®iya 31?aaa hath (Soil rata^h
doh also Ijathhighly rxalteh ^tm anh gtoptt 2ftm a name utljtrh ta ahntta ?wry nama- Pbtl. 2:9
APRIL, 1920
A N N O U N C E M E N T A NEW CORRESPONDENCE COURSE BOOK S T UDY THROUGH THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR BY REV. W. H. PIKE, BIBLE INSTITUTE OF LOS ANGELES ‘T T 'O U W ILL WANT THIS COURSE. Nothing k o exactly like it has ever been prepared. It will take you through the entire Bible giving you a compre hensive view o f each book. Fourteen points on each book are treated and the same outline is held to through out the whole Bible. 1. T h e K ey W ord s 2. T h e K e y V erse 3 . T h e K ey C hapter 4. T h e W rite r o r W riters 5. T o W h om W ritten 6 . D ate B ook W ritten 7. S co p e o f the B ook 8 . Sum m ary o f B ook 9. Gist o f T ea ch in g 10. P ractical T ea ch in g 1 1. T h e V ie w o f Christ 12. D ispensational Setting 13. H ow to M aster the B ook 14. Setting o f the B ook We expect to start the course April 1. Enroll at once. Total cost only $3.00. Full benefits of our Correspondence School and a Bible Institute Certificate when course is successfully finished. Write S ecretary C orresp on d en ce S ch o o l BIBLE INSTITUTE OF LOS ANGELES
TH E K IN G ’S BU S IN ESS 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 — P U B L IS H E D M O N T H L Y B Y T H E BIBLE I N S T I T U T E O F L O S A N G E L E S Rev. T . C . H O R T O N . Editor in Ckief Rev. K E IT H L. B RO O K S, Managing Editor Entered as Second-Class Matter No-Jember 17, 1910, at the Post Office at Los Angeles, California , under the A ct o f March 3. 1879 JjL Acceptance for mailing at special rate o f postage provided for in Section 1103, A ct o f October 3, 1917 m i authorized October 1, 1918. |
April, 1920.
Volume X I
Number 4
CONTENTS
Editorials: The Radiant Way (339) Getting Money Under False Pretenses (340) Theologians Deny— the Government Affirms (340) Pessi mistic Critic (341) Doped by the Devil (342) The Lion Won’t Lie Down (343) Ruthless Rutherford (344) The Parental Frown (344) The Religio-us Press (345) Sentence Sermons (347) The Resurrection o f Christ—By Dr. F. W. Farr (348) Onght Not Christ to Have Suffered?—By Dr. A. C. Dixon (351) Shall We Believe in a Resurrection Body—By Rev. Gerrit Huyser (353)
-The Day of a Risen Christ (357) Bible Institute Happenings (359) Evangelistic Experiences—By Institute Workers (361) Notes on Jews and Palestine (370) Homiletical Helps (372) Thoughts for the Unsaved (374) The Worry Habile—By Rev. Franklin W. Huling (376) International Sunday School Lessons (380) Daily Devotional Readings—By Dr. F. W. Farr (412)
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subscriptions, address correspondence to Office ¡H-Sfe So.BuS nes^ Bi*jle Institute of Los Angeles, 536-558 str®et- . Checks may be made payable to Bible Institute of Los Angeles. Do not make checks or money orders to individuals connected with the Bible Institute. V
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JESUS The light of heaven is the face of Jesus (Rev. 22:4-5). The joy of.heaven is the presence of Jesus (Rev. 5:6). The melody of heaven is the name of Jesus (Rev. 19 :Î0). Thé harmony of heaven is the praise of Jesus (Rev. 5 :13). The theme of heaven is the work of Jesus (Rev. 4:9) The employment of heaven is the service of Jesus (Rev. 1 :6). The way to heaven is the blood of Jesus (Rev. 1 :5). The fullness of heaven is Jesus Himself (Rev. 21:22). T he rad ian t w a y On the evening of January 17th, the street of Broadway, Los Angeles was proclaimed to be the most brilliantly lighted street in the world, and ,was named The Radiant Way. ” • | ¡ B | wa®. wonderfully lighted before, but now it is a challenge to the brightest sunlight of a California day. These new lights stand twenty teet m height, and are of over three thousand candlepower. Man is a genius and is learning to master the forces of nature in hew ways, brilliant ways but what of God? If He can give such power to man wnat can ±ie not do? . ’ There is a theory that all light in the universe is reflected from the face ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ ¡ 1 M M 8 We have *<>t had sufficient light upon the subject to know brighter E l 9 B B I ° r 9 but we know there is a B I in His face that is brighter than the noon-day sun, and Paul of Tarsus testified to it. The M l disciples on the Mount were dazzled by it, and John, the beloved, was overcome by it and fell at His feet as dead. ■ B 9 I tells us that in the coming day there will be no need of the light of the sun or moon, for ‘ the Lamb is the light thereof.” If we walk l U B B H ? Te. 1S B the li^ht’ we have fellowship one with another— feUowship with Himseif—He is The Radiant Way. We. can walk in fellow- ship with Him, be at one with Him. Darkness, doubt, discouragement, dif ficulties flee away, when we are in His presence. He opens unto us the Scripture and our eyes, holden by ignorance and unbelief, are opened to unfailing 'brighteess, ^Urn Wlthm US and the wa^ beeomes heavenly with the M I B B 30 f B l 0* heart to believe? Why do we walk so much . W y do we make so little of His promises and of His presence__ always available, if we will? Are we' not told that we all, with unveiled same ^ 9 9 9 & glaSS the glory of the Lord, are changed into the (Pickering).- ^ m i=>/ ~ m m
