======================================================================== WRITINGS OF I M HALDEMAN by I.M. Haldeman ======================================================================== A collection of theological writings, sermons, and essays by I.M. Haldeman, compiled for study and devotional reading. Chapters: 67 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TABLE OF CONTENTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. 01.00. Christ, Christianity and the Bible 2. 01.01. Christ 3. 01.02. Christianity 4. 01.03. The Bible 5. 02.00.1. The Tabernacle Priesthood and Offerings 6. 02.00.2. PREFACE 7. 02.00.3. INTRODUCTION 8. 02.01. THE DWELLING PLACE OF GOD WITH MAN 9. 02.02. THE FRAMEWORK 10. 02.03. THE BOARDS 11. 02.04. THE BARS 12. 02.05. THE PILLARS 13. 02.06. FOUNDATION OF THE TABERNACLE 14. 02.07. THE COURT FENCE 15. 02.08. THE COVERINGS 16. 02.09. THE GOATS’ HAIR CURTAINS 17. 02.10. THE LINEN CURTAINS 18. 02.11. THE HANGINGS 19. 02.12. THE UNRENT VAIL 20. 02.13. THE RENT VAIL 21. 02.14. PINS AND CORDS 22. 02.15. THE FURNITURE OF THE TABERNACLE 23. 02.16. THE ARK OF THE COVENANT 24. 02.17. THE MERCY SEAT 25. 02.18. THE TABLE OF SHEWBREAD 26. 02.19. THE GOLDEN CANDLESTICK 27. 02.20. THE ALTAR OF INCENSE 28. 02.21. THE BRAZEN LAVER 29. 02.22. THE BRAZEN ALTAR 30. 02.23. THE PRIEST 31. 02.24. THE EMBROIDERED LINEN COAT 32. 02.25. THE GIRDLE 33. 02.26. THE ROBE OF THE EPHOD 34. 02.27. THE EPHOD AND THE BREASTPLATE 35. 02.28. THE MITRE AND THE GOLDEN PLATE 36. 02.29. CONSECRATION OF THE PRIESTS 37. 02.30. THE FIVE GREAT OFFERINGS 38. 02.31. THE MEAT OFFERING 39. 02.32. THE BURNT OFFERING 40. 02.33. THE SIN OFFERING 41. 02.34. THE PEACE OFFERING 42. 02.35. THE TRESPASS OFFERING 43. 02.36. CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE PEOPLE 44. 02.37. ORDER OF THE CAMP 45. 02.38. THE PILLAR OF CLOUD 46. 02.39. TABERNACLE IMAGES 47. 03,07. It is at the Second Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ that the Earth Will be Delivered ... 48. 03,07. It is at the Second Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ that the Earth Will be Delivered ... 49. 03.0.0. Why I Preach the Second Coming 50. 03.0.1. Forward 51. 03.0.2. Contents 52. 03.0.2. Contents 53. 03.01. The Second Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ is the One Event Most Often Recorded... 54. 03.01. The Second Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ is the One Event Most Often Recorded... 55. 03.02. The Second Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ is Bound Up With Every Fundamental Doctrine... 56. 03.02. The Second Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ is Bound Up With Every Fundamental Doctrine... 57. 03.03. Only at the Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ Will Redemption be Complete and the Blood ... 58. 03.03. Only at the Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ Will Redemption be Complete and the Blood ... 59. 03.04. Not Till Our Lord Jesus Christ Comes the Second Time Will the Church be Exalted into ... 60. 03.04. Not Till Our Lord Jesus Christ Comes the Second Time Will the Church be Exalted into ... 61. 03.05. Only at the Second Coming Will the Solemn and Covenant Promises of God to Israel ... 62. 03.05. Only at the Second Coming Will the Solemn and Covenant Promises of God to Israel ... 63. 03.06. Only at the Second Coming of the Christ of God Will a Government of Everlasting ... 64. 03.06. Only at the Second Coming of the Christ of God Will a Government of Everlasting ... 65. 03.08. The Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ for His Church is the Most Imminent Event ... 66. 03.08. The Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ for His Church is the Most Imminent Event ... 67. S. The Scarlet Woman or The Revival of Romanism ======================================================================== CHAPTER 1: 01.00. CHRIST, CHRISTIANITY AND THE BIBLE ======================================================================== Christ, Christianity and the Bible BY I. M. HALDEMAN, D.D. Pastor First Baptist Church, New York City Author of How to Study the Bible, The Coming of Christ, The Signs of the Times, Christian Science in the Light of Holy Scripture, etc., etc. NEW YORK CHARLES C. COOK 150 Nassau Street Copyright, 1912, By Charles C. Cook ======================================================================== CHAPTER 2: 01.01. CHRIST ======================================================================== Christ IF NOT GOD-NOT GOOD BY I. M. HALDEMAN, D.D. “Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is God” (Matthew 9:17). THE world has accepted Jesus Christ as a good man. The evidences of his goodness are manifold. He was full of compassion. He never looked upon the people as a crowd. He never thought of them as a mass. He saw them always as individuals. His heart went out to them. All his impulses were to pity them, sympathize with, and help them. He went among them. He entered into all conditions, accepted all situations. He was present at a wedding, he ate with publicans and sinners and, anon, was guest at a rich man’s table. He saw the ravages of disease, the shame of sin, the tragedies in life. He knew there was torture in body and anguish in spirit. He took the mystery of pain and laid it upon his heart, until tears were his meat and his drink, by day and by night. He became a man of sorrows and an expert in grief. He took upon him the woes of the world till he was bowed and bent, as with the weight of years. The tears of sympathy grooved his cheeks, as when streams carve their way down mountain sides. Because of this men looked at him and saw neither form nor comeliness; neither was there any beauty in him that they should desire him. He was a beneficent man. Multitudes of men are benevolent, but not beneficent. Benevolence is well wishing. Beneficence is well doing. He was always well doing, giving sight to the blind, healing the sick, cleansing the leper, feeding the hungry, raising the dead, unloosing the bonds of Satan-unwinding the serpent’s coil. He was absolutely unselfish. He emptied himself and made room in his soul for other lives. He had no office hours and never interposed secretaries or major-domos between himself and the people. He received all who came unto him-ministering without money and without price. There is one scene that might well be painted by a master hand. It is evening. The western sky is all aglow with the glory of the setting sun. Far up in the dome of the infinite blue, the evening star swings golden, like a slow descending lamp let down by invisible hands. The street is in half-tone. It is packed by the strangest of throngs, by the blind, the lame, the halt, the paralyzed and the leper-derelicts of humanity-borne thither on a surging tide of life in which every wave is an accent of pain; they are driven and piled up in great, quivering heaps against a door which is partly shut, as in self-defence, by the sweltering crowd within. Jesus of Nazareth is in that house. He is healing the sick. He is giving health, and strength, and peace to all who seek him. He turns no one away. Compassion, sympathy, beneficence, the tenderness of a mother for her helpless babe-these are the characteristics which his daily ministry revealed. No one ever brought a charge of evil doing or evil speaking against him. The people who followed him said, “He hath done all things well.” Police officers sent to arrest him as a disturber of the peace found him in the midst of the people, speaking words that hushed their tumult, quieted their murmurings and gave them rest; and the officers returning to them who sent them, said, “Never man spake like this man.” Pilate’s wife dreamed a troubled dream of him, and sent word to her husband not to lay hands on him-seeing that he was a just man. Thrice before heaven and earth-in a testimony that still echoes through infinite spaces, and is heard by listening worlds-Pilate himself proclaimed, “I find no fault in this man.” He lifted up his voice against sin and unrighteousness. Against nothing did he so much speak as against religious hypocrisy. Nowhere, in any record, is language so terrible, so penetrating, so hot, so full of the flame of fire and scorching analysis, scorching and burning in its denunciation of those who on the outside (in their religious profession) were like whitened sepulchres, but on the inside (in their actual lives) were full of dead men’s bones and corruption-nowhere, outside the Matthew 23:1-39, does language fall with such tremendous vibration of thunderous indignation, and the accent of aroused and fully angered justice. “Ye serpents,” “ye generation of vipers,” are some of the phrases; and the words, “fools,” “blind hypocrites,” mingle again and again with the far-sounding, judicial menace, “Woe, woe unto you.” He seemed to be dominated and controlled by one idea-the idea of God. The God thought held and moved him. He could not go anywhere, or see anything, or utter the shortest discourse, that he did not, in some fashion, connect it with the infinite Father. Was a sower sowing seed, he saw in that incident an illustration of the fact that the true seed is the Word of God, and the true sower he who casts it into the mightier ground of the human heart. Did a flock of sheep lie at rest upon the hillside, guarded by a shepherd’s care, at once he would unfold the shepherding of a Father’s love. A tiny sparrow, flying an unnoticed speck in the distant sky, or falling ground-ward with its weary flight, was a winged witness that the Father knew and saw even the smallest details of human life. A lily in its lowliness, and yet a lily in its beauty shaming a king’s array, a lily, toiling not, but upward growing, furnished him a text from which to preach the providence of God; and a wandering beggar boy far away from home and kindred, stained with sin and dark with sorrow, gave occasion for the wondrous story of the Prodigal Son and a father’s changeless and tender love. God! God! God! this was the supreme note of his life. On the cross he gave utterance to words which reveal the inner character of his soul. When a man has been lied about, falsified, his good evil spoken of and his reputation assailed (as was his before the Sanhedrin-in the mock trial given him there), when such a man has been hounded from one end of the town to the other, spit upon and jibed at and, finally, nailed through hands and feet to a torturing cross; when such a man with his heart bursting (because of the impeded circulation, driving the surging, tumultuous blood back upon it), with the sun scorching his bare temples, a crown of thorns stabbing him at every helpless turn of his restless head; when such a man, under such circumstances, can rise above the wickedness, cowardice and cheap treason that have nailed him to the cross, and pray (and pray sincerely) that his guilty murderers, villainous detractors and unscrupulous slanderers may be forgiven, that man bears witness that he has, at least, a heart of good. And it was just such a prayer which came from the parched, dry, cracked lips of this man of Nazareth as he hung upon the cross and cried out, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Again he spoke from the cross. There was standing near, a woman who had been chosen of God to give him birth. She was sobbing convulsively. She was realizing what had been foretold of her more than thirty years before-“a sword shall pierce through thy own soul, also.” Mary, the mother of Jesus, stood there, brokenhearted. Jesus turned his head and looked at John, his cousin, bidding him take that weeping mother to his home, his heart and care, and be unto her henceforth a loving son. O the man who, in the hour of his own agony, shall remember his mother, and crown her, make her the queen of his life, and ordain that others shall love and reverence her, proclaims for himself the lustre of a manhood without spot. Once more he spoke from the place of anguish-that moment on the edge of death. There his soul, rising from the depths of the overwhelming waves of agony, cries: “Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit.” He who in the hour and article of death can face God and eternity, and commit himself to the hand of supreme justice as a confident child to the arms of a loving father, bears witness that in his soul there is no ghastly memory of sin, no sharp, remembered pang, no fear of offended law. Such a confidence and such a committal of triumphant calm bear witness that the heart is at rest with God, and is conscious of its own good. For two thousand years the world, without a dissenting voice, has borne witness that he is the one man who came into the earth and walked through it superlatively good. Among the voices in the common consent of the world that Jesus Christ was a good man, there are those who with equal insistence deny that he was Almighty God. They agree that he had the spirit of God; that he had it in measure such as no other man before or since. They announce their belief that he is the mightiest advance on humanity ever known; that all other religious teachers pale before him as the stars before the sun. They speak of his spotless life with fervent admiration, and draw special attention to his discourses as models of exhortation to righteousness and truth. To them the sermon on the mount is a chef d’œuvre. Out of that sermon they take the maxim about doing unto others as you would they should do unto you. They take that maxim and frame it about and make it the “Golden Rule” of human life. They exalt Jesus as the perfect example, telling us that if we shall govern our life by him, make him our constant copy, imitate him, we shall fill our daily existence with righteousness and truth. In fact, if we seek a panegyric on the humanity of Christ; if we desire to see his goodness exalted to the heavens, and his humanity put beyond compare with the sons of men-we must needs go to the Socinian, the Arian and the Unitarian-those who deny the deity of Christ. But this exaltation of the human Christ is simply setting up a man of straw that with one blow of deific discount he may be knocked down again. He is set up as man that he may be cast down as God. They will not accept him as God. God Almighty (we are told) cannot be confined or shut up in any one man. Man as man and, therefore, every individual man in his part, is the avatar of God. Each man is in some sense the incarnation of God. God is more or less enthroned in all men. God is to be found in all men as he is to be found in all nature. A good man-call Jesus a good man-set him up as high as you please, build as lofty a pedestal for him as you will, but Almighty God-Never! Over against this exaltation of Christ as a merely good man, and the persistent denial that he was God, stands the unmistakable claim which Jesus Christ himself made-that he was God. He made that claim in many ways. He claimed it by declaring his power and authority to forgive sin. That was a striking moment when he proclaimed it for the first time. Four men had brought a paralytic to the house where he was preaching. When they could not get in because of the crowd, they climbed up on the roof, took off some of the tiling, and by means of ropes or corners of the mattress let the man down to the very feet of Jesus. When he saw their faith, he turned to the sick man and said, “Son (son of Abraham), thy sins are forgiven thee.” At once there was an uproar. The leading men, sitting round and watching him, burst out with a protest, charging him with blasphemy, saying that God only could forgive sin. And they were right. No mere man can forgive sin. Again and again the Scriptures teach us that forgiveness is with God that he may be feared. In announcing the man’s sins forgiven, Jesus clearly claimed the prerogative, power and authority, which belong to God. He claimed this equality by declaring himself to be the Son of God. To the Jews, “Son of God” was equivalent to “God the Son.” It meant to them, the moment he styled himself by that name, an unqualified claim to essential equality with the Father. Because of this they raged against him and would have killed him, crying out that he had made himself equal with God. He made this claim in terms which admit of no misunderstanding. He said: “I and my Father are one.” When Philip said, “Shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us,” he answered and said: “Hast thou been with me so long time and hast thou not known me, Philip? From henceforth ye know him and have seen him.” To Philip he had also said: “I am the way and the truth and the life-no man cometh unto the Father but by me.” By this statement he deliberately shut out all other men as the ground and means of approach to God. He declares that God, the Father, can be found in and through him alone; that he is the supreme way, the very truth and the very life; not that he knows some truth and has a measure of life in common with men, but that he is the truth-the absolute life. Such attitude, such claimed rights, privileges and powers, belong alone to God. But he goes beyond this. He testifies that he has been from all eternity the manifestation of the very selfhood of the Father. Hear what he says: “And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.” He traces his personality backward beyond the hour when the world was launched into space, before the stellar systems were created. He goes beyond time, he takes us into eternity, and in that unbegun and measureless distance declares with all the calm assurance of accustomed truthfulness that he had the glory, the visibility, the outward manifestation and splendor of the Father’s own essential selfhood; that his relation to him was that of one who was from all eternity his determination, definition and utterance. Such claims as these are the claims of one who declares himself to be, and without restraint, nothing less than Almighty God. On one occasion when talking to the Jews he said that Abraham had rejoiced to see his day, had seen it and was glad. They turned upon him and reminded him that he was not yet fifty years old, how then could he have seen Abraham, or Abraham him-that Abraham who had been dead nearly two thousand years? He faced them and said: “Verily, verily I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am.” The striking thing in the statement is not the claim of pre-existence-great as that is-not that he claimed to have been in existence already-not fifty years merely, but two thousand-no! all these utterances are remarkable enough, but these are not the astounding thing he said. The astounding, the unspeakably extraordinary thing he said is found in just two words: “I am.” There is one place in Holy Scripture where this phrase is supremely used. In the third chapter of the book of Exodus it is recorded that God manifested himself to Moses at the burning bush, and there declared himself to be the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. He commanded Moses to return to Egypt, appear before Pharaoh and demand the release of the Children of Israel from their cruel bondage; and when Moses inquired by what name he should speak to the people, he answered: “Say unto them, I AM hath sent me unto you.” “I AM.” To the Jew these two words set forth the supreme name and title of the eternal God. In saying, therefore, “Before Abraham was-I AM,” Jesus announced himself to be the eternal, self-centred, supreme being, Almighty God. When he said this, and because they understood him, because they knew exactly what he meant by these words, the Jews took up stones to stone him. If I were seeking to demonstrate by object lesson, and in a fashion that would admit of no reply, that Jesus claimed to be Almighty God, I would summon the mightiest and most masterful artist the world knows to come and paint for me the scene which takes place a little later as a consequence of that moment when he emphasizes his claim by saying: “I and my Father are ONE.” The picture would represent a great crowd of scowling, fierce, angry Jews, their hands filled with stones-some of them drawn back, the whole figure intense with readiness to cast the fatal stone-and Jesus, standing a little distance apart, looking calmly on. Underneath the picture I would have written in great golden letters (letters so artistic, so startling, so wonderful in form, that at the risk of art itself-almost at the risk of minimizing the picture at the first glance, subordinating it to interest in the letters and dividing the mind of the onlooker between the actual scene and the letters themselves)-I would have written in letters that should smite the eye and the innermost thinking of the beholder, the words recorded in the tenth chapter of John’s Gospel, given by the Jews in reply to the demand of Jesus when, speaking with amazement, he asks, “For what good work do ye stone me?” I would have every gazer at the picture read these words till they rose up in vastness against him, smiting his attention as the very stones in the hands of the Jews-these words: “For a good work we stone thee not but for blasphemy; and because that thou BEING A MAN MAKEST THYSELF GOD.” The Jews were not deceived. They knew what he had done. They knew that he claimed to be no less than very God himself. There can be no doubt that he claimed to be God. There need be, really, no discussion about it. The New Testament records the claim. I am not making any issue as to whether the New Testament is true, or reliable. I am saying thus far, only, that the New Testament (the Gospels of the New Testament), in language concerning which there can be no possible mistake or even ground for misinterpretation, records the fact that Jesus Christ did claim to be Almighty God. If Jesus Christ were not Almighty God (as he claimed to be) he was not a good man (as it is said he was). The proposition ought to be self-evident. No mere man can claim to be God and be good. He who, as mere man, claims to be God, robs God of the glory that is exclusively his. He who thus claims to be God, and bids men go into eternity trusting him as God, is a deceiver. No man who robs God of equality, and who deceives men into believing that he is God, can be good-he is a wicked and blasphemous deceiver. There is only one way in which the character of Jesus Christ can be saved on this claim of his to be God-if that claim were not true. It can be saved only by assuming that he was self-deceived; that he sincerely believed himself to be God, but was blinded and held fast by his own mistaken concept. But the man who claims to be Almighty God, and claims it as he did, can be self-deceived only when he is a mental weakling, unbalanced in mind, or absolutely insane. None of these things can be predicated of Jesus Christ. On the contrary, he was the most intellectual man the world has ever known. Mark how he met the wisdom and the genius of the men who surrounded him. Again and again they came to him with crafty and perplexing questions. With a word he solved their problems, flashed truth into their shame-smitten faces, and silenced them. In all the universe there is no soul meaner, more contemptible, more cowardly, and utterly lost to every sense of decent manhood than the man who, for the sake of entangling a good man in his speech, asks him questions in public, before an audience ready at every turn to misquote and misinterpret his slightest utterance; and that is what they did. They came to him, not with the desire to know the truth, but to confound him, cast him down and destroy his prestige with the people. To every question he gave an answer having in it spiritual truth, but bearing the unmistakable stamp of rare wisdom and intellectual superiority. His words, the simple speech he used in the midst of them, or alone with his disciples, have been the impulse of the mightiest intellectual activity the world has ever known. Out of his words have grown systems of theology that may well call for all there is of brain power and capacity in those who study them. Here are to be found the keenest speculations and the farthest outreach of metaphysical suggestion and the most detailed analysis of which the human mind is capable. Book after book, treatise after treatise, discourse after discourse, have been produced out of the simplest and most detached things he said. No man can read his speeches and not find the mind stimulated, shocked, quickened and impelled forward even upon the most daring lines of thought. It would be easy to call the roll of the princes and kings in the realm of intellect, men whose thoughts burn and flame like great quenchless lights; men whose minds are the storehouses of knowledge, and whose utterances by word and pen have moved the quickest and most forceful lives in the world. It would be easy to call the long roll of these names shining like stars and constellations in the firmament of thought-princes and kings of intellect who acknowledge that Jesus Christ is not only superior to them morally and spiritually, but intellectually. What man is there to-day with any degree of mental self-respect who would dare to stand up and assert himself the equal of Jesus Christ intellectually? Without necessity of demonstration, it ought to be a truth beyond question that Jesus Christ was the most intellectual man the world has ever known. Such a man as that could not be self-deceived. If he were not Almighty God he knew it. He knew it as well as these good Unitarians, and these wondrously advanced scholars who cannot get beyond the glamour of his humanity. He knew it at first hands. If he were not Almighty God-if he were only a man-he knew it, knew it through and through, in every fibre of his being. There is no possibility then whatever for him to have been deceived. If he were not deceived, if he knew he was not God, then- HE WAS NOT A GOOD MAN. This is his own argument: A young man came to him and said, “Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may inherit eternal life? and he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is God.” The argument is simple enough. “You call me good. God alone is good. If I am not God, I am not good.” Not good! Nay! If he were not God, he was the most wantonly wicked man of whom I ever heard. If he were not God, not only does disaster fall upon himself in the total destruction of his character, and in the consequent and final driving of him from the suffrage and consideration of men, but the disaster falls upon all who have put their faith in him. If Jesus Christ were not God, then he never forgave the sins of a single soul, and all those throughout the two thousand years who have gone into eternity trusting in his name have gone into that eternity unforgiven and unshrived of God. If Jesus Christ were not God, then he has not forgiven the sin of a single human being alive to-day. You had sinned! There were memories of the sins you had committed. They allowed you no rest. They gave you anguish of mind. Others could not forgive you. You could not forgive yourself. The consciousness that you stood naked before the all-seeing eye of a holy God; that he knew the circumstances and every detail thereof, down to the very intents and purposes lying behind your deeds, and even your thoughts; that he looked into and saw all that was in your heart; in the consciousness growing clearer and stronger and more terrible each day that you had no excuse, no place that you could hold for a moment; that if he summoned you to his presence, you would stand in the white light of his unmixed holiness, and the inexorable and unrelenting wrath of his essential antagonism and just hatred against sin; all this consciousness taking voice in you and through you, cried out in your soul, “I am guilty and undone.” And this filled you with a horror of great darkness and the utter blackness of a hopeless despair. Then you heard the voice of Jesus Christ saying, “Come unto me.” “Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out.” You came. You fell at his feet. You owned his death as your atoning sacrifice. You claimed him as your substitute. You claimed forgiveness through his blood. He said to you, as he said to the paralytic, “Thy sins are forgiven thee.” You rose and went away as when one is released from a galling chain; as when a burden that was crushing to earth has been lifted from the sore, bleeding shoulder; as when one who has been tossed on a midnight sea enters the haven while the dawn is breaking, casts anchor and touches shore. For years you have had peace. The memory of your sins are there (for though God when he forgives forgets them, you cannot). Like David, perhaps, you cry, “My sin is ever before me!” The sin marks are there as the nail holes in the wall, but you have been able to look at them and have peace because you have said to yourself, “I am not an unwhipped of justice, my sins have been punished in my substitute; they have been fully answered for in his blood. He has forgiven me and justified me and made me clean. In him I stand clothed in the very ‘righteousness of God.’ I hate my sin and despise it for what it is in itself, for what it made him, my redeemer, to endure, but I have peace because he has fully satisfied in my behalf. I have actually satisfied in him and am delivered before God’s court of holiness both from the guilt and the demerit of sin. I have, in short, gone through the judgment with Christ on the cross. He has pronounced forgiveness-absolution-upon me, and he has done so by virtue of his power and authority as the living one in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the godhead bodily-as my saviour and my God he has forgiven me and I am at peace.” All this you have said within yourself and testified. But I ask you now to face the terrible fact-if Jesus Christ were not God-this terrible fact-that you have been deceived. You have had a false peace. You have been living in a fool’s paradise. You are before God an unpardoned and as yet unpunished criminal awaiting your doom. All this is absolutely your state- IF- If Jesus Christ were not Almighty God. If Jesus Christ were not Almighty God, he had no authority nor power to forgive your sins. NO! And if Jesus Christ were not God I know not where to bid you turn. You must carry the load of your sins all your days; and when you die, go into eternity and face a holy God who tells you by every law and fact of nature that he never forgives in a single case till he has first punished the sin and with it the sinner. If Jesus Christ were not God, his death was not an atonement. And this surely should be plain enough. Only God can atone to God. Only an infinite being can satisfy an infinite being. If Jesus Christ were not God he could not make an atonement. If he did not make an atonement, then the world has never been reconciled to God nor brought up on mercy ground. Instead of being lifted up to the plane of grace and mercy, the world is still under the condemnation and judgment of God, no longer under a suspended sentence, but sheer and defenceless, with nothing to hinder the crash of doom at any moment. There is no hope. There is no daysman. There is no one to offer unto God what he demands, and unto man what he needs. There is no mediator between a holy God and a sinful man. If Jesus Christ were not God, then he did not rise from the dead. He did not bring life and immortality to light, and, as for me, the preacher, I have no light to hold out to you in the all-embracing gloom and night of death. There is no hope. If a man shall tell me there is no hereafter, that death ends all, I shall take up the law of induction and argue him to a standstill along the line of unfathomable mysteries and inexplicable psychological phenomena in the constitution of man, and the inexplicable absence of the phenomena in the state of death, inexplicable upon any known materialistic ground, and I shall laugh at his inability to maintain his thesis beyond the poor shred of a hypothesis. If a man shall tell me as the result of pure reasoning that he concludes for the endless existence of the soul after death, and shall do this even upon the plane of induction, I shall turn and tell him that all his argument is based upon inference and not fact, finding its largest emphasis in the region of the unknowable and guessable-in the things he cannot explain, where certain conclusions can neither be successfully affirmed, nor successfully denied, and where, by consequence, he may console himself, if he wish, with his side of the guess; and I shall feel a keen sense of sorrow at his inability to hold his premise in the final region of the sure. And what does all this mean? Is it playing fast and loose with the mind? Am I turning in upon myself and playing the mere harlequin in the arena of mental gymnastics? No! there is sane meaning to this double method-it is this: as much may be said along one line of reasoning as the other. Each is a non-sequitur to the other. Each negatives the other and leaves us with reason’s torch inverted-the light out, the darkness deeper than ever; and standing on the threshold of the grave we are forced to cry out in the sharp agony of a continual self-smiting perplexity: “To be or not to be-that is the question.” Question it is-always a question-always coming back from the side of every dead body-always coming back from the clod-filled grave-coming down from age to age, coming back a question no man, not the wisest mere man who ever lived, could answer, or any living wise man can answer to-day. If Jesus Christ were not God it cannot be answered; for if Jesus Christ were not God, he did not rise from the dead and by divine power carry himself out of the region of death forever. If Jesus Christ were not God, you may go and sit by the tomb of your dead and weep bitter (because hopeless) tears. If Jesus Christ were not God, then he was not a redeemer and saviour. All the beautiful things that have been taught about him as such are false. All the hopes of heaven, the beauty of the celestial city, the tree of life, the river of crystal, the company of the saints, the arch-angelic song, the meeting and the knowing of those who long ago have left us-none of these things are so. If he were not God, then it is not true that he sits upon the throne, high and lifted up, listening to the plaints of the weakest heart that shall trust him, and hearing the sound of every falling tear. If Jesus Christ be not God, then the whole system of Christianity built upon his person and work falls to the ground, is broken into fragments, and like wind-swept dust can never be gathered. If Jesus Christ be not God, the New Testament record of him is untrue. The New Testament impeached in its prime particular becomes a worthless book-a book full of exhortations to holiness and truth, in the name of him who is proven to be (if he ever lived at all) a blasphemer, a deceiver of men and the concrete of human wickedness. If the New Testament is not true, neither is the Old; for the Old Testament finds its meaning and value only in the Christ of the New Testament. Take Jesus Christ out of the Old Testament (which you must do if you set aside the New; for he alone fulfils the types, the symbols and the prophecies of the Old Testament; he alone makes its testimony and history intelligible; he alone gives unity, harmony and authoritative meaning to its exhortations)-take Christ out of the Old Testament and you take away its one and only key. And mark you-when Christ goes out of the Bible as God-God goes out of the Bible. The deity which has preserved it, the power which has made it living and unchangeable in the midst of change and death, will have been dethroned. Without Christ as God you are without any sane and satisfying knowledge of God. Where will you turn to find God and know him to your comfort? You might as well look into the bottomless pit as into your own heart. No more satisfactory will it be to look into the heart of others. We are all built on the same plan. The difference is only in degree or extension. The basilar fact is, God cannot be found in any natural man. You cannot find or know him to your heart’s content in nature. What kind of a God does nature reveal to you? I will answer for you-a God who puts you in this world and does not tell you whence you come, whether from the all mud or the Almighty, from an angel or a devil, from jelly or genius, from the heights of heaven or the depths of hell. A God who puts you here and fills you with questions he alone can answer and-refuses so to do. A God who calls you into the world and gives you eyes to see everything but yourself. A God who hides you from yourself, so that you do not know whether you are a function or a soul; whether you are matter or spirit; whether you are a personality or a cellular part of a general whole-called man. A God who gave you mind with seemingly infinite possibilities in thought, and gave you a body that is finite and temporary in construction. A God who gives you an intellect which grasps after eternity, and is always saying on the summit of any endeavor achieved, “What next?” and yet is limited to a few inconsequent years. A God who sets you face to face with the imminency of death, and never allows you to know at what moment you must go, and gives you no hint of the beyond-or whether there is a beyond. In France they do not tell the man who is to be guillotined till a few moments before the fatal hour. He is sleeping on his couch. He is dreaming of pleasant fields, of running streams, of boyhood’s days, of to-morrows that shall be better-a heavy hand is laid on his shoulder-he starts up in bed-the gray light of early morning is filtering in through the barred window of his cell-stern-faced men are standing before him-they say, “Your hour is come; follow us.” It is terrific. But this is the case of every human being. No one can tell when the summons may come-or where. A man was sitting in his room at close of day. It had been (so he said) the best day of his life. He had said to his wife that he never loved her more than he did then (and they had been married many years), never did he feel more content that they had chosen to walk together through life than then. He was full of plans for himself and for her (saying with great earnestness that their last days should be their best days). She answered back that she was glad with a great gladness that it was so. She turned away for a moment to glance in another direction, still speaking to him. When she looked back he was gone-gone while the love words and the hope words were still on his lips-the finger of death had touched his heart-a voice had whispered in his ear, “Come.” There was only a lifeless bit of clay where a moment before had been a body pulsing with life, with love, with hope. It is terrific-doomed-and not knowing how soon the bolt will strike. What sort of a God is this who laces your body with a network of laws, the breaking of the slightest of which-all unknown to you-may send you forth upon a path of diseased and tortured existence-in which the body from whence you cannot escape shall be to you as a chamber of horrors-a place of the thumbscrew, the rack and the fagot. What kind of a God is that who allows the aged to linger out in a miserable prolongation of wretched days, a burden to themselves, a burden to others, and takes away the widow’s only son-her only support? Who is the God who creates one man with all the equipment for life, and another man with all the lack of it? What kind of a God is this who looks down out of the heaven of day and the heavens of night, and sees all the sorrow, the anguish, the pain, the unspeakable tragedies, and sends no wing of angel to cleave the pitiless sky, no voice out of the silence to console, no hand to help? What man is there of you, if he had the power, would not banish sickness, sorrow, pain and death? What man is there of you who, if he could, would not make every human being well and happy? What then? What is the conclusion of the matter concerning you? Simple enough-you have the heart to do it, but not the power. What is the conclusion concerning this God of nature? He has the power-but does not manifest the heart. What will you say of this God of nature in such a scheme? What can you say but that your heart is better than the heart of the God which nature reveals? Can you hear, understand and love a God like that? Can you climb through nature up to nature’s God and say, “I have found him, I know him?” You can climb up, but where will you find him? You will find him wrapped in the black thundercloud or girded with the robe of the lightnings: You will find him the God who splits the earth in twain with the earthquake’s riving blow, loosens the bands of the sea, sends tidal waves in surges of destruction, pours out the lava streams from the volcano’s cone, as kings pour wine from an earthen cup, spilling the wine and breaking the cup; the God who turns an earthly paradise (like Messina) into a fire-smitten desert, and a city of the living into a cemetery of the unburied dead. When your heart aches, will such a God care for you? Will his thunders console you? When your soul is dark, will his lightnings illumine it? When you yearn for love, will his inexorable law supply it? Ah, sirs, without Christ you are without a God whom you can love, whom you can trust, to whom you can go, and in whose strength you can lie down and-at last-be folded in peace. If Jesus Christ is not God, if the only God to whom you can go is the God of nature, then you might as well fall down in the sand at the base of the far Egyptian sphinx, open your eyes for a moment to the blue sky that spreads away to the horizon before its staring face, its cold, chiselled, inscrutable smile, and the next moment shut your eyes against the pelting dust the idle winds blow thither. Ah! Nature is a sand-dune-and the God of nature is a Sphynx. Do you care to kneel and worship there? If Jesus Christ be not God the disaster is not alone to him, but to you-to me. If he were not God, then we are in a world where the very day is no better or brighter than a starless midnight. If Jesus Christ were a good man, a supremely good man and a supremely intellectual man, then he was and is (as he claimed) Almighty God. The New Testament says he was a supremely good, and a supremely intellectual man. For two thousand years the most brilliant men in the world have corroborated this record by freely testifying that Jesus Christ was a supremely good and a supremely intellectual man; all this being so, I change the conditional form of the proposition to the indicative and declarative and now say: Since Jesus Christ was a supremely good and a supremely intellectual man, he was, therefore (as he claimed), Almighty God. He could not be a supremely good and a supremely intellectual man and claim to be God unless he were God. Since he claimed to be God, therefore, he was God. Yes; he was God. The evidences are manifold. He was sinless. He said: “Which of you convinceth me of sin?” For two thousand years he has been in the concentrated light of a hostile world’s merciless investigation. The light has been turned on the land in which he lived. Every rod of ground over which he travelled has been dug up, or surveyed, or trodden. His words have been weighed, balanced to a nicety against any probability of error, mistake, imagination, fancy or misquotation. His words have been split open as men break open rocks. All the contents of his words have been put in the crucible of criticism. Every thought has been insistently and unsentimentally assayed for, even, the suspicion or the slightest hint of an alloy. His teachings have been chemically dissolved and turned into their component parts. The saline base of truth has been sought for at any risk to the compounded speech he made. And after all! not one self-respecting, authoritative lip has uttered a charge against him. In the hush of a world that cannot even murmur, he steps forward and once more rings down his challenge: “Which of you convinceth me of sin?” He stands out among his fellows as a white shaft under a starless midnight. He rises above the passions of men as an unshaken rock in the midst of a wild, lashed sea. He is to man’s best character as harmony is to discord, as a smile is to a frown, as love is to hate, as blessing is to cursing, as a garden of lilies to a desert of sand, as heaven is to earth, as holiness is to sin and as life to death. If he were sinless, he was absolutely holy; he was so holy that his very presence brought out the sin in others. Sinful men and women fell at his feet and confessed their sins. At sight of him demons tore their way out of the bodies they possessed and fled as clouds of darkness before the sun, crying as they fled, “Thou art the holy one of God-hast thou come to torment us before the time?” Tormented as they were even then, as sin always is when confronted by holiness; as vice is before virtue; as a lie is before the truth. He was sinless. He was holy. His sinlessness and holiness cannot be accounted for on natural grounds. All his natural ancestry were sinful. His sinlessness cannot be accounted for unless he were God; for, sinlessness and holiness come alone from God and, as essential qualities, take their rise alone in God. His power over nature proved him God. His look changed water into wine, his word gave sight to the blind, healing to the deaf, speech to the dumb. At his word the lame man leaped as a hart, the leper was cleansed. He said, “Peace, be still,” and the wild tempest of the sea was hushed, and there was a great calm, a calm like unto the stillness of the unruffled rest of God. For two thousand years his regenerative power in a world of sin has been the proof that he was God. For two thousand years, in every age, in every clime, among all classes of men, from the refined infidel to the vilest sinner, from the cold atheist to the brutal idolater, men have been changed-transformed. Men who have been the bond slaves of passion, whose daily lives have been the output of iniquity, whose deeds have been for destruction, whose words have been poison, and whose inmost thoughts have been as the vapors of miasma-these all-have been transformed into fountains of purity, into angels of mercy, or as illuminated missals have been written full of the name and the glory of God; men whose every fibre was as the coarse and tangled threads of a brutal unrefinement have become men whose every line of character was as the woven gold of Ophir-and the speech that once smote with discord the ears that heard it has become as the sound of singing across silent waters and under listening stars. And you ask these transfigured human beings, as you find them travelling along the highway of twenty noteful centuries, what it was that so changed them, put such new force and impetus in them, making them to be as men new created, and they will tell you that Jesus Christ came along that way, they saw in his face the stain of blood, the marks of nails were in his hands and feet, he had the appearance of one who had been cruelly slain. He stopped, looked at them and said: “Come unto me.” They obeyed, they fell at his feet. He touched them, a strange, keen sense thrilled through them. He said to them, “Arise.” They arose and found themselves new men-men twice begotten. Ask the drunkard who tried to be sober, broke every pledge and drank in his cup the very life blood of those he loved and who loved him-how at last he found strength to say a final “no,” turn from the accursed thing, and enter a world all new in which to live, a freeman and no more a slave-he will tell you, “Jesus Christ did it all.” Ask any of the bond slaves of passion, men who have been gripped by every form of human desire, and whiplashed, and stung, and tortured by their gratification, and driven to fresh and maddening excess by the never satisfied and always burning lust within (ever crying like the horseleach’s daughter, “Give, give”); ask them how it is that to-day they are freemen and walk as kings, and they will tell you that Jesus Christ laid hold of them, and by the might of his power, the tenderness of his love, and the wealth of his grace, made them free. And this has been going on for two thousand years. The story has recently been told of a great thinker lecturing one day before a large audience of medical students-some eighteen hundred men who pressed in to hear him. He took from his desk a letter, and holding it up before him, said something to this effect: “Gentlemen! I have here a letter from one of your number, in which he tells the story of his life-a record of shame, of sinful indulgence, that makes me shudder even to look at the letter. At the close of this fearful confession he asks, ‘Can your God save such an one as I am?’” Stopping for a moment and surveying his audience, the speaker said: “When I came to the city this afternoon (it was the city of Edinburgh) there was a beautiful, fleecy cloud spreading itself like a thing of glory in the upper sky, and I said, ‘0 cloud, where do you come from?’ and the cloud answered me and said, ‘come from the slums and the low, vile places of the city. The sun of heaven reached down and lifted me up and transfigured me with his shining.’” Looking about upon the now deeply impressed throng, the speaker, after a solemn pause, said: “I do not know whether this young man is here or not, but if he is, I can say to him that my Saviour and my Master, Jesus Christ, he who is our great God and Saviour, he can reach down from the highest heaven to the lowest depths into which a human soul can sink, and can lift you, and lift you up and up, till he shines in you and through you, and transfigures you with the light of his love and glory.” He can. He does. He is doing it now. And who is he who can do this but the living God alone? That Jesus Christ was God is the testimony of the men who lived in intimate communion with him and knew him best. John leaned on his breast at supper. John heard and knew the beating of the Master’s heart, and John says: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (God was the Word). The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. . . . And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth.” Again this same John writes: “Jesus Christ . . . THIS IS THE TRUE GOD.” Writing to the Philippians, Paul declares, that Jesus Christ was in the “form of God,” laid aside his glory as such, took upon him the “form” of sinful man, became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, carried his humanity through hades and the grave, rose out from among the dead, and took that humanity to the throne of the highest. There God the Father reclothed him with the unbegun and uncreated glory which he had laid aside, gave him a name which is above every name, even the name of Jesus, and has highly and eternally ordained that every knee in the wide extended universe shall bow, and every tongue confess, that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father. In his epistle to the Colossians, the Apostle Paul announces that this “same Jesus” is the “image of the invisible God; by him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions, or principalities or powers; all things were created by him, and for him.” To the same Colossians he further writes: “In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” To the Hebrews he says: “He is the brightness of the Father’s glory, and the express image of his person” (the word “image” is χαρακτὴρ and signifies an “engraving,” the very engraving of God in the flesh, the engraving of God in humanity) and upholding all things by the word of his power. “Upholding all things!” this earth in its orbit about the sun; the sun in its orbit about some other sun; all suns and systems in their orbits of splendor, whirling onward in ever-widening distances over highways of infinite spaces, through extensions that are measureless, and where time does not count. In that unmeasured expansion where the points of the compass are lost and “dimension” is a meaningless term; in that incomprehensible and indefinable vastness, filled with the might and the majesty of form, of weight, of motion and limitless power-all things-are hanging on his word and obeying his will. Not only does the New Testament proclaim him God-the Old Testament does likewise, and with unmistakable speech. The prophet Isaiah says: “Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father.” Micah, the prophet, glorifies the little town of Bethlehem, least as it is among the thousands of Judah, and foretells that he who shall be born there, and is to be ruler in Israel, is he “whose goings forth have been from old, from everlasting.” He who has been the outgoing and the forth-putting of the invisible God; and who is, and who alone can be, the visibility of God. When we turn to the New Testament once more, we are given a vision of him, in Patmos, where he appears to that beloved John who had leaned so heavily on his heart in the days of the earthly pilgrimage. It is a vision of wonder, of glory, and divine splendor. He is seen as a man-as one who had become dead, who was now alive, who had conquered both death and the grave. His face shone with the light of the noonday sun, his eye glances were as a flame of fire, and when he spoke, his voice was as the sound of many waters; and this is what he said for himself: “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.” This is the climax. He claimed to be Almighty God while on earth. He claims it from heaven. He says I am God-he says that because he declares himself as embracing the whole extent of being. Listen: “I am he that is”-that is to say, the self-existing one; for the statement is the cognate of that, “I am that I am,” which is the pre-eminent appelative of deity. “I am he which was”-and this extends being into the past; that past he himself defines. He does not say I am in the beginning, but I am the beginning-beginning itself-the origin of things and, therefore, himself unbegun, eternal, from everlasting. It is the echo of that far-flung phrase of old: Even “from everlasting to everlasting thou art God.” “I am he which is to come”-this includes eternity future-the unendingness which stretches without a horizon beyond the present. Here is fulness-and the fulness of the Godhead bodily. In saying these words upon Patmos, then, our Lord Jesus Christ says: “I am God-I am Almighty God.” Nor is this a mere conclusion from the premise here! He says it directly, plainly and squarely himself. He says not only that he is, and was, and is to come-but he says- “I AM THE ALMIGHTY.” And Paul, the special apostle of the Church, unites with Thomas (the believing, but material evidence demanding representative of the elect remnant in Israel) in proclaiming the deity of God’s Christ. Thomas falls at his feet and cries: “My Lord and My God.” Paul bows his head in adoration before him and writes: “Our great God and Saviour-Jesus Christ.” Upon the august throne of the universe he is seated. He who lay a babe upon a woman’s breast; who, although he was infinite, became an infant; who being in the form of God, did not hesitate to put off the divine glory and put on mortal humanity that (as an infinite person) he might, through the “prepared” body of his mortality, offer an infinite sacrifice for men; who died under a malefactor’s doom, but with his nailed hands, in the hour of his agony, saved a thief from hell-opening to him the gates of Paradise; he who refused the deliverance of angels when they bent above his cross, that by his cross he might give to men the deliverance angels could not give; lie who was buried in a borrowed grave; who rose as an immortal man, ascended as the Second Adam-the New Head of Humanity-the Life Giver to a world, and took his seat on the Father’s throne, as witness of redemption achieved and salvation secured-he sits there now, and having taken to himself the glory which he had with the Father before all worlds were, having clothed his immortal humanity with that “form of God” which ever was his, now sits the centre of a world’s adoration and heaven’s amaze, as the GOD MAN-the highest form of God and the ultimate form of man; the proclamation that man in Christ is the archetype of God and God in Christ the archetype of man. As we thus gaze upon him in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily; as we meditate upon him, seek to reason about him, are touched by his love, held by his power, and filled with his life, we say with the inspired apostle: “Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh.” “Our great God,” repeats Paul, and he adds, to balance the wonder of it, “and our Saviour Jesus Christ;” he who, in some glad day nearer than we think, is coming back to this old, sin-stained, grave-digged world-to be owned and saluted by all nations, peoples, kindred and tongues as- “THE GOD OF THE WHOLE EARTH.” With all this glory and this wonder he is, as the angels said. (who spoke of his ascension, session and Second Coming), “THIS SAME JESUS,” full of tender mercy, and loving compassion; by virtue of his perfect sacrifice able to save unto the uttermost all who come unto God the Father by him; saying from heaven as he once said on earth: “Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out”; but saying at the same time, and with unfailing faithfulness: “No man cometh into the Father but by me”; saying it faithfully because, of a truth, only in the Son can the Father be found. Let me exhort all who may read these lines, if you have not already done so, to fall down at his pierced feet, and with deep contrition for all your transgressions and for your very nature of sin which helped to nail him to the accursed tree, say with voice of unfailing love and unfaltering faith: “My Saviour and my God.” If you have already owned him as your Saviour, then, as Thomas of old, with the voice of deep devotion say: “My Lord and my God.” To those of you (if there be such) who still deny his deity and persist in calling him good, he, himself, is asking you from heaven as he asked it aforetime upon earth: “Why callest thou me good?” In asking you that he is putting upon you the responsibility of the terrible conclusion of your own premise: IF NOT GOD-NOT GOOD! Are you willing to face him in eternity with that inexorable alternative: “IF NOT GOD-NOT GOOD?” ======================================================================== CHAPTER 3: 01.02. CHRISTIANITY ======================================================================== Christianity WHAT IS CHRISTIANITY? WHAT is Christianity? The question seems a belated one. It never was more pertinent than now. Its pertinency rests upon two facts. First: the modern drift in Christianity and its absolute failure. Second: the phenomenal triumph of primitive Christianity. The modern drift is antagonistic to doctrine and repudiates the miraculous. It sets aside the virgin birth, has no toleration for atonement by sacrificial death, and positively refuses to accept the bodily resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. It holds that God is the Father of all men. Each man is inherently a son of God. He has in him all the elements of the divine lineage. Exercise and culture are alone needed to reveal these elements and demonstrate this lineage. Salvation is not the redemption of a child of the Devil, but recovery of a child of God from the hands of the Devil. Salvation is the restoration of the individual to the consciousness of this relationship; but salvation is effectively individual only as it is primarily social. The time has passed (so we are told) when the individual may be discussed and his social condition ignored. To seek out an individual here and there and endeavor to redeem or recover him while the environment remains unchanged, is a waste of force: as foolish as it would be to spend millions on remedies for people sick with malaria in a pestilential and malarial district, and ignore the condition of the district. True wisdom would demand first of all that the district be purged, the environment made healthy, the cause of malaria destroyed. Human beings are neither sinning nor suffering because a possible first man away back somewhere ate forbidden fruit at the insistent appeal of his too persistent wife. Men are sinning and suffering because social conditions are all wrong. These wrong conditions fill the multitude with discouragement and depression. They are unable to breathe an inspiring life force. They cannot obtain sufficient impulse to live above low levels. The laws, the customs, the inequalities of life, hedge them like brutes in a corral. This corralling and hedging of humanity en masse, while the few pull away from the crowd and create an environment satisfactory to themselves at the expense of the crowd, is the raison d’être for all evil conditions. Let us have right legislation. Let us make right laws. The moment the social condition enables a man to discover the divine things in him, he will live right by preference. We are no longer to spend eloquence, prayer and time on revivals, and now and then, here and there, get an individual to live fairly right in spite of hindering conditions. The sermon of the preacher should appeal to the law-maker rather than to the law-breaker; it should arouse men, not to the danger of a hell far off, but to a hell near at hand, the hell of unjust laws, of sanitary neglect, of oppression of man by man. Social redemption! that is the watchword. Social salvation! that is the crying need. All this (we are told) is to be accomplished by appealing to the divine in man, to his hitherto ignored resources. This appeal can be made of avail only by setting up some human figure in which this divine life has been fully proved and clearly portrayed. In the nature of the case, for a modernist Christian, such a person is to be found alone in our Lord Jesus Christ. By such he is now hailed, and continually announced, as the advanced man, the quintessent demonstration of evolution as applied to humanity, the way-shower, the exemplar and true copy. He is incarnate altruism. His whole life was self-denial. His daily interest was in social conditions. To him society was the objective, the individual an incident. His teachings, when fairly construed, involve the overthrow of the old, and the bringing in of a radically new society, in which the divine life in man may have an opportunity to unfold. His doctrines, when analyzed, are explosive; if practically carried out would be revolutionary. He is, in short, the true socialist. If we follow him as such, if we work out his intent, we shall have individual salvation, but we shall have it as a consequent of social redemption. There may be shining worlds beyond this. There may be holy cities with golden streets. There may be robes of righteousness and trees of life. What we need to do, as Christians, is to take care of the world in which we now live, build first-class holy cities here, see that the streets are well paved, and the sewers in order, put fit clothing on the backs of the poor, fill the mouths of the hungry with actual bread, make the hours of labor minimum, and the hours of personal culture maximum, and thus weave a garment of civic, social and individual righteousness that shall stand the test of this world or any other. In other words, we are to live the life that now is-and let that which is to come take care of itself. This is the trend of the modern drift. It is an endeavor to bring the church down out of the clouds, place it on the level of human experience, meet present human needs in practical ways, and establish a system of natural, rational and universal ethics. And yet-in spite of this widely heralded liberalism; in spite of the effort to accommodate itself to the rationalism, the unbelief and downright infidelity of the hour; in spite of the determination to cut loose from the primaries of the first century and ally itself with the fast-going advance of the twentieth, this movement in the name of Christianity has not succeeded in winning and holding the multitude either to a personal and modified Christ, or to a reorganized and elastic church. The churches in which it flourishes; the churches which have renounced faith in the supernatural and miraculous; the churches which have swung the doors wide open on the hinges of worldly wisdom and easy tolerance; the churches which have substituted natural generation for supernatural regeneration, evolution instead of revolution, the working out of human life, instead of the coming in of divine life; the churches which teach that man is to go up and take hold of God, instead of God coming down to take hold on man; the churches which are broad enough to allow men of all faiths, and men of no faith at all, to occupy their pulpits, are not overcrowded, nor have righteousness and holiness extraordinarily increased in their neighborhood. On the contrary, in face of every effort to conciliate the naturalism in man, men look upon these churches, and the Christianity they advocate, with suspicion. They see these churches have their goods still marked with the words, “supernatural,” “miraculous.” It is true, these churches may practically put such goods out of sight; even then, men will not be attracted beyond the expression of a condescending tolerance; and while admitting, as they will, that the church is earnestly endeavoring to get rid of its ancient incubus of theology, free its hands and take hold of the plow handle of progress, ready, if needs be, to drive a furrow deep enough to bury all memories of primitive faith, yet will they turn away from that kind of a church and that sort of Christianity, with the feeling that all this action on the part of the church is but another feeble effort at competitive morality. They will turn from it and seek their own organizations wherein no issue of the supernatural has ever been raised; where the quasi personality and questionable existence of an unseen God are not at all discussed; and where man and his present life are the only subjects deemed worthy of consideration. If this drift as thus indicated shall continue another ten years, and enlist the support and open advocacy of leading and representative thinkers in the church; if the theological seminaries shall continue to turn out on graduation day, with their all too mechanical regularity, men who do not believe in the virgin birth, who find no real reason why our Lord Jesus Christ should have died at all, except the fatality of his genius that he was too far ahead of his time and was “caught by the whirling wheel of the world’s evil and torn in pieces”; if the repudiation of the Bible as the final and inerrant revelation of God for this age shall continue so short a space as a decade, by that time, at the present rate of development, we shall have not only a very modern Christianity, a Christianity without miracles, without even a hint of the supernatural, but a Christianity without spiritual power or moral authority, standing as a delinquent on the street corners, and amid the hurry and rush of more vital things, begging permission simply to exist. Over against this modern drift and its amplitude of failure stands the phenomenal success of original and primitive Christianity. And yet, the conditions which confronted this nascent faith were appalling. It was the era of materialism. Force was the prime minister, self-gratification the supreme legislator. Exaggerated superstition was balanced by decaying faith. It was a time of coordinately high mental activity, an intellectuality that cynically rejoiced at its own failure to solve the riddle of the universe, maliciously suggested new difficulties, raised barriers against its own research, and prostrating itself in the name of mere brutism, worshipped nature as the ready panderer to its worst passions, while owning it as a cruelly smiling and pitiless sphinx. The one hundred and twenty men and women who faced the Roman world with the determination to impinge their faith upon it, seemed the most audaciously unwise of all forlorn and hopeless fanatics. They had neither wealth nor social standing. Their culture was at zero, their knowledge indifferent. Localism and tradition environed them, and the story they had to tell was not only an affront to the course of nature, but a direct repudiation of old faiths and cherished religions. Itself a religio illicita, Christianity challenged governmental law and invoked, logically, the keenest persecution. The mountains which surrounded Jerusalem were not so high, nor so difficult of ascent, as the prejudice far and near over which they needs must climb, even if they would gain but a tolerated hearing. Yet they went forth! and so preached, that they not only saved and transfigured individuals, but so molded and transformed society, that in its every-day achievements, Christianity itself seemed like a miracle to astonished and silenced onlookers. Startlingly enough this moulding of society, this overturning of old conditions-this bringing in of the radically new, so that their enemies said of them they had “turned the world upside down”; this repudiation of brutality and the exaltation of unselfishness; this building up of a condition in which a community now judged itself by the standards of chastity, righteousness and neighborly kindness; this renovation of whole centres of life till the erstwhile deserts wherein not a flower of gentleness had bloomed, now blossomed as gardens of delight, watered with never-ceasing streams of brotherly love-were produced, not by an appeal to society itself, not by denunciation of laws and customs, however bad, but by laying hold of a human soul, estimating it in value by the weight of a whole world, and changing the individual life. This was the triumph of original and primitive Christianity. In view of such a triumph and the unqualified failure of the modern drift which claims the name of Christianity, it should seem a perfectly legitimate and altogether pertinent question to ask, “What is Christianity?” The answer is given by the apostle Paul in his second letter to Timothy, his son in the faith, the preacher of his own ordination. He says: “Our Saviour Jesus Christ . . . has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel.” (2 Timothy 1:10.) According to this declaration, the Gospel is the good news that our Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to accomplish three things-abolish death, bring in a new life and reveal immortality. As the Gospel is the heart beat of Christianity, then the three things which proclaim its constituent and objective characteristic are: The abolition of death. The gift of a new life. Immortality. First-The abolition of death. Death is a black fact. It is the shadow the sun never penetrates, the robber who steals the treasure more precious than gold, the guest who never waits to be invited, the intruder who feels at home whether in palace or in cot, has no respect of persons, and lays his hand with equal familiarity on the king upon his throne, or the tramp by the wayside, saying “come” to the sick, “tarry not” to the well, is sure of the old, and revels like a reaper in the harvest of the young. It breaks the plans and disorganizes the relations of life; and then, like a coarse comedian or a heartless satirist, compels those who survive to turn away from the memory of their dead, reorganize their lives and live on as though those who once lived with them and formed an intimate part of their daily experience had never existed. Unless God himself shall intervene, death is the certain end of the longest life. Side by side with the certainty of death are two things which give it emphasis: the brevity of life and its uncertainty. How brief it is! what are sixty or seventy years as measured by hopes and fears, by splendor of genius, by forecasts that outreach the ages, by thoughts that climb and climb with ease to the infinite, by energy of mind, which, rising superior to the combined hindrances of every day, is always peering beyond the last endeavor, and stretching itself towards unbroken continuance, cries, “What next?” Extract from the allotted time of three score years and ten, the puling days of infancy, the immature years of youth, the hours of indecision as to the route to take, the right profession to follow; take the hours given to eating and drinking (that eating and drinking which in spite of the glamor we throw about it is simply repairing the mechanical waste and renewing the chemical energy that will enable us to go on a little while and a little way farther); take out the time spent in sleep-in practical nonentity-and the remainder is a pitiful handful of years, so few, that to number them seems like a mathematical mockery, like numerical trifling. And the uncertainty of life! What man is he who can assure himself of ten days? In that time he may die, be buried and be forgotten by the world that scarcely heard the tolling of his funeral bell, and had no time to stay and hear the falling of the grave clods upon the coffin lid. This emphasis of brevity and uncertainty has affected men more or less from the beginning. In the hour when Christianity was born it affected them well nigh unto delirium. So brief was the vision of life, so tumultuous its incidents, so conscious were men of its uncertainty, that they played with it as gamblers throw dice. It became cheap, cheaper than the ground in which their bodies were so soon to be laid; and in derision of its cheapness they built great monuments to hold their scattered dust, monuments that should outlast by centuries their latest breath; with light laughter they rode past these chiselled tombs and scorned themselves as the builders of a longevity their own being could never know. This fact of death is impressing men now. In proportion as life increases in knowledge; in proportion as men become masters of nature’s forces; in proportion as they measure the universe, make daily incursions therein, and bring back always some conquered thing, some new discovery as a tribute to the limitlessness of mind, in this proportion the unequal brevity and the disintegrating uncertainty of life, lead men to ask with more and more insistence, whether, after all, it is worth while. Is it worth while to carry burdens which force us to look down into the dust of the highway, and not up and out to the wider landscape? Is it worth while to put so much force of soul and spirit, brain and heart into things from which we may be summoned without a moment’s notice? Is it worth while to live, and then go to pieces through the effort at living, live on day after day like a machine out of gear (held together oftentimes only by the surgeon’s skill), then break down completely, give a final sigh and be hurried away to add a lot of useless fragments to the already accumulated scrap heap of the still more useless graveyard? Into this emphasis of brevity and uncertainty, there enters another element which increasingly raises the question-“Is it worth while?” That added element is the silence of the grave. The grave is terribly silent. You can hear the gravel rattling out of the grave digger’s shovel with a thud upon the coffin lid; or, you can hear the crunching, jarring sound as the casket is slid into its place in the receiving vault, and you can hear the turn of the key and the snap of the bolt as the gate or door of the sepulchre is shut and locked. You may stand above the simple mound of the churchyard, in front of some monumental shaft, or before the sculptured urn; it may be the dust of a king, a scholar, or some nameless beggar which is heaped within-the silence will be unbroken-except by the sound of your own voice as you ask: “Where are they? What are they? ARE they?” Although the sun may be shining in full splendor over row after row of graves, no light will be there in which to read the answer to your questions. Instead of light there will be thick darkness upon the graves, and gross darkness within. Men peer into this darkness. There is no vision-no speech-and they ask: “Is it worth while to toil, to labor, to accumulate, to make great advance in knowledge, to build higher every day the conning towers of science, and then leaving these high points of achievement, enter into that realm where no surveyor’s chain has ever measured the extent, where no geographer has ever named a headland, and where the one supreme fact that meets us on the threshold is ignorance-a black, blinding, all-pervading ignorance as to the next moment after death; so that at the end of our reasoning, deduction and amplification, the one thing remaining to the scholar and the fool alike concerning death is a guess, a guess in which the wish of existence is father to the thought, but where the hope of to-morrow is, easily, the despair of to-day.” With life so brief, so uncertain, and ending in the starless night of silence, men in one form of utterance or another are, in substance, calling to each other and saying, “Let us eat and drink-for to-morrow we die.” Thus the contemplation of death and its impartial and unprejudiced analysis leads to a belief in materialism and a greater or less surrender to mere sensualism; for, if men cannot go up they will go down; if they cannot live in the spirit, they will grovel in the flesh. What then shall we say concerning this fact of death? Shall we say it is a part of nature’s economy-as legitimate as birth? Because we know nothing of any pre-existent state and are content to go forward in life, shall we now balk and hesitate to discharge our functions or meet our opportunities, because we have no evidence of an after existence? Is death really natural? Absolutely it is not! The whole being of man revolts against it, morally, intellectually and organically. Every law of nature in man is against it. Pain and suffering are its protest. To say that it is as natural as birth is to be guilty of pure bathos; even the worm crushed and quivering denies the sentiment. Schwann, the author of the cellular theory, says: “I really do not know why we die.” There is no reason in nature. The process which renews the body every seven years-so far as any law in nature shows-might go on indefinitely; there is no reason in itself why it should cease, and the soul within is never conscious of the added years. No one ever thinks of asking, “Why do we live?” Always, and involuntarily, we ask, “Why do we die?” Always we are seeking to continue life, inventing something to make it immune from death. To live, therefore, is natural. Not to live is unnatural. Being unnatural, it is an interference with nature. An interference with nature is superior to nature. That which is an interference of and superior to nature is a direct imposition upon nature. An imposition upon nature could not be possible without the permission and will of God. If God allows and wills it, then the imposition is for cause; being such, it is a judicial act, a judgment, and becomes, necessarily, a penalty. Penalty stands for violated law. Violated law is transgression. Transgression is sin. Sin, in final analysis, is lawlessness, and lawlessness is treason against Jehovah. Death is, therefore, an imposition of God, and is his penalty against the treason of sin. This, then, is the explanation of death-it is the penalty of sin. This is the definition which Christianity gives-as it is written: “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men.” (Romans 5:12.) Again it is written: “It is appointed unto men once to die.” (Hebrews 9:27.) In thus determining and defining death, Christianity reveals both its essence and its mission; for, through its Gospel, Christianity brings the good news that the issue of sin and death as between God and man has been settled by our Lord Jesus Christ; that he has settled it perfectly and forever according to the terms of divine righteousness by dying as a sacrifice for sin and as a substitute for sinners. In order to be a substitute it was necessary that our Lord Jesus Christ should be a sinless man; otherwise, his death would be only his own execution under the penalty of sin, and could not avail either for himself or others. None of Adam’s race is sinless; a sinless person must be of another race. To be of another race and be human would require a new creation and would be a new and distinct humanity. Our Lord Jesus Christ was sinless. He was, therefore, of a new and distinct humanity. In incarnation, God did not take the humanity of Adam into union with himself, the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ was the repudiation of the humanity of Adam. By that incarnation God was saying: “I have tried the old humanity. I find nothing in it that responds to my claims. At its best it is sinful, only sinful and fit for judgment-the end of all flesh is come before me-and that end is death.” The humanity of Christ is, therefore, not an evolution, but a new creation; it is not an invitation to the natural man, but a condemnation of him. It does not say to him, “Follow me, imitate me and you will be like me”; it says: “I am from above, ye are from below. I am from heaven and God-ye are from the earth. My humanity is as distinct from yours as the heavens are from the earth.” Such a man is not an example, a copy to be set before men. And never, not once, do the apostles so set him before the natural man. Always they set him before the natural man as the man who came into the world-not to live as an example-but to die as a sacrifice for men; as one who was fit to die because he was free from the stain and penalty of sin. But in order that the death of Christ should be of infinite value, he must himself be an infinite person. The value of a deed depends upon the person who does it. The quality resides not alone in the act, but in the actor. The value of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ is not to be measured by its duration, but by himself-by what he was in himself; it does not depend upon the length of time in which as a substitute he suffered the punishment of those whose place he was taking, but the essential quality of his person. Did our Lord suffer but a moment of time on the cross, the value of his suffering as a satisfaction to the law, government and being of God would be infinite. An infinite person is God. Always as such do the apostles present our Lord Jesus Christ. Their testimony to his deity rings out like the blast of far-sounding trumpets. In terms that are precise, and so strong and clear that he who runs may read, they proclaim that he is God of God, very God of very God. As God the Son, in co-operation with God the Father and God the Spirit, he who is presented to us as the Lord Jesus Christ, took a cell from the substance of the virgin Mary, made it a mould and with generating power wrought from it a real humanity-a new and distinct humanity-and united it to his eternal personality; so that he stands forth as the eternal God endowed with a human nature-with two natures, human and divine, in one body and one person forever-the infinite God-man. Never do the apostles present him as a mere man. They present his humanity as the background for his deity. His humanity in its most literal revelation is always declared by them to be the revelation and the manifestation of God. Never do the apostles attempt to reason about the incarnation, with superb affirmation and sublime dignity they declare, “Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness; God was manifest in the flesh.” And it is this God whom Christianity presents as coming down from the heaven of glory, and clothing himself with a new, a distinct, but a mortal humanity in which to die as an infinite substitute for guilty men, that through death, he might abolish death for men. Having died as a sacrificial substitute, death considered as a penalty, and the guilt and demerit of sin which induced the penalty, have been set aside for all for whom his substitution avails. Nor does Christianity leave us long in doubt as to those for whom the substitution obtains. In full and precise statement of doctrine it tells us that this substitution is on the behalf of, and for, all who individually claim our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross as a personal sacrifice for sin, and who by faith offer him to God as the sacrifice and sin offering which God himself has provided. Thus it follows, that for every believer-death as a penalty has been abolished, brought to nought. This is the first great and joyous proclamation of Christianity, Death has been abolished as a penalty for every believer. It has been abolished de jure, not yet de facto. The Christian still dies, but his death is no longer penal, it is providential and provisional. In the hour of death the Christian is not seized as a culprit and hurried away to execution. On the contrary, when the hour of death sounds for him, a voice inspired from heaven assures him that he has reached the threshold of the “far better”; he arises and “departs,” that he may be “absent from his home in this body and present at his home with the Lord.” His death is not a defeat, but a begun victory, and, inasmuch as both soul and spirit are delivered from the underworld and the shades of death, he has the assurance that the penalty will yet be completely abolished concerning his body: it is both the assurance and the prophecy of it. Christianity is, then, primarily, the good news, and the doctrinal demonstration, that death as a judicial sentence has been abolished for the Christian. But Christianity is something more than the abolition of death-it is- Second-The bringing in and revelation of life. Through the Gospel, we are told, life has been brought to light. In the nature of the case this cannot mean natural life. There was no necessity that it should be brought into light. It has never been in darkness. It is manifest everywhere. Light and life are synonymous. There is not a condition in which in some form or other it does not exist. While one class of life may not live in a certain environment, there are other forms to which this environment would be as a hotbed for their production. Life is, indeed, universal, and may be said to be omnipresent. You will find it in the deepest depths of earth, and in the highest reaches of air. It expands on the mountain top, it dwells in the sea; it is organized in the infusoria, it exists in the infinitesimal, and reveals itself at last, in the beauty of woman and the strength of man. As natural life has always thus been in evidence; as it has never been in the dark at all, then the life which our Lord Jesus Christ has brought to light is not natural life-it is new life-a life unknown to the world before. It does not come from the natural man. It is not produced by natural generation. It comes from our Lord Jesus Christ and by supernatural generation. It did not come from him while he walked the earth. At no time during his earthly career did a human being receive it. The disciples who followed him-he who leaned upon his breast at supper and was the disciple whom Jesus loved-knew nothing of it. This new and unique life was brought into the light only when that light shone from his empty grave. He gave it forth and communicated it to men only when, as the risen man, he ascended up on high. It comes from him as the second man, as the last Adam, that Adam to whom the first was only as the clay model to the completed statue, as concept is to consummation. It comes from him who is both God and man, in one body and one person forever; and who, as such, is the head and beginning of the new creation of God. By him it is communicated to those who own him as their atoning sacrifice. The instrument is the word of the Gospel. The agent is the Holy Spirit. The Word is preached-it falls into the heart of the believer as seed into the ground. The Spirit quickens it-the new life is germinated. That new life is the life and nature of the risen one, our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, the man in the glory; it is the mind of him who is called Christ, and it is, therefore, in final term-“the mind of Christ.” It is wrought, not in the soul, but in the spirit of the believer. By no slow process does it enter-this life of the risen Lord-but by absolute fiat-the fiat of him who said-“Lazarus, come forth.” It is fiat life. Its entrance into a human being is as light flashes into darkness. It is as instantaneous as when God of old said, “Let there be light,” and light burst over a world cataclysmically fallen into chaos. It is as transforming as when morning awakens the sleeping earth and hill and dale, river and sea, shine forth in their beauty. It is as startling as when Lazarus himself, obeying the voice of his Lord, rose from the dead and came forth. Behold the illustration of it. Here is a man who grovelled in the lowest animalism. He was a husband and father. What a husband! and what a father! She who was his wife fled oftentimes at the very sound of his footsteps, shivering with the same fear, as though he who had solemnly sworn to love and protect her, were a mad brute intent on gratifying his own fierce lust, and ready with unchecked sensualism to trample her in the mire of his bestiality. A father, whose very name made the cheeks of the children grow white and their pulses almost to cease with terror. A drunkard, who drowned in his cup, not only wife and children and home and all outward decency, but every characteristic of truth and honesty and manhood of his own soul. A man, who through self-indulgence and the incessant yielding to unspeakable desires, had become little better than a human sewer, through whom the slime and indescribable filth of fallen and degraded humanity found its unhindered course. A human being, who had become a lazar spot, a walking pest, whose inmost thought rotted and putrified his own mind; and whose words without license were a poison and contagion to every one whose ears caught their unwelcome sound. Mark the change in that man! The wife now watches at the door with a gladsome smile to greet his return. The children, who once in their rags trembled with fear, now clean and wholesomely clad, and gay with laughter, gather at his knee, the moment he enters his home. He is himself well dressed. He holds his head erect, his eyes, no longer bloodshot, meet your gaze with frank and open glance. His tones are soft and modulated, his speech gentle. The Bible, the one book he always hated, is his constant study. His mouth once filled with cursings that might well have chilled the blood to hear, now give utterance to the voice of prayer and earnest thanksgiving. The church he never entered and always avoided has become the centre around which the best activities of his life are continuously moving. He who was once shunned, despised and feared, is now honored and respected of all. The man has been transformed. Those who saw him in former days and see him now might in all reason ask, “Is this he, or some other man?” It is both he and yet another man. The same person, but possessing another character. What is the secret of it all? Let the answer be graven on every heart. He has received a new life, a new, a pure, a holy and spiritual life. He has received that life from above, from the second Adam, the Lord in heaven. He is now a twice-begotten man. And herein is the glorious, distinctive feature of Christianity in so far as it touches a human soul. To that soul it brings the good news that a new generation is possible; the good news that any human being may start over. The good news that, no matter how much you may be handicapped by your original genesis; no matter what the terrific law of heredity may have transmitted to you, you may be generated again. