No, 8
AUGUST, 1915
VOL. VI
The King’s Business
Published once a month by the BIBLE INSTITUTE OF LOS ANGELES LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U. S. A.
O N E D O L L A R A Y E A R
Eiu Sting0 Statens MOTTO: “I the Lord do keep it, I will water it every moment lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.**—Isa. 27:3. R. A. TORREY, Editor T. C. H orton , J. H. H unter and J. H. S ammis , Associate Editors A. M. ROW, Manager Organ of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, Inc. Los Angeles, California, U.S.A. Entered as Second-Class Matter November 17, 1910, at the postoffice at Los Angeles, California, under the Act of March 3, 1879. Copyright by R. A. Torrey, D.D., and Bible In stitu te of Los Angeles, 1915
DIRECTORS
Lyman Stewart, President. William Thorn, Secretary. T. C. Horton, Superintendent. E. A. K. Hackett. J. M. Irvine.
Rev. A. B. Prichard, Vice-President. Leon V. Shaw, Treasurer. R. A. Torrey. Giles Kellogg. H. A. Getz.
DOCTRINAL STATEMENT We hold to the Historic Faith of the Church as expressed in the Common Creed of Evangelical Christendom and including: The Trinity of the Godhead. The Deity of the Christ.
The Maintenance of Good Works. The Second Coming of Christ. The Immortality of the Spirit. The Resurrection of the Body. The Life Everlasting of Believers. Thé Endless Punishment of the Im penitent. The Reality and Personality of Satan. House-to-house visitation and neighborhood classes. (8) Oil Fields. A mission to men on the oil fields. (9) Books and Tracts. Sale and dis tribution of selected bookB and tracts. (10) Harbor Work. For seamen in Los Angeles harbor. (11) Yoke Fellows Hall. Thoroughly manned. Our Mission for men with Boot Black and Newsboys Class and Street Meetings. (12) Print Shop. For printing Testa ments, books, tracts, etc. A complete establishment, profits going to free dis tribution of tracts. (7) Bible Women.
The Personality of the Holy Ghost. The Supernatural and Plenary au thority of the Holy Scriptures. The Unity in Diversity of the Church, which is the Body and Bride of Christ. The Substitutionary Atonement. The Necessity of the New Birth. P u rp o se The Institute trains, free of cost, accredited men and women, in the knowledge and use of the Bible. Departments: (J) The institute Classes held daily exceptSaturdays and Sundays. (2) Extension work. Classes and con ferences held in neighboring cities and towns. (3) Evangelistic. Meetings conducted by our evangelists. (4) Spanish Mission. Meetings every night. (5) Shop Work. Regular services in shops and factories. (6) Jewish Evangelism. Personal work among the Hebrews.
OUR WORK
THE KING’S BUSINESS
TABLE OF CONTENTS Editorial: All Christians are One Race and One Family— “Avenge not Yourselves”— Modern Science the Hand maid of the Devil—Wealth, its Use and Abuse— Study of the English Bible— Sunday School Lessons on Time —The Crux of Christianity— “And Peter, Answering Said’’ ... ___ .'.___ i__— ------- .— % -------------------— ......... 653 Impossible Theory of the Pentateuch. By Rev. Andrew Craig Robinson _....___ __...—..—.—. 659 Bible Institute Commencement.™ ._____ .......— ....'.............—— 665 The Ulster Revival o f ’59 (Continued). By John H. Hunter 667 Our Chimes .. _______________—.—......„^.L...........----——.......... 671 The Crux of Christianity; The Resurrection of Jesus Christ. By Dr. William Evans ....................................------ 673 A t Home and Abroad.:...........-....™..___________,,._...—..,.......i...„,.r— 681 The Synoptic Gospels. By C. I. Scofield...... ........................... 685 Hints and Helps.-.,________ ______—,-----------—------------- — 689 Light on Puzzling Passages and Problems.........------.....— ------ 693 Bible Institute Activities. By the Superintendents.......... ........ 69 7 International Sunday School Lessons. By R. A. Torrey and T. C. Horton. ____ __— ....__ ............ ......... .... ......... 705 Daily Devotional Studies in the New Testament for Indi vidual Meditation and Family Worship. By R. A. Torrey ________________ _____ .....___—__ ,__ ___ i _... 727
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THE KING’S BUSINESS
No. 8
Vol 6
AUGUST, 1915
E D I T O R I A L There was never a day in which Christians needed to All Christians are bear in mind that in Christ “there is neither Greek nor One Race and Jew, Barbarian nor Scythian,” English, German or One Family. American, but that we “are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus,” and “all one in Christ Jesus,” more than today (Col. 3:11; Gal. 3:25, 28). Though our kings and emperors and presidents divide, even though we are behind guns in opposing camps, we must never forget we are brethren, and we must show our love for one an other in every way possible. cry for vengeance went up from many hearts and lips in many lands. That is natural; it is human; but it is not Christian. The riots in London and other English cities that were provoked by this disaster, though natural, were not only foolish, but unchristian. “Vengeance” belongs to God, not to us. And He will “repay” (Rom. 12:19). We can safely leave the matter in His hands. Our part is to feed our hungry enemy (Rom. 12:20) and to “over come evil with good.” Man for many years has been making great boasts of Modem Science the what his science has achieved, and science has made Handmaid,- of marvellous advancement. Perhaps her greatest triumphs the Devil have been in the domain of chemistry and mechanics. The greatest marvel of all in mechanics has been the aeroplane and the dirigible. We have been vauntingly told of what great blessings these were to bring to men. Man would no longer travel by land or sea, but fly through the air. But in actual fact what has come of the aeroplane and dirigible? Nothing but terror and destruction. In England, France, Germany and other lands, men, women and children lie down at night not knowing but before morn ing a bomb will fall from the air upon their home to explode, tear, wound, maim and kill. It is the devil’s work. War is hellish enough, The sinking of the Lusitania sent a thrill of horror around the world. A dear friend of the writer, a noble Christian lady of world-wide usefulness, was among the hundreds of victims of that shocking - calamity. A “Avenge Not Yourselves.”
