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cried: “Alas! for that day is great [in its sorrow], so that none is like it” 1 But, the agony of that day will be the agony of "a woman in travail“ (Jer. 30:6,7), and her travail is not to be in vain. For out of the agony immediately will come forth resplendent the King who “ shall speak peace unto the nations” (Zech. 9:10, R.V.), and “they shall not sorrow any more at all” (Jer. 31:12). O trembling saint, turn your “mourning into joy,” re joice from thy sorrow, and be thou thank ful 1 [ Continued on page 428] III. Giving and Thanksgiving “ Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings ” (Mai. 3:8). I S IT honest to come before God with the sacrifices of praise and thanksgiv ing, and yet at that very moment to be robbing Him of that which He declares is His own? Is it right to thank the Lord for His wonderful mercies, and at the same time to be denying His right to that portion of our income that He has claimed? "O f Thine Own Have W e Given Thee" What is the object of tithing? The ob ject of tithing is that men may worship God with their substance. It is not that men may enrich God. God owns all there is in the world of natural and coined wealth. Our money has been given to us by God as a trust. It is not ours! “ The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein” (Psa. 24:1). All things are God’s, and of that which He has entrusted to us, we are instructed to give back to God what is His—the tithe—the tenth. This provi sion has been made, not to enrich God, but to enrich our own characters. Listen to the majestic prayer of 1 Chronicles 29:12-14: “Both riches and honor come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all. Now therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name. But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee.” It is not in giving to God something that belongs to us, but in giving back to God what already belongs to Him that we realize the real significance of Scriptural giving. This realization makes giving an act of our will rather than the payment of a debt. It is a part of the worship service — acknowledging in this beautiful manner the beneficence of God. Indeed, giving thus is as much an act of worship as the bowing of one’s head in prayer, or the reading of the Word of God. [ Continued on page .426] *Pastor, Vermont A v e n u e P r es b y te ria n Church. By L. DAVID CO W IE * Los Angeles, California
the final battle which is to wipe out existing states . . . . The World War, far from ending wars, only served as the overture for a struggle that will dwarf all past struggles . . . . 1The millions upon millions of women, chil dren, and old men, noncombatants, who are doomed to die if the fighting starts . . . lives snuffed out in need less, senseless mass murder . . . a thousand bombs descend over great cities, killing and maiming, emptying great buildings, sending whole popula tions to grub in the fields for food. . . . Men are piled in the fields, women and children in the wreckage of homes, unburied, . . . because there is none to bury them . . . impending slaugh ter hanging over Europe like the doom of time, one wonders . . . whether at last the world is girding for the final conflict . . . . It does not seem possible that any nation can survive the sort of conflict for which Europe is strain ing, trembling.” Though Men Are "Beasts," Ye Can Be Thankful Verily, Daniel was right—the Gentile powers are, as they ever have been, " beasts ” (Dan. 7:3)1 Education, science, invention, progress, culture—all have failed to change the heart of man. Scratch the skin of the “civilized” man, and you find naught but a bloody “ beast.” The coming super-man will be only a super-beast (Rev. 13:2). A world that only a few months ago scoffed at “the dire prophecies” of the Bible, is a world that is now wondering.
The Word of God has foretold a day when “the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain” (Isa. 26:21)—a time when, “ except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved” (Matt. 24:22). “ Impossi ble,” they said twenty-five years ago. “ Quite possible, if not probable,” one-time scoffers now candidly admit. “Men . . . piled high in the fields, women and children in the wreckage of homes, unburied, . . . because there is none to bury them” ! Thus reads the present- day description of areas in warring na tions. But, while there “shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the be ginning of the world unto this time, no, nor ever shall be”—days so frightful that the living will be unable to bury the dead—yet it is “immediately after the trib ulation of those days [that] . . . they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory” (Matt. 24:29,30). Since the ghastly pic-’ ture must become real, then real also must the radiant picture be! If “ thy [Zion’s] men shall fall by the sword, and thy mighty in the war, and her gates shall lament and mourn; and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground,” yet, it is writ ten: "In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely” (Isa. 3:25,26; 4:2). “In that day, they shall not hurt nor destroy . . . and his [Messiah’s] rest shall be glori ous” (Isa. 11:9,10). Verily did the prophet Jeremiah behold a day of trouble, when “ all faces are turned into paleness,” insomuch that he
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