340 T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S Why not put our hand in His and have the joy daily, hourly, of walking with Himself along The Radiant Way?—T. C. H. GETTING MONET Under False Pretenses “ The Presbyterian” is a good, sound Protestant paper, and has what every evangelical paper should have, the courage of conviction. In a re- C6Ilt • ? iDCr1ominentSprotestant minister has been giving a series of talks upon the BibleP Excerpts from these addresses have been published m papers of his city, the Bible. Excerpts rrom iues because 0f their destructive character. Among i i N I j a M K i f «^ rid icu lou s The only view in which intelligence can receive them is as alle- lories It °ra lso Lserted that the early writers were unscientific believing that the world was made in six days, that it was flat, and that the sun and moon moved B S v 1 aii thiq mistake and error— a human husk m which the kernel of divine truth may be found. The preacher is reported to have said there were i?rreco“ cnaWe discrepancies in the New Testament, and other like criticisms of the Bible as being largely a human hook.” TM-myiinent We wish The Presbyterian had published the name of this prominent humbug. We wonder where the red-blooded fathers and mothers are, who will sit idly by and permit their children to he hoodwinked, their faith under mined, the Word of God maligned and the Lord Jesus Christ who set His seal to the truth of the Old Testament Scriptures villified. Where are_ the church officials who permit a renegade of this character to violate his minis terial vow, vaunt his professed scholarship in their presence, and then pay him for the performance? Are there no men and women in that church to utter a cry of protest? No one hold enough to rise m the midst of such blasphemy and demand that the preacher he arrested for obtaining money under false pretenses? , • „ Why should we not pray that God would save the innocent by paralyzing the tongues of these hypocritical higher critics? T. C. H. THEOLOGIANS DENY— Glie Government Affirms In Romans 3 :12 are found these words: ‘ ‘ There is none that doeth good; there is not so much as one.” ic, Some good intending theologians deny this. They tell us that there is at least a spark of good in every man, hut the Bible says “ No, not one. Ask some official, “ Are there not some good honest men?” and they will reply, “ We hope so, we trust so, but we operate upon the supposition that there are none.” . The law is framed on the basis that every man is a potential law breaker and officials themselves are not free from this attitude of the law. So laws are enacted to include the officials of thef law, for law-makers ^are often law-breakers. Paul had sense enough to include himself m the _no, not one” and said, “ I know that in me, that is in my old nature, there dwelleth no good thing.”
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f§ ‘ ‘^ U have sinned in coming short of the glory of God.” Human laws thank God, restrain men, but they do not regenerate them. You do not change the nature of man by changing his environment, or his condition. Of course, a man is looked upon as innocent until proven guilty but laws are framed with the idea that he may be guilty. The law give's no ma^1 a certificate of honesty. Governments and corporations put a man under bond. The bonding company requires a certificate of character be fore they issue the bond. The bonding company may employ a detective to watch the man they have bonded, and then you look up the standing of tiie bonding company before you pay for their bond ! There is the ring of the street car bell, and the “ ting-a-ling” of the cash register; the inspector that accompanies the railway conductor; the credit man m the business house; the detective in the department store; the man who carefully scrutinizes employees when they leave the store; the auditor who carefully goes over accounts ; the detective that is on the track of the policeman; the plain-clothes man that you never know, and the burglar alarm m the home,—and in spite of them all, the thousands that crowd the jails and penitentiaries all witness against the deluded theologian, and all witness for the Word of God “ No, not one!” __T. C. H.
A PESSIMISTIC HigHer Critic || ,
£ear Preachers who have been trying so hard to persuade themselves that we have already entered the boundaries of the millennium, are some times compelled to voice a false note in their sweet lullaby of “ The World is Getting Better. Mr Henry Van Dyke, erstwhile American Minister to the Netherlands, in an address before The World’s Church Citizenship Confer ence m the City of Pittsburgh, is quoted as saying:
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Wha“ elsTcould you expect from a world which does not go to church, and whose chief intellectual influence is the moving-picture show?