654 THE KING’S BUSINESS but this is not war; it is mere wanton murder, and the devil is the father of all murder. And what is the most recent triumph of chemistry ? Something to glorify God and bless man? Poisonous gases deliberately directed by men of high scientific attainments, university professors, to stifle, poison, tor ture and kill the flower of the youth oil another nation. The most cultured nations of the twentieth century are carrying on war today in a manner that for inhuman, devilish barbarism far exceeds anything the North American Indian or the cruel tyrants of Nineveh or other Eastern monsters, ever dreamed of. A godless culture with all its boasted advancement in science and philosophy has utterly failed. But our hearts need not fail nor fear: THE KING is coming. E ven so, come L ord J esu s .
All wealth belongs to God. Man cannot “create” wealth; he may “amass” it, but he cannot create it. Nor can man “own” wealth: “The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord o f .hosts.” Man has
Wealth—Its Use and Abuse.
“rights of property” so far as his fellowman is concerned; he has no such “rights” towards God. God is absolute owner; man is but the steward. Even back of the “getting” is God: “Beware lest thou forget Jehovah thy God . . . when thy silver and thy gold is multiplied . . . lest thou say in thy heart, My power and the might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth. But thou shalt remember Jehovah thy God, for it is He that giveth thee power to get wealth.” A Christian may consistently “amass” wealth. The more wealth there is in the hands-of Christian men the better for every good cause. Care must be exercised, however, in the making, the holding, and the distribution of it. Two reasons are set forth in the Scriptures for making money: first, for the supply of one’s own needs and of those dependent upon us (1 Tim. 5:8); secondly, for benevolent purposes (Eph. 4:28). The first of these reasons is so clear as to need no comment; the second is not so well under stood, and needs some explanation, for it deals with what may be called the “surplus,” the “abundance of the things which a man possesseth,” the “super fluity,” that which he has over and above what is necessary for his necessi ties. And is it not in the use of this “surplus” that most of us, like the fool in the parable, begin to be foolish and go wrong? Luke’s gospel has been called “The gospel of wealth,” probably because it contains so much of our Lord’s teaching on the use and abuse of wealth. Three parables especially are worthy of attention: “The Rich Fool” (c. 12), “The Unjust Steward” (c. 16), and “The Rich Man and Lazarus” (c. 16). The first shows the utter folly of seeking soul-satisfaction in wealth and the utter imbecility of the hoarding of such treasure in view of the fact of speedy death. We cannot take our wealth with us; we must leave it to others, who, knowing not its value, not having earned it, will doubtless waste it (Eccles. 5:13-20; 6:1, 2). This is folly and vanity. The second, “The Unjust Steward,” shows the use and abuse of trust funds. Wealth is a trust committed to us by God for the use of which we must give account. The “abuse” here consisted of using wealth for selfish purposes, for oneself instead of the owner’s interests. The “use” commended
THE KING’S BUSINESS 655 was that which had the future in mind. Not the “injustice” but the “pru dence” of the man is here commended; he “made friends with the mammon of unrighteousness” so that when he was put out of his position, those whom he had befriended with the means at his disposal, gave him a welcome into their homes. This man had a keen eye for the future. This is what is commendable in the story. The lesson for the Christian is that he should use what wealth God has given him with an eye on the future, for the purpose of making friends for Christ; which means, in other words, the winning of souls for Him, the propagation of the work of God at home and abroad, the scattering of Christian literature and the Word of God, the furtherance of the work of evangelization of the masses, in a final word: the winning of men and women to the Lord Jesus Christ. Every soul thus won with the “mammon of unrighteousness” is a friend made, who will bid us welcome into the “everlasting habitations” when we are “put out of our stewardship,” that is, when we go to be with Christ. What a joy it will be to have some soul meet us there and say, “It was through the use of your money that I was brought to know Christ.” The third parable, or better perhaps, narrative, that of “The Rich man and Lazarus,” lays emphasis on the selfish use of wealth. Dives had a chance to “make a friend” of Lazarus with his wealth. In his selfishness he neg lected ter do it, consequently we have the awful picture here presented to us of the rich man’s utter loneliness, his want of a friend to comfort him in his agony and pain. Oh, if he had only made a friend of Lazarus with “the mammon of unrighteousness,” with his possessions when living on the earth! Oh, if he had only used his money to win souls! He would not have been friendless in that other world. What are you doing with your surplus funds? Man of wealth, will any one there at the beautiful gate be watching and-waiting for you to bid you welcome? Or will you be lonesome there? Make friends with the mammon or unrighteousness—with your wealth.
