This Jesus Kath G o4 ra i s'eci up A c ^ i 1 2 : 3 1
iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiim iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiMiiMiiiiiMiiiiiiMimiiMmiiiiiiimiiimiimimimmiiimmiMmiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiimm ANNUITIES! What Are They 9 • ’ LIFE SAVERS They are contracts made by us in which we agree to pay to the investor, as long as he lives, a certain amount of money (large or small as the case may be) each year, in quarterly, semi-annual or annual payments, at a rate varying from four to nine per cent, according to the age of the investor. WE WORK FOR YOU WITHOUT WORRY TO YOU This Contract Becomes a Blessed Bond IT LIFTS YOUR BURDENS NO MEDICAL EXAMINATIONS YOU EXECUTE YOUR OWN WILL No Fees, No Litigation YOU SING BY DAY AND SLEEP BY NIGHT YOU ARE FREE FROM ALL FEAR Your Income Is Assured BIBLE INSTITUTE OF LOS ANGELAS Write to T. C. Horton, Superintendent,-for'-Full' Inforifiation
T H E K IN G ’ S B U S IN E S S MOTTO- “1 theLord, do keep it, / wlttwaterit every moment, lett any hurl it, l wUI keep it nightandday. ^ Isa.27:3 • = ^ = ^ ^ = =^ ======== :=== PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE BIBLE INSTITUTE OF LOS ANGELES 536-558 SOUTH HOPE STREET. LOS ANGELES. CAL. Entered as Second-Class Matter November “ * ^ An8e'e3' CaUf° rnia Acceptance for. mailing at “ " M- * * * O * * " 3‘ Volume XIII April, 1923 . Number 4 Rev. T C. HORTON. Editor in Chief Rev. KEITH L. BROOKS. Managing Editor ALAN S. PEARCE, Circulation Representative Contributing Editors DR. F. w . FARR DR. FRENCH E. OLIVER REV. WM. H. PIKE DR. A. C. DIXON CONTENTS ^Tutorials- The First Fruits (323), The Royal Resurrection (323), Joking About Jonah (324), Compel Concrete Confession (326), New Resurrection Defini tions (327), Demon Posession and Influence (328), Does D e a t h l v Sever Soul and Body? (329), Emasculated Christianity (330), Friendly Enemies (331). Bible Briefs— (332)
Two Deaths Contrasted— By Dr. Alexander Maclaren (334) Is Liberalism Popular with Laymen?—By Hugh R. Munro (337) The Orosë— By Dr. Geo. B. Edwards (343) The Supreme Name—By Col. Douglas Jones (345) Bible Institute in China— (348) Evangelistic Stories— (350) Bible Institute Happenings— (356)
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Easter joyous! Easter bright! Birth of day and death of night; Man is risen from the dead; Death and hell are captive led. Death and hell—ye twain accurst! Death and hell—your bands are burst. Christ is risen! Christ the first Life and immortality! — John H. Samans. “Now if Christ be preached that He rose from the dead, how say some among vou that there is no resurrection of the dead? . . “But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen, “And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yetin your sins. “Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. “But now IS Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fimits of them that slept.” (1 Cor. 15:12, 13, 17, 18, M ). THE FIRST FRUITS It is the Easter time. The church is centering its thoughts upon the risen, glorified Christ. To those who have meditated upon the Word, He is visualized as a glorified Man whose hands and. feet and side speak,always of our sins and of His sacrificial suffering, and assure us of our personal relationship to Him, and our position with Him in our glorified bodies, which must he like His own hody. _ . This is the sentence passed upon us who as criminals, subject to and worthy of eternal separation from Him, crouched at His wounded feet at the cross and received at His hands the full pardon for our sins and the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit who sets the seal upon us until the day of our redemption,—that day of all days—day of gladness- day of eternal joy—day of reunion with all of the saints—when, with bodies like unto His own precious glorified body, we shall be with Him forever. The thought transcends human comprehension, but faith grasps it, glories in it, goes gladly into all the world and honors Him by testifying to it, and lovingly gathers with His saints around His table as often as pos sible in obedience to His holy command, so that the Holy Spirit may strengthen our faith and deepen our desire to be with Him and like Him, while we wait for the fulness of His promise, in the glory.—T. C. H. THE ROYAL RESURRECTION Is the bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ in question? It is denied by'many preachers and teachers now, just as. they deny so many other things that affect His glory. It is not denied by fair-minded, square-
324 TH E K I N G ' S B U S I NE S S minded, thoughtful men, those who are accustomed to weigh facts even if they do not accept Christ as thiér own personal Saviour,—and by “ born- again” ones, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, it can never be questioned. The facts are so tremendous that it is impossible for a well-balanced mind to deny them. Our Holy Bible, with its indisputable testimony, stands or falls on the statement that Christ, by His own power, came forth from the tomb with a physical, glorified body, and will also raise us up by His own power. The Old Testament testified to it: “ Thou wilt not leave my soul in Hades; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.” The testimony of all the apostles sets its seal to its verity. For forty days He was with His chosen witnesses, manifesting Himself in bodily form, eating with them, fellowshipping with them. His wounded hands, feet and side spoke sorrowful words of His suffering. Two men from Heaven stood beside His disciples as He was caught up into Heaven, and testified to them that He would return “ in like manner.” Stephen saw Him through the rent veil of cloud, standing at the right hand of the glory of God. Paul heard Him speak, calling him by name and declaring Himself as the persecuted'Jesus, The first day o f the week (our Sunday) speaks every day in seven of His bodily resurrection. The church of the living God, the departed ones and the living ones, are indisputable witnesses to His bodily resurrection. Unless you can destroy the Bible, blot out the Lord’s Day and the mil lions of saints, the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ stands out as the one supreme fact, impossible of refutation, Now, what shall we say to the men in our schools and churches who set themselves up as scholars and tell us that Jesus Christ did not rise again in bodily form, and that He is without a glorified body today ? What shall we call these men who deny the testimony o f God’s Word, of the,Lord’s Day, of the Church,—and who would rob God’s dear children of the joyful anticipation of seeing Him in bodily form and being like Him? What is their motive? Who is at the bottom of this propaganda? What is the purpose underlying it? Can these be God’s men? Nay, verily. These are Satan-serving, soul-seducing enemies of our Lord and of His church. Why not challenge them publicly? Why not eliminate them from the church by the process of separation and pray for them as we pray for other hard-hearted, devil-deceived victims of Satan? Awake! Awake! Ye saints! . __T. C. H. JOKING ABOUT JONAH A professed professor in the neighborhood of Los Angeles has been enlightening the benighted people hereabouts with some supposedly sci entific scintillations emanating from his brain cavity. We have not heard him personally, and doubt whether our meager and immature educational advantages would enable us to grasp or grip the full import of his wondrous words; but there have filtered through our thought receptacle a few fragments of his wonderful story—a story so marvellous in its makeup that we wonder how even the Twentieth Century could have produced a human being.with such a prodigious capacity for-flying!
