyond the grave.” People are anxious for certainty but they ignore the Bible, the only place where the certainty of the future life may be found. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 103.5
“Charts and Guide-Books” The Present Truth 9, 7.
E. J. Waggoner
Have you ever travelled on the ocean? Have you ever been tossed about by the great waves for days and days with never a sight of land? And have you finally danced for joy as you safely neared the long-looked for harbour, where you could once more see the faces of loved ones, and walk the shores of your native land? PTUK April 6, 1893, page 108.1
Have you ever watched the captain, and wondered how he knew which way to go, when there was not a tree or a house or even a bit of land to be seen? Why does he not get lost and go to some far-off country instead of the one he wishes to go to? When it gets dark why does he not run upon an island, or dash the ship to pieces on some great rock? PTUK April 6, 1893, page 108.2
Ah, it is because he has a chart and a compass and the sun and stars to guide him. Without something to guide him he could not find the way any better than you could. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 108.3
Upon the chart is pictured out the whole ocean,-its safe waters and its unsafe waters, its islands and dangerous rocks, its countries and harbours along its shores. The compass shows him which way is north and south and east and west, and the sun and stars show him in what part of the ocean he is. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 108.4
What a dreadful thing it would be if a captain should start out with a false chart and a false compass! What if the chart should say there were safe places, where there were no safe places, and the compass should point to the east or west when it ought to point to the north! Would you like to go on that voyage? He might land you among bloodthirsty savages, or take you where you would be dashed to pieces on the cruel rocks, or be frozen to death among the icebergs, or come to some other frightful end. When you go on an ocean voyage, then, you need a good chart, and a good compass, yes, and a good captain too, for you could not guide your ship right, even if you had the chart and compass. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 108.5
Again: Would you like to journey through the Alps, with a false guide-book, where one wrong step might hurl you hundreds and hundreds of feet down a steep precipice? No, indeed! and if you carefully followed a good guide-book you would also secure a trustworthy guide before you started up the mountain, for though you should see the right way, you could not go over that dangerous road without help. You would need to have a good strong guide to take hold of your hand,-one who had been over the road before and knew all about it. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 108.6
But stop and think a moment. Do you not need a good chart and compass and a good captain on your journey to heaven, as much as you possibly could in your journey on the ocean? Do you not need a good guide-book and a trusty guide, as much as you ever could in the Alps? PTUK April 6, 1893, page 108.7
I do not mean that you must cross oceans and climb mountains to get to heaven, but I do mean that you will pass over places that are just as difficult and just as dangerous. If you should get into wrong ways or habits, and fall into sin, it would be far more dangerous than for you to get into a wrong road on the mountains and fall into the ice crevasses. If you did not get out of the sin and back into the right way, you would be lost not only for this life but for the one to come. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 108.8
Satan and the other evil angels who were cast out of heaven because they sinned, hate God and hate you. They are all the time trying to lead you into wicked paths where you will be destroyed. They have placed public-houses, gambling dens, and many other traps and snares along your path, thinking that if they do not catch you in one, they surely will in another. If they can get you into the habit of disobeying your parents, they feel sure that it will not be long until you will fall into some other of their nets. If you could only once see the many dangerous and slippery pitfalls of sin that Satan has placed on every side of you, you would see how very much you need a good guide-book and a trusty guide. Just as surely as you try to go to heaven without a strong and a trusty guide,-one who knows the right way because he has been over it, one who knows how to overcome Satan and keep out of his snares,-just so surely you will be entangled in some of his nets and be overcome; for Satan is stronger than you. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 108.9
Above all things be sure that you get the right guide-book and the right guide. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 108.10
“False Guide-Books in India” The Present Truth 9, 7.