The “English Bible” is again coming into its own. -The tendency of past years has been to neglect its study. Even in institutions for theological training has this fault been manifest. The Scriptures, in parts, have been
Study of the English Bible.
studied in Hebrew and Greek, but the “English Bible,” the Bible which “the people” have to read and study, has been sorely disregarded. This sad and sore neglect is clearly evident from the absence of Biblical preaching or in struction in the Scriptures in the pulpit or class-room of the average church. A large gift, we understand, has been left the Union Seminary of New York, for the establishment of a chair “for the teaching of the English Bible pure and simple.” The great Presbyterian Church of the United States has urged strongly upon the presidents of all its colleges to seek to establish chairs for the teaching of the “English Bible.” The heads of these educa tional institutions a rc seeking earnestly for men and women of means to endow such chairs from which the youth of our land shall be taught the “English Bible.”
656
THE KING’S BUSINESS There can hardly be any reasonable doubt but that the “Bible Institutes” of our land have had much to do with this revival in the teaching of “the English Bible pure and simple.” It is a real question now where to secure teachers for these “chairs.” It might not be out of place to say that we shall have to look to the Bible Institutes, which for years have been specializing in the teaching of the English Bible, for the supply of men and women to occupy the positions soon to be available in our colleges. These Institutes have in them, as enrolled and resident students, many men and women who have had full collegiate, and in many instances post-graduate and seminary work, who nevertheless have felt the need of a deeper knowledge of the “English Bible” and have devoted additional time to its study. It is to be naturally expected, therefore, that these Bible Institutes shall be the places to which the church shall look for efficient Bible teachers—at least for the present. use of the International Sunday School Lessons. It will hereafter be our aim to place the magazine in the mails during the first few days of each month, so that it may reach the most remote reader in time. There is much good reading in every number, and hundreds of subscribers who make use of the Home Devotional Readings are satisfied with the present arrangement, but those who wish the exposition and comments on the Sunday School Les sons for use in Sunday Schools have found themselves handicapped by their tardy receipt. It is our purpose to make the magazine ever more interesting and attrac tive, as well as a source of greater inspiration to Christian people and a lamp to the feet of the young. Our subscribers are urged to help the cause of the Master and help us by inducing their friends to subscribe. All surplus funds go to the further free distribution of religious literature. There is no com mercialism about any department of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles. It has been found, that the plan of mailing T he K ing ' s B u sin ess by the 20th of the current month is not satisfactory to subscribers in remote portions of this and other countries, who are interested in the Sunday School Lessons on Time
It is stated in some quarters today that even though the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ be denied, Christian- ity nevertheless itself remains-intact. This is fatal and erroneous teaching. Paul the Apostle makes Chris
The Crux of Christianity.
tianity answer for its life with belief in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. This great single fact in Christ’s life cannot be separated from all the other facts that go to make up the gospel history as a whole. Jesus Christ is not to be divided. The dissolution of one supernatural fact of that life means the dissolution of the whole. If you begin by denying the Virgin Birth at the commencement of his earthly life, and then the Resurrection at the end, it will not be long before the sinless life He lived between these two supernatural events will be denied, for a sinless life and a sinless human being is as supernatural a fact as either the Virgin Birth or the Resurrection.
THE KING’S BUSINESS 657 Thus, in accordance with the tendency today, which denies everything of a supernatural character, we would soon have no Christ and no Christian Gos pel. If Christ be not raised from the dead, then there is no reality or power in the Gospel which bears His name. This is what Paul claims in 1 Corin thians 15:14-17. If Christ be not risen then the Gospel is wanting in reality; it is false and unreal (14); it is barren in its results; it is fruitless and in effective ; it IS nothing g it DOES nothing. If Christ be not raised then that tomb in Joseph’s garden becomes the grave not only of a man but of a religion, too, with all the glorious hopes, aims and purposes it has aroused and inspired. Instead of being the proclamation of a truth the Gospel then is the dissemination of a lie. Is such a thing credible ? One of the interesting events of the month has been the announcement of the return to the orthodox fold of the Answering, Said.” Rev. B. Fay Mills. It was only a few weeks ago that Mr. Mills was in Los Angeles holding forth to what is termed “The Los Angeles Fellowship,” an organization of which he was the founder and leader for a large part of the time since he renounced his belief in the deity and atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. No one who loves his Lord can feel anything but glad that Mr. Mills has got back into fellowship with Him. We have heard the question raised, however, “Would it not have been well for him to have preached his new-found faith for awhile to prove his sincerity before applying for re-admission into the Presbyterian fold?” That is probably the ve'ry natural question, but our Lord does not seem to have put the Apostle Peter on the probation list after his return, nor did He do this with Paul, the arch persecutor, even though that godly man, Ananias, would seem to have had some such thought in view. The following item which appeared in a Los Angeles morning paper, is full of interest in this connection: “Former members of the Los Angeles Fellowship held a meeting in Blanchard building last evening to receive a communication from their former minister, Benjamin Fay Mills, giving his reasons for returning to the Presby terian church. “In letters read to the gathering Mr. Mills said: ‘I am going back to the old church. The distracted condition of the world, my growing compas sion and tolerance for almost all people and institutions, including the church, the fact that the church is the one institution in spite of all its shortcomings that holds the ideals of righteousness and means to work for them, together with a new insight into the unique importance of the life, death, mission and message of the historic Christ, have led us to this step. I believe in the deity of Christ and the unique spiritual revelation and authority of the Hebrew and Christian scriptures. The atonement of Christ seems to me the execution in time of what has been planned throughout eternity and the revelation of the method by which alone man’s sins and sorrows can be borne away.” “And Peter,
By Dr. Andrew Craig Robinson Rector of Ballymoney, Donnellan Lecturer at Dublin University
N ote .— The following article by Dr. Robinson, in which he declares the Graf-Wellhausen theory of the Pentateuch to be “logically and absolutely im possible to be true,” will be read with interest as a learned elucidation of a somewhat rarely-discussed topic.— E ditor .