D oped By crEe Devil A woman recently brought suit for annulment of marriageon the „rounds that the man she married had doped’ her with drugs and that she did not know what she was doing. She is not the only devil-doped person we have heard-of. Now comes Sir Oliver Lodge, Scientist, from England He has a won- derful discovery. He says so and he is prepared to prove it. He is anxious that the unlearned scientists of America and the poor unsophisticated peo- plfshould have the pleasure of participation m the wonderful revelations which have come to him from the fairy land. We appreciate very i„ y goodness of this old gentleman’s heart in behalf of our I but, unfortunately, he is in error. Our fathers Jearf ^ i ^ r s i s t o s in vival originated here about seventy years ago when two scl^ ™ c,®1f a town near New York City got into touch with the other realm And at the close of the Civil War a great many good people hear fro the departed who had laid down their lives on the battle held bpintist papers were published; seances were held everywhere. We ourselves sat in the dark rooms with hands on the tables and felt them S B We heard the rans wonderful raps, two for “ Yes,” and three for No, to ail ot our auestions. We felt the taps on our heads and strange noises. There we cabinets in those days on the stage, and audiences waited m lightless rooms for the raps and taps and strange phosphorescent faces and forms and banjo m ^ f a s Seinstrument sailed through the air. We paid our quarter and asked for no change. We had double slates m those days with pencils and paper upon which came wonderful stories about our grandparents. We had Planchette boards with pencils attached, only fifty cents each, and when our hands were placed upon them, they would write m a most mysterious man- H H M I Oniia of today We couldn’t make out the messages very well, and the spelling was fearfuily and wonderfully performed, but what did that matter * Were we not in communication with the departed, and if they were hav£g s u i i good time that they couldn’t stop to spell; correctlY we knew that they were living. A good many interesting and interested folk reaped a good many shekels and a good many people lost a good many hours m the vain pursuit of information and some deluded people lost their minds, but what did that matter? Was it not all done in the interest of science, and is not science a wonderful thing, anyhow? K f f n i Now there was one thing that was unfortunate m those days When ever the light was turned on unexpectedly, it spoiled the spirits and spoiled the meeting, also, for the medium proved to be playing upon the fancies of the people, and was found with the false goods upon his or her person We feel sorry to be compelled to tell Sir Oliver all thm- We woukln t hurt his kindly heart for anything, but we must tell the truth. Sir Oliver,
T HE K I N G ’S B U S I N E S S 343 the American people have béen buncoed along this line once before, and there is nothing new about it. We are also informed that in your own coun try the renowned magicians, Mashelyn and Devant of London, have freely offered to duplicate the scientific results you have obtained, and go you something better. ^Sir Oliver, wé dislike to hurt your kindly heart, but we must do it in the interest of Science. The devil is at his old game, and has been putting something over you. The devil ought to be ashamed of him self, but he has no shame. He is a liar and a deceiver and he is a scientist, too, probably one of the highest order, seeing that he has been in the busi ness for thousands of years, and has the data of ages. He enjoys playing upon the fancies of the gullible for he is a humorist, also, and no doubt but that he has had many a laugh on the gullibility of our modem scholars. He has the. chair in Biblical interpretation in many a school and seminary, and has the laugh on the learned. Never mind, Sir Oliver, don’t worry. You aré not the only one who is or has been fooled. We are all sorry for you, but no use of crying oyer spilt milk. We have had the same experience. The devil has played his game on us all. We want to comfort you, Sir Oliver, and tell you how we have known people to be helped in such a trying hour. Just get an English Bible and read a few verses. You see God hath spoken along this line. Of course, you have been so busy, you didn’t think of that. Sbience is so alluring and so absorbing, you didn’t know that God had given a warning along this line, and had hung out a red flag so that people could steer clear of the devil’s-trap, but you will find it all in the Book. Let us turn on the light and we will see what God will reveal. There are evil spirits and they play havoc with the minds and souls of men. There is no record of good spirits returning from heaven, and no need for them to do so. There are but two ends of life’s road. One leads to heaven and one to hell. Read 1 Jno. 4 :1, Deut. 18:9-12, Lev. 20:27 and I Chron. 10:13. "We will pray for you, Sir Oliver, and trust that you may be wise enough to let God’s Word settle all spirit and spiritist matters for you. - T. C. H. T h e LION Won’t Lie Down With The Lamb In our Easter number, 1919, we made the following assertion in an editorial, Gradually people are going to forget those eloquent war sermons in which they were told of the glorified earth that was to be made possible by victory over the Hun. We shall find that even though Germany is out of the game the Huh in human nature is anything but dead. Must God by another demonstration prove to the world that the human heart untouched by the Spirit of God through Jesus Christ is a helpless thing?” We quote from “ The Lutheran” , a weekly paper, a rather humiliating confession re cently made-: “We are fairly astounded when we look back over the months of the recent past and recall some of the sentiments and views for which we made ourselves re sponsible. Our tongues were suddenly seized with irrepressible eloquence. We all became in large measure marvelous prophets! and seers. We ventured the prediction that the great war with all of its sacrifice of life would thoroughly purge the seared heart of the entire nation. Glowing and highly magnified re ports came to us from France. Hardened men hitherto unresponsive to the finer impulses were throwing themselves into the strong arms of the church. The
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churches at home were exhorted to make ready for the return of transformed, divested of the false glamor of assumed piety and dedicated to the colossal task of the spiritual reconstruction of the earth. “ But what was our bewilderment, when after the roar of the cannon was no longer to be heard and the passions of men had ceased to he aroused and stimu lated by the thrilling emotions of war, we discovered that the men who had gone to France to fight our battles!, and the men, women and children who lingered with bated breath at home, stood religiously and spiritually just where they stood three years ago. Our boys came back with a wonderfully increased store of human knowledge with a mental attitude toward problems and conditions essentially dif ferent from what it was, yet in the deeper recesses of their souls there has been no change in their disposition toward the great eternal verities of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” , . , , , , God waited four thousand years to get a language intense enough to express His plan for the salvation of men. He need never he expected to accept any substitute for the finished work of His Son—not even (going over the top ” The lion still refuses to lie down with the lamb and good will among men” is far from being an epidemic. Nothing but the old Gospel can regenerate the hearts of men and nothing but the coming of the Lord Himself will purge the nations of the earth.