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Look Out— Little Mani
This is the professor’s whopping whale story, as it came to us: There was no Jonah and no whale, but there were two ancient tribes one called the “ Jonah tribe” and the other, the “ whale tribe. These tribes were constantly at war with each other. Finally the .whale tribe eliminated the Jonah tribe, and from this event came the story that the whale swallowed Here is the joke,—that the professor is able to make people really be lieve this to be true, but here, too, is the sorrow of it all: O u r L o r d Jesus Christ set His seal to the story of Jonah and the great fish and used it to illustrate the most significant epoch in His life,—-His bodily resurrection from the tomb. (Matt. 12:39, 40.) “For as Jonah was throe days and three nights in the whale s beuy, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heartof the earth. The Scribes and Pharisees sought a sign from Him. He has but one sign for them, and repeats the same message in Matthew 16:1-4. | How about the men of Nineveh? Did they repent when the “ whaleites defeated the “ Jonahites” ? Did our Lord use a legend? Did the Jews be lieve in the story of Jonah, or did they think it was a joke of our Lord s? Will the men of Nineveh rise up in the judgment against these wonderful Twentieth Century professed professors who play the fool as they seek to play upon the credulity of the poor people? When will God’s people arise in their wrath and denounce the cheap charlatans who, for gain, dare to gainsay the truth of our Lord’s own words? He did spend three da^s in the heart of the earth; and He did come forth in a glorified body, recognized by His own, who worshipped Him; and He did ascend on high; and He is, in His glorified body, now waiting for the
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T HE K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S good, glad day when we shall be with Him in glorified bodies like unto His glorious body; and all of the professors and preachers living can never rob us of this God-given assurance. Let us do all within our power to help others to know the truth and let us pray for the deluded professed professors. —T. C. H. COMPEL CONCRETE CONFESSION Numerous letters are coming to us with definite facts' concerning the large number of professed preachers and teachers in supposedly evangelical churches and schools (and the number is multiplying daily) who are deny ing the fundamentals of our faith, so that it seems wise to make a practical suggestion to believers everywhere who have any doubt as to the Biblical position of any particular preacher or teacher. Sometimes men are misunderstood and great harm is done by misjudg- ing them, and such should be given a fair opportunity to correct any mis apprehension which may exist concerning so important a matter. On the other hand, there are multitudes of fakirs, playing the meanest game known to men, viz. : obtaining money under false pretense and damn ing souls for whom our Lord shed His precious and holy blood. Such men ought to be ferreted out and branded as they deserve, for they are always seeking to cover their tracks by throwing ecclesiastical and so-called “ scientific” dust in the eyes of the deluded people. We suggest the following questionnaire which may be submitted to any preacher or teacher concerning whom any doubt exists* To the Pastor: As a member of the church of which you are the pastor, and as a contributor to the church expenses, I desire to know your position concerning the four great fundamental doctrines of the evangelical church: (1) Do you believe that the Bible is the divinely inspired and inerrant Word of God? (2) Do you believe that Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of a virgin? (3) Do yon believe that only through the shed blood of Jesus Christ atonement could be and was made for sin? (4) Do you believe in the physical, bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ? These questions are,evangelical tests which thirty years ago few men m evangelical churches would have failed to meet satisfactorily. It will, not be necessary to have a personal conference, but just write a loving letter, leaving space after; each question for a “ Yes” or a “ No ” Every true believer will be glad to answer “ Yes,’ ’ .while the trifling trickster will want to occupy a good many pages in the effort to make you believe he is all right when he is all wrong. | any denominational school where the Bible is taught, the same ques tions could be rightfully asked and an answer demanded. In the secular schools in this country, for the most part, no Biblical in struction at all is supposed to be given. But in very many of them the teachers are denying that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God and parents have a right to demand that such teaching be discontinued.