to Abram as his wife, may always perhaps have appeared a strange and unnatural thing for Sarai to have done. Yet it was repeated by Rachel, who because she had no children, gave Bil- hah to Jacob as his concubine ; and by Leah, who, because she considered she had not enough children, gave Jacob her maid, Zilpah. And then after that we have no instance in the Old Testa ment of any other wife doing the same thing. This circumstance then stamps the narrative in Genesis with a peculiar mark which differentiates it from the succeeding portion of the Old Testa ment. If we ask what is the meaning of Sarai, Rachel, and Leah acting as they did the answer is supplied by the Code of Hammurabi, and it is this :
most wonderful dis- covery which has been made in recent years, of the Code of Laws of am mu r a b i , wh o
reigned over Babylonia c. 2000 B. C., has thrown a vivid light on one re markable incident in the life of Abra ham, and shown (as against the skep tical views of the Critics) that the story of the life of Abraham as relat ed in the Book of Genesis is a genuine history, and not as they assert a ficti tious story composed in the Early Centuries of the Monarchy to reflect into the past the ideas of that later age. The incident related in Genesis xvi, where Sarai, because she has no chil dren, gives her Egyptian maid, Hagar,
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UNDER THE LAW. In the words, then, which Abram used, “Behold thy maid is in thy hand, do to her as it pleaseth thee,” Abram was only conceding to Sarai what was her absolute right by Babylonian law, under this section of the Code of Ham murabi! But on a later occasion at the feast, when Isaac was weaned, Sarah saw Ishmael mocking and demanded that the .bond-wOman and her son should be cast put,'using the words, “Cast out the bond-woman and her son, for the son of this bond-woman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac,” Abraham would seem to have de murred, and we read, “the thing was very grievous in his sight because of his son.” . We can now see why, apart from his natural affection for Ishmael, the thing should seem to Abraham “very griev ous . . . because of his son,” for that which Sarah called upon him to do would be a distinct breach of a certain enactment of the Code of Hammurabi. Abraham had acknowledged Ishmael as his son, and the section of the Code which applied to his case was this: “ (170) If a man his wife h'as borne him sons, and his maid-servant have borne him sons, the father have said tc the sons which the maid-servant has borne him, ‘my sons,’ has numbered them with the sons of his wife; after the father has gone to his fate the sons of the maid-servant shall share equally in the goods of the father’s house, the sons that are sons of the wife at the sharing shall choose and take.” Thus we can see that Sarah when she said, “the son of this bond-woman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac,” had evidently the con sciousness of this law before her, and was insisting that in the case of,her son Isaac, the child of promise, this every day law should be discarded and set at
What they did was a Babylonian cus tom. Sarai according to the narrative in Genesis came from Ur in the Chal dees, in the very heart of Babylonia, and Rachel and Leah’s home had been in Haran in Mesopotamia, a place in which Babylonian customs and ideas reigned supreme. The Code of Hammurabi, King of Babylonia c. 2000 B. C.,'contains the following enactments: “ (145) If a man has married a wife,; and that wife has given a maidrservant to her husband,” etc. “ (146) I f a man has married a wife, and that she has given a maid-servant to her husband, and (the maid-servant) has borne children; (if) afterwards that maid-servant make herself equal with her mistress as she has borne children, her mistress shall not sell her for silver—she shall place a mark upon her, and. count her with the maid-ser vants.” “Has given a maid-servant to her husband,” says the Babylonian Code. “Sarai . . . took Hagar her maid . . . and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife,” we read in Genesis. How close a parallel! And again: “Afterwards that maid servant make herself equal to her mis tress as she has borne children,” (The Code) “and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes” (Genesis). Remarking on this, Dr. Pinches writes: “Hagar despising her mistress (Gen. xvi, 4) is illustrated by law 146, which allows the mistress to reduce her to the position of a slave again, which was agreed to by the patriarch, the result being that Hagar fled.”— The Old Testament, in the light of the historical records of Assyria and Baby lonia, p. 524.