—K. L. B. THE RUTHLESS Rutkerford “ Judge” Rutherford, successor to “ Pastor” Russell is out of jail and making up for lost time. He has been lecturing in some of the large cities and not a word appears in the spectacular advertising to identify him with the cult he represents. Hundreds are being bamboozled. Under Ruther ford’s picture are the words: “ Judge Rutherford of New York City Ba,r President of New York City Peoples’ Pulpit Association.” It was the policy of Russell to change the name of his organization whenever it began to smell bad. First it was ‘ ‘ Zion’s Watch Tower Society.’ ’ Then it was ‘ ‘ Millennial Dawn.” Mrs. Russell came out with damaging stories and the courts gave her alimony, and business beginning to suffer, the “ Pastor” changed the titles of his books to “ Studies in the Scriptures” and his organization to “ Watch Tower Bible and Tract Societies.” It was also known as The London and Brooklyn Tabernacles.” Next the literature bore the imprint of “ Peoples’ Pulpit Association” and then the name “ International Bible Students Association” was hit upon as a clever idea. Now the “ Judge” is representing the “ Pulpit Association of New York City. Whatever name is used, Rutherford is just plain “ Russellite” and teaches the blasphemous religion of an annihilated Christ. m ^ m THE PARENTAL FROWN— A Minus Quantity - Eli the ancient priest of Israel, was severely chastised by God because he “ restrained not his sons” (1 Sam. 3 :13), whom he knew to be living lewd and licentious lives. The margin of the Revised Version throws an interest ing light on the meaning of the expression “ restrained not” , showing that the words may be translated “ he frowned not” upon them. The Bible cer tainly teaches the duty of the parental frown—something that is getting to be an absent quantity in modern family life. The crossing of God s design concerning this family institution is responsible for a good share of the misery in the world.
T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S 345 Dr. I. M. Haldeman referring to the errors of Eli once said, “ There are many Eli fathers in the land. They indulge their sons to open folly. The Apostle declares this disobedience to parents and overthrow of headship and discipline in the family will be one of the marked characteristics of the last days of the age, so significantly called ‘ perilous times’ (2 Pet. 3 :1-, 2). Much of the evil in the world may be traced directly to the responsibility of Eli fathers.” We have nothing to say against paternal kindness and gentle forbear ance but there is such a thing as a parent being amiable to the point of wickedness. There are many fathers who like Eli are simply a joke to their children. They do nothing more than wink at their evil deeds. They frown not upon their sons and because of their tolerance of evil they are bringing the wrath of God upon themselves and their children. If these conditions are allowed to continue, what will the next generation be? A terrible reaction is certain to come iu this country if the family institution as taught by the Bible, continues to be ignored as it now isIg-K. L. B. T he religious press A denominational weekly gives us a splendid editorial on “ Uses and Abuses of the Press. ” “ It is to be lamented that the power of the press is to a great extent in the hands of the enemies of God,” says the editor. “Why has the Christian church failed in this respect? Christian Science can edit big daily newspapers. Why can not the church do the same thing? Few realize the tremendous influence which the press is able to wield. The press is mightier than the tongue. It reaches more people and goes where so often man can never go. Therefore let Christians write.. Let not those whom God has given the gift to use the pen cover their talent in a napkin.” These are timely words—but what surprises us is the way this very editor employs the space in his own magazine. What is true of his magazine is true of scores of other religious papers. They have no real food for the souls of their subscribers. Here is the actual list of topics in the paper referred to—an illustration of what thousands of people are paying for, thinking they are getting “ religious” literature. 1. Prohibition. 2. Sherwood Eddy on Japan. 3. The New Social Era. 4. The President’s Illness. 5. The Cummings Railroad Bill. 6. Agricultural Fairs. 7. Sherman Anti-trust Law. 8. Army Bills and Issues. 9. The Postal Zone Law. 10. War Debts. 11. Royalties for Artists. 12. The Diamond Monopoly. 13. Hatred Boomerangs. 14. Helping Europe. 15. Labor Con ference. 16. The Industrial Upheaval. 17. First American Commission to Poland. 18. General News Summary. (We look in vain for a passage of Scripture in the whole magazine). We want the readers of The King’s Business to pray that we may be kept from this pitfall. May Divine guidance' be ours in the compiling of oiir magazine from month to month, that its pages may count to the utmost for the Kingdom of God.—K. L. B.
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G ive us a boost — wh ? Not? All the denominational and Bible study magazines about us have in creased their subscription rates from 50 to 100 per cent. The temptation in every line these days is to charge more and give less. We are against the price-boosting movement. We intend to stand our ground as long as we possibly can. Our readers appreciate our stand and are rallying to our support. We will win out if our friends will do their best to interest others in the maga- inzine. Stay with us and we’ll stay with you. We aim to give more and better instead of less for more. gfc ^liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinininiiw Hark ®I|tH (§tt four map |
AKB up a map and find the lands where sin and vice skulk in the darkness; where virtue is hon ored and purity enthroned; go mark on the map the lands where the men are the most manly and the women the most womanly, and you will find it in those lands where the Bible is the most ex alted, not as the word of man, but, in deed and in Find the men and women who know most of God, Who have the deepest consciousness of Him in the soul, and who walk every day with the assurance of His real presence—to whom the unseen becomes from hour to hour the thing that is alone real—and who live as kings above their prostrate .passions—and they will be those who make this Book the supreme authority in their daily lives; and who hear it when it speaks to them as the very Voice of God. Place this Book in the midst of the vilest and most abandoned community of desperate and devilish .men, and sooner or later you will hear a cry coming from the depths of sin and shame, bitter ,cries of repentance and yearnings after God; and by and by that community will be trans formed, men will no longer .be demon-filled, but possessed with a spirit of truth and love, and God will be found to Whatever there is of sweetness and truth and righteous ness in the world today; whatever there is that gives hope and comfort on earth and holds men back from very madness and despair, is due directly and indirectly to this Book. A Book which thus inspires men for God, is indeed, a Book which by every law of logic must have been inspired by God. ■ X. M. HALDBMAN. truth, as the Word of God. reign in the midst.