T HE K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S 327 We owe it to God; we owe it to our churches; we owe it to our chil d r e n we owe it to ourselves, that we shall not fail to stand definitely, in these apostate days, in defense of the whole truth. T. C. H. gSUs §& gte> NEW RESURRECTION DEFINITIONS These are the days of “ new definitions” for old truths. “ Do you believe in the resurrection of JesUs Christ?” we ask one. ox the theologians of the modern school. “ Why, certainly I do,” he^replies. But it is no longer safe to drop the matter there if you really wish to know where he stands. You must ask him what he means by resurrection, and then you will begin to get the “ new definitions,” oh, so different from the conceptions one would gather from the Bible itself. Bet us look at some o± these definitions. . .. ■ , Here is one: ‘.‘ Either we are thrown on the traditional orthodox taitn in the empty tomb, or on what may be called the objective vision hypothesis, which on doctrinal grounds commends itself to. modern minds: . ■ • Now what is this man driving at? What does he mean by objective vision hypothesis?” ; A quotation from another writer will help. He says: “ The crucial point is the definition we give to resurrection, it we hope for a resurrection in our. case in such a way as to resuscitate the human flesh which will be laid in the ground, we must postulate the same for Jesus Christ. But if we do not desire this for ourselves, it is illogical that we should believe that it was so for Him.” r , » We are getting closer to the meaning. Now get these words from one who speaks more openly: “ The central element in the resurrection'faith is the belief of the disciples that the same Jesus with whom they walked had come back to them. If we are right in supposing that the body is not an essential part of our personal life, then we are right in asserting that the resuscitation of the body of Jesus was not needed for the_continuance of His true humanity.” Another writer says: “ The fact for faith is the continued existence and supremacy of Jesus, and this is a fact in the realm of spirit. Any interpretation of the facts recorded in the Gospels which is consistent with belief in Christ’s continued supremacy is sufficient. ” . Now we begin to get a better idea of the intellectual trickery that is being used in these new definitions. But is it true that the central element of resurrection faith is belief in some kind of an appearance of Jesus ? The spirit of Jesus had departed before His body was laid in the tomb. His spirit never for a moment ceased to exist and hence needed no bringing back to life. His spirit was never laid in the tomb; his body was. The tomb was found empty. The body of Jesus was gone on the resurrection mom. “ He is risen; He is not here.” That same body, glorified, but still bearing the marks of His sacrifice, was seen united to the living spirit of Christ..,.' , If Jesus was permanently severed from the body and exists only as a spirit, He is no longer, properly speaking, a man. He is some other kind of a being, even as Pastor Russell put it: “ the highest order of spirit being.” But His resurrection restored Him to that completeness of identity which
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T HE K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S was impaired by death. “ Handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have” (Luke 24 :39). The Son of man ascended and is . right hand of the throne of God. As the Son of man He will return, the identification marks will still be upon His glorified body. There will be no mistake as to what became of the body that was not found in the tomb. - (< They shall look upon Him whom they have pierced” (Ezek. 12:10). _One shall say unto Him, What are these wounds in Thy hands ? Then shall He-answer, Those with ■which I was wounded in the house of my friends.” We are looking for “ this same Jesus” to come again.: |_ k g ’ g Our attention has recently been called to a certain school of Christian workers who make a specialty of emphasizing demonism.- In the reality of demon possession We firmly believe, in fact, but lately we published some recent scientific confirmations. The teachers above referred to, however, are teaching the possibility of demons possessing born-again people, and are pointing to the sins of Christians as evidence that they are dominated y evil spirits. The result is that certain companies of believers are living m mortal tear of demon possession and seem to interpret everything in the i l p l i deni T 1S;“ - Were this teaching scriptural, well might all believers t0 the e*tent that their time should be fully occupied in calling unto God for protection. 8 It is of great importance that every child of God should realize that he is indwelt by the Holy Spirit (Jno. 7:39). Not all Christians, indeed, have experienced the fulness of the Spirit, for they have not made the sur/ ^ dar ,°i their lives. Nevertheless, the body of the person ¡ § M E w S s f f l l f e t S l ¡ i f e “ tbe temPle of the Holy Ghost” (1 Cor. 0.19). The Spirit of God dwelleth in you” (1 Cor 3-16) “ Ye are the tempi, of the living G od - (2 Cor. H This a S M W M gneved (Eph. 4:30 )because of our failure to yield to His control. Nev ertheless, by His presence we are “ sealed unto the day of redemption ” He v T 6 t0+-stay-„ ^ e ‘ ‘ sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise until , redemption of the purchased possession” (Eph. 1:13) “ I will never wflTVl 66 M f °rSak? thee” (Heb- 13:5) mHis own promise. Much less 25* Permit an evil spirit to come in and possess that temple with Him. We are aware that some base their view of demon-possessed Chris tians on the parable of Matt. 12:43-45. It is pointed out that unclean spir- lts may come and go. They may be cast out by Christ and then be per mitted by the individual to return in sevenfold energy. Are not our friends tiuhng t° note the key to this parable in the words, “ when the unclean pint has gone out of a man” ? The spirit in this case is not “ put out.” it is a voluntary going out and is but temporary. Evil spirits sport with those whom they have possessed. They leave the victim temporarily in his right mind, and just when he is congratulating himself that he is liberated the evil power returns, worse than ever. It is not enough that the evil spirit has gone out of a man.” He must be cast out once for all by the incom- s k s k DEMON POSSESSION AND INFLUENCE