E. J. Waggoner
Satan has engaged many false guides and has caused many false guide-books to be written, which claim to show the way to heaven. You will need to be careful, for he has made his false guide-books and charts appear as much like the good ones as he can, so that people will not be apt to notice the difference until it is too late. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 108.11
Thousands and thousands of the people of India have taken these false guide-books as their guides to heaven, and that is the reason we find them to-day in such a helpless, hopeless condition. They have been guided here and there through the broad and crooked by-paths of sin and death, but never once into the straight and narrow path of righteousness and life. We find them no nearer heaven to-day than they were before. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 108.12
The guide-books used by millions of Hindus in India are called the Vedas. One is a sort of hymn-book, another a chant or tune book, one a prayer-book, and still another, partly verse and partly prose, tells them what to do under all sorts of circumstances. Then they have other books with long names, one telling specially the duties of the priests, another the duties of the hermits, etc. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 108.13
As all of these guide-books are said to come from heaven, the Hindus follow them very closely. But you can see for yourself whether they are true guide-books to heaven, or false guide-books, whether they are leading the Hindus nearer to God, or farther away from God. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 108.14
The hymns and prayers in these books are not as you would suppose, to be sung and prayed to the God who created heaven and earth and all things. But they are all to false gods who can neither hear nor help them. Many of them are to the god of rain, and the god of fire; others are to the storm gods, and many, many other gods. In one of the Vedas there are a hundred and fourteen hymns, all in one part, addressed to Soma, the juice of the “moon-plant”! PTUK April 6, 1893, page 108.15
The Hindus are led not only to worship millions of false gods, but the Vedas say that it is only when people have been drinking a great deal of strong drink that they are able to worship properly. So at the feasts which they give to their gods their houses are filled with drunken men and women. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 108.16
Their worship consists mostly in gifts of different animals. Thousands are sometimes killed in one day around one idol, until the blood runs in streams. They even offered human beings to their gods until the British Government would not allow them to do it any more. But they do not worship their gods because they love them, but because they are afraid of them. They are led to believe that they will cause some dreadful thing to come upon them unless they offer them plenty of blood. They live in fear and dread all the time. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 108.17
Their religion also leads them to treat their widows with the greatest cruelty, and they even burned them alive until the Government stopped it. But we shall speak more of some of these things at another time. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 109.1
Another large class of people in India are called Mohammedans because they are following a guide by the name of Mohammed. He told them that his guide-book, the Koran, was given him from heaven. They therefore follow it very strictly. They can plainly see that the Vedas are false gods, but they cannot so readily see that the Koran and Traditions of Mohammed are false, because they teach the true God and some other things that are taught by the true guide-book. Satan has tried to get them to appear as nearly like the good guide-book as he can, but by noticing them carefully we who have seen the true guide-book can see that the most important directions in the whole journey are left out. No wonder, then, that the poor people who follow them the most faithfully become disappointed and are often in utter despair, for they find neither God nor heaven. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 109.2
We know that there is only one Way and one Door to God and heaven. But the Koran says to the poor Mohammedan, “There is no door there, there is no door there!” and leads them around by another way. So although some of them have spent their whole lives wandering around trying to find the door to happiness and God, they have never found it. If they do not learn of the true way soon, they will be led into the lake of fire instead of into heaven. That is where every one of Satan’s false ways lead to. What a cunning old liar Satan is! He has caused this false guide-book to appear so nearly like the true that many millions of people have been deceived by it. And it is said to-day that more people follow the Koran than follow the true guide-book. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 109.3
The Koran says, “There is no God but one, and Mohammed is His prophet,” that God has no Son, and that Jesus was never crucified, but was just a prophet like other prophets. Mohammed is said to be a greater prophet than Jesus. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 109.4