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, you may have a genealogy that shall carry your name above the proudest of earth; a genealogy by the side of which the bluest blood of most ancient kings shall be as the palest and poorest of plebeian stuff. This Gospel of Christianity brings the good news that you may receive from the throne of God life from God, as directly as did Adam when God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul. In an instant you may be recreated morally and spiritually, and have in you all the assets which, when fully capitalized by the grace of God, shall insure your sonship with God here, making you master over every disturbing and disquieting passion, and guaranteeing to you an eternal entrance into the endless inheritance of God, wherein you shall be, indeed, the heir of God and joint heir with our Lord Jesus Christ. In short, you may have the bequeathed ability to glorify God and enjoy him forever. This is the life which our Lord Jesus Christ has brought to light. The Gospel is the good news of this life of which the life giver himself has said, “I came that ye might have life, and that ye might have it more abundantly.” That is to say: “I came that ye might have this spiritual life and have it without limit here.” And this Gospel of the new life brought to light by and through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is one of the elemental facts and forces which definitely answers the question-“What is Christianity?” But Christianity is something more than the abolition of death as a penalty and the bringing in of a new and spiritual life. Christianity is through its Gospel-the good news that- Third-Immortality has been brought to light. The word here translated “immortality” is “incorruption”; but it signifies in final terms the fact of immortality; for, as mortality is identified with corruption and is its consequent, so immortality, which is the opposite of mortality, is the consequence of incorruption and is inseparable from it. This word “immortality” is greatly misunderstood, and almost always misapplied. It is continually applied to the soul. It is a common thing to hear or read the expression, “immortal soul.” The truth is, that phrase cannot be found in Holy Scripture. The terms are misleading-their conjunction is false. Applied to the soul, the word “immortal” is a misnomer. Throughout Scripture the original word and idea relate to the body-never otherwise. The word “mortal” is never used of the soul; you never read in Scripture the expression, “mortal soul.” You will find the words “mortal body.” A mortal body has for its opposite an “immortal body.” A mortal body is subject to corruption and death. An immortal body is incorruptible and not subject to death-an immortal body can never die. The mortal body is the scandal of the race and the open label of sin. A mortal body puts us in the category of condemned criminals awaiting execution. The scandal is not only moral, but organic. To be filled with disease, with pestilence, with fever, and then die and the body turned back to its component parts-this is a scandal in construction; as much a scandal as when a house not properly built falls down; a dead body, whether of man or dog, is the most shameful blot on the face of the earth, and with the gaping mouth of the graveyard, justifies the estimate and the declaration of the living God, that death is an “enemy,” not a welcome thing like birth and life-but an enemy. Such a scandal is it, indeed, that when our Lord Jesus Christ came to the grave of Lazarus, he was himself moved with indignation; for the words, “groaning within himself,” miss the true force. The Greek verb used signifies that he was inwardly filled with indignation and a sense of outrage at the sight of the grave and the announcement that the body of Lazarus was already corrupt. Whatever groaning came from his lips and whatever tears fell from his eyes as he wept-these were his protests against death and the grave; for he recognized this dead body not only as due to the penalty of sin, but as the work of him “who had the power of death, that is, the devil.” (Hebrews 2:14.) Even though the Christian as to soul and spirit be delivered from death; even though he does not go down to Hades, but at death is safely housed and at home with God in heaven-yet the fact that this body, which was not only the dwelling place of his soul, but the temple and shrine of the Holy Spirit, should become a banquet for worms, a thing of repulsive decay, a residuum of forgotten dust, is a scandal, even to the Christian, and gives emphasis to the shame of death. The Son of God came into the world to remove this scandal. He died and rose again, not only that he might have power and authority to give a new and spiritual life to men, a character befitting them for the high things of God, he died and rose again that he might have power and authority to give an immortal body to all who would receive from him this new and spiritual life. He brought this immortality to light when he rose from the dead. He brought it to light by rising from the dead in the body in which he had died. If our Lord Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead in the body in which he died, then immortality in the New Testament sense of the word has never been brought to light. But he did so rise. He made that clear on the first Sunday night after his resurrection. The disciples were gathered together in the room. The supper table was spread. No one cared to eat. The story had been going all day that Jesus had risen. The women said so. They persisted that they had seen and talked with him. Two men claimed, also, to have seen him, walked, talked and broken bread with him, that very afternoon. The disciples did not believe it. They were afraid to believe it lest it should prove to be untrue. Then, suddenly, he stood in the midst. They thought it was his ghost. This was a proof to them that he had not risen; for a ghost is a disembodied thing. He was a ghost-he was disembodied-therefore he had not risen. So they felt-each one of them. They did not say it-but they thought it. He knew their thoughts. He asks them why these thoughts arise in their hearts. He upbraids them for their unbelief. He tells them plainly, a ghost does not have flesh and bones. He says, “I have flesh and bones.” They are still silent. Then he stretches out his hands towards them. He shows them his feet. There are great marks in them-there is around these marks as the stain of blood, or of wounds whence blood had flowed. Still they do not speak. They are afraid to believe; it is too good to be true. He says to them, “Handle me and see-take hold of my feet-feel me-examine me for yourselves.” They are as immovable and speechless as men changed into stone. He turns upon them quickly and says, “Have you anything to eat?” They point to the untasted supper. Then comes the climax. He goes to the table. He sits down. He eats before them. It is of record that he did eat broiled fish and an honeycomb. Either this is the worst fable ever palmed off on the church of Christ-on the credulity of aching human hearts-or it is the truth of God. Call it the truth of God-then the body in which our Lord Jesus Christ rose was the body in which he died. That body, stamped and sealed with the stigmata of the cross, is the living, quivering definition, and indisputable demonstration of immortality. Immortality is the living again in a body which was dead and dieth no more; or, it is the change of the body in which we now live into an incorruptible, glorious body which shall never die. In that body which he raised from the dead, and which never saw corruption, our Lord Jesus Christ now sitteth at the right hand of God. He is there as the vision and standard of immortality. He is there as the forerunner, the prototype, the sample and prophecy of immortality for the Christian. Until the Christian is made immortal his redemption is not complete. The Christian who dies is transported to heaven. His estate there as compared to this is “far better.” But “far better” is not the “best.” It is only a comparative. The superlative requires that the Christian shall have a body. Without a body the Christian is neither a complete human being nor a perfect son of God. The divine ordination is “spirit, soul, and body.” Unless the Christian receives an immortal body the victory of our Lord Jesus Christ over death and over him who has the power of death (that is the Devil) is not complete. Satan as the strong man armed holds the goods and keeps them secure within his house. The instrument with which he is armed is the law. That law which requires that it shall be “appointed unto men once to die.” The goods are the bodies of the saints, and the house is the dark and dismal grave. O the pitifulness of it! that our Lord Jesus Christ should possess the Christian as a ghost in heaven, and the Devil hold his blood-bought and spirit-sealed body in the grave. A risen Christ in an immortal body, surrounded by disembodied Christian ghosts in heaven forever-that is a concept too hideously grotesque to consider. An immortal Christ who redeemed his own body from the power of the grave, but is unable to deliver the bodies of those for whom he died-to think it is blasphemy! to believe it-impossible! If the Devil be the strong man armed, the risen Lord is the one “stronger than he,” who has met and equalled all the demands of the law, and by his death nullified its ultimate power over the bodies of those for whom he died. In the very nature of the case, then, full redemption requires that the body of every Christian shall be delivered from the grave, and that every Christian, whether living or dead, shall be clothed finally with an immortal body. This is the great objective of salvation-not just to save men from vice and immorality here; not just to fit them with an antidote against the poison of sin; or give them an impetus to holiness and truth for a few brief years in this mortal body, then let them die under various circumstances of suffering and pain and be carried away to heaven to live there as attenuated, invisible ghosts forever! 0 no! it is not that! It is true men are to be saved here and now in such moral and spiritual fashion as that each saved person should make the world sweeter and better and nearer to God for living in it. All that is true, but it is only a part of the glorious truth. The supreme objective-the ultima thule of redemption-is- Immortality-the Christian eternally and incorruptibly embodied. And this immortality, this eternal embodiment, is to be accomplished for every Christian. The fact that death has been abolished officially as a penalty for the Christian is a demonstration that abolition of death means abolition for the whole Christian; as a whole or complete Christian must have a body, then the abolition of death for the Christian means abolition of death from the body. The abolition of death from the body is immortality; by virtue, then, of the abolition of death, immortality is assured to every Christian. Not one will be forgotten even though centuries may have broken into dust above his grave. This immortality will be brought to pass by him who is the Resurrection and the Life. It will be brought to pass at the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is coming to this world again. By every law of necessity he must come. He is coming to complete redemption, to bring on the capstone amid shoutings of “grace, grace unto it.” He will raise the dead who have fallen asleep in his name. He will change the living ones who are his at his coming. He will make the body of each incorruptible, deathless, immortal, like unto his own glorious body, as it is written: “We shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” (1 John 3:2.) And again it is written: “We are citizens of a country which is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change the body of our humiliation, that it may be fashioned like unto the body of his glory, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.” (Php 3:20; Php 3:21.) At the last he will regenerate the earth. He will make it over. He will make all things new. He will set this race of redeemed immortals within it. Perfectly recovered from the spoliation of sin and death, they shall inhabit it forever. God shall get his own world again. Paradise lost shall become paradise regained, and God’s purpose to make man his constitutional, governmental, moral and spiritual image shall be fulfilled. Man shall be God incarnate, and incarnation shall be seen to be the beginning and the ending of the purpose of God. This is the consummation to which Christianity leads us-a perfect race of immortal beings in a perfect world, a perfect world in which no man shall say, “I am sick”; where sin is unknown; where the funeral bell does not toll, and a grave is never dug. Where God is all in all. This is the hope and the ultimate Christianity sets before us. Not once in all its record does it offer us heaven or bid us prepare for it as the ultimate, but always it exhorts us to look for and wait patiently for immortality and glory at the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the Christianity of the primitive centuries. This is the Christianity of the New Testament. It is the Christianity that fully met the needs of men. It met the needs of men who gave themselves up to unrestrained passion, to the gluttony of every appetite; who lounged away their day in cool marble halls, or leaned half drunken from the cushioned seats of the amphitheatre, while the sands of the arena were reddened with human blood to give them a holiday. Look at them there. They passed their unsatisfying hours in idle jest, wreathed themselves with freshly plucked, but swiftly fading flowers, drowned their senses from moment to moment, still deeper in the spiced and maddening wines, gave unbridled freedom to their lust; and then, at close of day, in the splendor of the sinking sun, went forth to cool their fevered brows in the Campagna’s freshening but deadly air, and drove with furious pace and brutal laughter along the Appian way between rows of monumental tombs whose chiselled epitaphs told the hopeless end of human life; then back again they drove with still more reckless haste to spend the night in wild debauch and meet the gray dawning of another day with its mocking routine and disgust. Loathing their very joys, revolting at their own gratification, these men asked: “Is there nothing better than this, that we drain the cup of pleasure to the dregs, open our veins, watch the life blood ebb away, and laugh, and mingle our laughter with curses that so cheap and easy an ending should have cost so much to reach?” O the woe, the horror, the emptiness, and the crying, agonizing need of lives like these. And Christianity fully and richly met the need of lives like these. It met the needs of men who in the midst of an environment of the flesh, with the wild beast of appetite struggling within, now and then had longings for a power that should enable them to put their feet upon the neck of passion. It met the needs of men who, standing above their dead, asked again the old and oft-repeated question of Job, “If a man die, shall he live again?” Christianity met all these needs. Through crowded streets of populous towns and lonely lanes of silent villages, in lordly palace and before straw-thatched hovels, to listening throngs and wayside hearers, it rang forth its wondrous proclamation. It told men that a man had been here who had proven himself stronger than death and mightier than the grave; a man who had burst the bars of death asunder, spurned the sepulchre wherein human hands had laid his body, had ascended up on high, and now, from heaven’s throne, had power to impart to men a life that hated sin, rejoiced in virtue, could make each moment of earth’s existence worth while, and carried within it the assurance and prophecy of eternal felicity. Far and wide, over land and sea, it rang the tidings that this perfect life might be had by king or cotter, by freeman or slave, without money and without price, for so simple a thing as genuine faith in, and open confession of, him who had died and risen again. With rich, exultant note it announced that he who as very God had clothed himself with a new and distinct humanity, who had loved men unto death and died for them, had not forgotten the earth wherein he had suffered, his own grave from whence he had so triumphantly risen, nor yet the graves of those who had confessed his name; but, on the contrary, was coming back in personal glory and with limitless power to raise the dead, transfigure the living, make them immortal, and so change this earth that it should no longer be a swinging cemetery of the hopeless dead, but the abiding home of the eternally living sons of God. Men held like Laocoon in the winding coils of sinuous and persistent sin, and who vainly sought to escape from its slowly crushing embrace, heard the good news and turned their faces towards the rising hope of present deliverance. Men standing in the shadow of the tombs and waiting their turn smiled until their smiles turned into joyous laughter as they said: “If we die, we shall live again-the grave shall not always win its victory over us.” Do you wonder the world stopped, listened, and that multitudes turned and followed after? Do you wonder that this Christianity of the primitive centuries triumphed so phenomenally? This is the Christianity we need to preach today. It is full of a great body of doctrine. It is full of the supernatural. Miracle and miraculous are woven into its texture from beginning to end. You cannot touch it, or handle it, or look at it from any angle of vision that it does not suggest the miraculous. The moment the miracle is out of it it is no longer the Christianity of the first century, it is not the Christianity of the New Testament-the Christianity that has a miraculous Christ for its centre and the miracle of an infinite God for its environment. A Christianity of doctrine! A Christianity of miracle! And why not? It is as superior to the Christianity, so called, that sets aside miracle and doctrine, turns its back on the hereafter, makes its appeal in behalf of the present alone, and grounds its claim to authority, not on a “thus saith the Lord,” but on a “thus saith science and reason”; a Christianity that owns the law of evolution as its present force and defining motive; it is as superior to that sort of Christianity and as high above it as the heavens are above the earth. One night this summer I stood upon a mountain ridge and watched the revelation of the starry sky. The great constellations, like silver squadrons, were sailing slowly and majestically to their appointed havens; from north to south and from south to north again, the Milky Way swept upward from its double horizon to the zenith like a highway paved and set with diamonds-a highway over which the wheels of the king’s chariot had sped, leaving behind that cloud of dust in which every gleaming particle was a burnished sun. I gazed spellbound until it was as the vision of an unfathomed sea, an ocean tide of light, where the shimmering foam was the rise and fall of single and multiple systems, the surf beat breaking on the shores of converging universes. I gazed on this wealth and congeries of far-flung worlds, in which some that appeared the most insignificant and twinkled and trembled as though each glimmer would be the last, were actually so great that beside them our own poor little world was but as a mole hill to earth’s Himalayas; as I gazed I thought of the distance from world to world-measured as light travels-till the count of years fell away, and there were no more numbers with which to count, and I knew that at the end of this calculation I had but entered the suburbs of that realm for which we have but one word, whose inadequacy we all confess-the Infinite. I listened, the silence seemed to utter forth majesty and might and honor and omnipotence, the air had in it the breath of sacred and adoring things, and unwittingly I cried out, alone in the night there, “The heavens, O God, declare thy glory and the firmament showeth thy handiwork.” And when I look at this Christianity set forth in the New Testament, and anticipated in the Old, the constellations of doctrine, this Via Lactea of truth in which every statement is a sun of splendor; when I begin to get the sweep of the divine purpose coming up from the opening pages of Genesis and culminating in the book of the Revelation; when I see that Christianity is the presentation to us of the ways and means whereby the original thought of incarnation (and this was the very first thought stamped upon the first pages of the Genesis record of the creation of man; for incarnation is conceived in Eden before it is brought to the birth in Bethlehem)-when I see this original thought of incarnation, in spite of sin and failure, and the world’s captivity to the Devil and his angels; when I see this high purpose of God at last realized, and realized so completely that each redeemed soul is in final terms the glorious enthronement of God in humanity, and that God in Christ and in the Christian, gets his own world again, I cry out with full tribute of heart and intellect: “O Lord, this is the Christianity which thou hast wrought, thy name is written in every doctrine, every line justifies, as it proclaims thee, the infinite and gracious author.” This is the Christianity to preach. Let the preacher preach a Christianity of doctrine. There are three important things every preacher should preach. The first thing is doctrine. The second thing is doctrine. The third and pre-eminent thing is doctrine. The church is starving to death for the want of it, the preachers are becoming emasculated apologists for lack of it, and the world, looking on, is laughing at a limp, genuflecting thing calling itself modern Christianity and for want of vertebrate strength, unable to stand alone. It was doctrine believed in and preached which sustained the martyrs and gave courage to missionaries. He who believed in the sovereignty of a redeeming God, the certainty that God would get his elect, the Coming of Christ, the millennial triumph, and a rebel world surrendered at the feet of God, could endure the agony of the stake, the privation of the wilderness, and all the discomforts and all the discouragements of fields of endeavor well sowed but scantily reaped. Let the preacher preach the supernatural-the things that are miraculous, and be unafraid. He need not be afraid. The world wants that sort of preaching. It is growing tired at heart of mere machinery and this eternally running up against a formula of the laboratory or a mathematical calculation and analyzed force, as explanatory of everything in heaven and in earth. It would like, if it were possible, to believe in something a little beyond the length of its eyelashes and the touch of its finger tips; something that cannot be summed up always in avoirdupois; something, indeed, beyond the ability of man. Let the church get back to the old-fashioned doctrinal, supernatural, miraculous Christianity that underwrites itself with the name of God. Let it be boldly proclaimed that Christianity is miraculous, because it is, first and last, the Christianity of that God who is himself-the eternal miracle. The very salvation of the church as a church depends upon this retrograde. If the church hesitates, compromises, seeks to accommodate its formulas to modern nomenclature. If it is willing to carry its baggage at half weight; if it is willing to make its proclamation a continual denial of all that it has heretofore professed as fundamental; if it believes the twentieth century has the call on the first, and that modernism outranks primitivism; if, in short, it looks upon primitive and apostolic Christianity as the feeble hint which the modern thinker has known how to modify and improve, then, as already suggested, the days of its spiritual and moral bankruptcy are in sight, and the sooner good business arrangements are made to hire out its meeting houses for ethical and social culture the better. Let the church persevere in turning its back upon the hereafter; let it continue the folly of ignoring the eschatological emphasis of Christianity; let it keep on giving to men the anodynes of mere moral maxims; let it direct all its energies to improving and perfecting a society which God has already judged and condemned at its best, and presently these drugged and befooled people will awake, the drugs will no longer be effective, and they will turn in indignation upon a Christianity which began by professing to be a revelation from God and ends by confessing to be nothing more than an evolution from man. It is time for preachers to arouse if they would have the hearing, and not the indifferent ears. Let them refuse to apologize or defend. Let them have the courage of divine conviction. Let them refuse to admit into their fellowship men who are willing that a bar-sinister shall be stained across the birth hour of the Christ; who are ready to smile away such a title as “the Blessed Virgin”; who can read no deeper meaning in the cross than a brutal murder, and who do not yet know that in the garden of Arimathea there is still an empty tomb. Let them refuse ministerial ordination and partnership with men who, bearing the university brand, claim the authority of a self-elected scholarship to make the Word of God secondary to the word of man. Let them go forth and proclaim to the world with the voice of assurance which permits of no debate and will accept no recall, the Christianity that is summed up, is perfectly defined and holds inclusively all its splendor of doctrine in the three immense facts which its Gospel proclaims: The abolition of death, the gift of a new and spiritual life, and the guaranty to every believer of a resplendent immortality like unto his who sits on yonder throne-both eternal God and immortal man-Coming Bridegroom and Triumphant King. Let them preach this. Let them tell the guilty sinner that the blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ meets his case and can make the foulest clean; let them tell the slave-bound sinner that in a moment, in the flash of an eye glance, a risen Saviour can deliver him and set him free; let them tell the dying that death has lost its sting, and at death a convoy of heaven’s host shall bear him away from his home in this mortal body to be at home in heaven with his ascended Lord; let them cry above every Christian grave, louder than the sound of any falling tear: “Jesus is coming to raise your dead and change the living and clothe each saint with immortal beauty”; let them look abroad upon a world full of the storm of sin, the tumult of high passion and long rebellion against our God, and shout aloud that victory cometh in the end; that Christ is God as well as man; that the days of his glory are at hand, when the “God of the whole earth” shall he be called; and when all beneath a perfect heaven in a perfect world shall know him as Lord and God from the least to the greatest. Let them preach this, and with unbroken confidence repeat the exultant words of Holy Writ, the words which shall warrant all their speech, that “our Saviour Jesus Christ hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel”; and it will be this Gospel echoing forth with all the music of its joyful tidings that shall answer infallibly and beyond all dispute the question of the hour-“What is Christianity?” ======================================================================== CHAPTER 4: 01.03. THE BIBLE ======================================================================== The Bible THE WORD OF GOD “When ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of man, but as it is in truth, the word of God.” (1 Thessalonians 2:13.) THE Apostle here testifies that he believes himself to be the bearer of a revelation direct from God; that the words he speaks and the words he writes are not the words of man, but the Word of God, warm with his breath, filled with his thoughts, and stamped with his will. In this same epistle he writes: “For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord.” (1 Thessalonians 4:15.) The preposition “by” is the dative of investiture as well as means, and is Paul’s declaration that what he is writing to the Thessalonians are not his ideas, clothed in his own language, but ideas and thoughts whose investiture, whose very clothing, is no less than the word of the ascended Lord-he who is none other than the “Word of God.” Writing to the Corinthians he says: “Which things we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but (and grammar requires us to understand) in the words which the Holy Ghost teacheth.” (1 Corinthians 2:13.) According to Paul’s testimony, therefore, the fourteen epistles which he wrote to the churches are not letters written by a mortal man, giving expression to the ideas and thoughts of man, but are the very words of the infinite God, giving utterance by the Holy Ghost to the thoughts of God. An examination of the other epistles of the New Testament will show the same high and unqualified pretension. The apostles write (all of them) not as men who are giving an opinion of their own, but as men who know themselves under the domination of the Spirit, and as giving authoritative expression to the mind and will of God. Nor is this peculiar to the writers of the New Testament. Constantly, the writers of the Old Testament introduce their message with the tremendous sentence: “Thus saith the Lord.” Again and again they declare the Lord has spoken “by” them. David says: “The words of the Lord were in my tongue.” Jeremiah says the Word of the Lord came to him and the Lord said: “Take a roll of a book and write therein all the words that I have spoken to thee.” Then we are told that “Jeremiah called Baruch, the son of Neriah; and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord, which he had spoken unto him, upon a roll of a book.” After these words had been read to the princes of Israel, they asked Baruch, saying, “Tell us now, how didst thou write all these words at his mouth?” Then Baruch answered them, “He pronounced all these words unto me with his mouth, and I wrote them with ink in the book.” The process is clear enough. The Lord spake his words in Jeremiah. Jeremiah received the words direct from the Lord, dictated them word for word to Baruch, Baruch wrote them as they were pronounced in a book; and when written, the words were the written words of God. Ezekiel declares when the Lord commanded him to speak to the children of Israel, he said to him: “Speak with my words unto them.” Ezekiel not only speaks them, he writes them in the book of his prophecy. Ezekiel gives an account of how the Lord spake to him and inspired the book which bears his name. He says: “The Spirit entered into me when he spoke to me; . . . the spirit entered into me and spake with me.” The Spirit said unto him: “When I speak with thee, I will open thy mouth, and thou shalt say unto them, thus saith the Lord.” The Apostle Paul, speaking in commendation of Timothy because from a child he had known the Holy Scriptures (and by Holy Scriptures the Apostle meant the Old Testament from Genesis to Malachi-these were the Scriptures Timothy as well as every Jew knew as such), tells him that all Scripture (and of course any decent exegesis of the passage with its weight of context would recognize that the Apostle was referring to the Scriptures Timothy had known from childhood, the Scriptures as we have them to-day from Genesis to Malachi)-Paul tells Timothy in the most precise terms that all these writings are inspired of God. The Apostle Peter, corroboratively speaking of these very Scriptures of the Old Testament, says they came not “by the will of man, but holy men of old spake as they were moved (literally, carried along) by the Holy Ghost.” Thus, this book we call the Bible comes to us with the enormous and uncompromising claim that it is not a man-made book, but a book whose real and sole author is the living and eternal God. This claim stands face to face with human need. Here we are from birth to death, pilgrims on the highway of time, not knowing whence we come, nor whither we go. We need a guide to lead us, a light to shine when we stand at that parting of the ways-where eternity becomes the end of time. This book meets us and claims to be all that-a guide through time, a light to shine upon the road that leads to God and to be, in every line and accent, the inspired, incorruptible, infallible Word of God. How may we know it is all it claims to be? Never more than now did we need to know it. Voices in the air are crying that we have been deceived; that this book upon which our fathers pillowed their heads when at the end of life’s journey, they laid them down to die; this book we have held as a lamp to our feet and a light to our path is, after all, at its best, only the word of man and not the Word of God at all. Every now and then resounding blows are heard as they strike against the old foundation. Those who pretend to be working in the interest of the truth bid us stand aside, lest we and our hopes be buried in the impending ruin. We need to know at any cost whether this splendid and sustaining faith has deceived us; whether this book we have looked upon as holy and divine is nothing more than the word of man, spoken with his stammering tongue and written with his stumbling pen. We must know, and know for a certainty that will leave no peradventure to arise as a troubling after-ghost, whether this Bible is, as Paul says it is, in truth, the Word of God; and the question will insistently repeat itself: “How may we know the Bible is the Word of God?” The question need not make us tremble. The answers are at hand. The evidence is so great, its very wealth is an embarrassment. That evidence stated, detailed, analyzed and elaborated, would require-not a few pages-but whole libraries. One broad and general proposition may be laid down. It is this: The Bible is proved to BE the Word of God when it is shown to be NOT the word of man; and it is proved to be not the word of man when it is shown to be-not such a book as a man WOULD write if he COULD; nor such a book as a man COULD write if he WOULD. That it is not the word of man-not such a book as a man would write if he could, is made clear enough by the picture it paints of the natural man. This picture is so sharply drawn, the figures stand out in such living and apt delineation, that no one can mistake the import. According to the Bible, man came direct from the hand of God. God created him body, soul and spirit-a tripartite being. The soul was the person, the seat of appetite and passions. The spirit was the seat of the mind, the centre of reflection. Spirit and body were the distinct agents of the soul. The spirit, the agent to connect the soul with God-the body, the medium of the soul’s manifestation or materialization in this world, and the instrument for its use and enjoyment. The mind, seated in the spirit, was intended, under the influence of the spirit, to be the governor and regulator of the soul-enabling the soul rightly to use its appetite and legitimately to satisfy its passions. Thus organized, God set man up in the world to be his constitutional, moral, spiritual and governmental image-his likeness morally-his image (his representative) administratively. Man turned his back on God, listened to the appetite of his soul, and surrendered to the demands of sensual hunger. The soul, at once, sank down into the environment of the body. The mind sank down into the environment of the soul and became, henceforth, not a spiritual mind, but a mind “sensual,” “devilish,” a mind continually suggesting to the soul fresh and unlimited gratification of its desires. With the breakdown of soul and mind, the spirit lost its vital relationship to God, lost its function as a connecting link with, and a transmitter of, the mind and will of God; so that it could no longer enable man to know and understand God; and feeling the influence of the mind, instead of influencing it, followed it in its downward course into the environment of the soul. Out of this dislocation the soul came forth dominant over mind and spirit. Soul appetite and soul desires became supreme; the body, the willing and active agent thereof. From this period on, man was no longer a possible spiritual being, but a “natural” man. The word “natural” is “soulical.” In Scripture it is twice translated “sensual.” The much-used word “psychological” is a derivation of it. In the Bible sense of the word, a psychological person is just the opposite of a pneumatical or spiritual person. Man was now psychological, soulical, sensual. He had been transformed into a being no better than an intellectual animal, and the slave of his physical functions. Instead of being the master of his appetites, he was mastered by them. His passions intended, under right use, to be blessings, became curses; instead of angels, they became as demons. Instead of dwelling in the midst of his endowment in harmony with it and able to direct it, he found himself at its mercy, incessantly smitten by it and suffering his own equipment. Repudiating faith, walking by sight, talking of reason and governed by his senses, he threw himself open to invasion by the world, the flesh and the Devil. As a result of his fall, man has become a degenerate, full of the germs of evil, “every imagination of the thoughts of the heart only evil continually”-an incurable self-corrupter. In him there is not one thing that commends him to a holy God; and even should he succeed in living a life of perfect morality, his best righteousness in the sight of God would be no better than a bundle of filthy and contagious rags. There is no power within him by which he can change the essential character and determined trend of his life. Men do not gather grapes of thorns, nor figs of thistles. All the effort that the most devoted and laborious of men might give to the culture of a hedgerow of thorns would not succeed in producing one grape. Though men spent life and fortune in cultivating a field of thistles, they would not gather a single fig. No sooner (says the Bible) can the natural man bring forth the fruit of righteousness unto God. The Ethiopian may change his skin, the leopard his spots, before a natural man can change himself into a spiritual man. “The carnal mind is enmity with God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” “The natural man (the word ‘natural’ is ψυχικὸς, soulical) receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually (πνευμτικῶς, pneumatically) discerned.” “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” meaning thereby that God alone can sound the depths of its measureless capacity for sin and iniquity; therefore, he says: “I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins.” The end of man is to die. Such an end is not natural. It is unnatural. It is violent. It is penal. It is an appointed punishment: as it is written: “It is appointed unto men once to die.” “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed (literally, passed through, pierced man;” the seeds of death entered him for himself and all his posterity). When he dies, therefore, be he never so moral and upright, his death is judicial, his taking off is the execution of a criminal. He is to be raised from the dead as to his body (in the meantime, his soul is “dragged” downward to the prison of the underworld, where in conscious suffering he awaits the second resurrection and the judgment hour), he will be raised, judged, found guilty and cast forth into the lake of fire (which is the second death), from whence there will be no resurrection of the body (the body will perish in the fire-for an immortal body belongs only to the sons of God-the participants in the First Resurrection); then, as a disembodied spirit-a ghost-he will go forth with an inward, deathless worm, and an inward, quenchless fire, to be like “a wandering star unto whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever,” an exile from God, outside the orbit of divine grace, love and life-a hopeless, an eternally hopeless-human derelict, upon the measureless sea of night and space. That is the Bible picture of the natural man. Is that the picture the natural man paints of himself? I trow not! Man looks upon himself as a son of God by nature, having in himself all the elements of divinity, and all the forces necessary to shape his life aright. He is proud of himself, and talks of the dignity of human nature. He describes himself in panegyric, magnifies his virtue and minimizes his vice. He flatters himself in his own eyes. The two concepts-that of the Bible and that of the natural man-are as far apart from each other as the heavens are from the earth. To man, the Bible concept is false, belittling, wholly disastrous and degrading, the death knell to any possible inspiration for human effort and attainment. It is a concept against which he revolts with all the nature in him, and hates with an exceeding great hatred. In the very nature of the case, then, the Bible concept of man is not due to man; it is not such a concept that he would write if he could. The picture which the Bible paints of sin is not such a picture as the natural man has ever painted. The Bible declares that sin is something more than fever or disease or weakness, it is high treason against Jehovah, it is a blow at his integrity, a rebellion against his government, a discord to his being and a movement whose final tendency would be to dislodge him from his throne. The Bible hates sin and has no mercy for it. The very leaves of the book seem to curl and grow crisp under the fire of its hatred. So fearful is its denunciation that the sinner shivers and hastens to turn away from a book whose lightest denunciation of sin has in it the menace of eternal judgment. Like a great fiery eye it looks into the very recesses of the heart and reveals its intents and purposes. It sees lust hiding there in all its lecherous deformity and says, he who exercises it solely in his mind is as guilty in God’s sight as though he had committed the act. It looks into the heart and sees hate crouching there with its tiger-like fangs and readiness to spring, and says that he who hates his brother is already a murderer. The Bible has no forgiveness for sin until it has been fully and fearfully punished. In this it simply echoes the law stamped and steeped in nature. Nature never forgives its violated law until it has punished it. The Bible demands satisfaction, complete and absolute, before it offers even the hint of forgiveness. It takes the guilty sinner to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ and shows him God’s hatred of sin to be so great, that the moment his holy and spotless Son representatively takes the sinner’s place, he smites him and pours out upon him a tidal sweep of wrath in a terror of relentless judgment and indignation so immense, that the earth quivers like an aspen, rocks to and fro, reels in its orbit till the sun of day refuses to shine, and the moon of night hangs in the startled heavens like a great clot of human blood. The Bible declares that forgiveness of sin can come to the sinner only by way of the anguish and punishment of the cross; and that no sinner can be forgiven till he has accepted the downpour of the wrath of God on the cross and the substitutional agony of the Son of God as the punishment he himself so justly deserves. The Bible teaches that in the awful cry, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” the sinner should hear the echo of his own agony, as of one forsaken of God and swept out of his presence forever; and that the only ground of approach to this righteous God is the atoning blood of his crucified Son; that he who would approach God, find forgiveness and justification, must claim that crucified Son of God as his sin-offering, his vicarious sacrifice, his personal substitute. By the hell of the cross alone can he find the heaven of forgiveness and peace. Is this man’s attitude to, and definition of, forgiveness and peace? It is not. Man does not hate sin. He loves it. He rolls it as a sweet morsel under his tongue. He condones it in its worst form. To him it is genital weakness or an overplus of animal life-an exuberance of the spirit. It is a racial inheritance and not an individual fault. It is temperamental and not criminal. The Bible concept and the natural concept of sin contradict each other; both, therefore, cannot have the same author. The Bible concept of holiness is not the concept of the natural man. In the Bible, holiness is not goodness and kindness, nor even morality. Holiness as the Bible sets it before us is the correspondence of the soul with God, the soul reflecting the intent, desire and innermost character of God; so that, were God to enter into the soul, he should find himself as much at home as upon his own exalted throne. Such a definition as that makes human perfection and all its claims to holiness seem no better than a painted wanton dressed in the garb of purity and mouthing the words of virtue and chastity. Whence comes this wisdom of holiness which makes the loftiest ideal of man no higher than the dust of the roadway, his best righteousness criticizable goodness and altogether a negligible quantity? If it is from man, it must arise from two sources-human experience or human imagination. It cannot come from human experience! no natural man in the past has experienced it-none today experience it. It cannot come from imagination; for a man cannot imagine what he has not seen, known or experienced. As he has not experienced holiness he cannot imagine it. In the nature of the case-the Bible concept of holiness did not originate with man, and that much of the Bible, evidently, is not of man. That the Bible is not the word of man is shown by its statements of accurate science, written before men became scientific, and while as yet natural science did not exist. The record of creation is given in the opening verses of Genesis. Whence came the wisdom which enabled the writer in a pre-scientific age to set forth a cosmogony in such a fashion that it does not contradict the latest findings of the geologist? The Bible says the earth was without form and void. Science says the same thing. Over a hot granite crust, an ocean of fire, and beyond that an impenetrable atmosphere loaded with carbonic acid gas. Cuvier, the founder of paleontology, says in his discourse on the revolutions of the globe, “Moses has left us a cosmogony, the exactitude of which is most wonderfully confirmed every day.” Quensted says, “Moses was a great geologist, wherever he may have obtained his knowledge.” Again he says, “The venerable Moses, who makes the plants appear first, has not yet been proven at fault; for there are marine plants in the very lowest deposit.” Dana, of Yale College, has said that the record of creation given by Moses and that written in the rocks are the same in all general features. Whence came the wisdom which kept Moses from hopelessly blundering? Moses places the account of the original creation in the first verse. In the second, he states the earth fell into chaos. “It became (not was) without form, and void.” Isaiah, the prophet, declares definitely that God did not create the earth without form and void-God never was the author of chaos-he made the earth habitable from the beginning. The first verse of Genesis records the creation of this original and habitable earth. The second verse shows, as the result of some mighty cataclysm, that the original earth fell into a state of chaos. The second verse, and the verses following, are the record of the making over of the earth after it had fallen into a state of chaos. Whence the wisdom which taught Moses what science in our day is only beginning to spell out, that the present earth is not an original creation, but a remaking; that the original creation goes back beyond the time of shifted crust, of tilted rock, of ice and fire and mist and formless chaos? Whence came the wisdom and knowledge which led Job to say that it is impossible to count the stars for number, when it was possible in his day, and is equally possible in our day, to count them with the naked eye? How did he know, what the telescope alone reveals, that the number of the stars as flashed forth in the field of these telescopes is utterly beyond our computation; and that in the attempt to number them, figures break, fall into dust, and are swept away as the chaff of the summer’s threshing floor. How did he, looking up with that naked eye of his, how did he know that in the Milky Way there are countless thousands of suns-and these the centres of other systems? How did he know that world-on-world ranges in the upper spaces of the silent sky, so multitudinously that each increase of the power of the telescope only adds unaccountable myriads until, looking from the rim of those nightly searchers, the eye beholds reach on reach of luminous clouds, and learns with awe profound, that these clouds are stars, are suns and systems-but so far away from us and from one another that they cannot be separated and distinguished by the most powerful glasses; and that these clouds, if we really could separate them and bring them within the field of our particular vision, would reveal themselves as suns and systems so numerous, that only, the Creator himself could number them? How did Job know all this in that far day when he sat at his tent door in the beauty of the cloudless sky and without a telescope? How did he know all this so that he could tell us with absolute certainty what we now know only by the aid of modern science-that the stars cannot be counted for number? How did he know what only the modern telescope reveals, that the North is stretched out over the empty place? How did he know that there in the Northern sky there is a space where no star does shine-a dark abyss of fathomless night-as if, suddenly, the universe of worlds had come to an end? How did he know, at the moment when the wise men of his day were saying that the earth was supported on the shoulders of a giant, that the giant stood on a platform made of the backs of elephants; that the elephants stood on the back of a mighty tortoise, but where the tortoise stood none of them said; how did he dare at that time to write that God hangeth the earth on nothing? How did Isaiah know that the world is round? How did he learn to speak of “the circle of the earth,” at the time when the scientific men of his day said that it was four square and flat? How did he know of that imponderable ether in which the stellar universe is said to float? Who taught him to say that God spread out the heavens as “thinness,” when the wise men of that hour were teaching they were a solid vault? How is it that he made use of the most scientific term when he speaks of the heavens as “thinness”? It is true in our English version he is made to say that God spread out the heavens as a “tent”; but the word “tent” in the Hebrew is דּק (dôq) and its root meaning signifies a thing that has been beaten out or stretched into thinness-an elastic thinness; it is a word accurately describing the ether which scientific men tell us is so thin that a teacup full of it may be blown out into a transparent bubble as large as the earth, and, even then, its attenuation would seem no greater than at the beginning. How did Isaiah know all this? Evidently his knowledge and wisdom did not come from the knowledge and wisdom of his day. That the Bible did not come from man is seen in the fact of fulfilled prohpecy. Page after page of this book is filled with prophetic announcements. History and human experience record their amazing fulfilment. The prophet Daniel gives the history of four great world empires, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome. The rise and fall of these empires are foretold centuries ahead. The total ruin and perpetual desolation of Babylon were announced when the city shone forth in the zenith of its splendor. Daniel writes an account of Alexander the Great two hundred and fifty years before he is born, calls him the first king of Greece, describes his march for the conquest of the East, the battle of the Grannicus, his sudden death at Babylon, and the division of the empire among his four generals. At the hour when Rome was practically passing through her travail pains of national birth, Daniel foretold its ascension to power, and described it as a wild beast, trampling down the nations, absorbing into itself the three kingdoms which preceded it, occupying the territory once possessed by them, and becoming the supreme governmental power of the earth. Centuries before it took place he foretold the division of the Roman Empire into two equal parts. He announced, also, that it should be the last universal political power till Christ the Lord should come to set up his worldwide kingdom. Centuries have passed since Rome ruled the world. From that day to this it has remained the last supreme world-power. The territory once ruled by it is filled with mighty nations-not one of them, great as it may be, is a universal world-power. Where did Daniel get the foresight which enabled him to look on down through two thousand years of human history and, in the face of battle, intrigue and change, declare, what so far has come to pass, that Rome should be the last universal empire till Christ came? Ezekiel, the prophet, said that the great and populous city of Tyre should be taken, cast down, and never rebuilt; and that the Lord would make it to be like the top of a scraped rock to spread nets upon. The city was taken and destroyed. The people moved to an island just off the mainland and there built a new city. Two hundred and fifty years after Ezekiel made his prophecy, Alexander came, besieged the new city; and, in order to take it, built a causeway from the mainland. In doing this he tore down and utterly demolished the ruins of the old city; took its stones and timber and cast them into the sea; and then, actually, set his soldiers to work to scrape the very dust that he might empty it into the waters. From the hour when it was overthrown to this, the city has never been rebuilt; and for centuries it has been, and is to-day, like the top of a scraped rock-a place where fishermen spread their nets. Where did Ezekiel get this knowledge? Certainly not from man. It will not do to say he guessed it! Egypt was a land of cities and temples. The cities were populous, the temples and monuments colossal. Avenues of gigantic sphynx led to gateways whose immense thresholds opened into pillared halls, where the carved columns seemed like a forest of stone. Pyramids rose as mountains, and their alabaster-covered sides flashed back the splendor of the cloudless skies. The land bloomed as a garden. The papyrus grew by the banks of the Nile. The fisheries of the mighty river filled the treasury of kings with a ceaseless income. Art, literature, knowledge and culture were enthroned supreme-yet was it a land of false gods and a people given over to their worship. Speaking in the name of God the prophet announced the coming desolation of Egypt. It should be cast down. Its fisheries should be destroyed, its papyrus withered, its cities and temples overthrown and the ruins scattered over the plain, no native prince should ever again sit upon its throne, it should become the basest of kingdoms. It has become such. Its cities are destroyed. Its temples are roofless, its columns fallen, the statues of its kings lie face downward in the dust, the pyramids, stripped and bare, stand scarred and silent in the sun. The singing Memnon are as songless from their chiselled lips as the tongueless Sphynx half buried in the yellow sand. The fisheries are gone, the papyrus has withered; for centuries no native prince has been seated on the throne. It is a land of the dead. The dead are everywhere. At every step you stumble over a mummy, the mummy of a dead cat, a dead dog, or a dead and shrivelled Pharaoh. Its greatest asset is its departed glory, and every grain of sand blown from the mighty desert, and every wave of reflected light flung back from the Lybian hills, proclaims the terrific fulfilment of the prophet’s words. The prophets foretold the final siege and destruction of Jerusalem. It should be trodden down of the Gentiles. The people should be carried away captive and sold into all lands. They should be scattered from one end of the earth to the other. All nations should despise them. They should become a by-word, a hissing and a scorn. They should be hunted, hounded and persecuted. Their sufferings should be unparalleled, horrible, unspeakable. The sound of a shaken leaf should startle them. They were to become the people of the trembling heart and the wandering foot. The prophecies have been singularly fulfilled. Jerusalem was besieged by the Romans. The city was taken. The city and temple were destroyed. Hundreds of thousands perished by famine, by fever, by fire and by sword. Titus, the Roman conqueror, drove a ploughshare over its smoking ruins. The people who remained alive after the general slaughter were carried away captive. They were scattered from one end of the earth to the other. They have found their dwelling place among all nations. They dwell everywhere and are at home nowhere. They have been a by-word, a hissing and a scorn. Every hand has been turned against them. They have been hunted on the mountains. They have been chased through the valleys. They have been walled up in the narrow and filthy ghettos of cities. Their goods have been stolen. Their wives and daughters have been ravished. They have been whipped and racked and tortured. They have been broken on the wheel, burned at the stake, buried alive, and sent to sea, thousands of them, in sinking ships. Every cruelty that the ingenuity of man and the inspiration of fiends could suggest has been practised upon them, until the heart revolts and the soul sickens at the mere recital of their blood and woe; and to this hour, through twenty long centuries, Jerusalem, as announced, has been trodden down of the Gentiles; all nations have tramped through her streets, overridden her people and torn down her walls. The prophets said God would make a full end of the nation which persecuted them; but he would not make a full end of them, he would preserve and multiply them. The promises have been kept. Rome has become a past tense. With thoughtful steps we pause amid her ruins, painfully locate the palace of her kings, the arenas of her pleasure, the abodes of her vice; on fallen column or broken tablet, we read the story of her past victories, her mighty conquests, and standing beneath a crumbling triumphal arch, gaze on the sculptured figures of Jewish captives who once followed in an emperor’s triumphal train, more enduring to-day with their stony faces than the ruined city which lies prostrate at their feet; for while Rome has passed away, the Jew still lives, he has been preserved and has multiplied. The Jews to-day number twelve millions of people; and these represent but two tribes out of the twelve; so that the two are four times as numerous as the whole nation when it came out of Egypt under Moses. Their vitality is phenomenal-it is miraculous-their multiplication is against all the laws and precedents of history. Persecution and trial have but increased their fecundity. Like the burning bush ever burning but never consumed, they continue to exist; and when you draw nigh and consider their strange story, out of the midst, as of old out of the bush, the voice of him who is the “I am, that I am” is heard saying-“These are my disobedient but covenant people, whom I have sworn shall be to me as the ‘apple of mine eye’”; saying, “Whosoever toucheth them toucheth me.” It was foretold that in the closing hours of this age and as a prelude to their final restoration, they should bud and blossom and fill the face of the whole world with fruit. If to-day you seek a representative person in every department of human genius and achievement, you will find that representative in a Jew. The Bible testifies, and testified it centuries ago, that in the closing hours of this age, the Jews should turn their faces towards Palestine and ask (or plead) their way to Zion. The prophecy has been, and is being, fulfilled to the letter. The faces of thousands of Jews are being turned towards Palestine; thousands of Jews are asking how is it possible to return to Zion. Zionism has passed from the realm of dreams to the solid ground of fact. Everywhere over the earth societies are formed among the Jews to emphasize the return to Zion and the setting up of the Jewish State. It was further foretold that many should return thither in radical unbelief and open materialism; that at the entering in of the gates of Jerusalem land should be bought and sold and speculation become rife. To-day there are more Jews in Palestine than at any time since the return from Babylon. Land is bought and sold at the gates of the city, and speculation in real estate values is running high. There is the hum of expectation in the sacred city. Palestine is being colonized by Jews. The Turkish government has taken off the ban, the Jew is owned as a citizen and may become a representative in its administration. The deserted cities are being occupied. Millions of Mulberry trees are being planted, the desert and the waste places cultivated. The lowing of cattle and the bleating of sheep are heard once more. In Jerusalem, the wailing place of the Jews is more crowded than ever. The penitential psalms are recited, tears are shed and the cry goes up with keener lamentation that the city, beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, has become the prey of the Gentiles; that the walls are broken down, the holy places laid waste, “our holy and beautiful house,” they cry, “where our fathers praised thee, is burned up with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste. Wilt thou refrain thyself for these things, O Lord? Wilt thou hold thy peace, and afflict us very sore?” And the prayer ascends with ever-increasing supplication that Jehovah will again make bare his arm in the sight of the Gentiles, build up the place of the holy assemblies, beautify Jerusalem and establish his people. Synagogues are built within the shadow of the sacred rock, the one-time threshing floor of Ornan, which David bought and whereon the holy temple stood. The latter as well as the former rains are falling. Everywhere it is evident that the land is reviving, and the thought of Judah as a kingdom and power among nations, finding utterance on the lips-both of Gentile and Jew. And all this activity and Zionward movement taking place with the Jew in a condition of spiritual blindness, unbelief and godless materialism-as foretold. The very leaders of Zionism (some of them) the most outspoken in their repudiation of our Lord Jesus Christ as Messiah of Israel. The Bible foretold that the Jews as a people would never receive the Gospel: “As concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sakes” (the Gentiles). On the other hand, it was announced that the Gentiles, who despise the Jews, should receive the Gospel, accept a rejected and crucified Jew as Israel’s king, and own and acknowledge him as the redeemer and saviour provided for themselves. This prophecy has been fulfilled. For nineteen hundred years the Jew-as a Jew-has steadily rejected a crucified Christ. Here and there an individual, paying the penalty of scorn and contumely from his own people, has believed the Gospel and owned the crucified and despised man of Nazareth as his very Lord and God. He has done so according to that election of grace which the Bible foretells (an elect remnant is seen through all the ages, under one dispensation or another, responding to the call of God-like the seven thousand who would not bow the knee to Baal; and belonging to that election of grace the believing Jew stands out marked and sealed of God) but the Jew as a nation with unbroken solidarity refuses to-day the only Jew who can establish him in the land of his fathers and fulfil the covenant promises. Equally fulfilled is the other side of the prophecy. The Gentiles, who, racially considered, despise the Jew and everything of the Jew, to-day own and accept this rejected and crucified Jew of Calvary, not only as Israel’s Messiah and king, but as the redeemer and saviour provided of God for Gentiles; so that the Gentile world now worships and adores him as very God, holding up the cross of his shame and death as the symbol of highest honor and most radiant glory. The Bible has predicted the final characteristics of the present age in terms precise and clear. By type, figure and direct prophecy it announces that the last form of government among the nations just previous to the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ will be democracy-the rule of the people: “The government of the people, by the people, and for the people.” That prophecy practically has been fulfilled. Democracy is, nearly, the universal mode of government. England in some respects is more democratic than the United States. France, Portugal and Switzerland are republics. Spain, Italy and Greece are constitutional monarchies; that is to say, the people are recognized as the ultimate authority. The Northern nations, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Holland and Belgium, are liberal kingdoms. The monarchy is simply a fashion-the people are the rulers. Germany is a military nation. The Kaiser, speaking at times as the war lord, gives the impression that he is absolute emperor. He is far from it. The socialists count their votes by millions, and while the German people accept the empire, they do so because it is the most satisfactory agent for their business and prosperity. The German people behind the throne are the absolute power; and the voice of democracy makes no more radical utterance and demand than in the German kaiserreich. Recently, in a public interview, the Kaiser is reported to have said, he expected his son to be the last emperor of Germany, as within fifty years the whole world would become democratic. Austria is still more or less under the influence of Cæsarism, but beneath the surface, the various peoples and nationalities constituting that empire are restless, feverish, and full of democratic ideas. Turkey has been shaken by a revolt of “The Young Turks,” and the demand for more popular government. Japan has broken loose from the customs and traditions of centuries-her flag is the symbol of the rising sun, and indicates that she is seeking to take her place in the new dawn of popular sovereignty. China, the oldest civilization and the mightiest population, has become a republic, her young men returning from the universities of Europe and America having sown broadcast the seed of democracy and the claim of the people. Russia, alone, remains absolute in name, but the absolute has been shattered even there-it is supported only by bayonets and drawn swords. Every now and then a sullen sound is heard, dying away to be renewed in deeper tones; it is the voice of the people, in spite of the knout, the prison and Siberian exile, calling for what they claim to be their “rights.” Everywhere the evidence is manifest that the prophecy of Daniel announcing the rise of the “clay” (Daniel’s symbol of the people) and the warning of Isaiah that “the nations should rush like the rushing of many waters,” and “make a noise like the noise of the seas,” are being fulfilled. After “Clay,” or Democracy, there remains only anarchy, or power in the hands of an absolute ruler. That absolute, world-wide ruler is declared by all the prophets to be the Son of God, and his kingdom is symbolized by a stone-a stone is the very opposite of clay. THE CLAY IS HERE! Centuries ago the Bible declared that in the closing hours of this age the whole world would be under arms, preparing for a gigantic and final war; that each nation would turn itself into a vast army, and that the whole earth would become a military camp and field of manœuvre. This prophecy is being fulfilled. A universal preparation for war is going on with maddening haste. Nations are seeking to outdo each other in their colossal preparation for the approaching strife. Armies are no longer mere levies or hired cohorts, every man in the nation capable of bearing arms or in any wise doing military duty is enrolled, and must take his place as a soldier. During the summer immense armies move out of their barracks and play seriously the game of war. Each nation has its field manœuvres and theme of attack and defence. On every side is heard the tramp of marching feet, the sound of bugle call, the rumble of artillery, the sharp word of command. Nations are vying with each other in the endeavor to cover the sea with the swiftest and most powerful battleships. Millions are being put into guns and ammunition. The money of the people is being poured out like water to obtain war material. Forges and foundries are working to turn out the most destructive implements. The arsenals are being gorged with cannon, with shot and shell. Enormous sums of money in gold are stored away in impregnable fortresses that, as the sinew of war, it may be ready to respond at a moment’s notice. Never before in the history of the world has there been such a spectacle. On land and sea men are silently, ceaselessly preparing for the irrepressible and impending conflict. Each nation feels its existence is at stake; not a thinking statesman who does not feel assured that, sooner or later, the clash will come. All feel it will be fierce, titanic, fateful and final. The Bible foretold the great apostasy as manifested in the Roman Catholic Church, the rise of Protestantism, its ultimate breakdown in rationalism and open infidelity (that condition of which it should be said, “they will not endure sound doctrine”). It foretold the rising again of Romanism into the place of power and authority (as we see it to-day in the United States, where it holds the balance of political power and is fast becoming a social triumph). Who would have had the hardihood to prophesy in the hour when Protestantism was delivering its terrible blows against Romanism, overturning the tables of the priests, who sold their infamous wares of papal indulgences, breaking idols and images in the churches, and driving the church of the priesthood, the mass and auricular confession swiftly downwards to the waters of the Mediterranean and, while it was repudiating this apostate church (which set up saints and images in the place of the Son of God, exalted works of merit instead of the cleansing power of the blood) continually cried aloud the glorious doctrine of justification by faith, and whose supreme watchword was-“The Bible and nothing but the Bible”; who, under such conditions as these, would have had the courage to proclaim that in the closing hours of this age, this aggressive and biblical Protestantism should break up by self-division, become fragmentary, its leading thinkers and teachers repudiating the Bible as the infallible Word of God? Who would have dared to say that Rome would come back, ascend into the place of authority, sit upon the throne of the world’s respect and receive its honors? Who would have said that this church which has set itself up above the Bible, claimed the right to change times and seasons in defiance of a “thus saith the Lord,” and has burned men at the stake for their love and devotion to this very Bible, should, at the last, by reason of the infidelity of Protestantism, its recognition of divorce and its indifference to a “thus saith the Lord,” come forth as the defender of the Bible, the champion of the home and the guardian of the sacredness of marriage, concentrating all its thunders against the shame and indecency of divorce? Yet these prophecies are written on page after page of this book, and their complete and amazing fulfilment looks us in the face. What a picture is painted for us in the words that follow: “This know, also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.” “The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine: but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned to fables.” It is a picture which finds its counterpart in the Protestantism of to-day-a Protestantism full of worldliness, having a form of godliness, a great religious profession, but denying its only power (the Holy Ghost), repudiating doctrine and listening to every fable of rationalistic philosophy sooner than to the truth of God. In the letter to the church at Thyatira it is written: “That woman Jezebel which calleth herself a prophetess (a teacher) to teach and seduce my servants to commit fornication (fornication in the book of Revelation signifies idolatry-image worship and, also, union with the principles and ways of the world) and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.” Jezebel was the Pagan wife of Ahab, king of Israel. Jezebel stands for the union of Paganism and Judaism. But Jezebel here represents a professed church of Christ. In Jezebel, therefore, you have a professed church of Christ in which there is a combination of Paganism and Judaism. This symbolic Jezebel teaches the servants of Christ to commit fornication-that is, not only identification with the world, but idolatry (image worship). In its full detail, then, we have a professed church of Christ in which may be found a mixture of Paganism and Judaism. A church where the professed followers of Christ are taught to worship by means of images. Could you find a better, more accurate delineation of the apostate Church of Rome-a Church which borrows the priesthood of Judaism and the idolatry and image worship of Paganism? In this book of the Revelation there is still another picture. In the seventeenth chapter a woman is seen seated upon a scarlet colored beast. She is arrayed in purple and scarlet. She is decked with precious stones and pearls, and in her hand holds a golden cup full of the abomination and filthiness of her fornication (idolatry). She is seen to be drunken with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. The woman is, also, said to be seated on seven mountains and is, finally, spoken of as that great city which rules over the kings (nations) of the earth. The woman is called “MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” In the twenty-fifth chapter of the book, the BRIDE OF THE LAMB, the true church of Christ, is symbolized by a city-THE NEW JERUSALEM. Babylon and Jerusalem stand always opposed to each other. Babylon is the centre of Satanic power and testimony-its name signifies mixture, confusion. Jerusalem is the centre of God’s dealings and testimony-it signifies peace and righteousness. If, therefore, the city of New Jerusalem is a symbol of the true church of Christ and the church of Christ is called a “mystery,” then this woman called Babylon, said to be a City and also called a “mystery,” is a symbol of the false church of Christ; and, being a harlot, and the mother of harlots, or churches like herself (and thus the Mother Church), and harlot signifying fornication, and fornication, idolatry-image worship-then a professed Church of Christ, which teaches and practises image worship. The great city ruling over the kings of the earth in John’s day and situated on seven mountains, or “mounts,” is ROME; as the city represents the woman Babylon who is the symbol of the false Church of Christ, then you have a false church of Christ seated (and remember, the word is “seated”) in Rome. A Church seated in Rome is a Roman Church; and as the city rules over the earth, over the world; and a world-wide rule is a universal rule; and the word for universal, worldwide, is, also, “catholic,” you have a catholic church; and, seated in Rome (Rome its capital centre), THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. This Church is said to be drunken with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus; and the pages of history glued together with the blood of these same martyrs, and the burning, blistering record of the “Holy Inquisition,” affirm that the astounding picture is true in all its crimson and scarlet details. But the striking feature in the picture, and the one that is first presented to us, is that the woman (the Church) is carried by a beast. This beast is a symbol of government and teaches that the Church “rules” over the governments of the world, is sustained by the State, has attained to “temporal power.” As the picture occurs in the third division of the book, and that division relates to things still future, we have here a distinct prophecy that this Apostate Roman Church shall again attain to temporal power, become a State Church, supported and carried officially by the nations of the earth. The exactitude with which the picture has been painted, and that, too, at a time when Rome had not yet come into the place of full-blown apostasy and power; the startling way in which, step by step, the prophetic outlines have been fulfilled even in our day, are tremendously suggestive concerning the possibility of its complete and final fulfilment; and bid us ask most earnestly-whence came the mental eyesight which enabled the writer of the book to sketch out for us centuries ahead of time, that which the page of after history reveals to us as facts? The social, financial, governmental, religious and moral condition of the present time have been portrayed in the book we call the Bible. The coming of a special class called “rich” men as a particular characteristic of this age, the revolt of labor, and its cry against the wrongs of capital, were all set forth in the epistle of James, nigh two thousand years ago, with an accuracy that is not to be explained on natural grounds. So absolutely unnatural is it, that it is perfectly safe to say-these things are not such as a man could write if he would. That the book is not to be explained on natural grounds is evident from the fact that it is not a CONSTRUCTION, but a GROWTH; not an ORGANIZATION, but an ORGANISM, growing up from Genesis to Revelation like a tree from root through trunk and branch to leaf and fruit. Each book of the Bible will be found on examination to stand related organically to one another; and that each occupies its necessary and sequential order. In Genesis, you have the beginning of things, the germ and outline of everything afterwards revealed. Exodus gives the redemption by blood of a people foreseen and covenanted in Genesis, their deliverance by the hand of God from the power of the king and the dangers of the land. In Leviticus, the redeemed people draw nigh to God by virtue of the blood of sacrifice and find access to the presence of God through the intercession of a priest. In Numbers, this blood-redeemed people are seen on their journey to the better land; we read of their trials, their temptations, their unbelief, their backslidings and continual moral failure by the way, and the never-failing grace and love of a covenant-keeping God who leads them in a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night. In Deuteronomy, the people have the way over which they have come, and the dealings of God, rehearsed to them, and are instructed and prepared for the land whither they go. In Joshua, the second generation (which stands always for regeneration) gets into the promised land. Judges tells how, after being blessed with all covenant blessings in the covenant land, the people fell into a state where every man did that which was right “in his own eyes.” Ruth, the Gentile woman, becomes the bride of a Hebrew Lord; and the covenant promise of God concerning Israel goes straightway down from a Gentile mother and a Hebrew father towards the throne which is set up in David and owned of God as the throne of Christ. The books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles, take up the story of the kingdom, and the Old Testament leads us on through symbol, figure and open prophecy, to a Coming Messiah and a glorious kingdom till, when we reach the last verse in Malachi, we lean across four centuries of prophetic silence, waiting to greet that promised Christ who shall be born in Bethlehem; and who is to be called the Son of the Highest; who is to sit on the throne of his father David, “to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice, from henceforth even forever.” We listen for the angelic song and the salutation to men of good will; and we are expecting, later on, to see Zion’s king riding up the slopes to the Holy City and all the people coming forth to cry, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” and “Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” When you open the New Testament you find four books-Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The order of these books is fixed-it cannot be changed. If Mark be substituted for Matthew, then the New Testament begins without an account of the birth or genealogy of our Lord Jesus Christ; no intimation is given that he is born king of the Jews, and is the expected Messiah. If Luke be given the place of Matthew, little mention will be found of the Jewish kingdom of heaven; and our Lord will be seen with a leaning towards the Gentiles. If the Gospel of John begin the New Testament instead of Matthew, then we shall read of him who is Son of God rather than King of the Jews, and the expectation raised by Malachi will seem unfulfilled. But the moment the order named is followed all is perfect, all is harmony. Matthew presents our Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of Abraham and Son of David; heir of the covenant land, and the covenant throne, and at once links the New Testament with the Old. Mark announces that this King of the Jews came into the world to be the Servant of God and a blessing in his service to men. Luke, although he announces our Lord Jesus Christ as King, sets him forth pre-eminently as The Man, going among men, eating and drinking with them, and speaking in such plain and simple terms that the “common people heard him gladly.” In John, this Jewish King, this Servant of God and men, this Man among men, who received sinners and ate with them, is revealed as the Mighty God, the eternal Word, the Holy One of Israel, who came down to visit his people, was made flesh and “tabernacled” among them, as of old he dwelt in the tabernacle of the wilderness in the Shekinal glory above the Mercy Seat and between the outstretched wings of the golden Cherubim. Take away the book of Acts, and nothing can be known of the origin of the church and its apostolic history. Without the book of Acts the epistles are wholly unintelligible when they refer to the Church. Do without the Second epistle to the Corinthians, and you have no revelation of the state of the Christian dead either as to their location or condition. Without the Second epistle to the Thessalonians you cannot fix the identity of the Antichrist. Leave out the epistle to the Hebrews and there is no key to Leviticus. Without the book of Daniel it is impossible fully to understand the book of Revelation. No matter at what period the book of Revelation may have been written, it can have but one place in the Bible, and that the last. It must have this place because it shows us the foreview of Genesis fulfilled: the seed of the woman has bruised the serpent’s head, Satan has been bound and Paradise is regained. The Old and New Testaments stand related to each other as the two halves of a perfect whole. In the Old Testament the New is concealed; in the New Testament the Old is revealed. Genesis finds its key in the first chapter of John’s Gospel, and identifies the creator of heaven and earth with him who was made flesh and dwelt among us as the Son of God. Exodus is explained by the First epistle to the Corinthians, in which we learn that “Christ” is the “Passover sacrificed for us.” Leviticus is expounded by the epistle to the Hebrews. Numbers has its correspondence in the book of Acts. In Numbers you have the experience of the Children of Israel in their journey through the wilderness. In Acts we get the story of the Church in its pilgrimage through the world. Deuteronomy is to be read with Colossians. In Deuteronomy the people of Israel are being prepared for an earthly inheritance. In Colossians the Church is being prepared for a heavenly inheritance. Joshua stands over against Ephesians. In Joshua the redeemed people have to fight with flesh and blood in order to possess the covenant land. In Ephesians “we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against wicked spirits in the heavenly places.” Judges may be understood by reading the first chapter of the first epistle, and the twelfth chapter of the second epistle to the Corinthians. The book of Ruth is illuminated by the third and fifth chapters of the Ephesians. In Ruth you have the Gentile bride of a Hebrew Lord, the kinsman, redeemer and advocate; who presents his bride to himself in the gate before all the assembled judges. In Ephesians, the Gentile Bride is seen to be the Church, the kinsman, redeemer and advocate, our Lord Jesus Christ, who, having loved the Church and given himself for it, will “present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing.” The books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles, may be read with the four Gospels and the book of Revelation. In Samuel, Kings and Chronicles, you have the story of David, the anointed king, man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, triumphant warrior, exalted king-Solomon, prince of peace, ruling over the established kingdom and the queen of Sheba coming from the uttermost parts of the earth to own and celebrate his glory. In the Gospels we get the story of our Lord Jesus Christ as anointed king and man of sorrows. In Revelation he is seen coming forth at the head of the armies of heaven, a mighty warrior, a triumphant king and, at the last, as Prince of Peace ruling in splendor over his established kingdom; while the Gentiles, coming from the uttermost parts of the earth to Jerusalem, bow the knee before him and acknowledge his glory. Ezra may be read with the latter half of the second chapter of the Ephesians. In Ezra you have the building of the material temple. In Ephesus the building of the spiritual temple. Nehemiah can be read with the twenty-first chapter of the Revelation. Nehemiah gives us Jerusalem below. Revelation, Jerusalem above. In the book of Esther the name of God is not once mentioned; but it shows us the unseen God acting in his secret providence to deliver his covenant people, the Jews, from the hand of the Gentile oppressor, and setting them in the place of authority and power over the Gentiles. The eleventh chapter of the Romans explains the book of Esther. In the eleventh chapter Paul shows that God has not forgotten the people whom he foreknew. The nation as such has been set aside. It is now, as Hosea says, Lo Ammi, “not my people,” not the people of God. An election according to grace is going on among the Jews. These are being called into the Church and will form a part of the Body and Bride. The Gentiles have come dispensationally into the place of Israel, and God is sending his Gospel among them-calling out those whom he has foreseen and known among the Gentiles. The nation as such would seem to be cast aside. The people are walking in darkness and the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their true God and only Saviour, is not owned among them; but while the Lord is thus denied by them, he has not forgotten them. His providences are round about them in their preservation and multiplication, and in his judgment of the nations which persecute them. Their present condition nationally is temporary. Paul warns the Gentiles that the Jews have been cut off and set aside because of unbelief. The Gentiles have been brought in, and stand alone by faith. It is well for them not to be “high-minded,” but “to fear”; for so surely as God spared not the nation and set it aside because of unbelief, just so surely will he deal with the Gentiles if the Gentiles fall into unbelief. The Gentiles must not be wise in their own conceits. The blindness and the setting aside of Israel will last only till the “fulness of the Gentiles be come in,” that is, till the election among them is complete; then the Lord will take up Israel as a nation again, and precisely as he delivered Mordecai and the Jews of Esther’s and Ahasuerus’ time and made them to be accepted and feared, so, it is written, the Lord himself will come forth in behalf of his ancient people. “There shall come out of (unto) Sion the Deliverer,” and, “so all Israel shall be saved.” The book of Esther read in the light of the eleventh chapter of the Romans is illuminating as to the unchanging faithfulness of God and his unceasing love for the nation and people of his choice. Thus book after book of the Bible may be studied; and the more they are examined and studied, the more manifest will be the intimate relation and marvellous correspondence between the Old and the New Testaments. When you realize the fact that these Old and New Testament books, so remarkably related and inter-explanatory of each other, have been written by different authors, without possibility of collusion or agreed plan; that each part fits into the other; that it cannot have one book less or one book more; that to take from it would destroy the completeness, to add would mar the harmony; that it is perfect in itself, having the key of each book hung up at the entrance; that it gives but never borrows light; that it cannot be explained or interpreted outside of itself; that to him who diligently searches it, it will reveal itself and make him wise both for this world and for that which is to come; when all these facts are faced, it ought to be evident that in the Bible we have a living thing and not a mere handiwork wrought by man; that man can no more claim to be the actual author of it than of the mountains that are round about Jerusalem or the heavens that are high above them. The unity of a book demands unity of objective. This book has a great objective-a supreme theme. That theme is not Israel-although two-thirds of the book considered as a whole are taken up with the history of that people. The great theme is not the Church of Christ-although the Church in this age is the supreme thing in the sight of God. The one great theme, the one immense objective of this book towards which it moves through history and prophecy, through figure and symbol, through self-sustained prose and musical song-the one great objective is- OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. It seeks to present him in his person, his work, his present office and coming glories. It sets him before us as, The Child born. The Son given. The Counsellor. The Mighty God. The Prince of Peace. The Everlasting Father. The Lily of the valleys. The Rose of Sharon. The Branch. The Lord our Righteousness. The Lord’s Fellow. The Man of God’s Right hand. He whose Goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. The Burnt Offering. The Meat Offering. The Peace Offering. The Sin Offering. The Trespass Offering. The Sum of God’s Thoughts. The Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief. Son of Abraham. Son of David. Son of Mary. Son of Man. God the Son. King of the Jews. King of Israel. King of Kings. Lord of Lords. God the Creator. God manifest in the flesh. The Second Man. The Last Adam. The First and the Last. The Beginning and the Ending. The Way, the Truth, the Life. The Light of the world. The Bread of life. The Good Shepherd, who lays down his life for the sheep. The Great Shepherd who came again from the dead. The Chief Shepherd, who shall appear with his flock in glory. The Sin-bearer. The Rock. Our Great God and Saviour Jesus Christ. He who is. He who was. He who is to come. He who before Abraham was, is, by his own announcement, the “I am.” The Almighty. THIS SAME JESUS. And to these might be added more than five hundred other names and titles, together with their cognates, to say nothing of the various characteristics assigned him, the things predicated of him, until it is found that he is the very warp and woof of the book. To proclaim him, exalt him, make him known, set him forth in his many roles, his functions, his offices and his covenant glories, prophets recite their visions, a Psalmist sings his rarest songs, and apostles unfold their matchless doctrines. When you contemplate the fact of this one objective; this tremendous unity of intention in the book, you have an overwhelming demonstration of the unity of its inspiration. Whether the inspiration be a true or a false one, it is beyond all question one inspiration. A book whose construction extends over centuries, written by men separated by time and distance from each other, with no possibility of personal or mental relation to each other-all writing to one objective-and that to set forth the Christ of God in his varied relations-a book with such a unity of purpose demonstrates in the most self-evident fashion that the writers were moved by a common impulse and, therefore, a common inspiration. And this unity of objective and inspiration coordinates with the wonderful fact that the book has but ONE KEY. The key which can alone open this book and make every line intelligible from Genesis to Revelation is Our Lord Jesus Christ. Take Christ out of the Bible and it is a harp without a player, a song without a singer, a palace with all the doors locked, a labyrinth with no Ariadne thread to guide. Put Christ into the Bible, and the harp strings will be smitten as with a master’s hand. Put Christ into the Bible, and the voice of song is heard as when a lark from the midst of dew-wet grasses sings, as it soars aloft to greet the coming dawn. Put Christ into the Bible, and all the doors of the palace are swung open and you may pass from room to room, down all the ivory galleries of the King, beholding portrait and landscape, vista of beauty and heaped-up treasures of truth, of infinite love and royal grace. Put Christ into the Bible, and you will have a scarlet thread-the crimson of the blood-that will lead you through all the winding ways of redemption and glory. Put Christ into Genesis, into the verses of the first chapter, and it will chime like silver bells in harmony with the wondrous notes in the first chapter of the Gospel of John, and tell you that he who created the heavens and the earth is he who in the beginning was the eternal Word, the voice of the infinite silence, and who, creating for himself a human nature, and clad in mortal flesh, walked on earth among the sons of men as Jesus of Nazareth. Put Christ into the twenty-second, the twenty-third and the twenty-fourth chapters of Genesis, and you will have placed before you in perfect type the birth of Christ, the sacrifice, the resurrection on the morning of the third day, the setting aside of the Jewish nation as the first wife, the coming of the Holy Spirit in the name of the Father and the Son to find a Bride for the Son, the calling out of the church, the endowment of the church with the gifts sent from the Father in the name of the Son, the pilgrimage of the church under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the Second Coming of Christ, the Rapture and meeting of Christ and the church in the “field” of the air, and the marriage of the Son. Put Christ into the dryest and dullest page of the book of Kings and Chronicles, and it will bloom with light and glory; and if you watch in faith, you will see the King’s chariot go by, and catch a vision of the King himself in his beauty. Put Christ into the Tabernacle, and it will cast its treasures like a king’s largess at your feet. You will see the brazen altar to be the cross, the brazen laver, the bath of regeneration, even the Word of God. In the Holy Place the table of shew bread will speak of him who once said, “I am the bread of life.” The golden candlestick will remind you that he said: “I am the light of the world.” The golden altar and the priest with his swinging censer of burning incense standing thereat will proclaim him as the great high priest. The beautiful veil of fine linen embroidered with figures of the cherubim in blue, purple and scarlet color is (according to a direct Scripture) the symbol of his flesh, his mortal humanity while on earth. Every board and bar, every cord and pin, the coverings, the curtains, the blue, the purple and the scarlet color, the golden vessels as well as the furniture, each and all, proclaim him, illustrate and illuminate him in his person, his work, his present office and coming glories. All these are analogies, types, pictures, are so related to Christ that he alone explains them; the explanation is filled with such perfection of harmony in every detail, the relation between them and our Lord Jesus Christ as the Antitype is so strikingly self-evident, that any discussion of it would be useless. When you find a key and lock which fit each other, you conclude they were intended for each other. In the light of facts already cited, what other conclusion can be drawn than that Christ and the Bible were intended for each other? And when you see this Bible coming together part by part, foretelling the Christ and explained alone by him, what sane conclusion is possible other than the book which is opened and explained by him who is not only the Christ but the Personal Word of God, must be, and is, THE WRITTEN WORD OF GOD! Let your mind dwell for a moment on the style of the book. It is so simple that a child may understand it; so profound, that the mightiest intellect cannot go beyond its depths. It is so essentially rich that it turns every language into which it is translated into a classic. At one moment it is plain narration; at another, it is all drama and tragedy, in which cataclysmic climax crashes against climax. It records the birth of a babe, the flight of an angel, the death of a king, the overthrow of an empire or the fall of a sparrow. It notes the hyssop that groweth out of the wall and speaks of the cedars of Lebanon. It shows us so pastoral a thing as a man sitting at his tent door in the cool of the day, and then paints for us a city in heaven with jasper walls, with golden streets, and where each several gate that leadeth into the city is one vast and shining pearl. It is full of outlines-outlines as large and bare as mountain peaks, and then it is crowded with details as minute as the sands of the sea. There are times when clouds and darkness float across its pages and we hear from within like unto the voice of him who inhabiteth eternity; in another moment the lines blaze with light, the revelation they give is high noon-and all the shadows are under the feet. It is terrible in its analysis and cold and emotionless in the hard impact of its synthesis. It describes moments of passion in passionless words, and states infinite conclusions without the hint of an emphasis. It shows us a man in hell (hades) and, although it describes sufferings more awful than mortal flesh can know, causing the soul to shudder at the simple reading of it, it takes on no quickened pulse, no feverish rush of added speech. In a few colorless lines it recounts the creation of the heavens and the earth. In language utterly barren of excitement it describes the most exciting and soul-moving event that can occupy the imagination-that moment when the heavens shall be on fire, the elements melted with fervent heat, the earth and the works therein burned up, and a new heaven and a new earth brought into view. It is a book of prose and yet a book of sublimest poetry. The book of Job is a poem by the side of which the hexameters of Horace, the drama of Shakespeare, the imagination of Milton, are not to be compared. In all literature the book of Job alone introduces a spirit into the scene and reports its speech without utterly breaking down into the disaster of the commonplace. Listen to the account which Eliphaz the Temanite gives. He says: “In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on men, Fear came upon me, and trembling which made all my bones to shake.” Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up; It stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof; an image was before mine eyes; there was silence, and I heard a voice, saying, “Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall man be more pure than his Maker?” Here is the threshold of the unseen. Before he sees or hears anything, the Temanite has the sense of fear-the fear of something more than human. The unknown weighs upon him and presses him down, all the life and energy in him are at low ebb-he feels as though the tides of life were running out. A spirit passes before his face. It is like a breath of scarcely moving air out of the night. The hair of his flesh (mark the psychological and physiological fact), the hair of his flesh stood up. It was as if a current of electricity had passed through him. Then the spirit stands still. It is as though this breath of air out of the night were no longer moving. He cannot discern any form. There is nothing fixed or stable enough for him to perceive. An image is before his eyes. He makes no vulgar attempt to describe it-it is indescribable. There is a great silence; then, as the margin has it, he heard a still small voice-not a loud and jarring voice-but a voice low, soft, still; and yet! the utterance of that voice! what immensity of self-conscious power what authority and dignity-the dignity of infinite integrity: “Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall man be more pure than his Maker?” How the night is full of a sudden law of proportion. Mortal man and eternal God. You feel the distance widening and widening between them there in the stillness of the night. The justice of man! man! the unjust-the law breaker; man, who is of yesterday and is gone to-morrow-mortal man, more just than he of whom it is said, “Justice and judgment are the habitation of his throne.” Fallen man, man full of iniquity, shall he be more pure than he who made him; he who breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and made him a living soul; he whose name is holiness and righteousness and very truth? As the question lingers man shrivels and sinks into the dust, and the whole night is filled with stillness-with the stillness and immensity of the all-pervading and holy God. Read the thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth chapters. They record the highest reaches of human language, so great that our own version cannot dim their splendor. Nothing ever written surpasses them, not only in the felicity of expression, but in the sense of deity pervading them. Each succeeding verse sustains the other and, at the last, you feel that God, very God, indeed, has spoken. The Almighty answers the complaining Job. He answers him, not out of the midst of a deep, unbroken calm, but out of the whirlwind; and yet, from the centre of that mighty vortex of unlimited force and energy and power, the voice comes forth with the calmness of one who knows himself superior to the whirlwind and the storm. “Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?” This is the abrupt and sudden question. It is the fitting question of him who knoweth the end from the beginning. In the very asking of it all the boasted knowledge, the attainment, the self-consciousness and vanity of man fade away, and man himself is as nothing-God alone remains upon the vision-all knowing-all wise-supreme. This Bible is a book of history. It will spend page after page in describing the doings of a rebellious king, and then compress the story of twenty-five hundred years into a few dozen lines, but will do this in such a way, by means of exact symbols, that the twenty-five centuries thus compressed will reveal a clearer outline and fuller vista than thousands of ordinary volumes could set forth in detail. Mark the providence that has guarded the book. Kings and potentates have sought to destroy it. It has been thrown into the flames. Volume after volume has been burned. But always, and at the critical moment, some copy has been preserved-here in the cottage of a devoted peasant at the risk of his life, hidden in the crevice of a rock from the inquisitor’s search, or cast aside by a careless hand and forgotten amid a pile of swept up dust in a neglected corner of some impregnable castle; from whence it has come forth to be copied by slow and painful, yet loving, toil, passed from house to house secretly as a priceless treasure, then printed on concealed presses and at last cast forth as living and fruitful seed. Men have denounced it and demonstrated that it is false both in history and science; then, unexpectedly, the stroke of a pick or the turn of a shovel uncovers some startling witness of its exact truth and the excuseless folly of those who deny it. The fourteenth chapter of Genesis has been set aside by the critics as historically worthless. The excavations in Babylon have brought to light a tablet with the name of Arioch, the fourth king mentioned in that chapter, stamped upon it. The statement in Exodus that Pharaoh forced the Children of Israel while building his treasure cities to make bricks without straw, has been treated as a fable. The treasure chambers themselves have been found, the rooms divided by brick partitions eight to ten feet thick-and great quantities of these bricks made without straw. Luke says that Sergius Paulus was pro-consul of Cyprus. The critics denied it and proved thereby the fallibility of the New Testament. The homely but truth-telling spade, and without consulting the critic, dug up some coins in the island of Cyprus itself, and on the coins were stamped both the image and the name of Sergius Paulus. Luke declares that Lysannius was tetrarch of Abilene; and again the critics denied it and more than ever discounted Luke as an historian. Renan, the plausible and analytical infidel, read the record carved on the stones of Baalbeck, and announced, openly, that Luke is correct. From the ruins of Nineveh and Babylon, Tyre and Sidon; from the trenches of Tel el Armana; by the key words of the Rosetta stone and the black but speaking face of the Moabite stone; from newly discovered papyri and parchment, and the mystic page of cracked and crumpled palimpsest; from the rocks of earth, the depths of the sea and the heights of heaven-and from the latest discoveries of science, there arise amazing witnesses, which speak in tones that cannot be hushed, with facts that cannot be denied, and bear testimony beyond all possibility of dispute to the truth and accuracy of the book; so much so, indeed, that such an one as Sir John Herschell, the great astronomer, has said: “All human discoveries seem to be made only for the purpose of confirming more and more strongly the truths contained in the Sacred Scriptures.” Consider the vitality of the book. In less than ten years a text-book is out of date, a cyclopedia worthless, and a library a cemetery of dead books and dead ideas; but this book keeps living right on-keeps abreast of the times, has a testimony for every day, and every day borrows its youth afresh as from the womb of the morning. Science has laughed it out of court. Two hundred and fifty years ago Voltaire said: “Fifty years from now the world will hear no more of the Bible.” Self-elected scholarship has pronounced it out of date and dead. Again and again its funeral services are held. Kind and condescending eulogiums are uttered over its past history and its good intent. With considerate hands it is lowered into its grave. The resquiescat in pace is solemnly pronounced and lo! before the critical mourners have returned to their homes it has risen from the dead, passed with surprising speed the funeral coaches, and is found-as of yore-in the busy centres of life, thundering against evil, revealing the secrets of the heart, offering consolation to the sorrowing, hope to the dying, and flashing forth from its quivering, vital pages the wonders of coming glory. While copies of the classics-Virgil, Zenophon, Cæsar, Sophocles, Pindar and Martial-are to be counted by a few thousands, and are cast aside by students as soon as they have graduated, and are forgotten in a twelvemonth, this Bible goes on printing every year millions of copies in all languages and dialects of earth; so far from casting it aside, when once read, men take it up and read it again and again, study it through life, dig into it as for hid treasure, and make it the pillow on which to lay their dying head. With each succeeding year the demand for it increases and voices are continually crying-give us The Book. It is the supreme book. It is the book we need when the fire of sin gleams in our eye and its poison burns in our veins. It is the book we need when the heart is sore, when our soul is troubled, and when peace is no longer a guest in our home. It is the book we need; for from its pages alone do we behold the light which shines from a Saviour’s empty grave; from its pages alone do we receive assurance of the resurrection of the dead, of immortality and the life to come; and from its pages alone do we hear the tender and welcoming words which seek to greet us and to comfort us while we struggle here ofttimes beneath the burden’s growing weight, those words of heavenly music: “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” What author on earth would think his book dead and out of date if year after year the publication of it taxed the printing presses of the world? What author would deem his book out of date when the voices of everywhere proclaimed it the book of books, and multitudes unnumbered confessed that from its pages alone they found the way of life and peace? Such a book is neither out of date nor dead; and its throbbing vitality tells of a life impulse and inspiration that are not of man. And, finally, This book inspires men for God. Every year books on morality and essays on conduct are written and published. They get as far as a first edition and are never heard of again; but this book, which binds all its parts about the person, the work, the office and the glories of Christ, changes the life, the character, the time and the eternity of men. 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 transformed, men will no longer be demon filled, but possessed with a spirit of truth and love; and God will be found to reign and rule in the midst. Whatever there is of sweetness and truth and righteousness in the world to-day; 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. Take up a map and find the lands where sin and vice skulk in the darkness; where virtue is honored 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 exalted, not as the word of man, but, in deed and truth, as the Word of God. 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; who hear it when it speaks to them as the very voice of God. A book which thus inspires men for God is, indeed, a book which, by every law of logic, must have been inspired by God. From the evidence cited two things are apparent: 1. The Bible is not such a book as a man would write if he could. 2. The Bible is not such a book as a man could write if he would. By these conclusions, therefore, the Bible is shown to be not of man. As the book is thus shown to be not of man-either by inclination or ability; and as from the beginning to the end its object is to glorify the unseen God in the revelation of his incarnate Son, then this book is of God; and being the utterance of his mind and will, is his Word; so that the statement of the apostle concerning it is justified. It is to be received as he says: “Not as the word of man, but as it is in truth, THE WORD OF GOD.” To him who so approaches it-who puts his shoes from off his feet as on holy ground, and with the silence of expectant faith listens and looks, it will disclose itself, speak to him, and so lay hold of the inner recesses of the heart that he shall know he has been face to face with God, has had glimpses of the delectable mountains and the city foursquare that lies beyond; from henceforth he shall walk, not as one in a vain show or in the mixing of darkness and light, but where the night shineth as the day; where the road is no longer paved with the stumbling stones of doubt, nor the signboards filled with a guess, but where the way leadeth on and up-shining more and more bright unto the perfect day. Take up this book, O friend. Do not read it with a hurried glance. Let thine eyes rest a while upon some single word, and if thou art patient, it will bud and blossom and bloom and grow unto thee as a tree of life; and the leaves shall be as medicine for the healing of thy hurt. Take it into thy mouth and learn a lesson from the meadow kine who chew the tender grasses, and turn them over, and chew them again, till they have extracted sweetness and life therefrom. Chew the words of this book over and over again (it is impossible to do so with any other book), meditate upon the words (to meditate, to reflect, are highest functions), mediate upon their meaning-upon their direct and cognate meanings; let the thoughts they suggest find full and free reaction in thy soul, and from some simple word or phrase thou shalt draw the sweetness of divine love, and more and more the consciousness that thou hast received into thine innermost being very spirit and very life. Read it on bended knee. Take up the words and breathe on them with the warm breath of sincere desire to know their intent, and music will come forth as from the fabled horn of old-music that shall have in it all the hallelujahs and hosannas of the heavenly host. If you will take this book to your heart, you will find it bread such as kings’ ovens never baked, water more crystal than that which bursts from mountain springs, wine the like of which was never pressed from purple grapes, meat which cattle on a thousand hills never furnished, and fruit no man ever gathered in royal gardens-the fruit of the Spirit. You will find it a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path, a hammer for breaking the flinty rocks by the way, a fire that will burn out the stain of sin, and warm benumbed fingers for quickened service in His Name. Give it the first place in your life. You will want to hear from it as the last thing when you go hence. The words of loved ones will be sweet in your ear as you leave these mortal shores (if our Lord Jesus Christ should not hasten his coming, you must go), but you will want to hear its utterance above all the tones, even of those you love, speaking the final word of hope and cheer to you. Be very patient with it. It has great things to say to you-and you will not always be fit to hear them. You will not always-at the first-be able to understand them; but if you do not understand to-day, to-morrow, or other morrows after that, it will speak to you and you shall fully know. Perhaps it will wait till the unshed tears are in your heart, and the moan the common ear has never heard-then it will speak-and the words will fall into the sore place of the soul, as though angel lips had touched it; it will wait, perhaps, till the storm is high, and your frail craft (life’s poor, frail craft) is tossed as though it would go down in the whelming waters (and the shore so far away), and then it will speak and say, “Peace-be still,” and in that driven life of yours shall be a great and holy calm. Do not attempt to cross-question it as though you hesitated to believe all it said. To accept some parts and reject others will be fatal to you. God does not reveal himself to those who doubt him. He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is the rewarder of all them that diligently seek him. So must you approach this book-with reverence and submissive faith; for this book, O friend! is not the word of man, but in very truth-THE WORD OF GOD. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 5: 02.00.1. THE TABERNACLE PRIESTHOOD AND OFFERINGS ======================================================================== The Tabernacle Priesthood and Offerings By I. M. HALDEMAN, D. D. Author of “How to Study the Bible,” “Ten Sermons on the Second Coming,” “Christ, Christianity and the Bible,” etc. FLEMING H: REVELL COMPANY OLD TAPPAN, NEW JERSEY MCMXXV BY FLEMING II. REVELL COMPANY ======================================================================== CHAPTER 6: 02.00.2. PREFACE ======================================================================== PREFACE A VOLUME on the Tabernacle, Priesthood and Offerings is not new, others have digged, and digged deeply, in these exhaustless mines. In the present volume there will be found a sameness of exposition. Even under different headings a truth already stated is repeated, not necessarily in the same language, but again and again with renewed emphasis and amplification of the same thoughts. The same truth, the same teaching, from another angle. This is so, because, no matter whether you take up the Framework, the Coverings, the Curtains, or the Hangings; whether you consider the Priesthood, the Priestly Robes, or the successive Offerings, you will find the Person, the Work and the Glory of Christ confronting you at every turn and the fulness of these facts inwrought, more or less, with every type or symbol. The constant reiteration of already stated truth is a demonstration that the objective purpose of these symbols is to exalt the Person of Christ, to set Him before us as Real Man and Very God, Son of God, and God the Son and to bring us face to face with the sublime truth that His work on earth was not to live, but to die, and that there is yet a fuller revelation of His glory when He shall come the Second time. Under no circumstance and in no direction is type or symbol occupied with an ethical, but only and always with a sacrificial, Christ. In these divinely–given illustrations it will be seen the best human being can approach a holy God only on the ground of the shed blood of a sacrificial and voluntarily offered substitute. Always it will be seen (and little effort is required to see it) that our Lord Jesus Christ was no less than this eternally ordained Substitute, Who, for our sakes and our redemption, became a willing victim and the glad recipient of the judgment of God due in righteousness to the guilt of men. Always it will be seen the title of the best as well as the worst to enter Heaven, hold fellowship with God and call Him Father, is in the blood of His Son; that any touch, or intimacy, or consciousness we may have of Him as our Father must come through the intercession, the advocacy and unceasing ministry of Jesus Christ as His Only Begotten Son and our now risen, ascended and glorified Lord. No matter from what point of view you attempt to expound the Tabernacle and its inclusive truths you will find yourself repeating, reemphasizing, the truths you have already stated just as though you had never done so; and every renewed statement will seem to you, indeed, as though you were discovering and noting for the first time the adorable Person, the Perfect Work, the Infinite Glory of Him whom we call with ever increasing delight–Our Great God and Saviour Jesus Christ. I. M. H. New York, N. Y. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 7: 02.00.3. INTRODUCTION ======================================================================== INTRODUCTION THE Children of Israel were captives in the land of Egypt. Pharaoh oppressed them. He set over them–taskmasters who cruelly entreated them. Their cry came into the ears of the God of Sabaoth. He sent Moses and Aaron to demand of Pharaoh that he let the people go. He refused. By the hand of Moses the Lord then poured forth bitter plagues upon Egypt. Each plague served only to harden Pharaoh’s heart and tighten his grip upon the captives. The Lord announced through Moses that He would send one more plague. He would slay the first born in the land. This doom involved the first born in Israel. To deliver them from this doom the Lord provided a substitute for them. In obedience to His command Moses bade the people take a lamb on the tenth day of the month according to their families, a firstling (a first born) of the flock, without spot or blemish, keep it till the fourteenth day, kill it between the two evenings of that day, put the blood in a bason, dip a bunch of hyssop in the blood and strike it against the sides of the door and above, thus marking the house with a crimson stain. They were then to go into the house, shut the door, fix the slain lamb on a spit in the form of a cross, roast it before an open fire, eat it with bitter herbs, and eat it in haste, shoes on the feet, loins girded and staff in hand. At midnight the Lord would go forth and slay the first born. It would be the Lord’s Passover. The first born in the house under the shelter of the blood of the lamb would be spared–saved. The people did as they were commanded. At midnight the Lord, in fulfillment of His promise, went forth to slay. Wherever He saw blood on a door He passed over that house. The next morning there was a first–born dead in every house. In the homes of the Egyptians it was a first–born son or daughter, and from that home came the sound of weeping, the voice of lamentation, hearts that ached and would not be comforted. In the houses of the Israelites there was, indeed, a first–born dead, but it was the first–born substitute–the slain lamb provided of God. By this sore judgment the Lord broke the chains of Israel’s bondage, showed Himself a Redeemer and Saviour of His chosen people. He led them out of the land of bondage and the house of affliction, He divided the waters of the Red Sea that they might pass over dry–shod. In a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night He led them through a “.waste howling” wilderness to Mount Sinai. At Sinai He tested them. He rehearsed all He had done in their behalf. He had brought them thus far on eagles’ wings. Would they, henceforth, cast themselves in obedient and dependent faith upon Him; or, would they by relying upon their own strength, their own wisdom, walk in their own righteousness and earn their way into the Promised Land? There was only one true course to follow. They should have confessed their helplessness and cast themselves wholly upon the omnipotence and the grace of God. They did nothing of the kind. With consummate spiritual blindness and offensive self–sufficiency they agreed to earn and merit their way into the Promised Land. With united voice they said: “All the Lord hath spoken (that is, all He required of them) we will—do.” By that response they repudiated the grace of God, set aside the Abrahamic, unconditional covenant and placed themselves on the ground of law. It was a fatal act. Immediately, the Lord changed His attitude to them. He caused a line to be drawn between Himself and them. He threatened with instant death all who should cross that line. Herein you may behold the essential difference between law and grace. Grace bids us draw nigh to God. Law shuts us out from God. Grace bids us to consider God. Law bids us consider ourselves. Grace bids us to behold what God can and is willing to do for us. Law bids us know we can do nothing for ourselves. Under grace we are taken up with God. Under law we are taken up with self. Under grace we discover what God is–full of mercy and saving love. Under law we find out what we are–sinful, unrighteous, lost. Grace is expressed in four letters––done. Law is contained in a word of two letters––do. Under grace all is done, the work has been done for us, it is completely and perfectly finished. There is nothing for us to do but to rest in the finished work. Under law we are always doing and never done. We never accomplish, we never meet the demand made of us, we never can begin to give even the slightest hint of satisfaction, we have no place of rest, there is not a moment in which we are secure. Grace bids us hope. Law tells us to fear. Grace brings salvation. Law puts under condemnation and demands the penalty without mercy. The people desired law and despised grace. God gave them their request. From the top of Sinai now covered with a thick cloud, flashing with lightnings, echoing with thunder, filled with smoke as from the opening of furnace doors, with the voice of a trumpet waxing louder and louder till the whole mount seemed to quiver and rock, the Lord God proclaimed the law the people had invoked, giving it to them in the form of Ten Commandments. There was no longer any joy or peace among the people, no sense of nearness to God, there was nothing but consciousness of the clanging, clashing, clamoring law and the revelation of God as that God who will “by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, even unto the third and fourth generation;” a revelation of that God who has said (and said it with the accent of an inexorable and unchanging decree) “the soul that sinneth it shall die.” To this people, the God who had been their Redeemer from death and their Deliverer from the land of bondage, was now to them as a God afar off, unapproachable, terrible. Every breast was filled with dread, every heart throbbed with fear. The Lord called Moses up into the mount to receive a transcript of the law He had so thundrously proclaimed. While he was gone and before they had as yet received a copy of it, the people broke the very first commandment: that they should have the Lord as their only God. Filled with murmuring and unbelief at the prolonged absence of Moses they set up a god of Egypt, the golden calf, Apis. They bowed down and worshipped it, and did so with all the lewdness and shamelessness of the Egyptian rites; for, we are told, they were naked. They had thus become idolaters as guilty as the people from whom the Lord had saved and separated them. In the midst of this orgie of lust and treason against Jehovah, Moses came down from the mount bringing the law as it had been written by the finger of God on tables of stone. Filled with indignation, with horror and righteous anger he cast down the tables of stone and broke them. He did this as a testimony that in breaking the first commandment they had broken and were guilty of the whole law; as it is written: “Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” He stood in the gate and called upon those who were on the Lord’s side to come to him. The sons of Levi answered the call. He bade each man gird himself with his sword, go through the camp and slay as they should go. Three thousand idolaters were slain. Moses did not take up the broken law and bid the people keep it. He knew better than that. He knew that in God’s sight it was utterly broken. He saw the people needed, not law, but atonement. Therefore he said: “I will go up unto the Lord, peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin.” He returned to the mount. He made intercession before the Lord that He would turn aside His justly aroused anger, and that the whole nation might not be destroyed. The Lord heard his appeal. He gave him the law written again upon other tables of stone. It was under these circumstances the Tabernacle was built and set up, that the Lord might dwell in the midst of the people; by His presence own them as His and save them, no longer as from the bondage of Egypt, but from the bondage, the condemnation, the judgment and disaster of their own failure. A holy God could not dwell in the midst of a sinful people except upon the ground of a blood atonement; for, it is written: “without shedding of blood is no remission,” no holding back of judgment due; neither could the sinner approach a righteous God except on the ground of a sacrifice offered by the individual which should be an acknowledgment of the need of atonement and a confession of the grace that permitted and provided it. Moses was therefore instructed to give to the people a system of sacrificial offerings and to ordain Aaron, his brother, as high priest and his sons as associate priests with “him. These sacrifices were to be a witness to the people that they had sinned against Jehovah and could be saved only by a sacrificial and substitutionary death offered in their behalf. Each time an Israelite brought a victim to the priest, laid his hand upon its head, confessed his sin and slew it, he was testifying that his life was forfeited and that he lived only by virtue of the victim slain in his stead. At the same time the continual repetition of these offerings was a witness that the blood of bulls and of goats could not take away sin. This constant demonstration of their inefficiency was, nevertheless, in itself, a prophecy, a promise and a pledge that an acceptable substitute should be found whose shed blood would be the guarantee of an eternal salvation and an abiding reconciliation with God. By virtue of the death of such an one all claims of the broken law would be settled, the law itself as a temporary and condemnatory system would be set aside and the unconditional covenant with Abraham again brought in and through it the blessings promised both to Israel and the Gentile world fulfilled. In the fulness of time the Son of God and God the Son became incarnate of a virgin woman, revealed Himself as Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews and the Lamb of God ordained before the foundation of the world. He offered Himself as King. He was rejected by the Jews (not by the Ten Tribes). He was crucified, God the Father accepted Him as the Antitypical Substitute for both Jew and Gentile, owned His death as a sacrifice for sin, raised Him from the dead, took Him to Heaven and seated Him at His own right hand as immortal man and eternally incarnate God–God eternally manifest in the flesh. All the types, figures, symbols and prophecies were fulfilled in Him. All claims of the law were met and satisfied. As the coming in of the law could not annul the covenant made with Abraham four hundred years before, as it was brought in that it might be a revelation to the people of their sinfulness (“for, by the law is the knowledge of sin “) and that it might be finally as a “schoolmaster” to lead them to Christ, the death of Christ therefore in satisfying the claims of the law against Israel, “took it out of the way,” and delivered them from its bondage; as it is written: “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, (Jews) which was contrary to us, (Jews) and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross.” (Colossians 2:14) As the law of Sinai was–never given to the Gentiles, then the law, today, has no relation to the world whether Jew or Gentile. According to Holy Scripture the law was” A ministration of condemnation.” (The ministration of death” written and engraven in stones.” “It has been abolished.” “Done away.” “Done away in Christ.” (2 Corinthians 3, 9, 7, 13, 11, 14) “Our Lord Jesus Christ is the seed of Abraham; as it is written: “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many, but as of one, And thy seed, which is Christ.” (Galatians 3:16) As the Seed of Abraham our Lord Jesus Christ is the depository of all the promises made in the covenant with Abraham; when He rose from the dead, ascended and sat down on the throne of the Most High God He brought in again the unconditional covenant, and it is on the basis of this verified and unconditional covenant with Abraham that God is dealing in unconditional grace with the world today. The Episode of the law is over. The shadowy types have been fulfilled. Salvation is for all who by faith will offer our Lord Jesus Christ as the sacrifice provided of God and claim Him on the cross as a personal substitute. The Law came by Moses. Grace and Truth by Jesus Christ. It is in the shadows, the types, the figures, the symbols of the Tabernacle, the Priesthood and the Offerings that we may behold the wonder of our Lord’s divine person, His perfect work and coming glory. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 8: 02.01. THE DWELLING PLACE OF GOD WITH MAN ======================================================================== THE DWELLING PLACE OF GOD WITH MAN “AND the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel... let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the Tabernacle.” (Exodus 25:1-2; Exodus 25:9) In this you have a revelation of divine grace and divine order. Grace, that God should consent to dwell among men. Order, that nothing should be done in HIS name, neither by guess, nor will, nor plan of man, but according to His pattern, His will and plan. He created the first man that He might dwell in him. Man failed, he sinned, and God’s creation rest was broken up. The purpose of God is unchangeable. It was necessary that sooner or later there should be a man in whom He could dwell, a man who should be His manifestation, His visibility and incarnation, This Tabernacle now ordered of God to be set up in the wilderness, and whose plan of construction was given in minute detail to Moses, was intended to be, not merely the official dwelling place of God in Israel, but a symbol, a picture and a prophecy of the man in whom God should become incarnate, the man who should be His final and eternal dwelling place. That man exists today as the antitypical fulfillment of God’s purpose. The Apostle John testifies concerning Him. He says: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (God was the Word). The same was in the beginning with God. (That is, He. was coeval with God) “All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.” This person called the Word of God, the Almighty maker of heaven and earth, came into the world and “was made flesh.” Such is the statement of John: “The Word was made flesh.” The verb and tense form, “was made,” is literally “became,” and carries the thought, not of passivity, but activity. He became flesh by His own action. This definition of the verb form is corroborated in Hebrews 2:14. There it is written: “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same. In becoming flesh He is represented as the sole and responsible actor; He is not the object of some extraneous action that .makes Him to become flesh, He is Himself the actor who so definitely and personally acts that He becomes flesh. This construction is emphasized in Hebrews 2:16 : “He took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.” (That is, human nature) The Greek verb rendered, “took on him,” is, epilambano, and signifies, “To lay hold of,” “to assume.” The verb is the indicative present, the voice the middle or reflexive. The statement therefore should read: “He assumes not the nature of angels, but the seed (the nature) of Abraham, He, Himself, assumes.” From this unequivocal Scripture we learn that He who was the eternal Word of God, personally, actively and in individual responsibility assumed for Himself a human nature of flesh and blood. As the assumption of flesh and blood by such an one as the eternal God is incarnation, then God the Word became incarnate by His own will and absolutely by His own creative act. Since He created and assumed this nature by His own act, that act excludes any producing act or agency less than His own; it excludes any act on the part of man; it necessarily excludes the act of any human father. As He was in respect to His human nature born out of a woman; as the act was entirely the act of God and therefore there could have been no human father, He was logically and necessarily virgin-born, His birth was a Virgin Birth. This is the indisputable testimony of both John and Paul. And this in face of the teaching of would––be wise men (wise above that which is written) that neither John nor Paul says anything about a virgin birth. John testifies further concerning this incarnation. He not only says the Creator of the universe became flesh and blood, but that He, “Dwelt among us.” The word, “dwelt,” is, literally, “tabernacled.” Therefore we should read: “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.” Here again in language which leaves no excuse for uncertainty we learn that the human nature created and assumed by the Word of God was His Tabernacle, His dwelling place among men. Thus the purpose of God was achieved. He found His dwelling place and rest in man. John goes still further and gives a revelation of His essential identity. He says: “We beheld his glory as the only begotten of the Father.” Thus the Word of God was the Son of God. As a son partakes of the essence of a father, and as the father of the Word was God, then the Word was not only Son of God, but God the Son. As whatever God is essentially today (that is, whatever He is in His being) He always has been, to say He is a Father today, is to say He always has been a Father. Since He has always been the Father, He has always had a Son, and that Son in the nature of the case has eternally been the Son. Since the Father never had a beginning as the Father, the Son never had a beginning, He was coeval with the Father; as it is written: “the same was in the beginning with God.” As a son is begotten of a father and neither God the Father nor God the Son had a beginning, the Son was eternally begotten of the Father. Since He was the only One who ever was or could be eternally begotten, then it is true He was (in this sense) the only begotten of the Father. The Apostle John testifies this only begotten Son of the Father whose glory he beheld as such was––Jesus Christ. John the Baptist so announced Him. He baptized Him in the river Jordan, and after he had baptized Him, pointed Him out to some of His own disciples and said: “I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God.” Nathanael when he met Him confessed Him and said: “Rabbi, thou art the Son of God.” Here, therefore, is the amazing, but undeniable fact: He whom we know as our Lord Jesus Christ is none other than that Son of God and God the Son who created the universe; that creative Word who in Genesis 1:26, breaks the silence of Godhead, saying, “Let us make man in our image;” and in Genesis Second is seen to be the Lord God––Yaveh Elohim, the declared Creator of the earth and the heavens and recorded spokesman of Godhead. By the same omnipotence with which He created all things (so that without Him there was not one thing made that was made) He created for Himself a sinless, perfect human nature, took it into union with His infinite person and personally dwelt in it as His Tabernacle––His dwelling place among men. Concerning this indwelling of His humanity Paul says: “In him dwelleth all the fulness of the godhead bodily.” By “fulness “is meant, not merely the majesty and might of God, but that which alone constitutes the fulness of the Godhead––nothing less than the personalities of the Godhead. He is therefore the absolute, concrete of the Tri-unity of, Godhead. He Himself says the person of the Father dwelt in Him. When Philip said to Him: “Shew us the Father,” He answered and said: “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father the Father dwelleth in me.” (Not some characteristics of the Father, but the Father Himself) Speaking of the Holy Spirit in relation to Him, John the Baptist says: “God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him.” He had the measurelessness of the Spirit, and the measurelessness of the Spirit is the Spirit Himself. Concerning His own personalism as a Son in relation to the Father, John says: “No man hath seen God (that is, God the Father) at any time (neither will He ever be seen apart from the Son) the only begotten Son (in some readings it is begotten God) which is in the bosom of the Father, he only hath declared him.” Literally, “hath told him out.” That is, He has spoken Him out, worded Him forth; in short, He is the• Word of the otherwise eternal silence of God. With profoundest reverence, therefore, I would say (never for a moment with the slightest intent, suggesting or hinting at any modification, mixture or change of the divine persons of the Godhead) I would say all there is of God (all there is of the one essential being of the Godhead) is in Jesus Christ, and apart from Jesus Christ there is no God. Such a phrase as, “God out of Christ,” is untenable and intellectually impossible. Beyond all “controversy” He was, “God manifest in the flesh.” (1 Timothy 3:16) “The image of the invisible God.” (Colossians 1:16) “The express image of his person.” (Hebrews 1:3) “Our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ.” (Titus 2:13) The “Over All God.” (Romans 9:5) And now with outburst of joy and adoration John the “Beloved” disciple who leaned upon His breast and heard the throb beat of His heart says of Him in terms that swing wide as eternity: “Jesus Christ––this is the true God and eternal life.” (1 John 5:20) Wonderful beyond words is the PERSON of Him whom we style as our Lord Jesus Christ. He is–– “The man Christ Jesus.” He in whom the fulness of the Being of God now dwells and abidingly rests not only because of the perfection of His humanity, but, also, because of the redemption He achieved by offering that humanity in sacrificial death making an atonement for sin, demonstrating the inexorableness of divine righteousness, satisfying all its claims, justifying God in all his ways and thereby opening up a legal channel through which the love of God might flow righteously and in saving value to all who by faith should offer up His crucified Son as a sacrifice for sin and claim Him as a personal substitute under the judgment due them. In Him the rest of God is not creation rest, it is redemption rest. The conscience of God is at rest because of His law justified, His grace proclaimed and His love revealed. Here, indeed, is “the true tabernacle which God pitched, and not man.” (Hebrews 8:1) Study the Tabernacle in the wilderness with surrendered faith and you will find in every detail of its inspired construction a revelation of the Infinite Person, the Finished Work and the Resplendent Glory of our soon coming Lord. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 9: 02.02. THE FRAMEWORK ======================================================================== THE FRAMEWORK THE general appearance of the Tabernacle was that of an oblong box, thirty cubits in length, ten cubits high and, including the comer boards of the back, ten cubits wide. (Exodus 26:15-30) It was constructed of forty-eight boards of shittim, or, acacia, an incorruptible, wood, twenty on each side, six on the western end with two comer boards which lapped over. Each board was covered with pure gold and had two tenons or fingers which dropped into or were mortised into two sockets of silver, weighing ninety pounds. There were one hundred of these sockets or bases of silver, ninety-six for the boards and four under the pillars of the vail. These boards were held in place by fifteen wooden bars covered with gold, five on the north and south side, and five on the end or back. Three long bars passed through rings horizontally from end to end of the construction. There were twelve short bars, four on each side and the end, two above and two below the larger middle bar. This constituted the main framework. The Tabernacle was divided into two distinct parts. The first was twenty cubits long, the second ten cubits. Each way its length and heighth and breadth were equal. The division was made by four pillars of wood covered with gold. The pillars had no capitals, they were cut sheer off. These were the pillars that had the four sockets of silver for base. A vail of white byssus linen with figures of the cherubim wrought in fine needlework in blue, purple and scarlet completely enclosed, shut in and concealed the smaller division. It contained the Ark of the Covenant, a chest of wood covered with gold, and with a lid of solid gold called the mercy seat, out of each end of which was beaten an angel of gold, each angel bending face downward to the mercy seat in an attitude of representative interest and adoration. In this ark or chest and under the lid or mercy seat there were the tables of the law, eventually Aaron’s rod that budded and a golden pot with manna. This portion of the Tabernacle was called, “The Most Holy Place.” It could be entered but once a year, on the Day of Atonement, and then only by the high priest with blood from the brazen altar––the blood of sacrifice. The outer and larger division (it was twice as large) contained the golden altar of incense, the golden candlestick and the golden table of shewbread. The entrance was at the eastern end through five pillars of wood covered with gold, having capitals of gold and sockets of brass. From these pillars hung a curtain of linen in white, blue, purple and scarlet, called “The door of the Tabernacle.” This division was called “The Holy Place.” Over the framework was thrown an outer covering of badgers’ skins, under this another of rams’ skins dyed red, under that eleven curtains of goats’ hair. These were linked and looped together in two great breadths of five curtains each. Five were over the Holy Place. The sixth curtain was folded, doubled and hung down over the door in front. One-half of the second breadth covered the Most Holy Place, the other half fell down over the back. Innermost of all was an embroidered white linen curtain with figures of the cherubim wrought with needlework in blue, purple and scarlet. All this formed the covering or clothing of the Tabernacle. Surrounding this construction was a linen fence supported by sixty pillars of wood with silver tops and sockets of brass. There were twenty on each side, ten on each end. This fence inclosed and constituted the “court” of the Tabernacle. In it was the brazen laver at which the priests washed their hands and feet before entering into the Holy Place. It was located near the door. At the eastern and open end of the court was the brazen altar of sacrifice: The gate of entrance was through four central pillars. On this was hung a curtain similar to the one at the door of the Tabernacle. It was called “The Gate of the Court.” The Tabernacle and the court were held in place by linen cords fastened to pins of brass, and these driven deeply into the ground. The Tabernacle and Court were set in the midst of the people. They pitched their tents about that center according to tribes and in an order fixed and commanded of God. The pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night rested upon the sacred building, upon The Most Holy Place, and shone within in shekinal splendor, between the wings of the cherubim above the mercy seat. It was the light, the illumination and blinding glory of the place. When the Cloud came to a halt, no matter the locality nor condition of it, the people halted and according to manner ordained and by particular persons indicated of the Lord set up the Tabernacle and its Court. When the Pillar lifted and moved forward the Tabernacle was taken down, the people struck their tents and went forward, following whither the Cloud led. The Tabernacle was built exactly according to the plan shown to Moses in the Mount; as it is written: “According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the Tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.” (Exodus 25:9) Everything was done according to the will and regulation of God. No movement nor attitude was taken except by His command and by His specific direction. The framework of the Tabernacle, the boards, bars, pillars and sockets had a special relation to the Tabernacle as a whole. The Coverings, the Curtains, the Hangings, all depended on the framework. If the framework could be overthrown, everything upon it would fall and be flung and twisted into inextricable confusion. The framework is a symbol of the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ. If the integrity of the Person of Christ, His essential being and character cannot be maintained, then every doctrine built upon Him falls down, the whole system becomes a confusion, a hopeless ruin. If the claims He made concerning Himself, if what the Apostles teach concerning Him are not true, Christianity, whether considered as a doctrinal or merely ethical system, breaks down. And it is just here––against the Person of Christ––that all the Satanic assault of the hour is concentrated, the denial of His pre-existent deity, His Virgin Birth, the sacrificial and atoning character of His death, His resurrection, His bodily ascension to Heaven, the fact that He sits upon the throne of the universe, immortal man and very God––the eternal incarnation of God. The one thing the unbelieving heart of the false teachers in the professing Church antagonizes, the thing these men who” have crept in unawares,” actually hate and would destroy if they could, is faith in the deity of Christ. They will accept any testimony about Him if by their subtle methods they can bring to pass the total rejection of Him as––absolute God. But let it once be established and unwaveringly held that Jesus Christ was very God, no less than the Lord God of the Old Testament, the Creator of the universe, then all miracles predicated of Him are seen to be logical, His deity self-evidently upholds and sustains them and those who would deny them are convicted both of moral and intellectual folly. Let it be demonstrated that He was no more essentially divine than the best of men, it is impossible to credit Him even with the suggestion of a miracle whether it be in the deeds He wrought or of the hour of His birth, and those who believe in Him stand to be pitied as the most cruelly and wofully deceived of earth. Study the Framework, follow it in its details and it will be seen that in it we have the symbolic, but inspired portrait of our Lord as real man and very God. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 10: 02.03. THE BOARDS ======================================================================== THE BOARDS THE boards were of incorruptible wood. As such they were a perfect symbol of the incorruptible humanity of our Lord, a witness to its sinlessness. That our Lord was a sinless man is in the nature of the case. When the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that God had chosen her to be the Mother of His Son, she was troubled, reasoned in her mind about it and was unable to understand how it could be. She supposed this Son was to be obtained in a natural manner, that the child born of her should be begotten by some man chosen of God. She was engaged to Joseph, not yet actually his wife. Even though Joseph should be permitted to act as the Father, she could not comprehend how, under the circumstances, such a child could be called the Son of the Highest, the Son of the living God. The angel explained to her that no man should be the father of her child, man should have no part in it whatever; on the contrary, that which should be wrought in her and born out of her should be by the direct act of the blessed and eternal God. He said: “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, And the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: Therefore that Holy Thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:35) In giving the announcement to Mary that man should have nothing to do with her in this matter, that her conception should not be by man, but by the Holy Ghost, that the relation should be between herself and Almighty God alone, the angel announced this transcendent fact not only to her, but advertised it to all the ages since, and particularly to those who in this hour of a rank and fetid materialism are willing to ‘take the intellectual stultification of denying a virgin birth to Him who was, not only Son of Mary, but Son of God. In actual operation the pre–existent Son of God and God the Son in coordination with the Father and the Spirit, took of the substance or seed or cell of the Virgin Mary and fashioned, not a personality, but a human nature for Himself. This nature He assumed and took into indissoluble union with His unchangeable and eternal personality; as it is written: “He took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed (the nature) of Abraham.” (Hebrews 2:16) That He was Virgin Born ought to be self-evident. If a natural father had begotten Him He would not have been, He could not have been, what Gabriel calls: “That Holy Thing.” He would have partaken of his sinful father’s sinful being: “Sin in the flesh.” A sinful father could not have begotten a holy human nature. No human father ever has. A sinless father could not have begotten it because ––nature comes from the woman and personality from the father; as it is written: “Levi was in the loins of his father (Abraham).” (Hebrews 7:9-10) Had even a sinless father begotten our Lord, He would have had a personality from that father. Call it a sinless personality if you will––what then? Clearly enough our Lord would have had a dual personality. Personality as the pre–existent Son of God and HJs distinct personality as man. This would not only have made Him a dual personality in Himself, it would have added personality to Godhead, that Godhead which Scripture reveals as triune and fixed forever. To double the personality of the Son of God and add personality to Godhead would be the guilt and shame of a compound and excuseless blasphemy. No man, therefore, whether sinful or sinless, could have produced the humanity of Christ without the addition of personality. This is at once a demonstration and a proof that the humanity of Christ was not of a distinct personality other than His eternal, and unchanged and unit personality of Godhead. As a consequence the conception and birth of our Lord’s humanity was not that of a person at all, but a––nature. The nature of humanity comes essentially and characteristically from the woman––she is the mould of it. Since the humanity of Christ was a nature and not a personality it could not have come from a man and must have come from a woman. It did come from a woman. It came from Mary as His Mother. As it could not be produced by man, other than with personality, without personality it could be produced only by the particular act of God. It was therefore produced by the act of God. Since it was produced by the act of God it was produced exclusively by His act. As it was produced by the exclusive act of God it was necessarily virgin born; that is––conception and birth without the agency of man. The humanity of Christ therefore was not an evolution, it was a new and direct creation from God. Because of its origin Gabriel properly called it “That holy thing.” Because it was holy it was sinless. The human life of our Lord Jesus Christ was necessarily sinless. The record of His life demonstrates it; as it is written: “Jesus the Son of God tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15) “Holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners.” (Hebrews 7:25) “Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.” (1 Peter 2:22) “In him is no sin.” (1 John 3:5) In the midst of those who knew Him intimately and from childhood, He flung down this challenge: “Which of you convinceth me of sin?” (John 8:46) His life was unconcealed. He was continually open to inspection. Every eye watched Him, every ear was bent to listen, every word He spoke was weighed and analyzed, every step noted, and yet none dared bring the charge of sin against Him. For two thousand years He has been the object of intensive analysis. He has been subject to the white light of an unparalleled investigation. The highways and lanes over which He traveled, the villages, towns and cities through which He passed, the well curb upon which He sat, the boat in which He sailed, the places in which He prayed, the water which it is reported He turned to wine, the very bread and fish (the kind He multiplied) have been brought into the light, subjected to this investigation and surrendered to this analysis. His words have been taken apart, put into the laboratory of critical chemistry, tested in respect to base, to combination and compounded parts, but not an accent, not an emphasis has been found out of place, not a sentence or a word that need be changed, not a thought nor statement that must be reversed or recalled. He stands out among men absolutely human, yet of an order entirely new, sinless, God filled, compassionate, sympathetic, going among the outcast and the worthless, among those sick in body, sick in soul, in daily contact with leprosy of body and leprosy of mind, uncovering pollution and shame and iniquity at every step; and yet, even as the sun that reveals the mud, the mire, the slime and corruption, and is unstained by them, so He ate with publicans and sinners and shone more resplendently pure because of the contrasted evil and wrong revealed in them. He spoke softly, gently, so graciously, that the officers sent by His foes to arrest Him as a disturber of the public peace, enthralled by the sound of His voice the accent of His words and the marvellous measure of His thoughts, went back to those who sent them and said: “Never man spake like this man.” There were times, however, when His words had in them the note as of distant thunder, and there was an up flash of flame, a light in His eyes as terrible as that which had flashed on Sinai. When He saw the multitude He was moved with compassion; they were to Him as sheep without a shepherd; they had been harried and skinned (such is the word in the original) by human wolves, they had been the prey of the avarice, injustice and tyranny of men; but when He spoke of a lost soul in hell, suffering, agonizing, tormented, His voice was cold, calm, emotionless, as the utterance of a judge, as hard as the decrees of eternity; forgiving a sinful woman taken in the act of a particular treason of sin, He poured forth a tidal sweep of anathema against religious formalism and hypocrisy, against false teaching and tradition as though indeed the day of unrestrained wrath and anger had come. He is unique. There never was anything like Him before. There has never been anything like Him since. He is as a white rose surrounded by scarlet poppies. As a smile of love against a scowl of hate. As a song above discord. As a shaft of light in the blackness of a starless midnight. He was pure, He was holy, He was sinless. Not even in death did His body see corruption. There is only one collocation of terms that expresses Him; and that is: “Sinless perfection.” The boards of the Tabernacle were covered with pure gold. The gold was a distinct material from the wood. It was placed above it. Thus each board consisted of two materials. The twofoldedness of material in the boards is a symbol of the twofoldedness of our Lord. As the board was of two materials, He was of two natures. The nature of man. The nature of God. The wood is a symbol of His human nature. The gold symbolizes His divine nature. The two materials, the incorruptible wood and the gold, constitute, not two, but one board of the Tabernacle. The two materials were absolutely distinct. The wood never became gold. The gold never became wood. They did not modify each other. The two natures in Christ are distinct. His humanity never becomes deity. His deity never merges into His humanity. They do not modify each other. They were absolutely distinct and separate from each other; but while the two natures dwelt in Him and were distinct, He was not two persons but one; nevertheless, He was personally God and personally man. He was actual man; as it is written: “The man Christ Jesus.” (1 Timothy 2:5) He was very and true God. The Father owned Him as such. He said unto Him: “Thy throne, O God, is forever and forever.” (Hebrews 1:8) And again it is written: “Our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ.” (Titus 2:13) It is simple enough to see how the gold can be upon the wood. It is a mystery beyond human solution how the two distinct natures could be united in the one person so that the two natures were never confounded nor the personality divided. It is a mystery to mere reason but a sublime fact to God given faith. He acted, He spoke; He thought as a man. He was hungry, thirsty and grew weary as a man. He ate, He drank and He slept. He was sensitive. He could feel sorrow. He wept human tears. He died as generations of human beings before Him had died, and He was buried as the dead of human kind are buried. In all this He was real man. But He claimed to be God. He said and said it without hesitation, said it simply as a fact to Himself, as a part of His individual consciousness, that before the foundation of the world was laid and therefore before the universe was sent upon its course, He sat side by side with the Father upon His throne in all the infinitude of His glory as God. He said all the Father could do He could do. He could give eternal life. He could raise the dead. He would send some of the risen dead to partake of the Father’s favor and the Father’s glory forever. He would send others to endless punishment. He said all judgment had been committed to His hands. He affirmed Himself to be the way to God, the truth of God and the life of God. He said He was the only way by which any man might come to God as a Father. He invoked those who heard Him to believe on Him with the same faith and in the same manner as they believed in God. He testified without the slightest abashment that those who saw Him saw the Father also, that He was His image both essentially and omnipotently. He said an astounding thing coming from the lips of a man, He said this: “Whatsoever things the Father doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.” (John 5:19) “Likewise” is same-wise, in the same way, with the same authority and the same power. The Father did them as Almighty God. To do them as the Father did them therefore was to claim Himself to be no less than the Almighty, Omnipotent God. He put an accent and emphasis on the claim by declaring He had life in Himself––that is––self-existence. Think you any other man in his senses would claim as He did and unqualifiedly to be self-existent? All this He claimed while revealing Himself every day and in all things as actual man. He supported His extraordinary claims by miracles. He performed His miracles as only God could perform them. He performed them by the simple exercise of His will. He said: “I will.” He spoke and it was done, He commanded and it stood fast. If anything in this world can be demonstrated and proved, He demonstrated and proved He was very God. And yet––He was but––one person. His personality did not begin with His humanity. To the Jews He said: “Before Abraham was (not––I was, but) I am.” (John 8:58) His personal identity is seen in the remarkable use of the present tense, “I am.” That is to say, before Abraham was He not only existed, but existed as one who could bridge the distance from that hour, “before” Abraham to the moment in which He spoke with the present tense applied to Himself over the whole stretch of that existence––so that never in any part of it He should say––” I was,” but always––”I am.” “I am,” that was the sacred name the Jew gave to God, and God officially gave to Himself, the name that blots out time with its sliding scale of past and future and records only one––eternal present. In saying “I am” in relation to Abraham, He was saying He was Himself no less than that God who is the eternal I am.” That this is what He meant and said in such a way that those who heard Him should know He meant it, is incontrovertibly proven by the action of the Jews. They took up stones to stone Him. It was not because He claimed pre-existence they would stone Him. It was not a new claim among them. They had no revolt against Him for that, but because in using the expression, “I am,” instead of saying what, if speaking naturally, He should have said: “Before Abraham was, I was,” He deliberately used the sacred name as a declaration that His being was eternally pre-existent, that never at any point was He less than “I am,” and was therefore equal to and identical in being with the eternal God. Beyond all question He affirmed Himself to be the “I am” of Israel and thus identified Himself as that being who at the Burning Bush said to Moses: “I am that I am.” On another occasion He said: “I and my Father are one.” (John 10:30) The numeral adjective is neuter, therefore––one thing. A thing is a substance. He said therefore that He and the Father were of one substance. The substance of the Father is––being. Consequently He said He and the Father were of one being, that is––the same being. The being of the Father is––deity. Thus He said He and the Father were––one deity. Deity is––God. With unmistakable absolutism therefore He said He and the Father were––One God. He did not say––one person. On the contrary He said–– “I and My Father.” He was one person, the Father was another and distinct person. As two distinct persons they were but ––One God. The Father was God. He as the Son was God, of the same being and substance as the Father and equally God; not two Gods, but one God and yet two persons and each person absolutely God; so that, in saying, “I and my Father are one,” He said, “as much as the Father is God, by so much as I am His Son and of His substance and being, I too – am God.” Those who heard Him say, “I and my Father are one,” knew He was making this claim. That they knew it is proven in their action. They took up stones to stone Him. When He asked why they thought to stone Him they gave Him a plain and logical answer. They said: “Because that thou––being a man––makest thyself God.” (John 10:33) The people said He was––a man. And He was. They said He made Himself to be God. He did. He was God as well as man. He was not God and man. He was the––Godman. One personality, two distinct natures. This one personality and two distinct natures is continually revealed. It is definitely seen in the storm on Galilee. He and His disciples were in a boat in the midst of the lake. He was weary, and because of His weariness had fallen asleep in the hinder part of the ship. Suddenly the winds broke from their leash. They lifted the waters and flung them in giant waves from shore to shore where they broke and crashed and fell as in a baffled rage of white spume. They cried and shouted, these waves, and then screamed as though full of fiendish delight at the very madness of their fury. They tore the long, three-cornered sail from the quivering mast. They poured the white, yeasty waves in their whiplashed return from the resounding shores into the hold of the ship. Amid the tumult and tempest, even when the frail construction flung on the top of a breaking ridge of black waters threatened to capsize and engulf them all––the man Christ Jesus slept on. What a spectacle. A tempest––tossed ship––a sleeping Christ in the midst. Then the frightened disciples (frightened with a Christ in the ship) called to Him, aroused Him out of His sleep and reproached Him with His seeming indifference to their danger. He awoke, He arose. But the thing that appealed to Him was not the storm, the wild might of it, the fast filling ship and the yawning, black mouth of death. No! The thing that moved Him was the unbelief and fear of those who sailed with Him. He turned and faced, not the blinding storm, but the trembling men, and said: “O ye of little faith.” Unbelief! That was more terrible to Him than the storm; that called for more rebuke than the tempest. Then He faced the driving waters, the black clouds, the bellowing winds and said quietly: “Peace, be still.” Like wild beasts at the voice of the master, the winds slunk away and hushed their thundrous complaining, the waves became as smooth as a flawless mirror, and we are told: “There was a great calm.” (Matthew 8:26) In that scene on Galilee He was a real man, as really human as the men in the boat with Him. In that same scene He was very God. Consider, will you, in analyzing this miracle, that you have to reckon the force of the winds, the bulk and movement of the waters, the fact of gravitation, and over all the control that met the insistent demand of each and suddenly changed the operation of one set of forces and brought in others that nullified them; and this control expressed, not in any physical act, but by a fiat word, and you have a scenic demonstration that He who spoke the word was none other than very God. And yet, real man as He was and very God as He was, He was–– Only One Person. The Man Christ Jesus. Our Great God and Saviour. Incorruptible wood––sinless humanity, perfect man, Gold above the wood––absolute, essential deity. Two materials––one board. Two natures––one person. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 11: 02.04. THE BARS ======================================================================== THE BARS THERE were fifteen bars of wood covered with gold. There were five on each side of the Tabernacle and at the back or western end. They passed through and were held in place by rings in the boards. Three were long. They were middle bars going through the rings from end to end of each side and back of the Tabernacle. There were twelve short bars, four on each side and back. Two of the short bars were above the middle one, two below. Two short bars extended above and below the middle bar the length of The Holy Place. The other two extended above and below the middle bar the length of The Most Holy Place. All this was according to the pattern and commandment of God given to Moses; as it is written; “And thou shalt make bars of shittim wood; five for the boards of the one side of the tabernacle. And five bars for the boards of the other side of the Tabernacle, and five bars for the boards of the side of the Tabernacle, for the two sides westward. And the middle bar in the midst of the boards shall reach from end to end. (Exodus 26:26-28) And thou shalt rear up the Tabernacle according to the fashion thereof which was shewed thee in the mount.” (Exodus 26:30) The long bars went from one end of the Tabernacle to the other on both sides and from end to end in the back. They were the beginning and the ending of the Tabernacle, the beginning ‘and end of the Tabernacle as the revelation of God among men. As such they are a fitting and perfectly illustrative symbol of our Lord Jesus Christ as the beginning and the ending of God’s revelation of Himself to man. He declares Himself to be the beginning and the ending; as it is written: “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.” (Revelation 1:8) This is the Lord who is speaking. He claimed to be Almighty. He claimed it specially after His resurrection and just before His ascension. He said: “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” (Matthew 28:18) “All power,” is expressed in the term, “Almighty.” That it is the Lord Jesus Christ who speaks in Revelation 1:8, is demonstrated by Revelation 1:11. In that verse the speaker introduces his phrase with the same terms: “I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last.” “First and last” are equivalent to the “beginning and ending” of Revelation 1:8. That the speaker is our Lord Jesus Christ is demonstrated by the vision given to John. He turned to see who it was that spoke with Him and beheld our Lord Jesus Christ, risen, glorified, clothed with the garment of His high priestly office and function as final judge. But it is said the expression with which Revelation 1:11 opens, “I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last,” is not sanctioned by the oldest manuscripts. That does not affect the fact (the truth is, the “oldest.” manuscripts are not always the most reliable. This is notoriously true of the Vatican and Sinaitic codices. The present text should be the most authoritative). Even if it were set aside, Revelation 1:17 gives the same thought as Revelation 1:11. In that verse the Lord says to John: “I am the first and the last.” As in Revelation 1:8, Alpha and Omega, the first and the last letter of the Greek alphabet were used to introduce and emphasize the phrase, “the beginning and the ending,” then the “first and last” of Revelation 1:17, is equivalent to the letters Alpha and Omega and the “first and last” of Revelation 1:11; and since our Lord Jesus Christ Himself claims the application in Revelation 1:17, “the first and last,” and this title is equivalent to “beginning and ending” of Revelation 1:8, then it is beyond all question our Lord Jesus Christ is the speaker in Revelation 1:8. He it is who speaks and calls Himself, “the beginning and the ending––the Almighty.” When He says He is the “beginning and the ending, the first and the last, the Almighty,” He is saying He is the full and final revelation of what God is, ever has been and ever will be. That He is the beginning of the revelation of God is set forth in the essential title He claims for Himself: In Revelation 1:8, He speaks of Himself as––the Lord, the God (such is the full text). In the Old Testament the Hebrew is Yaveh—Elohim—The Lord God. In Genesis 1:1-31, God is introduced in His unit and absolute name––Elohim; that is, God. In Genesis 1:20, and succeeding verses, we find the expression, “God said.” To speak, to say a thing intelligently requires not only voice, but a word. In the third chapter the voice is heard and the speaker is described as the LORD God. In Genesis 3:22, the LORD God speaks and says: “The man is become as one of––us, to know good and evil.” In thus speaking the LORD God declares Himself in partnership with another person on equality with Himself. The key to this pluralism is found in the fact that the absolute name of God is—Elohim, is plural and includes the coincident existence of more than one person in the being of God. Since the LORD is the speaker of the Elohim, the only speaker, He is authoritatively and officially, the utterance of the Elohim and therefore the very Word of God. The Gospel of John opens with the significant statement: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.” (John 1:1-3) When therefore it is said in Genesis 1:1 : “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” and we learn from John’s Gospel that God the Creator was the Word of God, and in Genesis the Word of God is the LORD God, then the LORD God of Genesis and the Word of God of John’s Gospel are One and the Same. As previously stated, the whole matter is settled by Genesis 1:26. There one of the persons of the Godhead says, “Let us make man;” in the second chapter the person who “makes” man and is at the same time declared to be the Creator of the earth and the Heavens is seen to be the LORD God, the speaker, the Word of God. From John’s Gospel we learn the Word was made flesh, became incarnate as our Lord Jesus Christ. Since the LORD God was the Word of God, then our Lord Jesus Christ in His pre-existent state was the LORD God, and since the LORD God is the utterance of Godhead, the beginning of the revelation concerning Him, His mind and will, our Lord Jesus Christ is Himself that beginning of the revelation of God to man. And this is, indeed, the very statement of John. He says: “No man hath seen God (God the Father) at any time; the only begotten Son (God) which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him (literally, revealed Him).” (John 1:18) Our Lord Jesus Christ as the LORD God of the Old Testament is therefore in all verity the Alpha and Omega—The First—The Beginning of the revelation of God. All we know of God as set forth in the Old Testament has come through Him. All manifestation of Him from eternity as recorded in the Old Testament has been by and through our Lord Jesus Christ in His pre-existent state; as it is written: “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from old from everlasting.” (Micah 5:2) “From everlasting,” that is from eternity. From eternity He has been the outgoing, the forth putting, manifestation and expression of Almighty God. From all eternity He has been the visibility of God; as it is written: “Who being in the form of God took upon him the form of a servant.” (Php 2:6-7) If the form of the servant He took upon Him represents His visibility as a servant, then the form He had of God before He laid it aside to take upon Him the form of a servant represents His visibility as God. The truth is, God has never been seen apart from Him and never can be. If He is the beginning of the revelation of God, He is the ending; that is to say, the completion of the revelation—the Omega of Godhead. Henceforth God is to be seen and known in the universe through the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ. The God who became man. The man who is God. The eternal God—man. All there is of God is in–– Him; as it is written: “In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.”(Colossians 2:9) He is the beginning and the ending. He is all between the beginning and the ending. He is both circumference and center. He is extension and concentration. The long bars of the Tabernacle held it together. It might be truly said the Tabernacle consisted in the long bars. Without them it would have fallen apart. In this the long bar is the logical symbol of our Lord; for it is written: “By him (in Him) all things consist.” (Colossians 1:17) The verb form of the verb is, “sunesteeken,” it signifies, “put together,” “permanently framed together.” The verse therefore should read: “In him all things have been permanently framed together.” How wonderful this is. All things have been put together, all things have been framed together, all things are held together––in Christ. The universe is held together in Him. The universe is therefore—Christo-centric. Because Christ is, all things are; and because of Christ all things continue to be. It is not the law of gravitation that holds all things together, but this God-man, our Lord Jesus Christ. There are two words in Scripture that are measureless. These two words are: “In him.” “In him is life.” (John 1:4) In Him is the purpose which God purposed from the beginning; as it is written: “The eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Ephesians 3:11) In him, we who believe, are the very “righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) In Him, we who believe, are complete; as it is written: “And ye are complete in him, which is the head of ail principality and power.” (Colossians 2:10) Think of that, will you! He is the “fulness “of the Godhead. (Colossians 2:9) All there is of God is in Him. And we who believe are in Him. Complete in Him––the word is—pepleeromenoi we have been filled up full in him.” We are so complete in Him that in God’s sight we—lack nothing. In Christ we are absolutely perfect before the Father. The binding and holding together of the Tabernacle by the bars is emphasized in the two comer boards of the western end. They are particularly described: “And the two boards thou shalt make for the corners of the tabernacle in the two sides. “And they shall be coupled together beneath, and they shall be coupled together above the head of it unto one ring: thus shall it be for them both; they shall be for the two comers.” (Exodus 26:23-24) The two boards were joined together above and below and lapped each side from top to bottom and bottom to top where the end of the sides and the back came together. These boards like a long—V––the base of the—V—placed on the ridge of the comers and the members of it extending upon the sides met the bars and with them held the Tabernacle together. Thus the corner boards in their relation to the bars emphasized and illustrated the declaration that “in him all things consist.” These long bars were three in number. Three is the number of resurrection. The whole economy of God is held together, is framed together and permanently secured in the Risen Man. There were twelve short bars, six above and six below the middle bar. The six above with the middle bar made seven. The six below with the middle bar made seven. As three is the number of resurrection, seven, completion, perfection, and as twelve is administration, you have here illustrated the truth that all things in Heaven and in earth are to be headed up in Him as the Risen Man, as the Eternally Incarnate God; even as it is written: “That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he (God, the Father) might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him.” (Ephesians 1:10) This verse may be rendered: “That in the dispensation of the complete filling up of the ages, he, (God, the Father) might head up all things in Christ.” When the world was remade after the chaos into which it had fallen, all things were headed up in Adam. God gave him dominion over all things, put all things “under his feet.” (Psalms 8:4-6) Man fell, lost his headship and today is under the feet of all things, sin, sickness, sorrow and death.’ Our Lord came that He might meet the consequences of Adam’s sin, offered a sacrifice for the sin of the world, rose, ascended to Heaven and sits there now as the true Adam, the last Adam, and the second man. The time is coming, that hour called “the fulness of times,” the age toward which all times and seasons are flowing, when all things will be headed up in Him; when He will be seen and owned as the LORD God to the glory of the Father, owned and confessed by a prostrate universe as the Son of the Father, eternal Head of the universe, eternal visibility of God, eternally visible as—Man. All the effort man is now making in the realm of applied science; all his effort to obtain the mastery of the world is simply .the involuntary endeavor to get back the headship of the first man. The deliverance of the world from sin, sickness, lawlessness, war and death will never be found by and through the natural man. All his schemes for rebuilding the world and exalting natural humanity into the place originally ordained of God will fail. Wherefore it is written: “Now we see not yet all things put under him (that is, under the Adam man). But we see Jesus.” (Hebrews 2:8-9) By virtue of His death for the sake of which He actually became incarnate (as it is written: made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death) He is now crowned with honor. Seated at the right hand of the Father, He is the man in the glory, The head of that new race He is creating and through which He will rule the world, having all things under His feet. He it is to whom we are to look. It is He in whom humanity is to find the fulfillment of its hopes. It is by and through Him the world is to be delivered, lifted up and dominion, mastery, eternal life and immortality given to all who are in Him. All things were bound up and secured in the long bars of the Tabernacle. All things that are to be permanent and glorious are secured in Christ. In Him all the shadows become substance, in Him who is–– The beginning and the ending. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 12: 02.05. THE PILLARS ======================================================================== THE PILLARS THERE were three sets of pillars. Sixty pillars of the Court surrounding the Tabernacle, twenty on each side, ten at each end. They had capitals of silver and sockets of brass. Five pillars were at the eastern end of the Holy Place. Four pillars separated between the Holy and Most Holy Place. THE FOUR PILLARS OF THE EASTERN END OF THE COURT They had a hanging of fine linen with blue, purple and scarlet color wrought in needlework. This was called “The Gate of the Court.” “And for the gate of the court shall be an hanging of twenty cubits, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, wrought with needlework: and their pillars shall be four, and their sockets four.” (Exodus 27:16) THE FIVE PILLARS AT THE EASTERN END OF THE TABERNACLE They had capitals of Gold and sockets, or base, of brass. On these five pillars there was a hanging similar to the one on the pillars of the gate! This hanging was called” The Tabernacle door.” “And he made an hanging for the tabernacle door of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, of needlework; And the five pillars of it with their hooks; and he overlaid their chapiters and their fillets with gold; and their five sockets were brass.” (Exodus 36:37-38) THE FOUR PILLARS BETWEEN THE HOLY AND MOST HOLY PLACE They had no capitals. They were cut clean off. They were covered with gold. They had sockets of silver. On them was hung a vail of blue, and purple, and scarlet and fine––twined linen; this had worked upon it with needlework, the figures of the cherubim. “And he made a vail of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine––twined linen: with cherubims made he it of cunning work. And he made thereunto four pillars of shittim wood, and overlaid them with gold: their hooks were of gold; and he cast for them four sockets of silver.” (Exodus 36:35-36) By these three sets of pillars alone could entrance be had into the Tabernacle. These pillars represent our Lord in three characters. The Way. The Truth. The Life. He said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6) THE GATE OF THE COORT This was the prominent door or way of entrance to the Tabernacle. All approach to it as the dwelling place of God must begin here. It was a fitting symbol of our Lord as the door of the sheepfold, the door of the sheep and the door of the Church. “Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep ... I am the door; by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.” (John 10:7; John 10:9) “This gate of the Lord, into which the righteous shall enter.” (Psalms 118:20) On the other side of the gate was the brazen altar, the altar of sacrifice. All who would pass through that door and draw nigh to the Lord who reveals Himself in the Tabernacle must pass by the blood––stained altar or not at all. Christ is, indeed, the door, but He is the door opened and swung wide on the cross, the door opened by His sacrificial death, by the shedding of His blood. If you wish to draw nigh unto God you must come by way of the cross, by the way of His blood; as it is written: “Ye who sometime were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.” (Ephesians 2:13) Apart from His sacrificial death and outpoured blood Jesus Christ is not the way to God. You cannot come to God by or through Him merely as a good man, a righteous exemplar. When John, the Apostle, declares we become sons of God by faith in His name, he hastens to put on record as the” way,” the testimony of John the Baptist, who pointed his disciples to the Lord and said: “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh (beareth) away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29) Paul emphasizes it when he says to the Corinthians: “I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” (1 Corinthians 2:2) Christ is the way to God and to God the Father only through the blood of His cross. THE FOUR PILLARS OF THE GATE OF THE COURT These four pillars illustrate the fourfold Sonship of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was— The Son of David. Son of Abraham. Son of man. Son of God. The book of Matthew opens with the record of His genealogy as the Son of David and the Son of Abraham. “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.” (Matthew 1:1) As the Son of David, He is the heir of David’s throne and ordained to sit upon it; as it is written: “He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David.” (Luke 1:32) As the Son of Abraham, He is the Seed promised to Abraham. “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, and to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.” (Galatians 3:16) To Abraham was promised and covenanted the land of Palestine, from the river of Egypt to the great river Euphrates. “The LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates.” (Genesis 15:18) Since our Lord Jesus Christ is the seed of Abraham, and the land was given by solemn covenant to Abraham, then our Lord Jesus Christ as the official son of Abraham is the heir of Abraham and true owner of the land of Palestine. Heir of David’s throne and heir of Abraham’s land. No matter what schemes and mandates nations may make among themselves concerning Jerusalem and Palestine, God has ordained that our Lord Jesus Christ shall sit on David’s throne, possess and rule over the land. The land concerning which it is written: “Thy land O Immanuel.” (Isaiah 8:8) He will rise up, He will take to Himself His great power, He will come forth in His glory and Jerusalem shall be established and made His throne; as it is written: “At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD.” (Jeremiah 3:17) The place of His throne will be in the temple that is to be built after His return, a temple built according to the plan laid down in the book of the prophet Ezekiel; as it is there written: “And the glory of the LORD came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east. So the Spirit took me up, and brought me into the inner Court; and behold, the glory of the LORD filled the house. And I heard him speaking unto me out of the house; and the man stood by me. And he said unto me, “Son of man, the place of my throne.” And that there may be no possible excuse for explaining away the truth by spiritualizing it, the Lord says: “The place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever.” (Ezekiel 43:4-7) That the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ in Jerusalem at that time is to be a literal, actual, bodily presence is demonstrated and proven by the name henceforth to be given to the city; as it is written: “The name of the City from that day shall be, the Lord is there.” (Ezekiel 48:35) Literally it should read: “The Lord is therein.” And He will be there, in that city, and III that temple with— “The soles of His feet.” If that language does not mean He will be in the temple, dwell in Jerusalem, be seen and known in His bodily presence, then language has no other: function (even when inspired [?] of God) than to juggle and fool the sons of men. But the language means just what it says. It means that— When the people from the uttermost parts of the earth shall come up to worship the Lord in Jerusalem, at the very sight of the city there will break from their lips, involuntarily, the cry— “Jehovah Shammah––the Lord is therein.” Thus will it pass into name and title of the city. As Son of Man, He is final judge; as it is written: “For as the Father hath life in himself (self–existence); so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself (self–existence); And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.” (John 5:26) “He (God the Father) hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from’ the dead.” (Acts 17:31) As the Son of God, He is the Father’s heir, heir of all things; as it is written: “His Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things.” (Hebrews 1:2) As the Son of God He partakes of the essential nature of the Father. As the Father is God, He is, and by necessity, not only Son of God, but God the Son. As such the Father addresses Him: “Unto the Son he saith, thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever.” (Hebrews 1:8) The Four Gospels, like the four pillars of the Gate, proclaim His fourfold Sonship. In Matthew, we behold Him as the Son of Abraham coming into Palestine, into His own land, and as the Son of David, riding into Jerusalem at the appointed time and in foretold manner to offer Himself as King and to claim His throne. In Mark, we have vision of Him as Son of Man forgiving sin, and forgiving, because as Son of Mail He has the authority of final and eternal judge; as it is written: “The Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins.” (Mark 2:10) In Luke, as Son of Man we behold Him a man among men, receiving sinners and eating with them, talking to them in speech so that “the common people” heard Him “gladly,” illustrating His mission by such wondrous pictures as the shepherd seeking the lost sheep––the woman seeking the lost piece of money––and the father receiving the returning prodigal. As the Son of man He is seen executing judgment on the nations, putting an end to the “times of the Gentiles,” and delivering Jerusalem; as it is written: “Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled… And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.” (Luke 21:24-27) In John, He is set before us as the Son of God, God the Son, God the Word, the God who created all things. “God the Word was made flesh (and we beheld his glory, the glory as the only begotten of the Father.” (John 1:14) “All things were made by Him.” In the Gospel of John we have the confession that He is to be worshipped as God. The confession was made by Thomas: “Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.” (John 20:28) THE FIVE PILLARS OF THE DOOR OF THE TABERNACLE In the prophetic announcement of His birth five great names are given Him: Wonderful. Counsellor. The Mighty God. The Everlasting Father. The Prince of Peace. “His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6) THE FOUR PILLARS OF THE VAIL These had no capitals. The tops were abruptly—cut off. There is a very startling prophecy concerning our Lord before He was born in which may be found this expression “cut off.” “He was (that is, He would be) cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgression of my people was he (that is, he would be) stricken.” (Isaiah 53:4) Because He was “cut off,” slain, sacrificed, sacrificed not only on behalf of Israel but for all who offer Him by faith as sacrifice for sin and claim Him as personal substitute under the judgment due them. He is made unto them like the four golden pillars to uphold and sustain them in the sight of God. These four pillars of the believers’ strength are, Wisdom. Righteousness. Sanctification. Redemption. By virtue of His amazing death on the cross He is made all that to those who believe in and confess Him. “But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.” (1 Corinthians 1:30) He is our wisdom. In Him we are made “wise unto salvation.” We are able to see what the natural mind cannot comprehend––and find in Him the wisdom we need to walk as sons of God in the midst of a “crooked and perverse generation. “ He is our righteousness. On the cross He became obedient unto the death which the righteousness of God demanded of us. When we believed, His obedience was transferred to our account. In Him we met and paid all we owed to justice. We became at once legally righteous in God’s sight. Risen and ascended to Heaven, our Lord there represents us as having met all claims against us and thus becomes our righteousness before God; wherefore it is written: “The Lord our righteousness.” (Jeremiah 23:6) Again it is written: “The righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.” (Romans 3:22) And again: “God hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) He is our sanctification. We do not have to work and toil and fight the flesh and take specific note. of our spiritual progress and talk about” attaining” unto righteousness. The moment we believe we are sanctified. We are immediately, holy before God. He is our holiness, He is our righteousness, He is our completeness; wherefore it is written: “Ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:11) And mark who these were of whom this was written: They were the lowest, the worst, the vilest sinners of the most sinful city of the earth. “Fornicators, adulterers, effeminate, abusers of themselves with mankind. Thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, extortioners.” Writing to them after they had believed and were saved in .virtue of the blood of the cross, the Apostle says: “And such were some of you.” (1 Corinthians 6:9-11) That is what they were, that is the life they lived until they heard the Gospel from the lips of Paul; then when they turned to the Lord; when they claimed His atoning blood; when they drew nigh to God in His name, they became in God’s sight as clean as that Son who had died for them, and clean—at once. There is no personal, self-purification we must go through before we are fit’ for Heaven. We are, as believers, fit and meet to go there now, stumbling, faltering Christians as we may be, all our fitness is in Him, what He has done for us, and what He is for us. It is His fitness that makes us meet to go to Heaven, to go there any moment He may call us, even as it is written: “Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.” (Colossians 1:12) Let this Scripture be read literally: “Who has qualified us (made us competent, fit) to have a share in the inheritance of the holy ones in the light.” It is written: “Ye are complete in him.” (Colossians 2:10) Live righteously, live holily, live as a son of God should, seeking to glorify God in daily life, in deed, in word and thought, intent, impulse and purpose––do all that, seek to do it with all that is in you, it is your privilege and mine––we have been equipped for it but do not seek to follow the false lead of those who teach the old nature of sin in you can be destroyed here, that you can modify and finally make perfect and sinless that old nature. With the Apostle we may ask: “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?” And with the Apostle we are, as regenerated sons of God, under bonds to answer: “God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin (died to sin, to the penalty of sin in our substitute) live any longer therein?” (Romans 6:2) He is our redemption. His presence in Heaven as the Risen One is witness He paid in full the debt against us, and is there as our living receipt, our guarantee against any charge that may be brought against us; so that with boldness we may fling out the believer’s challenge and ask: “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died. Yea, rather, that is risen again. Who is even at the right hand of God. Who also maketh intercession for us.” (Romans 8:33-34) This then is the teaching of the Framework with its boards, its bars, its pillars: The Person of Christ in all the glory of His being, in all the perfection of His perfect work. (It is in place here to note that while the system of typology is not an invention of man, a matter of mere imagination, a scheme of more or less successful guessing, but an essential part of Scripture construction, the divinely given key of truth, the revelation and illumination of it; nevertheless, there is a direct law concerning it, a law that forbids us to found a doctrine on a type, never under any circumstance to build one thereon. We are to go into the New Testament, find the doctrine there, then go back to the Old Testament and seek to discover the type that shall match it. We are to do this with prayer and absolute reverence, rebuking any suggestion that would lead us to bend or accommodate the type to the doctrine in any degree whatever. The type and the doctrine must fit so plainly that the one will supplement the other, the type, so completely that it becomes the prophecy of the doctrine, the doctrine, the demonstration and proof of the inspiration of the type—thus justifying the literal statement of the Apostle: “Now all these things happened unto them as types; and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the age have come.” [1 Corinthians 10:11.] Also Paul’s particular reference to the Holy and Most Holy Places in the Tabernacle and thus to the Tabernacle itself: “Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the types of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.” [Hebrews 9:24.] ======================================================================== CHAPTER 13: 02.06. FOUNDATION OF THE TABERNACLE ======================================================================== FOUNDATION OF THE TABERNACLE THE foundation of the Tabernacle consisted of one hundred sockets of silver, two under each of the forty-eight boards, and four under the pillars of the vail. Each socket weighed a talent (nearly a hundred pounds). “A talent for a socket.” (Exodus 38:27.) The silver was taken from the atonement money which each man above twenty must give as a ransom for his soul. It was his redemption price. “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, When thou takest the sum of the children of Israel after their number, then shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the LORD, when thou numberest them; that there be no plague among them, when thou numberest them. This they shall give, everyone that passeth among them that are numbered, half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary: (a shekel is twenty gerahs:) an half shekel shall be the offering of the LORD. Everyone that passeth among them that are numbered, from twenty years old and above, shall give an offering unto the LORD. The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when they give an offering unto the LORD, to make an atonement for your souls.” (Exodus 30:11-15.) “And the silver of them that were numbered of the congregation was an hundred talents, and a thousand seven hundred and three score and fifteen shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary: A bekah for every man, that is, half a shekel, after the shekel of the sanctuary, for everyone that went to be numbered, from twenty years old and upward, for six hundred thousand and three thousand and five hundred and fifty men. And of the hundred talents of silver were cast the sockets of the sanctuary, and the sockets of the vail; an hundred sockets of the hundred talents, a talent for a socket.” (Exodus 38:25-27.) The silver money sockets of the Tabernacle are a symbol of the precious price paid by our Lord Jesus Christ for the ransom of those who are His; as it is written: “Ye are bought with a price.” (1 Corinthians 6:20.) But this redemption price was paid by Him neither in silver nor gold, but with His own precious blood. “Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold— But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.” (1 Peter 1:18-19.) The word, “precious,” signifies, “costly.” It was costly indeed, this blood, this “half shekel of the sanctuary,” told out drop by drop in the anguish of the cross. By “precious” means of “exalted worth.” It was. It was nothing less than the—blood OF GOD. Startling! but true. Hear the word of Holy Scripture about it: “The church of God which he (God) hath purchased with his own blood.” (Acts 20:28.) Since our Lord Jesus Christ was the “purchaser,” the statement is therefore, of course, a declaration that He was God. This is only another one of those side testimonies which are continually waiting to thrust themselves in that they may suddenly and unexpectedly proclaim His deity. Atonement by—the blood OF GOD––that is the authoritative word of Holy Scripture. And it is on this basis of atonement the Tabernacle was set up. The basis of––redemption by atonement. The basis on which our Lord Jesus Christ is presented to men is not that of a good man, nor yet, as merely God manifest in the flesh. He did not come into the world that He might live in sinless perfection as a man, nor that He might demonstrate Himself to be a God-man. If that were all, there would be little hope for sinful man. The more such a Christ should reveal Himself in holiness and divinity, the greater and more bridgeless would be seen to be the gulf between Him and the natural man. To set Him up as an example to men would be to mock the helplessness of men. He did not come into the world to live a life so transcendently perfect and beautiful that the multitude would fall in love with Him––No! He did not come into the world to live at all. His one great purpose was to die. To die, that by His death He might provide an atonement for the sinner, ransom him from guilt, from penalty and power of sin. He Himself testifies He came into the world to die. “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.” (John 10:17-18.) He received this command before He carne into the world; and this in the nature of the case; for as the Lamb of God He was ordained before the foundation of the world.” (1 Peter 1:20.) He received this commandment in His pre-incarnate state while He was in the “form” of God. (Php 2:6.) As He was God the Lord, coeval and co eternal and coequal with the Father, He could not be “commanded “without His willingness. If He received a commandment from the Father to lay down His incarnate life, it was because He had agreed to do so, and agreement in Godhead between Father and Son is––covenant. It was according to covenant He was brought again from the dead––such is the assertion of Scripture. “The God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant.” (Hebrews 13:20.) The logic of that statement is inexorable. If He were raised from the dead according to the everlasting covenant, then by And through that same covenant He entered into death. This is His own definite statement: “Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father save me from this hour?” Do you see the meaning of that? He is soliloquizing. He is asking Himself whether He shall call upon the Father to save Him from that shameful death of the cross already casting its deepening shadows upon Him. He could have done that. At the grave of Lazarus He declared before the people that the Father always heard Him, and He meant by that––always answered Him. He said: “I knew that thou hearest me always.” (John 11:42.) If He had called upon the Father, the Father would have heard and answered Him. Listen, I pray you, how He finished His soliloquy: “But––for this cause (literally––on account of this) came I unto this hour.” (John 12:27.) He came to be rejected of His own people and hung upon a Roman cross––and at once He speaks of that death and the manner of it; He says: “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” And then in explanation of the peculiarity of this expression it is written: “This he said, signifying what death he should die.” (John 12:32-33.). Wherefore, also, it is written: “We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels (angels are not subject to death) made a little lower than the angels for––the suffering of death. . . that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man (one).” (Hebrews 2:9.) Continually He announced He had come into the world to die. Persistently He told His disciples He would be crucified. As the hour drew on we are told, “He steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem.” (Luke 9:51.) From all eternity He was ordained to be crucified. As such Paul preached Him. He refused to preach Him in any other way. He might have preached Him as a good man. He might have preached Him as the God who came down to earth to show Himself as such to men. He never did so preach Him. In none of his discourses does he dwell upon the perfect, human life of Christ that he may set Him before men as a worth-while and saving example. If he speak of His deity (and none has written more amazingly in support of it than he) he does so that he may draw attention to the immensity of the transaction on the cross; that it might be seen He was there in all the perfectness of His humanity and all the plenitude of His deity––perfect man for a perfect sacrifice––eternal and very God, that as God His sacrifice might satisfy the being of God––God atoning to God on behalf of man that God in all righteousness and to the justification of His righteousness might save unrighteous and sinful men––making them at last essentially and eternally righteous. Never, not for a moment, does Paul engage in the worse than babbling of those who talk about such meaningless and extra Scriptural things as the “precepts “and “principles” of Christ. His one theme was Christ and Him crucified. A crucified, a sacrificial and an atoning Christ, whose shed blood, like the silver base of the Tabernacle, was the only foundation upon which any human being could stand and be accepted of a holy God. THE TABERNACLE A SYMBOL OF THE CHURCH If the Tabernacle set forth our Lord Jesus Christ as the dwelling place of God, equally so is it a symbol of the Church as the dwelling place of God on earth today. By regeneration, by the impartation of His life and nature through the operation of the Holy Spirit the risen Christ dwells in each genuine believer; each believer, each real Christian is––the reincarnation of Christ. It is this process of reincarnating Christ in a human life that gives us the distinctive character of this age and the distinctive character of God’s dealing with the world today; as it is written: “Even the mystery (secret) which has been hid from ages and from generations, but is now made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is––Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:26-27.) The believer is “joined” to the Lord as “one spirit.” (1 Corinthians 6:17.) Christ in each believer joins each believer to every other believer, and these individual believers constitute the spiritual body of Christ in which each is a special and “particular” member. “By (in) one Spirit are we (we have been) baptized into one body whether we be Jews or Gentiles.” (1 Corinthians 12:13.) (This baptism by the Risen Lord of Jewish believers into one spirit took place at Pentecost in Jerusalem, the baptism of the Gentile believers at the house of Cornelius in Caesarea, where after they had been baptized into the Spirit they were, also, baptized in water.) “So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and everyone members one of another.” Romans 12:5) Again it is written: “Christ liveth in me.” (Galatians 2:20.) Since Christ dwells in the believer, and Christ is God, very God of very God, then God is dwelling in the Church and the Church is the Tabernacle of God, the dwelling place of God; as it is written: “Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner (like the corner board of the Tabernacle going from the bottom all the way to the top). In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord; In whom ye also are builded together (are being builded) for an habitation (dwelling place) of God through the Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:21-22.) Beyond question the Tabernacle is a symbol of the Church as the reincarnation of Christ, the dwelling place of God on earth. Since the Tabernacle was built upon the silver of the half shekel and that silver was the silver money of atonement for Israel and a symbol of the atonement to be made by our Lord Jesus Christ by and through His sacrificial death, it is an open declaration that the Church stands before God today on the basis of the atonement made by that sacrificial death and outpoured blood and finds its acceptance and security on none’ other. And that his sacrificial and atoning death may ever be kept before the Church as the ground and security of her acceptance before God there has been given to her two ordinances and two only, Baptism and the Breaking of Bread. Baptism “is the confession of the individual believer that Christ died, was buried and rose again. It is the confession of the believer that the moment he believed he was owned of God as having been put to death judicially in the death of Christ as his substitute; that he was buried representatively in His grave, rose and ascended representatively in Him and is now accepted as seated in “heavenly places” in Christ. It is the believer’s further confession of his confidence should he die and his body be buried away, he, too, like his Lord, and by His power should rise from the dead and be made immortal. The Breaking of Bread is the confession of the Church as a Body, and in assembly order, not only that Christ died, but that His death is the sole ground of approach to and worship of God. The Breaking of Bread is. the setting up of the cross in the very midst of the’ assembly and a proclamation by the Church that its standing and acceptance before God as His Tabernacle and dwelling place on earth is alone in the atoning sacrificial death of His Son, The authoritative word of the ordinance is this: “Ye do shew the Lord’s death.” By that ordinance the attention of the Church is drawn, not to the life our Lord lived on the earth, but ––to the death He died on the cross. With such an ordinance in the midst (and continuously––not spasmodically) observed, neither the preacher in the pulpit, nor the professor in the pew has any excuse for missing the mission of the Lord in the world. With that ordinance centered before them there is no ground on which to exalt Him merely as a good man, a teacher and a dispenser of “precepts” and “principles;” in the broken bread and poured out wine; in the headquarters statement: “This is my body, This is my blood,” there is only one vision of Him given to the Church––His bloody and sacrificial offering of Himself as the Great Sin Offering provided of God for the salvation’ of guilty and ruined human beings. And as she takes of that bread and wine the Church confesses that she lives because––He died. Nor is this all of the ordinance. “Ye do shew the Lord’s death till––He come.” “Till He come.” Then He is coming again! What daylight in those words for the assembled Church. If He is coming again then––He is alive. If He is alive then He rose from the dead, and His resurrection is the incontrovertible demonstration and proof that the sacrificial death the Church is solemnly memorializing in that ordinance, has met and settled all claims of righteousness against her. It is the guarantee of the promise He made: “Because I live (will live again after my death) ye shall live also.” “Till He come!” What music in those words––what a prospect they unvail. He is coming back, coming for the Church for whom He died. How immense is this ordinance. It sets forth: The Death, The Burial, The Resurrection, The Ascension, The Second coming of our Lord. How can a Church go wrong with these two ordinances: Baptism as the individual confession of the Believer that he has passed through the judgment with Christ on the cross. Breaking the Bread––the Church seated together on the Lord’s Day (Day of His resurrection) with the judgment of the cross behind her and the glory of the Coming Lord before her. Just think of it! Judgment behind us. Glory before us. Let the wisdom and genius of the Lord who inspired these ordinances as safeguards of the Church in respect to doctrine be glorified; for, in face of any denial of the truth these ordinances are there the proclamation of it and the rock––like resistance to any denial of it. See how Baptism rebukes anyone who fails to recognize that his faith must own a Christ dead, buried and risen again; and as baptism requires that the body buried in the baptismal water shall be lifted out again, how this baptism keenly rebukes those who would profess faith in Christ and deny His bodily resurrection. See how the ordinance of the Breaking of Bread, the Lord’s Supper rebukes those who fail to see that the only ground of approach to God is in the sacrificial death of His Son. The sockets of the Tabernacle were made of individually given half shekels. Each man had to bring his half shekel. Salvation is not to be had in bloc. Social salvation, salvation of society as such is something entirely unknown to Holy Scripture––it is absolutely––extra Biblical. Salvation is individual––personal. Social and personal salvation considered as systems are as far apart as the east is from the west. Social salvation has to do with man here, it does not go beyond the horizon of this world and time. Individual salvation has to do with man not merely here, but beyond this world, in eternity, it is his relation to eternity that determines God’s dealings with him here. The man who is saved for eternity has the grace and equipment of God to live here no matter what the social condition. The man who is identified with a social salvation, with a mere moral adjustment of the world and no guaranty of the favor of God in eternity lacks the favor of God here, and no matter how fine may be the civilization of which he is a contributing factor both that civilization and himself are doomed to judgment and destruction. Wherefore our Lord has said, “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” There is a far––reaching meaning in that. It is saying in final terms that no matter how this world may be builded, what comfort and beauty you may put into it for the sake of the mass, if you do not have a personal salvation by and through a personal Saviour, it shall profit you nothing––a whole world gained and a personal soul lost is a fearful rebuke to the illusion and delusion of a so––called––Social Gospel. Nay! salvation must be individual––you must bring your half shekel. You must make a personal application of the cross to your soul, you must claim an individual part in it. Do not make a mistake, the Gospel is not for the mass, it is for “every creature.” It separates you from the mass and says to you: “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead thou––shalt be saved.” (Romans 10:9.) In Israel there was the same standard for all. Each must bring a half shekel. The rich could bring no more. The poor should bring no less; as it is written: “The rich shall not give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel, when they give an offering unto the LORD, to make an atonement for your souls.” (Exodus 30:15.) The rich had no pre-eminence by reason of their wealth. The poor were not shut out because of their poverty. , You may be rich in moral character––you may have a great reserve capital in the merit of works of righteousness you have wrought. This will not save you, it will not give you eternal life, it will not give title to enter Heaven and the kingdom of God. If you would be saved you must bring the half shekel––the blood of Christ, that is the true half shekel of the sanctuary; that is the only coin that will pass at the throne of God––and that is––all sufficient. Come with the blood of Christ and offer that to God, you shall be accepted and saved no matter who you are or what you have been. You may be poor, utterly bankrupt in character, a moral outcast, no matter, you can offer the half shekel of the sanctuary, the precious blood of Christ, it will pay your debt and you shall stand absolved and clean in God’s sight; for it is written: “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son, cleanseth us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7) The half shekel counted for the rich, it brought him atonement. The half shekel counted for the poor, it brought him atonement. It is the blood, and the blood alone that counts, it is the blood alone that meets the individual case; as it is written: “It is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” (Leviticus 17:11) The silver sockets were a continual memorial to the children of Israel that the Lord had redeemed them; it was, also, a memorial that He had purchased them, they were His and no longer their own. This is the logic of the price paid for us on the cross, the logic for all who believe; as it is written: “Ye are not your own. For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20.) The sum of the teaching is simple enough. The silver foundation of the Tabernacle testified that our Lord Jesus Christ should come into the world to die as a sacrifice for sin and on that basis make it possible for God to dwell in man. The silver sockets of the Tabernacle testify that as a Church and individual members of it we stand before God accepted in His sight and owned as His dwelling place on the basis of the half shekel of the cross, even the atoning blood of the Son of God offered by us through faith. Not only is our standing before God on the basis of the atoning sacrifice of the Cross and the fact that we have claimed the blood as offered on our behalf, but our approach individually is on that ground. At no time in our Christian experience, no matter how fully we may have surrendered to the indwelling of Christ, never, at any time, even in the most exalted state of our appropriation of Christ can we approach Him and the Father’s throne on any other ground than of the blood shed for us. When the Church as His, glorified Bride shall be caught up at His Coming for her and enter Heaven with Him, when she shall find herself on the threshold of the kingdom and about to return with Him in His Kingly splendor, even then every individual member will break out into the great song that shall thrill Heaven with its paean of praise to the redeeming grace and triumphant authority of the blood. This will be the song they will sing: “Thou art worthy to take the book, (the title deeds of the kingdom), and to open the seals (the signals for the outpouring of judgments) thereof: for thou wast slain, and has redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation.” (An individual redemption.) (Revelation 5:9.) ======================================================================== CHAPTER 14: 02.07. THE COURT FENCE ======================================================================== THE COURT FENCE THE Court was a space about the Tabernacle one hundred and seventy-five feet long and eighty-seven and a half feet wide; that is, half as wide as long. It was enclosed by a fence made of white linen and hung from sixty pillars, twenty on each side, and ten on each end. The four pillars of the eastern end as already stated formed the gate of entrance. As the Tabernacle was the dwelling place of God, and the camp the allotted dwelling place of man, the Court fence occupied a definite position between them. As the Tabernacle in all its parts, its accessories and detail set forth our Lord Jesus Christ in His personal being, work and glory, and as the linen is particularly the symbol of His humanity, then the fence represents Him as filling the office between God and man. The position and office thus symbolized is that of a Mediator. Scripture speaks of our Lord Jesus Christ as such. “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” (1 Timothy 2:5; Hebrews 8:6.) “He is the mediator of the new covenant.” (Hebrews 12:24.) A mediator is one who takes an official and accepted position between two parties. He is a go-between. A mediator is under bonds to offer something that will satisfy each of the parties. It is by satisfying the claims of each he will be able to reconcile them, harmonize their difference, make them friends. In this linen fence there were two things to be noted –the top and the bottom of the pillars. The top was silver, the bottom or base, brass. Brass is a composition that will stand the test of fire. Fire is, again and again, set forth in Scripture as a symbol of the judgment of God. “Thou shalt be visited of the LORD of hosts with thunder, and with earthquake, and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire.” (Isaiah 29:6.) “With the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire.” (Isaiah 30:30.) “For, behold, the LORD will come with fire, and with his chariots like a whirlwind, to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire.” (Isaiah 66:15.) There is only one thing that can stand the test of the fire of divine judgment and that is-righteousness. The best righteousness of the best man offered to God would be an offence to Him and call for added wrath. The best righteousness of’ the best man offered to God is nothing better in His sight than rags, not merely rags, but the foulest and most unclean of foul and unclean rags; even as it is written: “All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” (Isaiah 64:6.) Under the devouring fire of God’s judgment such righteousness would be turned to ashes, the individual offering them would be ruined, consumed, utterly destroyed. What man needs is a righteousness that will meet the demands of God’s holiness. Because man has failed, because he is a violator of God’s standard, wholly unrighteous and unclean before Him, the living, holy and righteous God demands atonement, satisfaction from the sinner. That satisfaction is found in the death of the sinner. But once in there is “no discharge in that war.” There is no remedy. Behold the two facts: Man needs righteousness before he can be saved and appear in the presence of God. God demands atonement for man’s lack of it, and demands it unto the uttermost. If someone can be found who will make atonement for man, and make it on the basis of a satisfaction that will meet all the requirement of God’s righteousness, God will give him the righteousness he needs. He will accept him in this bestowed righteousness, they shall be reconciled, they shall no longer be enemies, but friends. The answer to all this is in the symbol of the Court fence. In the silver tops of the pillars you have-atonement. In the brazen base you have—righteousness. In the linen you have the Man Christ Jesus (for, since linen is flax, and flax comes up out of the earth, it is the symbol of the humanity of Christ); and it is He who has been found of God the Father to offer atonement on behalf of man. By His sacrificial death He provides that atonement. He becomes obedient unto death for man, meets his sentence and expiates his guilt. He offers this obedience unto death on behalf of the believing sinner. God the Father accepts that act of obedience as the obedience of the believer, imputes it to him, charges it over to his credit. The believer becomes at once legally righteous in the sight of God; not only so, Christ Himself becomes his righteousness; as it is written: “The righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe.” (Romans 3:22.) On that basis the risen Son of God gives eternal life to the believer, joins him to Himself. The believer is in Him, joined to Him as one spirit. “He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” (1 Corinthians 6:17.) Not only so. He is joined to the Lord’s risen and glorified body; as it is written: “We are members of his body, of his flesh and bones.” (Ephesians 5:30.) (The oldest Greek manuscripts lack this reading, but the oldest versions have it and indicate that older codices than the oldest now known had it. Our Lord’s statement when He rose from the dead concerning His body as “flesh and bones,” testifies that union with Him in spirit equally calls for union with His body.) The believer is united to a complete Lord. The Lord becomes to him his essential and organic righteousness, and the believer .in Him becomes the very righteousness of the righteous God; as it is written, and cannot too often be repeated: “God hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21.) By this mediation God and man have been brought together and are at one in Christ. The linen Court fence with the silver tops and brazen bases-of the pillars set before us the great Mediator between God and man, THE MAN CHRIST JESUS. It seems fitting here to meet a false concept concerning our Lord’s death. It is freely stated by those who are the enemies of the Gospel that the doctrine of mediation built upon sacrificial and substitutional death, the innocent suffering for the guilty, is not only revolting in itself, but that it represents God as an angry God anxious to punish. the sinner and make him suffer, requiring all the agony of Christ’s crucifixion, all His moral suffering and the shedding of His blood to make Him relent and show some degree of favor, some measure of unwilling love to the sinner. Such in fact is a libel on the Gospel and a scandal to the cross. The truth is—God is love as well as law. He has always loved the sinner. But He could not allow His love to violate His law. The love that violates law is lawlessness. It was lawless love at the outset that filled the world with sin and has succeeded in burning the blister of sin and shame and lust upon the forefront of humanity today. For God to violate the law which promises death against sin and for love’s sake set it aside would be to make God the great law violator of the universe, His throne the center of lawlessness and send this same universe upon a course of endless confusion and cataclysmic destruction. God’s love to man could be expressed and given to him only through a righteousness which should condemn sin and yet, save the sinner. God’s love must have a righteous channel. Where and how should it be found. The cross of Christ is the answer. On that cross the Son of God comes that He may open up a righteous way by which and through which God’s love may come to the sinner and save him. He goes to that cross voluntarily. He is not an innocent one dragged there against His will. He is God the Son who created a sinless humanity for Himself and for the express purpose that He might die and meet all the righteous demands of God. He is something more than a mere man, He is God, and God the Father Himself is there and in Him, it is God providing the way for His love to flow out. It is love immense. It is not only love on the part of the Son who gives Himself in sacrifice, it is the love of a Father who feels, and must feel, the anguish of love in surrendering His beloved Son to the righteous law wrath He Himself invokes. And the whole transaction is precisely upon the same basis by which one man sinned and made all unrighteous-on that same basis, the one for the many, He offers Himself to glorify the righteousness of God and thus permit the love of God to flow forth. In the light of this, how immense, how full of illumination is that marvellous statement of His: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” As voluntary sacrifice, substitute, mediator, He brings the wrath side of God’s righteousness upon Himself, exhausts it, justifies God in all His righteous ways and thus allows God the Father to stretch out His hand of love to the sinner, to be just and yet the justifier of the sinner. As the Mediator between God and man He did not hold back the smiting of an angry God, exercising anger for mere anger’s sake, but provided the way by which a righteous God might still be righteous and yet pour forth in a righteous way, a way that punished sin and proclaimed to all the universe the exceeding sinfulness of sin and His hatred of it, the infinite and measureless love which from all eternity had been in His heart for a lost and dying world. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 15: 02.08. THE COVERINGS ======================================================================== THE COVERINGS THERE were two coverings for the Tabernacle, one of badgers’ skins, the other of rams’ skins dyed red. THE BADGERS’ SKINS “And thou shalt make a covering for the tent (Tabernacle) of badgers’ skins.” (Exodus 26:14.) These badgers’ skins were of a dull, bluish-grey color. There was no recorded measure. They had no definite form. There was neither comeliness nor beauty about them. There was nothing in appearance that could make anyone desire them. , To one looking at them they seemed common, ordinary, and the tendency would be to despise and reject them. In this covering you have a perfect picture of our Lord Jesus Christ as He passed through the world and as He appeared in the eyes of men. The manner of Him was foretold centuries before He was born. “He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” (Isaiah 53:2-3.) No one who saw the Tabernacle under the outer covering of badgers’ skins would have dreamed of the wealth, the gold, the form, the color and the exquisite beauty beneath it. Only when such an one should enter and behold the golden table of shew bread, the golden candlestick, the golden altar of incense, the beautiful vail, the sacred precincts of the Most Holy Place, the ark of the covenant, the golden mercy seat with the two golden angels, the solemn, mysterious shekinal light; only when he should see the inner walls of pure, gleaming gold, the ceiling above in spotless white, byssus linen and on it as a background the spreading wings of the amazing cherubim in blue, purple and scarlet, wrought with the rarest skill of fine needlework and embroidery; only when he should walk in the light, not the light of day, but the sacred light of the sacred and holy oil; only when he should catch the almost blinding flash of splendor meeting him at every turn and breathed in the white, ascending smoke of the fragrant incense; only when he could stand within and say: “I am in the Tabernacle, the dwelling place and enthronement of God,” only then could he know its beauty, wealth and glory. And he only could stand within who should come by way of the brazen altar at the gate of the Court with the blood of sacrifice offered there; he, and he only, could enter the Tabernacle and behold all it revealed of the divine plan and inspired workmanship. No one who saw our Lord garbed in the coarse, seamless robe of the poor, walking over the highways, through the streets and lanes of villages, towns and cities; no one who heard Him testify that birds of the air had nests and foxes had holes, but He, Himself, had not where to lay His head; no one who saw Him seated at a public table in a wayside Kahn or inn, talking, eating and drinking with publicans and sinners; no one who saw Him as He appeared to the general eye, a weary passer-by, a houseless, homeless wanderer, seemingly without occupation, with a face marred as never was face marred before, a man of sorrowful countenance and acquainted with grief, and cheeks grooved with the course of tears, such as He shed in the agony of His soul at the grave of Lazarus and of the kind He wept over Jerusalem, moved with compassion at the vision of sickness and disease, filled with heartache at the every-day demonstrated fact of sin, taking on Himself the very sickness and infirmities of others, despised, treated with contempt, and at last rejected by men as a fool, a fanatic, a weakling or impostor; .none seeing Him in this guise had the slightest, wildest dream of imagination that He was the actual and absolute maker of Heaven and earth; that He had come down from Heaven and the eternal throne to visit His chosen people; that He was the true Tabernacle which God pitched and not man, the dwelling place of the Godhead among men, God manifest in the flesh, Immanuel, God with us, upholding all things by the word of His power, and that in Him was wrought with all the fulness of divine perfection the characteristics and essential qualities of a holy, spotless, sinless and heavenly fragrant humanity; no one looking at Him as He passed could conceive this. Nor can anyone know Him and know all He is till he can say: “I am in Christ.” And no one can say that till like the priest he shall come by way of the brazen altar of sacrifice, by way of the cross, owning and confessing the blood shed there as the blood of atonement, the blood of redemption, then and then only will he be in Christ. Then he can see and know the beauty that is in Him; But to those who do not come by way of the brazen altar of the cross, to those who do not enter in and become in Him, one with Him, He is only as the badgers’ skins, so without form and comeliness that none desires Him. THE RAMS’ SKINS DYED RED “And thou shalt make a covering for the tent of rams’ skins dyed red.” (Exodus 26:14.) These were placed immediately under the badgers’ skins. The ram is set before us in Scripture as a substitute. When Abraham in obedience to the command of God, given to test his faith, lifted up his knife and in all sincerity was about to slay his son as a sacrificial offering unto the Lord, but in full confidence, since God had made that son the depository of all the promises of God, that God the Lord would raise him from the dead, his arm was arrested by the voice of the Lord who, satisfied with this display of faith, bade him halt and hold back the stroke, and when at that command he turned away from the altar he beheld a ram caught by its horns in a thicket. Then we are told: “And Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up-in the stead of his son.” (Genesis 22:23.) The ram was directly provided of God as a-substitute. Our Lord came into the world as the sent of the Father, and yet by His own will, to die as a substitute for guilty men. He came to take the place of those condemned to die. He came to die as the holy for the unholy. He came to die as the sinless for the sinful. He came to die as the just for the unjust. “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.” (1 Peter 3:18.) “He was made sin for us.” (2 Corinthians 5:21.) “His own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree.” (1 Peter 2:21.) “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.” (1 Corinthians 15:4.) “Who gave himself for our sins.” (Galatians 1:4.) “Who was delivered for our offences.” (Romans 4:25.) “While we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8.) “The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6.) If there be one thing more clearly set forth in Scripture than another concerning our Lord Jesus Christ, it is that He came into the world to exchange places with the sinner condemned to death and eternal banishment from God, came to take the place of those who justly should suffer the downpour of the righteous wrath of the righteous God forever. If language be worthwhile, if words mean what they say, then it is beyond dispute that the eternal Son of God divested Himself of His glory, came into this world, took a specially created humanity into union with Himself that He might die the death of, God’s substitute for every believing sinner. Indeed, when you remove from the Gospels and cast out from the Epistles all the direct and indirect statements about the death of Christ and consider only the life He lived”, the discourses He gave, you have the most incomplete figure in history, the most fragmentary life. Compared to Socrates or the martyrs who died in His name He is unheroic and His death an unqualified defeat. Recognize Him as a substitute provided of God, then His history from the hour when the Angel announced Him till the moment when He cried, “It is finished,” makes Him instead of a nearby, groping martyr of local circumstance, the revelation of divine genius and His death a disclosure of the heartthrob of God. In John 3:16, we read and all the world reads with us: “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” There is just one key word to that universally quoted text. That word is— Gave. And when you go down to its root meaning and think out to its ultimate you are under bonds to read the text in this way: “God so loved the world, that he devoted his only begotten Son to be a substitute, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” That word “substitute” is the only word that reveals and proves God’s love to the sinner. He loved us so, as Paul says, that, “He spared not His own Son, but delivered him up for us all.” Delivered Him up as—Our Substitute. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 16: 02.09. THE GOATS’ HAIR CURTAINS ======================================================================== THE GOATS’ HAIR CURTAINS THERE were eleven of these curtains. They were placed under the rams’ skins. They extended over the top of the Tabernacle, down the sides and back to the ground. Five of them were coupled together into one breadth over the Most Holy Place. Five were coupled together over the Holy Place. They were coupled by clasps of brass fitted into loops on each edge. The curtains over the Most Holy Place were long enough to fall down and cover the back. The eleventh curtain was doubled up and hung over the five pillars at the entrance-at the east end. “And thou shalt make curtains of goats’ hair to be a covering upon the tabernacle: eleven curtains shalt thou make. The length of one curtain shall be thirty cubits, and the breadth of one curtain four cubits: and the eleven curtains shall be all of one measure. And thou shalt couple five curtains by themselves, and six curtains by themselves, and shalt double the sixth curtain in the forefront of the tabernacle. And thou shalt make fifty loops on the edge of the one curtain that is outmost in the coupling, and fifty loops in the edge of the curtain which coupleth the second. And thou shalt make fifty taches of brass, and put the taches into the loops, and couple the tent together, that it may be one. And the remnant that remaineth of the curtains of the tent, the half curtain that remaineth, shall hang over the backside of the tabernacle. And a cubit on the one side, and a cubit on the other side of that which remaineth in the length of the curtains of the tent, it shall hang over the sides of the tabernacle on this side and that side, to cover it.” (Exodus 26:7-13.) The goat was set apart for the sin-offering. “And he brought the people’s offering, and took the goat, which was the sin-offering for the people, and slew it, and offered it for sin.” (Leviticus 9:15.) “One goat for a sin-offering, to make atonement for you.” (Numbers 28:22.) The goats’ skins are a clear symbol of our Lord Jesus Christ as the antitypical Sin-offering; as it is written: “It pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin.” (Isaiah 53:10.) Christ through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot.” (Hebrews 9:14.) “In the end of the age hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” (Hebrews 9:26.) “Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.” (Hebrews 9:28.) “Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering.” (Ephesians 5:2.) “We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (Hebrews 10:10.) “By one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.” (Hebrews 10:14.) (Sanctified by the offering of the body of our Lord Jesus Christ.) “He hath made him to be sin for us.” (2 Corinthians 5:21.) God the Father treated Him as sin, the very essence of sin. All that sin means of the violation of God’s intrinsic law, repudiation of His will; all it means of high treason against Jehovah and readiness to overthrow His throne; all it means of that impulse which has filled the world with corruption, iniquity, shame and moral shipwreck; all that has made earth an arena for every force antagonistic to God, to holiness and truth, the seed and source of all crime, the matrix of lust and death and hell. On the cross He became all that in God’s sight. He became the initial and consequent of sin, its essence and substance. God looked upon Him and dealt with Him on the cross as-the criminal of the universe. All the evil and wrong and shame and misery brought in by Satan as the Author of sin; all the tragedy wrought in man and by man; all that made man an offence to God-all this-the eternal God in the fulness of Godhead put on Him, charged to Him as His and held Him responsible as though He had actually thought every thought of evil, and committed every deed of sin. ‘ It was this indescribable objective, this thing that awaited Him, this condition He foresaw when in the garden that overwhelmed Him. It was not physical death that appalled Him. He knew, as He said, He could and would rise again from the dead. No! it was not physical death, it was what He saw would take place in that awful moment on the cross when treated as sin He should be repudiated of a Holy God. He knew He would be repudiated and forsaken of God. He was forsaken. He said He was. It is His own testimony. Hear how He said it: “My God, my God,” that was His cry, “why hast thou forsaken me? “ He did not say: “My Father, my Father, why hast thou forsaken me?” No! He said: “My God.” How and wherein did He say that? It ought to be clear enough. In Him was the fulness of the Godhead bodily. He was forsaken of the fulness of Godhead. He was forsaken of deity. Not that, even for the fraction of a suspicion or the imagination of a second of time He ceased in His personality, being and essence to be very God of very God— Nay! But the moral sense of His own deity revolted against His own humanity as the representative of sin. The nature and law of the divine being that hates sin (and is automatically, because essentially, against sin), this nature and law in Him repudiated the humanity that He had taken into union with Himself when that humanity in the name of and as the representative of sin thrust itself against His unchangeable personality and divine nature. It was as when a man stumbles and falls below his own ideal, the higher moral concept in him makes him turn upon himself with all the antagonistic and accusing bitterness of that concept until he feels himself smitten, stricken, separated from and forsaken of all that is worthwhile in him. Thus our Lord felt Himself forsaken morally and actually of all there was of God in Him. In that unspeakable moment He had only one consciousness in His humanity, it was the consciousness of the sin He represented; all there was of God in Him repudiated it and thus intensified that consciousness. And so completely did He have the consciousness of sin on Him, so fully did He anticipate and identify Himself with it that even in His pre-existent state He cries out through the mouth of the Psalmist: “MINE INIQUITIES have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.” (Psalms 40:12.) He was the object of the whelming scorn of His own supreme divine nature. He endured the woe and anguish of His hatred of sin, it was the wholeness of the being of God in Him that repudiated the sin laid on His humanity, it was His humanity that agonized under this sense of the attitude of the whole being of God in Him and made Him lift that cry, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” As a man through the deity in Him He loathed Himself as a man. Is there anything more terrible than that-for a man to loathe himself. Is there any punishment more horrifying than that? To loathe yourself and justify the judgment of justice against yourself. But now mark the combination of woe in that hour. He knew He was, as a man, innocent, sinless, holy, holy as a man, full of devotion to the Father; and as God, as the Son of God and God the Son the very expression and outgoing of the love of the Fatherhood of God, the very essence of His love. He knew He was all that, and then He knew the brutal, mad, screaming, murderous crowd rioting there at the foot of His cross looked upon Him as a deceiver, sincerely believed Him to be a wicked blasphemer against God. To know that He could come down from the place of shame and torture and reveal Himself in all His integrity; that He was held fast to that accursed tree not by the nails, nor His own insufficiency, but by His covenant faithfulness to that brute, senseless mass clamoring for His agony and its prolongation as well as for His death. Not only does He utter His agony through the Psalmist, but by and through the prophet Jeremiah. Hear, I pray you, these terrible words: “Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto ‘me, wherewith the LORD hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger. From above hath he sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them: he hath spread a net for my feet, he hath turned me back: he hath made me desolate and faint all the day. The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand.” (Lamentations 1:12-14.) In that awful hour God was punishing sinful humanity in the person of its representative, punishing it by banishing it from His presence with the brand of His infinite and eternal hatred against sin. In this hour of the Great Sin Offering on a Roman cross you may get some faint measure of God’s thought about sin. You may see that in God’s mind sin is something more than genital weakness. He considers it as high treason against Himself. Wherefore the Psalmist recalling his own unforgetable sin, under the quickening of the Holy Spirit, sees it is supremely and pre-eminently against God Himself, and therefore he cries out: “Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight.” He recognizes that this is the basis on which the judgment of God is against the sinner; that is, because sin is against God, because if carried to its ultimate it would overthrow the throne of God and turn the universe into a swirling, endless sweep of mad lawlessness and confusion where all holiness and truth would be strangled in the insane joy of Devil and fiend, God is justified in executing judgment against sin without mercy and without default. In fullest recognition of this the Psalmist cries out: “That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.” (Psalms 81:4.) This sin offering of our Lord Jesus Christ has two distinct operations. It is an offering for sin and an act of substitution. As a sin offering He meets in His death the demand of God’s law and government and being. By virtue of that He reconciles ‘the world to God, gets a stay in proceedings and puts the world under a suspended sentence. In virtue of that offering not only has there been an estoppment of judgment, but grace has been brought in to reign through righteousness; that is, righteousness has been so exhibited on the cross, sin has been so thoroughly punished, the law, government and being of God so upheld and justified by the punishment that fell upon the sinless victim that grace can be proclaimed without detriment to righteousness. The death of Christ was also the death of a substitute. He not only offered Himself for sin that He might hold back the judgment that for ages had been accumulating against the world, but that He might become the Saviour of individual men. On the basis of the sin offering the world has been rendered immune of judgment in this particular age. It may go on in sin and treason and riotous blasphemy, no judgment will fall, no one will be singled out and punished. But as a sin offering alone the death of Christ is of no avail to save any man from the judgment of God that must finally fall. He who would escape from that judgment that is as sure to fall as that God is God; he who would be justified and accepted before God and receive eternal lifer must put in an individual claim, personally claiming the Lord on the cross in the hour of His agonizing death, in the climax of His death as a penal death, as His substitute dying there for him and instead of him, He who would be saved must say in effect: “I offer Jesus Christ on that cross as my sacrifice for sin: I claim Him as my substitute, His death as my death, His punishment as the punishment due to me and as exhausting all punishment against me now and forever.” With the Apostle in simple and claiming faith you must say: “Who loved me, and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20.) But listen, I pray you, and get the meaning of that cry of agony on the cross to those who do not claim our Lord Jesus Christ there as a personal substitute. If you do not claim Him as your substitute it is all plain enough. Then that cry will be your cry. “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” It is a terrible, agonizing question, but we who have accepted Him as our substitute understand that cry. We know it was His cry as our substitute and with profound adoration we can answer and say: “O Lord, our great God and Saviour, thou wast forsaken and knew the hiding of the face of God that we might never know it, that we might never be forsaken; thou wast forsaken that we might not be forsaken.” But, alas! if you have not claimed Him as your substitute, even though you stood under His cross and knew He died as a sin offering, then you will have to answer your own question why you are forsaken. You will have to say: “We are forsaken of God because we did not accept Jesus Christ on the cross in the hour of His agony as our substitute; we did not by faith claim Him to be forsaken for us; we did not say to Him, ‘Lord thou wast forsaken for us.’ And we are forsaken not merely for our sin and sins, but because we rejected the substitute provided by the grace of God.” The goats’ hair curtains completely covered the Tabernacle. Since the Tabernacle is not only a symbol of our Lord Jesus Christ, but the Church (as we have already ‘Been), this complete covering is a symbol of the complete way in which the sacrificial death of our Lord Jesus Christ covers those who are His and hides their sin from the face of justice. God could not dwell in that Tabernacle nor in the midst of the Children of Israel until sin was ceremonially satisfied for and thus judicially shut out of His sight. When these goats’ skin curtains were spread out and covered the Tabernacle—He no longer saw iniquity in Israel. This was the testimony of Baalim, even against his own will. Although he would have cursed Israel If he could, he was forced to say under divine pressure and speaking in the name of God: “He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel: the LORD his God is with him.” (Numbers 23:21.) This is our character and standing before God as believers, our sins and transgressions are under the blood of the great sin offering, under the perfectness of His perfect sacrifice. All we are as having sin on u§ is out of sight. There is sin in us because we have in us the old nature, “sin in the flesh.” There is no sin on us, that is, against us, because our sins were laid on Him as our sin offering. When we confessed the Lord as our personal sin offering we were dated back to the hour of the cross. Our nature of sin and all its acts were imputed to the sinless sufferer. His act of obedience unto death was imputed, charged over to our credit, we were justified, accepted as righteous. The risen and glorified Christ in Heaven became our righteousness. He became our environment. We became united to and actually in Him as our life. We are in Him and God the Father sees us only in Him, covered by His perfect work and by Him. Anticipating this supreme act and fact of grace the Psalmist says: “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity.” (Psalms 32:1-2.) Because of the perfect work of the Lord the believer can say: “Our transgressions have been blotted out and our sins as a thick cloud.” (Isaiah 44:22) “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.” (Psalms 103:12.) The East and the West—can never meet. Our sins will never meet nor accuse us again. The believer may say in all confidence: “Thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.” (Isaiah 38:17) And How? By turning His back on His beloved Son, hanging there on the cross, bearing our sins. And why? The preceding clause gives the answer: “In love to my soul.” Amazing proof of love— Turning His back upon and forsaking His Son that He might forget our sins and see them or know them no more forever; for it is true, is it not, that when a thing is behind your back you cannot see it-it is out of sight? That is what the prophet means. Your sins as a believer are out of God’s sight. He cannot see them. “Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” (Micah 7:19.) When a stone is cast into the sea and the ripples have died away you can no longer find a trace of it. It is as though it had not been. Our sins as believers have been cast into the depths of God’s Almighty love and the wave that rolled over them and hides the trace of them forever was the crimson, measureless wave of the cross. The blood that hides them is still visible to our faith, but our sins are as though they had never been. It is great that God has forgiven them. But He has done more than forgive. We forgive one another, but we do not always forget the wrong done us. How infinitely God rises above man. He not only forgives, but forgets; as it is written: “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” (Hebrews 10:17.) Not to remember is to forget. To forget is to have the thing blotted from the mind so that it is, indeed, as though it never had been. He can never recall it. Put these two words side by side. “Forgiven! Forgotten!!” Let it be spoken with all reverence, but it is true, our sins are off God’s mind just as though they never had been upon His mind because of the blood of Christ between Him and them-off His mind forever. All this we learn in the goats’ hair curtains. No matter what we may have been; no matter how deep and dark the root of sin in us, nor how unforgetable our sins and transgressions may be to us, once we turn in full” heart sincerity unto the Lord, by faith offer up the crucified one and claim that He died, that He atoned, that He expiated, that He freely and fully satisfied the demands of justice against us, fulfilled the sentence and utterly destroyed the guilt and demerit of our sin we are at once owned of God as in the Risen Christ and as righteous, holy and spotless as Himself. Whenever the memory of any past may come upon you, and your sense of sin trouble you, get the vision of the goats’ hair covering of the Tabernacle and repeat to yourself the undeniable fact that the sin offering of the cross covers and hides you as completely as they did the Tabernacle, and that all your wrong and sin and evil are. Under the blood. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 17: 02.10. THE LINEN CURTAINS ======================================================================== THE LINEN CURTAINS THESE curtains were ten in number. They were made into two great breadths of five curtains each. They were coupled together with clasps of gold into loops of blue on the edge of the breadth. They were placed directly under the goats’ hair curtains. They were a cubit shorter than the goats’ hair curtains. They did not touch the ground as the upper curtains did. They were, fifty cubits in breadth from end to end when coupled together. They were coupled together over the four pillars that separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy. One breadth of five curtains, twenty cubits, covered the Holy Place and formed the ceiling. The other breadth covered the Most Holy Place. Half of the breadth formed the ceiling, the other half fell down over the back. These curtains were seen only as the ceiling. They were dropped over the outside of the boards, so that the boards constituted walls of pure gold for both the sacred places of the interior. Figures of the cherubim in blue, purple and scarlet were wrought in all the breadths. They were exquisitely wrought in fine needle work. “Moreover thou shalt make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet: with cherubim of cunning work shalt thou make them. The length of one curtain shall be eight and twenty cubits, and the breadth of one curtain four cubits; and every one of the curtains shall have the same measure. The five curtains shall be coupled together one to another; and other five curtains shall be coupled one to another. And thou shalt make loops of blue upon the edge of the one curtain uttermost from the selvedge in the coupling; and likewise shalt thou make in I the edge of another curtain, in the coupling of the second. Fifty loops shalt thou make in the one curtain, and fifty loops shalt thou make in the edge of the curtain that is in the coupling of the second; that the loops may take hold one of another. And thou shalt make fifty taches of gold, and couple the curtains together with the taches; and it shall be one tabernacle.” (Exodus 26:1-6.) Linen is flax. Flax is that which comes up out of the earth. Considered as to base, the linen represents the humanity of our Lord. Pure white, spotless, these curtains were a fitting symbol of the perfect character of our Lord; as it is written: “Holy, Harmless, Undefiled, Separate from sinners.” (Hebrews 7:26.)’ , The three colors, blue, purple and scarlet are direct symbols. Blue is the color of Heaven. Scarlet is the color of earth, it is the color of kings the color of their kingly robes. Purple is the blending of blue and scarlet. In Christ there is an equal blending of Heaven and earth. He has the nature of Heaven—divine. He has the nature of earth-human nature. Two distinct natures, just as distinct as blue and scarlet—divine and human. These two natures though distinct are united in one personality. As the nature of Heaven is the nature of God and the nature from earth is the nature of man, the union of these two in one gives us the combination of all combinations-the God-man. Whenever and wherever you see purple, whenever you realize it is the blending of Heaven and the color of earth, let it say to you that our Lord Jesus Christ is the union of God and man in one eternal person. The cherubim were wrought into the pure, snowy linen in these three colors. The cherubim are “living creatures.” They had four faces. They had wings. They had the face of a man, a lion, an ox, an eagle. (Ezekiel 1:10.) The face of the man represents intellect, mind, thought, knowledge and personal will power. The lion, kingly dignity, power and glory. The ox, strength for service. The eagle, power of supreme perception. The cherubim are angels. Angels have their class. There is the angel of the species, a range of creation just above man. The seraphim are the burning ones. They are the singers of the universe. The cherubim are the highest order. The word, “cherub,” in its root meaning signifies strength, mightiness. They are majestic, kingly, almost limitless in power. They are the masters of nature’s forces. They can play with the winds and the lightnings. They are the delegated engineers of the universe. They are the executors of judgments. They will execute the providential judgments of God in the dosing hours of this age; as it is written: “The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom (the area of it) all things that offend, and them which do iniquity. And shall cast them into a furnace of fire.” (Matthew 13:41-42.) Read the book of Revelation from Revelation 7:1-17, Revelation 8:1-13, Revelation 9:1-21, Revelation 10:1-11, Revelation 11:1-19, Revelation 12:1-17, Revelation 13:1-18, Revelation 14:1-20, Revelation 15:1-8, Revelation 16:1-21, Revelation 17:1-18, Revelation 18:1-24, Revelation 19:1-21 and you will behold these mighty ones. You will find them acting with supreme control over all the forces of nature, whether they stand upon the four corners of the earth and hold the winds in abeyance, or whether they stand as with one foot planted on the sea or stand immune in the seething flaming glories of the sun. Angels are what their name and title signify-messengers. They are the messengers of, and wholly in subjection to, our risen and glorified Lord; as it is written: “Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.” (1 Peter 3:2) Since the cherubim set forth the angels of God, since they are subject unto our Lord Jesus Christ and receive all power and authority from Him, then these cherubic figures embroidered in the white linen in all their symbolic colors represent the Lord’s supremacy in the universe over all material and intellectual powers. Supreme intellect, supreme force express omnipotence. The cherubim therefore set forth omnipotence in its final form, in humanity; in short, the cherubim proclaim the deity of the Man Christ Jesus. The priest who walked beneath these curtains in the Tabernacle, walked beneath a mass of outspread wings and feathers. As he looked up he saw everywhere the face of a man surrounded by the symbol of majesty and power and deity; everywhere there were wings and feathers, the face of a man looking out from and above the symbols of deity; everywhere his eye beheld the figure of a man supreme and as very God. Here is the explanation of that phrase to be found in the psalms about the wings and the feathers of God: “Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings.” (Psalms 17:8.) “How excellent is thy loving kindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.” (Psalms 36:7.) “Yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be over past.” (Psalms 57:1.) “I will abide in thy tabernacle forever, I will trust in the covert of thy wings.” (Psalms 61:4.) “In the shadow of thy wings I will rejoice.” (Psalms 63:7.) “He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust.” (Psalms 91:4.) What a vision it all was. Light shining from the seven branched golden candlestick and reflected in the burnished, pure gold of the side walls, the golden table with its symmetrical rows of bread, where priests ate and communed with God and with one another in the light, the golden altar with its ascending, white smoke of fragrant incense, the gorgeous vail, the vail beautiful, the ark of the covenant, the solid gold mercy seat, the supernatural shekinah burning in its scintillating, Heaven-sent fire beneath the bowing, golden angels; above in the illuminated, outspread ceiling, blue, purple and scarlet, everywhere the eyes of the Man looking and following each movement of the priest; everywhere the extended wings as a canopy of feathers; everywhere the sense of mystery, glory, God in man and for man, symbolized, proclaimed at every turn. How little would the passer-by upon the outside who saw only the formless, dull and common looking badgers’ skins know of this. Only those within the Tabernacle could see and know. How little do those who are not Christians know of the beauty and wonder and glory of our Lord. Only those, as I have already said, who are in Christ have seen the beauty, witnessed the glory; and when they speak to others in glowing terms of all He is to them they seem, indeed, to those who have never entered in, as though they were beside themselves and spoke at random. Inside the Tabernacle—only there could you know the Tabernacle. In Christ-only there and then can you know Christ. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 18: 02.11. THE HANGINGS ======================================================================== THE HANGINGS THE word, “hanging,” is applied exclusively to three special curtains. The one at the gate of the Court, the one at the entrance of the Tabernacle and the third which hung from the four pillars between the Holy and the Most Holy Place. The last was designated as “The Vail.” Each was of fine twined linen with blue, purple and scarlet color wrought in with needlework. The vail alone had the colors wrought into the forms of the cherubim. As it enclosed the Most Holy Place it formed a constituent part of the ten curtains, taking the place of the eleventh curtain and like them. THE HANGING OF THE GATE OF THE COURT “And for the gate of the court shall be an hanging of twenty cubits of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen, wrought with needlework: and their pillars shall be four, and their sockets four.” (Exodus 27:16.) As there were ten pillars on this end, the four represent the central pillars, three on either side. In this hanging you have our Lord Jesus Christ as –The Way. He is the one and only way any man can come to God and find Him to be a Father. He says so: “I am the way, no man cometh to the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6.) But mark it well-the moment that hanging was lifted up or pushed aside it brought him who would enter there and into the Court face to face with the brazen altar, the altar of bloody sacrifice. He could not enter in without accepting the sacrifice and its shed blood, without owning and confessing it as the sole ground of his approach to God; nay, he must himself bring the sacrifice, slay it and appropriate it for himself. Our Lord Jesus Christ is, indeed, the way to the Father. He is the Son and knows Him as the son knows a father; but you can no more separate our Lord from His relation to the cross as the altar of His sacrificial death than you could separate the gate from its relation to the brazen altar. Just as the way led by that altar and over bloodstained ground, every inch of it a bloodstained way to the Tabernacle and the symbolic presence of God, so also our Lord Jesus Christ as the way to the Father is such only as you go by the cross, own Him thereon as your sacrifice for sin, as your substitute pouring out His blood for you. THE HANGING OF THE TABERNACLE “And he (Moses) made an hanging for the tabernacle (that is, for the five pillars of the front of the Tabernacle) of blue, and purple and scarlet, and fine twined linen of needlework.” (Exodus 36:37-38.) If the hanging of the Gate represent our Lord Jesus Christ as the Way, this hanging sets Him forth as The Truth. He says He is very and essential truth. “I am the truth.” (John 14:6.) The hanging at the five pillars was a way, it was a door, but it was also a revelation, a revelation of the truth concerning the Tabernacle. When the priest passed under the hanging he was face to face with the golden symbols within. In these symbols He saw the truth of God’s way in grace, in redemption and glory. Outside of that hanging he could not know the truth of the Tabernacle, the truth it alone could reveal. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the antitype of all that. He is the revelation of God. He is the revelation of God as the Father. He is the revelation of God as the God of infinite love. He reveals Him as the God of measureless grace. He reveals Him as a God who is able to save unto the uttermost all who come unto Him by faith in His crucified, self-immolated and risen Son. He reveals Him as the God of glory, the God who will give grace and glory and no good thing withhold from them who put their trust in Him. He is the full and complete disclosure of God. He is the truth about God. He is the truth of God. He is the God of truth. He is God manifest in the flesh. Since He is God in the flesh and the truth of God He is indeed entitled to say, “I am the truth;” and fittingly does the hanging which revealed the truth of the Tabernacle symbolize Him as the truth. THE VAIL “And thou shalt make a vail of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen of cunning work: with cherubims shall it be made. And thou shalt hang it upon four pillars of shittim wood overlaid with gold: their hooks shall be of gold, upon the four sockets of silver. And thou shalt hang up the vail under the taches, that thou mayest bring in thither within the vail the ark of the testimony: and the vail shall divide unto you between the holy place and the most holy.” (Exodus 26:31-33.) Beautiful as were the other two hangings, this was transcendently beautiful, gorgeous in color, mysterious in the outspreading wings, awesome, strange, terrible in the figure of the lion, the ox and the eagle, but above all, in the face of the man looking out from the midst and dominating, the very look like that of a spoken command. If the hanging at the gate represent our Lord as the Way, and the hanging at the door of the Tabernacle represent Him as the Truth, the Vail should be a symbol of Him as Life, thus making the trinity of His claimed appellatives complete: “I am the way, the truth and the life.” He is that life which from all eternity was with the Father, and for our redemption was made flesh, became visible, could be seen and handled; as it is written: “That which was from the beginning, which we heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us.”) (1 John 1:1-2.) Since the vail (as we shall see more fully in the next chapter) is a symbol of our Lord incarnate, as eternal life incarnate, then as the first two hangings proclaim. Him the way and the truth, it is a demonstration that the vail sets Him forth as that life by which alone any man can enter within the vail in Heaven and have eternal part with God as His child. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 19: 02.12. THE UNRENT VAIL ======================================================================== THE UNRENT VAIL WE have a direct Scripture which tells us the vail was a symbol of our Lord Jesus Christ. “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest (the Most Holy Place in Heaven) by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the vail, that is to say, his flesh.” (Hebrews 10:19-20.) By “flesh” is meant, of course, our Lord’s humanity. Behind the vail in the Most Holy Place was the ark of the covenant, the symbol of the throne of God, with the shekinal light, symbol of the divine presence, shining above the mercy seat (the golden lid of the ark) and between the figures of the cherubim. As the cherubim figures were fashioned into the vail, and as these in their final terms signify deific powers, the vail is a symbol of the deity dwelling in the humanity of our Lord. The vail was the silent, but prophetic declaration that God should be made manifest in the flesh; as it is written: “Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh.” (1 Timothy 3:16.) “God was in Christ.” (2 Corinthians 5:19.) “In him dwelleth all the fulness of the godhead bodily.” (Colossians 2:9.) It shone through His humanity on the “holy mount,” the mount of Transfiguration. He had led three of His disciples, Peter, James and John, to the snow-crested heights of Hermon. It was midnight. The stars were far off and the darkness deep. A light came across the darkness. It began to glow, it widened in its shining till it filled all the place where they were even as the sun at high noon. But the light came neither from moon, nor stars, nor sun. It came from His body. His garments were white as no fuller on earth could whiten them. The light proceeded out of His very flesh. There was a cloud, a cloud of white light that canopied them all, expanding, enfolding, matching and becoming one with the light that shone from His body. The light of the cloud and the light of the body were one. It was the shekinal splendor that had dwelt in the pillar of cloud and of fire of old time and between the wings of the cherubim. It was the shining out of the divine essence. Out from the midst of the terrible light came the voice of God the Father, saying: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.” (Matthew 17:5) It was the official announcement from Heaven that He was the spokesman of God, the very Word of God. The vail is the perfect symbol and the absolute affirmation that” God was in Christ.” So long as that vail hung down it shut man out from the typical presence of God. So long as Christ walked the earth in His beautiful and perfect humanity, He shut men out from God. And this ought to be self-evident. If the humanity of Christ is the standard humanity in ‘Which alone God can enthrone Himself; if man must be as perfect as Christ was before God can take up I His abode in him, before man can have fellowship and I accepted and intimate relationship with God, then the: Christ of God so far from being a way by which men can approach God, or God enter into man; becomes an impassable barrier, a terrific, concrete witness to the hopeless, measureless distance between God and the natural man. A man might stand before this vail as it hung down between him and the symbolic dwelling place of God. He might admire the fineness of its texture, the perfectness of its coloring, the majesty and mystery of the winged figures; but the more he should look, the more he should study, the more evident it would become to him that in its imperviousness, even though beautiful, it shut him out from and entirely concealed the God who typically dwelt behind it. He would see that all approach to the presence of God ended there. Let a man study intently and analytically the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let him take up His deeds, His words, His attitude to God and man, the more he studies, the more evident it will become that he and Jesus of Nazareth were not cast in the same mould, that they exist upon planes as far apart from each other as the east is from the west, as the ever receding west is from the east. Take the history of the best man who ever lived and who may have sought continuously and with consecrated effort to copy that life and shape his character according to it, and it will be found, no matter who the man may have been, nor what intensity of endeavor he may have made, that he approaches no nearer to its faintest and most rudimentary outlines than the crawling worm to the soaring eagle, no nearer than the’ smallest grain of sand at the bottom of the highest mountain is to that mountain’s most exalted height. To set Christ before men and bid them attain unto the consciousness of God by following His example is as much a mockery as it would have been to have told the priest to fix his eyes upon the vail and by dint of looking at its impenetrable material persuade himself that he was inside the Most Holy Place or that he beheld even a gleam of the divine light as it flashed between the wings of the cherubim above the mercy seat. The startling and demonstrable truth is, the incarnation of Christ neither brings man to God nor God to man. If there had been nothing more than the incarnation of Christ, if Christ had lived and then after a season had gone back to the Heaven from whence He came, there would have been left to the world only the memory of a man who made manifest the bridgeless gulf between Himself and the natural man. There was just one means by which that vail could be put aside as a barrier and become a way of entrance into the Holy of Holies, and into the glory of the symbolized presence. That one means was the blood of sacrifice shed on the brazen altar. Once a year, on a day called” the day of atonement,” the high priest went out to the brazen altar, took a bullock and a goat, slew them, put the blood in a bason, brought it into the Holy Place and sprinkled before the vail. Having sprinkled the blood he lifted up the vail, put it aside, entered the Most Holy Place and sprinkled the blood upon the mercy seat. He could not sit down. He must not tarry, he must hasten in that which he had to do and go out quickly lest he die. It was by the blood of atonement the way into the throne room of God was opened. Not by the beauty of the vail could the priest enter. Not because of the fineness of its texture, nor the perfectness of its workmanship could he enter. Not by contemplating the vail and seeking to stamp its color and figures upon the retina of his soul could he enter into the presence of the most excellent glory. No! There was only one way. He must enter with the blood of the altar-the blood offered in sacrifice on the brazen altar. Not by or because of the beautiful earthly life of Christ can any man come to God. Not by the study of His life, nor the praising Him for His spotless character, His unselfishness, His consecration to humanity; not by seeking to copy the life He lived on earth can any man enter Heaven and find acceptance of God. No! There is only—one way. That one and only way, is the way of the blood the blood of the great brazen altar-the blood of the cross. By that sacrificial death of the cross our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, opened Heaven to all who own and confess it as such; wherefore it is written: “By his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.” (Hebrews 9:12.) After He rose from the dead, entered Heaven and made the atonement there by placing His blood upon the throne, turning it from a throne of judgment to a throne of grace, it became possible for all who believe, for all who by faith offer Him on the cross as a sacrifice for sin to draw nigh and as spiritual priests, in Spirit, to enter within the vail and worship there; as it is written: “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest of all-by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the vail, that is to say, his flesh (by the sacrificial death of that flesh). And having an high priest over the house of God (the Church). Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water (this -as we shall see later-has reference to the brazen laver at the door of the Tabernacle in which the priests washed hands and feet before entering in-the laver if> a symbol of the Word of God, and the teaching here is that on the basis of a perfect sacrifice we have a right to draw nigh unto God in worship, but should continually bathe ourselves in the Word that our service and walk may be according to the mind and will of God-nevertheless we are to draw nigh and with boldness, not on the ground of our walk but by the merit of the blood).” (Hebrews 10:19-22.) Let it be impressed upon the heart of every believer that we draw nigh to-God, enter within the secret place of communion and fellowship with Him, not by the life of Christ, but by His death. Let it be known and held with thankful joy that by virtue of the death of Christ, not only has every barrier been taken away between us and the Heavenly Father, but that by the sanctifying value of the blood of the cross, should we die, we at once depart from this body and are immediately at home with the Lord within the vail. Such is the meaning, the glory and the wonder of the vail. By His death we get deliverance from death, get life and entrance into Heaven. Rejoicingly therefore it may be said, the three hangings, the hanging at the gate of the Court, the hanging at the door of the Tabernacle and this hanging on the four golden pillars, the beautiful vail, proclaim in unit testimony that our Lord Jesus Christ is THE WAY, THE TRUTH, THE LIFE ======================================================================== CHAPTER 20: 02.13. THE RENT VAIL ======================================================================== THE RENT VAIL WHEN our Lord Jesus Christ died the vail of the temple was rent in twain. The record of this event is given in three of the Gospels. “Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.” (Matthew 27:50-51.) “And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost, And the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.” (Mark 15:37-38.) “And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst.” (Luke 23:45.) The Vail was rent while hanging between Heaven and earth. Like that vail the Son of God was hung up between Heaven and earth on a Roman cross. It was to the cross He referred when He said: “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This he said, signifying ,what death he should die.” (John 12:32-33.) The Vail was rent from top to bottom. The Vail was so woven together that two pairs of oxen attached to either edge and driven in opposite directions could not tear it asunder. It was not stretched, drawn tight and fixed. It hung in a loose fold. It could not be cut nor torn by a direct stroke, it was too soft and yielding for that. It was rent not from the bottom to the top, but from the top downward to the bottom. Such rending could not come from a man. Since it came from above and not by man, it was the act of God. In this you have the immense truth concerning the death of the cross. It did not come from below. It did not come from the hand of man. Our Lord openly affirmed no man could take His life from Him: “No man taketh it from me.” (John 10:18.) The death of Christ was the act of God. His death was as much the act of God as His incarnation. It was God and not man who smote Him. Speaking anticipatively in the Spirit through the mouth of David, He Himself says: “Thou (the Almighty) hast brought me into the dust of death.” (Psalms 22:15.) “Thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand presseth me sore.” (Psalms 38:2.) “I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it.” (Psalms 39:9.) “All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.” (Psalms 42:7.) “Thy wrath lieth hard upon me, and thou hast afflicted me with all thy waves. Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; thy terrors have cut me off.” (Psalms 88:7; Psalms 88:16.) This is His own delineation and definition. How terrific. Just as the billows of the sea lifted up by wind and storm ascend up and up like as to mountain heights, then fall with their crashing, crushing weight upon the quivering, trembling ship, overwhelm it, burying it in the blackening depths, so the wrath of God fell upon Him-the hand of the Almighty cut Him off. “He weakened my strength in the way; he shortened my days.” (Psalms 102:23.) “It pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin.” (Isaiah 53:10.) “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered.” (Zechariah 13:7) Our Lord applied this prophecy to Himself; as it is written: “Then saith Jesus unto them (the disciples) All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad.” (Matthew 26:31.) Read again that immense and terrible Scripture in Lamentations 1:12-14. The Vail was rent in twain at the hour of the evening sacrifice. That hour was three o’clock in the afternoon. (Matthew 27:46.) At that hour the evening lamb was on the altar in the temple. At the same hour the lamb of the Passover was being sacrificed in the court of the temple. In that hour our Lord became the antitypical and true Passover; as it is written: “Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.” (1 Corinthians 5:7) The Vail was rent in twain at the moment when He cried: “It is finished.” “Jesus when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.” (Matthew 27:50.) The word, “yielded” is, literally, “commanded.” He commanded His Spirit to go. “When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.” (John 19:30.) “Literally, handed over his spirit.” In Luke 23:46, He expresses the same thought about His spirit: “Father, into thy hands I commend (entrust) my spirit.” As He hung on the cross He could see the smoke from the altar, and He knew He was Himself the true passover of God; He knew all things foretold of Him upon the cross were now fulfilled, and then it was, lifting up His voice with the accent of triumph, knowing He had met every condition agreed upon in the everlasting covenant, He cried as a conqueror cries, His voice ringing up to the very throne of God on high: “It is finished.” So triumphant was that cry, so full of authority, so full of command, it appealed to the centurion in command of the soldiers, and instantly his soldier sense of authority and command responded; as it is written: “When the centurion which stood over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost he said: “Truly, this man was the Son of God.” (Mark 15:39.) When the Vail was rent in twain, it was changed at once from a barrier to an open way into the Holy of Holies. When on earth His perfect life, as I have said, was itself a barrier between God and man. His holiness was a witness of the sinfulness of the natural man, a demonstration of his unholiness and unfitness for God. His union with God, the enthronement of God in Him, all this was (a demonstration of man’s essential and hopeless separation from God. Previous to His arrest He said to those about Him: “The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” (John 12:24.) If the grain of corn do not die it abideth alone. It must die in the earth, then it will germinate, rise, come forth, multiply, reduplicate itself, bring forth many grains in its own likeness. And this teaches that life comes out of death; as it is written: “That which thou sowest is not quickened (made alive) except it die.” (1 Corinthians 15:36.) As our Lord walked the earth there was none like unto Him. There has never been one since. If He had not died, if He had gone back to Heaven He would have been the one and only man of His kind. He would, like the grain of corn, have abided-but alone. There never could be another like Him. Primarily, because the nature of man never could evolve a humanity like His; but, ultimately, because the sentence of death is against him here and hereafter. Not until that penalty was paid could there be any hope of a new life for sin begotten men. But the natural man never could get beyond that penalty. Our Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to meet this l1esperate issue between a holy God and sinful man. He came to put aside the penalty. He came to abolish death on behalf of all whom the Father had given Him. He put it away, abolished it by His sacrificial and substitutionary death; as it is written: “Once in the end of the age hath he appeared to put away sin (that is, the penalty of sin) by the sacrifice of himself.” (Hebrews 9:26.) “He hath abolished death.” (2 Timothy 1:10.) (That is for those who offer Him by faith as sacrifice and substitute-the death of such is no longer penal, punitive, it is-providential.) When He arose from the dead and ascended to Heaven He took His place as the Second Man, the Last Adam, as the Eternal Life Giver; and on the basis of the complete satisfaction rendered by His death, obtained the right to impart His life and nature to all who should own that sacrifice. By virtue of His death and therefore-out of His death-He gives life, multiplies this life and character of it in men, brings many sons to God. Thus it is true that life-eternal life-is out of death, out of His death, and is being wrought in those who accept His sacrificial death and who at last like Himself shall be made immortal. Because He died and rose again we have this age of grace in which it is possible for all who believe to say: “Christ liveth in me.” And of whom it may be said: “Christ in you the hope of glory.” Today the way into Heaven is open for all who, like the high priest, will come with the blood of the divine atonement. Of old time the priest who entered within the vail on the Day of Atonement could not sit down, he must stand and then remain but a moment within the vail. All this was witness that the sacrifice must be repeated, it was not complete. It could never make the comers thereunto perfect. But when our Lord Jesus Christ as the true high priest entered Heaven with His own sacrificial blood— He sat down, even at the right hand of God. It was a witness that His sacrifice had been accepted, was perfect, finished and would never be repeated it was once for all and all sufficient. “He died unto sin once.” (Romans 6:10.) “Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more.” (Romans 6:9.) I “We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (Hebrews 10:10.) “This man (our Lord) after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for: ever, sat down on the right hand of God.” (Hebrews 10:12.) “By one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.” (Hebrews 10:14.) His session in Heaven at the right hand of God proclaims a finished sacrifice. Any system that attempts to offer Him afresh (as the Roman Catholic Church does in the Mass) denies the perfection and efficacy of His death on the cross and throws it back to the level of the oft-repeated and insufficient sacrifices in Israel. When He entered Heaven into the Holiest of all He did so not for Himself, but as the representative of every believer. That is the standing and character of every believer today” In God’s sight we too have risen and ascended into Heaven and are seated there before Him at His right hand in Christ. As it is written: “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he hath loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace are ye saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:4-6.) What a marvellous “together” relationship it is. What a co-partnership. Co-crucified with Him. Co-quickened. Co-raised from the dead. Co-ascended with Him. Co-seated with Him. And all because, like the Vail of the temple, He was smitten, slain and rent for us, instead of us. Read again that splendid Scripture: “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest—by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the vail, that is to say his flesh, And having an high priest over the house of God; Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.” (Hebrews 10:19-22.) And listen to this Scripture: “Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that has passed through the heavens (as Aaron passed through the vail) Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:15-16.) Such is the grace and glory of the Rent Vail. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 21: 02.14. PINS AND CORDS ======================================================================== PINS AND CORDS THE Tabernacle was secured to its place by pins of brass and cords of linen. The pins were driven into the ground, the cords passed .over the outer covering of badgers’ skins, tying them down, and were fastened at the end and sides to the pins or nails. “All the pins of the court shall be of brass.” (Exodus 27:19.) “The pins of the tabernacle, and the pins of the court, and their cords.” (Exodus 35:18.) THE PINS OF BRASS The word, “pin,” is also translated, “nail.” (Judges 4:21; Judges 5:26.) It is also rendered, “stake.” (Isaiah 33:20; Isaiah 54:12.) The pin or nail is a symbol of our Lord. He is called a Nail. “A nail in a sure place.” This is set forth in a remarkable Scripture in Isaiah 22:20-25. The Lord speaks of a certain Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, as His servant. He says He will commit His government unto him. He makes this far-reaching promise: “And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father’s house. And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father’s house.” After His death, His resurrection and ascension to Heaven, our Lord Jesus Christ applies this Scripture to Himself. In a letter which He sent through the Apostle John to the Church in Philadelphia, a city in the province of Asia, he says: “He that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth.” (Revelation 3:7) Since He thus claims to have the key of David with power to open and shut, it is a demonstration and proof that He is the Eliakim of whom the prophet Isaiah speaks; and since Eliakim is to be fastened as a nail in a sure place, and this sure place is the throne of David in Jerusalem, and all the glory of the Father’s house is to be hung upon Him, you have the clear and unmistakable teaching that the nail or pin of brass is a divinely chosen symbol of Him and sets Him forth as He who shall establish the throne of His father David and become the guarantor for the fulfillment of all the promises of glory made to the nation of the Jews first and then to all Israel. In Isaiah 22:25, of Isaiah’s prophecy, another nail is spoken of as fastened in the sure place, a nail upon which the Jews will hang all their hopes of glory in the latter days; but this nail will be cut down and all that is hung upon it will fall; as it is written: “In that day, saith the LORD of hosts, shall the nail that is fastened in the sure place be removed, and be cut down, and fall; and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off: for the LORD hath spoken it.” This second nail is a symbol of Antichrist who, as his name indicates, will come before the true Christ, even, our Lord Jesus Christ. He will make a covenant or agreement with the returned Jews. He will make such promises and concessions to them that they will hail him as their deliverer; but the Lord will come and-cut him off and all who cast their hopes upon him and reveal Himself to be the true and abiding nail, fastened in the sure and covenant place upon Mount Zion forever. The nails or pins of the Tabernacle were brass. They would not rust. The action of rain, wind and storm would not affect them. The pins of brass stood every test. They symbolize our Lord Jesus Christ as— The Tested One. He was tested in the Mount. He was tested there by the Devil as the first man had been tested by him. He was tested in His appetite. He had fasted forty days and nights and the Devil appealing to His hunger bade Him turn the plentiful stones about Him into bread. These stones which may be seen today had the suggestive appearance of loaves of bread. The temptation was psychologically and illustratively forceful. In bidding Him to do this thing the Devil was tempting Him to turn away from His chosen attitude of faith, take Himself out of His Father’s hand, cease acting like a man and exercise His covenantly restrained deity. It was a genuine test. It was an appeal to His claims as God. He stood the test. He refused to act in His divine power even though hunger was making its demands upon Him and the deity in Him could have instantly responded He had taken the place of a man in perfect and absolute dependence on the Father. He refused to take Himself out of His hand. He would abide before Him as the man who had chosen to walk by faith and not by sight. He was tested as to His faith in the Father’s promise concerning the Providence that should watch over Him daily as a man. The Father had promised should He walk the earth by faith as a man He would give Him and His circumstantial experiences into the care of guardian angels; they should be continually at His side to support Him with their greater than human strength, lest in His weariness He might even dash His foot against a stone; as it is written: “He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways, They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.” (Psalms 91:11-12.) That he might test Him in this the Devil led Him to the highest point in the temple, quoted the promise of God the Father, and then bade Him cast Himself headlong and see whether the God whom He claimed to be so specially and specifically His Father would interfere with the laws of nature and whether the angels with their up bearing hands would come to the rescue. To experiment with the promise of God, to see whether God will keep faith with Himself is the rankest kind of dishonoring and treasonable unbelief. It is raw guilt, the guilt of trifling with the integrity and honor of the Almighty. It is the sin of presumption, a presumption which might well call for the sudden letting loose of the fiery judgments of God. The Son of God stood the test. He refused to trifle with the Father who had committed His honor to the faith and surrender of His Son. He repudiated the temptation. He was tested with the offer of worldly power and glory. He came into the world to be King of the Jews, King of Israel and King of kings. He knew the way thereto led through the bloody sweat of Gethsemane and the agony of the cross. The Devil offered Him a short cut. He offered Him the rulership of the world without going to the cross. It was not an idle offer. He was the original prince of this world. God gave Him the title, power and authority in the “beginning;” when He created the heavens and the earth. The earth was then perfect, beautiful, a province in the Empire of God. The Devil was not satisfied with the rulership of the world. He was an angel, the chief of the cherubim. He was Lucifer, the son of the morning. He was full of knowledge. He was so full of knowledge, so “wise,” that “no secret” could be hid from him. He was so full of beauty that by reason of it his heart was “lifted up.” His “brightness” corrupted his wisdom. (Ezekiel 28:3; Ezekiel 28:17.) His pride was equal to his greatness. He exalted himself above measure. He would be satisfied with nothing less than an equal share of the rulership of the universe. He would not overthrow God nor take His place. He would be equal with God. He is the one to whom Paul refers inferentially in Php 2:6, who (in contrast to our Lord who would not hold on to his equality but “emptied” Himself of it and became a servant) snatched at equality with God. He said: “I will exalt my throne above the stars of God.” “I will be like the Most High.” (Isaiah 14:13-14.) He said: “I am God.” “I sit in the seat of God.” (Ezekiel 28:1.) By this act and attitude he became Satan (the word “Satan “signifies an “adversary”). After this, by a cataclysmic event the earth fell into a state of chaos. Satan and his host were banished to the dark void surrounding the earth. When the earth was remade, man created and set upon it as the provisional ruler and prince, Satan accepted it as a challenge. He determined to destroy man and ruin the purpose and plan of God concerning him. He tempted man with his own fatal desire to be as God. Man yielded, fell, was set aside of God and became the willing, but unconscious slave of Satan. Satan then became the Devil. “Devil” signifies “a slanderer.” He was the slanderer of God, traducing His name and character to man. In facing our Lord Jesus Christ he faced the “Second Man,” – the “Last Adam.” Although cast out, cast down and utterly fallen from his high place, he was still by title the “prince of this world.” Our Lord Himself owns him as such. He says: “The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.” (John 14:30.) With his usurping angels as the” rulers of the darkness of this world, and in spite of the official judgment against him and his system called “the world,” he is still (under God) the power behind the powers and authorities of earth. He was willing to hand over his practical rulership to the Lord. The condition he made was a straight one. He knew it was in the infinite plan that the Son of man as immortal man should be coequal ruler of the universe with the Father; he would give up all claims to the world, retire his evil angels from the border land of the earth, cease all battle to hold it and give full and undisputed title to Him as “The pod of the whole earth “if He would fall down and acknowledge him as the true and by right “equal” ruler of the universe with the Father. Listen to the offer as he made it: “And the devil, taking him up into a high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.” (Luke 4:5-7.) Back of all this the supreme aim of the Devil was to break up the everlasting covenant and prevent man from ascending in Christ to the joint rulership of the universe with the Father. But the Son of God stood the test. He bade the tempter to be gone. He said: “Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve.” The test continued in other forms. He was tested with an offer of the crown of David, temptation to take the crown and rulership of the Jews at once, He was tempted by the Jews themselves. Five thousand people had followed Him into a place where there was no opportunity to obtain provisions. The people hungered. The Lord took the loaves of bread and two small fish which a lad had with him. He bade the multitude sit down, then multiplied the “five loaves and the fish, gave to the disciples, and the disciples gave to the people; and when all had eaten and were fully satisfied there were twelve baskets full of food remaining. The people felt that a man who could meet their necessities in such a fashion was fit to be, and by right should be, king. Such a king would deliver them from the two things from which men yearned to be—freed-toil and taxation. With a wild, sudden outburst, they rushed upon Him and determined to make Him king. They were ready to follow Him into Jerusalem and own Him as the Son of David. It was popular frenzy and enthusiasm. It had made kings before, it has made them since. It was an appeal to ambition, to vanity and the love of power. Mark how He met the assault: “When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone.” (John 6:15.) And what think you He did then? Gave Himself up to prayer; as it is written: “And when he had sent the multitude away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone.” (Matthew 14:23.) He met the test, repudiated the crown, gave Himself up to prayer, to meditation and communion with the Father. He was tested in the garden with the cup the Father gave Him to drink. As a man He shrank from the cup. In the depth and loneliness of the garden He prayed. The statement of it is simple—but O how cuttingly, penetratingly pathetic: “He fell on his face, and played, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.” In this cup, He saw Himself to be made sin, to be treated as sin, and to be treated as such by the infinite Father. What a test it was. To submit to all the judgment of God the Father whom He loved, and for whose sake He had become incarnate; to allow Himself to be set aside, even for a moment and treated as the very sum and substance of sin. But He stood the test. Hear His cry coming up out of the very heart of His agony: “Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. If this cup may not pass from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.” (Matthew 26:37; Matthew 26:42.) He was tested with the possibility of escaping from the death of the cross. They came to arrest Him. Peter drew out his sword to defend Him. He bade him put up the sword and said to him: “Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legion (72,000) of angels?” What a possibility, seventy-two thousand of the strong angels of God sweeping like a guard of honor and glory about Him. What an easy way to confound His foes, glorify Himself and then ascend in radiant pomp to Heaven. He stood the test of what such a staggering suggestion might give. He said: “But how then shall the Scripture be fulfilled, that thus it must be?” (Matthew 26:53-54.) What a revelation of decree in Holy Scripture. “Thus it must be.” What a sublime exaltation of the written Word, not only that it must be, but that it should be, that at all cost it should be fulfilled. What a revelation of the written Word as \ the supreme rule of the Son of God. What an arraignment of the limited mentality and shriveled spirituality of men who, even in His name, attempt to teach and yet question the full authority of that Scripture He continuously quoted and by which He regulated every movement and moment of His daily life. Behold, the eternal, immaculate, Almighty Son of God taking His place in obedience to the everlasting covenant and on the threshold of the representative hell through which He was about to pass, feeling Himself under bonds and surrendering Himself absolutely to the written Word as full, final and supreme authority for Him. No thought of Himself obtruded here. His one anxiety! That the Scripture should be fulfilled, and that He might fulfill it even at the price of His own measureless agony. Nothing could more dynamically demonstrate and prove the Scripture to be the inspired, inerrant, infallible Word of God than the surrender to it of the Living Word. He was tested on the cross. While He was hanging in agony on that cross the people tested Him. They mocked Him. They saw His poor head turning from side to side in the horror of His physical woe. They passed and repassed under His cross, laughing, jeering at Him, imitating the helpless movement of His head, turning their own and wagging it from side to side. They called out to Him: “If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross.” (Matthew 27:40.) He was tested by the priests. They said: “He saved others; himself he cannot save, (true! He was under covenant not to save Himself that He might save others). If he be the king of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him (O the stigma that abides upon them-the people who refuse to believe in Christ on the cross; and that is the stigma of the professed religionist today who will not believe in and glorify the Christ on the cross). “He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him; for he said, I am the Son of God.” (Matthew 27:42-43.) He was tested by the thieves who were crucified with Him. They took up what the mob, the priests, the scribes and the elders had said and “cast it in his teeth.” (One of them it is to be remembered, took it all back, repented and confessed Him as his only hope and Saviour.) He was tested in all points where man can be tested. He met all the tests; as it is written: “In all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15.) He met every assault of the Devil with a two-edged sword. That sword, the Sword of the Spirit; as it is written: “The sword of the Spirit, which is The Word of God.” (Ephesians 6:17.) (The Written Word.) To every suggestion of the Adversary He lifted up that sword and said: “It is written.” He cast Himself in absolute faith upon God His Father; He took the place of a dependent before Him. He made the written Word His law and command. He won the victory. All this testing and triumph is symbolically set forth in the brazen pins of the Tabernacle. They proclaim Him The Tested One, The Victorious One. The pins were the things to which the cords were fastened. They were the anchorage and security of the Tabernacle. They were’ its hope and security against any windy blast or storm or destroying tempest. Herein are they again a fitting symbol of our Lord. He Himself is the anchor of the soul that trusteth in Him. He is our Surety. He is our Hope; as it is written: “Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil.” (Hebrews 6:19-20.) The Tabernacle was rooted, grounded, built up and established by the function /0£ the brazen pins. This is the secure relation between us and our Lord Jesus Christ; as it is written: “Rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith.” (Colossians 2:7. ) A pin or nail is that on which things are hung or suspended. The hope of our manifestation to the world as sons of God at His appearing and glory is hung on Him; as it is written: “And every man that hath this hope in (on) him.” (1 John 3:2) We are told in the prophecy of Isaiah that He will be fastened as a nail in a sure place. That Sure place is the throne of David on Mount Zion; as it is written: “Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.” (Psalms 2:6.) It is the Father’s assurance to the Son, so sure He speaks of it in advance as though already accomplished. It is an immensely suggestive fact that the root of the word” sure,” is the root of the word” amen.” It means that which is “faithful,” “permanent,” that which” abides.” Wherefore it is written: “All the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.” (2 Corinthians 1:20.) It is immensely suggestive because our Lord calls Himself—The Amen—The Sure. “These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning (the Word of God) of the creation of God.” (Revelation 3:14.) But Amen is the ending. Thus He is both the beginning and the ending. The Fiat that creates, the Amen that records the decree accomplished. He is The Amen, let it go at that—He is The Sure. All this the brazen pins in final terms set forth; but let it be well noted, ever remembered, the security of the pin was not merely in what it was in itself, but in the fact that it was driven deep, was buried in the earth, and it was that part which emerged from the earth, was risen above it, to which the cords were fastened. The security of the believer is to be found in the fact that our Lord Jesus Christ died, was buried and rose again. .It is the risen Christ that makes His death of avail and it is to the risen Christ we are joined and in His resurrection life made secure; as it is written: “If Christ be not raised your faith is vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:17.) Thus while it is true that the Lord will come as the Living One and seat Himself upon Mount Zion and all the promises made to fathers in Israel shall find their sure fulfillment in Him-for us who are believers today, the sure place is the throne of God on high on which He sits at the right hand of the Father. To the risen man upon the unchanging, unshakeable throne of God we are securely fastened. For us He is now—the nail fastened in a sure place. THE CORDS The cords were fastened to the pins. By holding down the coverings they held the Tabernacle together, made it secure and abiding. They drew the Tabernacle together and made it whole, complete. The cords set forth the drawing and holding power of our Lord Jesus Christ. The drawing power of His mighty love; as it is written: “I drew them with the cords of a man, with bands of love.” (Hosea 11:4.) “The love of Christ (Christ’s love for us) constraineth us.” (2 Corinthians 5:14.) The word “constraineth” signifies “to hold together.” The love of Christ holds us together. If our union with and abiding in Christ depended upon our love and steadfastness to Him, how the winds of circumstance would blow us apart. It is His love for us that holds us. It is His unchanging love for the Church that holds it together. If it were not for the peerless drawing and holding power of the love of Christ manifested to us the Church would be wrecked, swung apart into disconnected and individual fragments. “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men unto me. This he said, signifying by what death he should die.” (John 12:32-33.) “To draw” has in it here the force “to pull,” as when a rope or cord is tautly pulled. Thus the cords set forth the work of Christ in the energy of His infinite love. The pins give us the person of Christ in all the wonder and beauty of His faithfulness to God and man. The pins and the cords went together. One was of no use without he other. Pins were useless without the cords. The cords had no function without the pins. The Person and the Work of Christ must go together. You cannot separate the person of Christ from His work, whether that work be on the cross or now in Heaven. Hear what Paul says: “Jesus Christ and him crucified.” (1 Corinthians 2:2.) That conjunction—and—is the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. It is set there as the divine and eternal link between the Person of Christ and the Work of Christ. As to the Person of Christ, Paul tells us that in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and that He is God manifest in the flesh. As to His Work, Paul tells us that He died for our sins according to the Scriptures. The work He finished on the cross was the prelude to another work He is carrying on in Heaven on the throne of God today. “He ever liveth to make intercession.” (Hebrews 7:25.) Christ as God manifest in the flesh, Christ on the cross an atoning sacrifice and Christ in Heaven the loving and ever living high priest, cannot be separated in any of His parts and functions. When therefore Paul says, “Christ and him crucified,” he is saying, “The Christ whom I preach unto you is the Christ who died on a Roman cross, but now lives, the same Christ, on the throne of God.” To attempt to separate the person of Christ from His work is to be guilty of treason both to the person and the work of Christ. There are those who do attempt to separate them. They exalt and glorify the person of Christ. They are willing to do this that they may discredit His work on the cross. They are willing to say He was good, even an holy man, the fullest manifestation God ever made of Himself personally in man; but they refuse to accept His death on the cross as a penal sacrifice, an atonement for sin. They set Him up simply as the highest expression of merely human ethics. They exhort people to contemplate His love for His fellow-men, His compassion and measureless denial of self. They affirm, should the world follow His example it would bring in a warless world and an era of everlasting peace. An ethical Christ wins the applause of the hour. A sacrificial Christ is rejected. But the person and the work of Christ cannot be treated in that way without open infidelity to Christ, without disaster both to His person and His work. To treat Him merely as a good man denies His own claims to deity. To treat His death as a moral and not a penal sacrifice makes it nothing better than a brutal, ruthless and useless murder. A Christ without deity and a cross without atoning blood presents a Christ unknown to Scripture. Separate the pins from the cords and see what follows. Let the pins be driven into the ground never so firmly, without the cords there is nothing to connect them with the Tabernacle. Set up the person of Christ alone, glorify, magnify, exalt Him as you will, there is nothing to connect Him with man. His holy, sinless, perfect person is a repudiation of the natural man. Apart from His work on the cross the life of Christ is an indictment of the natural man, and His holiness like the flames of Sinai against him. Separate the cords from the pins and there is nothing to make them of avail. Unless they are fastened to the pins they cannot hold the Tabernacle in its place, the coverings would be subject to every gusty, blowing wind. Preach the cross of Christ, talk of His sacrifice and fail to connect it with Him as God incarnate-the sacrifice is worthless—for only God can atone to God. The death of Christ is of avail because He is very God. It is God atoning to God, God satisfying God, God meeting and sustaining His own claims of righteousness, satisfying the demands of His own essential being. God finding the righteous way in which He may still be righteous and yet save the unrighteous sinner. Take away the deity of Christ and the cross is a pitiful failure; it is not only the place of the cry of despair, it is the place of a man actually forsaken of God, and forsaken of men. Take away the sacrificial, atoning character of the death of Christ and His deity is a fiction and Himself either a deceived weakling or a fittingly exposed deceiver. Never was there a time when it was more important for those who pretend to preach Christ to preach Christ and Him crucified. Preach the Christ who as very God offered Himself in sacrifice as real and true man. Preach Him as the Christ who arose from the dead, ascended to Heaven, and because He was crucified, because He died as a sacrifice for sin, can give eternal life to the believing sinner, lives in Heaven for such and from thence seeks ever to draw him closer to Himself with the cords of His mighty and unfailing love. To preach Christ and Him crucified, means to preach the living Christ who was crucified and whose resurrection life and power is proof that His death has been accepted as atoning sacrifice and way of salvation for men. The pins and the cords must go together. Turn resolutely away from the man who preaches the person of Christ and not His death. Refuse to hear him who preaches Christ on the cross but denies His deity. Refuse to hear him who separates the person of Christ from the work of Christ, the person of Christ from the death of Christ. Turn away from the preacher who seeks to preach the one without the other. Pins and cords must go together. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 22: 02.15. THE FURNITURE OF THE TABERNACLE ======================================================================== THE FURNITURE OF THE TABERNACLE T HE furniture of the Tabernacle consisted of seven pieces. “The Ark of the covenant. The Mercy Seat or covering for the Ark. The Altar of Incense. The Table of Shewbread. The Candlestick. The Brazen Laver. The Brazen Altar. The Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat as one piece were set in the Most Holy Place behind the beautiful vail. The Altar of Incense was’ set up in the Holy Place in front of the vail. The Table of Shewbread occupied the northern side. The Candlestick was on the south. The Laver was placed outside the door of the Tabernacle. The Brazen Altar stood a short distance inside the gate of the Court. Beginning with the Ark of the covenant and coming outward the next piece of furniture was the golden Incense Altar, and in giving the description of it the natural order would be to mention it after the Ark of the covenant; but when the Lord speaks of it to Moses it is not till after He has given Instruction and description of the Table, the Candlestick and the Brazen Altar. On the cross He was both offering and offerer. He entered into His function as priest according to the order of Melchisedec only after He died, rose again and ascended to Heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. If He were on earth today He could not be a priest; even as it is written: “If he were on earth, he would not be a priest, seeing’ there are priests that offer gifts according to the law.” (Hebrews 8:4.) In the light of this Scripture what an audacity it is, what a bold treason against the Word of God, for any man or set of men to take the office and exercise the function of priest in the professing Church of Christ. It is true, as Christians, we are all spiritual priests to offer up spiritual sacrifices; as it is written: “Ye also, as lively (living) stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:5.) “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.” (Hebrews 13:15.) There is no other priesthood owned of God in the Church today. The man who calls himself a priest (separately from the spiritual priesthood belonging to all believers) is a. usurper and shames the high priesthood of our Lord in Heaven. Rome builds up her priesthood by usurping the office and function of the priesthood in Israel, mixing Judaism with Christianity, and in so doing shames both the sacrifice of the Cross and our Lord’s Melchisedec priesthood in Heaven. The priesthood of Christ is based upon sacrifice. Rome seeks to repeat that sacrifice in the mass. The mass is a function in which the priest claims to transform the bread and wine of the Lord’s memorial supper into His body and blood, and offer Him again. In that, they “crucify the Son of God afresh and put Him to an open shame.” Repetition of a sacrifice is proof of its incompleteness, imperfection and therefore inefficiency. It was the repetition of the sacrifices in Israel that proclaimed their inefficiency; as it is written: “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered?” (Hebrews 10:1-2.) This is the plain statement that a perfect sacrifice is not repeated, but is once and for all; as it .is written: “We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” (Hebrews 10:10.) Also: “For in that he died, he died unto sin once.” (Romans 6:10.) And climacterically: “Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more.” (Romans 6:9.) Thus, in seeking to repeat the offering of the Cross the Romish priest proclaims it inefficient, and acting as a priest to offer it again, not only shames our Lord as the offerer, but denies the efficiency of His priesthood in Heaven. All this demonstrates the disaster of departing from the divine order. In the fact that the Brazen Altar as the symbol of the cross is ordained before the Golden Altar of Incense (the symbol of our Lord’s priestly office and intercession) you have the dynamic demonstration and proof of the accuracy and divinity of the types and the inspiration of Holy Scripture both in the Old and New Testaments. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 23: 02.16. THE ARK OF THE COVENANT ======================================================================== THE ARK OF THE COVENANT THE Ark was what the Hebrew word signifies –a chest. It was two cubits and a half long, a cubit and a half wide and a cubit and a half high. It was made of incorruptible wood and covered with pure gold both on the inside and out. It had a crown of gold running round the top. There were four golden rings at the corners, two on each side. Through these rings were passed staves or bars of wood covered with gold. These served as handles by which the Ark was to be carried. These staves were never to be removed. (Exodus 25:10-16.) It was called the “Ark of the Covenant” because it contained the tables of the law, the covenant into which the people entered at Sinai when they presumptuously repudiated the unconditional covenant of Abraham, the covenant of grace under which the Lord had brought them out of Egypt. It contained also the golden pot of manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded; as it is written: “The ark of the covenant overlaid roundabout with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant.” (Hebrews 9:4.) “The Ark was God’s throne in the midst of Israel. He manifested Himself in the shekinal light shining between the wings of the cherubim in the Mercy Seat; as it is written: “The Lord reigneth: let the people tremble; he that sitteth between the cherubim.” (Psalms 99:1) The Ark was a perfect symbol of our Lord Jesus Christ as the enthronement of God in humanity. The incorruptible wood speaks of Him as the sinless one, sinless in conception, sinless in life and character. The pure gold above the wood—inside and outside -that nature which was above His humanity and yet resided in it—His Deity. The Ark with its two materials and yet, the one chest, repeats the continuous testimony, the two natures and the one, indivisible personality of our Lord. Our Lord was the throne of God in this world. If He were full of sympathy and tender compassion, giving to those who sorrowed beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, it was because He was real and actual man. If He healed the sick, raised the dead, stilled the storm and did it all by a fiat word, it was because He was God in the flesh, because He made His impeccable humanity the throne of the Godhead; as it is written: “In him dwelleth all the fulness of the godhead bodily.” (Colossians 2:9.) All the forces of the universe were concentrated in that marvellous body; a body more resplendent in its essential glory than all the stars, the suns and systems in the endless spaces. All the operation of all the energy in the universe proceeded and came forth from that body. When He spoke it was with the same accent with Which in the beginning He had spoken the universe upon its course. The miracles He did were of the same ease with which He had hung the earth on nothing. Realize that He was the Creator of all things, and the fact that He raised the dead, trod the waters beneath His feet and held back the storm-flung waves of Galilee should neither amaze, nor be disquieting to the weakest faith. “Ye believe in God,” He said “believe also in me.” That He was God alone explains Him; that He was the very throne of God descended to the earth makes all He did of divinest logic. The Ark had the law hidden in the heart of it. Our Lord Jesus Christ had the law hidden in His heart; as it is written: “Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea thy law is within my heart.” (Psalms 40:6-8.) He was born under the law, circumcised the eighth day according to the law. He kept the law perfectly, perfectly toward God and perfectly toward man. He loved God with all His mind and heart and soul and strength. He was full of the atmosphere of God. Every deed He did He did to glorify Him. Every word He spoke He uttered that He might exalt Him. His very breath distilled the idea of God, and the particular idea and concept of Him as the Father. If He spoke of sheep upon the hillside, it was as His Father’s sheep; if He described a lily it was that men might see His Father’s hand had fashioned and formed it. If He loved God with all His being, He loved His neighbor as Himself. When on one occasion He was speaking and they came to Him and told Him His Mother and His brethren were outside desiring to speak with Him, He said: “Who is my mother? and who are my brethren? “and stretching out His hands toward His disciples. He said all who should do the will of God were His mother and His brethren. He received sinners and ate with them. He was perfect in all the requirements of the law. In keeping the law He proved He was sinless. In His sinlessness under the law He unmasked the pretence of those who professed to keep the law; not only so, He demonstrated that the law had been originally given to make manifest the sin and helplessness of those who in their folly had asked for the law. He demonstrated and proved it by the fact that on the one side He was the concrete of the law and on the other that His sinlessness revealed their sinfulness and open transgression of the law. If He had not had eternal life His obedience to the law would have earned Him the right to it. He kept the law that He might demonstrate His ability to do the will of God; that the will of God was the supreme law and that He came into the world to do that will. Continually He affirmed that this was His work-to do the Will of God. He said: “I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.” (John 5:30.) “I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.” (John 6:38.) “I do always those things which please my Father.” (John 8:29.) “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.” (John 4:34.) In all this He shows Himself to be of a distinct fibre from the natural man. He shows it in the absolute and tremendously audacious claim: “I came down—from Heaven.” What honest man ever said that before. What honest, self-respecting man would dare to say it today. (And by the way, let it be asked if He came down from Heaven, by what logic do men with their unbelief keep Him from going back to Heaven. Does it not lie in the realm of indisputable logic that a being and personality who had power to come down from Heaven should have equal power to go back to Heaven; that a being who should have power to overcome what appears to be fixed law in relation to this planet would have equal power to rise above that law whether in life or death and go back to a world outside of this planet?) He showed Himself, indeed, distinct from all other men in this exaltation of the will of God in His life. Listen to this utterance: “Not my will, but thine, be done.” What a blazing contrast to tile natural man whose whole inspiration and motive is the accomplishment of his own will. And what think you was that will that made Him keep the law of Sinai, and the will behind Sinai that made Him lay aside ‘His form and appearing as God and come down from Heaven to dwell among men? Is there any need to be in doubt about it? Is there any need to be in doubt about the work He came to do as the expression of the Father’s will? Need we be caught at all in the snares of those who teach the will of God concerning Him was that He should just lead a sinaitic, law-abiding life as the saving example of men? No! a thousand times—no! Scripture makes it as clear as a cloudless sky. God the Father found no satisfaction in the yearly Day of Atonement, in the sacrifices offered thereon. The sacrifice of bulls and goats could not take away sin and thus permit God to become the Saviour of men. “In those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.” (Hebrews 10:3-4.) The living God wanted a sacrifice that would meet the demands of His law, His government and being. That was His desire. God’s desire is God’s will. The eternal Son of God at once responded to this desire, to this will. He laid aside” the form of God,” came down from Heaven and entered the world to do the will of God, to be His perfect servant; as it is written: “When he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, (that’ is the sacrifice of bulls and goats) but a body hast thou prepared me.” (Hebrews 10:5) God the Father was not satisfied with the bodies of bulls and goats offered Him in sacrifice. He wanted a better body than theirs. Immediately the Son says: “I come to do thy will, O God.” (Hebrews 10:7.) And that we may have no excuse for being in the dark and blundering about this will of God our Lord came to fulfill, the Apostle under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit writes: “By, the which will we (who believe) are sanctified by the offering of the body (the prepared body spoken of in Hebrews 10:5) of Jesus Christ once for all.” (Hebrews 10:10.) Here then beyond the need of discussion we are told, and told from headquarters, that our Lord Jesus Christ offered His prepared body as a sacrifice for sin according to the will of God the Father, that it was the will of God that He should become incarnate and offer Himself as a whole Burnt Offering and as a perfect Sin Offering. This was the will our Lord Jesus Christ came from Heaven to do. He hid the law in His heart as it was hidden in the ark. He fulfilled it to the letter. It was that complete fulfillment which found its accent in His cry on the cross: “It is finished.” The Ark contained the Golden pot that had manna. Manna was the bread God sent down from Heaven to feed the Children of Israel on their way to the Promised Land. (Exodus 16:11-15.) The Manna was a symbol of our Lord Jesus Christ as the Bread of Life on which as Christians we are to feed as we journey through the world on our way to the great inheritance; for He Himself has said: “I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven * * * if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world.” (John 6:48-51.) The manna in the ark and the ark as the symbol of His incarnation, are symbols of the fact that He became incarnate that He might die, rise again, ascend to Heaven and from thence become the source of the new and spiritual life He should give. The golden pot that held the manna emphasizes the fact that He was divine as well as human. In the Ark was placed Aaron’s rod that budded. There was a revolt in Israel against Moses and Aaron. They were charged with taking too much upon themselves. The Lord entered into judgment with the rebels and slew them. (Numbers 16.) That He might establish the priesthood of Aaron against all controversy He required that a rod should be taken from each tribe with the name of the head of the tribe written on it. Aaron’s name was written on his rod as from the tribe of Levi. The Lord commanded the rods to be placed in the Tabernacle before the Ark. The man whose rod should blossom should be proven to be the man whom God had chosen and ordained to be priest. ‘ The next day when Moses entered in to look at them he found the rod of Aaron had budded; not only so, it had burst out into full blossom; not only that-it bore fruit of almonds. It was thus in three stages: bud, blossom, fruit. It was full of almonds. The Almond tree is the first to bloom after the chill and death of winter. It is a symbol of resurrection life. This living rod was not only an avouchment of the priesthood of Aaron, but a symbolic prophecy of the priesthood of our Lord. He should be a priest after He rose from the dead. His priesthood should not be like that of Aaron’s, subject to change by reason of death. He should rise never to die again. He should ever live and make intercession; as it is written: “But this man because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood he ever liveth to make intercession.” (Hebrews 7:24-25.) The rod in the ark with its bud, blossom and fruit was a witness that the Son of God should become incarnate, bring the throne of God from Heaven to earth, that with omnipotent power He might offer Himself in sacrificial death, rise again and from Heaven be the continual source of life, strength and abounding hope to all who should believe in and trust Him as such. The Ark was made complete with a golden crown at the top. The border had the band and edge of a king’s crown. It was the consummation of the Ark. It was a prophetic symbol that the incarnation of the Son of God should find its consummation in the office, the function and the glory of a king. He was born a king. (Matthew 2:2.) He rode into Jerusalem and offered Himself as King. (John 12:13-15.) He was offered by Pilate to the Jews as their King. (John 19:14.) He was crucified as King. God the Father took Him to Heaven as a rejected King, placed Him at His right hand and bade Him sit there till the hour should come to make His enemies His footstool. (Psalms 110:1.) He is seen in Heaven as the Lamb that had been slain, and at the same time, as the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, and therefore as the King of the Jews in exile. God the Father will yet set Him as a King upon His Holy Hill of Zion. (Psalms 2:6.) He is coming as King of kings and Lord of lords. (Revelation 19:16.) Thus in the Ark of the Covenant we have a picture of our Lord Jesus Christ and His varied glories. The enthronement of God in humanity-His perfect humanity. The concrete of the Law of Sinai. The Prepared Body. The Heavenly Bread. The Everlasting Priest. The King of the Jews. The King of Israel. The King of kings. Immortal man. Very God. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 24: 02.17. THE MERCY SEAT ======================================================================== THE MERCY SEAT THE Mercy Seat was the lid of the Ark of the Covenant. It was pure, solid gold. Out from each end of it there was beaten and fashioned a figure of the cherubim. They bowed inward toward each other with their faces to the Mercy Seat. Their wings were lifted up above their heads, forming a canopy of wings. The lid of gold was set in a groove under the cornice or crown of the Ark and fitted with absolute exactness. Between the cherubim figures the shekinal light shone forth. It was here God met and dealt with the representatives of Israel; as it is written: “And thou shalt make a mercy seat of pure gold: two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof, and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof. And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy seat. And make one cherub on the one end, and the other cherub on the other end: even of the mercy seat shall ye make the cherubims on the two ends thereof. And the cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubims be. And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee. And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.” (Exodus 25:17-21.) The Mercy Seat is a distinct symbol of our Lord Jesus Christ. There is a Scripture which definitely declares that it is; as it is written: “Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood.” (Romans 3:25.) The word “propitiation” is a translation of the Greek word, hilasterion, and hilasterion means “mercy seat.” Literally, the Apostle says: “Whom God hath set forth to be a mercy seat through faith in his blood.” According to Holy Scripture therefore the Mercy Seat in the Tabernacle was a symbol of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the true Mercy Seat and to be approached by faith in His blood. The Mercy Seat was placed upon the Ark of the Covenant, the symbol of the throne of God. The Ark and therefore the Mercy Seat were behind the vail in the Most Holy Place, the Holy of Holies. The Mercy Seat as well as the Ark could be seen but once a year and that on the Day of Atonement. On that day the priest offered a sacrifice at the Brazen Altar, took the blood, sprinkled it before the vail, put it aside, entered the sacred place, stood before the Mercy Seat, sprinkled the blood thereon and hastened out lest if he tarried a moment he should die. As the Mercy Seat is a symbol of our Lord Jesus Christ (Scripturally so declared) and the Mercy Seat was upon the Ark of the Covenant, the symbol of the throne of God (Scripturally so declared) and as the Mercy Seat could be seen only after the sacrifice had been offered on the day of atonement, then you have a perfect picture of our Lord after He had offered Himself ‘on the cross as a sacrifice for sin, after He rose from the dead, ascended to Heaven and sat down on the throne of God. The Type and the antitype are complete. The picture is such as only the Spirit of the living God could paint. It ‘is the picture of a risen, ascended, deathless, immortal man on the throne of God. ‘The Cherubim were on the Mercy Seat and formed an essential part of it. You could not separate the cherubim from the Mercy Seat. To separate the Cherubim from the Mercy Seat you would have had to break, ruin and destroy the Mercy Seat. The Cherubim represent supremacy over natural powers. They symbolize all power. In the logic of symbols, they testify that our Lord Jesus Christ on the throne of God today has all power. He claimed all power when He, was on earth. He claimed all power after His resurrection and just before He ascended, to His disciples He said: “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.” (Matthew 28:18.) All Power is—omnipotence. Here then you have the amazing fact: An omnipotent man on the throne of God in Heaven. What that ought to mean to those of us who believe in Him! Behold us in our mortal flesh, subject to a thousand ills, in a world of sin, confronted by problems we cannot solve and where we are called upon to turn away from sight and mere reason and live by faith. At the sight of things we see, in the face of conditions that sometimes seem to crush out all hope and all impulse to live, when we are absolutely nigh unto fainting under burdens which seem not only too heavy but actually unjust, when perplexity stands at the cross roads and smiles with a cruel smile at our indecision, the smile of the sphynx that will not speak and instruct us; when we confront all this where shall we turn to find comfort, get fresh courage to take up the burden again and go on in the pilgrim way? There is one answer. “Look up.” Behold Him whose face was once wet with tears of sympathy, who walked the earth” a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,” behold Him on the cross, having come all the way down from His pre-existent glory and hanging there for us, our sacrifice, our sin bearer, our punishment for sin; behold Him now on the throne of the All Highest and with all power, omnipotent, the man who died for us because He loved us even when we were dead in sins, loving us still and still filled with sympathy, the sympathy that even now inspires and distills His tears for us. He is up there specially for us. What then? Shall we cry aloud and insist that for our sakes He shall flash the forked lightnings and send down the chariots of His glory. Shall we demand that He open Heaven and send forth a squadron of His mighty and willing angels and prove Himself omnipotent God and at the same time that we shamefully are of little faith and unwilling to abide in His wisdom, His grace, as well as power? Nay! Because of all He was in Himself when here, because of all He was for us on the cross, because of all He is for us now and changeth not, because He is Jesus Christ the immutable, the same yesterday, today and forever, and has all power, and because the restraint of His power is as much an evidence of His omnipotence as the exercise of it we are to do just the one thing: Trust Him. Say with the Psalmist: “In the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities are overpast.” (Psalms 57:1.) The fact that He is there on the throne, the omnipotent man who is very God, and there for us, knowing each one of us by name and all the circumstances of our life, that should be all sufficient to bid us rest with ‘peace in the love that is as much for us in its silence and quiescence as well as when in open action. Again with the Psalmist we m\y say: “What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.” (Psalms 56:3.) And remember this well: You cannot separate the Cherubim from the Mercy Seat without ruining it; just so, you cannot set aside the deity of Christ without utterly repudiating Him as the Christ set forth in Holy Scripture. Indeed you cannot separate His humanity and His deity without destroying the Scriptures themselves. The verses which speak most clearly of His humanity’ are the verses which speak most authoritatively of His deity. Behold Him at the well of Sychar. What does the record say: “Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well.” (John 4:6.) To the sinful woman who came there He said: “Give me to drink.” Weary! and thirsty! Can there be anything more human than that? But then you have John 4:10. Listen to the record: “Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith unto thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.” He declares the “living water” to be the gift of God, and then says He is able to give it. Who can give the gift of God but God Himself? In affirming “living water” to be the gift of God and claiming power to give that gift Himself He openly and plainly declares Himself to be very God. You cannot separate His humanity and His deity in that record. Behold Him weeping at the grave of Lazarus, and weeping with tears as human as ever washed the face of sorrowing men and women, groaning in Himself and making a protest against death, rebelling against it, and then doing what only God can do, calling the dead to life. Where will you find the knife whose blade is thin enough and sharp enough to separate between the deity and the humanity of Christ in that record? Asleep in the midst of the storm in Galilee, asleep from very weariness, arising and with a word stilling the storm, doing that which is declared to be the function and the privilege as well as the power of God alone; as it is written: “Thou (the Lord God) rulest the raging of the sea; when the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them.” (Psalms 89:9.) Either you must accept the whole record with its human weariness and its unqualified act of God, or reject it all. No! you cannot separate the Cherubim from the Mercy Seat. Like the Cherubim beaten out of the pure gold of the Mercy Seat, in it and of it, the humanity and the deity of Christ are of one piece—one person. The Mercy Seat was covered with the blood of the atoning sacrifice. Immediately after the sacrifice was offered on the Brazen Altar the priest took the blood of the victim in a bason, went within the vail and sprinkled it upon the Mercy Seat. Our Lord fulfilled the type and symbol exactly. On the day He rose from the dead as antitypical high priest He ascended to Heaven and put His blood upon the throne of God; as it is written: “Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by (dia with the Genitive as instrument of action and therefore, with, as well as, by) his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, (that is, Heaven) having obtained eternal redemption for us.” (Hebrews 9:12.) He ascended and took His blood within the vail and placed it on the throne of God the very day He arose. His words to Mary demonstrate it. In the grey dawn of the resurrection morning when she came to the tomb, her face still wet with continual weeping, and found the sepulchre empty and the body gone, it came upon her like a shock that some ruthless enemy had entered the sacred place and taken away the body of her Lord. She saw one whom she supposed to be the rich man’s gardner. He turned to her and said: “Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? “ When the angels had asked her that question she answered and said: “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.” But to the man whom she supposed to be the gardner she said: “Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.” O wondrous Mary, what love was thine, precious that crucified body to thee. But she did not know this supposed gardner who talked to her was the Lord Himself. In the grey mist of the hour she did not see distinctly and her tears seemed to vail everything from her vision, everything was blinded by that soul mist that filled her eyes. Then this seeming gardner said just one word: “Mary.” O the music of it. Suppose your beloved dead (more beloved now they are dead than ever you dreamed) should suddenly appear to you and speak your name? Do you think there is any music on earth would be like that to you? Thanks be to God this is the music that shall sound in our ears on the morning of the First Resurrection when He shall come to take us up together and our names shall be uttered on lips long since held closed under the seal of death. And mark how she answered: “Rabboni; which is to say, Master.” All He put into that word, “Mary,” she put back into that word, “Master.” All the love that said, “Mary,” from His lips, from her lips replied in “Master.” But she said more than just “Master.” “Rabboni “is a noun, in the possessive it means: “My Master.” Just as David said, “My shepherd.” With that same intense accent of personal appropriation she said, “My Master.” In that supreme moment she forgot everybody r everything else but Him and herself. There He was face to face with her and-alive. She shut out the thought of the relation of anybody to Him but herself. “My Master alive, and mine for ever more.” For the moment there was nothing else in the universe for her but that. This is the personal appropriation that brings intimate joy. There is nothing like it: My Master and Me. Let the world fade and all things in it be as though they never had been, here is the abiding thing, My Master and me in a relationship of life that death cannot sever, in a relationship of love that nothing can destroy. She prostrated herself in the gladness of self-abasement before Him and would have kissed His feet. But with almost terrifying abruptness He said: “Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.” (John 20:11-17.) “I ascend to my Father.” Literally, “I am now about to ascend to my Father.” He was on His way to Heaven and the Holy of Holies within the vail. Because He was about to ascend there He would not allow her mortal lips even to touch His feet. But that same evening in the upper room where the disciples were gathered together, He came and stood in their midst and said unto them: “Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me and see.” (Luke 24:39.) If in the morning He would not allow His body to be touched because as He said to Mary He was on His way to Heaven and to .the Father, and in the evening of the same day commanded, the disciples not only to touch Him, but to handle Him, and the word as used here means, intimately, closely to examine Him, there is only one conclusion, and that in between the time He saw Mary in the morning and spoke to her, and the evening when He stood face to face with the disciples and insisted on their doing what He had forbidden Mary to do, He had ascended to the Father’s throne in Heaven and had returned to earth. And all this is in strict accordance with the type. On the Day of Atonement the priest offered a sin offering. All the blood of the sin offering was to be poured out at the bottom of the altar, there was to be no blood left in the body of the victim. As it is written: “And the priest... shall pour all the blood of the bullock (sin offering) at the bottom of the altar of the burnt offering, (the Brazen Altar) which is at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.” (Leviticus 4:7.) Our Lord Jesus Christ was the true sin offering. “God hath made him to be sin for us.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) “Once in the end of the age hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” (Hebrews 9:26.) “His own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree.” (1 Peter 2:24.) The Prophet Isaiah foretold God would make Him to be a sin offering. “Thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin.” (Isaiah 53:10.) The Cross of Calvary was the Brazen Altar. On the cross He poured out all His blood. It poured out from beneath the crown of thorns that stabbed His forehead. It poured out from His hand where the nails went driving, crunchingly through to the wood of the cross. It poured out from His right hand. It poured out from His left hand. It poured out from His feet. The feet driven through with a spike that held them. Then a spear was thrust into His side, and the blood poured out from His heart with water, a witness that He was already dead, that He died of a physically broken heart—a broken-hearted Christ. And the blood flowed down like a rain of blood. It fell into the bottom of the Altar-the bottom of the Cross. The blood was all poured out of His body. Thus was He the fulfilled Sin Offering. That this blood had all been poured out of His body, He Himself declared in that upper room that Sunday night of His resurrection. Hear what He says to them: “Handle me and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.” (Luke 24:39.) When speaking of men we often describe them as “flesh and blood.” We do not say, “flesh and bones.” But He said, “flesh and bones.” If He had said, “flesh and blood” as ye see me have, He would have destroyed Himself as the Antitypical Sin Offering, destroyed the meaning of His death and the value of His cross. But He said, “flesh and bones,” because He was the actual Sin Offering and all the blood had been poured out of His body on the cross. But now mark the type and its characteristic fulfillment. On the Day of Atonement the pries should proceed as follows: “He shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the LORD (the Altar of Incense), and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the vail: And he shall put the incense upon the fire before the LORD, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is upon the testimony, that he die not: And he shall take of the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy seat eastward: and before the mercy seat shall he sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times.” (Leviticus 16:12-14.) When our Lord rose from the dead He became a priest, not after the order of Aaron, but after the order of Melchisedec; as it is written: “Made an high priest forever after the order of Melchisedec.” (Hebrews 6:20.) As a Priest on that resurrection morning when He met Mary on His way to Heaven He took His blood to the throne of God within the vail. “Within the vail; Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest, forever after the order of Melchisedec. “ The incense He took up with the blood was the fragrance of His perfect work in offering Himself as a sacrifice for sin. The blood within the vail changed the throne of God from a throne of judgment to a throne of grace; as it is written: “Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession, No not allow any doubt to rob you of the joy and privilege of it). Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace.” (Hebrews 4:14-16.) The Ark was a chest. The tables of the law were placed within it. The Mercy Seat like a golden lid covered the Ark. It covered it exactly. It covered over the law within it, covered it exactly, met it at every point and hid it from view. When the priest approached the Mercy Seat he saw the blood thereon. He knew the blood was between him and the law. He knew the blood of the sin offering had met and settled (ceremonially) all claims of the law against him. He knew judgment against him for that year was at an end. The Lord looked at the blood. He knew it had met (ceremonially) all His claims against the sinner. He had no judgment against him. Where there is no judgment there is grace. On the basis of His ceremonially established righteousness, established by the sacrificial death of a victim on the Brazen Altar, He could deal in grace, invite men to approach and hold communion with Him. All this is set forth in the Lord’s instruction to Moses concerning the Mercy Seat. He says: “And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony (the law) that I shall give thee. And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy’ seat.” (Exodus 25:21-22.) At the blood stained Mercy Seat He would meet and commune with those who approached Him on the basis of that blood. And all this has been wondrously fulfilled. The blood is on the throne in Heaven. The throne of God is a blood sprinkled throne. When we look up, by faith we see the blood. We know the blood is between us and all the claims, not only of the law of Sinai; but the essential law of God’s righteousness. We know all claims against us have been” covered,” (the Hebrew word “to atone” means “to cover,”) that is, “met,” (for sometimes in speaking of the settlement of a claim involving money, or price, we say, the claims were covered, the expenses were covered, or met, and we mean satisfied—) complete satisfaction has been rendered to God, the voice of judgment is hushed. When God looks at the blood He knows all His claims against us have been met at every “point,” and His righteousness exalted by the death of the cross. He no longer has judgment against us. Thus it is that the throne of God today is a throne of grace. On the basis of blood established righteousness He now invites us to draw near that we may hold communion with Him and He with us. This then is our privilege as believers, to ascend by faith to Him who is on the throne, both as Mercy Seat and Priest, and He will meet us there. Not in lordly fanes, amid the sounds of swelling organ, not where censers are swung by human hands are we to meet Him and have Him hold communion with us, but in Spirit, by faith—within the vail—in Heaven itself. To the woman of Samaria the Lord said: “Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipper shall worship the Father in Spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.” (John 4:22-23.). Therefore it is that the Apostle writes his exhortation: “Having’ therefore, brethren, boldness (liberty) to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. By a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the vail, that is to say, his flesh; And having a high priest over the house of God; Let us draw near in full assurance of faith.” (Hebrews 10:19-22.) Sprinkled with the blood that was shed for us, blood that has met our case, blood that tells us He who shed it, who died for us, is alive upon the throne for us, immortal, glorified, omnipotent man, our living and ever interceding priest. Wondrous Mercy Seat! well may we draw near and listen while He talks to us; for the startling thing is this, when we draw nigh in Spirit and in truth, when His Word is dwelling richly in us, by and through that very Word He will speak intelligently to us, and our hearts shall burn within us as we hear His gracious and hope-inspiring speech. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 25: 02.18. THE TABLE OF SHEWBREAD ======================================================================== THE TABLE OF SHEWBREAD THE Table occupied the northern side of the Holy Place. It was two cubits long, a cubit wide and a “Cubit and a half high. It was made of the usual incorruptible wood. It was overlaid with pure gold. It had two cornices or crowns, an outer and an inner crown. There were four gold rings at the four corriers, two on a side. Through these were passed wooden bars or staves covered with gold. They were the handles by which the Table was to be carried when on the journey. Twelve loaves of bread were placed on the table, six in a row. On these were placed frankincense; for, it was counted as an offering made by fire unto the Lord. The bread was to be renewed every Sabbath. It was to be eaten by the priestly family in the Holy Place. “Thou shalt also make a table of shittim wood: two cubits shall be the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof, and a cubit and a half the height thereof. And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, and make thereto a crown of gold round about. And thou shalt make unto it a border of an handbreadth round about, and thou shalt make a golden crown to the border thereof round about. And thou shalt make for it four rings of gold, and put the rings in the four corners that are on the four feet thereof. Over against the border shall the rings be for places of the staves to bear the table. And thou shalt make staves of, shittim wood, and overlay them with gold, that the table may be borne with them.” (Exodus 25:23-28.) “And thou shalt take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes thereof: two tenth deals shall be in one cake. And thou shalt set them in two rows, six on a row, upon the pure table before the LORD. And thou shalt put pure frankincense upon each row, that it may be on the bread for a memorial, even an offering made by fire unto the LORD. Every Sabbath he (Aaron, the high priest) shall set it in order before the LORD continually, being taken from the children of Israel by an everlasting covenant. And it shall be Aaron’s and his sons; and they shall eat it in the holy place: for it is most holy unto him of the offerings of the LORD made by fire by a perpetual statute.” (Leviticus 24:5-9.) The Table and the Bread were considered as one. When the Table is spoken of it includes the bread. When the Bread is mentioned it signifies the Table. The word, “shewbread,” is, literally, “bread of the face,” that is to say, “bread of the presence.” It is called the” continual” bread. (Numbers 4:7; 2 Chronicles 2:4) The twelve loaves represented the twelve tribes of Israel. They were a continual memorial unto the Lord of the twelve tribes and His covenant promises unto them. As these twelve loaves set the twelve tribes as one people before the Lord; so, also, it is a symbol that the Church although constituted of many members is one bread; as it is written: “We being many are one bread (that is, one loaf).” (1 Corinthians 10:7.) The one bread, the one loaf, the one Church, ever recalling to the Lord His covenant promises made unto her. As the Table and the Bread were one, so Christ and the Church are one Christ. He is the Head, the Church is the Body; as it is written: “For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.” (1 Corinthians 12:12. ) The word” Christ” should have the article. Properly it should read: “So is the Christ.” The Christ here refers to the Church as the Body of Christ. A man’s name belongs both to his head and his body. Just so, the Head of the Church is called Christ, and because the Church is His Body it is, also, called Christ. The Table upheld the loaves. It is Christ who upholds the Church and presents her continually as the “continual bread” before God the Father; as it is written: “Able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.” (Jude 1:24.) The Table was the center of union for the priestly family. The typical teaching is plain enough. As Christians we are spiritual priests; as it is written: “An holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:5) “Present your bodies a living (not dead) sacrifice.” (Romans 12:1.) “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name.” (Hebrews 13:15.) As spiritual priests there is only one center around which we can meet and that center is the Risen and Living Christ. He has declared Himself to be the center of every true assembly; as it is written: “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:20.) Apart from all other teaching, what an astounding statement is this. The statement that wherever in this round world, and no matter how far they may be from one another, all Christians who gather sincerely in His name, there He is, not His influence, but Himself. “There am I.” This is nothing less than—omnipresence. What a claim, and because He is truth itself, therefore true. What a dynamic, irrefutable demonstration that He claimed to be and was very God. The Table was the center of daily nourishment for the priestly family. The shewbread was their divinely appointed food. “They shall eat it in the holy place.” (Leviticus 24:9.) The loaves also set forth our Lord Jesus Christ as the Bread of Life. He declared unto the Jews He was such. God had given their fathers manna in the wilderness, and were dead. He had come down from Heaven as the True bread, those who should eat of Him should never die. Then, He told them that He would give His flesh for the salvation of men. He would offer Himself as a sacrifice for sin, those who should eat His flesh and drink His blood would find Him the bread of everlasting life unto them. By eating His flesh and drinking His blood He meant the appropriation of His sacrificial death and the acceptance of Him by faith as their personal substitute. The symbolic meaning of eating is self-evident. It is by eating we appropriate the food and make it a part of ourselves. There must be this personal, individual appropriation of Christ if we would live by and in Him and have Him to live in us. But personal appropriation does not stop with the mere acceptance of the Lord as a personal, sacrificial Saviour. He says: “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10.) A thing grows by what it feeds on. It is our privilege to feed on Christ day by day and grow in Him while He expands in and fills us with Himself. We are to feed on Him by more and more appropriating Him to ourselves, appropriating Him as our perfect sacrifice and resting in the love and security of it; we are to appropriate Him as our living Head, loving us and living for us; and throwing ourselves more and more open to the penetration of His will above our will, allow Him to fill us with His own joy. Let a Christian so appropriate the Lord Jesus Christ day by day, He will find His soul fed and filled with Christ as the living bread and living each day more and more in the consciousness that it is the living Christ that liveth in Him. And now let it be remembered in the logic of the symbols that the bread became such only after the flour had been ground beneath the upper and the nether millstones, moulded into a loaf by a determining hand and made to pass through the test of a fire heated oven, so the Christ of God became the living bread for appropriation only after He had been ground beneath the upper and the nether millstones of the cross, felt the determining, decreeing hand of a covenant God, had passed through the agonizing test of body and soul in the down sweep and the all environing, oven-like heat, of the wrath of God against the sin He represented. As He Himself said through the lips of a prophet, “From above hath He sent fire into my bones and it prevaileth against them.” Let it be further said-only after the priests had come by way of the Brazen Altar of sacrifice could they eat of the bread; only after Christ is accepted on the cross as a personal” sacrifice for sin is it possible to feed on Him as the Bread of Heaven. The Table was the center of fellowship in the priestly family. Here the priests came together. Here they found their unity. Here they got into close and happy communion with one another. They got into this close touch with one another because each was gathered about the same table and each was occupied with the same bread. To have harmony in the assembly of Christ it is necessary to be occupied with Christ. Only as we get near to Christ do we get near to one another. Let a Church be taken up with Christ, with the glory of His eternal past, the wonder of His redeeming love, the perfect efficiency of His sacrificial death, His unfailing priestly intercession in Heaven now and the assurance of His imminent Coming; let a Church think Christ, talk Christ, live Christ and serve Christ, that Church will become the circumference of Christ, the environment revelation of Christ, where each shall have the same mind, the mind of Christ, and be at one in Christ. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 26: 02.19. THE GOLDEN CANDLESTICK ======================================================================== THE GOLDEN CANDLESTICK THE Golden Candlestick was set in the Holy Place on the south side opposite the Table of Shewbread. It was handmade. It was beaten by hand out of pure gold. It had a central shaft and six branches, three coming out of each side. A branch came out of the shaft at the top and was actually the extension of the shaft. There were .seven branches in all. It was highly ornamented. Each side branch had three sections. Each section had spindles shaped like almonds, a knob at the upper end and a flower. The central shaft had four of these sections. Golden lamps were placed on ‘the top of the flowers. “And thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold: of beaten work shall the candlestick be made: his shaft, and his branches, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers, shall be of the same. And six branches shall come out of the sides of it; three branches of the candlestick out of the one side, and three branches of the candlestick out of the other side: Three bowls made like unto almonds, with a knop and a flower in one branch; and three bowls made like almonds in the other branch, with a knop and a flower: so in the six branches that come out of the candlestick. And in the candlestick shall be four bowls made like unto almonds, with their knops and their flowers. And there shall be a knop under two branches of the same, and a knop under two branches of the same, and a knop under two branches of the same, according to the six branches that proceed out of the candlestick. Their knops and their branches shall be of the same: all it shall be one beaten work of pure gold. “And thou shalt make the seven lamps thereof: and they shall light the lamps thereof, that they may give light over against it.” (That is, over against the central shaft.) (Exodus 25:31-37) The Golden Candlestick was both a light and a light bearer. It was a perfect, a fitting and a divine symbol of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was both light and light bearer. He was light as it is written: “He was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” (John 1:9.) The correct rendering should read: “The true light which lighteth (is able to light) every man, was coming into the world.” “I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles.” (Isaiah 42:6.) “I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.” (Isaiah 49:6.) “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” (John 8:12.) “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” (John 9:5.) He was moral and spiritual light. He was essential light; as it is written: “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” (1 John 1:5.) As He was God manifest in the flesh, He was pure, essential light, and in Him was no darkness at all. The priests walked in the light of the Golden Candlestick that they might perform the service of God. It is in Him as the light we must walk if we would efficiently fulfill the service of God; as it is written: “Come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.” (Isaiah 2:5.) “Now are ye light in the world: walk as children of light.” (Ephesians 5:8.) “If we walk in the light, as he (God) is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7.) “As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him.” (Colossians 2:6.) The Golden Candlestick was a constant testimony to the priests that they must not walk in the light of nature; and that they could fulfill the service of God only as they walked in the light provided by Him. All natural light was excluded from the Tabernacle. They had only the light of the Golden Light Bearer. The moment they wished to walk by the light of nature they must go outside the Tabernacle. But the moment they were outside with all the light of nature upon them they were unable to see the wondrous things in the Tabernacle. No longer would they have the vision of a man’s face in the midst of the outspreading wings of the cherubim; that symbol of a man who is very God, and that God who is real man would be shut out from them. No longer would they see the blood of the Brazen Altar upon the Golden Altar of Incense; that symbol of priestly intercession in Heaven, based on the blood of the cross as the blood of a penal sacrifice, could no longer be seen. The priest entering behind the vail with the blood of atonement and putting the blood before and upon the Mercy Seat would have been hidden from their eyes; that symbol of a priest, risen and ascended to Heaven with the blood of the cross would have been blotted from their vision. The more they should walk in the light of nature, less and less would they be able to see the things in the Holy and the Most Holy Place. And here you have in startling and terrific object lesson the secret of the unbelief, the down grade and the open apostasy among those who profess to serve the Lord in His sanctuary today and call themselves, the” ministers of Christ; “men who profess to preach Christ. They are no longer walking in the light of the Holy Place. They are walking in the light of human reason. Christ in the Cherubim they cannot see. Christ as Over All God, Son of Mary and real man has disappeared from their view. The light of nature is so strong, so dazzling, the refraction of light from evolution and biology so intense they cannot get the vision of the Virgin Birth; they cannot read intelligently, understandingly, the great fact that God sent His own Son, not the son of any man, but His own Son, “made (and by Him) out of a woman.” The blood on the Mercy Seat disappears. Christ as High Priest after the order of Melchisedec disappears. Nature’s light has become spiritual darkness to them. The truth is, they walk by the boundaries of limited human reason and not with the eagle––like eyesight of faith. They are no longer in the sanctuary, the secret place of the Most High. They are out in the world, on the plane of the world, going by the light of the world, and not by the light that God provides and which alone shines in the Tabernacle of His presence. The moment a professed believer attempts to live the Christian life or serve the Lord in the light of the natural understanding he is walking outside of Christ; he is no longer in fellowship with Him and the Father. He is not walking nor serving according to the Word of God; he is not going according to His mind and will. Such an one cannot and will not be used of God. To go according to the .light of nature is to go according to a light that becomes the darkest of all darkness; as our Lord Himself has said: “If the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness.” (Matthew 6:23.) If we would be used of God, if we would be in fellowship with the Father and the Son we must walk in the light as Christ is in the light, in Him as the light and the Light bearer––the Golden candlestick and the light of God. The Golden Candlestick was furnished with oil of the sanctuary, oil specially prepared and ordered of God. “And thou shalt command the children of Israel, that they bring thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamp to burn always.” (Exodus 27:20.) Oil was for anointing. Our Lord Jesus Christ was anointed; as it is written: “Thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed.” (Acts 4:27.) He was .anointed by the Spirit. He speaks anticipatively through the prophet of that anointing. He says: “The Spirit of the LORD God is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me.” (Isaiah 61:1.) The Apostle Peter says: “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power.” (Acts 10:38.) Oil is therefore the divine symbol of the Holy Spirit. Our Lord had the Spirit without measure; as it is written: “God giveth not the Spirit by measure to him.” (John 3:34.) The Spirit was• not given to Him by measure because the fulness of the ‘Godhead dwelt in Him bodily. He walked the earth a Spirit-filled man. Because He was Spirit filled He was absolute and essential truth. Truth is light, therefore was He the True Light, the only light by which any man can find his way to God – as the Father. He says so Himself: “No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6.) Therefore He says: “He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” (John 8:12.) As the Church is the reincarnation of Christ and the Candlestick is the symbol of Christ, then the Candlestick is also a symbol of the Church of Christ. Our risen and glorified Lord says so: After His resurrection and ascension to Heaven He appeared to John in a vision on the Island of Patmos. John saw Him in High Priestly garments walking in the midst of seven golden candlesticks. He tells John what the golden candlesticks mean: He says: “The seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.” (Revelation 1:20.) As the Golden Candlestick represents our Lord Jesus Christ and was filled with oil as a symbol that He was filled with the Spirit; and as the Candlestick is declared by Him to be a symbol of the Church, then the Candlestick filled with oil is a testimony that the Holy Spirit has been given to the Church. But mark how the oil was brought forth and made to fill the Candlestick. It was, “beaten.” The olives were not put into a press, but beaten by hand. The word “beaten” signifies “bruised.” He was “bruised,” and “bruised” by the hand of the Father; as it is written: “But it pleased the LORD to bruise him.” (Isaiah 53:10.) The Hebrew employs two distinct words for “bruise,” but the signification is the same, it is a smiting, a beating, a breaking down. It was out of, as a consequence of, the agony of the Cross the Spirit came to the Church. After He rose from the dead and in the evening when he had returned from His high priestly ascension to Heaven, He gave the Spirit. He gave it to the disciples assembled in the upper room; as it is written: “He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” (John 20:23.) You will notice He did not say” receive ye the Holy Ghost and power;” He said simply, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” This was the fulfillment of the promise made concerning the Comforter. He promised that after He should rise from the dead He would send the Holy Spirit to be their Comforter to comfort and sustain them during His absence. “Comforter” means, literally, “stand by.” The Holy Spirit should come to them, be their Stand by and His Vice-gerent, His Vicar, His unseen but representative Agent and Proxy. He had said to them: “The Spirit of truth dwelleth with you, (at that moment in the Lord’s own body) and shall be in you.” (John 14:17.) “The Comforter. Whom I will send unto you from the Father.” (John 15:26.) Ten days before He ascended to Heaven publicly, He promised the disciples they should be baptized in the Holy Ghost. He said: “Ye shall be baptized with (in) the Holy Ghost not many days hence.” (Acts 1:5.) On the day of Pentecost while the disciples (there were now twelve, Matthias having been chosen in the place of Judas- Acts 1:26) while the disciples were all “with one accord” in one place the Holy Ghost was manifested to them as a mighty rushing wind and cloven tongues of fire. He sat upon each of them and gave them power to speak with tongues. The Apostle Peter standing up with the eleven declared the Lord had, not only risen (and of that resurrection they were the living witnesses) but that this risen Lord had ascended to Heaven and sat on the throne of God as incarnate Jehovah; and that this mighty power impelling the disciples to speak with different tongues was the proof. He said: “This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we are all witnesses, Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.” (Acts 2:32-33.) “To shed forth” is literally “to pour out.” The outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the giving of the Comforter are widely distinct from each other, they are absolutely as far apart as the east and the west. The Comforter is the promise of the Son. The Outpouring is the promise of the Father. The promise of the Comforter was made by the Lord previous to His death. The promise of the Outpouring at Pentecost was made eight hundred years before our Lord was born. The promise of the Comforter was made directly and individually by the Lord Himself. The promise of Pentecost was made by the Father through the prophet Joel. This is the statement of the Apostle Peter. He said: “This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel” (Acts 2:16.) Joel foretold the great and notable day of the Lord was coming. The Lord Himself would descend to Jerusalem, to the valley of Jehoshaphat, and pour out His judgments on the nations assembled there. He would overthrow the enemies of Israel and establish the covenant kingdom. Just before He should reveal Himself in His judgments He would pour out of His Spirit on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, they should speak with tongues and all who should call upon the name of the Lord should be saved. This explains the question of the disciples. When the Lord announced to them the outpouring of the Spirit, they said unto Him: “Wilt thou at this time (at the outpouring of the Spirit) restore again the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6.) They knew the promise of the outpouring had been given by Joel. They knew its fulfillment meant the overthrow of their national oppressors, the establishment of the kingdom and the coming again of the glory of Israel. The question in the light of the Lord’s promise was logical: if the Spirit should be given would all that Joel foretold come to pass, would the long desired kingdom be brought in? They were in the quiver of expectation. He did not answer them directly. He said it was not for them to know the times and the seasons the Father (you will notice it is the issue of the Father, not the Son) had put in His own power (that is, had shut up to His own final determination). There are wide and inclusive areas in the promises of God, the incoming of events and conditions not always precised. He did not answer because Pentecost was to be a test to the Jewish nation. If they should accept the outpouring of the Spirit as the begun fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel, as the proof that Jesus of Nazareth whom they had so wantonly crucified was their true Messiah, had risen and was now on the throne of God, if they should be willing to accept Him as their covenant King, the Father would send Him back, restore the nation and fill the land of Israel with glory. Later on, standing in the temple after he had healed the lame man at the gate Beautiful, arraigning the people because they had accepted a murderer and crucified their own Messiah, and yet recognizing they had done it through ignorance, not knowing that this Jesus was the very Prince of life, and assuring them He had fulfilled all the law and the prophets, and was now seated on the Father’s throne waiting to be gracious to them, Peter announced to the listening throng their opportunity and obligation as a nation. He said: “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out when (so that) the times of refreshing (restoration of the kingdom) shall (may) come from the presence of the Lord; And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you.” (Acts 3:20.) As a nation they failed to meet the test. They failed to recognize the meaning of Pentecost. Having rejected the Lord when He walked in their midst, having acclaimed Caesar instead of Christ for King, they finally and officially rejected Him as risen from the dead, refused to believe He was on the throne of God. And this they did when the Sanhedrim rose up as one man against Stephen whom they had summoned before them, rose up against him when full of the Holy Ghost he declared unto them that he saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and casting him out of their midst caused him to be stoned to death. After that Peter under the call of the Lord went to the house of Cornelius in Caesarea and preached Christ to a chosen and elect company of Gentiles; and on them the Lord poured forth His Spirit as He did at Jerusalem. The spiritual body of Christ was thus made complete, being composed of elect Jews and Gentiles. From that moment the Jew nationally was set aside. The Church and this parenthetic age were brought in. The manifestation of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and at the house of Cornelius was – a baptism. Our Lord was the Baptizer. The Holy Spirit never has, and does not now, baptize anyone, He is the environment in which the baptism takes place. And herein is to be seen the distinction between the giving of the Comforter and Pentecost. The Coming of the Comforter was a—breathing. The manifestation at Pentecost was a baptism. To baptize is to—immerse. In water baptism the water becomes the environment of the person baptized. At Pentecost .the risen Lord immersed His disciples in the ‘Holy Spirit. When He gave the Comforter He put the Spirit in the disciples. At Pentecost He put the disciples in the Spirit. When the Comforter came they got life. At Pentecost they got the power of that life. When the Gentiles were baptized in the Holy Spirit at the house of Cornelius, and the Body of Christ was then fully formed in all its functional responsibility, baptism in the Holy Spirit ceased for the Church age. The laying on of hands, the gift and gifts of the Holy Ghost were not baptisms, not a single one of them. There is no such thing as baptism in the Holy Spirit today. It would be fundamentally out of place. There can be no baptism in the Holy Spirit till the Church is taken away. When this occurs the Spirit will again be poured out. This outpouring will take place at Jerusalem, upon the ‘elect remnant among the Jews, and according to the Prophet Joel, just before the Lord appears in His glory to deliver Jerusalem and set up’ His kingdom. This is unqualifiedly and distinctively the age of the Church. As the oil was in the Candlestick, so the Holy Spirit is in the Church and on the Church corporately. What is true of the Church corporately is true of the Church individually. The Spirit in the Christian makes him the most sacred and holy temple on earth; as it is written: “What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you?” (1 Corinthians 6:19.) The Holy Spirit is in the believer so that the believer may be the agent by which the light of divine truth may be given to the world. The Candlestick was seven branched. There was a central shaft, and as already described six branches going out of the shaft. The six branches joined on to and in the shaft constituted the complete Candlestick. A candlestick represents a church or assembly in a definite place. This is illustrated in the letter which the risen Lord commands John to write to the Pastor of the Church at Ephesus. He says: “I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.” (Revelation 2:5) The Church in Ephesus is definitely called a candlestick, the light bearer, the spiritual light for that city ––the transmitter of Heaven––sent truth. A Church in a city or province might be composed of several assembles and pastors. A letter addressed to any Church in any locality would mean a circular letter to be read in all the assemblies of that locality; the different assemblies would be reckoned as the one Church. These assemblies found their unity in Christ as the Head of the Church. He was the Head and He was the Center. This is clearly set forth in the vision given to John. He said: “I saw seven golden candlesticks; And in the midst of the candlesticks one like unto the Son of man.” (Revelation 1:12-13.) Our Lord declares these seven candlesticks represent the seven churches of the province of Asia: “The seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.” (Revelation 1:20.) These seven churches represent the whole Church in the world during the time of our Lord’s absence. They particularly represent the seven distinct characteristics during that time, be it long or short. All the characteristics of all the churches may be found in anyone of the churches in principle and incipiency at anyone period; so that, the whole range of characteristics might be released and consummated at anyone stage in the .Church’s history. In other words, while the picture is a forecast of what might become detailed and lengthened out history, yet the whole might be telescoped at any one time under the pressure of the Lord’s imminency, the sudden ripening of Satanic evil or the accelerated falling away in the professing Church. But whatever may be the varied history through which the Church shall pass during the time our Lord is away, its unity is to be found in Him and in Him alone. The six branches of the Golden Candlestick proclaim the manifoldness of the assemblies of Christ, but the Shaft to which they are joined reveal the Lord Jesus Christ in the midst, the center of life and relationship. Without the central shaft the side branches could not be maintained. Without Christ as the very center the Church cannot exist. The Golden Candlestick is a symbol of the Church as a light bearer in the world. Our Lord said to His disciples: “Ye are the light of the world.” (Matthew 5:14.) “Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning.” (Luke 12:35.) “Ye shine as lights in the world.” (Php 2:15.) As the light of the Candlestick was not the light of nature, but a light specially provided of God; as the light was fed and made possible only by the oil, and the oil is a symbol of the Holy Spirit, then the Church is not in the world to give the light of nature to men, but the light and truth that comes through the energy and revelation of the Spirit. The Church is not here to give instruction in the things of nature. The Church is not here to become a school, an academy, a college or a university of human knowledge. It is not the function of the Church to educate in the sciences, to deal in the philosophy and speculations of men; the Church is not ‘called on to educate or culture the natural man in any direction. These things lie in the realm of human research and the light of applied reason. Just as the light of the Candlestick revealed what ‘Was hidden from the light of nature, even the wonders of the sanctuary, the symbols of redemption and glory, so the Church is to set before men what the light of nature cannot reveal concerning these things. The Church is to set before men the things that are supremely worth knowing, and the knowledge of which makes for life eternal: The fact of God, His being and relationship to man, man’s fall, his sin, the full meaning of death, the way of redemption through sacrificial death and blood, eternal life and immortality, the glorious ultimate of the earth when it shall be delivered from sin, sickness, sorrow and death, warning men that apart from the crucified, risen and ascended Son of God eternity holds neither life nor the hope of it, but only death and endless loss. The Church is to preach all this by and through the Holy Scriptures as the inspired, inerrant, infallible Word of God, and to preach it, proclaim it in the energy and demonstration of the Spirit. In short the Church is to give the light of God’s revealed truth to the world. An illustration of the Church as the light bearer may be found in the story––of the woman seeking for the lost piece of money, as recorded in the Gospel according to Luke. The piece had on it the image and the superscription of the king. It had fallen from its place and rolled away into a dark corner. It was lost. It was out ‘of circulation. The king’s face and name were no longer revealed by it. Both name and face were hidden from view. The woman lighted a lamp, swept the house and sought diligently till she found it. The piece of money is man. He was created in the image of God. He fell from his true place as the revelation of God, as His manifestation in the flesh. He has fallen into dark and hidden corners of sin. He is out of the divine circulation. God’s name and character are no longer revealed in and by him. He is no longer the manifestation of God in the flesh. He is a lost value, lost to God and lost to himself. The woman is the Church. The lamp is the Word of God. The light is the truth that flashes out of the Word. Seeking the lost piece with the light of the lamp is seeking the lost soul with the light of God’s truth. Sweeping the house is using the God-given energy of the Church, the Holy Spirit. The light of the woman’s lamp was cast into all corners. The Gospel is to be preached to every creature. The woman continued till she found that chosen and select piece that had been lost. The Church is to continue in this world till she find those who have been foreseen and chosen, and elect and bring them to the God who has foreseen and chosen and elected’ them. The seven lamps of the Golden Candlestick cast their light upon the central shaft and revealed the wealth, the beauty and the wonder of it. “And the LORD spake unto Moses saying, Speak unto Aaron, and say unto him, When thou lightest the lamps, the seven lamps shall give light over against the candlestick.” (Numbers 8:2.) The ultimate work of the Church in the world is to so shine that Christ may be seen in all the wealth, the beauty, the wonder and the glory of His person and work. The Church is here to magnify and exalt Him in all that He was and is and is to come; in all that He has done” is doing and will do. This thought is fully expressed both for the Church and the individual in the lofty utterance of the Apostle: “According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life or by death.” (Php 1:20.) Whenever the Church fails to exalt Him above all things; whenever it fails to set Him forth as revealed in Holy Scripture, in all His pre-existent state, in all His fulness of the Godhead bodily, in all the perfection of His divine and sacrificial death, in the triumph of His resurrection; whenever the Church fails to hold up to view so all can see it the crimson of His outpoured blood; whenever the ministers of the Church fail to enter the sanctuary or preach to the people with the priest’s bason full of blood; whenever the Church fails to preach the finished work of the cross and salvation without human merit and by the work of Christ alone, it is no longer like the Golden Candlestick flashing its light over against the central shaft, it no longer glorifies Him who died for her and rose again; nay, the light of such a professing Church is put out and the risen Lord will no longer recognize it as His candlestick at all. The Golden Candlestick was made of beaten gold. “And this work of the candlestick was of beaten gold, unto the shaft thereof, unto the flowers thereof, was beaten work.” (Numbers 8:4.) The symbol in its application to our Lord is complete. The word “beaten” means “hammered.” He was hammered. In all the earth, in all the ages of the earth, was there ever such hammering as took place that day on the hill called “Calvary?” They laid Him down upon the cross. They hammered first one hand and then they hammered the other to the accursed tree. They hammered His feet fast. They hung Him up there in the sight of men such a piece of hammered work as never was seen before or since that hour. But “hammering” means, as when gold is beaten and shapened with blow after blow till it stands out in open relief, clear, distinct, what men call repousse work, the outline and form revealed in sharp and manifest intensity; so was He hammered and beaten till the outlines of the infinite purpose of God were seen and may be seen today in all their repousse intent and decree. He was hammered by the hand of God. I repeat to you again and again that it was the hand of God that hammered Him. He was hammered with the hammer of divine righteousness, the righteousness that mercilessly strikes its blow upon sin. How mercilessly those strokes fell upon Him in that evil hour; for that day He was counted sin and the hammer of God’s inexorable justice smote Him and smote Him in the place of all who have claimed Him since that hour to this and all who claim Him now. As we are identified with Him in His hammering, in His death for us, it is our privilege to be identified with Him in this life, be His shining, and make the life we live for Him––each word we speak and deed we do for Him, a compensation to Him for every hammered blow ––He received in our behalf. It is our privilege to own that we are children of the light and not children of darkness; that we are children of the day (the day to come) and not children of the night (the night of spiritual darkness). It is our right to affirm that we are sons of God in all the illumination of our Lord’s golden light, and then go forth and by fellowship with Him in our inmost soul, walking in the light He gives, shine forth so that we may reveal Him to the darkened minds of men as the true light, as the only light that leadeth to Heaven; to Home, to glory and to God. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 27: 02.20. THE ALTAR OF INCENSE ======================================================================== THE ALTAR OF INCENSE THE Altar of Incense was four square. It was two cubits high and a cubit long and broad. It was made of incorruptible wood and overlaid with gold. There were four horns upon the four corners. It had a crown of gold. It had a ring of gold on each side under the crown for the two staves by which it was to be carried. It occupied a position in the Holy Place directly in front of the Vail. It was the tallest piece of furniture in the Holy Place and stood level to the wings of the cherubim on the Mercy Seat in the Most Holy Place. It had burning coals placed upon it. Sweet incense was put upon the coals morning and evening. Morning and evening a column of fragrant white smoke ascended therefrom. “And thou shalt make an altar to burn incense upon: of shittim wood shalt thou make it. A cubit shall be the length thereof, and a cubit the breadth thereof; four-square shall it be: and two cubits shall be the height thereof: the horns thereof shall be of the same. And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, the top thereof, and the sides thereof roundabout and the horns thereof; and thou shalt make unto it a crown of gold round about. And two golden rings shalt thou make to it under the crown of it, by the two corners thereof, upon the two sides of it shalt thou make it; and they shall be for places for the staves to bear it withal. And thou shalt make the staves of shittim wood, and overlay them with gold. And thou shalt put it before the vail that is by the ark of the testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with thee. And Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning: when he dresseth the lamps, he shall burn incense upon it. And when Aaron lighteth the lamps at even, he shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual incense before the LORD throughout your generations. Ye shall offer no strange incense thereon, nor burnt sacrifice, nor meat offering; neither shall ye pour drink offering thereon. And Aaron shall make an atonement upon the horns of it once in a year with the blood of the sin offering of atonements: once in the year shall he make atonement upon it throughout your generations: it is most holy unto the Lord. (Exodus 30:1-10.) It was an altar from which the smoke of incense was to ascend. The composition of the incense is particularly and definitely described: “And the LORD said unto Moses, Take unto thee sweet spices, stacte, and onycha, and galbanum; these sweet spices with pure frankincense: of each shall there be a like weight: And thou shalt make it a perfume, a confection after the art of the apothecary, tempered together, pure and holy: And thou shalt beat some of it very small, and put of it before the testimony in the tabernacle of the congregation, where I will meet with thee: it shall be unto you most holy.” (Exodus 30:34-36.) Incense is a symbol of prayer. “Let my prayer be set before thee as incense.” (Psalms 141:2.) “Odours (literally, incense) which are the prayers of saints.” (Revelation 5:8.) Amid all the things of sound and sense that rise Heavenward, nothing is more acceptable to the living God than the voice and breath of sincere prayer. It has in it the music of praise and the fragrance of open and confessed dependence. Praise glorifies God and dependence appeals to Him. Incense on the Altar was offered by Aaron the High Priest. “Aaron shall burn thereon sweet incense every morning… And when Aaron lighteth the lamps at even, he shall burn incense upon it.” (Exodus 30:7-8.) Aaron is a figure of our Lord Jesus Christ in Heaven offering up prayer in behalf of those who are His. “For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.” (Hebrews 9:24.) “Now of the things we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.” (Hebrews 8:1.) As Aaron offered up this incense exclusively for the Children of Israel, so is it true that our Lord Jesus Christ prays only for those who are His. Hear His own words: “I pray not for the world.” There is no need of making any mistake about it. With all the grace we may attribute to Him it is an outstanding fact. He does not pray for the world, for those who are not Ilk This is what He says: “I pray not for the world, but––for them which thou hast given me.” (John 17:9.) What a seal of separation from the world and separation unto Himself there is in that statement and the fact of it. How it manifests our relation as believers; what a sense of intimacy and nearness it gives; what sacredness in the relation. What an amazing fact it is, that He who is the Master of Heaven and earth prays for us––and prays in Heaven on the throne of the Highest. It may not be that He is praying for just the things we wish, nor even such we dream we need, but the fact that He is praying for us is beyond definition of all it demonstrates of interest in, of grace and care for us. Believe He is praying for us, and what matter the cloud-covered sky, the tempest swirling and uprooting all things we hold dear, leaving us neither root nor branch in those things; what matter though we stand with hands folded, hands of helplessness, and the fragments of shattered plans scattered at our feet; what matter though our soul be filled with darkness and our lips be dumb and faith shivers and begins to grope and at times stops and listens to subtle questions filled with a hiss, the hiss of the serpent; what matter that at its worst if, through it all and at the last, we can believe, and will believe in spite of every increeping fear, that He is yonder back of storm or woe praying for us, interceding for us? To believe that, gives assurance He will meet us in the blessing such as never could have come had the answer been in response to our own poor, blind, unthinking and wholly selfish prayer. How often we escape sickness, disease, the assault of circumstance and sudden death because He has prayed, has interceded on our behalf and caused the special providences to be swung over us and along our path, we shall never know till the record of it is read to us when we stand face to face with Him in the glory hour. If there are times when faith would sink and sink as in the anguish of a drowning soul and then suddenly rises as on a swelling tide which lifts us out of the deeps of dark distress till we find firm footing on the shore of peace and rest again in His Word and truth, it is because He prays for us, because He neither slumbers nor sleeps nor closes His eyelids, but open-eyed and watchful bears us on His heart and lifts us in unfailing petition before the Father’s throne. Before Peter stumbled and fell the Lord prayed for him. He told him frankly the Devil desired him that he might sift him as wheat. It is very startling if you read the record. He did not tell Peter He had prayed for him that he might escape the Devil’s assault and snare. Not at all. On the contrary, He assured him the Devil would succeed in ensnaring and overthrowing him. He prayed for Peter, but for just one thing. He prayed that his faith might not fail. He said: “I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not.” (Luke 22:32.) Peter went down into the black pit the Devil had prepared for him. The Devil used Peter’s infirmity, his self-consciousness, his boasting, and then filled him with fear and arrant cowardice, so that in the hour of trial he marked himself and that hour with indelible shame. Peter denied his Lord. He denied Him because he feared he might lose his life if he confessed Him. It would have been hard to have done worse than that. But the Lord looked at Peter; faith responded to the look and to the prayer that had been offered beforehand. The Lord’s look was the emphasis of His anticipative prayer. Out of the darkness Peter came back to be more loyal and more devoted than before, with triumphant faith, but chastened soul. Our Lord as High priest, not only lifts up His prayers in our behalf, but takes our own prayers and presents them like incense before the Father’s throne. Scripture gives us a very dramatic illustration how He does this. As it is written: “And another angel came and stood at the altar, (the Altar of Incense shown in Heaven) having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.” (Revelation 8:3.) What a picture that is. Like that angel the Lord takes the prayers of the believer and presents them before God in the fragrance of His high priestly character and on the basis of His perfect sacrifice. Without His intercession not a single petition of ours would ever ascend to the Court of Heaven. No prayer of ours would ever reach the Father. He says so: “No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6.) Therefore it is written: “In the name of the Lord Jesus–– Giving thanks (and this must be the order) to God and the Father––by him.” (Colossians 3:17.) The horns of the Golden Altar of Incense were stained once a year with the blood of atonement from the Brazen Altar. “And Aaron shall make an atonement upon the horns of it once in a year with the blood of the sin offering.” (Exodus 30:10.) The sin offering was offered on the Brazen Altar. The Brazen Altar was a symbol of the Cross. The full meaning of the symbol is that the intercession of our Lord is based on and finds its effectiveness in the sacrifice of the cross, in the offering of Himself as the Sin Offering there. The Priesthood of Christ and His work of intercession on our behalf rest wholly in the blood of the cross. Had He not died and met the claims of divine justice against us He could not intercede for us. Had He not offered Himself as a sacrifice for us He could not enter that Court in our name and on our behalf at all. He would never dare to breathe our name. His priestly intercession for the believer on the basis of that blood is therefore a demonstration that the blood has been applied, has been accepted on our behalf, and are accounted with our Lord as members of the family of God. It is to be noted the atonement was made on the Incense Altar. The sacrifice was made on the Brazen Altar, but the Atonement is complete on the Golden Altar; as it is written: “And the bullock for the sin offering, whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the holy place.” (Leviticus 16:27.) All this is clear and beautiful. The living priest on the other side of death as seen in the death of the victim on the Brazen Altar is a picture of resurrection, the Holy Place is a picture of Heaven and the priest entering there is our Lord Jesus Christ after His resurrection taking the blood of the Cross to the throne of God in Heaven. As I have shown, and as Scripture teaches, only in resurrection does our Lord become a priest. Had He not risen His death would have been of no avail and our faith would have been in vain; as it is written: “If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.” (1 Corinthians 15:17.) On the morning of the resurrection as the risen and immortal priest He took His blood within the vail consummated the Atonement there, made reconciliation, reconciling every individual, individually to God. It is after the blood of atonement is on the Golden Altar that the censer of incense is brought in and swung before the Mercy Seat; as it is written: “And he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the LORD, and his hand full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the vail. And he shall put the incense upon the fire before the LORD, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is upon the testimony, that he die not.” (Leviticus 16:12-13.) It was the blood that gave value to the incense. It is the blood of Christ, the merit of Christ’s death, that makes our prayers worthwhile when He presents them. This is set forth in the statement concerning the interceding angel already quoted: “There was given him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all saints.” Literally rendered it reads thus: “There was given him much incense that he might ––add to the prayers––of all saints.” Incense added to the prayers. Added to the prayers, not of some saints, but all saints. O the double wonder of it. All who believe are “saints” whether of this or any other dispensation. Holy in the merits of His all cleansing blood, holy in His holiness. There may be greater or lesser attainment spiritually, but they are all saints. And all prayers, better or worse, all are made fragrant with the added merit of the great high priest, the merit of His death, the merit of the perfection of His perfect life, His resurrection and priestly life. The burning of the Incense on the Golden Altar was to be continual. “He shall burn incense upon it, a perpetual incense before the LORD.” (Exodus 30:8.) The intercession of our Lord is perpetual; that is, it is continual, unchanging, it never varies, falters nor fails. He ever liveth to make intercession; as it is written: “He is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.” (Hebrews 7:25.) It is the high priestly intercession of our Lord that constitutes the very climax and quintessence of the believer’s security: “Who is he that condemneth? “ Listen to the answer: “It is Christ that died.” That in itself should be sufficient to still every fear, answer every doubt. If Christ has taken my place and died in my stead ––why should I fear? It is a fact. Proclaim it till it echoes and reechoes beneath every sky and in every ear. Christ has taken the believer’s place, has exchanged places with him; so that when the judgment of God fell on Him He was answering for me, an answer written in agony and blood. The blood has met every charge so perfectly that there is not a single stain against our name; as it is written: “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” (1 John 1:7) (Cleanses us legally.) Having met fully and completely all the demands of divine righteousness in my divinely provided substitute, who shall demand payment twice, once from my substitute and then from me? I answer you––no one in Heaven, nor earth, nor Hell. It is agreed Christ died for our sins and settled them, but here is something more than the fact of the payment. Listen to this: “Yea, rather, that is risen again.” Christ died––that is great––but Christ is risen that is greater still––a risen Christ is our receipt, and guarantee that His death has availed for us. If He had not risen He would still be under the burden of my unpaid debt; His resurrection is proof He has been released from that debt and it proves in splendor of light that I have been just as fully and completely released from it as He. The death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ, what more do I need to give me the sense of unshakeable security? I am no longer a debtor, the blood has cancelled the debt, the risen Christ is in Heaven as my living receipt; but how can I approach God and be sure He will receive me into His fellowship? Listen to the gracious and wonderful answer: “Who is even at the right hand of God.” Mark the full meaning of that; listen to the full statement of it: “Into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.” Here is the glorious truth––He is in Heaven as the believer’s representative. As much as He represented him on the cross and endured for him, He is in Heaven living for him. As much as He was the believer’s sin on the cross, He is the believer’s righteousness in Heaven. As He is our righteousness in Heaven and has been accepted at the Father’s right hand, sits there as His beloved Son, likewise is it true God the Father beholds us seated with Him and owned as His accepted sons; wherefore it is written: “And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:6.) Debt paid, living receipt given, taken into Heaven, seated at God’s right hand so near to God we cannot nearer be, because in the person of His Son––we are just as near as He. Could we ask more to make us feel secure? Humanly speaking, I should say––” No!” But more has been done for us. Here is the climacteric statement: “Who also maketh intercession for us.” (Romans 8:34.) This is supreme, absolute and sublime. He died for us and paid the debt––yes, all we owe. He has risen and is our living receipt at the court of justice. He has gone into Heaven and given us the place of perfect acceptance before the Father. To the Father He says continually: “No longer look at that believer as he is in himself, but him as he is in me. Look at me and see him in me, as perfect as I am, as perfect as he will be revealed to be in the morning of the First Resurrection when I shall bring him bodily to Heaven and the enjoyment of its glories.” All that. And added to that––this: Ever living for me, ever presenting me in His perfection before the Father, ever interceding for me, praying for me, constantly listening to catch the breath or the plaint of my prayer, taking that prayer, sweetening it with the frankincense, the compounded perfume of His blood, His holiness and His unchanging love for me. How perfect is the type, how wonderful the fulfillment, how glorious the fact that a man is in Heaven, on the throne of God, occupied with us and the things that concern us. It sets before us the great truth that the work of Christ on behalf of those of us who have claimed and confessed Him is both finished and unfinished. Finished on the Cross where He met all the claims of divine righteousness against us in the perfection of His own death in our name so that His death was our death and therefore our personal atonement for sin, the wiping out of all remembrance of sin against us forever; unfinished, in that He is ceaselessly taken up with our individual interests. That is the wonder of it. This wonderful fact that He never gets done thinking about us; so that the Psalmist writes: “How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more than the sand: when I am awake, I am still with thee.” (That is, still before Him, still the object of His thinking.) (Psalms 139:17-18.) Always that throne on which He sits is approachable for us. Always we may go to Him in the assurance that all the sweep of all the measureless affairs of the universe cannot and will not come in between us and His thought about us. Hear what the Apostle says and let us hear–– it with fresh meaning: “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with a feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:15-16.) He is our Golden Altar––our place of refuge. He is our priest, ministering at the Golden Incense Altar of the throne of God. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 28: 02.21. THE BRAZEN LAVER ======================================================================== THE BRAZEN LAVER THE laver was a bason of brass set on a stand or pedestal, called the “foot.” “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Thou shalt also make a laver of brass, and his foot also of brass, to wash withal: and thou shalt put it between the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar, and thou shalt put water therein. For Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet thereat: When they go into the tabernacle of the congregation, they shall wash with water, that they die not; or when they come near to the altar to minister, to burn offering made by fire unto the LORD: So they shall wash their hands and their feet, that they die not: and it shall be a statute forever to them, even to him and his seed throughout their generations.” (Exodus 30:17-21.) The laver was made from the mirrors used by the women. “And he made the laver of brass, and the foot of it of brass, of the looking-glasses of the women assembling, which assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.” (Exodus 38:8.) The looking-glass in Scripture is a symbol of the written Word of God; as it is written: “If any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner he was.” (James 1:23-24.) The fact of looking into the Word of God is compared to looking into a glass, the glass is plainly compared to the Word of God. The Laver made of the looking-glasses is a symbol of the written Word of God. The laver was filled with water and the priests were commanded to wash in it when performing the service of the Tabernacle. As the Laver was a symbol of the Word, to wash in the laver and apply the water signifies to wash in and apply the Word of God. Scripture tells us there is a washing in and by the written Word. “Christ also loved the Church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.” (Ephesians 5:25-26.) Just as there is a washing by water that cleanses and purifies, so there is a washing in, an application of, the Word of God that cleanses morally and spiritually; as it is written: “Ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.” (John 15:3.) There is a washing of water by the word that is called the washing of regeneration: “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.” (Titus 3:5.) The word” washing” should be rendered” laver.” The literal reading would be: “According to his mercy he saved us by the laver of regeneration.” The laver at the door of the Tabernacle is the symbol of regeneration. No one could be admitted to that Tabernacle except he wash in the laver. The symbol is full of enormous accent. The Tabernacle is a symbol of the Church. Is there any difficulty in understanding it? There ought to be none. As it was impossible to enter into the Tabernacle except by washing in the laver, so is it impossible to enter into and become a living member of the Church of Christ except by and through regeneration. Every day that laver in the midst of Israel was saying what our Lord said to Nicodemus: “Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” (John 3:5.) Literally: “Except a man be begotten out of the water and out of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” Water when spoken of in connection with the Spirit signifies the Word in and under the operation of the Spirit; wherefore it is written: “The washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost.” Renewing and regeneration are here in the same category. Regeneration is not only in and by the laver-the Word of God-it is by the operation of the Holy Ghost in applying the Word. The Word is the instrument, the Holy Spirit is the Agent. The Apostle says: “Our Gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost.” (1 Thessalonians 1:5) Not in the water of baptism, not in any baptismal pool or font as a laver, but through the written Word and’ by the Spirit only can a human being be begotten again and become a child of God. Let it be remembered then, this Brazen Laver at the door of the Tabernacle, though voiceless, proclaimed in unmistakable accents the tremendous legislation of the Son of God to all who would enter the Church of Christ: “Ye must be born again.” The priest who would serve in the Tabernacle must daily wash his hands and feet in the laver. “So they shall wash their hands and their feet, that they die not.” (Exodus 30:21.) Hands are for service. Feet are for walk. The Christian who would serve the Lord effectively must walk before the Lord acceptably. Both his walk as well as his service must be clean. However much by grace through faith we become the children of God, the Lord will not fellowship us in any uncleanness, whether by deed or word or thought. The Christian can be kept clean in walk and service only as he applies the Word of GM to his daily life, walking according to its rule and surrendering to its demands. We can be clean only as we apply the truth to heart and conscience. There is one thing the Christian must do if he would keep in spiritual health and purity: He must take a bath every day in the Word of God; every day he must wash in this laver of regeneration. The Christian who fails to do this will sooner or later find the inherent uncleanness of the flesh manifesting itself uncomfortably to himself in his spiritual experience and uncomfortably to others. Keep the hands and the feet clean, the walk will be honoring and the service effectual. “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.” (Psalms 24:4.). There is a very solemn warning in connection with the laver. The priests are exhorted to wash hands and feet therein, “lest they die.” The spiritual application is clear enough. The Christian who is not walking according to the Word of God, who is not going according to His mind and will revealed therein, who is unwilling to apply the truth of God to his own life, will sooner or later lose the consciousness of the Spirit in his own soul and seem, indeed, as one spiritually dead. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 29: 02.22. THE BRAZEN ALTAR ======================================================================== THE BRAZEN ALTAR “AND thou shalt make an altar of shittim wood, five cubits long, and five cubits broad; the altar shall be foursquare: and the height thereof shall be three cubits. And thou shalt make the horns of it upon the four corners thereof: his horns shall be of the same: and thou shalt overlay it with brass. And thou shalt make his pans to receive his ashes, and his shovels, and his basons, and his flesh hooks, and his fire pans: all the vessels thereof thou shalt make of brass. And thou shalt make for it a grate of network of brass; and upon the net shalt thou make four brazen rings in the four corners thereof. And thou shalt put it under the compass of the altar beneath, that the net may be even to the midst of the altar. And thou shalt make staves for the altar, staves of shittim wood, and overlay them with brass. And the staves shall be put into the rings, and the staves shall be upon the two sides of the altar, to bear it. Hollow with boards shalt thou make it: as it was shewed thee in the mount, so shall they make it.” (Exodus 27:1-8.) The Altar was the place of sacrifice for the sins of the people. It is called the altar of burnt offering. (Exodus 30:28.) It was placed in the Court between the Gate of the Court and the Tabernacle. “And he put the altar of burnt offering by the door of the Tabernacle of the tent of the congregation, and offered upon it the burnt offering and the meat offering; as the LORD commanded Moses.” (Exodus 40:29.) The Burnt offering was a sweet savour offering unto the Lord. (Leviticus 1:9.) Our Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross and His death thereon is declared to be a “sweet savour offering”; as it is written: “Christ hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour.” (Ephesians 5:2.) Since our Lord is the announced antitype of the burnt offering and that was offered OD the Brazen Altar, then the Brazen Altar is the symbol of the cross on which He died and demonstrates it to be, not merely the instrument of a Roman judicial death, but the divinely ordained and definite, chosen Altar of Sacrifice. The Brazen Altar was made by the hands of men, but according to the pattern and purpose of God shown beforehand to Moses in the Mount. By the hands of men our Lord was led outside the gate of Jerusalem and nailed to the Roman cross; but He died there according to the plan and purpose of God, determined and ordained in the counsels of Godhead; as it is written: “Him being delivered by the determinate counsel (covenant purpose) and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.” (Acts 2:23) The prophet said He should be led as a lamb to the slaughter. They came to arrest Him. The moment He looked upon them and announced Himself they fell backward. The sense of His power though withheld smote them with fear, paralyzed them. Had He used His power and counted on their fear, they would have fled and multiplied the story of His mightiness. He did not use His power. He did not appeal to their fear. He let them take His hands and tie them. They put a rope around His neck. They took Him away like a veritable sheep to slaughter led. Before His accusers He was silent. He submitted to the testimony of false witnesses. He gave Himself up as a victim to the hands of men. He did so that He might wondrously act at the last. He would act as never He had acted before. It would be an act greater than when with a single word He had heaved creation into place. He submitted to men that He might with omnipotent power and coordinately surrendered human will offer Himself a Burnt Offering and sacrifice unto God and a Sin Offering for men. Let Scripture proclaim it: “Once in the end of the world (the age) hath he appeared to put away sin by— The sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.” (Hebrews 9:26; Hebrews 9:28.) On the cross He is the obedience of the Second Man set over against the disobedience of the First Man. The Brazen Altar stood practically at the entrance of the Court. No Israelite could get absolution (ceremonial absolution) for his sins, nor a blessing from the priest till he came to this Altar with a victim. He must lay his hand upon its head and claim its sacrificial death in his behalf. Apart from that Brazen Altar he could not approach God at all. Unless he claimed the victim laid on the altar as his substitute he could not be accepted, he could not be accepted and pronounced ceremonially clean. In no possible way can men approach God and be accepted of Him save by way of the cross of Christ. Only when He is offered by faith as a sacrifice for sin and claimed as a substitute can the best and the worst of men be accepted and saved by Him. “As many as received him, (our Lord Jesus Christ) to them gave He power (liberty) to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:12-13.) In John 1:29, we are told the saving name which is offered to faith at this hour: “The next day John (John the Baptist) seeth Jesus Coming unto him, and saith, Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away (beareth away) the sin of the world.” It is in this chapter the Apostle John pictures Him as the Incarnate God. John the Baptist declares Him to be the foreordained victim provided of God. You can be begotten of God through faith in Him as the Lamb of sacrifice. There is no other way. To talk about Him as a good man and speak in admiration of His character and ignore Him as the Lamb of God ordained to sacrifice as revealed in the light of Holy Scripture is to be guilty either of intellectual treason or moral perversity. He was the Lamb of God. He has not ceased to be the Lamb of God. Holy Scripture gives us the picture of Him as He is seen in Heaven today. “And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, (living creatures) and in the midst of the elders, (the Church) stood a Lamb as it had been slain.” (Revelation 5:6.) A lamb that had been slain but is now seen alive is a risen lamb. The preceding verse testifies in one of those paradoxical ways and in divinely mixing its metaphors, that this lamb was also a lion the lion of the tribe of Judah and the Root of David. These names are the exclusive titles of our Lord Jesus Christ, This Lamb then is a picture of Himself in resurrection. The Divine Sacrifice risen and accepted of God. The divinely sent King rejected of the Jews, His covenant people, seated by God at His right hand to wait the hour when He should send Him back in power. The Brazen Altar stood before the door of the Tabernacle. The Cross of Christ stands before the door of Heaven. Only with the blood of the Brazen Altar could entrance be had into the Tabernacle. Only by way of the cross as an altar of sacrifice can anyone enter into the upper and Holy Tabernacle, into Heaven itself. Consider what a travesty it would have been for an Israelite to have brought to the Brazen Altar a bullock or a lamb, any sacrificial victim, extolled it as a firstling of the herd or flock, spoken in glowing terms of its perfections, affirming there was neither spot nor blemish in it, and then sought to pass within the Court and draw nigh to the Tabernacle without offering the victim as his sacrifice for sin upon that altar. The priest would have turned upon that Israelite and driven him back with indignation and the anathema of God; he would have told him the Brazen Altar was the place, not for a living, but a slain victim and that his endeavor to pass it with the living, was a mockery of the Altar. As much as the attempt to pass the Brazen Altar without owning a sacrificial victim thereon would have been a mockery of that Altar, so any attempt to set aside the Cross as the Altar of a penal sacrifice, and every effort to approach God with merely good speech for the beautiful life of Christ, would be a bitter mockery of His cross and might well bring down the indignation and the anathema of God. The truth is, the Brazen Altar was a barrier to any man who sought to draw nigh to the Tabernacle as the dwelling place of God who did not own and confess an atoning sacrifice for himself on the altar. He could not pass by. The blood and the consuming flame of the Altar spoke of the judgment of God against him, banished him, bade him begone as a ceremonially unclean sinner and shut him out of the congregation of God. The Cross of Christ is a barrier to all who will not see it and own it as the place of a penal sacrifice. The blood of that cross, the consuming fire of God’s wrath burning there, the agonizing cry of the forsaken one, proclaim the judgment of God against all who do not accept it as an atoning, personal sacrifice. The Brazen Altar had two staves. By these staves it was carried from place to place and set up. The staves represent the Gospel by which the cross of Christ is carried from place to place. As there were two staves to the Altar, there are two parts to the Gospel. The one part of the Gospel is the proclamation of the death of Christ. The wonderful statement that He died for sinful men. That He died as a sin bearer for all who own and confess Him as such. The other part of the Gospel is the proclamation that He rose from the dead. The glorious news, not only that He has triumphed over death and the grave, but that this triumph makes good the purpose of His death as an atoning sacrifice for sin. Each of the staves was necessary to the Brazen Altar. One stave would not have carried it. To have attempted to carry it by one stave would have overturned and wrecked it. The two staves balanced it. By the two staves it could be carried and set up in one place precisely as it had been set up in another. To announce the death of Christ only is not sufficient. Say all you can say, say all the Scriptures say, about His death; but if He did not rise from the dead, His death was of no more importance than the death of any other man who failed and felt himself forsaken of God. To set aside the death of Christ and speak only of His resurrection, makes His resurrection life of no avail; for if He did not die for our sins, then we are still under the judgment of God and His resurrection is the proof of an infinite and eternal separation between us. Both sides of the Gospel must be preached. The good news that Christ offered Himself a sacrifice for sins. The good news that He rose from the dead and has demonstrated that His sacrifice has been made of avail for all who shall claim it. A death and resurrection Gospel that is the Gospel. The Gospel is officially set forth by the Apostle: “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you, By which also ye are saved, For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures.” Mark that well! “According to the scriptures.” That has a two-fold meaning. According to the doctrine of the Scriptures. The doctrine of the Old Testament Scriptures. The doctrine of the Old Testament Scripture is, that approach to a Holy God can be had only on the ground of sacrificial blood, the blood of a vicarious victim, the ground set forth and illustrated in the Brazen Altar. “And that he was buried.” “According to the Scriptures” is here grammatically understood. The Old Testament Scripture spoke of His burial as well as His death. “And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death.” The actual rendering should be: “His grave was appointed with the wicked, but with the rich man he found his tomb.” (Isaiah 53:9.) The body of the Lord considered as that of a convict would have been dragged away with ropes and cast into a trench with the thieves; but Joseph of Arimathea, a rich man, foreseen of God before our Lord was born, came with a rescript from Pilate giving him the possession of the body, had it taken down and caused it to be laid in his own new made tomb. This indeed was fulfillment of Scripture and with startling exactness. “And that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.” (1 Corinthians 15:1-4.) This is the Gospel of the two staves, the Gospel of death and resurrection. You see these two staves in Paul’s declaration to the Church at Corinth. He says: “I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” (1 Corinthians 2:2.) He means the Christ who was crucified but is now alive. Let it be remembered the Gospel is a two stave Gospel the Gospel of death and resurrection. The Brazen Altar must have both the Staves. The cross of Christ must be proclaimed as the sacrificial death of Christ. The cross of Christ must be exalted in the announcement of His resurrection from the dead. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 30: 02.23. THE PRIEST ======================================================================== THE PRIEST “AND take thou unto thee Aaron thy brother, and his sons with him, from among the children of Israel, that he may minister unto me in the priest’s office, even Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazer and Ithamar, Aaron’s sons.” (Exodus 28:1.) There is a difference between a prophet and a priest. A prophet tells out God to man. A priest tells out man to God. A prophet acts for God before men. A priest acts for men before God. The Apostle gives us the definition of a priest: He is taken from among men. He is ordained for men. He is ordained, set apart, for men, in the things of God. He is to offer gifts and sacrifices for men. He is to be full of compassion for the ignorant and those who have fallen by the way. (Hebrews 5:12.) Aaron was high priest. Aaron’s sons were priests under, and in association with, him. Aaron and his sons constituted a ‘priestly family. Aaron was a figure of Christ. “Now of the things we have spoken this is the sum: we have such an high priest, who is set at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.” (Hebrews 8:1.) Aaron is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ by contrast. Aaron was of the tribe of Levi. Christ was of the tribe of Judah. Aaron was a priest after the order of a mortal man. Christ was a priest after the order of Melchisedec, the deathless, immortal man. Melchisedec was king of righteousness and king of peace. He was without father or mother and had neither beginning of days nor end of life. (Hebrews 7:1-4.) Aaron was a priest on earth of an earthly Tabernacle. Christ was never a priest on earth; as it is written: “For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law.” (Hebrews 8:4.) Aaron ceased to be a priest when he died. Christ became a priest only after He died. He became a priest by and through resurrection; as it is written: “Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, today have I begotten thee.” The Apostle is quoting from the Second Psalm and applies it to the resurrection of Christ. He says: “God hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee.” (Acts 13:33.). If our Lord was made a high priest the day He was begotten, and He was begotten the day He rose from the dead, begotten by and through resurrection, then He became a high priest the day of, and by and through the fact of, His resurrection. This fact is typified by the action of Aaron on the Day of Atonement. Not till after the death of the victim did he leave the place of death, take the blood in the bason, put aside the Vail and go into the Holy Place to act as priest there. It is a complete picture of our Lord Jesus Christ after He had offered Himself as a sacrifice leaving the place of death, rising from the dead, and entering Heaven as a priest in resurrection. Just as Aaron entered the Holy Place with the blood of bulls and of goats our Lord with His own blood entered Heaven; as it is written: “Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.” (Hebrews 9:12; Hebrews 9:24.) Consider the office work of our Lord Jesus Christ as a priest in Heaven. He acts for us (believers) in Heaven. As Aaron went into the Most Holy Place with sacrificial blood on behalf of Israel to bear witness that the sacrifice had been made for them, so our Lord entered within the Vail into Heaven itself, with His own blood as witness that He had offered Himself in death as our sin offering, as our atonement; that He had met every issue and settled every claim on our behalf. As the Brazen Altar responded to the claims of the Ark of the Covenant and gave it the blood of the victim it demanded, so the Cross of Christ answered to the throne of God with the blood of sacrifice offered on it. Christ as priest is our righteousness in Heaven. “This is the name whereby he shall be called, the Lord our righteousness.” (Jeremiah 23:6.) He is such by His act of obedience unto death, and this obedience has been charged to our account as believers; so that the righteousness of God as essential justice has no claims against us. He is the perfect and holy one in whom God the Father sees us. He is our reputation and character in that Court where holiness is always the fashion. In Him we are no less than the very righteousness of God Himself; as it is written: “He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21.) God the Father sees us even while we are down here covered with the dust of the way just as He is in His beauty and holiness and perfection up there; as it is written: “As he is, so are we in this world.” (1 John 4:17.) That is His work, His wondrous work, to live for us just as though it were we who were in the glory already perfected as’ He is perfect. What a dynamic rebuke it is to sin and failure on the part of any Christian, this fact that Christ is before God the Father continually representing us to be as holy as Himself, representing us as perfect sons of God. What an inspiration, impulsion and exhortation that is to bring our daily life and experience up to the plane of this reputation; to try and make our character and reputation on earth as Christians as good and perfect as it is reckoned in Heaven. He is our Advocate in Heaven. “And if any man (any Christian) sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” (1 John 2:1.) An Advocate for us includes the idea of a Prosecutor against us. There is such an one and that one is Satan. He has his headquarters in the atmospheric heavens surrounding this earth, from thence he has access to the throne of God. He is seen in the Heavens under the symbol of a dragon. “And there appeared another wonder in Heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his head.” (Revelation 12:3.) The identity of the dragon is revealed; as it is written: “That old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world.” (Revelation 12:9.) Since time began he has filled the role of accuser against the followers of God. “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also.” (Job 1:6.) When the Lord drew the Devil’s attention to Job and spoke of the righteousness of his character, he brought an accusation against him, slandered him, impugned his motives for being righteous and exhorted the Lord to send trials on him and prove him and test him and see how much his professed righteousness was really worth. This is the Devil’s occupation now, seeking to accuse and bring the follower of God into disrepute with God; as it is written: “And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.” (Revelation 12:10.) This particular scene in Heaven is yet future and looks on to that moment when the Church having been translated from earth to Heaven at the Lord’s Coming for her will be assembled at the Judgment Seat of Christ, and when Satan will make his last great effort to tarnish the glory of the Church of the first born (the first risen from the dead) by bringing the record of defaulting Christians into the light. But while Satan may act the part of prosecutor, as he will claim, for righteousness, the Lord will meet his accusation and fill for us the part of Advocate; or, as the word really means—Our Stand-by. Others may profess to be for us and in the hour of test fall down, He abides for us through evil and through good report. He is faithful and cannot deny Himself, nor the office He has assumed for us-Our Advocate, Our Friend in Heaven. He is our Confessor. The Roman Catholic priest is a Confessor. He listens to the confessions of his parishioners. They are exhorted to go to him and confess their sins down to the most minute detail, not only of deed, of word, but thought and impulse. The Christian can sin. He can sin because in regeneration he does not get rid of the old nature of sin. He gets a new and holy nature from the risen Son of God, but the nature of the first man remains, and thus the Christian has two natures, the nature of the first Adam and the nature of the Second, a nature of flesh and a nature of spirit. But while the Christian has two natures he has but one responsibility. When that responsibility is not exercised against the motions of sin, the Christian will stumble and fall, dishonor the Lord and wound his own soul. The Christian who denies there is sin in him after regeneration makes God a liar; as it is written: “If we (Christians) say that we have not sinned, we make him (God) a liar, and his word is not in us.” (1 John 1:10.) (Self-evidently not in us, because the Word of God is light, it is a revelator.) You may be sitting in a dimly lighted room. Presently the full light is turned on. You discover at once things you had not observed before. The light did not put them there, the light just revealed they were there. That is the manner of the Word of God, in proportion as it is allowed to shine in the heart it will make manifest what is in the heart. The more you allow the light to shine, the more you seek to walk in the light as Christ is in the light, the more you endeavor to be obedient to the will of God as the Word sets it before you, the more you will awake to the fact that the old nature is in you and exceedingly and unchangeably sinful. Get on the heights where the light shines in unhindered power, try to keep pace with Christ as He walks in that upper region and you will have a revelation of yourself that will make you to cry out with anguish, with heartache and bitterness of soul. But sin in a Christian when not judged and repudiated is a dangerous thing; not that a true child of God even though he stumble and continue to walk in the way of unrighteousness, ceases to be a child of God, the fixed relation between a father and a son disproves that. A son may be openly disobedient to his father and walk in a way that dishonors that father, he does not cease to be a son; how much more true is this of the relation between a child of God and his infinite Father. The earthly father may set his son aside, he may refuse to hold communion with him, he may cause him to suffer loss in many directions, but the fact of sonship remains. All this is so in our relation with God the Father. We shall not cease to be His children, but He will refuse to hold communion with us. He will withdraw His manifested presence from us. The Spirit will not leave us, but will refuse to make Himself known to us, we shall be as though He did not dwell in us, as though He never had been in us. We shall be without any consciousness of divine life in us. Alas! there are multitudes of real Christians who are today practically disjuncted from the living God and seem to the world as those who have nothing better to recommend them than lip service, and are in fact stumbling-blocks to the unbeliever. They have yielded to sin in o.ne form or another. The sin may be slight. It may be a wrong word spoken, a false judgment entertained. It may be a secret violation of the will of God, a secret sin indulged in, whatever it may be it is enough to cut the Christian off from the steady supply of the Heaven life, leaving him in blackness of spiritual darkness and to all intents and purposes as dead as the dead world about him. What shall he do to get back to the consciousness of God in his soul? What shall he do to have communion with God and the Spirit restored? Do what the Roman Catholic does. Go to the Priest and confess the sin or sins, make a clean breast of it. Go to your Priest, not to a poor, pretentious priest set up by the hand of man and the deceiving, subtle inspiration of the Devil, but to your Priest in Heaven and confess to Him. That is what He is there for—to listen to your confession and to act as your—Confessor. And behold what He does: He will take your confession and present it to the Father, not as the confession of an alien and unregenerate, but as the confession of one of His own dear children, one who has stumbled and fallen by the way, one who has been grievously hurt by the failure and is full of genuine and sore repentance, one who desires to get back and into touch of the divine presence and the comfort of the Holy Ghost in the soul. Make this confession and the Great High Priest will give you complete and perfect absolution and in the name of the Father cleanse and restore you; as it is written: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9.) The Father does this because He is faithful and just. Faithful to the covenant relationship between Himself and the Son. The Son appeals to the Father and says this confessing Christian is one whom the Father gave Him before the foundation of the world; and the Father because He is faithful will own and restore that child of God to His personal favor. But the Father does this because He is just as well as faithful. The Son testifies to the Father that this confessing Christian is one for whom He died and the Father had agreed to accept His death for this covenant given Christian through all the experiences of his earthly and pilgrim way and He claims the permanent application of that blood now and in this particular case. Because the Father has respect to that blood and the relation of the Lord to the believer as his surety, He will not demand payment twice, once from the Believer’s Surety and then from the believer too. He is both faithful and just, He both forgives and cleanses and the confessing Christian feels suddenly as though Heaven’s gates had been opened and a breath from the throne of God was sweeping with its celestial cleansing through his soul. O there is no act in the Christian life that can so fill the soul with the music of redemption as full and sincere confession to our Great High Priest. It is a gracious and measureless privilege given to believers. Nor need we hesitate to come even though again and again we have stumbled. • Has he not said man should forgive his brother man not seven times but seventy times seven; and does He not mean the Court of Heaven is open, the Confessor ever on the throne, His ear ever bent to listen to the most hesitating and trembling confession that shall carry in it the accent of genuine contrition and a yearning desire once more for the embracing arms of a Saviour’s love? The beauty and the value of confession is set before us in the wonder and pathos of the Last Supper when our Lord at the close of it takes a towel, girds Himself, pours water into a bason and washes the feet of His disciples; (John 13:1-7.) Peter demurs, he will not allow the Lord to wash his feet; but when the Lord assures him that if He do not wash his feet he shall have no part with him, the impulsive Apostle goes to the other extreme and would have the Lord not only to wash his feet, but his hands and his head as well. Then the Lord says to him: “He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit.” This is what the Lord says literally: “He that is bathed (that is, has had his body bathed) needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit.” The body having been bathed is protected by the clothing, but the feet having only sandals are exposed and in walking contract more or less defilement by the way. It was not necessary to take a fresh bath. It was simply necessary to have the feet washed. As believers we have been redeemed by the blood and are in Christ the very righteousness of God; as our Lord said to Peter, we are— “Clean every whit.” But in our daily life even when we do not commit outbreaking sin we contract more or less defilement in our pilgrim way, the sense of communion is lost, there is an estrangement between our spirit and the Spirit of the Lord, we are out of touch, that thing, whatever it may be, is between us and Him, we have neither peace nor power. What shall we do? Do what Peter did at last. He submitted his feet to the inspection of the Lord. That.is what we must do: Show our feet to the Lord. Expose our walk before Him, let Him have the complete detail of deed, word and thought, and all the environing circumstances. When Peter submitted His feet to the Lord, the Lord applied the water to them and washed them. The water is a symbol of the Word and truth of God. When we confess our sins to the Lord He presents this confession to the Father, the Father, as already stated, owns His covenant relation to the Son and to the cross and the justness of the Son’s demands that the believer’s confession shall be accepted; then it is the Lord applies the forgiveness and the cleansing to the believer, applies the truth to his heart and conscience, the Word takes its rightful place in his heart, it becomes in him, indeed, as a well of water springing up and cleansing every thought, gives purity to every word, making the walk a walk of holiness and separation unto the Lord. He is our Intercessor. “He is able also to save to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.” (Hebrews 7:25.) Intercede means to present a petition, to pray. He prays for those who are His. (This has been fully set forth in the chapter on the Golden Incense Altar.) A Christ in Heaven praying for us! What grace, what assurance is that. Again and again when the believer is on the edge where it seems the next step would make him slip, plunge and fall into the black abyss of unbelief, there comes as directly out of Heaven itself a touch of power that ‘repudiates even the thought of doubt or question and gives him a vigor of faith such as he never dreamed ever could be his. Yonder at the throne He has seen our special need and prayed for us. As already shown He takes our prayers, presents them and makes them acceptable before the Father’s throne. He is in Heaven as our life. He is the Second Man. He stands in contrast to the First Man. The First Man has been and is-our Death. Moral, spiritual and organic death. The Lord as the Second Man is our-Life. The source of moral, spiritual and immortal life. He is such to all who believe in Him. All life is by environment. He is our environment. We live in Him. He is, actually, our life; as it is written: “Christ who is our life.” (Colossians 3:4.) He is our Forerunner in Heaven. “Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest forever after the order of Melchisedec.” (Hebrews 6:20.) A Forerunner is one who goes ahead of others. He goes ahead as a sample of those who are to follow. The presence of Christ in Heaven is a pledge to the believer of four great things: 1. We shall enter Heaven the moment of death. “I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better.” (Php 1:23.) To die, according to Scripture, is to depart. Let us remember that, it is the action of a traveler: we depart, we go just as we do here from one locality to another. Listen to this still further detailed announcement: “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from our home out of the body, and to be immediately present at our home with the Lord.” (2 Corinthians 5:8.) As the Lord is in Heaven at the right hand of God, it follows, when the Christian dies he is immediately at the right hand of God, with the Lord. 2. We shall enter Heaven someday in our body. This will be when the Lord comes for the Church; as it is written: “The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17.) Between us and this Coming of the Lord there is not a single predicted event. It will be at an hour when we “think not.” It may be any moment. According to the word of the Lord Himself we are always standing on the threshold of it. It is the “next thing” solemnly promised to the Church. It is not necessary for us to die to go to Heaven. It may be at morning or noon or evening the “door” in Heaven will open and He will say: “Come up hither.” And lo, we shall be with Him. 3. We shall be where He is in Heaven. He is at the” right hand of God.” He has said we shall be where He is: Listen to His words: “I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” (John 14:3.) In His wonderful prayer He said: “Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am.” (John 17:24.) He said: “I go to prepare a place for you.” (John 14:2.) When He comes He will take us into the “place prepared.” 