October 1927
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gagement to be with you, and that it should be your con stant aim and effort not to grieve Him by disobedience and neglect. Remember that the church needs learned men— well-furnished men—to be its teachers and leaders, but still more does it need spiritually minded men, Christ-like men.” What weight these words carry in these days! How one longs to sound them to the heart of every theological school of the land! BP The Moral Center of All Things Sir Robert Anderson, in “The Gospel and its Min istry,” says:—“Men cannot and will not believe that the great controversy between them and God is altogether about Christ. To most men, indeed, the very statement seems to flavor of mysticism. The death of Christ is one of the commonplaces of the philosophy, as well as the theology, of Christendom. Men boast of it as the highest tribute to human worth. But'God’s estimate of it is vastly different. “The -Son of God has died by the hands of men! This astounding fact is the moral center of all things. A by gone eternity knew no other future; an eternity to come shall know no other past. That death was the world’s crisis. For long ages, despite conscience outraged, the light of nature quenched, law broken, promises despised, and prophets cast out and slain, the world had been on terms with God. “But now a tremendous change ensued. • Once for all the world had taken sides. In the midst stood that Cross in its lonely majesty; God on one side with averted face; on the other Satan exulting in his triumph. And the world took sides with Satan. “This is the age of Grace, ‘the acceptable year of the Lord,’ and' God is out in the world today by His Holy Spirit for redeeming and saving purposes. Calvary be comes the place of testing; our attitude to Christ Jesus as the Son of God and Redeemer and Lord is the criterion of our standing before God. We must take sides with Satan in the rejection of Christ, or with God in the acceptance of Him as Saviour and Lord. A real, living, practical identification with Christ, means a life of faith in a world antagonistic to Christ. It is faith of such a char acter as sides with God in His attitude to the world about Christ.” gfa? Usr The Hidden Enemy “Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light” “There is nothing that makes an enemy so dangerous as the fact that he remains hidden or forgotten,” said Dr. Andrew Murray. “Of the three great enemies of the Christian—the world, the flesh, and the devil—the last is the most dangerous, not only because it is he that, strictly speaking, lends to the others what power they have, but also because he is not seen, and, therefore, is little known or feared. The devil has the power of darkness: he darkens the eyes, so that men do not know him. He surrounds himself with darkness, so that he is not observed. Yea, he has even the power to appear as an angel of light. It is by the faith that recognizes things unseen that the Christian is to endeavor to know Satan, even as the Scrip ture has revealed him. In the Revelation the victory over Satan is ascribed to the blood of the Lamb. Satan readily retreats when we appeal to the blood, by which we know that sin has been entirely expiated, and we are thus wholly freed from Satan’s malignant power.”
In verse twelve is a promise of the national resur rection of Israel. At present, figuratively speaking, Israel is buried among the nations, but she is to be raised from this sepulchre in which she has been for 1900 years. In this promise of a national resurrection, which is the same as that mentioned in Isa. 49 :5, 6, is doubtless also the germ of promise of a personal resurrection of the ancient worthies of Israel. This note of a personal resurrection was sounded by Isaiah about one hundred and fifty years prior to Ezekiel. See Isa. 26:19. It was doubtless to this same promise that our Lord referred in Matt. 8:11, "Many shall come unto me from the east and the west and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.” In the vision the prophet called to the wind to put breath into the lifeless bodies lying about in the valley. When the breath entered the bodies they became alive and appeared as an exceeding great army. This entering of life into the lifeless bodies in the vision symbolizes the pouring out of God’s Spirit upon Israel when they in their great sorrow (the time of Jacob’s trouble) seek Him earnestly, look upon Him whom they have pierced and say : “Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord.” At that time they accept their long-rejected Messiah and He accepts them. Then shall a nation be born in a day and become the channel of blessing to the whole world (Gen. 12:1-3; Zech. 8:23). Solemn Words for Bible Students M ANY years ago Professor D. C. Marquis, in ad dressing the students of the Northwest Theological Seminary at an opening session, said: “It is a common and a natural supposition that the atmosphere of a theological school is peculiarly favorable to the cultivation of a personal piety; that is to say, that the occupations and associations of such a school are so directly in the line of the ordinary means of Christian cul ture that the graces of the Christian life might be ex pected almost to grow of themselves without the usual ac companiments of temptation and watchfulness and strug gle. I wish to warn you against' any such erroneous notion. Human nature is the same here as everywhere, and your own nature will be just as strongly inclined to assert its evil propensities here, as elsewhere. “Never for one moment can y.ou safely lay down the shield of your faith, or intermit the constancy of your vigilance against the fiery darts of the wicked one. Temp tation will approach you here as insidiously and assail you here as fiercely as in any other walk in life. You will be tempted to self-indulgence, to uncharitableness, to censoriousness, to ambition, to envy, to jealousy, to avarice, to an exaltation of self, self-comfort, self-pleas ing, self-glorification—above the Lord and His cause. And your safety lies in discerning the danger and watch ing against it with determined and sleepless vigilance. “In order to cultivate that sensitiveness to wrong, either in motive or in conduct, which is so essential to worthy Christian living, you need to keep your mind in contact with the mind of Christ, your heart in closest sympathy with His, and your whole being constrained and controlled by daily fellowship with Him. Let your hours of private devotion be carefully and regularly observed. In addition to your hours of Bible study you should read the Word of God every day with a view to its bearing upon your own thought and your own life. With earnest prayer, seek the power of the Holy Spirit for your guid ance, remembering that it is that Spirit’s covenant en
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