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(with the conquest of Canaan) passed away, and the Law of Moses in some form or other—as even the Critics themselves would admit—governed Canaan in the “early centuries” of the •Israelitish Monarchy. A Babylonish environment of a fancy story composed in such a period would be an utter an achronism. A TEST CASE. This episode of Sarah and Hagar then is a test case, in which an incident in the life of Abraham can be laid side by side with a Code of Laws contem porary with the period. Every inci dent in the narrative, as we have seen, is affected and ruled by the Code; and this test case of Sarah and Hagar clearly shows that the critical theory that the lives of the Patriarchs as told in Genesis are shadowy myths, or fancy fictions, is quite impossible to be true. It demonstrates on the contrary the genuine character of this story— and its simple truth. As long ago as the year 1900, in an article contributed to the Churchman of December of that year, I pointed out the significance of the curious fact, that the divine title, “Lord of Hosts,” never occurs in the Pentateuch. This I fol lowed up later on by calling attention to the further fact that the name, “Je rusalem,” was also absent from the Pentateuch | and in a letter to the Guardian, which appeared in its issue of March 27, 1907, I pointed out a third peculiarity, namely, that no men tion of Sacred Song is found in the Ritual of the Pentateuch. I have con tinued sirice then on every possible op portunity—by articles and letters in periodicals, and in my Donnellan Lec tures in Dublin University, and pub lished books—-to press home the sig nificance of these three points. To these points no valid answer has ever come from the critical side; and it seems to me that lately the attention
nought. It was only in obedience to the command of God, who intimated that provision elsewhere would be made for Ishmael, that Abraham sent Hagar and her son away. BABYLONIAN CUSTOM. Now it can readily be seen that every point in this incident is ruled by Baby lonian custom and law. The custom of a wife giving her maid-servant to her husband was, it can be seen, a Babylonian custom; and was so freely followed by Babylonian women, that the Code of Hammurabi embodies spe cial enactments in regard to it. And the fact that each point in the narrative is ruled by the Babylonian Code is per fectly consistent with what the Book of Genesis records, namely, that it was from Ur of the Chaldees that Sarai came, and that the home of Rachel and Leah was in Haran in Mesopotamia, a place' dominated by the culture of Babylonia. And not only did Sarai come originally from Babylonia, but we are also told that it was into Ca naan that she came, a land where Bab ylonian ideas and law had for centuries ruled the people. Centuries before, Sargon of Accad had conquered Syria and Canaan, and the influence of Bab ylonia had proved persistent. Dr. Driver and the rest of the Crit ics assign this episode of Sarah and Hagar to the supposed writers, “J ” . and “E” who, according to them, wrote in the “Early Centuries of the Mon archy.” But that was a time when it does not appear from the Bible that Babylonia exercised any influence whatever over the people of Israel. The name, Babylon, 'does not occur in the Historical Books earlier than 2 Kings xvii, 24 —that is to say, not until after the extinction of the Northern Kingdom. And archaeological re search (witness the pottery found at Geser) tells the same story. The reign qf Babylonian law had long before
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of writers, on the conservative side of the question at any rate, has been at last arrested; and the crucial signifi cance of these points has at length be gun to be perceived. Now again I once more press these points—and with renewed persistence —trusting that in the slackening ven eration for German sceptics, a hearing may be obtained, even amongst the critics themselves, for the logic of san ity and common sense. NOT IN PENTATEUCH. The first occurrence of this name of the sacred city (Jerusalem) in the Old Testament is found in Joshua x, 1: “Now it came to pass when Adoni- zedec, King of Jerusalem, had heard how Joshua had taken Ai,” etc. In the Pentateuch the city is only once named (Gen. xiv) and then it is called Salem—an abbreviation of its cunei form name, “Uru-Salem.” Now on the traditional view of the Pentateuch the non-occurrence of the name presents no difficulty. The rea son why shrines like Shechem, Hebron, Beersheba, and Bethel, are mentioned in Genesis with such distinguished honour, is simply no doubt because they really were sacred places of ven erable antiquity; consecrated perhaps by reason of the patriarchs having so journed there and erected their altars for sacrifice and worship, whilst at Je rusalem they had not. But from the point of view of mod ern critics, who hold that the Penta teuch was in great part composed to glorify the priesthood of Jerusalem, and that the Book of Deuteronomy in particular was found (some say com posed) to establish Jerusalem as the central and only acceptable shrine for the worship of Israel, this omission to name the great city then of sacred and historic fame which they wished to ex alt and glorify, seems very strange in