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The world is full of men who are making good livings but poor lives. If God has a gigantic task to be per formed, faith gets the contract. To a love a small sin is a great sin. The highest glory in any world is the glory of service. You cannot live on the influence of Sunday for life is seven times greater than Sunday. God shows the greatness of His pur pose to those who are willing to be great enough to see it. If you would win the world, melt it, do not hammer it. Christ sends none
The Cross is light when His hands lay it upon your shoulders. God’s best gifts are for those who have laid their all at His feet. You may believe what is false, but you can KNOW only what is true. Every man should keep a fair sized cemetery in which to bury the faults of his friends. The danger is that wes are apt to know more than we experience, and ex perience more than we put into actual obedience and sacrificial service. It is easier to build temples than to be temples of the Holy Ghost. Death can only be gain when to have lived was Christ. The more we learn
away empty but those who are full of them selves. Good things have to be engraved on the memory; bad ones stick there. Little furnaces are for little faith. The greatest compliment God can pay us is to heat the furnace to the utmost. We cannot truly say “Whom I serve” until we have said “Whose I am.”
JOHN WESLEY’S FEAR “ I am not afraid that the people called Methodists, should ever cease to exist in Europe or America. But I am afraid, lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power.” — John Wes ley.
the more we are taught that we are not as wise as we thought we were. If the faults you see in other people were not so much like your own you wouldn’t rec ognize them so easily. He who learns noth ing from the past will be punished by the fu ture.
He who waits to do a great deal of good at once will never do anything. If thou come to serve the Lord, pre pare thyself for temptation. Do not take the truths from the Word of God second hand. A lie has no legs. It requires other lies to support it. God put the Church into the world; the devil put the world into the Church,
Every man has a better right to hear the Gospel once than any man has to hear it twice. Every church should support two pas tors; one for the thousands at home and one for the millions abroad. There is no human being who ever’ has known the misery of man as Jesus has known it, and so He comes to all sorrows with tender consolation.
T r ie Resurrection ■
or esus Ckrist
Its Scriptural Necessity and Vital Importance to the Believer Address Delivered at Summer Conference By DR. FREDERIC W . FARR
ty. The authority of Christ as a teach er of supernatural truth rests upon His miracles and especially upon the mira cle of the resurrection. Upon this alone w may safely rest the proof that the Scriptures are the Word of God. It .carries with it irresistibly all the other miracles of the sacred narrative. When it is once established, all other Biblical miracles seem only its prelim inaries, accompaniments or conse quences. Peter declares in his Pentecostal sermon that God raised Christ from the dead, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. Acts 2:24. There are several reasons why it was not possible that the Saviour should be holden by the bonds of death. The first reason that may be men tioned is, that His resurrection was a Scriptural necessity. Five times in the first two chapters of the New Testament the phrase oc curs, “ that it might be fulfilled.” Among the last recorded words- of Jesus He says, “ These are the words which I spake unto you, while I. was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning Me.” Luke 24:44. A great part of Scripture consists of prophecy. Many of these prophecies have been fulfilled. Those that have not, surely will be. Prophecy is as sure as history. Is it not history indeed, written before hand by the finger of
HRISTIANITY is a historic religion founded on well- attested facts. Paul cata logues them in 1 Cor. 16:3- 8. miracles. Christianity dif fers from other religions in
All religions have their
this respect, it is accepted because of the miracles, while the miracles of other religions are accepted because of the religion. From the nature of the case, it is impossible to prove the vir gin birth of Christ but His resurrection from the dead -is one of the best au thenticated facts in the history of the world. All His claims, the office work of the Spirit/ the whole scheme of re demption, rest on the fact that He rose again from the dead. 1 Cor. 15:14-17. We get nothing directly from the in carnation. All direct spiritual benefits come to us from the death and resur- of the Saviour. The resurrection was the chief theme of the Apostles’ preach ing. The new life of the believer dates not from the cross but from the tomb. “ He was delivered for our offences, He was raised again for our justification.” The resurrection of Christ was at tested by the Roman soldiers, by the linen clothes, by the angels, by the testimony of those who saw Him after wards and by His own assertion before and after the event. It was wholly supernatural. We cannot explain or understand it with our present knowl edge. The miracles of' Christ are the corre lates of the incarnation. They are the proper insignia of His Deity and royal