THE K I N G ’S B U S I N E S S 329 mg of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit must come in; otherwise the devil may come again and be as much at home as ever. "Where is the evidence that the true child of God may be demon-possessed? Is the Holy Spirit cast out by the emissaries of Satan? That there is such a thing as demon influence upon the Christian we are prepared to admit, but demon possession we do hot find Scripture warrant for accepting. K. L. B = 7 Zs&r i&Sr . DOES DEATH PERMANENTLY SEVER SOUL AND BODY? Quite frequently we hear Christians referring to the body as a prison- house of the spirit from which it will be a great boon to be freed. Ministers sometimes speak of man’s body as related to the spirit only as a casket to a precious jewel, or the walls of his dungeon to the prisoner. Have -not these ideas helped along some of the erroneous teachings regarding the resurrection? The bodily resurrection of Christ has been spiritualized away as being unnecessary. The resurrection of the saints, according to one of our up-tp-date scholars, is. ‘ ‘ not an event-that will take place at the end of the age, but something coincident with the transition of the soul at death.” If,this is true, resurrection has nothing to do with the body, indeed, there is no resurrection day coming. The Bible is all wrong. The Lord will not descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God, and the dead in Christ will not rise first (1 Thess. 4:16) . God will "not in that day give to every seed his own body (1 Cor. 15:38), All that are in the graves will not come forth (Jno. 5:28, 29). But many Christians are not willing to be led into such a predicament with ' the Word of God. This, however, is the only logical conclusion if the spirit is forever unclothed from the body at the moment of death. Many are overlooking the sacredness of the body. We like the words of Canon Liddon and commend them to our readers: “ The personal spirit of man strikes its roots far and deep into the encompass ing frame of sense, with which, from the first moment of its existence, it has been so intimately associated; in a thousand ways, and most powerfully the body acts on the soul, and the soul on the body. They are only parted at death by a power ful wrench. The spirit can exist independently of the body, but this independent existence is not its emancipation from a prison-house of matter and sense; it is a temporary and abnormal divorce from the companion whose presence is needed to complete its life. Would the soul, permanently severed from the body, still be, properly speaking, a man? Would it not really be some other being? Our ' inward consciousness here echoes the answer of science. The body which has been so long the associate and partner of the soul’s life, the instrument of its will, the minister of its passions, mingling lower physical sensations with that higher life of thought and feeling which belongs to it, could not be altogether cast away without impairing the completeness of our being, without imperilling the continuous identity of ouy changeful existence. “ In this life the body and soul together form ong composite being; each acts upon the other as well as with it. The corruptible body presseth down the soul. The passions, which have their seat in the soul, depict themselves upon the sur face of the body. On the one hand, an Apostle reminds us that fleshly lusts war against the soul. On the other hand, a beautiful soul illuminates the face of a St. Stephen with angelic Light; and hereafter the bodies of the blessed will be ‘glorious,’ that is to say, translucent with the splendors of the glorified spirit.”
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EMASCULATED CHRISTIANITY As I was passing Queen’s Chapel in Boston, I saw a notice that at noon there .would be a sermon and musical recital. It went in and found about fifty people scattered among the high pews, sitting in dead silence. Back of the pulpit I saw the figure of Christ in stained glass with a halo about His head, and the chalice on a table in front of Him. Below the picture was a cross. I remembered that before 1776 that haloed figure of Christ meant to the worshippers in Queen’s Chapel God Incarnate before whom they bowed the knee in adoration and praise. That chalice meant the atoning blood of a Savior whose sacrificial death had forever removed the guilt and defile ment of their sins. That cross was the symbol of a complete salvation wrought out for them on Calvary. . Now the halo means that Christ, a mere man, was a little better than other men: the chalice means that wine was at that day the usual drink of the people, and we may today substitute water for it at the Lord’s Supper; the cross means that Jesus died a martyr to a noble mission, simply setting us an example as todiow we ought to live and die. I sat in the silence, waiting for the preacher to begin and wondering what he could say, worth while, with all the fundamentals of Christianity eliminated from his creed. His text gave promise of something, for it was Acts 7:55: “ But Stephen, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God.” But from this great text he gave the tiniest little bit of a sermonette in which he told us that Stephen and Saul were two young men with different points of view. Stephen saw heaven, and Saul saw only hatred, which prompted him to persecute those whose opinions were different from his. He urged us, therefore, to be careful about our points of view. There was no semblance of power. As I glanced through the “ Queen’s Chapel” hymn book, which I found in the pew, I wondered if there was anything better in that; and among the first hymns my eyes rested upon was, “ Come, Thou Almighty King, Help us Thy name to sing;” but the second verse, “ Come Thou Incarnate Word,” has been changed to “ Come, Thou all-graciolis Lord,” and the last verse, “ Come, Thou Great One in Three,” is omitted altogether. I felt as if I had met an old friend whose heart has been torn out and his face so disfigured as to make him almost unrecognizable. When the little sermonette was finished, the people began to pour in for the organ rehearsal, and in a few minutes the room was well filled. It looked as if they knew that there was nothing worth coming for before the music began. Before the Revolution Queen’s Chapel pulpit was occupied by men who gave to Christ the crown of Deity; but during the Revolution Episcopal rectors, as representing the Church of England, were in bad odor with the colonists, and most of .them returned to the mother country. Queen’s Chapel was closed as a church, but was used as a storehouse for Govern ment supplies. After the Revolution a few former members met and, under the leadership of a young Unitarian preacher, every reference to the .Deity of Christ in the Book of Common Prayer was eliminated; and