Mohammedans must pray five times a day, at sunrise, noon, afternoon sunset, and late evening. But on Friday their prayers must be said in the mosque, that is, the prayers of the men; the women are never allowed to enter a mosque. When they pray they must always turn their faces toward Mecca, the place where Mohammed was born and where their sacred temple is. All their prayers are in Arabic, a language which very few of them can understand. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 109.5
They therefore do not know what they are praying about! Do you think such prayers can do them much good? They must always wash before they pray, if not with water, then with clean sand. “Besides learning the words of their prayers, the children have to learn a great deal about how they are to stand when they pray, how to clasp their hands, and throw themselves down on the ground, and count beads, etc.” PTUK April 6, 1893, page 109.6
The Mohammedans are led to treat the women “even more cruelly than the Hindus, and keep the ladies more closely shut up.” The Koran tells them to fight for their religion, and Mohammed taught that it was right to kill those who did not believe as they did. They may each have four wives, while Mohammed had fourteen or fifteen. The Koran also says that everybody should make at least one pilgrimage to Mecca. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 109.7
One Mohammedan named Imaduddin learned the whole Koran and all the Mohammedan laws and traditions, so anxious was he to find God and happiness. But it did him no good. Then he became a fakir “living apart from men, talking but little, eating little, afflicting his body and keeping awake nights. He sat on the graves of holy men, said his five prayers every day, also a prayer in the night, in the very early morning, and at dawn, and was always repeating the Mohammedan confession of faith. He often spent half the night in silence at a tomb,” and finally he left the rest of the world and went into the lonely jungles. Step by step he traveled 2,588 miles “in search only of God.” But the false guide-book was leading him in the wrong way and he could not find Him, and Mohammed had said that he must not look into the true guide-book. He washed in a stream, sat in a particular manner on one knee for twelve days, and repeated aloud a certain prayer thirty times every day. He ate nothing but unsalted barley bread made with his own hands, and fasted entirely during the day. He remained barefooted, and did not touch any man, nor-except at an appointed time-speak to anyone. During those twelve days he wrote the name of God upon paper 125,000 times, cut out each word separately with scissors, wrapped it in a little ball of flour and fed the fishes with it, in the way his books said. Half of the night he kept awake and in his thoughts wrote the name of God upon his heart. Poor man! he had gone everywhere the Mohammedan guide-books had told him to go, and had done everything that they had told him to do, and he was no nearer God or happiness than when he began, and was so ill and weak that he “could not hold himself up against the wind.” But, thank God, he finally got hold of a true Guide-Book, and it was not long till he had found God. He is now full of peace and comfort and joy! PTUK April 6, 1893, page 109.8
The Parsees, or fire-worshippers, follow a false guide-book called the Avesta. The Jains have false guide-books called Yogas and Puranas, the Sikhs follow the Granth, and other classes still other guide-books which we have not time even to mention. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 110.1
No wonder that the people of India are not in the right way, and are in the “gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity.” It is because they are following false guides and false guide-books. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 110.2
“The True Guide-Book and Guide” The Present Truth 9, 7.
E. J. Waggoner
My DEAR YOUNG FRIEND, there is no need of your wandering round all your life, like the Hindu or Mohammedan, in a hopeless search for God and happiness. You may find Him now, and you may also find happiness such as this world cannot take away,-if you follow the Holy Bible, the true Guide-Book. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 110.3
“How do you know it is the true Guide-Book?” you say. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 110.4
I know it just the same way that you know when you have a good apple:-I have tasted and seen that it is good; I have tried it, and it is just what it professes to be; I have followed it, and it leads me just where it says it will; I have tried Jesus, the true Guide whom it recommends, and I find Him all that heart can wish; I find that He fully satisfies; I find that He knows every step of the way, has been over it before, and knows exactly how I feel and just what help I need. He is so gentle, so good, so loving, and so kind. He not only knows how to help me, but He has power to help me, for He made the heavens and earth out of nothing, and by His word stilled the stormy waters of Galilee, and He resisted Satan until he fled from Him. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 110.5
I first tried to follow the Guide-Book without the Guide, but I found that that was impossible. Although it seemed to tell so plainly where to go and just what to do to find God and heaven, I found no power in myself to follow it, and no power in it to lead me. As long as I refused to follow its advice about the Guide, I found the Guide-Book of no help to me at all. But as soon as I acknowledged that I could not do it myself and accepted Jesus as my Guide, the Bible became like a lamp to my feet and a light to my path, because it is always light where Jesus is. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 110.6