T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S Him who seeth the end from the be ginning? The third day in Scripture is asso ciated with resurrection. In the first chapter of the Bible, in the program of the third day there is a double figure of resurrection, viz., the emergence of the earth from the watery abyss as from a grave, and the appearance of the first form of life out of the earth. Gen. 1:9, 11. The prophet Hosea makes a dispensa- tional application of the third day to Israel. Ch. 6:2. Again, the resurrection of Christ was a natural necessity. The human body of Jesus was not necessarily subject to death as our bodies are. He could only die by outward compulsion or volun tary surrender. It was as easy to re sume His body after death as it was to assume it in the first place. He did not see corruption because there was noth ing in Him to be corrupted. It is the blood which sustains the living body and it is the blood which corrupts the dead body. There was no blood in the dead body of our Lord nor afterward in His resurrection body. Luke 24:39. The bloody sweat in Gethsemane had evacuated the blood from the minute veins and capillaries on the surface of the body and this had been farther car ried out by the horrible Roman scourge. The piercing of the hands and feet had drained the extremities and finally the spear thrust had exhausted the heart and vital organs so that when His body was taken down from the cross, ten derly bathed and perfumed by costly ointments, and then enswathed in linen clothes, it was as clean and pure as can possibly be conceived. It could have remained much longer than three days and nights in that rock-hewn tomb with out seeing corruption. Christ is called the first fruits of them that slept, not because He was the first man to arise from the dead, but be cause He was the first to arise who did
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not die again. Others had risen before Him, but they died again because they were raised to the old natural life of the flesh. Christ was raised to the supernatural life of the spirit and death hath no more dominion over Him. Rom. 6:9-10. Again, the resurrection of Christ was a moral and spiritual necessity. Justice demanded, it and death had no power over Him after justice had been satisfied. When the sentence of the prisoner has expired and he has served his time, he can be detained no longer behind prison bars. He can step out into liberty and no sheriff, warden or other officer of the law has any power to prevent him. The sentence of Jesus expired in three days. The doors of the prison house of death swung open and He who had been detained as a prison er of hope came forth triumphantly. As He was obliged to suffer and die to redeem men under the curse, so it was necessary that He should rise from the dead to seal and certify that redemp tion. . The spiritual necessity of the resur rection is also seen in the fact that it was God’s reversal of the human ver dict against Him on the ground of His own testimony that He was the Son of God. He was condemned on the ground of blasphemy. The Jews said unto Pilate, “We have a law and by our law, He' ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God.” They were right so far in their assumption. If He was not the Son of God, he was guilty of blas phemy. If he was the Son of God, they were guilty of blasphemy. The high priest put Him under oath, saying, “ I adjure Thee by the living God, that Thou tell us whether Thou be the Christ of God.” Jesus unhesitatingly replied, “ I am and hereafter ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven.” For that confession
T HE K I N G ’S B U S I N E S S As if when He returned from the realm of shades, He brought with Him the key of every subterranean dungeon, so that if Satan should by any hap capture one of the saints, He could not keep him long for Jesus would open the dungeon door and liberate' the captive. The Scriptures declare that resurrec tion is the antidote of death. 1 Cor. 15:54. Herein is the mourner’s com fort now. Although death is the last enemy that shall be destroyed, yet it shall be destroyed and our lost treas ures shall be restored never to be taken from us again. If the Lord tarry, we must pay the debt to nature but we may shout triumphantly as we go down into the grave, “ Rejoice not against me O mine enemy, though I fall, I shall arise.” The-- same necessity that brought about the resurrection of our Lord will bring about our own since we are in Him. The great question to be settled now is concerning our spiritual location. Are we in the first or second Adam? If we are in the first Adam we shall have no part in the first resurrec tion. When the archangel’s trumpet sounds we shall sleep on in our graves for a thousand years after the righteous have arisen and then be raised only for the judgment of the great white throne. If we are in the second Adam who is the" Lord from heaven, we shall hear the trump of God and leap up from earth, soaring like singing birds into the sky, to meet our descending Lord. “ Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: They shall be priests of God agd of Christ and shall reign with Him a thousand years.” READY FOR SUNDAY SCHOOL The robbery of a Los Angeles till of several.hundred pennies the other night induces the belief that the thief is get ting ready to attend Sunday School for quite a spell.
350 they nailed Him to the cross. Had He been willing to compromise the matter and lower His testimony, He might have saved His life. In raising Christ from the dead, therefore, God set aside their verdict, proving that they were the liars and that Jesus had told the truth, “ He was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead.” Rom. 1:4. As Satan sought in every way during the-earthly life of Jesus to bring Him under the power of death, may we not suppose that he would make every ef fort to keep Him beneath its power when he had brought Him there. When the Saviour, knowing that His hour was come, started from the realm of death to the world of life, who shall say how many demon hands were out stretched to hold Him back! When the Philistines tried to keep Samson pris oner- in the town of Gaza, he arose at midnight, tore the gate posts out of their sockets and bore them up to the hill top before Hebron, Judges 16:3. The Lord Jesus Christ bowed between the pillars of the underworld, wrenched them from their foundations and brought them upon His shoulders as the spoils of war. Finally, the resurrection of Jesus is the pledge and prophecy of our own. He is the first fruits of them that sleep. We shall be the harvest. The first fruits are the same in kind as the harvest. When we are united to Him in regen eration, His experience becomes ours. If we were crucified with Him, we also arose with Him. The same Holy Spirit is in us now as was in Him then. Rom. 8:11. Eph. 1:19-20. When John fell at the feet of the glorified Redeemer on the isle of Pat- mos, he heard Him say, “ I am He that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive forevermore, Amen, and have the keys of Hades and of death.” Rev. 1:18.
“Ougkt Not Ckrist
To Have Suffered?”