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THE K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S the glory of the former days departed. It was the first Unitarian church established in the United States, and the beginning of a movement which did much toward making New England the theological successor to the Jewish Sanhedrin who sent Christ to the cross because He was not a Uni tarian but persisted in the claim that He was, in a unique sense, the son of As an organization this Unitarian movement is passing; and a Boston pastor several years ago declared that they were willing now to die as an organization because they had soJnculcated other denominations With their views that their organization was no longer needed. There is too much truth in this claim; but the Boston pastor ought not to be over elated by this fact for it simply means that other denominations have taken the poi son which is killing the Unitarian churches; and it is only a matter of time when they too will be dying like the Unitarian teachers. If what he claims is true, there will soon be many corpses instead of one; and those who re fuse to take the poison will have to witness the sad obsequies while we con tinue to live and grow. — N. C. D. FRIENDLY ENEMIES Will the friends of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles permit a suggestion concerning our attitude toward persons or propaganda of any kind or character? Many times persons professing to be related to the Institute because of having attended our classes, have created confusion in the minds of people with reference to our position along Biblical or doc trinal lines. | Whenever any question arises as to whether the Bible Institute is holding true to its position as found in its statement of doctrine, instead of accepting hearsay evidence from any one, would it not he | fair to us to drop a line to the Superintendent and in a straightfor- g ward way ask if w’e have delegated such and such an individual to represent us, and whether we defend or condemn the propaganda or positions held by him? | Prom the beginning of our work we have been misjudged, mis quoted and maligned by many people, many of whom have been mis- | informed, but who, if they had taken the pains to ascertain our real position in the matter, would have been able to arrive at the truth. We cannot read the life of Christ without knowing that just such injustice was done to Him as has been done to us and other religious organizations by hasty conclusions without proper investigation, and this is an appeal to our real friends everywhere to favor us by first obtaining, by personal inquiry, facts which will enable them to render just judgment. _ | Our doctrinal'position can always be ascertained by referring to the statement of doctrine held by us, and incorporated in the deed to the property upon which our building stands, as it appears on the outside cover of this magazine. y|lin|IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIlilllllllllllllllHllllillllltllHilllllllllllllllll|IIIHIIIIIIIIIUHIIIIIIIIIIJIIIIIIIIIN^
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The spherical shape of the earth is mentioned in Prov. 8:27— “ He set a compass (lit. “ circle” ) upon the face of the deep.” Compare “ the way of transgressors” (Prov. 13:15) with “ the path of the just” (4:18). • The only place to commit sin is where God cannot see you. Where is it? (Prov. 15:3); Safety zone of the Bible. Prov. 18: 10 . The only safe attitude toward strong drink. Prov. 23:31. Song of Solomon 2:15, “ little foxes that spoil the vines.” Selfishness spoils love. Discontent spoils joy. Anxiety spoils peace. Impatience spoils long- suffering. Bitterness spoils gentleness. Indolence spoils goodness. Doubt spoils faith. Pride spoils meekness. The book of Isaiah contains 66 chap ters and. there are 66 books in the Bible. The first 39 chapters of Isaiah form the first division of the book. There are 39 books in the Old Testament. The last 27 chapters form the second divi sion and there are 27 books in the New Testament. Isa 1:9 is the first verse adn Isaiah that is quoted in the New Testament. Rom. 9:29. Come and reason (Isa. 1:18). Come and see (John 1:46)\ Come and rest (Matt. 11:28). “ Whom shall I send?” (Isa. 6:8). God calls for volunteers. He never drafts. Isa. 6:9 is quoted six times in the New Testament. (Matt. 13:14; Mk. 4: 12; Lk. 8:10; Jno. 12:40; Acts 28:26, 27; Rom. 11:8). Christ is called “ God with us” (Matt.
1 :23 ); “ The great God” (Titus 2:13; “ The true God” (1 Jno. 5 :20 ); “ God” (Heb. 1 :8 ); “My God” (Jno. 20:28). Isa. 28:16, “ He that believeth shall not make haste,” is literally “ shall not get into a fuss.” . Note the 22 “ shalls” in Isa. 35. Four ways sin is disposed of by God: 1. Cast behind His back (Isa. 38:17). 2. Blotted out as a thick cloud, (Isa. 43:25). 3. Put as far as the east is from the west (Psa. 103; 12). 4. Put into the depths of the sea (Mic. 7: 19). Another passage declaring the spheri cal shape of'the earth. Isa. 40:22. The word “ renew” in Isa. 40:31 is literally “ exchange.” “ They shall ex change their strength.” In Isa. 41:10 the word “ dismayed” literally means, “ look not around.” Was Christ ever discouraged? See Isa. 42:4. Three looks: The backward look to the dyilig Savior (Isa. 45:22). The upward look to the living Savior (Heb. 12:2). The forward look to the com ing Savior (Titus 2:13). Sin keeps heaven out of man as well as man out of heaven. See Isa. 57:21. Two dwelling places of God. See Isa. 57:15. Two Peace Preachers. The false— Jer. 6:14, who preach a peace that rests on rotten foundations. The true— Eph. 2:17, who preach a peace founded on the basis of the atoning blood. “ What have I done?” (Jer. 8 :6 )__ the. careless sinner. “What must I do?” (Matt. 27:22)— the undecided sinner. The word “ desperately” in Jer. 17:9 is rendered “ incurable” in five other Old Testament passages. Compare “ everlasting confusion” in
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THE K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S Jer. 20:11 with “ everlasting consola tion” in 2 Thess. 2:16. The only thing God forgets— Jer. 31: 34. Don’t try to make Him remember what He does not wish to remember. Two things safely hidden— the sins of believers (Jer. 50:20) ; the life of believers (Col. 3 ;3). . Three shepherd chapters of the Bible -—Psalm 23; Ezek. 34 and John 10. Prophetic paradoxes concerning the Jews: 1. Scattered among the na tions, yet unmixed. 2. A hissing and a by-word, yet the controlling power. 3. Plundered for centuries, yet the holders of the world’s wealth. 4. Despoiled for ages, yet not destroyed. 5.Yearn ing to possess their own land, yet kept from it. The best way to come into favor with men. See Dan. 1:9 and Prov. 16:7. 1 WAS IT FACT OR VISION? Canon Scott Holland says very forci bly; “ Every form, indeed, of the theory of a mere vision of Christ’s résurrec tion contradicts flatly all the recorded facts. Far ifrom the enthusiastic faith of'-fhe disciples sufficing to create the be lief in His reappearance after death,