I just told Him that I was tired of sin and following Satan, and wanted Him to lead me. Then I studied the Guide-Book, and His life and power came into my heart with the words, until I was able to do what it said; and yet not I, but Jesus, my Guide, that lived in me. And I find that just as long as I carefully study my Guide-Book and allow Jesus to be my Guide, I do not lose my way, but each day brings me nearer and nearer to heaven. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 110.7
Do you see why it is so necessary to come to Jesus? He Himself says that it is because He is the only Way and the only Door to God and heaven. So of course we cannot get there unless we come to Him any more than we could get into a room unless we went to the door. That is the reason the Mohammedan cannot find God. He is following a guide-book that does not tell him where the true Door is. You remember the Koran says that Jesus is only a man and was not crucified to open a way from us to His Father. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 110.8
Although we have the true Guide-Book, it is just as necessary for us to go to the Door as it is for the children of India. When we have found the right Door as it is for the children of India. When we have found the right Door then God can use us to show others the right way. But how can we show others what we do not know ourselves? PTUK April 6, 1893, page 110.9
Your Bible is worth more to you than all the other books in the world, for it is the only true Guide-Book to righteousness, happiness, and heaven. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 110.10
But remember that you can have a Bible on your table, another in your bookshelves, and still another in your pocket, and it never can lead you a step towards heaven until you love it, and study it, and do as it says. And you cannot do one thing that it says without Jesus the Captain, the powerful and loving Guide. He is no respecter of persons. He is just as willing to help you as He is to help me. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 110.11
“Interesting Items” The Present Truth 9, 7.
E. J. Waggoner
Sea fowls’ eggs have one remarkable peculiarity-they are nearly conical in form, broad at the base, and sharp at the point, so that they will roll only in a circle. They are sometimes laid on the bare edges of high rocks, from which they would almost surely roll off save for this happy provision of nature. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 110.12
-The average supply of fish at Billingsgate Market is 10,000 tone a month. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 110.13
-London has 189 breweries, and London brewers use yearly some 11,000,000 bushels of grain in the manufacture of beer. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 110.14
-Union Chapel, Islington, has one of the largest Sunday schools in London. There are over 3,000 children, with 304 teachers. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 110.15
-Tremont Temple, the famous Baptist Church in Boston, Mass., U.S.A., was totally destroyed by fire on Sunday morning, March 19. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 110.16
-Bomb throwing is becoming quite a regular thing in Rome, one being exploded in some public place every few days. Much uneasiness is naturally resulting therefrom/ PTUK April 6, 1893, page 110.17
-Love cannot live without action, and every act increases, strengthens, and extends it. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 110.18
-Mr. Carlisle, Secretary of the Treasury at Washington, has announced his intention to enforce the Chinese Exclusion Act, forbidding the entrance of Chinese immigrants into United States territory. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 110.19
-Japan is becoming a formidable rival to England in the matter of cotton-spinning. The Japanese cotton-spinners are exporting largely to China, their nearness to which gives them an enormous advantage. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 110.20
-Another severe tornado has visited the Mississippi Valley. Eighteen deaths are known to have been caused by it, and hundreds of persons were injured. The damage to property is estimated at 2,000,000 doolars. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 110.21
-The term “tabby cat” is derived from Atab, a famous street in Bagdad, inhabited by the manufacturers of silken stuff called “atibi,” or “taffety.” This stuff is woven with waved markings of watered silk resembling a “tabby” cat’s coat. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 110.22
-According to the latest report of the Russian Central Statistical Society, the total population of European Russia, including Finland, Russian Poland, and Cis-Cancasia, now reaches 102,000,000. Of these only 12,000,000 live in towns. Only eleven towns possess a population exceeding 100,000. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 110.23
-The Austrian War Office has received a telegram to the effect that trials have been made at Mannheim of a bullet-proof uniform cloth, the invention of an inhabitant of the town. The trials are said to have been entirely satisfactory. Bullets fired at a very short range failed to penetrate the cloth. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 110.24