And Ought One Person to Receive Benefit from T h e Suffering of Another? B 9 DR. A . C . D IX O N
refused to advise the Roman Senate to accept the terms of Carthage, and went hack with the envoys to he tortured to death. Has any one, ancient or mod ern, been unpatriotic enough to blame him for it? The legend of Mettus Curtius sacrific ing himself that the fissure in the Roman Forum might be closed, has been used by statesman and orator to inspire the young to deeds of valor. Has one word ever been written in condemnation of the spirit that prompted the act? A regiment of Austrian soldiers were guilty of mutiny, and each man of them, by the laws of war, had for feited the right to live. The court-mar tials decided that only every tenth man should be shot, and the victims were chosen by lot. The lot fell upon an old soldier, whose son pushed him aside and stepping into his place died in his stead. The soldiers of Austria to this day praise him for the deed. In many a European prison is the record, “ Fine paid by John Howard” ; “ Debt paid by John Howard.” John Howard chose to set prisoners free by paying fines and debts, and I have not heard of a magistrate who denied him the right to do so. Now, shall men have the right to do what we deny to Jesus Christ? Shall the mother suffer for her child, shall friend suffer for friend, shall the patriot suffer for his country, shall the soldier suffer for his comrades and receive the praise of all, while we deny to Jesus the right to suffer for those He loves more than mother ever loved her children, or
“ Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to have entered into His glory?“ Luke 24:26.
UGHT one person to suffer for another? Damon be came hostage for his friend Pythias, who, after being condemned to death, was permitted to go home and see his loved ones before
execution. Before the return of Pyth ias Damon was heard to express the wish that he. might he permitted to die for his friend; and when, to the surprise of his enemies, Pythias appeared the day before the execution, »there was a gen erous dispute between the two friends as to which one should be permitted to die for the other. It is to the credit of the tyrant Dionysius that his heart was melted by such an exhibition' of the self-sacrificing spirit of friendship, so that he pardoned Pythias and expressed a desire to be a partner in their friend ship. Has any one from that day to this been mean enough to blame Diony sius for admiring devotion which made Damon willing to die for his friend? The story has been woven into poetry, and is today an inspiration to noble minds. A blacksmith was seated in the Village postoflice, surrounded by his neighbors’ children, when a rabid dog appeared in the door, and the noble man, forgetful of self, throttled the beast in the grip of his sturdy hands, hut not until the virus had passed into his own blood. The villagers put flowers on his gr,ave every day. Regulus, the hrave Roman general,
T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S ing on, and they knew what the rule of the school was. I put the ruler into the hand of the offending pupil; I ex tended my hand and told him to strike. The instant the boy saw my extended hand and heard my command to strike I saw a struggle begin in his face. A new light sprung up in his counten ance, a new set of shuttles seemed to be weaving a new nature within him. I kept my hand extended and the school was in tears. The boy struck once and he himself burst into tears. I constant ly watched his face and he seemed in a bath of fire which was giving him a new nature. He had a different mood toward the school and toward the vio lated law. The boy seemed trans formed by the idea that I should take chastisement in place of his punish ment. He went back to his seat and ever after was one of the most docile of the pupils in that school, though he had been at first one of the rudest.” Something like that, only infinitely more, Jesus did for us. He took our place, and by the keynote of His own sacrificing love brought the justice of God into harmony with His mercy, while at the same time He awakens in our souls the music of gratitude and makes the discord of sin give way to the harmony of righteousness. “ God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Thank God every morning when you get up that you have something to do that must be done, whether you like it or not. Being forced to work, and forced to do your best, will breed in you temperance, self-control, diligence, strength of will, content, and a hundred virtues that the idle will never know.— Charles Kingsley« Kg) SMfi & gfc> THANK GOD FOB WORK
3 52 friend his friend, or patriot his country? Again, ought one person to receive benefit from the suffering of another? Shall the child refuse to be benefited by the mother’s suffering? Shall the country refuse to be benefited by the suffering of its patriot soldiers? To adopt the claim of Theosophy that one should not receive benefit from the suf ferings of another is to turn mankind, sooner or later, into leeches and hyenas; for, if I should not be bene fited by the sufferings of another, I, of course, should not suffer for another. My business, then, is to look after my self, and all the sweet ministries of loving sacrifice for others give place to greedy self-seeking. The spirit of self-sacrificing love, as seen in Christ on the Cross, if univer sally incarnate, would make earth a paradise of peace and joy. War would then cease; for if men loved well enough to die for one another, they certainly would not kill one another. It would close every divorce court; for if hus band and wife loved well enough to die for each other, such a thing as un faithfulness or even unkindness would be impossible. It-would solve the prob lem of labor and capital; for if the la borer and capitalist loved well enough to die for each other, they certainly would not oppress or make unreason able demands. It would run every busi ness enterprise according to the Golden Rule; for if all men loved well enough to die for one another there would be no lying or cheating to make money. Herein is the philosophy of the atone ment. Faith in Christ and Him cruci fied ennobles and transfigures charac ter. Bronson Alcott governed his school in Boston on this principle. “ One day,” says Mr. Alcott, “ I called before me a pupil 8 or 10 years of age who had violated an important regulation of the school. All the pupils were look-
Shall We Believe In
A Resurrection Bod^)?