their faith had so completely broken down under the blow of the Cross that nothing short of the insistent and ir resistible impact of the fact could avail to recreate it. Moreover, there was no material in their minds out of which a-suggestion of what we have described could emerge, The Old Testament has nothing that in the least corresponds to the complex idea which the Resurrec tion embodied. The records of our Lord’s life tell us frankly enough that even when our Lord reiterated the word Resurrection in their ears they never took it in. It conveyed nothing positive to them. And the agony of the Cross, when it fell upon them, obliterated, it would seem, every memory of what might have given them some vague com fort in the. crisis. It is extraordinarily convincing that they should themselves report their own total lack of under standing at the time.” ate “WITHOUT ONE PLEA” George Herbert, when dying, said, “ I am sorry I have nothing to offer to my merciful God but sin and misery; but the first is pardoned, and a few hours will put a period to the latter.” -
(Cut this out and paste or keep in your Bible) PRAY FOR REVIVAL, Church-wide — Israel-wide — world-wide.
“ For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that^believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” ' (Rom. 1:16) 1. Pray that the present year may mark a distinct advance in the prayer life of the entire Church. (Heb. 10:19-25). 2. That there may be a fresh realization of the Cross as the basis of all effectual prayer. (Eph. 2:13-18). 3. That there may be larger compliance with all the conditions of prevailing prayer. (Seven of these conditions are indicated in the following texts: Psa. 66:18; 1 John 5:14, 15; John 14:13, 14; Mark 11:22-24; Phil. 4:6; Luke 18:1-7; Eph. 6:18). 4. Pray for every pastor, and missionary, and evangelist, and teacher of the Word everywhere, and for every member of Christ’s body. (Eph. 3:14-21; 4:11-13). 5. Pray by name for every evangelical agency or movement Which you believe is truly doing God’s work, in God’s way, and for God’s glory.' Make a list of these, and pray for a fresh manifestation of Divine power in and through.each one. (Jer. 33:3; Acts 4:31).
Tw o Deaths Contrasted One Brings a Work to an End—-the Other Results in World’s Greatest Work By DR. ALEXANDER MACLAREN
slight hints, are given which show how much the ties of companionship had been relaxed, even in a day, and how certainly and quickly they would have fallen asunder., But all at once a new element comes in, all is changed. The earliest visitors to the sepulchre leave it, not with the lingering sorrow of those who have no more that they can do, but with the quick, buoyant step of people charged with great and glad tidings. They come to it wrapped in grief— they leave it with great joy. They come to it, feeling that all was over, and that their union with the rest who had loved Him was little more than a remembrance. They go away, feeling that they are all bound together more closely than ever. The grave of John was the end of a “ school.” The grave of Jesus was the beginning of a Church. Why? The only answer is the message which the women brought back from the empty sepulchre on that Easter day: “ The Lord is risen.” The whole history of the Christian Church, and even its very existence, is unintelligible, except on the supposition of the resurrection. But for that, the fate of John’s disciples would have been the fate of Christ’s—- they would have melted away into the mass of the nation, and at most there would have been one more petty Gali lean sect that would have lived on for a generation and died out when the last of His companions died. So from these two contrasted groups we may fairly gather some thoughts as to the Resur rection of Christ, as attested by the very existence of a Christian Church,
‘-‘And John’s disciples came, and took up .the body, and buried it, and went and told Jesus.”—Matt. 14:12. “And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy .”—Matt. "28:8. HERE is a remarkable parallel and still more remarkable con trast between these two groups of disciples at the graves of their respective masters. John the Bap tists’s followers venture into the very jaws- of the lion to rescue the headless corpse of their martyred teacher from a prison gravé. They hear it away and lay it reverently in its unknown sepul chre, and when they have done these last offices of love they feel that all is over. They have no longer a centre, and they disintegrate. There was noth ing to hold them together any more. The shepherd had been smitten, and the flock were scattered. As a “ school” or a distinct community they cease to he, and are mostly absorbed into the ranks of Christ’s followers. That sorrowful little company that turned from John’s grave, perhaps amidst the grim rocks of Moab, perhaps in his native city amongst the hills of Judah, parted then, to meet no more, and to bear away only a common sorrow that time would com fort, and a common memory that time would dim. The other group laid their martyred Master in His grave, with as tender hands and as little hope as did John’s disciples. The bond that held them to gether was gone too, and the disin tegrating process began at once. We see them breaking up into little knots, and soon they, too, will be scattered. The women come to the grave to per form the woman’s office of anointing, and they are left to go alone. Other
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characters of our dear ones who have gone away from us. Most men have to die before their true .worth is dis cerned. But no process of that sort will suffice to account for the change and heightening of the disciples’ thoughts about their dead Lord. It was not merely that, when they remembered, they said, “ Did not our hearts burn within us by the way while He talked with us?’!—^but that His death wrought exactly the opposite effect from what it might have been expected to do. It ought to have ended their hope that He was the Messiah, and we know that within forty-eight hours it was begin ning to do so, as we learn from the •plaintive words of disappointed and fad ing hope: “ We trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel.” If, so early, the cold convic tion was stealing over their hearts that v their dearest expectation was proved by His death to have been a dream, what could have prevented its entire domin ion over them, as the days grew into months and years? But somehow or other that process was arrested, and the opposite one set in.. The death that should have shattered Messianic dreams confirmed them. The death that should have cast a deeper shadow of incom prehensibleness •over His strange and lofty claims poured a new light upon them, which made them all plain and clear. The very parts of His teaching which His death would have made those who loved Him wish to forget, became the center of His followers’ faith. His cross became His throne. Whilst He lived with them they knew not what He said in His deepest words, but, by a strange paradox, His death convinced them that He was the Son of God, and that that which they had seen with their eyes, and their hands had handled, was the Eternal Life. The cross alone could never have done that. Something else there must have been, if the men were sane, to account for this paradox.
