August 1927
489
T h e
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and furrowing can accomplish nothing without water. What keeps the soul’s garden verdant and productive ? The
force, water enough is-brought to the surface to produce a meagre crop. But how different the artesian wells of Cali fornia, where water comes so easily to the surface and makes the desert blossom with roses! Is that not just the difference between some Christians? Brute force must be used upon some in order to get any service from them, and even then there is much groaning. Others seem to serve :Sdr spontaneously and ‘joyously.
promise tells us. “Thou shalt he like a spring o f water whose waters fa il not.” Who could fail to see here the symbol of the Holy Spirit? “With joy shall ye draw water out o f the wells o f salva tion,” writes Isaiah a little earlier. Our Master tells us that He speaks of the Holy Spirit when He says that out of the Christian’s inner most being “shall flow rivers o f
Sweet flowers are ever springing up to gladden others, in the garden of their souls. Substantial fruits are ever being gathered. It is be cause the soil of the garden is watered by a never failing Spring. Have you accepted Him who
living water” (Jno. 7:37-39). Unless the irrigating trenches of the soul’s garden are open to the inflow of the Holy Spirit, how can we hope to produce anything, either beautiful or useful, in the garden? In India and Egypt may still be seen the old-fashioned well wheels with donkeys or buffaloes traveling round and round hitched to a windlass, to bring a little water to the surface. With much creaking and groaning, by main
gives men' to drink of these never failing waters? (Jno. 4 :14 .) Have the trenches of your garden been cleared of all o b s t r u c t i o n s so that these refreshing waters might constantly keep the garden of your soul verdant and fruitful?
ate §4»
Do We Know Anything About the Time? B y D r . J. J. S im s , Los A ngeles
E V E R Y attempt to fix a date' for the coming of Christ, either for, or with His saints, has ended in failure. From 1844 onward, date after date has been fixed, for the Lord’s return. Thousands have been stumbled, and the “Blessed Hope” has become to many Christians an imaginative coming of Christ to establish His Kingdom will take place in 1934. As that event, takes place at the close of the 70th week, the coming of the Lord in the air would be in this year of grace 1927, Biblical chronology, the Jew, Mus solini, and even, the .Great Pyramid, are all brought in as proof. But what saith the Scriptures? W e are to be. looking for Hipi, not for signs. We know “the.coming)#! the Lord draweth nigh.” That was true 1900 years; ago when James wrote. For “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years.” It does not say one day is a thousand years. It means a thousand years with the Lord is like one day with us. We know we are in the “Last Days” of 2 Tim. 3. We can see tokens of the “Fig Tree” budding.. It has not budded yet. The Jewish Nation is still dead. We can see the Day approaching, but, apart from all signs, our business is to “wait for Him,” and while we are waiting, “to serve the Living and True God.” In Mark 13 :26 we read: “They shall see the Son of Man coming in clouds, with power and great glory,” In verse 32: “But of that day and hour knoweth no one except the Father.” It is the “Appearing” here, not the coming for the Church, and the Lord says only the Father knows the Day and Hour. . T imes and S easons Not F or U s The Disciples asked the Lord : “Wilt Thou at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel?” The Lord answered: “It is not for you,to know the times or seasons,. which the Father has put in His own authority.” , The. kingdom will
be restored at the Appearing. The time was not to be known. In 1 Thess. 5, the Apostle writes: “You know the times and seasons, that the Day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.” The thief comes unheralded, at a time unknown. So will the Day of the Lord come, no. one but the Father knowing the time. The appeal to Scripture for fixing dates is largely based on Lev, 26 and Daniel 4. In Lev. 26, after the Lord has spoken of the blessing that would follow obed ience, He warns them of the judgments that will come on them if they reject His statutes, and break His cov enant. If, after these judgments) they still refuse to hearken, He says :“I will chastise you seven times more.” This is repeated three times. It is'not judgments lasting seven times, but punishment* seven times greater than the preceding one. It is, at least, a coincidence that in the Book of Judges, the children of Israel turned from God seven times, and seven times they were chastised, the last judgment—civil war—being the greatest. It is surely a stretch of imagination to suppose this “seven times more” means 2520 years.! In Daniel 4, Nebuchadnezzar’s insanity lasted seven times. This may be a foreshadowing of the revived Roman Empire of Rev. 13, in the seven years of tribula tion; but it seems far-fetched to apply to it the day-year theory, which is true in some instances. I cannot under stand how any one can believe that the seven years of Nebuchadnezzar’s insanity when he was not reigning, were intended to typify 2520 years of the great world powers, which were “ordained of God” as to government, even though in their wild-beast character they come into Judgment. It is well to notice there is. no scriptural ground for believing the 70th week commences immediately after the Rapture of the Church. Before the opening of the seven- sealed Scroll, which evidently ushers in the 70th week, the events of the 4th and 5th chapters must take place.
and fanatical theory., We are now instructed that the
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