deed. According to the critics the composers of the Pentateuch had a very free hand to write whatsoever they wished—and they are held to have freely exercised it. It seems strange then to find the so-called “Yahvist,” supposed to have written in the South ern Kingdom, and to have been imbued with all its prejudices, consecrating Bethel by a notable theophany (Gen. xxvii, 16-39) whilst in all that he is supposed to have written in the Penta teuch he never, even once, names his own Jerusalem. Between Bethel and Ai is the alter which, according to him, appears to be most dear to Abraham,- and he makes Jacob say: “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not . . . and he called the name of that place Bethel.” (Gen. xxviii, 16-19). But what is still more singular, the so-called priestly writer “P,” said to have written in Exilic times, is also found consecrating Bethel by a re markable theophany in a passage which is attributed by Kuenen to “P2” (Hex- ateuch, p. 185) : “And God went up from him in the place where he spake with him . . . and Jacob called the name of the place where God spake with him Bethel.” (Gen. xxxv, 13-35). And whilst he thus glorified Bethel, this priestly writer, to whom Jerusalem with her priesthood is assumed to have been the ideal shrine, strange to say, never once in all his writings in the Pentateuch, even names Jerusalem. “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,” wails the plaintive Psalm of the Captivity, “let my right hand forget her cunning.” Was Jerusalem forgotten in Exilic days, with all her sacred and pathetic story? If not, how strange that she is never named. Still more remarkable, however, is the non-occurrence of the name “Je rusalem” in the Book of Deuteron omy, because, according to the critics, the Book of Deuteronomy was found s (some say composed) in the reign of
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place which Jehovah is to -choose.” —Prolegomena, p. 37.. “Awkwardly bashful” indeed, if Deuteronomy were written in the days of the Kingdom, in the midst of the sacred and historic traditions of Jerusalem, and with the design of setting up Jerusalem for the first time as the sole and central sanc tuary of the nation. The sorcalled “Deuteronomic com piler of Kings,” however, whom the critics suppose to have also written at a time when the glories of Jerusa lem lay behind him, is by no means “awkwardly bashful” about naming Jerusalem. He writes, 1 Kings xi, 32: “For Jerusalem’s sake, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel;” 2 Kings xxiii, 27, “Jerusalem which I have chosen, and the house of which I have said my name shall be there!” xxi, 7, “In Jerusalem which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will I put my name for ever.” What is the explanation of all this? What is the inner meaning of this absence of the name “Jerusalem” from the Pentateuch? Is it not this? That at the time the Pentateuch was written Jerusalem, with all her sacred glories, had not entered.yet into the life o f; Israel. SACRED SONG OMITTED The absence of any mention of sacred song from the ritual of the Pentateuch is in glaring contrast to the ritual of the Second Temple in which timbrels, harps, and Levite singers bore a conspicuous part. Yet it was just in the time of the Second Temple that the critics allege that a great portion of the Pentateuch was composed.r How is it then that none of these things occur in the Mosaic ritual ? It might have been expected that the priests In post-Exilic times
King Josiah, for the purpose of being used to stamp Jerusalem as the one and only sanctuary of the nation. Now in the Book of Deuteronomy the central sanctuary is referred to as “the place which the Lord thy God shall choose” (Deut. xii, 18, etc.), but not only is Jerusalem not named, but there is no intimation given that the central sanctuary is to be in a great city, nor any hint dropped as to which of the tribes should possess that sanc tuary within its borders. To those who hold the traditional view, however, that the Book of Deuteronomy was com posed in the Mosaic Age, this non occurrence of the name is only natural. When for example God commanded that the Passover should be sacri ficed, “in the place that the Lord shall choose to place his name there” (Deut. xvi, 2) it was inevitable that the command—though in the ulti mate issue it was destined to apply to Jerusalem—-should before the peo ple entered the Promised Land be simply delivered in this nameless way, because before it was to mean Jerusalem, it was to apply to at least one other shrine of Jehovah’s earlier choice, that is to say, to Shiloh, “where I set my name at the first” (Jer. vii, 12) and only in the end to mean Jerusalem. But from the view of the critics, the omission of the name of this place which the priests desired to hal low would be most strange indeed. Is it reasonable to suppose that those who produced the Book to stamp Jerusalem as the central sanctuary, would have shrunk from naming that great sanctuary, or at least indicating where it was to be?.~ It would seem as if Wellhausen himself was exercised by this strange reticence.. He.writes: “How modest, one might almost say- how awkwardly bashful, is the Deuteronomic reference to the future
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would have sought to establish the highest possible sanction for this musical ritual, by representing it as having been ordained by Moses. But no Such ordinance in point of fact occurs, and the Pentateuch stands in its primitive simplicity destitute of any ordinance of music in connection with the ritual, except those passages in which the blowing of trumpets is enjoined at the feast of trumpets, the blowing of the trumpet throughout the land in the year of Jubilee, and the command contained in a single passage (Num. x, 10) that in the day of gladness, and in the beginnings of the months over the burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of the peace- offerings, the silver trumpets were to sound. No mention in connection with the ritual of cymbals, harps, timbrels or psalteries; no mention of sacred song or Levite singers. No music proper entered into the ritual, only the crude and warlike blare of trumpets. No ordinance of sacred song, no band of Levite singers. The duties of the Levites, in the Book of Numbers are specially defined. The sons of Gershom were to bear the tabernacle and its hangings on the march ; the sons of Kohath bore the altars and the sacred vessels; the sons of Merari were to bear the boards and bands and pillars of the sanc tuary. No mention whatever of any ministry of sacred song. A strange omission this would be, if the “Priest ly Code,” so-called, which thus de fines the duties of the Levites, had been composed in post-Exilic times, when Levite singers—sons of Asaph —cymbals, harp and song of praise formed leading features in the ritual. Does it not seem that the Mosaic Code enjoining no music but the simple sounding of the trumpet-blast, stands far behind these niceties of music and of song, seeming to know nothing of them all?