and as to the joy of that resurrection. The'first point to be considered is, that the conduct of Christ’s disciples after His death was exactly the opposite of what might have been expected. They held together. The natural thing for them to do would have been to dis band; for their one bond was gone; and if they had acted according to the or dinary laws of human nonduct, they would have said to themselves, “ Let us go back to our fishing-boats and our tax-gathering, and seek safety in sepa ration, and nurse our sorrow apart.” .A few lingering days might have been given to weep together at His grave, and to assuage the first bitterness of grief and disappointment; but when these were over, nothing could have prevent ed Christianity and the Church from being buried in the same sepulchre as Jesus. As certainly as the stopping up of the founi.tin would empty the river’s bed, so surely would Christ’s death have scattered His disciples. And that strange fact, that it did not scatter them, needs-to be looked well into and fairly accounted for in some plausible manner. The end of John’s school gives a parallel which brings the singu larity of the fact into stronger relief; and looking at - these two groups as they stand before us in these two texts, the question is irresistibly suggested, Why did not the one fall away into its separate elements, as the other did? The keystone of the arch was in both cases withdrawn—why did the one structure topple into ruin while the other stood firm? Not only did the disciples of Christ keep united, but their conceptions of Jesus underwent a remarkable change after His death. We might have ex pected, indeed, that, when memory be gan to work, and the disturbing in fluence of daily association was with drawn, the same idealising process would have begun on their image of Him, which reveals and ennobles the
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Nor is this all. Another equally un likely sequel of the death of Jesus is the unmistakable moral transformation ef fected oh the disciples. Timorous and tremulous before, something or other touched them into altogether new bold ness and self-possession. Dependent on His presence before, and helpless when He was ia,way. from them for an hour, they become all at once strong and calm; they stand before the fury of a Jewish mob and the threatenings of the Sanhedrin, unmoved and victorious. And these brave confessors and saintly heroes are the men who, a few weeks before, had been petulant,' self-willed, jealous, cowardly. What had lifted them suddenly so far above themselves?. Their Master’s death? That would more naturally have taken any heart or courage out of them, and left them ■indeed as sheep in the midst of wolves. Why, then, do they thus strangely blaze up into grandeur and heroism? Can any reasonable account be given of these paradoxes? Surely it is not too much to ask of people who profess to explain Christianity on naturalistic principles, that they shall make the process clear to us by which, Christ being dead and buried, His disciples Were kept together, learned to think more loftily of Him, and sprang at once to a new grandeur of character. Why did not they do as John’s disciples did, and disappear? Why was not the stream lost in the sand, when the headwaters were cut off? The disciples’ immediate belief in the Resurrection furnishes a reasonable, and the only reasonable, explanation of the facts. Such a belief could not have origi nated or maintained itself unless it had been true. Who, with half an eye for character, could study the deeds and the writings of the apostles, and not feel that, whatever else they were, they were profoundly honest; and as con vinced as of their own existence, that they had seen Christ “ alive after His
passion, by'many infallible proofs’’ ? If Paul and Peter and John were con spirators in a trick, then their lives and their words were the most astounding anomaly. Who, either, that had the faintest perception of the forces that sway opinion and frame systems, could believe that the fair fabric of Christian morality was built on the sand of a lie, and cemented by the slime of deceit bubbling up from the very pit of hell? Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Do hallucinations lay hold on five hundred people at once? poes a hal lucination last for a long country walk, and give rise to protracted conversa tion? Does hallucination explain the story of Christ eating and drinking be fore His disciples? The uncertain twi light of the garden might have begotten such an airy phantom in the brain of a single sobbing woman; but the appear ances to be explained are so numerous, so varied in character, embrace so many details, appeal to so many of the senses — to the ear and hand as well as to the eye-^—were spread over so long a period, and were simultaneously shared by so large a number, that no theory of such a sort can account foe them, unless by impugning the veracity of the records. And then we are back again on the old abandoned ground of deceit and im posture. A deep, indestructible instinct proph esies in every breast of a future. But all is vague and doubtful. The one proof of a life beyond the grave is the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. There fore let us be glad with the gladness of men plucked from a dark abyss of doubt and planted on the rock of solid cer tainty; and let us rejoice with joy unspeakable, and laden with a proph etic weight of glory, as we ring out the ancient Easter morning’s greeting, “ The Lord is risen indeed!”