-A man made a mild attack upon King Humbert, of Italy, March 25. The missile thrown proved to be nothing but a ball of earth wrapped in paper. The man declared that he intended to insult the King because he declined to effect a reconciliation with the Pope. The aggressor was declared insane, PTUK April 6, 1893, page 110.25
-Some time ago the Waldenses who inhabit the Italian side of the Cottian Alps sent a delegate to the United States to inquire into the prospects for settlers in North Carolina. Their report was favourable, and it is announced that 2,000 Waldenses will leave their historic valleys, and settle in America. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 110.26
-In Russian Ministerial circles plans for the partial abolition of the passport system are being discussed. It is proposed to begin with the abolition of passports to village women who may be living in towns. As women do not pay taxes, their whereabouts is not a matter of importance to the village authorities. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 110.27
-A disastrous hurricane passed over the New Hebrides Islands and New Caledonia on March 6. The storm was the worst ever known in those latitudes. It raged without intermission for three entire days, and the rainfall was extraordinary. Villages and plantations were destroyed, and a number of ships were driven ashore. There was considerable loss of life, and immense loss of property. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 110.28
-The China Mail of February 7 gives particulars of intense and extraordinary cold weather in the Southern part of the Chinese Empire. Great numbers of the poor people froze to death. The charitable institutions found their stocks of coffins held in readiness to assist the poor speedily exhausted, and carpenters had to work extra hours to supply the demand, so great was the mortality because of the cold. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 110.29
-Mr. John Branson, of Philadelphia, has informed the agent of the White Star Company in New York that he has had a spirit message revealing to him the fact that ten of the crew of the steamer Naronic have been lost, and that the vessel has stranded on the rocks 100 miles north of where one of the boats was passed by the steamer Coventry. The Naronic, he added, would be found to be a total wreck, but her cargo, machinery, and engines would be saved. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 110.30
“Back Page” The Present Truth 9, 7.
E. J. Waggoner
The high position which the Pope of Rome assumes for himself may be seen in the fact that it is a question whether or not he will consent to receive Emperor William, of Germany, on his proposed visit to Rome. He will not receive the Emperor unless a certain ceremonial is observed. The Pope regards himself as greater than any king or emperor, and the worst of it is that most of them tamely acknowledge his arrogant pretensions. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 103.1
At the town of Northwich, on the 28th ult., a number of tobacconists, sweet sellers, newspaper venders, and others, were summoned by the Chief Constable of Cheshire, at the instance of the Northwich Local Board, for offences under the Lord’s Day Act. After a lengthy hearing, one of the number, a tobacconist, was fined 2s. 6d. “as a warning,” and the others were dismissed. Two men arrested for selling newspapers got off on a technicality. It was stated, however, that they would “probably be summoned again for hawking or crying newspapers on the Sabbath.” PTUK April 6, 1893, page 103.2
From the Echo of March 29th we clip the following:- PTUK April 6, 1893, page 103.3
“The legislators of the Isle of Man are very much averse to Sunday trading. At yesterday’s meeting of the House of Keys a clause was introduced into the Local Government Bill prohibiting the sale or exposure of sale of merchandise, food, or newspapers on Sundays, under a penalty of 40s. for each offence. Milk dealers, and chemists selling medicines are excluded. The proposer said that the clause was specially aimed at the sale of newspapers and oysters in the streets and shops on Sundays. A member suggested that travelling by boat, railway, or car on Sundays should be prohibited. After a long discussion, the clause was passed by a large majority.” PTUK April 6, 1893, page 103.4
A meeting was recently held in Exeter Hall for the purpose of censuring the Indian missionaries, because in the Decennial Conference they did not pass a vote of condemnation on the Government. The Christian Commonwealth says that the only speaker who aroused any enthusiasm was Hugh Price Hughes, and that “the applause was prolonged and vociferous” when he declared that “the House of Commons will lie in the hollow of Christian hands when we give up quarrelling with one another, and unanimously quarrel with the devil.” PTUK April 6, 1893, page 103.5
This statement, together with the applause with which it was received, shows what is becoming more and more the popular idea of Christianity. It is that “the church” should control the Government, and be able to manipulate Parliaments and Legislatures. If Christianity means the doctrine of Christ, then that is not Christianity; for Christ countenanced no such thing. There is no more solemn and imperative duty resting upon Christians, than to declare and demonstrate that dabbling in politics and controlling Legislatures is not Christianity. The Gospel is “the power of God to every one that believeth.” It is God’s power, instead of human power; it deals with individuals instead of masses; and it reveals the righteousness of God to faith, and not to force. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 103.6