DIVINE TITLE ABSENT. The first occurrence of the Divine title, “Lord of Hosts,” in the Bible is in 1 Sam. i, 3: “And this maif went out of his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice unto the Lord of hosts in Shiloh.” After this it occurs in a number of the remaining Books of the Bible, and with increasing fre quency. The pre-Samuelitic period of the history of Israel is thus differ entiated from the post-Samuelitic period by this circumstance, that in connection with the former period this title is never used, whilst in con nection with the latter it is used, and with growing frequency, at all stages of the history, even down to the end of the Book of Malachi, occurring altogether 281 times. Now the Graf-Wellhausen theory is, that the Pentateuch was composed, edited, and manipulated during a period of more than 400 years by motley groups of writers of differing views, and various tendencies. One writer composed one part, and one another; these parts were united by a different hand, and then another composed a further part; and this by yet another was united to the two that went before; and after this an other portion was composed by yet another scribe, and afterwards was joined on to the three. Matter was absorbed, interpolated, harmonized, smoothed over, coloured, edited from various points of view, and with dif ferent, not to say opposing motives. And yet when the completed product (the Pentateuch) coming out of this curious literary seething-pot is exam ined, it is found to have this remark able characteristic, that not one of the manifold manipulators—neither “J,” nor “E,” nor “JE ,” nor “D,” nor “RD,” nor “P,” nor “P2,” nor “P3,” nor “P4,” nor any one of the “Redac tors of P,” who were innumerable, would appear to have allowed him-
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self to be betrayed even by accident into using this title, “Lord of Hosts,” so much in vogue in the days in which he is supposed to have writ ten ; and the Pentateuch, devoid as it is of this expression, shows an un mistakable mark that it could not possibly have been composed in the way asserted by the criticism, because it would have been a literary impos sibility for such a number of writers, extending over hundreds of years, to have, one and all, never, even by accident, slipped into the use of this Divine title for Jehovah, “Lord of Hosts,” so much in vogue during those centuries. In point of fact, the Pentateuch, it is clear, was written before the title was invented. In conclusion I would point out that ,T 'H E graduation exercises of the Training School of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles, at which twenty-one young men and women received diplomas, passed off auspiciously on the evening of June 24, in our splendid auditorium, complimented by the presence of about 3000 Christian men and women. We feel very happy over the successful commencement, the first in our great new building, and especially proud of the personnel of the class. About ISO students of the school, and the twenty-one members of the graduating class, occupied the platform, together with the faculty and Rev. William Evans, D. D., speaker of the evening. The representatives of the class on the programme acquitted themselves with special credit and to the pride of the school, while the address of Dr. Evans was a classic of its kind, de livered in language, voice and manner that left an impression as a model platform pre sentation. The full programms was as fol lows : 'Congregational hymn, “Jesus Shall
these four features in the Pentateuch to which attention has been drawn are facts which may be said to be absolutely undeniable. No one surely can deny that the incident of Sarah and Hagar shows a close agreement with the Code of Hammurabi; no one can say that the name “Jerusalem” does occur in the Pentateuch; no one can say that any mention of sacred song does occur in the Ritual of the Pentateuch; and no one can say that the Divine title “Lord of Hosts” does occur in the Pentateuch. And in view of these undeniable facts, the Graf-Wellhausen theory of the composition of the Pentateuch— no matter what number of scholars should endorse it—is logically and absolutely impossible to be true. Reign” ; Scripture, R. Charles Lewis; prayer, Rev. T. C. Horton; Institute chorus, under the direction of Prof. L. F. Peck- ham ; class poem, Donald G. Barnhouse; class song, “Though Your Sins Be as Scar let” ; class history, Miss Florence Frances Pike; “A Parting Word,” Harlow W. Par sons, president of the class, for the men; Miss Mary Florence Cake, for the women; Henry George Greenewald, for the music course; Congregational hymn, “Bringing Back the King”; “Lessons I Have Learned from My Trip to Bible Lands,” Rev. Wil liam Evans, D. D .; duet, “Living Waters,” Prof. L. F. Peckham and Miss Annie Mac- laren; presentation of diplomas, Lyman Stewart, president of the Board of Direc tors; Congregational hymn, “Our Institute Prayer” ; benediction, Rev. John H. Hunter. In her class history, Miss Florence Pike turned a neat trick by writing from 1922— seven ^pars. in jEe future-,in which she foreshadowed the life-work of some of her class-mates. Miss Pike herself will join her sister, Bessie, in China, though she mod-
------------ «- BIBLE INSTITUE COMMENCEMENT Splendid Class of Graduates Receive Diplomas Those Who Go to Foreign Fields
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Japan; Henry George Greenewald, Denver, Colo. ; Margaret F. Haldaman, Decatur, 111. ; H. Augusta Hunderup, Portland, Ore. ; Al bert Leonard Johnson; Turlock; Ether Mc Duff, Long Beach ; Mabel Lulu Merrill, Pasadena; Nancy Ellen Parker, Los Ange-
estly gave no intimation of this: Florence Cake will also go to China; Alice Flack to South America; Pauline Fraas to Africa; Kuko Fujita to Japan; Albert Johnson to China; Esther McDuff to China; Cloyd Roark to China, and Pearl Taylor, to India.
The Graduates on an Outing in the Mountains
les; Harlow Wendell Parsons, Binghamton, N. Y .; Florence Frances Pike, Pasadena; Erwin Gemberling Ranton, Kent, Wash.; Cloyd Earnest Roark, Riverside; Irwin Sampson Smith, Los Angeles; Pearl Stella Taylor, Kent, Wash.
The full class roll is as follows: Harry O. Anderson, Oakland; Alpheus Ralston Asher, El Cajon; Donald Grey Barnhouse, Watsonville; Mary Florence Cake, Los An geles; Marie Carter, St. Helen, Mich.; Me lissa Alice Flack, Los Angeles ; Pauline Fraas, San Diego; Kuko Fujita, Tokyo,
Great Rev i va l s and Evang e l i s t s By JOHN H. HUNTER III. ULSTER REVIVAL OF 1859, (Continued) ,f ■ Copyright, 1915, by John H. Hunter
The pastor quoted above, Mr. Moore, ask ed one of his young men at the close of a Sabbath evening service if he could not do something more for God. “Could you not,” said he, “gather at least six of your care less neighbors, either parents or children, to your own house, or some other convenient place, on the Sabbath, and spend an hour with them, reading and searching the Word of God?” The young man promised to try. He did try, and organized a Sabbath school. Nearly two years afterwards a prayer meet ing was organized in connection .with this Sabbath school from which came the first fruits of the great ingathering. How this prayer meeting was born is thus related by Dr. Arthur T. Pierson in his ex cellent book, “George Muller of Bristol” : “In November, 1856, Mr. James McQuil- kin, a young Irishman, was converted, and early in the next year read the first two volumes of that narrative. He said to him self : ‘Mr. Muller obtains all this simply by prayer so may I be blessed by the same means,’ and he began to pray. First of all he received from the Lord, in answer, a spiritual companion, and then two more of like mind; and they four began stated sea sons of prayer in a small school house near Kelts, Antrim, Ireland, every Friday even ing. On the first day of the new year, 1858, a farm-servant was remarkably brought to the Lord in answer to their prayers, and these five gave themselves anew to united supplication. Shortly a sixth young man was added to their number by conversion, and so the little company of praying souls slowly grew, only believers being admitted to these simple meetings for fellowship in reading of the Scriptures, prayer, and mu tual exhortation.