IsJULeralism Popular with Lawmen? Some Reasons Why the New Claims About the Bible
Fail to Convince By HUGH R. MUNRO
H HE present constitution of or ganized Christian work serves to make the layman a good listener, hut tends to discour age interest in the great «critical and doctrinal issues which are shaping the character and moulding the future of the .Christian church. And so far as theological leadership of the liberal type is concerned, it is a part of their boast that the issues involved in this discussion are such as only advanced scholarship can determine. In other words, the question o f l}ow much .of the Bible we are to accept is to be deter mined by a group of experts who do not agree among themselves. The late Sir Robert Anderson, him- sglf a scholar of high attainments and a lawyer of great ability, made an im portant observation on this point, call ing attention to the growing tendency of the English courts to limit expert' testimony to questions of fact and sub mit conclusions to the determination of a jury. He observes further that long experience had demonstrated that the ordinary lay mind as represented in the average jury, is much less subject to bias than that of the professional ex pert. As one therefore who has given close scrutiny to the claims of those who would impeach the authority of the Word of God, and who has examined much of the evidence in the, case, I am assuming to speak as representative of à great body of thoughtful laymen and to tell why these new claims fail to carry conviction. Let me first of all call your attention
to the fact that the origin and history of this modernist movement gives rise to strong suspicion. The acknowledged founder of this new system was a French physician of the early 18th cen tury named Jean Astyuc, a man of bril-, liant intellect but depraved character, a drunkard and a leader among the fast set of Paris in that degenerate period. The' theory regarding the documentary sources of the Pentateuch suggested by Astruc was later taken up by a German scholar) an avowed -materialist, named Eichorn, and systematized and extend ed to other portions of the Bible. Build ing on the foundation of Astruc4and Eichorn, the process was carried still further by an able German professor named DeWette and a popular contem porary Berlin preacher, Schleiermacher, both men of liberal views. Without at tempting to-trace the entire course of the movement, it later gained accept ance among certain liberal scholars in England, notably Professors Cheyne and Driver of Oxford, and finally reached the theological schools of America to be popularly taught by liberal leaders of the stamp of Professor Briggs, Presi dent Harper, Professor Haupt, Professr or Kent and Dean Matthews. It is claimed by the representatives of this new school that the Bible is illuminated and given increased value through their revolutionary method of interpretation, but I submit it is a strange assumption that the faith of more than eighteen centuries should be overthrown arid the Divine Author communicate a new reve lation through men whose attitude to-
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ward the Scripture and whose estimate of its authority is such as I have indi cated. And not alone does the origin and development of the system raise grave suspicions, but the fundamental assumptions used to support these new theories are proved on investigation to be wholly Unsound. 1. We discover that the claim that the Bible is authoritative only in part is untenable. When the contents of the Bible are examined it is found to be an organism, every part of which is necessary to the maintenance of its life. It is either an altogether good Book, as it claims to be, or, it is a misleading and vicious book. Much, for example, has been made of the variants found in the text of various manuscripts and transla tions of the Scriptures, which are said to number 160,000. Yet even an authority of such liberal views as Dean Farrar has pointed out that 99% of these aré of no essential importance,, representing as they do mere verbal differences, while the remainder do not affect any essential fact or doctrine. The Bible unmistak ably claims to be of Divine origin and inspired throughout. In 2 Tim. 3: 16 we read: ' “ All scripture is given by in spiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” In Gal. 1: 11, 12 the Apostle Paul declares,- “ The Gospel which was preached of me is not after man, for I neither received it of man neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.” In 2 Pet. 1:21 Peter declares, “ For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but holy men of God spake as they were moved (carried along) by the Holy Ghost.” More striking still is the statement in Peter’s first epistle, 1 Pet. 1:10, 11, “ Of which salvation the proph ets have inquired and searched diligent ly . . . Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ
testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should fol low.” Three most remarkable states ments will be noted in this last passage: First, it is declared that the Old Testa ment prophets were themselves ignor ant of the full meaning of the proph ecies uttered through them: Second, the indwelling Spirit of Christ was the source of the prophetic gift: Third, they were able through this agency to foreshadow the essential facts regarding the life and death and resurrection of Christ centuries before His birth. 2. We find on examination that the Scriptnres bear the Divine seal of Jesus Christ. In Jno. 5:46, 47 we read of our Lord rebuking the Jews in these words: “ For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?” Clearly the force of these statements is to es tablish the fact that Scripture is not of varying authority, but on the con trary the testimony of the Pentateuch and the testimony of Jesus in the Gos pels proceed from a source which is equally Divine. This position is af firmed by similar testimony in Luke 16 v 31 where our Lord, in the account of the rich man and Lazarus, concludes: “ If they hear not Moses and the proph ets, neither will they be persuaded -though one rose from the dead.” There are other instances where our Lord em ploys such language as, “ David himself saith by the Holy Ghost” (Mark 12:36) and, “ Have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying” (Mat thew 22:31). But perhaps the most comprehensive of all Christ’s - utter ances, giving eternal validity to Scrip ture, is found in the account of the Emmaus walk in Luke "24. In verse 27 it is stated: “ And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expound ed unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself,” and in verse
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