A Quotation From Rev. Gerrit Huj)ser, Meeting the Modern Disesteem of the Body and Disbelief In Literal Resurrection
* this idea of the inseparable connection between matter and sin, like many an other delusion, found its way into the theology of the Christian Church, as one of the results of attempts, which but too often proved successful, to mix in the vain and puerile philosophies of heathenism with the eternal verities of the Word of God. And when Christian theologians allowed themselves to in dulge in the dreary speculations of Oriental and Greek philosophy, about the eternal conflict between the princi ples of light and darkness, it is not strange that they divested the account of the trial and fall of our first parents of all its grand and terrible significance, and turned it into a meaningless if not contemptible fable! “ The earthly life of the Man Christ Jesus, however, ought forever to have kept His people from supposing that life in the body and sin are necessarily associated with each other. That life of thirty-three years of sinless devotion to the will of the Father, is in itself the best possible evidence that the primary cause of the fall of man, and of the consequent degradation and misery of our race, is not to be found in the fact that man is a physical and animal, as well as a spiritual being. r“ But not this only. The forty days that followed upon the Savior’s resur rection, during which time He gave His followers so many infallible proofs that He was indeed that very God-Man Who, in the days of His humiliation, had so abundantly demonstrated His thor oughly human sympathy, as well as His
HERE has grown up in the Christian Church a con temptuous disesteem of the body. In the minds of mul titudes of intelligent Chris tian people, the idea of the existence of a spirit in a
physical organism seems to be insep arably associated with the idea of sin and consequent misery. And hence they suppose, when once they have got rid of this cumbrous clay, that then they will at once enter upon the fullness and perfection of their bliss and glory. Rev. Gerrit Huyser in a new book “ The Humanity of Christ,” meets this modern view with the Biblical teaching. We quote from the book: “ Let us briefly consider how little ground there is, either in Scripture or in the nature of things, for such a con clusion,” says Mr. Huyser. “ How was it in the case of our first parents? Did not Jehovah God form the body of Adam first, and afterwards create the living soul to inhabit that tenement of clay? And were not Adam and Eve both spotless as they came forth from the plastic hand of Deity? Had not God made them in such a way, that they were fitted to exercise all the powers of their wonderfully composite being, physical as well as intellectual and spiritual, in perfect conformity to His will? Because God had enclosed their ethereal spirits in bodies of an earthly mold, had He thereby made it impossible for them to live lives of holy obedience? “ It is a matter of historic proof that
T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S the crown of righteousness is awaiting the deliverance of his spirit from the trammels of the flesh, and his exit from this earth? Not at all. That that crown will one day be his he now knows be yond the peradventure of a doubt, for he has faithfully performed the task which his Master has put upon him. “ But when does he expect that the Lord Jesus Christ, the righteous Judge,, ; will give him this signal, and most glorious proof of His approbation? ‘Henceforth there is laid up for me’, ‘kept in store,’ ‘the crown of righteous ness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give to me at that day.’ And to remove as it were all possibil ity of mistake, lest any one should sup pose that by the phrase, ‘at that day’, he refers to the day of his own death, he adds in immediate, and one might suppose in altogether unmistakable, connection, ‘and not to me only, but also to all them that have loved His appearing’ (v. 8). It was to the resur rection of the just, to the day of the reunion of his spirit to his resurrected body, that he looked forward with eager and expectant eye, for the complete and glorious fulfillment of all his ardent expectations. “ And is it not in accordance with the nature of things that it should be so? The spirit and the body of man have been likened, and with beautiful appro priateness, to a jewel and its setting. But who will say that the jewel is just as valuable without its setting as with it? Is not the value of the precious diamond enhanced? Is not its glitter ing splendor brought out into bolder re lief, when the skilful artisan has em bedded it in a chastely wrought setting of fine gold? And is it not somewhat' thus with the ethereal spirit of man and its tenement of clay? The soul is indeed of first and greatest importance; nevertheless the soul, or spirit, is by no means the whole man. Man is a physi cal as well as a spiritual being. And is
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divine power to succor them in the hour of need; His ascension to glory, coupled with the assurance of the an gelic messengers, ‘This Jesus, Who was received up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye beheld Him going into heaven’ (Acts 1:11) these things ought likewise to have ban ished forever the supposition, that the reunion of soul-and body in the'resur rection state will be at all incompatible with the highest possible degree of fe licity which, through the unending cycles of the eternal ages, the finite mind will be able to attain unto! “ It is indeed true that ever since the fall the children of God have groaned in this sin-defiled tabernacle, and that many have longed with the apostle Paul ‘to depart and be with Christ’ (Phil. 1:23). Yet this apostle assures us, that that which he most ardently longed for was fellowship with Christ in suffering and in the power of His resurrection (Ch. 3:10), And when ‘Paul the aged’ wrote his last epistle to his son Timothy, and declared that the time of his departure was at hand, what were his expectations as to the immedi ate future? Did he expect to receive the crown of victory the very moment after he had been delivered from the cross of conflict and of suffering? How ever much it may accord with prevalent modern teaching to answer affirmatively to the last question, nevertheless, bear ing in mind his other inspired teachings, we hesitate not to affirm most emphatic ally. No! he expected nothing of the sort. “ Look at the language of the apostle, as he sees the time approaching when he too will have to seal his testimony with his blood. ‘For I am already be ing offered, and the time of my depar ture is come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course.’ The race was won! ‘ ‘I have kept the faith’ (2 Tim. 4:6-7). And what now? Does he express his joyous assurance that
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