The officers of the United States Government seem to be determined to furnish a practical commentary on the recent Supreme Court decision that the United States is a Christian Nation. For example read the following statement as to how the Collector of the port of San Francisco intends to enforce the Geary Chinese Exclusion Act, as soon as it goes into effect on May 5th:- PTUK April 6, 1893, page 103.7
“The Collector, however, has made all plans for the biggest round-up of Chinese on that May morning ever seen in this country. By hiring a large force he will arrest simultaneously several thousand Chinese. Those found without passports will be bundled into express wagons with their baggage and taken to the wharf. There four tugs will convey them to Goat Island, in the bay, opposite San Francisco, and three miles away, where temporary buildings will be erected to shelter them till they can be shipped on the China steamers. The tugs will be provided with an armed guard, and a tug filled with crack rifle shots will patrol around the island. In this way it is estimated that 20,000 Chinese may be comfortably housed on the island at small expense.” PTUK April 6, 1893, page 103.8
If any one questions the Christianity of all this, the officers have only to refer him to the decision of the Supreme Court. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 103.9
In the United States the churches already have such a control of Congress that the members dare not vote contrary to their wishes. We have already noted the enthusiastic and vociferous applause that greeted the statement of Hugh Price Hughes in regard to the House of Commons being held in the hollow of Christian hands. Now it seems that in Australia the same thing is proposed. From the New Zealand Herald we learn that in Victoria, “All the Protestant bodies have united in organising a representative body to be called the Council of Churches in Victoria. Each church is represented in proportion to its members, and the work the Council has taken in hand is to review the various political measures as they are brought forward, and judge them by a moral standard. If they decide that any proposed measure is ‘morally right,’ the churches will support it. If they decide that it is wrong, then the churches will oppose it with all their united strength.” PTUK April 6, 1893, page 103.10
The writer thinks that adversity is bringing the Protestant churches to their senses, so that they will henceforth not leave the Roman Catholic Church a monopoly of politics, and that the result will be to restore the lost influence of the church. Yes, it will restore to the church the influence that it had in the days of Constantine and the Dark Ages, and it will take from the church the last vestige of Spiritual power. And Roman Catholicism will be the gainer, for ecclesiastical interference in politics is essentially Roman, whether engaged in by professed Protestants or not. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 103.11
A few days ago the Pope gave a private audience to a Mr. Moriarty, who had with him a phonograph, by means of which he delivered a congratulatory address on the occasion of the Episcopal jubilee. Messages were delivered by it also from the late Cardinal Manning, and from Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore. Mr. Moriarty begged that the Pope would speak into the phonograph a message to the American people, to be delivered at the opening of the Exposition in Chicago. Accordingly the Pope spoke into the phonograph, and then said: “I hand you this message. Guard it carefully, for it is the expression of my love for all the people of the United States. I wish you to deliver it with your own hand to the President.” The message, which is in Latin, will not be made public until it is reproduced in America. This will undoubtedly prove a great attraction. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 103.12
Under the heading, “Jesus, King of London,” the Christian World of March 9 gives a brief resumé of the sermon by Mr. H. F. Horton on the previous Sunday evening, at Lyndhurst Road Chapel, Hampstead. Like most of the popular sermons of the present day, it was addressed to workingmen, and was interrupted more than once by cheering. “It was an interesting fact, he concluded, that there had never been a Duke or Count, or Lord of London. Let them explain to the rich and poor what Jesus really means, and then some day; by a vast unanimous election, they would make Jesus Christ King, Lord of London.” PTUK April 6, 1893, page 103.13
Has the character of our Lord changed? When He was here on earth He was once offered the lordship of the whole earth, and His indignant reply was “Get thee hence, Satan”; and still later when He saw that the people were determined to make Him king, He at once departed from them. It is strange that men cannot see that the kingdom of Christ can never come by force of arms nor by votes. A kingdom received in that way would be after all nothing but a government by the people, and not the kingdom of Christ. PTUK April 6, 1893, page 103.14