S HAS been stated, for three ° r ^°Ur years Precsd*nS the yTjj outpouring of the Holy 1 ” Spirit, the godly ministers in Ulster had been organizing
Bible classes, and keeping before their Sab bath congregations the need of a revival; accounts of past revivals on both sides of the Atlantic were frequently given from the pulpit, and when the revival of 18S7-S8 was in progress in thè United States extracts from the newspaper accounts of that' glor ious visitation were read to the people. They had been preaching also the three R’s of the Gospel : RUIN through the FALL. REDEMPTION through the BLOOD. REGENERATION through the SPIRIT. It' was no mere exhortation to better liv ing; no mere reformation of morals; no “so cial uplift” or “community welfare” appeal; no religion of salvation by works; no mis statement of, or silence regarding, the great verities of the Christian faith, that pre pared “the way of the Lord.” Says the pastor in whose parish the earliest mani festations were observed, the preaching “was very plain, and barren of all attempt at ordi nary pulpit refinements. The terrors of the Lord, and the free offers of mercy—heaven and hell—these.constituted the almost ex clusive themes.” PRAYER AND REVIVAL Many prayer meetings, cottage prayer meetings, had quietly come into being be fore the tide of revival swept over the land. How one of these originated—one which be came identified with the very beginnings of the work of conversion—is intensely in teresting.
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they also caught the hallowed flame. Nor was it with the labor of the slothful that they entered on the work—it was with con stancy, persistency, and power, and with an intense desire for the salvation of their friends and neighbors who were perishing around them. “Among others who were associated in the Sabbath-school prayer meeting were the four young men whose names have been much before the public in connection with the subsequent revival. These four re joiced together in the glorious work, and took great delight also in each other’s so ciety, enjoying sweet communion with each other, and with their common Lord. But as they were some miles apart in their re spective homes, and could not come together so often as they desired, they resolved to meet at a central place for Christian fellow ship, and for this purpose they chose an old school house in the neighborhood of Kells, where, in the month of October, about two months subsequent to the commencement of the Sabbath-school prayer meeting at Tan- nybrake, those exercises were conducted which have been generally regarded as the origin of the revival. It will.he seen, how ever, from what has now been stated, that the first stirrings of life were exhibited in connection with the Sabbath-school prayer meeting. Three,at least, of the converts were born there, two of whom were scholars, and the third a teacher, while the gracious an swers to the prayers offered on their behalf, while laboring under deep conviction, gave a powerful stimulus to prayer itself. From that time the gracious drops began fo fall thicker and faster, until the rushing shower descended which has refreshed so many, and left behind verdure and beauty in the her itage of God. MARKED CONVERSIONS. “For a considerable period,” says Mr. Moore himself, “and before any general in terest in religion was manifested by the people, there had been a growing anxiety about salvation. And some cases had here and there occurred of an unwonted char-
“About Christmas, that year, Mr. McQuil- kin, with the two brethren who had first joined him—one of whom was Mr. Jere miah Meneely, who is still at work for God —held a meeting by request at Ahoghill. Some believed and some mocked, while others thought these three converts pre sumptuous ; but two weeks later another meeting was held, at which God’s Spirit be gan to work most mightily and conversions now rapidly multiplied. Some converts bore the sacred coals and kindled the fire else where, and so in many places revival flames began to burn; and in Ballymena, Belfast, and at other points the Spirit’s gracious work was manifest.” SEEK THE PARENTS The teachers in this Sabbath school re solved to attempt to reach the parents of the children, and accordingly they began a meeting for prayer and the reading of the Scriptures, after the Sabbath school, to which the parents and others were invited. The first meeting was not particularly en couraging ; there was only one visitor pres ent. Nothing daunted, these praying Christians held their meeting the following Sabbath, and about thirty adults, besides children and the workers themselves were present. The meeting grew each week un til the house was filled. “Prayer, praise, and reading in the Bible, with plain observations on the portion read, were the exercises en gaged in. Everything sectarian was strictly prohibited, and promptly checked as soon as it appeared. Questions that might have given rise to controversy were not discussed, while the one great and absorbing topic, “Christ and the cross,” seemed to occupy the atten tion and steal the affections of all present. The Sabbath school teachers’ prayer meet ing, for it was so called, became more and more interesting, till the knowledge of its existence spread throughout the neighbor hood. Many came to see whether the things they had heard concerning it were true; and such was the earnestness and solemnity in that little assembly, that strangers who came once, returned again and again, until
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