4. We shall be like Him. “It doth not yet appear (is not yet made manifest to the world) what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” (1 John 3:2.) Until that hour of mutual glory He is in Heaven as the sympathizing priest who makes the throne of God the infinite Dispensary of the mercy and grace which help in time of need. “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with a feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:15-16.) If Aaron contrastively and yet in certain details is a direct type of our Lord Jesus Christ as the Great High Priest, Aaron’s sons, the priestly family, set forth the Church as such; as it is written: “Ye also, as lively (living) stones, (Peter is thinking of himself as the first living stone built on Christ the living Rock) are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. ‘ Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood.” (1 Peter 2:5; 1 Peter 2:9.) “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks in his name.” (Hebrews 13:15.) There is no warrant for any high priest on earth today. Priesthood on earth can be exercised only in Israel, in the tribe of Levi and by the house of Aaron. The nation of Israel has been rent in twain. Ten tribes are nationally lost to view. The Jews have been set aside as the people of God in this age; they are Lo Ammi—”Not my People.” The Church has been brought in in the stead of the .law system. With the setting aside of the Jew is the setting aside of priesthood on earth. • The only High Priest is our Lord Jesus Christ and He exercises His office as such only in Heaven. There is no warrant for any special class of priests in the Church. All Christians are priests. They are spiritual priests. As priests all Christians are on a level with each other; no one Christian has a right to special preeminence as a priest. Christians are a family of priests, each having the same’ function as the other, and that is: “To offer- up spiritual sacrifices.” ======================================================================== CHAPTER 31: 02.24. THE EMBROIDERED LINEN COAT ======================================================================== THE EMBROIDERED LINEN COAT (The Priest’s Garments) AARON the high priest had distinctive garments “called, “Garments for glory and beauty.” “And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother for glory and beauty.” (Exodus 28:2.) The garments were: A Breastplate. An Ephod. A Robe, A Broidered Coat. A Mitre. A Girdle. (Exodus 28:4.) The materials were blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen. (Exodus 28:5.) When Aaron and his sons were consecrated to the priesthood the garments were put upon Aaron in the following order: The Coat. The Girdle. The Robe of the Ephod. The Breastplate. The Mitre. The golden plate on the Mitre. The inner linen garments came necessarily first. THE EMBROIDERED LINEN COAT “And thou shalt embroider the coat of fine linen.” (Exodus 28:39.) The coat was of fine linen. It was of “woven work.” (Exodus 39:27.) Linen is a symbol of righteousness; as it is written: “The fine linen is the righteousness of saints.” (Revelation 19:8.) The word “righteousness” should be written in the plural. It is righteousnesses.” As Aaron is a figure of our Lord Jesus Christ these inner garments of linen set forth His essential character, His moral cleanness, His purity, His sinless perfection. The testimony to His perfection is universal, overwhelming, conclusive. THE TESTIMONY OF PILATE “Pilate went out again to the Jews, and said unto them, I find in him—no fault at all.” (John 18:38.) “Pilate therefore went forth again, and saith unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to you, that ye may know that I find no fault in him.” (John 19:4.) “Pilate saith unto them, Take ye him, and crucify him: for I find no fault in him.” (John 19:6.) “When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person.” (Matthew 27:24.) THE TESTIMONY OF PILATE’S WIFE “When he (Pilate) was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, Have thou nothing to do with that just man.” (Matthew 27:19.) THE TESTIMONY OF HEROD “And Pilate, when he had called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people, Said unto them, Ye have brought this man unto me, as one that perverteth the people; and, behold, I, having examined him before you, have found no fault in this man touching those things whereof ye accuse him: No, nor yet Herod: for I sent you to him; and, lo, nothing worthy of death is done unto him.” (Luke 23:13-15.) TESTIMONY OF THE THIEF ON THE CROSS “And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss.” (Luke 23:39-41.) TESTIMONY OF THE CENTURION “And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost. Now when the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God, saying, Certainly this was a righteous man.” (Luke 23:46-47.) “And when the centurion, which stood over against him, and saw that he so cried out, and gave up the ghost (literally—commanded his Spirit to go), he said, Truly this man was-the Son of God.” (Mark 15:39.) TESTIMONY OF STEPHEN Stephen was speaking before the Jewish Sanhedrim. He said: “Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers.” (Acts 7:2.) TESTIMONY OF THE APOSTLE PETER Standing before the Jewish Council he said: “Ye denied the holy one and the just.” (Acts 3:14.) “Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth.” (1 Peter 2:22.) TESTIMONY OF THE APOSTLE JOHN “In him is—no sin.” (1 John 3:5.) TESTIMONY OF THE APOSTLE PAUL “Who knew no sin.” (2 Corinthians 5:21.) “In all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15.) TESTIMONY OF DEMONS FROM THE BOTTOMLESS PIT “And, behold, they (the demons) cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God?” (Matthew 8:29.) “And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the holy one of God.” (Mark 1:23-24.) “But when he (the demon) saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him, And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the Most High God?” (Mark 5:6-7.) “When he saw Jesus, he cried out, and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God Most High?” (Luke 8:28.) TESTIMONY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT “And John (the Baptist) bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.” (John 1:32.) TESTIMONY OF GOD THE FATHER “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 17:5.) “But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands: They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; And as a vesture shalt thou roll them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.” (Hebrews 1:8-12.) His Own Testimony. “Which of you convinceth (convicteth) me of sin?” (John 8:46.) The Answer of the World unto This Very Hour: “None.” Men of all sorts and conditions testified to the perfectness of His life. The police officers who came to arrest Him returned to those who sent them and said: “Never man spake like this man.” (John 7:46.) And watching Him at every step, listening to every word, the people said: “He hath done all things well.” (John 7:36.) Perfect in deed, perfect in word, perfect in thought –the Perfect Man. The Linen Coat in the wonder of its weaving, and embroidery, in the perfection of its needlework, testify to the “beauty of holiness” inwrought with every fibre of His human texture. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 32: 02.25. THE GIRDLE ======================================================================== THE GIRDLE “AND a girdle of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, of needlework; as the LORD commanded Moses.” (Exodus 39:29.) This girdle is not as is commonly supposed the “curious” girdle of the Ephod. That was not a girdle at all, it was rather intended as a means to keep the Ephod in its place. It did not girdle the loins at all. The real girdle was bound under the linen coat. A girdle is the symbol of service: “Gird thyself and serve me.” (Luke 17:8.) It is a symbol of strength for service: “I will strengthen him with thy girdle.” (Isaiah 22:21.) All this finds its perfect fulfillment in the Son of God. Speaking of Him anticipatively the Father says: “Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth.” (Isaiah 42:1.) ““He took on Him the form of a servant.” Literally, we should read: “Being in the form of God, thought not to hold on to equality with God: But emptied himself, (of His form of God) and took upon him the form of a servant.” (Php 2:6-7.) He Himself said: “The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister (serve).” (Matthew 20:28.) To His disciples He said: “I among you as—he that serveth.” (Luke 22:27.) He poured Himself out in service. Multitudes followed Him that they might receive something at His hands. When He went into a secret place to pray Simon Peter and the other disciples sought Him out and said unto Him: “All men seek thee.” (Mark 1:37.) From morning to night He girded Himself in service and gave Himself up to the claims and needs of others. He was the patient, uncomplaining, servant of men, testifying continually that He came not to do His own will. Continually He put upon Himself the startling and suggestive title: “The sent of God.” In the Gospel according to John and John 13:1-38 you have a divinely etched picture of Him as the servant of men. It is the scene to which reference has already been made wherein He washes the feet of His disciples. Is there a man living on earth today, will there ever arise among the sons of men one, who can paint that scene? Not only must he paint the location, the figure of the disciples and the amazing Man, he must throw upon the canvas that which no colors of the pallette can represent the distance He traveled to become that servant: the distance from the throne of God where He held the sceptre of glory to the midst of His disciples where with towel girded loins He washed the earth stained feet of stumbling men. No! he could not paint that scene. No surveyor’s chain could measure the distance; for, even though his chain might give the actual distance in extension of degree, it could not measure the moral distance between that hour when with a fiat word He sent the universe upon its course, and that moment when He arose from the last supper He should eat on earth, took a towel and girded Himself to wash the feet of uncomprehending men. Although reference has already been made to this scene in its suggestive teaching concerning confession it seems fitting that I should take it up again and follow it out in all its analytical detail: He riseth from supper. The supper was the Passover supper. The Passover is a symbol of His sacrificial death as the true Passover Lamb of God; as it is written: “Christ our passover is sacrificed for us.” (1 Corinthians 5:7.) As the Passover is a symbol of His death, rising from the Passover supper is a symbol of His resurrection from the dead. In all this scene therefore we have portrayed the activity of our Lord in resurrection and in His high priestly function in Heaven. He girds Himself. He takes the towel and binds it upon His loins. He takes the attitude of self-denying service before His disciples, and as the scene typifies Him in resurrection and after His ascension to Heaven, we behold Him as He is now in Heaven performing His service for those who still walk amid the dust and stain of earth bearing His name. He pours water into a bason and washes the feet of His disciples. This action is foreshadowed in the relation of the priest to the Brazen Laver at the door of the Tabernacle. The priest, it will be remembered, who would draw nigh to God and serve Him acceptably must wash his hands and feet in the Laver. Hands set forth service. Feet give us the walk and stand for character. As Christians we live not only on the earth, but in the environment of a system called, “the world;” a system of modes, manners and customs; a system where the basic principle is denial of the will of God, exaltation of self will and self-gratification—a course that leads through violated law, gratified appetites, repudiation of God and the things of God. Coming into contact with this system the Christian contracts more or less defilement of his spiritual life, whether it be in association with individual lives, in suggested words that fill the air, in transmitted thought, or in the stumbling due to unheeded ways—and with this comes a sense of loss of spiritual power, a sense of increasing distance from God, a sense of the dust and stain of a world at variance with God and His Holy Spirit. In the East during a meal they reclined at table and did so in close contact, so that the feet of the one would come more or less in contact with the head of another. Because of this and to make the relationship entirely proper there were placed at the entrance of the dining-room, jars or basons of fresh water. When the guest entered the servants of the household removed his sandals and washed his feet. To eat with Christ is to commune with Christ. But if our daily Christian walk is not clean, if it is not free from the dust and stain of the world (and a careless word, a jest, a flippant manner, a look, may bring a stain and sense of wrong) it is impossible to eat with Him. He will not eat with us and our consciousness of communion and contact with the Father is gone. To commune with Him we must have our feet washed, made clean and sweet. He must wash our feet. This is the service the Lord fulfills for those who are His. This is His work in Heaven now. He takes our feet, our spiritual feet, our daily walk and conversation and makes them clean in the sight of God the Father; washes and cleanses us, not as guilty sinners of the outside, but as children of God who have become spiritually unclean. Before the Lord could wash the feet of the disciples they must present them to Him for inspection. In presenting their feet they were confessing the actual condition of them. Before the Lord can cleanse us we must confess our sins and failures, holding back nothing, making no concealment or excuse. Peter at first refused to have his feet washed. The Lord assured him unless they were washed he could have no part or lot in this great priestly action. The solemn fact is if we do not allow the Lord to deal with us here according to His own will—if we do not give Him our feet, make full and free confession, we shall be confronted at the Judgment Seat of Christ with an accumulation of unconfessed, but recorded sin and failure. Under the accusation of Satan these unconfessed things will witness against us, not as imperilling our salvation, but as shutting us out from rewards and privileges that might have been ours. The Lord told Peter it was only necessary to have his feet washed. The Lord made this explanatory statement because when the Apostle found he must have his feet washed he insisted that he should also have his hands and his head washed. He told him when his feet were washed he would be, “every whit clean.” The statement of the Lord and the teaching become plain the moment it is known that although the word, “wash,” is used twice there are really two distinct words with distinct meanings. The first word signifies “to bathe,” the second word signifies simply to apply the water to any single or definite portion of the body. Peter had bathed his body. His body was protected by clothing. It was not necessary to take a fresh bath; but his sandalled feet had come in contact with the dust and soil of the way; to apply the water to the feet was all that was now necessary. And here you have the whole spiritual truth: When you first believe you are bathed, bathed in the blood, sanctified, as well as justified, and stand clean and perfect before God in Christ. That is your reputation and standing in the Court of Heaven. What you need is to have your daily life on earth kept clean and acceptable unto the Lord. To obtain this result you do not need a fresh bath in the blood of the cross, you do not need to have the work of salvation applied to you again to deliver you from the shortcomings of the way-you need simply to confess these shortcomings and failures. As you surrender, the Lord will bring home the truth to your heart and conscience. With the assurance of forgiveness guaranteed in the Word and the Word owned as the rule of your life, even as the application of the water cleanses the feet, the truth will permeate your soul and there will come to you the touch of the Master’s hand and you will know He has taken you into a restored and closer fellowship than before; your confession has given Him the pulse beat of your sincerity and your genuine love for Him. Our Lord is in Heaven as the service girdled one. After He had washed the feet of His disciples He announced to them that what He had done should be an example for them. He said: “If I then your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.” (John 13:14-15) As this scene looks forward to that hour when the Lord should enter on His High Priestly service in Heaven, the washing of one another’s feet is equally symbolical and signifies that like Him we are to take the place of servants of the Most High God in this world, serving God in His name, serving one another, and confessing our faults to one another; as it is written: “Confess your faults one to another, and pray for one another.” (James 5:6.) As He acts in Heaven as a priest for us, bringing to our confession, forgiveness and restoration, we as spiritual priests should so act toward one another, confessing to each other, forgiving one another and restoring each other to the place of spiritual surrender to Him. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 33: 02.26. THE ROBE OF THE EPHOD ======================================================================== THE ROBE OF THE EPHOD THE material of the Robe is not given. “It was of woven work. It was of one color—blue. It was of one piece from top to bottom. At the top there was a hole by which the head might be slipt through, and this was bound round about in such a fashion that it could neither be torn nor rent. “And thou shalt make the robe of the ephod all of blue. And there shall be an hole in the top of it, in the midst thereof: it shall have a binding of woven work round about the hole of it, as it were the hole of an habergeon, that it might not be rent. And beneath upon the hem of it thou shalt make pomegranates of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet round about the hem thereof; and bells of gold between them round about: A golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, upon the hem of the robe round about. And it shall be upon Aaron to minister: and his sound shall be heard when he goeth in unto the holy place before the Lord, and when he cometh out, that he die not.” (Exodus 28:31-35.) A robe is the symbol of position, office and character. “My judgment was a robe.” (Job 29:14.) “Clad with zeal as a cloak (robe).” (Isaiah 59:17.) “The robe of righteousness.” (Isaiah 61:10.) As the robe was the garment of priesthood and our Lord is the Great Antitypical Priest, the robe sets forth both His office and character as such. The colors of the robe are the distinctive features of His character. Blue is the color of Heaven. In the robe therefore you have a picture of Him as —The Heavenly Man. From Heaven He came, of Heaven He spoke, to Heaven He lifted His eyes, toward Heaven He walked, Heaven was continually in His thought and Heaven was the environment in which He lived. He stands in contrast to Adam, the First Man, who was “out of the earth—earthy.” He had no earthly dwelling place. He had no earthly possessions. His riches and His store, all His treasures, were in Heaven. “Heavenly” is the word and title befitting Him. “Blue is the symbol of grace.” He was the incarnation of grace. “Thou art fairer than the children of men; grace is poured into thy lips.” (Psalms 45:2.) From these lips as from an exquisite chalice He poured forth the words that fell upon wounded hearts as the balm that” never was in Gilead.” In His first sermon at Nazareth all bore witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. “The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” (John 1:11) It was grace that brought Him from Heaven’s riches to Earth’s poverty; so that His grace is spoken of as: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.” He lived in grace and died because of His grace. His heart was moved at the sight of sorrow. He healed the sick. He forgave sin. Grace and truth came by Him. Not grace alone—but grace and truth. Grace without truth is weakness. Truth without grace is judgment. But while truth reveals and hurts, grace heals and comforts, Thus He was full and equipoised. He had Heaven’s truth and Heaven’s grace. Blue is the color of distance. The blue of Heaven reveals distance, distance on distance till there is no measure, there is only infinite extension. He spoke as one who had no limiting horizon, no past that had a beginning, no future that had an ending. He said He lived before the foundation of the world was laid; that is, in the unbegun eternities; and in those unbegun eternities He sat as a beloved Son side by side with the unseen Father, His visibility and glory. There were times when His speech was simple and bounded by the locality in which for the moment He lived. There were moments when His words had in them the accent of eternities and therefore unbounded. The robe as a symbol of Him is expressed in the terms of the prophet Micah: • “Whose goings forth have been from of old—from everlasting.” (Micah 5:2.) The golden bells upon the hem of the robe sounded each time the priest walked. The sound of bells is equivalent to words. They have a meaning, a speech, a testimony. The pomegranate is perfect fruit. The pomegranate was hung between the golden bells. The golden bells are a symbol of the perfect speech of our Lord Jesus Christ. “Never man spake like this man.” (John 7:46.) If the bell be equivalent to words, the pomegranate as the perfect fruit in sequence of the bell gives us the perfect fruit of words. The fruit of words are deeds. In the pomegranate therefore you have the perfect deed that matched the perfect word. The people proclaimed a matchless fact in the history of humanity. They said: “He hath done all things well.” (Mark 7:37.) When the priest went inside the Holy Place he was invisible to the people. As he walked back and forth there was the sound of the golden bells. By the sound of those bells the people knew he was alive and acting before God on their behalf. The golden bells gave forth their sound by means of tongues. Our Lord Jesus Christ left this world two thousand years ago. During all that time He has been out of sight. He has been invisible to His Church. He is invisible today. Everything for us who believe in Him depends on His being alive in Heaven. How do we know He is alive; how do we know He is in Heaven? If He is the complete Antitype, the actual fulfillment of the typical priest, then He ought to give forth a testimony from the Holy Place in Heaven, a testimony equivalent to the sounding of the golden bells upon the robe of the high priest. He has done so. He did it on the day of Pentecost. The disciples were gathered together in Jerusalem and waiting. Suddenly there came from Heaven the sound of a mighty, rushing wind, tongues of fire were given to the disciples and they began to so speak that every man in the mixed multitude heard in his own tongue the wonderful works of God. Whence came this startling manifestation? The Apostle Peter answers: “This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses, Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth (poured out) this which ye now see and hear.” (Acts 2:32-33.) The disciples were witnesses of His resurrection; but they could not know by eyesight that He was acting in Heaven as the high priest on their behalf. He was invisible. He sent forth these tongues as the tongues of the golden bells to announce that He was alive in Heaven; but, unlike the high priest on earth who was forced to stand in the holy places, who could stay only a moment, be had taken his seat on the throne of God a priest forever after the order of Melchisedec. Pentecost was the answer to the ringing of the golden bells on the priestly robe of the ephod, a witness to the presence of a risen, glorified, immortal man in Heaven acting as our High Priest today. It is preeminently important to lay hold of the fact that Pentecost was a witness to the Jewish nation that the Jesus of Nazareth whom they crucified, not only had risen and ascended to Heaven, but that in Heaven He was now upon the throne of God the Father and owned of Him as both Lord and Christ; as it is written: “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.” (Acts 2:36.) That is to say, by the outpouring of the Spirit from the hand of the risen Christ, God the Father testified to them that He was not only their Messiah, King of the Jews, King of Israel, but the Lord God of the Old Testament, the Holy One of Israel. This manifestation of the Spirit was the begun fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel. He had prophesied that before the great and notable day of the Lord the Spirit should be poured out upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Lord should descend in glory, and deliver the city from the heel of the Gentile forever. When our Lord made this promise of the Spirit just before He ascended His disciples knowing such a manifestation was to be the precursor of the kingdom asked Him if He would at that time restore the kingdom. He did not answer them because He meant this manifestation to be a test to the, Nation. If they should turn to Him He would return from Heaven and set up the kingdom. They failed to meet the test, rejected Him risen as they had rejected Him when He walked the earth. The full detail of the prophecy of Joel was postponed, the Nation set aside and the Church brought in. Pentecost as Joel foretold it therefore is not operative in these days. (The teaching about the baptism of the Holy Ghost now and the gift of tongues is dispensationally false.) Pentecost became therefore a witness of Jewish national blindness, the parenthetic character of this Church age and the assurance to Israel that when the Church shall be translated at the secret Coming of the Lord, the Spirit will be poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Lord will appear in glory and an elect remnant shall be saved. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 34: 02.27. THE EPHOD AND THE BREASTPLATE ======================================================================== THE EPHOD AND THE BREASTPLATE THE Ephod was an outer garment. It was a sleeveless tunic, coming below the waist. It was composed of two pieces, a front and back. These pieces were fastened together on the shoulders with two buttons of onyx stone. The names of six of the tribes of Israel were engraved on one stone, the names of the remaining six tribes on the other stone. It was belted in at the waist with a “curious” girdle of fine twined linen, blue, purple and scarlet color. The word “curious” signifies “skilfully made.” The Ephod was made by beating gold into thin plates, cutting them into wires and weaving them into the fine twined linen, blue, purple and scarlet color. The divine description of it is definite and worthwhile. “And they shall make the ephod of gold, of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet and fine twined linen, with cunning work. It shall have the two shoulderpieces thereof joined at the two edges thereof; and so it shall be joined together. And the curious girdle of the ephod, which is upon it, shall be of the same, according to the work thereof; even of gold, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen. And thou shalt take two onyx stones, and grave on them the names of the children of Israel: Six of their names on one stone, and the other six names of the rest on the other stone, according to their birth. With the work of an engraver in stone, like the engraving of a signet, shalt thou engrave the two stones with the names of the children of Israel: thou shalt make them to be set in ouches of gold. And thou shalt put the two stones upon the shoulders of the ephod for stones of memorial unto the children of Israel: and Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord upon his two shoulders for a memorial. And thou shalt make ouches of gold; And two chains of pure gold at the ends; of wreathen work shalt thou make them, and fasten the wreathen chains to the ouches.” (Exodus 28:6-14.). “And they did beat the gold into thin plates, and cut it into wires, to work it in the blue, and .in the purple, and in the scarlet, and in the fine linen, with cunning work.” (Exodus 39:3.) It was a magnificent garment of glory and beauty. Looked at in one way it was all gold, catching every ray of light and flashing forth in gleaming splendor. Every movement of the priest revealed the genius and the glory of its construction. Looked at from a different angle it was all linen, white and blue and purple and scarlet color. And yet, there were not two ephods—there was but one. One ephod with two distinct materials. And the distinction of the materials was maintained throughout the entire garment. The gold did not become linen, the linen did not become gold. The Ephod is a perfect, a divine, symbol of our Lord Jesus Christ in the wonder of His person, the God-man, the one, changeless, infinite person, having two distinct, unmixable natures, human and divine. Considered on one side of His life our Lord was genuinely human. He was born of a woman. He was born a babe. He grew in stature, in wisdom and knowledge and favor with men. He became a day laborer. He earned His bread in the sweat of His face. He grew weary, He hungered, He thirsted, He ate, He drank, He slept for needed refreshment of body. He desired to know what men thought of Him. He was keenly sensitive and suffered when men thought ill of Him. He knew what it was to be burdened, to have sorrow and heaviness of soul. He could shed tears. He shrank from the ignominy of death and at the grave of Lazarus protested against it as an enemy and scandal of the human race. At last He died, His body became cold, inert. It was wrapped round with a winding sheet and buried as uncounted millions, dead and silent, had been buried before Him. On the other side of His life He was more than human. He was sinless. And God knows and man knows, to be that, is to be altogether more than human. He was holy. But it was a holiness that revealed sin in others, made iniquity declare itself and stand naked and self-accusing in His presence; a holiness that had in it all the restrained thunder and fire and hatred of God’s wrath against sin. No human Father could have begotten such a Son, even of the most stainless and virginal woman. God, and God alone, could have begotten such a humanity. He manifested His super-human quality in His miracles. He gave sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf, He made the dumb man to speak, He cleansed the leper and made the lame man to leap like a hart. When He multiplied the loaves and the fishes He created atoms. When He hushed the storm He was superior to and the Master of mass, weight, specific gravity, density and motion. When He raised Lazarus from the dead He created new tissue; it was an act of creation as distinct as when He created Orion and the Seven stars. But the marvel of His miracles was not in the act of them, but in the manner of them. They were wrought apart from visible instrumentalities. They were wrought by a fiat word. He said, “I will,” and it was done. He commanded and it came to pass. In this He demonstrates one thing, one immense, indisputable thing, and that is His will was superior to all forces in nature. A will superior to all forces in nature defines and demonstrates—God. The law and logic of His history is that He was God, very God of very God. You could not separate the gold from the linen without rending and ruining the linen. You could not separate the linen from the gold without bending and twisting and ruining the gold. You could not separate the two materials without destroying the ephod. You cannot separate the two natures in Christ. You cannot take the deity out of Christ without ruining His humanity. Not only would you make His humanity a weak and inefficient humanity, you would make it a cowardly and despicable humanity. He sweat blood at the thought of His approaching death on the cross. He is not as courageous as the thieves by His side. He lacks the courage, the endurance and the heroism of the martyrs who have since gone to’ death in His name. At the last He utters that fearful cry which has echoed and reechoed down the centuries to this hour, the bitter and awful reproach that God had forsaken Him. If He were only human then these martyrs who died in His name and for His sake, fair women who suffered every outrage and every agony of torture the flesh could feel for the love of Him and made no sign of their suffering, even wreathing their torture marked faces in smiles that they might’ glorify Him, these are quivering, shame smiting rebukes and judgments against His repudiation of the faith He proclaimed in life and denied in death. Take the deity out of Him, make Him only a man, He becomes a false and deceiving teacher of men. He becomes worse than that; so bad, indeed) that words cannot describe His wickedness. He claimed preexistence. He said before the world was founded, before the universe, therefore, was created, He sat on the throne with God as His Father. He said all the Father could do He could do. He made Himself coeval and coequal with God (the very thing the Devil claimed and for which he became. the Devil and was cast out of God). He said He was self-existent. He said no man could come to God and find Him a Father, but by Him. He said Whosoever saw Him saw the Father. He made eternal damnation and eternal salvation dependent not on any principles or precepts He taught, but upon faith in Himself for all He claimed Himself to be. He said the Old Testament from Genesis to Malachi had been written to testify of Him, and on one occasion openly claimed to be the-” I am,” the Holy One of Israel. Whatever difficulty self-announced scholars may have today concerning His words and claims, those who saw and heard Him had none. They took up stones to stone Him and when with apparent innocence He asked why they would do that, they answered Him in such a fashion that it puts the record of His own claims on Him in such a manner that there can be but one of two reasons why any man who reads the record can have any trouble about it, and that alternative is, either he is unqualifiedly unintellectual and unreasoning in spite of all pretentious learning, or he is perversely and determinedly an unbeliever and a wilful infidel. This is what the people flung in His face, the accusation that either makes Him God or Devil: Because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God. There is not the slightest doubt about it. He did. The record is there. He did claim to be God. You cannot go through the New Testament and separate those portions which bear witness to His deity from those which describe His humanity. Try it. Take that scene at the well of Sychar. Repudiate His deity, make Him only a man. The moment you do that you are under bonds of inexorable logic to set aside the offer of eternal life which He makes to the sinful woman. Do that and you have a man who is either an unbalanced weakling or a gross and cruel deceiver. Take away His deity from the record of the storm scene on Galilee and the whole thing becomes a piece of paramount acting, the quick seizure of coincidence and nothing better than the cheap comedy that exploits it. Take away His deity at the grave of Lazarus, and as no mere man can raise the dead, then the whole scene is nothing better than a blundering, melodramatic scenario stupidly arranged beforehand, but easily revealing all its self-evident parts; either that, or the story is blankly false, made out of whole cloth from the beginning to the end. Take His deity out of the New Testament and you may as well throw the New Testament into the wastebasket, even that is too much honor for it. There is no possible point of compromise. If you accept the New Testament as the Word of God you will find it binds His humanity and His deity together as the gold and the linen were bound together in the Ephod, a wondrous garment of glory and beauty, bound together in the unit of His One eternal and unchangeable personality—The God-man. THE BREASTPLATE Inseparably connected with the Ephod and a constituent part of it was the Breastplate. It was a four-square bag. It was made of the same materials as the Ephod; that is, of gold, blue, purple, scarlet color and fine twined linen. On the front of it there were placed in settings, twelve precious jewels in four rows of three each. On each stone was cut the name of a tribe of the Children of Israel. In the bag were placed two objects, not described, but called Urim and Thummim, which mean lights and perfections. By consulting these the priest obtained his answers from the Lord. The bag or plate was fastened to the front of the Ephod by twisted golden chains that looked like golden ropes. These were secured to two onyx stones on the shoulders. There were two rings on the back of the bag at the bottom and two rings in the ephod just above the “curious” girdle. The breastplate was secured to these lower rings by a lace of blue. “And thou shalt make the breastplate of judgment with cunning work; after the work of the ephod thou shalt make it; of gold, of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, and of fine twined linen, shalt thou make it. Foursquare it shall be being doubled; a span shall be the length thereof, and a span shall be the breadth thereof, And thou shalt set in it settings of stones, even four rows of stones: the first row shall be a sardius, a topaz, and a carbuncle: this shall be the first row. And the second row shall be an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond. And the third row a ligure, an agate, and an amethyst. And the fourth row a beryl, and an onyx, and a jasper: they shall be set in gold in their inclosings. And the stones shall be with the names of the children of Israel, twelve, according to their names, like the engravings of a signet; everyone with his name shall they be according to the twelve tribes. And thou shalt make upon the breastplate chains at the ends of wreathen work of pure gold. And thou shalt make upon the breastplate two rings of gold, and shalt put the two rings on the two ends of the breastplate. And thou shalt put the two wreathen chains of gold in the two rings which are on the ends of the breastplate. And the other two ends of the two wreathen chains thou shalt fasten in the two ouches, and put them on the shoulderpieces of the ephod before it. And thou shalt make two rings of gold, and thou shalt put them upon the two ends of the breastplate in the border thereof, which is in the side of the ephod inward. And two other rings of gold thou shalt make, and shalt put them on the two sides of the ephod underneath, toward the forepart thereof, over against the other coupling thereof, above the curious girdle of the ephod. And they shall bind the breastplate by the rings thereof unto the rings of the ephod with a lace of blue, that it may be above the curious girdle of the ephod, and that the breastplate be not loosed from the ephod. And Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel in the breastplate of judgment upon his heart, when he goeth in unto the holy place, for a memorial before the LORD continually. And thou shalt put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim; and they shall be upon Aaron’s heart, when he goeth in before the LORD: And Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before the LORD continually.” (Exodus 28:15-30.) The Ephod, the shoulderpieces, the breastplate and the curious girdle were all bound together and formed one garment. In wearing it the high priest carried the names of the Children of Israel both on his shoulder and on his heart. He carried them on his shoulders. The shoulder is the symbol of strength. You have the shoulder as the symbol of strength set forth in the story of the shepherd who seeks his lost sheep and when he has found it puts it on his shoulder and carries it all the way back to the fold from which it had strayed; so the Lord came from Heaven, sought His lost sheep (all who believe in and own Him), finds them and bears them up on His mighty shoulder, His infinite strength, and will continue so to carry them till they reach the cloudless day, Heaven’s fold and the abiding home. “Trust ye in the LORD forever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength.” (Isaiah 26:4.) He carried them on his heart. The heart is the symbol of love. Just as Aaron was commanded to bear the names of the Children of Israel continually on his heart before the Lord, even so the Lord Jesus Christ, our great high priest, bears us up on His heart of love, and will keep us there till we greet Him face to face in His day and our day of glory. The work of our great high priest in Heaven is not a perfunctory work. He represents us, intercedes for us and maintains our standing and character there with a heart full of love, with exceeding great delight and abounding joy. “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, (there you have His shoulder) and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy” (there you have His heart). (Jude 1:24.) But there was a striking difference in the setting of the names on the stones of the shoulder and those of the Breastplate. Those graven on the stones of the shoulder were placed there according to their birth; as it is written: “Six of their names on one stone, and the other six names of the rest on the other stone, according to their birth.” (Exodus 28:10.) The names on the Breastplate were according to the position they held in the camp or on the march. There was a difference in the jewels. Those of the shoulder were of one kind. Those on the breastplate were not only different from those on the shoulder, but they were different from each other. Those on the shoulder were alike. They each had the same value. They were equally held up by Aaron. Those on the shoulders were there by birth. As believers we are all alike on the shoulder of our Lord; we are all there by spiritual birth. By birth, by regeneration, as believers, we are all alike before God, the weakest or the strongest of us—we are all the children of God, we are all such by faith; as it is written: “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:26.) As children, the Lord presents us to the Father, holds each of us up with the same divine strength, the same grace and gives to each one of us the same reputation before- the Court of Heaven. We are all on His heart as well as on His shoulder. He loves us all; there is not one of us for whom He paid the price of redemption whom He does not love. But while we are all on His heart and He loves us all, we are not all alike on His heart. That is startling, but—it is true. Just as the jewels were all on Aaron’s heart but distinct from each other, so we are different from each other on the heart of the Lord. We are all jewels, let there be no mistake there; for it is written: “They shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels. Yes, we are jewels, and costly jewels; behold it is written: “Ye are bought with a price.” (1 Corinthians 6:20.) The jewels occupied different places on Aaron’s heart, some were closer and more directly centered over his heartbeat. They were in their different positions on his heart according to the position they occupied in the camp or on the march, according to the place and kind of service they fulfilled. While we are on the shoulders of our Lord according to our birth, because we are all the children of God, we occupy our distinctive places on His heart according to the place we occupy in our daily life down here, according to our rank and service before Him. At the first He had seventy disciples. Then He chose a special twelve. Out of these twelve there were three who were more intimate and in closer touch with Him than the others. Of these three there was only one who leaned upon His breast in the intimacy of the supper celebration. While the Lord loved them all there was only this one disciple of whom it is said: “That disciple whom Jesus loved.” That disciple was John; and of him it is written: “The beloved disciple.” Every Christian may say with Paul: “He loved me and gave himself for me.” But the intensity and degree of His love for us will be in proportion as to whether we are following Him, “afar off “or “leaning” on His breast. Paul wants to lean on His breast, just above His heartbeat, Paul wants to hear every throb of it. This is what he means when he says: “That I may win Christ.” (Php 3:3.) He had Christ already as his Saviour and Lord. He knew his redemption and security in Him; but he wanted more than that, he wanted a closer intimacy with the Lord, a deeper consciousness of Him in his inmost soul. Therefore he says: “That I may know him.” He desired to so walk before the Lord, so serve Him, that he might win a fuller, richer inflow of Him into every essence of his being. To this end he consecrated himself, gave himself up wholly to the Lord and said: “For me to live is Christ.” Therefore he says: “Wherefore we labor, that whether present or absent, (whether in the flesh or out of the flesh) we may be accepted of him.” (2 Corinthians 5:9.) The word “accepted” should be rendered “acceptable;” that is, pleasing. He wanted to so please the Lord in his daily life that the Lord would take him right upon the center of His heart. It is our privilege to so live down here as Christians that we may continually win the special favor of the Lord and be classified-anyone of us-as “that disciple whom Jesus loves.” The different position of the names, the difference in the jewels, the difference in their beauty and splendor, testify that disciples will differ from one another in the relation they will sustain to the coming kingdom, “even, as one star differeth from another star in glory;” and this difference will be according to life, to love and service here. Saved for nothing but by the sovereign and elective grace of a holy and righteous God, redeemed by the perfect sacrifice of His eternal Son, made partakers of the divine nature, sealed by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and our life hid with Christ in God where death cannot touch us, saved, securely and eternally saved, owned before God and by Him as His children, made the very righteousness of God in Christ and looked at only in the perfections of Christ, and so presented by Him with exceeding joy and ‘efficiency on His part that our standing as the spotless sons of God may not fail—we who believe do not have to live like sons of God to become such; but, because we are sons of God we are to live like sons of God, each day win deeper consciousness of our Lord’s measureless love, each day seek to serve Him more fully until we shall feel the outstretching of His heart to us and know .we are closer to its inmost beating every present day than any yesterday. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 35: 02.28. THE MITRE AND THE GOLDEN PLATE ======================================================================== THE MITRE AND THE GOLDEN PLATE “THOU shalt make the mitre of fine linen.” (Exodus 28:39.) The word “mitre” comes from the Hebrew and signifies “to wrap,” “to roll around.” The fine linen was wrapped or folded in folds around the head of the high priest in the form of a turban. In the New Testament Christian women are commanded when in the public assembly to cover their head; they are commanded to do so because while Christ is the head of the man, the man in the public assembly as the representative of Christ in office bearing and teaching is over the woman and considered as her head there, and the covered head is the sign of the woman’s obedience to this ordinance of the Lord. The woman is also the symbol of the Church as a Body and in covering her head she symbolizes the Church surrendering to and owning the headship of Christ. It is the symbol of absolute subjection and obedience. The Mitre, the head covering of the priest, is therefore a symbol of our Lord as- The Obedient One. Although in His preexistent state our Lord was coeval and coequal with the Father, He laid aside the” form of God,” and took upon Himself the form and function of a servant. He took the place of a servant, called Himself the “Sent” of the Father, said continually He did not come to do His own will but the will of Him who sent Him and reached the climax of obedience in the death of the cross so that it is written of Him: “He became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” So perfectly did He fulfill the role of a servant of God that the Father looking forward to that splendid display of subjection and service anticipatively draws attention to Him as such, He says: “Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect in whom my soul delighteth.” (Isaiah 42:1.) In all this unfaltering obedience to the will of God He stands in contrast to the First Man who walked exclusively after the counsel of his own will, begetting a race whose daily and consistent aim is to dethrone God, enthrone self and the full, unbridled exercise of the human will. Walking every day in delighted recognition of the will of God and every day making it supreme, setting aside self for the glory of the Father, trampling all selfishness beneath His feet, enthroning God in the perfection of His words and deeds, and breathing out His subjection to the will of God in the slightest accent of His thought, Jesus Christ demonstrates that He is not an evolution of the First Man, that He is not of his humanity and that no human father could have begotten the humanity in which He lived; that God and God alone could (as He Himself anticipatively says in the Twenty-second Psalm) have taken Him, “out of the womb,” and made Him to hope when He was upon His” mother’s breasts.” As the Obedient One He stands in sharp, sword-like contrast to the” Coming Man “-the Antichrist, the Man of Sin, the Son of Perdition. The distinctive feature of the Antichrist is that he will come to do his own will; as it is written: “And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god and shall speak ‘marvellous things against the God of gods.” (Daniel 11:36.) The Apostle Paul gives a full description of him: “That man of sin, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.” (2 Thessalonians 2:4.) He is coming to be the climacteric expression of that which is now manifesting itself everywhere in the mass, the breakdown of respect for law, the indifference to the standards of righteousness, the almost wild-beast determination to gratify human desire, the setting of individuality and individual will against any possible restraint from God, or the idea of God, the multiplying evidence that man is rapidly reaching the place where he will consider himself his own God, his own wish and will determining his final action, boasting concerning his own limitless innate powers, glorifying himself in the belief that he did not originate by the fiat of a personal God, but that he arose out of impersonal slime and has fought his way up through brute forms to his present state, that the urge in him is divine energy and that the day is coming when enthroned on the laws and forces of nature by reason of attained scientific knowledge and invention, he shall reveal himself as the very and only true God in the world—this man is coming to gather into himself all this spirit and set himself up as the authoritative exponent of it, as the” God of the whole earth.” Six thousand years of sin, sickness, war, woe, anguish, bloodshed, misery and the graveyard tell the story of the First Man’s disobedience and coming end –the extermination of Adam’s race from the earth and sending them forth as discarnate rebels to wander eternally through the limitless spaces, “seeking rest and finding -none “as the fitting finale of the disobedience and self-exaltation that would, if it could, repudiate and cast down God from His own throne. Perfect obedience to the will of God by the Second Man, even unto death, has obtained the right of redemption from the hand of justice and is the real matrix out of which is to be formed a new and perfect race, being formed now, as sons of God in embryo, but in the birth hour, the birth hour of resurrection and transfiguration, of immortality at His Coming, to be made the dwellers and possessors of a renewed and sinless earth; all this is the reward of one man’s obedience and the inspiration to those who call themselves by His name to walk His path, seeking to do, not their own will, but the will of Him who has called them to be the sharers of His glory. THE GOLDEN PLATE “And thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, and grave upon it, like the engravings of a signet, HOLINESS TO THE LORD. And thou shalt put it on a blue lace, that it may be upon the mitre; upon the forefront of the mitre it shall be. And it shall be upon Aaron’s forehead, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things, which the children of Israel shall hallow in all their holy gifts; and it shall be always upon his forehead, that they may be accepted before the Lord.” (Exodus 28:36-38.) The golden plate was the crowning piece in the garments of glory and beauty. When Aaron stood before the Lord clothed in his magnificently glorious and beautiful garments, the Lord looked at that plate flashing forth holiness unto His name and accepted the people in their priest in all the moral beauty and ceremonial righteousness which he displayed and represented. He stood before God as the holiness of the Children of Israel. In all this he is a wondrous picture of the Lord Jesus Christ as the righteousness and holiness of those who have confessed His name; as it is written: “He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21.) “He hath made us accepted in the beloved.” (Ephesians 1:4.) Literally: “He hath graced us, or made us acceptable, in the beloved.” Just as God saw the Children of Israel in all the glory and beauty and graciousness of Aaron’s high priestly garments, saw them in the light of the golden plate and the signet of holiness, so He sees the weakest of us who believes in Him who is our Great High Priest, sees us in all the wealth of His grace, His holiness and matchless perfections. Listen to these wondrous words which tell us how perfect we are before God in our Priest even in relation to this world: “As he is, so are we in this world.” (1 John 4:17.) A Summary Of The Teaching Of The Garments Of Glory And Beauty. Linen Coat and Breeches—The Sinless One. Linen Girdle—The Serving One. Robe of the Ephod—The Heavenly and Gracious One. The Ephod—The Human and Divine One. Shoulderpieces—The Strengthening and Sustaining One. Breastplate—The Loving One. Mitre—The Obedient One. The Golden Plate—The Holy One. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 36: 02.29. CONSECRATION OF THE PRIESTS ======================================================================== CONSECRATION OF THE PRIESTS (Leviticus 8:1-36) IN Leviticus 8:1-36, Aaron and his sons are publicly set apart and inducted into the office of the priesthood. Aaron and his sons are first washed together. Aaron and his sons are a figure of Christ and His Church. Moses applies the water, it is he who washes them. Water is a symbol of the Word. Washing is applying the Word, applying the Truth. Applying the truth and setting apart for a particular service is sanctification. The washing together of Aaron and his sons sets forth unity in the sanctification. Christ and the Church are a unit in sanctification before God; as it is written: “For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren.” (Hebrews 2:11.) Since our Lord Jesus Christ was essentially and eternally clean, sanctification in this relation has a deeper sense than cleansing, it signifies to set apart, to consecrate. From all eternity Christ and His Church have been looked at as One, and have been set apart, consecrated and devoted to God and His service. For the sake of the Church our Lord Jesus Christ sanctified Himself, set Himself apart, devoted Himself to God the Father and sanctified the Church before Him, setting them apart unto Him in Himself; as it is written: “And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they might also be sanctified through the truth.” (John 17:19.) Aaron was first consecrated. Moses took the garments of glory and beauty and put them upon him piece by piece, so that they might be seen in all the details of skilled workmanship and surpassing beauty. He put on him the embroidered linen coat with the linen breeches and girdled him with the girdle, binding him in with its fineness of texture and perfectness of color. He put upon him the blue robe with its ringing, golden bells and pomegranates in their trinity of color. Then he clothed him with the ephod, buttoned it on the shoulders with the two onyx buttons, set the breastplate in place, put the Urim and Thummim within, bound it to the shoulders with the wreathen chains and underneath the Ephod at the waist with the curious girdle or belt. Last of all he took the snowy, white linen, the costly byssus, wound it fold on fold around his head, making a turban of it, laid a blue lace on the forefront of it, and on that fastened the golden plate with the graven words upon it—Holiness Unto the Lord. In this manner of investiture the people saw the intrinsic worth of these garments of glory and beauty, beheld Aaron exalted and set apart from all others; exalted above the people and yet—for the people. For two thousand years the aloneness of Christ has been forced upon the consciousness of the world. The more He is studied, analyzed, the more His character is taken apart, each element of it, like the separate pieces in the garments of glory and beauty, the more it will reveal Him to be the perfect, the glorious, the beautiful, the wonder of all wonders, perfect man and very God. Aaron and his sons were sanctified together by the blood of sacrifice and the pouring of oil upon them. The blood was the blood of the ceremonial redemption, the oil the seal of that redemption and anointing for service. When our Lord died upon the cross He was not alone. In the mind and purpose of God the Church, each regenerated member of it, was there and crucified with Him. The Apostle was speaking, not for himself alone, but for all Christians, for all believers when he wrote: “I was crucified with Christ.” Literally, I was co-crucified—crucified together—with Christ. The word “together” the accent of purpose and the revelation of grace. We were crucified—together We were made alive—together. We were raised up—together. We have ascended to Heaven—together. We have been made to sit in Heavenly places—together. And in the ages to come we are to be the recipients of the riches of the glory and kindness of God in Christ—He and We—together. “Hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through (and therefore together with) Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:5-8.) The blood of the sacrifice was applied to Aaron and his sons. The blood was put upon the tip of the right ear, upon the thumb of the right hand and the toe of the right foot. The meaning of all this is simple enough. It means the hearing, the service and the walk of the priests had been ceremonially purchased by the blood and were now solemnly and individually consecrated to God. Nor is there any uncertainty as to meaning for those of us who believe—our hearing, service and walk belong unto the God who has purchased us with the blood of His own Son. Because of the blood upon our ear we are to recognize our hearing does not belong to ourselves. We have no right to listen as it may please us. There are things which if we permit them to enter the ear, will pass into the mind, poison it, and paralyze all activities for Christ. There is even more peril in listening than in looking and seeing. We are therefore called upon to be careful not only as to how we hear but as to what we hear. “And he said unto them, Take heed what ye hear.” (Mark 4:24.) “Take heed therefore how ye hear.” (Luke 8:18.) The blood upon the ear tells us He claims our ears that they may hear Him speak, listen to His words, give attention to His message. Wherefore it is written: “Who hath ears to hear let him hear.” (Matthew 13:9.) Such was the admonition of the Lord when He walked the earth; such is His exhortation now by and through the Spirit. “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” (Revelation 2:7.) The blood upon the thumb bids us to use our hands in His service. It means to give ourselves to Him for His service; hand ourselves over to Him completely for His use of us. It means we must never come before Him with an empty hand; always and under all circumstances we must come with something in our hand for Him, some service accomplished and handed to Him or some gift presented to Him. Hear what Scripture says: “For Moses said, consecrate yourselves today to the Lord.” (Exodus 32:29.) Literally rendered, he said: “Fill your hands this day to the Lord.” That is the actual meaning of the word used in these instances—it means, “to fill the hand.” That is God’s concept of consecration, coming into His presence with something in your hands. David says: “Who then is willing to consecrate his service this day unto the LORD?” (1 Chronicles 29:5.) “Who then is willing to fill his hand with service this day unto the Lord?” If we would really consecrate ourselves to the Lord we must fill our hands; we must never come before Him empty-handed. “And none shall appear before me—empty.” (Exodus 23:15. Exodus 34:20.) “Three times a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy God . . . and they shall not appear before the LORD empty” (empty handed). (Deuteronomy 16:16.) The blood upon the toe meant the consecration of the walk before God. Such is to be our walk as those who profess the name of the Lord and own His blood as having all purchasing rights upon us. Live and serve as those who have no initial claims upon themselves and whose walk and conversation shall glorify Him who has all purchase and invested rights in us; so that we shall say what His outpoured blood for us requires we shall say—that we are not our own; as it is written: “Ye are not your own, For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s. (1 Corinthians 6:19-20.) After their consecration Aaron and his sons went into the Tabernacle, into the Holy Place, shut themselves in from the people for seven days and during that time feasted on the sacrifice. “And Moses said unto Aaron and to his sons, Boil the flesh at the door (the flesh of the sacrifice) of the tabernacle of the congregation: and there eat it with the bread that is in the basket of consecrations, as I commanded, saying, Aaron and his sons shall eat it ... And ye shall not go out of the door of the tabernacle of the congregation in seven days, until the days of your consecration be at an end: for seven days shall he consecrate you.” (Leviticus 8:31-36.) In this you have an illustration of the moral, spiritual and essential separation of the Church, both corporately and individually, from the world, considered as a system, and their separation unto the Lord. We are a separated people. We have been separated by sovereign and elective grace which saw us and chose us before the foundation of the world. We have been separated by the eternal purpose and covenant counsel which knew us, named us and predestinated us unto assured salvation. We have been separated by the cross which rolls its crimson tide between us and the world of natural men, even as the Red Sea rolled its flood between the children of Israel and the land of Egypt. The cross has brought about a double separation by reason of a double crucifixion; as it is written: “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” (Galatians 6:14.) We are separated by the Gospel and the call of the Spirit. By this instrument and agent we have been called out, sealed and separated from men of the world and their ways, to faith, to trust and confidence in a Lord and Master disowned and rejected by the world. We are separated by the supreme creative act of God when He communicated to us the life and nature of His Son; and when it was said of us for the first time, “Christ in you the hope of glory;” for, it is an astounding fact that we as believers are the result of an act of God, a creative act, greater than when He created the universe; that, had to do with material things, this, with the soul, with spirit and personality; wherefore it is written: “We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:10) “If any man be in Christ he is a new creature (a new creation).” (2 Corinthians 5:17.) We are separated by our union with the Lord, the essential oneness of His spirit and ours; as it is written: “He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit.” (1 Corinthians 6:17.) There are two great statements in that. We are joined to the Lord. This is true of the believer because he has been made a partaker of the very life and nature of the risen Son of God. By this union the believer is as far separated from the natural man who is not joined to the Lord as the east is from the west, as the living man is from the dead. Here is the other great thing: We are one spirit with the Lord. The distinctive essence of being which makes Him to be the Son of God is in us; so that He is in us and we are in Him. There is no possible point of incision between us and the risen, glorified Lord Himself. As separate and distinct then as the Lord is in essence from the natural man; so that He could say to such, “I am from above, ye are from below,” we as believers are as distinct and separate. We are separated by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Such a thing as the Holy Spirit taking up His abode and dwelling in a human being never took place in the history of mankind till our Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead. The Holy Spirit had entered into men, took hold of them, came upon them, moved them and greatly used them, but He never made the body His permanent dwelling place. But He does this great thing today. Today He enters the body of the believer, owning it as a blood bought body, and makes it His temple, the most wonderful, the most sacred, temple on earth, the most sacred thing this side of Heaven. It is this indwelling of the Holy Spirit that rails us off as believers from the world, from all material beings, from angels and spirits, from all other creatures in the universe of God. Just as Aaron and his sons were separated from the camp and separated themselves from it, we are to own ourselves in this age as a separated people and shut ourselves up by faith with Christ in His Holy Place. The true Church, the living and spiritual Church, can find no place, no comfort, nor fellowship with a world system that repudiates her Lord; no matter what schemes of morals or righteousness the world may advertize, the Church call have no partnership therein; she is not called to cleanse Sodom, but to come out of it, not to empty old wells but to dig new ones, and under no circumstances to identify herself with reformation, but to demand regeneration. Aaron and his sons were shut in the Holy Place for seven days. That shutting in of Aaron and his sons from the people was a definite and dramatic demonstration that they were a particularly chosen and separated family. Overwhelmingly so is it an illustration of the fact that the Church is yet to be revealed and in a startling way as a body of persons entirely separated from the world. That particular separation fact will take place at the Coming of the Lord. He is coming for the Church. He is coming to take her into the Tabernacle on high. He is coming to take her into the Most Holy Place, and into the Holy of Holies within the vail. When He went away He left the promise to His disciples that He was going into Heaven to prepare a dwelling place for them and that He would come again and receive them, the Church, to Himself and take them, take her, there. In his first epistle to the Thessalonians the apostle by a special revelation from the risen Lord tells us how this will be. The Lord will come down into the upper air. He will come with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God. He will raise from the dead all who have died in His name. • He will change and transfigure the living who believe in Him. He will gather them all up into the air to meet Him and then will take them into the place prepared, into the Tabernacle on high. This coming of the Lord is always imminent. Between us and that moment there is not a predicted event. The shout, the archangel’s voice and the sound of the trump may be heard any moment by the redeemed of the Lord. Any moment the Church may be caught up. This is not a matter of speculation and something that requires ocular evidence and multiplication of signs, it is an announced fact, announced specially by the risen Lord Himself and to be received by faith, with the eyes and even the ears shut, waiting till His voice shall open both ears and eyes. The Church will remain in that upper and holy place for at least seven years above the riot, the break down and anarchy now approaching the earth with hastening strides. You have only to read the book of the Revelation from Revelation 6:1-17, Revelation 7:1-17, Revelation 8:1-13, Revelation 9:1-21, Revelation 10:1-11, Revelation 11:1-19, Revelation 12:1-17, Revelation 13:1-18, Revelation 14:1-20, Revelation 15:1-8, Revelation 16:1-21, Revelation 17:1-18, Revelation 18:1-24 inclusive to have a picture of the hour of desperate woe and tribulation coming on the earth. In Revelation 4:1-11 and Revelation 5:1-14 you see the Church after having been caught up, safely housed in the place prepared, feasting with the Lord. What a proof this is that the Church is a body of separated people, separated unto the Lord, His, and for Him. The world below given up to all the iniquity, passion and shame of man and the finally impotent rage of the Devil. The Church above resting in peace, waiting for the hour of her manifested glory. There was a climacteric moment to these seven days in which Aaron and his sons were shut up in the Tabernacle. On the eighth day Moses bade Aaron and his sons go forth from the Holy place, and offer sacrifice. He said to them: “Today the Lord will appear.” (Leviticus 9:1-4.) After the sacrifice was offered Moses and Aaron went into the Tabernacle and then came out in their full kingly and priestly function, blessed the people and the glory of the Lord appeared unto them and to all the people; as it is written: “And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of the congregation, and came out, and blessed the people; and the glory of the LORD appeared unto all the people.” (Leviticus 9:23.) At the end of the seven years in which the Church is shut in with Christ in Heaven, when at last the iniquity of the earth is full, when Satan stakes his final great throw, when he seats himself in the person of his son in the rebuilt temple at Jerusalem, when this man proclaims himself the God of the whole world, then on the great prophetic eighth day, the Day of the Lord, the Lord Himself will fling back the Tabernacle door, Heaven will open, and with His triumphant Church as a body of kings and priests He will come forth to execute the judgment of His long slumbering wrath, roll back forever the tides of iniquity, set up His everlasting kingdom and make this sin stained, death smitten earth, the worth-while place for the worth-while life of the redeemed, the glorified and immortal sons of God. Leviticus 8:1-36 and this particular priestly scene gives us the whole character of the age in which we now live. In Heaven we have a high priest who is there on our behalf, whoever liveth to make intercession for us. As spiritual priests it is our privilege to draw near in spirit and in truth to offer up the sacrifices of thanksgiving and praise. It is our privilege by faith to enter within the vail and feed on the once crucified but now living and coming Christ, and then to walk with consecrated, blood bought and Spirit anointed lives before the world, waiting in undisturbed assurance that should the shout, the voice and the trump be heard, in the twinkling of an eye we should be with Him, and, at the last, come forth with Him, even, as it is written: “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.” ======================================================================== CHAPTER 37: 02.30. THE FIVE GREAT OFFERINGS ======================================================================== THE FIVE GREAT OFFERINGS THE first five chapters in the book of Leviticus give a description of five offerings made unto the Lord. They are: The Burnt Offering. The Meat Offering. The Peace Offering. The Sin Offering. The Trespass Offering. The Meat Offering was the only one that was bloodless. This Offering represents our Lord in His life, not in His death. The other four were blood offerings and give us a four-fold picture of His death on the cross. THE BURNT OFFERING “Christ through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God.” (Hebrews 9:14.) THE MEAT OFFERING “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men—the man Christ Jesus.” (1 Timothy 2:5.) THE PEACE OFFERING “God hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ.” (2 Corinthians 5:18.) “Having made peace through the blood of his cross.” (Colossians 1:20.) THE SIN OFFERING “He hath made him to be sin for us.” (2 Corinthians 5:21.) “Behold the lamb of God that beareth away the sin of the world.” (John 1:30.) “He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.” (Hebrews 9:27.) “His own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree.” (1 Peter 2:24.) “Christ died for our sins.” (1 Corinthians 15:3.) “Who gave himself for our sins.” (Galatians 1:4.) “Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many.” (Hebrews 9:28.) “The propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:10.) “He suffered the just for the unjust.” (1 Peter 3:18.) THE TRESPASS OFFERING “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.” (1 John 1:9.) In the Burnt Offering we have Christ giving Himself unto God as a sweet smelling savour: “Christ hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour.” (Ephesians 5:1.) . In the Sin Offering we have Christ giving Himself for us. “Who gave himself for us.’’’ (Titus 2:14.) “Who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20.) In the Peace Offering we have Christ reconciling us and bringing us to God. “And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled. In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight.” (Colossians 1:21-22.) In the Trespass Offering we have Christ making provision in His death for our failures by the way, receiving our confessions, bringing us absolution, complete forgiveness and cleansing. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9.) ======================================================================== CHAPTER 38: 02.31. THE MEAT OFFERING ======================================================================== THE MEAT OFFERING THE Meat Offering was the bloodless offering. It presents to us all the symbols of the person and character of our Lord Jesus Christ. It was composed of fine flour. It was flour that had been thoroughly ground, there were no lumps in it. There was no unevenness in it. It sets forth the perfect, balanced humanity of the Lord. There is no balance, no equilibrium, no equipoise in the natural man, he is uneven in all his ways. He may have extraordinary qualifications in one direction and none whatever in another. It is this intensification of one quality over another that is called “Genius.” “Genius” in reality is overbalance, it is incompleteness, a failure of all round fulness. A study of genius reveals sharp antitheses, the measure of greatness is equalled by the lack of it in the same person; he may be marvellous as a musician, and incapable as a mathematician, brilliant as an orator and shallow as a thinker, fluent as a writer and hesitating as a speaker, a giant in one degree and a pigmy in another. To be a genius is to be unequally developed, one-sided, there is no better word for it than overbalance—unevenness. No one would ever think of applying this analysis to the Son of God. To call Him a genius, make Him more marked in one characteristic than in another, would be to belittle Him, rob Him of His perfection. The people described Him correctly. They said: “He hath done all things well.” It was true. He did one thing just as well as another. He lived under law and dealt in grace. He rebuked sin and forgave the sinner. When they brought the woman taken in sin that He might give His testimony against her for stoning, He said to the men: “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her;” and when they went out one by one shamefaced, He turned to the woman and said: “Neither do I condemn thee: go and sin no more;” on the one side He revealed and unmasked the hypocrisy clothing itself with righteousness, acting as a judge and refusing to forgive; on the other, He made Himself manifest as holiness, as the righteous judge and having power on earth to forgive sin. If He invited the sinner to come to him and said: “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out,” He maintained His perfect and judicial balance when He told the story of the rich man hopelessly in hell, neither because he was rich nor neglected the poor, but because he had refused to believe the written Word of God, even the law and the prophets. He would be full of compassion to him who should come and confess Him as the living Word, He would be merciless to Him who denied the written word and in denying it denied Him as the living Word. He fed the hungry with a few loaves and fishes, and then, although He had baskets full left over, He rebuked those who sought Him just for the loaves and the fishes. When He began His sermon in the synagogue in Nazareth He so spoke that the people” wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth; “when He stood in the temple for the last time He so denounced the Scribes and the Pharisees that His words, “woe, woe, ’hypocrites,’ ’whited sepulchres,’ “serpents,’ ’generation of vipers how can ye escape the damnation of hell,’ “sounded like thunders of the last judgment. If He came into the world that He might bring grace, He came also that He might speak the truth. He was perfectly balanced. He spoke the right word, He did the right thing, spoke the word and did the thing at the time ordained; so that He never spoke hastily, nor yet acted till He could say at every step: “Father, the hour is come.” He was the perfect man. And this the Meat Offering symbolizes and anticipatively proclaims. Oil was mingled with and poured upon the flour. Oil is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. Flour is a symbol of our Lord’s humanity. In the combination of the flour and the oil you have the symbol of—Incarnation. The humanity of our Lord became a fact and got its holiness and sinless perfection by and through the Holy Spirit. It was by and through the Holy Spirit Mary was enabled to conceive without sin; therefore it is said of the humanity she was to bring forth, “That holy thing that shall be born of thee.” Oil when poured upon an object is said to anoint it. The humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ was not only conceived by and through the Holy Spirit, but the Spirit came upon Him and anointed Him as a man; wherefore it is written: “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power.” (Acts 10:38.) Speaking anticipatively through the mouth of the Prophet Isaiah He Himself said: “The Spirit of the LORD God is upon me…. The LORD hath anointed me.” (Isaiah 61:1.) Frankincense was placed upon the oil and the flour. Frankincense was a sweet gum. When fire was applied it gave forth a fragrance that pleased. This represents the attitude of the Son of God to the Father. Concerning His relation to the Father, He says: “I do always those things that please him.” (John 8:29.) And again He said: “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.” (John 4:34.) Trial, like fire, brought out this quality. The more He was tried the more it was manifest that He sought to please the Father and fulfill His will. Behold Him there in the garden. It is a night of nights. Yonder at the gate are the three disciples who have been the most intimate and in the closest touch with Him. He has asked them to stay there and keep watch while He goes into the deeper recesses of the garden to pray. Lo, they have fallen asleep at their post. He is now in the darkest, blackest lonesomeness of Gethsemane. The white light of the young moon breaks against the old gnarled trunks of the wide branched olive trees, streams through their openings and falls upon the ground in ghostly bands side by side with the breadths of midnight blackness. The brook Kedron sounds like a strangled voice as its intermittent echoes are borne upon the damp night air, the winds are full of moaning and lament as of one with a broken heart, and a great cry of pain makes every leaf of every tree and bending bush shiver as with mortal fear. It is the voice of the Son of God. He is praying. What a prayer is that. It comes from the edge of a precipice—the edge of a moral precipice. And this is the prayer: “If it be possible let this cup pass from me.” I say it is the edge of a precipice, a moral precipice, a precipice that looks sheer down into the bottomless abyss of a tragedy of endless despair and of a hopelessly wrecked and ruined humanity. Yea! if He should be willing to use His own omnipotence and put aside this cup the blue would go out of the sky and earth be clothed in the rayless gloom of ’a moral and spiritual sackcloth forever. It is a moment of fire, a moment of trial and it burns and burns into the very soul. He sees the cup, He sees the dregs. He sees the bottom of it, the unspeakable horror and woe and hell and wordless anguish of the cross––all in that cup; and all His soul, and all the fire of the perfectness of hate against sin and shame in His soul cry out and throb in Him, till every essence of His perfect humanity revolts; and all He is of God and all the claims He has on the Father, and the assurance that should He press for it the Father who has always answered Him will answer Him now––all this drives in in a sharp, stinging torment of justified pain—innocence, purity, holiness, sinlessness, flow upward like a tidal wave of demand to the very throne of God; if He let it roll on the prayer must be answered and He must be delivered––the cup will be put aside. But listen to the most wonderful, “nevertheless” that ever came from human lips. “Nevertheless! not as I will, but as thou wilt.” Surely, there is frankincense in that! What an odour of sweetness ascends like the fragrant white smoke from the golden Incense Altar out of that garden; yea, that garden is as the garden of spices––and these spices are His faith, His love and His surrendered will, wholly surrendered to the Father and for the Father’s glory. The Meat Offering was seasoned with salt. Salt is pungent and a barrier against corruption. It is used in Scripture in connection with speech. “Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt.” (Colossians 4:15.) The speech of our Lord was pungent, penetrating, full of sanity and divinest health. Every word had in it the accent and the breath of the eternal Spirit. He said: “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” He did not say, “spiritual,” nor” living,” He said “spirit,” and He said “life.” That is to say, they were neither qualities nor qualifications of spirit and life, they were the very substance, the very essence—very spirit and very life. After two thousand years not a word He spoke, needs to be forgiven, forgotten, modified, corrected or erased; after two thousand years they remain in the very essence of spirit, the very pulse of life, the very concrete of cleanness, impassable barriers against corruption, against sin in thought as well as deed. What a contrast is His speech to that of the natural man. How utterly lacking in salt and filled with corruption is the speech of the natural man. In all the earth there is nothing so unclean, so foul, so full of pestilential disaster as human speech may be; a word uttered in the ear, a word or a phrase on the printed page, may contain sufficient corruption to ruin a human soul or poison a whole community. It is the careless word, the word without salt that can destroy a soul for time and eternity—the soul that hears it and the soul that utters it. It is, indeed, the speech of the natural man that ruins the world and is carrying it swiftly on to judgment; as it is written: “I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt’ be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” (Matthew 12:36-37.) In this day when by radio a whisper may be heard round the world, when a word may be picked up out of the air and a thought for good or ill sent in viewless wave lengths across land or sea, the reality and solemnity of the divine warning come back to us. Yes! Every oath, all cursing, all speech that sows iniquity, every word spoken against God, against the Bible, every word that makes light of Heaven’s grace, the Gospel, the blood, the long suffering and the forbearance of God; every word that denies the deity of the Son of God or shames His Mother as the Mother of God, goes up through the listening air to the throne in Heaven and to God the Son. And He is coming to respond to all these words, to execute judgment against all those whose speech is without salt. Listen to the warning words: “Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to convince (convict) all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” (Jude 1:14-15.) Such is the speech of the natural man. The speech that will bring him to judgment and the wrath of God. How marvellous the speech of the man Christ Jesus in contrast to all that; so pure, so absolutely vital that once it enters a human soul, that soul is saved from corruption and has all the saving power from corruption every day, if he will; wherefore it is written: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.” (Colossians 3:16.) Ah! there is no antidote against the poison of evil thought and the shame of unclean and corrupting words like the word of Christ abiding in us. It is, indeed, absolute salt. There was no leaven in the Meat Offering. Leaven in itself is a sour and corrupt thing. Because it is so it was banished by the law of God from the Passover observance. He who had it in his house in those days, even though it were the smallest of all portions, even the shadow of a particle, was excommunicated by the decree of God. The Son of God used it as a symbol of false and corrupt doctrine. It is a symbol of the flesh and its iniquities. It is not only the symbol of corrupt deeds, but the inhering sin of the flesh— “sin in the flesh.” The exclusion of it from the Meat Offering is not only a witness that the Lord was sinless in deed, word and thought, but that He had no sin in the texture of His humanity. His humanity was as the Angel Gabriel declared it: “That holy thing.” There must be no honey in the Meat Offering. Honey is nature’s sweetness. It is the symbol of that which is attractive and appealing in nature. Nothing is fuller of honey and sweetness and attractiveness than sin. The honey in sin is “pleasure.” It is the warning of the Holy Spirit that one of the most attractive and honeyed forms of sin in the closing hours of this age will be “pleasure.” We are told that there will be the maddest of all mad rushes after pleasure and the” pleasures of sin.” The pleasures that have the heat and fire and crimson of sin. And sin has its pleasures, the honey that is sweet to the tongue. He indeed is blind or deaf or without his natural senses who does not know it; Moses was a Prince in Egypt, that Egypt whose wonders, glories and luxuries are now being revealed to us in opened tombs of ancient Pharaohs. Every pleasure that could appeal was offered to him. He had an opportunity to give himself up to this banquet of honey, and take of it without limit. He was not deceived. He judged the honey at its true value. He knew it had a horizon, a time limit. There were pleasures of sin, but they were— “The pleasures of sin for a—season.” He refused to abide as a prince. He was unwilling to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He looked beyond the “treasures” of Egypt to the Judgment Seat of Christ and the rewards of faith, and the pleasures at God’s right hand for ever more; wherefore it is written of him: “Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.” (Hebrews 11:24-26.) Honey was offered to our Lord when the crowd rushed in upon Him, hailed Him with words of appreciation and with high acclaim would have made Him king. Honey was offered Him when Simon Peter tried to persuade Him to “pity himself” and not suffer the death of the cross. There is no sweeter honey than the exhortation to self-pity or the indulgence in it. In no way can the Devil more quickly weaken and overthrow the Christian who seeks to serve the Lord than by leading him to pity himself, to be taken up with himself, his burdens or his cares. Nothing is more acceptable than to have someone to tell us we are working too hard for the Lord, that we ought to spare ourselves, take it easier, go slower. The Lord saw through the honey of this temptation. He saw behind the honest, sympathizing face of Simon Peter, the leering face of the Devil. The applause of the world is great honey. For the sake of it men charged with high commission and under bonds to speak the words of soberness and truth have softened their speech or held hack the message due. With warning words our Lord has said: “Woe unto you, when all men speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.” (Luke 6:26.) It is the honey of applause, the pleasure of being well spoken of, that has put the false note into many a prophet’s speech or blinded his vision to duty and to truth. Sooner or later honey will turn sour. Sooner or later the most perfect human pleasure, the most exhilarating human joy, will have in it the corroding taste and turn—sour. . Pleasures of today are the regrets of tomorrow. Our Lord found His joy, His pleasure, in owning and doing the will of the Father. The Meat Offering was an offering made by fire unto the Lord. This is a picture of Our Lord Jesus Christ as the perfect man, perfectly fitted to endure and sustain and satisfy the fire of God’s judgment on the cross. It is the symbolic and prophetic announcement that though He should come into the world and show Himself the perfect man, He was not coming to so live that men might make Him an example and by imitating Him build up a character that would bring them into favor with God. He was not coming to give foundation to the thought that salvation is by character and not by the blood of sacrifice. The Meat Offering is a rebuke of that thought. It is the open declaration that He came to be the perfect sacrifice, offer up that “holy thing,” His perfect humanity. After a handful of the Meat Offering had been presented to God the remainder was eaten by the priests in the Holy Place. “And this is the law of the meat offering: the sons of Aaron shall offer it before the LORD, before the altar. And he shall take of it his handful, of the flour of the meat offering, and of the oil thereof, and all the frankincense which is upon the meat offering, and shall burn it upon the altar for a sweet savour, even the memorial of it, unto the LORD. And the remainder thereof shall Aaron and his sons eat: with unleavened bread shall it be eaten in the holy place; in the court of the tabernacle of the congregation they shall eat it,”.’ (Leviticus 6:14-16.) This is a picture of the Church feeding on Christ after He has offered Himself the perfect sacrifice, entering by faith into the Holy Place, into Heaven, appropriating Him there in all His fulness as the once crucified, but now living one, living for us. It is not the man exhibited to us in all the details of His perfect life as He lived it here whom we are to contemplate, copy and, by reason thereof, grow strong; but, rather, the man who offered Himself for us as a sweet smelling savour unto God and triumphed, not only over death and the grave in a risen, a glorious and immortal manhood, but by virtue of His death, met all claims of righteousness against us, and thus honored God both in the holiness of His character and the justice of His judgment against us. By faith we are to ascend to Heaven, enter within the Vail, even into the Holiest of all, contemplate our Lord as perfect man there, adore Him because of what He did for us, because of what He is representatively for us, and open our heart for the reception of that life and character which He seeks to give, not only as being perfect man, but very God. It is in meditating on His sacrifice for us in the perfect humanity which made it acceptable to a holy God (a perfect humanity that was always Godward and never—manward) that we shall receive from Him that life which is both human and divine, because He is Himself perfectly human and absolutely divine-perfect man and very God—even “our great God and saviour Jesus Christ.” In this fashion, and in this alone, we are to feed on Christ as our—Divine Meat Offering. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 39: 02.32. THE BURNT OFFERING ======================================================================== THE BURNT OFFERING IN the Burnt Offering everything was burned on the Altar. God got all, the Offerer got nothing. “The priest shall burn all on the altar.” (Leviticus 1:9.) It is called a “sweet savour” offering. (Leviticus 1:9.) An offering in which God finds delight. The Burnt Offering is the portrayal of that side of the cross in which our Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of the Father gives Himself in death wholly unto Him that He may reveal His love as a Son for the Father. It is the complete surrender of Himself in unreserved devotion to the Father. There is that side of the cross in which the Father vails His face from the Son; beholds Him as the representative of sin, treats Him as sin; but in the Burnt Offering side of the cross He is filled with joy, with divine delight because He sees in this self-surrender and complete self-immolation of the Son a love so great, so fathomless, a love that would glorify Him in every element of His law, His government and being; a love, indeed, so great that had the first man never sinned, had he begotten a sinless race, it never could have so glorified and magnified the Father as this offering of the Son Himself unto Him. The Offering must be without blemish. Sinless in His daily’ life, having justified every requirement of the law, having so lived that no man could convict Him of sin, on the cross, He offered Himself, “without spot” to God; as it is written: “Through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God.” (Hebrews 9:14.) It must be a voluntary offering. (Leviticus 1:3.) That man might be saved it was necessary an atoning sacrifice should be made in his behalf. It must be made by God Himself and necessarily in human form. It must be made by God because only God can atone to God. It must be made in human form because if God would atone God must die. God could die for man and pay the penalty of death due to man only as He should have a human nature. To have a human nature God must needs become incarnate. To become incarnate He would become visible. Visibility belonged only to one person of the Godhead—to the Son of God and God the Son. From all eternity He had been visible in the “form of God.” The Son of God therefore alone could become visible as a man, and as a man die for man. The Son of God therefore alone could become incarnate. The Son of God therefore as God alone could make atonement to God for man, and make it by and through the humanity in which He should become incarnate. To do this He must lay aside the “form of God,” and take upon Himself the “form of man.” Would He be willing to do that? Would He be willing to do that for the glory of God His Father and for sake of the salvation of lost and dying men. It all depended upon His own personal will. It depended entirely upon His will because He was both coeval and coequal with the Father. He was willing. He was more than willing, it was His delight. Behold His attitude as set forth in Holy Scripture; as it is written: “Being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.” Literally this may be translated: “Thought not to snatch at, to hold on to, equality.” Great and indescribable as was this glory that was His-the form of God––He did not clutch it and hold it in His grasp as something He would not let go. Nay! His love of the Father was so great, His love for lost and ruined men whom the Father wished to save, was so great, He was willing to put aside His glory and become incarnate. He was willing to lay aside His visibility as God and become visible as a man. He was willing to leave Heaven and its joys for earth and its sorrows; wherefore it is written: He “made himself of no reputation.” Literally, “He emptied himself.” Not of His deity’ That would be impossible. He emptied Himself of His form and appearing. His outward glory as God. That was His attitude and that was His act. Listen to His own statement when He comes into the world that He may become incarnate: “When he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not (that is, He was no longer satisfied with the offerings of bulls and of goats), but a body hast thou prepared me: (that is a body in which a sacrifice might be offered that would be pleasing to Him). Then said, I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, (the will of God the ’Father that He should offer Himself in sacrifice) O God.” (Psalms 40:8.) Then in terms of magnificent clearness He proclaims that His death on the cross was not by the hand of man, but by His own will in surrender to the will of the Father: He says: “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again, No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.” A commandment! Yes! because the desire of the Father’s heart was a command to the concept of the Son. He was the Son of the Father’s love, and the Father’s love to Him was law supreme. He said: “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me.” Others might feed on the food of earth, His food was doing the will of the Father, that was His bread and meat, that was all sufficient nourishment for Him. The sacrifice must be laid in order on the wood. That is to say, it must be placed on the wood according to the details ordained of God. Every detail of our Lord’s death on the cross was foreseen and arranged in the counsels of eternity. Those who should crucify Him should part His raiment among them and cast lots for His seamless robe. They should mock Him. The crowd should pass before His cross and wag their heads in imitation of the involuntary movement of his suffering head. Vinegar and gall should be given Him in answer to His cry of thirst. He should offer the most fearful words that could come from human lips, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? “ While the bones of those crucified with Him should be broken to hasten their death, not a bone of Him should be broken, He should die not by any act of man but by His own will. When they should come with their hammers they should find Him already dead. His heart should be physically broken. Although the burial of His body should be appointed with that of the malefactors, nevertheless, it should be ’laid in the rich man’s tomb. Listen to the Scriptures as they give these details centuries before He was born: “They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture” (His robe). (Psalms 22:18.) “All they that see me, laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying, He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.” (Psalms 22:8.) “They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” (Psalms 69:21.) “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? “(Psalms 22:1.) “He keepeth all his bones: not one of them is broken.” (Psalms 34:20.) “Reproach hath broken my heart.” (Psalms 69:20.) “He made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death.” (Isaiah 53:9.) Literally it may be translated: “His grave was appointed with the wicked, but with the rich man was his tomb.” And now mark how this forecast and the record of it by Holy Scripture have been fulfilled to the very letter, to the most minute detail. “And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots.” (Matthew 27:35.) “And they that passed by reviled him, wagging their heads, And saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest in three days, save thyself... If thou be the Son of God” come down from the cross. Likewise also the thief priests mocking him, with the scribes and elders, said, He saved others; himself he cannot save. If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him. He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God.” (Matthew 27:39-43.) , And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? “(Matthew 27:46.) “And straightway one of them ran, and took a spunge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink.” (Matthew 27:48.) “Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, (thief) and of the other which was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs. These things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken.” (John 19:32-33; John 19:36.) “But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.” (John 19:34.) This is proof His heart was broken. “When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus’ disciple: He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered. And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock.” (Matthew 27:57-60.) The sacrifice was, indeed, laid in order on the wood. Every detail of the cross foretold fulfilled. The Offering must be flayed and cut in pieces. Flaying is taking off the outside kin and exposing the inner flesh, the very tissue. The Devil sought to flay Him, to expose His inner life. • That is the meaning of the temptation the Devil gave Him. He would find out the very inmost of Him. But the more He was tempted, tested and tried, the more the inner glory of His perfection was revealed. Concerning the Devil who tempted Him and the fruitlessness of his effort, He said: “The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.” (John 14:30.) No man ever said that before, no man has dared to say it since. Think of it I the man in whom the Devil had no real estate, had no place wherein he could enter, find a foothold and abide. The Devil had no more place in Him than he had on that throne of God at which he snatched and because of which he fell. Concerning what men could find in Him though they sought to discover the inmost of Him, He said: “Which of you convicteth me of sin? “ Down through the long ages to this hour the challenge has been confronted by an unbroken silence; not a whisper of response has ever been heard. There is none today. The inwards and the legs of the offering were washed with water. The inwards set forth the motives, the impulses and the inspirations of life. The legs, the walk, the manner of life. Scripture speaks definitely of inward things. “Thou desirest truth in the inward parts.” (Psalms 51:6.) “I shall put my law in their inward parts.” (Jeremiah 31:33.) Take the light of all suns and systems, focus them into one ray and let it penetrate to the inmost being of Christ. In that all penetrating light you will find He had but one motive, one impulse, one inspiration. He Himself declares it: “The Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.” (John 8:29.) His walk was wholly governed by the written Word. Speaking anticipatively by the Spirit through the mouth of the Psalmist, He says: “Thy word have I hid in my heart.” (Psalms 119:11.) “Thy law is within my heart.” (Psalms 40:8.) Thus was He fit to offer Himself as a love pledge to God and because He was fit He became the whole Burnt Offering on a Roman Cross. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 40: 02.33. THE SIN OFFERING ======================================================================== THE SIN OFFERING (Leviticus 4:1-35) THE Sin Offering stands in direct contrast to the Burnt Offering. In the Burnt Offering, all is for God. In the Sin Offering, all is for man. In the Sin Offering our Lord Jesus Christ is pictured as giving Himself an offering and a sacrifice unto God for––men. The Sin Offering was for sins of ignorance. Man is a sinner whether he knows it or not. Sin is deeper than the deeds any man may do. Sin is not only what a man does, but what a man is. He has a nature of sin. It is called, “sin in the flesh.” (Romans 8:3.) That is the root of all sin. Man is not a sinner because he commits sin, he commits sin because he is a sinner, because the root of sin is in him. Our Lord Himself defines the source of sin. He says: “Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.” (Matthew 15:19.) In saying this He simply emphasizes what He had said centuries before: “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked: who can know it?” And then He says: “I the LORD search the heart.” (Jeremiah 17:9-10.) He alone knows the heart. He knows it as the fountain of sin. Sin is sin, whether it be innate, dormant or full blown in violence and outbreaking transgression. God’s standard is holiness. It is written: “Holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.” (Hebrews 12:14.) The man who is an out––and––out sinner falls short of that standard. The man who is perfectly moral falls short of that standard, not only because he is lacking in absolute holiness, but because he has a nature of sin. There is a difference in men in respect to the degrees of sin. The man who is moral and upright, is living a commendable life for his own sake and that of others. It is better to be sober, honest, upright and ready to discharge all duties than to be an outbreaking sinner. It is better for his bodily health and conscience. It is better for the community in which he lives and at every angle of his life in this world. But––he is short of the standard of God’s righteousness––sinless perfection. (And God out of respect to His own holiness can demand no less.) Failing in this with all his good character, he has fallen short of that which God requires of him. The man who is completely gone in sin falls short of God’s standard in every direction, in every degree. There is a difference between these two men in the degree of sin, but there is no difference between them in the fact of sin. Both are short in what God requires. Both are short of holiness; both are short of sinless perfection. It must be said fairly and squarely of each: Each is short of the standard of God. No matter in what degree of shortage they stand before God, they are both short. So far as the fact of shortness then––there is absolutely no difference between them. The splendidly good man and the outrageously bad man are each of them short of what God requires; and since to be short of what God requires as set up in this standard is to be lost, then both are lost! the bad man and the good man, both are separated from God and in themselves undone. Let it be repeated that in respect to God’s standard, both are short, both are lost and there is no difference in respect to that between them. And this is the declaration of the Word of God; as it is written: “There is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:22-23.) The victim for the sacrifice must be without blemish. If you would have a man pay for you the debt you cannot yourself pay, that man must himself be free from debt. If you would have someone meet the penalty of death against you as a sinner” that one who would pay it for you must himself be free from the penalty of death, someone against whom the law of righteousness has no claim. On the basis of His sinless perfection and that the righteous government of God had no claims against Him, our Lord Jesus Christ comes forward and offers Himself as a substitute for the sinner, offers to pay the debt he owes. In the Sin Offering the victim was the ceremonial substitute for the sinner. There are two texts which explain it all: “He hath made him to be sin for us.” (2 Corinthians 5:21.) “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust.” (1 Peter 3:18.) The blood of the Sin Offering was all poured out at the bottom of the Altar. “And the priest shall pour all the blood at the bottom of the altar.” (Leviticus 4:7.) As the Antitypical Sin Offering our Lord Jesus Christ poured out all His blood at the bottom of the cross. From head and hands and feet it poured a living stream to the thirsty ground below. That He poured it all out is revealed, demonstrated and proved by His own statement to the disciples in the upper room at Jerusalem the night after His resurrection when He said to them: “A spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have.” The logic of the statement is simple enough: He said in plain speech, “Ye see me have flesh and bones.” “A spirit does not have flesh and bones.” “Therefore I am not a spirit.” But He said more than that in saying that much. He said He had flesh and bones. Let it be repeated a thousand times and in as many different connections. He said He had flesh and bones. He said flesh and bones because He was not flesh and blood. He had no blood in His body. He had poured it all out. He poured it all out because He was the actual Sin Offering of whom all the other sin offerings were but shadows. All the shadows were fulfilled on the cross. They took Him down from the cross, a white, limp body, as white as the linen in which they wrapped Him. But now He stands before them in that upper room. They are frozen into silence. Fear with the sharp tooth of unbelief bites into their heart; and now He gives the low uttered but clear triumphant challenge: “Handle me and see.” How they have yearned to do it during these three most awful days in human history. “A spirit hath not flesh and bones.” Well! they knew that. “Flesh and bones as ye see me––have.” The Sin Offering standing before them––no blood in the body. All poured out for guilty men––a sacrifice for sin. But it meant more than that to fulfill the type. The priest must take some of the blood in a bason and bear it within the vail, into the Most Holy Place. And He had been there––into Heaven itself. He told Mary when He met her in the morning that He was on His way there then. Well! He had been there and returned. Thus with bated breath, in the flickering light of the lamp, they beheld their Sin Offering and their Heavenly Priest, the Priest after the order of Melchisedec. The victim must be taken outside the camp and burned to ashes. Our Lord was taken outside the camp. He suffered outside the gate; as it is written: “Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.” (Hebrews 13:12.) Outside the gate of the court, outside of the camp, they took the body of the sin offering, set it on fire and burned it to ashes. Outside the gate of Jerusalem they took our Lord to the place called Calvary. There they put Him on the altar of a Roman cross. And the fire fell upon Him. The fire of the consuming wrath of God against the sin He represented. He says, through the lips of the prophet: “From above hath he sent fire into my bones.” (Lamentations 1:13.) “Thy wrath lieth hard upon me. Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; thy terrors have cut me off.” (Psalms 88:7; Psalms 88:16.) I am consumed by the blow of thine hand.” (Psalms 39:10.) The relation of the individual offerer to the Sin Offering. He must come before God and own himself a sinner. He must confess himself a sinner, not because he was conscious of sin, but because God had said he was a sinner and he must take God’s estimate of himself. He must take the sacrifice God had provided for him and offer it as his personal sacrifice. He must lay his hand upon the victim’s head, confess his sins and claim it as his individual substitute. “And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the sin offering, and slay the sin offering in the place of the burnt offering.” (Leviticus 4:29.) Precisely so must the individual act who would be saved today. He must take God’s estimate of himself as a sinner whether by nature or transgression. God says he is a sinner by nature and transgression. He must accept that estimate. He must lay his hand upon the head of the crucified. That is––he must accept Him there on that cross as the sacrifice provided of God for him. He must offer Him by faith for himself and not for another, claim Him as his substitute enduring the judgment and death due him. It is in this way and in this way only that Christ can be made of avail. In this way and in this way only can the Christ of God become a Saviour unto the best as well as the worst of men. You may believe in Him as a good man; you may exalt Him as a teacher and follow Him as a perfect example; if that be all––then He shall be of no more avail to you than the live bullock or lamb would have been to the Jew who brought it to the altar and led it away again alive and unslain; He, the Christ of God, shall be of no more value to you than if you should believe in Buddha or cast your soul for salvation upon the best, the most moral, the most perfect John Smith in the whole wide world. Christ as your Sin Offering offered to God by faith, and Christ claimed as your personal Substitute, alone can save you. The twofold relation of the Sin Offering to the offerer. The blood was within the vail whither the priest had taken it for him. The ashes were outside the camp. Blood within the vail, ashes outside the camp! The blood within the vail told him the sacrifice had been accepted on his behalf. The ashes outside the gate told him the priest was inside the vail, making reconciliation for him. When he looked at the ashes lie saw the judgment of God had ceremonially fallen on his sins. As he looked and saw the wind blow the ashes away out of his sight, he knew the matter between him and the God of Israel had been settled and that, ceremonially, his sins had been put away. Look at the Cross. It tells us the judgment of God against us as believers has been fully exhausted, it is finished. The issue between us and the God of righteousness is settled and settled to His perfect satisfaction; so settled that His conscience is at absolute rest about it. God looks upon us as having paid to the uttermost the penalty against us in the death of His Son as our Substitute. As the winds carry away the ashes, so our sins and transgressions have been swept away out of God’s sight for ever––forgiven, forgotten; as it is written: “Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” (Hebrews 10:17.) Christ outside the camp, our sins consumed to ashes on His Cross. Christ within the vail, His blood therein testifying to our sins consumed. Christ outside the camp, dead for us. Christ inside the vail, alive for us. Christ outside the camp, our suffering substitute. Christ inside the vail, our living priest. Ashes outside the camp, blood within the vail. Judgment at an end, salvation secured. What more could we have? ======================================================================== CHAPTER 41: 02.34. THE PEACE OFFERING ======================================================================== THE PEACE OFFERING (Leviticus 3:1-17) THE law of the Peace Offering is to be found in Leviticus 7:28-36. Its distinctive feature is that the offerer and the priest each got a portion of it. It was to be eaten before the Lord. Eating before the Lord is communing with the Lord. It is a picture of God and the sinner at peace with each other, all issues between them perfectly settled. It is peace upon the basis of a mutually accepted sacrifice. It is the picture of reconciliation. By the death of the cross our Lord Jesus Christ satisfied the law, the government and the being of God. In virtue of that satisfaction He has reconciled the world to Himself; as it is written: “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.” (2 Corinthians 5:19.) By that act of reconciliation He brought the world up on mercy ground where He could deal with it in absolute grace. For two thousand years the cross has held back judgment from the world. For two thousand years the world has lived under a suspended sentence. On the basis of the righteousness displayed in the cross God is able to be just and yet the justifier of all who accept the sacrifice of the cross. The moment the individual owns the death of the cross as a sacrifice for sin and claims Him who died thereon as a personal substitute, .his sin both of nature and transgression is imputed to the crucified Christ, the obedience of Christ unto death is imputed to the believer, and he is at once individually reconciled to God; as it is written: “And you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled, In the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight.” (Colossians 1:21-22.) This peace is made between the individual sinner who believes and his God; as it is written: “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:1.) This is the meaning of the oft repeated and much misunderstood announcement of the angels on that natal night in Bethlehem: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will to men.” (Luke 2:14.) It has been interpreted to mean that this was the particular announcement the Lord had come into the world to make peace between warring nations. He is coming to do that very thing, but this song of the angels was not that announcement and did not have any such meaning. It was given in emphasis to the message of Gabriel. Gabriel had given the message to Shepherds who watched their flocks by night, keeping guard over sheep and lamb. Every morning and evening in the temple a lamb was sacrificed. The Gloria in Excelsis of the angel choir was a proclamation in the ears of these shepherds that lambs were no longer needed for temple service. God had provided Himself a Lamb. The Lamb was His Son over whose wondrous human birth the choral song was sung. He had come as the Lamb ordained before the foundation of the world. He should offer a sacrifice by which peace should be made, not between warring nations, but between the individual sinner and his God. But this peace between God and the sinner was for a special class of sinners. The angels did not say: “Peace, good will to men.” No, not at all. They said: “Peace, to men of good will.” What that good will is our Lord Jesus Christ Himself later on in His ministry declares. He said: “This is the will of him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life.” (John 6:40.) That is the good will of which the angels spoke. This is the class for whom He came to make peace. To such He becomes peace; as it is written: “He is our peace.” (Ephesians 2:14.) “These things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace.” (John 16:33.) “And this man shall be the peace.” (Micah 5:5.) Peace made between the believing sinner and his God by the blood of the cross; as it is written: “Having made peace through the blood of his cross.” (Colossians 1:20.) “Peace through the blood of his cross.” That is the peace the angels were singing and chanting, and over which they were giving glory to God that star-filled night. There is not even the shadow of a suggestion of a hint in Scripture that the peace of the world, the beating of swords into ploughshares and spears into pruning hooks, is to be brought about by preaching the Gospel of the cross, the Gospel of the Crucified. For two thousand years this Gospel has been preached and has not brought the edge or outline of peace to a warring world. In the recent great world war the nations which fought in the most scientific and murderous fashion were those nations which pass current in history as “Christian Nations.” To talk about peace on earth while the cross casts its accusing shadow on it is to testify to spiritual blindness. To talk about peace on earth so long as human nature is at enmity with God is worse than childish, and wholly without excuse for those who have an open Bible. In clear, unqualified statement Holy Scripture affirms that while knowledge shall increase, men run to and fro, inventions be multiplied till man shall seem almost like God, the world as a system will go farther and farther away from Him and from the peace that abides. Instead of beating their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks, they shall beat their ploughshares into swords and their pruning hooks into spears; as it is written: “Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up: Beat your ploughshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.” (Joel 3:9-10.) In the closing hours of this age the genius of man will find its mightiest exercise in producing engines of destruction. . The whole world will become an armed camp. Nations will be angry and filled with envy, jealousy and hatred of one another. Everywhere shall be heard the tramp of armed men and the challenge of battle. The Son of God, He who cannot lie, who cannot be mistaken and who cannot deceive, has said the closing hours of this age shall be as it was in the days of Noah: Materialism, lust, wealth, lust for the lusts of the flesh, lust for the lusts of pleasure, lawlessness, anarchy, rampant violence, order at an end, confusion supreme. Not only this—but— The Church, the professing Church, will fall into the hands and be under the leadership of’ false teachers until it shall become a wholly apostate thing, repudiating every foundation on which it has professed to build, and so far from being a barrier to tilt lust of the world and its reek of materialism, by its infidelity, by its denial of the Deity of the Son of God, the Virgin Birth, its repudiation of the blood of the cross as the blood of atonement, its cheap laughter and brutal mockery of the ’thought of a returning Lord, it shall help to break down all barriers of righteousness till it is scorned by a godless world as more godless than itself, and at the last like salt that has lost its savour and is only fit to be cast out and trodden under foot, so will the world despise and trample it in the mire of a common shame. So far from peace while He is away, our Lord has said lawlessness will be multiplied, and everywhere the evidence that human government has reached its limit, is disintegrating, and will come to a sudden and final overthrow; that a time of tribulation is coming on the earth, a time of suffering and woe so awful that in the ages of war and woe and human anguish, in all that has been most terrible in human history, there never has been anything like this tribulation will be, and so completely the horror of horrors that nothing ever can come again to match it. And thus while men are boasting and laughing and singing and crying, “on with the dance,” “tomorrow shall be as today and much more abundant;” while men are mocking as they did in the days of Noah before the flood, the age is moving each day with increased momentum to the cumulative and cataclysmic crash. Nevertheless, He who died on Calvary’s cross is the Prince of Peace, and peace He will establish, and so establish it that never again shall war’s alarms be heard, nor lawlessness lift up its hydra head and hiss with its forked and Satanic tongue. He Himself is coming as the Prince of Peace to inaugurate and establish peace. But how is He coming? Is He coming with the olive branch, with words of gentleness and steps as light and soft as though He trod on eiderdown? Hear what He Himself says about it: “I will tread them (the people) in mine anger, and trample them in my fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garment, and I will stain all my raiment. I will tread down the people in mine anger and make them drunk in my fury, and I will tread down their strength to the earth.” (Isaiah 63:1-6.) (Revelation 19:11-16.) And what kind of a day will it be? That day when He comes to bring peace? Is it to be a day of beauty, a cloudless sky, a wealth of sunshine on hill and dale, on land and sea? Nay! listen: “A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains.” (Joel 2:2.) “A day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness.” (Zephaniah 1:15.) “And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree.” (Isaiah 34:4.) And now behold the picture of the Lord’s Coming as presented by John, the Beloved disciple, under the stress and inspiration of the Holy Spirit: “And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords.” (Revelation 19:11-16.) And speaking to him anticipatively the Father says: “Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” (Psalms 2:9.) Not through the Golden Rule nor the preaching of the Gospel will the world become a world of peace. Not till He comes who is the Prince of Peace, not till He comes to overthrow the combination of man and Devil, not till He comes to execute righteousness upon an ungodly world and bind Satan, will peace dwell within it and abide. But amid all the storm and trial and unrest even now the most tempest tossed soul may find personal peace with God. The offerer ate of the Peace Offering before the Lord. On the basis of the sacrifice he ate before the Lord. This may you do. This is the privilege of the weakest believer, make the sacrifice all your own by faith, rest in the complete assurance of the perfect satisfaction the Father has found in the shed blood of His Son, appropriate to yourself more and more each day the worth of Him who died for you, rest in Him as your once crucified but now risen Lord and find delight in Him for all He has done, is doing and surely will do for you; and as you delight in Him you will find yourself in conscious touch with Him, in rich communion and in fellowship with God the Father who finds His delight in Him. Two that are agreed can walk together. The mutual delight of yourself and the Father in His risen and glorified Son will bring you the peace of God because of your fellowship and communion with the God of peace. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 42: 02.35. THE TRESPASS OFFERING ======================================================================== THE TRESPASS OFFERING (Leviticus 5:1-19) THERE is a marked difference between the Sin Offering and the Trespass Offering. In the Sin Offering you have a sacrifice for the nature of sin. In the Trespass Offering you have a sacrifice for the sins of nature. Nor is the distinction without a difference. In the one case God is dealing with the root of sin. In the other He is dealing with the fruit of sin. The blood of Christ not only meets the root, “sin in the flesh,” it meets and provides for the fruit, the sins produced by the nature of sin in us. After the believer has owned and accepted the Lord; after he is assured, not only that he has been forgiven and justified, but that he has received a new and spiritual nature, he awakes with a shock to discover the nature of sin still in him. In whatever way this consciousness comes to the believer it brings also the consciousness of defilement and the shutting out of close and intimate communion with God. The defilement must be removed and the consciousness of communion and fellowship restored. The provision for this and the manner thereof is set forth in the Trespass Offering. The manner of it is by confession; as it is written: “And it shall be, when he (the Israelite) shall be guilty in one of these things, (mentioned in the preceding verses) that he shall confess that he hath sinned in that thing.” (Leviticus 5:5.) This tells us the sacrifice of Christ is available for the sins and trespasses of the believer by the way; that it is made available by confession on the believer’s part. This truth has already been largely dealt with, but it seems proper to restate it in analytical form. 1. The Christian can sin. “If any man (any Christian) sin.” (1 John 2:1.) The supposition is based on the fact that he can sin. He can sin because the old nature is still in him. It is not taken away in the slightest degree in regeneration. It is still in him, the nature that is, “enmity with God, is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” The new nature is holy, sinless, it cannot sin and is essentially against the old nature. Thus the Christian has two natures; but while he has the two natures, he is not two persons; he is but one person and with one responsibility. He can sin or he can resist sin. He can live in the region of the flesh. He can live in the realm of the spirit. If the Christian who stumbles, sins and loses communion and fellowship with God would be restored, he must confess his sins unto God, and confess them as sins against the Lord. (1 John 1:9.) Unconfessed sin becomes a canker in the heart. Confession brings it out, puts it into the light, makes its ugliness and horrible deformity to be plainly seen, inspires sorrow for the guilt of it, hatred of it and sincere desire to be quit of it. Confession brings back the dominance of God in the soul. The prodigal never loved his home so much as when, after his wanderings, he returned to it. Peace with God, joy in the Lord and rest of conscience never seem so rich and sweet as when, having lost them, they are found again. A precious jewel lost for many days and all hope of recovering it gone, never bas seemed so precious and worthwhile as when it is found again. The shepherd never thought so much of his sheep, his lost sheep, till he found it and brought it home again. The woman never so prized her lost piece of money till she discovered it, brought it out of the dark corner and fastened it among the other pieces on her forehead once more. The joy of restored communion, is a joy rich, deep and worth more than all gold and silver. Restored communion brings increased spiritual power and desire to be used of the Lord. The Psalmist comprehended that He says: “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me by thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy way; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.” (Psalms 51:12-13.) 3. Our Lord Jesus Chris as the believer’s Great High Priest takes the confession and brings it before the Father. He sets the confession before Him as from those who are His children, members of His family. 4. The Father is faithful and just. Faithful to the covenant between Himself and the Son. Just to the sacrifice offered once for all. 5. Because He is faithful and just to the Son, the Father, through the Son, will receive the confession, forgive, purge and fully cleanse the confessing one. In the light of the Trespass Offering we learn that the sin of an Israelite against a brother Israelite was counted of the Lord as a sin against Himself; as it is written: “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, If a soul sin, and commit a trespass against the LORD, and lie unto his neighbour in that which was delivered him to keep, or in fellowship, or in a thing taken away by violence, or hath deceived his neighbour (a full list of possible sins is given in succeeding verses) .” (Leviticus 6:1-2.) In any of these things the Lord looks upon it as a sin against Himself. This is illustrated in the tremendous scene where Paul armed with authority from the Sanhedrim is on his way to Damascus to arrest and cast into prison all whom he should find among the Jews turning unto the Lord. The Lord meets him on the way, reveals Himself in the splendor of His glorified humanity and asks him this startling question: “Why persecutest thou me? “ When Paul asks who it is speaking to him, he gets this answer: “I am Jesus.” If He had said nothing more than just those three words, they would in themselves have been the revelation of wonder and glory. Apart from anything else they might teach, they do teach this (and I cannot afford to pass it by), they teach this, that the Son of God is in Heaven, that He is there as Jesus (and of course), absolutely as Jesus of Nazareth, “this same Jesus,” the Jesus who walked the ways of earth, was crucified on a Roman cross, dead, buried and risen again. Not a mere flimsy, shadowy, ghostly Jesus, a mere spirit but a real man, the real man Christ Jesus––there in His own very and actual human body. But listen to all He said to Paul: “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.” In this amazing statement the Lord from Heaven identifies those on earth who believe in Him as one with Himself; so one, so a part of Him, that any blow against them He counts and feels as a blow against Himself. It is the recognition of the great fact that the Church on earth is His spiritual Body. It is the recognition that each individual believer is a member of that body and therefore in intimate union with Himself. When one Christian sins against another Christian he is sinning against another member of the Body of Christ and therefore .in the nature of the case against the Lord Himself. When a Christian has an unkind or critical thought against another Christian, when he speaks a word that wounds a fellow Christian, his critical thought, his wounding word, strikes the Lord and strikes Him to the very heart. Nor does sin against a member of the Body of Christ stop with the wrong against the Lord personally ––it goes even more widely; for just as injury to one member of the body, even of our natural body, may affect other members of our body and make the whole body sick; so a Christian who sins against another Christian may so hurt the spiritual life of one Christian till the hurt spread and infect other Christians and the whole membership in that particular assembly of the Church become sick, spiritually weak and ineffective; wherefore it is written: “Ye are the body of Christ and members in particular, And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it.” (1 Corinthians 12:27; 1 Corinthians 12:26.) The Christian then who sins against another Christian sins against the Lord indeed; in short, all sin, be it of whatever sort, great or small, is against the Lord, and requires free and full confession from the Christian who thus sins; he must confess if he would heal the hurt and stand in his true place before the Lord. 6. In the Trespass Offering the offerer must make restoration for the sin committed and add the fifth part to the principal of that which he took away or in which he caused loss or wrong to another. “He shall even restore it in the principal, and shall add the fifth part more thereto.” (Leviticus 6:5.) There are three things connected with the Trespass Offering. Expiation. Restoration. Addition. All this finds its complete fulfillment in our Lord Jesus Christ. He was the true Trespass Offering. In Him we get Expiation, Restoration and Addition. Expiation. Never forget it! the death of our Lord Jesus Christ is expiatory. By His death He has expiated the nature as well as the fruit of that nature in the Believer. So completely has He expiated for us as believers that, not only has He taken away the penalty of our sin, but the very guilt and demerit of it in the sight of a holy God. Restoration. Because He has so fully expiated the guilt and demerit of sin and so established the righteousness and truth of God and so justified him in all His ways; because by that expiation He has proclaimed throughout the universe the exceeding sinfulness of sin and the glorious righteousness of the will of God; because by His death He has broken down every barrier and purchased all rights to the world, He will restore it as it was “in the beginning.” He will give the world back to God as it was first created, freed from sin and stain and shame and sickness and pain and death and from every rebel will; as it is written: “There shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new” (that is—not all new things, but—all things new; that is, make them over again renew them). (Revelation 21:5.) Is it possible to imagine such an era on this earth? A period when a tear will never be seen on a human cheek, when a choking sob will no longer clutch at the throat; when men and women shall no longer stand at the bedside of one they love and watch the ebbing away of life and the coming in of that thing we call the shadow of death; when because of this black sinister thing tragedy waits at that bedside and thrusts its finger into and tears and twists the heart-strings of those who watch the beloved as they go out with the tide. Can you conceive of that moment when there shall be no more graves, no chiselled bits of stone to tell you that underneath in the dust there lie the fragments of what was once a man of strength, a woman of beauty, a child of promise; that coming hour when the veiled guest who sits uninvited in so many homes today and whose name is––sorrow––shall no longer cross the threshold; when in the night no more shall be heard the Mother crying for her Son who was, and is not, and the orphans making lamentation because they have been cut loose and sent adrift upon the troubled waters of a fatherless and motherless life; but above all the coming of that hour of hours when the strange, drear word “pain,” that word which in’ eludes everything there is of the fires of fever, the octopus tentacles or wolf-like teeth of the cancer, all there is of surgeon’s knife and the long days of languishing; when that word” pain,” which means not only agony of body, but deeper agony of the soul shall no longer be written, nor heard, nor remembered; that hour at last when human beings shall walk beneath skies that have no clouds, from whence shall come no more the windy storm and tempest, a world no longer shattered by earthquakes, scorched and melted by red-throated volcanoes, or drowned with tidal waves, a world burning in summer and frozen in winter, but a pleasant land where the flowers fade not and there is no thorn in the rose, a paradise regained where life flows on and on in ever unfolding degree of wonder, in knowledge and power; where peace and unbounded love abide beneath every roof tree; when all restraint of genius in man shall be released from the leash of the curse and rise to the level of Him in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, a world restored to God minus all that has hurt the vision, the conscience and the heart of God. Addition. In the Trespass Offering the offerer was to give back the principal and then add the fifth part. Our Lord Jesus Christ as the True Trespass Offering and therefore the True Trespass Offerer will give to God the principal. He will restore to Him all that he lost in the world through the sin of man. But He will do more than that. He will not only restore the world as it was at first, but He will add the fifth part; that is to say, He will give Him the world again with––plus. God shall get more through the redemption of the cross than He had in the world before man sinned, before the era of chaos and before Satan fell. I repeat He will get the world back with plus. And this is the plus––not a world full of an Adam race, stumbling in sin and rebellion against God, rejecting Him in all his ways, marking the earth with iniquity at every step and filling the very air with the poison of it, but a race of redeemed, regenerated men, shining in the image of Him who redeemed them, sons of God like He is, glorifying the Father in the proclamation of His grace and enthroning Him in heart and life. This is the glorious addition which the cross brings to God the Father––the “many sons” He has sought; not only a world from which every trace of sin has been removed, but a race of sons of God testifying to the onlooking universe that the supreme glory of God is not to be found in the material creation filled as it is with the sign manual of His omnipotence, but in the matchless love that gave His Son to die for sinful men and the sovereign grace that has made sons of rebels and kings of slaves. This is the great plus, this is the immense addition, this is the divine fifth part, this is the “much more” of which an Apostle speaks, given by the Son, given in the great Trespass Offering of the cross. O the marvel on marvels of that Cross. A Burnt Offering. A Sin Offering. A Peace Offering. A Trespass Offering. Measureless devotion to the Father. Complete and perfect atonement for man. Reconciliation of a rebel world. Provision for failures by the way. Expiation. Restoration. Addition. And all this is the covenant and eternal purpose of God, finding its initial when He sent the universe upon its course; finding its emphasis and accent when He created this earth that it might become, finally, the arena for the revelation of infinite love and “amazing” grace. Well may we cry out in the words of the Apostle: “O the depths of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory forever. Amen.” (Romans 11:33-36.) And well may we sing: “In The Cross Of Christ I Glory.” And with the Apostle, add: “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” ======================================================================== CHAPTER 43: 02.36. CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE PEOPLE ======================================================================== CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE PEOPLE FOR CONSTRUCTION OF THE TABERNACLE (Exodus 25:1-40) “AND the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering. And this is the offering which ye shall take of them; gold, and silver, and brass, And blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats’ hair, And rams’ skins dyed red, and badgers’ skins, and shittim wood, Oil for the light, spices for anointing oil, and for sweet incense, Onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod, and in the breastplate. And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.” (Exodus 25:1-9.) At the outset it is to be noted the Tabernacle was to be built upon a plan and according to the position ordained of God. There was to be no departure from the plan, even in the smallest detail, whether of pin or cord. It must be built with that minute detail from silver socket to formless badgers’ skins. The Tabernacle is not only a symbol of our Lord Jesus Christ as the dwelling place of God in humanity, it is also a symbol of the Church as the reincarnation of Christ, as His Spiritual Body on earth. The Church is to be built and administered in the world according to the pattern shown in the New Testament, in the Word of God. Everything in respect to those who shall constitute the membership, the special and initial characteristic required of each one, the ordinances and the office bearers and the position and function of the Church in the world. Everything was planned and arranged not only for the first century, but for this century to the last moment the Church should be in an unregenerate world. Everything must be followed out even to the smallest detail as set down in Holy Scripture. If any Church in the world today is not exactly according to the pattern shown in the New Testament, it is not the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ, no matter what name it may bear, nor what traditions it may claim. As there was nothing superfluous in the building of the Tabernacle, nothing upon which the finger could be laid, and of which it might be said, “This is superfluous, it is non-essential; so, it is impossible to say with truth that there is a single thing in the constitution, the ordinances and the a ranged administration of the Church that is –non-essential. “Non-essential”! That is a cheap and dishonoring phrase. No greater insult can be rendered to God than to speak of any part of His plan as non-essential. No Christian who honors his Lord should be guilty of using it. To use it under the inspiration of compromise or the belittling “get together” suggestion, is an evidence of spiritual blindness or open disloyalty to the Word. To depart from the divine plan and the divine instruction, to endeavor to change in any degree to suit the fancy of the so-called “advanced and liberal” ideas of the hour, is to deny the will of God and endeavor to build that which in the Day of Christ will be no better than the” wood, hay and stubble” which the fire is to consume. The Tabernacle was planned for all the way, even to the end of the journey. It was to be the same kind of a Tabernacle at the end as it was at the beginning of the journey. Thus was the Church planned for all the way, for the last century as well as the first. Nothing has been overlooked. No matter what the discoveries of man, the definitions and declarations of science, the appeal of self-elected scholarship, the change in times and seasons, and the demand for new methods and new interpretations, the Church is to move forward on the lines and plan ordained of God. It was planned, not by the mind of man, but by the wisdom and foreknowledge of God. The contributions of the people for the building of the Tabernacle therefore set forth the privilege and obligation of the individual member of the Church to uphold and sustain it in its journey through the spiritual wilderness of the world, from its dusty and winding ways to the golden street of the upper city and the fruited shores of the river of life. The Church in the world is to be sustained by the gifts of its members, not only by exercise of spiritual endowments, but by temporal and liberal gifts. God made it possible for the Children of Israel to give what He required of them. “When they were about to leave Egypt He gave them favor in the eyes of the Egyptians; as it is written: “And they borrowed of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment: And the LORD gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required.” (Exodus 12:36.) Whatever we have as Christians, be it more or be it less, comes from the Lord. He provides. Out of our poverty or out of our wealth we are to bring an offering unto the Lord and give it to Him by giving it to the Church, His Church. We are to give because like the Children of Israel we are a redeemed people. Not like them redeemed by the blood of a mere earthly lamb, but by the blood of Him who is the Lamb of God. The price paid for us has not only redeemed us, but it has transferred us to the ownership of Him who paid the price for us. We do not belong to ourselves. Nothing we have or are is ours. All is His; as it is written: “Ye are not your own, For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit which are God’s.” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20.) What an assumption for a Christian to talk about things as “his.” What a blunder of blunders for a Christian to haggle whether he shall give much or give little to the Lord. All we have belongs to the Lord and He may take it away when He wills. We are simply His stewards, put in charge of His property and values for a little season. It will be a terrific awakening among Christians at the Judgment Seat of Christ to find they will be called upon to give a reckoning of the funds entrusted to them by the Lord and that property they claimed as their own, the real estate they named after their own name, and the use they made of those things. It will be startling to discover that their place in the kingdom and the glory will largely depend upon the way in which they have recognized and used their stewardship. On one occasion the Lord asked the penetrating question: “Will a man rob God?” He asked this question of the Children of Israel. He answered His own question. He said: “Yet, ye have robbed me.” Then they said unto Him: “Wherein have we robbed thee?” And He answers again: “In tithes and offerings.” They robbed Him by withholding these tithes and offerings, tithes and offerings they were under bonds by covenant relation with Him to give. They came before Him empty handed. They were not keeping back their own property. It did not belong to them at all. They were withholding from Him the things that were His. In withholding those things, in taking them away from the Lord their God, they were just as much robbers, just as guilty as if they had stolen the property of a neighbor. They were living on the benefit of stolen goods. Christians who withhold their gifts from the Lord are living on the benefit of stolen goods. The true attitude of the Christian in respect to his substance is to be found, as expressed, in the splendid utterance of David: He said: “For all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee.” (1 Chronicles 29:14.) The Lord not only wants the offering, the gift, He wants it to be given in a definite manner and spirit. He has laid it down as a law. This is the law: “Bring me an offering: of everyone that giveth it—willingly with his heart.” God wants the gift from the heart—He wants it as a heart gift. He wants it as a gift given—willingly. Would you like to take a gift from a person when you felt in your own inmost soul that person did not give it willingly, gave it because he felt he had to give it, rebelled all the time at the necessity of it, begrudged it to you? Would you like to take such a gift, given in such a way? No! I trow not. You might use the gift, but you would be apt to despise the giver. How much more must the living God repudiate in His inmost being a gift that is unwillingly made to Him. He does not want a gift from any Christian who gives it under the whip lash of necessity. A man may give a thousand dollars with a reluctant hand, a resentful heart. God will use it, but take little note of the giver, except to remember and record in the register on high that he was—an unwilling giver, a giver who gave begrudgingly. O what think you will be the feeling of the Christian man or woman in the great day of the glory when it is made manifest to the assembled saints that this Christian was an unwilling and begrudging giver. Let another Christian give an insignificant sum, a gift of apparently little value, yet give it to the extent of his capacity, give it with joy and sincerely wishing he could give more, that gift and the spirit of it makes music in Heaven and fills the heart of God with richer love and deeper consideration for the giver. He will take that gift and magnify it and use it. In the hour of the glory what a crown that Christian will get, not because he gave much, but because he gave it willingly, put his heart into it. Behold the Lord seated yonder in the temple near the great treasury receptacle where die can see the people as they give in their gifts, what they give and how they give. Did the Son of God ever do anything that was a waste of time, or just accidentally or indifferently or out of mere idle curiosity? Nay! He is seated there because He is profoundly interested in this act of giving unto God. Read the simple statement of it: “And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.” (Mark 12:41-44.) That is an enormous piece of literature, the description of that scene; what does it mean? What does He mean? He means the rich who had much gave out of a sense of obligation to their position, socially and religiously. It cost them no effort. They gave out of “their abundance.” And that word literally means, “their overabounding, their overflowing” wealth. She gave because God was the supreme thought in her mind; because the Lord God to her was above all the treasure of earth. She felt the honor of God’s house was above all the requirements of her own. She did not figure to herself how difficult it was to get along in her daily life, how necessary to meet the crowding expenses that never got less no matter how much she pinched, that there were others she had to care for beside herself, and when she was able to meet all this strain and drain, then whatever might be left she would give that to the Lord. No! she did not figure and reason that way. She just thought of the Lord and His honor first, not of her need, but His. What a revelation it is of the wealth of this woman, not wealth in’ earthly substance, but the wealth in her soul. She knew God, that is self-evident. She had had communion with Him in and through the symbols of the temple. She knew He was Jehovah-jireh, He would provide. He had promised to be the God of the widow. She believed His Word. She trusted in Him. She would make Him first. She gave with a willing and not with a grudging heart. Hear what an Apostle has to say about the manner of giving: “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.’ The word “cheerful” in the Greek as everyone knows, is hilarous, and hilarous in English means -hilarious. That is the spirit the Lord wants in our giving as Christians-joyfulness, gladness, delight that we are permitted to give a gift unto Him. THE RESPONSE OF THE PEOPLE Read the response as it is recorded. It ought to be printed in gold and hung up in a tablet in every Christian home and on a pillar in every Christian Church. “And they came, everyone whose heart stirred him up, and everyone whom his spirit made willing, and they brought the Lord’s offering to the work of the tabernacle of the congregation, and for all his service, and for the holy garments. And they came, both men and women, as many as were willing hearted, and they brought bracelets, and earrings, and rings, and tablets, all jewels of gold: and every man that offered offered an offering of gold unto the LORD. And every man, with whom was found blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats’ hair, and red skins of rams, and badgers’ skins, brought them. Everyone that did offer an offering of silver and brass brought the LORD’S offering: and every man, with whom was found shittim wood for any work of the service, brought it. And all the women that were wise-hearted did spin with their hands, and brought that which they had spun, both of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, and of fine linen. And all the women whose heart stirred them up in wisdom spun goats’ hair. And the rulers brought onyx stones, and stones to be set, for the ephod, and for the breastplate; And spice, and oil for the light, and for the anointing oil, and for the sweet incense. The children of Israel brought a willing offering unto the LORD, every man and woman, whose heart made them willing to bring for all manner of work, which the LORD had commanded to be made by the hand of Moses.” (Exodus 35:21-29.) Just think of the gifts: Bracelets. Earrings. Tablets. Jewels of gold. Silver. Brass. Blue, purple and scarlet color. Fine linen. Rams’ skins. Badgers’ skins. Goats’ hair. Wood. Onyx stones. Priceless stones. Spices. Oil. Sweet incense. And now behold the climax of this giving. They brought so willingly, so gladly, so bountifully that the men charged with the responsibility of receiving the gifts came to Moses and said: “The people bring much more than enough for the service of the work, which the Lord commanded to make. And Moses gave commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed throughout the camp, saying, Let neither man nor woman make any more work for the offering of the sanctuary. So the people were restrained from bringing. . For the stuff they had was sufficient for all the work to make it, and too much.” (Exodus 36:4-7.) What a testimony! Just think of it. Not a struggle and push to get a scant enough, but so abundant, so overflowing there was more than enough—there was too much. “Too much.” Just think of it! The Lord not put to shame as a mendicant, turned away with a few pennies and a scowl because He had even dared to ask for that which was His own. Nay! they glorified Him. They filled their hands and poured it upon Him with willing hearts, hearts that had in them no sense of restraint, but only joy to give. But mark it well—the source, the spring and impulse within them. It is as plain as noonday light. They had overflowing hearts. That is the secret. Let each one of us repeat it to himself or herself: The overflowing heart gives the overflowing gift. The Apostle draws our attention to the way in which the churches in Macedonia gave unto the Lord. He says: “In a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.” (2 Corinthians 8:1-2.) When the heart is right with God the hand is quickly filled with gifts for Him. Get the vision of His gift to us and then it will be easy to give to Him. Behold how He gave: “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.” (2 Corinthians 8:9.) His poverty consisted in the substitution of the form of man for the “form of God.” He took this form of man, the humanity He created for Himself, that through it by the death of the cross He might pay off the debt of righteousness against us and in resurrection as the eternal God-man make us rich with His risen, glorified, immortal humanity. And in giving us this He gave us something infinitely more, He gave us—Himself; as it is written: “Who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Behold how God has given to us and then say there should be any hesitation on our part in giving to Him: “He spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all.” And remember! in giving to the Church you are giving to the Father and the Son. You are giving to God— When you give to His Church. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 44: 02.37. ORDER OF THE CAMP ======================================================================== ORDER OF THE CAMP (Numbers 2:1-34, Numbers 3:1-51) THE Camp was arranged about the Tabernacle in the order ordained of God. The Tribe of Levi was separated from the rest of the tribes for the immediate service of the Tabernacle, the setting of it up, the taking of it down and the transportation of it on the march. “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Bring the tribe of Levi near, and present them before Aaron the priest, that they may minister unto him ... to do the service of the tabernacle.” (Numbers 3:6-13.) “Thus shalt thou separate the Levites from among the children of Israel: and the Levites shall be mine.” (Numbers 8:14.) The Tribe of Levi was constituted of three families, the sons of Gershon, the sons of Kohath, the sons of Merari. (Numbers 3:17.) The Gershonites camped on the west. (Numbers 3:23.) The Kohathites on the south. (Numbers 3:29.) The Merarites on the north. (Numbers 3:35.) Moses and Aaron and Aaron’s sons were of the family of Kohath and pitched their tents on the east directly in front of the Tabernacle. (Numbers 3:38.) Moses was as a king in the midst; as it is written: “And he was king in Jeshurun (Israel), when the beads of the people and the tribes of Israel were gathered together.” (Deuteronomy 33:4-5) Aaron and his sons filled the priest’s office. The Gershonites had charge of the coverings of the Tabernacle, hangings for the door of the Holy Place, the curtains, the hangings of the court and the cords. (Numbers 3:25-26.) They were given two waggons and four oxen with which to transport these things when on the journey. (Numbers 7:7.) The sons of Merari had charge of the boards, bars, pillars, sockets and pins and the cords of the court. (Numbers 3:36-37.) To them was apportioned four waggons and eight oxen. (Numbers 7:8.) The Kohathites were entrusted with the ark, the table, the candlestick, the altar of Incense, the Brazen Altar, the vessels of the sanctuary and the vail. (Numbers 3:31.) They had to carry everything upon their shoulders. “But unto the sons of Kohath he gave none (no waggons nor oxen) because the service of the sanctuary belonging unto them was that they should bear upon their shoulders.” (Numbers 7:9.) The rest of the tribes pitched in a definite and strict order: The Tribe of Judah on the east with Issachar and Zebulon. Reuben on the south with Simeon and Gad. Ephraim on the west with Manasseh and Benjamin. Dan on the north with Asher and Naphtali. The men of these camps constituted four armies of three divisions each. They totaled over six hundred thousand soldiers. The order of the camp therefore was three-fold. Outermost of all the soldiers. Next the Levites, the workers. Innermost of all Moses and the priests. There was a place for everyone in that camp; everyone had his allotted place and was expected of the Lord to be in his place. There was no confusion, all was order, and it was order ordained of the Lord. This arrangement had its spiritual significance. The center was the Tabernacle. Without the Tabernacle there would have been no plan, there could have been no order in the camp; there would have been nothing but a constantly changing, shifting, unsettled conglomeration, a disorderly mob. Without Christ, of whom that Tabernacle is, primarily, the symbol, the Church has no definite center, no rallying point, there is no standard, no order, no final authority. If the Church would live and be effective, fulfill the purpose for which it was created, Christ must be the Head and center; all movement and action must be about Him as the Head-Center. The three-fold division was equally suggestive. Warriors, Workers, Worshippers. Warriors—soldiers. The Christian is in a world that is “no friend to grace to help us on to God.” The moment he declares himself for God he finds himself face to face with three challenging, assaulting, insatiable enemies: The World, the Flesh, the Devil. Because of these ceaseless enemies the Christian is called upon to take his place as a soldier, a spiritual warrior. The Lord is his Captain, “The Captain of our salvation.” The Christian is called upon to endure hardness as a good soldier. (2 Timothy 2:3.) He is to put on the armor of a soldier, an armor chosen and forged for him by the Lord Himself: “Take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye mat’ be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” (Ephesians 6:13.) We are exhorted as warriors to war a good warfare. “This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy war a good warfare.” (1 Timothy 1:18.) We are exhorted to fight the” good fight.” “Fight the good fight of faith.” (1 Timothy 6:12.) We are to contend (fight) for the faith: “Contend for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.” (Jude 1:3.) The Apostle sends forth a ringing appeal: “Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.” (1 Corinthians 16:13.) The Apostle describes this Christian warfare in its inspiration and ultimate: He says: “We do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5.) It is a precious privilege to fight this fight of faith against the Devil without, the flesh within and the world that environs us. It is an exhilarating thing to contend for the “once for all faith.” In proportion as the enemy, whether in disguise or in the open, brings his charge against the truth; when he assaults the person of our Lord, His Virgin Birth, His atoning work on the cross, His priestly office in Heaven, His ’kingly glory, and His triumphant return to the earth; in short, the integrity of the Holy Word that declares Him, such assault fills the soul with battle spirit high and lifted up and the desire as a good soldier of Jesus Christ to fling out the banner far and wide. As Paul came to the hour of his departure, the soldier, warrior spirit in him disclosed itself. Exultingly, triumphantly, he says: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.” (2 Timothy 4:7.) Workers. Not only are we called on as Christians to be soldiers, but levites. The levites were the servants of the high priest. To this we have been called: no longer the slaves of the god and ruler of this world, but slaves of Jesus Christ our great High Priest. Hear how Paul declares his name and station: “Paul a servant of Jesus Christ.” (Romans 1:1.) The word “servant” here is actually “bond slave.” One time slaves of Satan were we, but now by the fearful price of the cross ransomed from his service and power and made the bond slaves of Him who died for us. Paul gloried in his position as a slave of the Son of God. Well may we. It is beyond words to describe the privilege of being owned by Him, to serve Him in deed, in word and thought; to serve Him as our great High Priest, entering into all His purposes and desires, joying to make His will our own and counting it the crowning of a day when we have done some little thing in His name and for Him. It is a great thing to be a soldier of Jesus Christ. It is wonderful to be a worker. To be a worker is to take a step nearer to Him. Even so—for, surely, you understand that a servant to serve his master well must come into his presence and stand, waiting and listening for his slightest word. And this is the delight in serving the Christ of God. As you seek to serve Him you find you must draw nearer and nearer, closer and closer to His blessed presence, that you may not lose a word He wishes to speak to you; closer that you may catch the glance of His eye, the light of His countenance, and by that read, even, the suggestion of His will concerning you. Seek to serve Him, and more and more you will have the consciousness of His presence, more and more you will find it easier to hear what He says, to understand, and to do His will. But there is a privilege beyond even that of a worker. It is the position and function of the priestly family. That position and function was entrance into the Holy Place and ministration in the sanctuary. It was—worship. The soldier stood ready on the line of battle. The levite was ready to receive the word of command, as a worker, take his place and carry the burden allotted to him. But the priest entered into the Tabernacle and beheld the symbols of the divine glory; he entered into the Holy of Holies and swung the censer of fragrant incense before the Mercy Seat. It was an act of thanksgiving, praise and adoration –it was worship. As Christians we are spiritual priests—we are a priestly family. It is our privilege by faith, in spirit, to enter within the vail and lift up the sweet incense of thanksgiving, praise and adoration. It is our privilege to worship, to magnify and adore Him who loved us and gave Himself for us and who sits upon the throne in His radiant glory as the Godman. It is our privilege here and now to sing by anticipation the song the Church will sing in Heaven after her translation and just before she appears in glory with Him: “Thou art worthy … for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood . . . and hast made us kings and priests unto our God, and we shall reign on the earth.” True worship is neither in temple made with hands, with blast of trumpet, swell of organ note, nor cadence of choral song, it is the soul ascending in the fragrance of its faith and confidence like incense from the golden altar, glorifying Him as our great God and Saviour, joying and rejoicing in Him, so that He shall be to us as the “chiefest among ten thousands and the One altogether lovely.” The soul filled with delight, with ecstasy at the vision of Him and feeling the answering thrill of His love pouring back into us and holding us till our will and sense are confounded in His will and the all-pervading sense of-Himself. A worship that does not leave us in a state of mere quiescent contemplation, a mere mood of meditation and self-satisfaction, but will send us forth again to be His levites for service, His soldiers and heroes on the firing line till as the Captain of our salvation He shall give His triumphant shout and call us up to the rendezvous in glory. Warriors, workers and priests—that was the order. And let it be repeated, let it be held fast that this order of the encampment was not after man’s devising, but according to the will and word of the Lord. The divine will and the order for the Church in her journey through time has been clearly stated in the Word of God. There is no need for a single mistake in it; no need of any conflict or controversy of interpretation. The one supreme obligation of the Church is to listen to the Word, get a “thus saith the Lord,” and go by that, let the consequences be what they may. There could have been an unhappy controversy between the tribes had they insisted on being judges for themselves as to the order in the camp and the particular division of place and service among them. The distinctions were marked of God. The priesthood was composed of one family. To one family alone was given the responsibility of carrying the Tabernacle and the holy things of the sanctuary. To each tribe was given the position it should occupy in the camp and the position it should and must hold on the march. There was just one single thing they had to do. Take God at His Word and follow His command. They did so—the order of the camp was perfect. They did so—the order of the march was equally perfect. They followed the Word of God to the letter. They did everything as it had been planned and patterned for them in the mount. Their march was as an army with banners. And God was over all, directing all. To the Church of today, speaking through the Apostle, the Holy Spirit in the name of the risen and ascended Lord says: “Let all things be done decently and in order.” (1 Corinthians 14:40.) ======================================================================== CHAPTER 45: 02.38. THE PILLAR OF CLOUD ======================================================================== THE PILLAR OF CLOUD WHEN the Lord led the Children of Israel out of Egypt, He went before them in a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night; as it is written: “And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night: He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.” (Exodus 13:21-22.) When Pharaoh awoke to the fact that the Children of Israel had taken up their line of march out of Egypt, he determined to pursue them and bring them back, He pursued them as far as the Red Sea and there found them encamped. At once the pillar of cloud changed its position. Instead of going before them it went behind them and stood between them and the Egyptians; so that they were unable to come after the Children of Israel; as it is written: “And the angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them: And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these: so that the one came not near the other all the night.” (Exodus 14:19-20.) The LORD divided the waters of the Red Sea and the Children of Israel went over dry shod. When Pharaoh and his hosts endeavored to follow the Lord looked through the pillar and troubled them; as it is written: “And it came to pass, that in the morning watch the LORD looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians.” (Exodus 14:24.) The Egyptians attempted to follow. The Lord commanded Moses to stretch out his hand over the sea. The sea returned upon them, engulfed them, so that in the morning the Israelites saw them dead upon the shore. Thus did the Lord that day save by the right hand of His power. From thence the pillar of cloud led them to Sinai and abode there during the dramatic and tragic hour in which Israel took themselves off the ground of grace and put themselves under the law. The cloud abode there during the absence of Moses in the mount, during the shameful worship of the golden calf, till he executed judgment upon them, obtained the second tables of the law and set up the Tabernacle according to the pattern and instructions given him in the mount. When the Tabernacle was finished and all things in order the cloud covered it; as it is written: “Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle. And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys: But if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the LORD was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys.” (Exodus 40:34-38.) The Pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night was a symbol of the Holy Spirit, by and. through whom the Lord would manifest Himself to, in, on and with the Church in her journey through the world during the present age. Our Lord gave the promise of the Spirit before He ascended. He said: “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not, leave you comfortless: I will come to you.” (John 14:16-18.) “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world (age).” (Matthew 28:20.) “One of the distinctive titles of the Son of God is: “Emmanuel.” And that means: “God with us.” Matthew testifies the Lord will be with us by the Holy Spirit. John corroborates this testimony and emphasizes it by saying He shall be—in us. Pentecost demonstrated the Spirit is on the Church. As the Lord manifested Himself in the cloud by fire, so by fire He manifested Himself at Pentecost; as it is written: “And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as fire.” (Acts 2:3.) Thus the Holy Spirit is to the Church as the fiery cloudy pillar to the Children of Israel; it was the medium of His presence with them and the seal they were His; so, likewise, the Spirit is the Proxy by whom the Lord is in, on and with His Church today. A study of Scripture will show that the persons of the Godhead efface themselves before one another, allowing each to manifest the other. In creation the Father manifests the Son, creating all things by Him and setting Him forth “in the form” and appearing of God. On earth the Son manifested the Father, testified of Him, declared the works He did were not His works, but the Father’s; so testified of Him that He said it was the Father who wrought the works by Him and that in seeing Him they were in reality seeing the Father. In this age the Spirit manifests the Son. He never speaks of Himself. He is here to glorify the Son; as it is written: “When the Spirit of truth is come . . . he shall not speak of himself.” (John 16:13-14.) “He shall take of mine and shew it unto you.” (John 16:15.) “He shall glorify me.” (John 16:13-14.) The Pillar of fire was the light of the Children of Israel during the absence of the sun and while they were deep in nature’s darkness. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the light of the world. During his absence the world is plunged into the depths of spiritual darkness. The very light of nature is spiritual darkness. The age in which we live is called—“the night.” (Romans 13:12.) To walk in the light of nature is to walk in the deepest kind of spiritual darkness, even in the night. The Church or individual Christian who seeks to walk by such light will stumble and fall and there shall be no remedy. Read the Word of God in the light of mere reason (the only light nature can offer) the Church and its ministry will wander from the right way and the Christian will find himself in a darkness that becomes more and more impenetrable till doubt and unbelief like ill-omened birds fly in his face and smite him with their black and evil wings. The Church must have light, Heaven light, spiritual light, light radiated from Him who while He was here was the unfailing light of the world. The Holy Spirit is here to give that radiation. He gives it through the written Word. He gives demonstrations of the truth; as it is written: “And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 2:4.) A “demonstration” includes proof, a revelation of the truth. The Spirit gives the light, the revelation, the conviction of the truth. The Cloud became the Guide of the Children of Israel throughout all the perplexities of the way. It guided them by day and it guided them by night. Concerning the Spirit the Lord said: “When the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and be will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shew it unto you. “All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.” (John 16:13-15.) The Cloud regulated all the movements of the Children of Israel. “And when the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, then after that the children of Israel journeyed; and in the place where the cloud abode, there the children of Israel pitched their tents. At the commandment of the LORD the children of Israel journeyed, and at the commandment of the LORD they pitched: as long as the cloud abode upon the tabernacle they rested in their tents. And when the cloud tarried long upon the tabernacle many days, then the children of Israel kept the charge of the LORD, and journeyed not. And so it was, when the cloud was a few days upon the tabernacle; according to the commandment of the LORD they abode in their tents, and according to the commandment of the LORD they journeyed. And so it was, when the cloud abode from even unto the morning, and that the cloud was taken up in the morning, then they journeyed: whether it was by day or by night that the cloud was taken up, they journeyed. Or whether it were two days, or a month, or a year, that the cloud tarried upon the tabernacle, remaining thereon, the children of Israel abode in their tents, and journeyed not: but when it was taken up, they journeyed. At the commandment of the LORD they rested in the tents, and at the commandment of the LORD they journeyed: they kept the charge of the LORD, at the commandment of the LORD by the hand of Moses.” (Numbers 9:17-23.) What supremacy, authority and power are here represented upon the one side; what obedience and discipline upon the other. There was no opportunity for liberal thought and independence of opinions. The people had nothing to do with the journey, neither when they should march, nor when they should halt. They had no choice as to the particular spot in which they should camp; neither had they any choice as to the circumstances under which they should pitch their tents, nor the conditions thereof, whether the water ran in crystal streams or the desert heaped its sands, they had no choice about it whatever. They had no choice whether they should march at sunrise or break camp at the midnight hour. They absolutely had no choice at all. They were not consulted whether they should tarry in anyone spot for a day, a month or a year. All this was entirely regulated by the Cloud. The people recognized its authority. When it moved they moved. When it halted they halted. There was unity, harmony and precision. The people recognized their dependence on the Cloud. Coincident with the movement of the Cloud was the word or command of Moses, speaking a thus saith the Lord. The Cloud and the Word operated together. The Holy Spirit like the Cloud is here to regulate the movements of the Church. He is here to operate, not through sentiment, mere feeling, or the judgment of man, but by and through the utterance of the written Word, and by the written Word alone. He is here to direct the Church in the selection of her office bearers, in the establishment of the ordinances, in the method and manner of the assemblies and as the energy and urge without which there can be no spiritual efficiency. He is here to be the supreme power in the Church. Continually the voice of God is saying to the Church: “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.” (Zechariah 4:6.) The cloud taught the people to set aside their own initial action and wait on it. What is the true attitude to take in respect to the operation of the Spirit? Wait. This is the word the Lord gave to the Church concerning the Spirit. He said: “Wait.” “Wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.” (Acts 1:4.) Just as the Children of Israel waited for the movement of the Cloud, the Church waited for the movement of the Spirit. O the immense grace of waiting on the Spirit. What loss the Church has suffered, what loss the individual Christian has suffered, by not waiting on the Lord that He might reveal Himself through the Spirit; what loss by not waiting on the Spirit that He might reveal the Lord. In failing to wait on the Spirit, in our impatience we have had recourse to the flesh, then defeat, overthrow and disaster, as—the sure consequence. The Cloud was the evidence of the Lord’s presence with the Children of Israel and separated them from all other peoples. The Lord said to Moses: “My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. And he said unto him, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence. For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? is it not in that thou goest with us? so shall we be separated, I and thy people, from all the people that are upon the faced the earth.” (Exodus 33:14-16.) There you have it in all its fulness of immense truth. The presence of the Lord with His people was not only the seal they were His, but that they were a separated people, separated from all others on the face of the earth. The Lord’s presence is a separating presence. If you have it, it will separate you from those who do not have it. The fact of the separating power of the Cloud was illustrated in Israel in that hour when it became darkness to the Egyptians and separated the people of God from them; as it is written: “And it came between the camp of the Egyptians -and the camp of Israel: so that the one came not near the other all the night.” (Exodus 14:19-20.) Just as definitely and distinctly as that, the Holy Spirit is between those who are genuine Christians and the people of the world. Just as definitely as that, the Holy Spirit rails us off as believers from all other classes of beings in the universe. We are the only beings in whom the Holy Spirit dwells. And He does dwell in us, as it is written: “Your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is—in you.” (1 Corinthians 6:19.) He does not dwell in the natural man. He does not dwell in angels. He dwells in the body only of those who have been redeemed by the blood of the cross and to whom the risen Son of God has communicated His life and nature. He dwells in us as the seal of the blood purchase of the cross. He is in us as the pledge and guarantee of our resurrection or transfiguration into the glorious likeness and immortality of our Lord. His very indwelling makes us a separated class of beings. The separation is made manifest in the effect the things of God have upon those who have the Spirit and those who do not have that indwelling. The operation of the Holy Spirit as the revelator of the divine presence, the illuminator of the written Word, and as the personal illuminator of the believer’s heart and mind and conscience, is as very light in the darkness. The things of God under His ministration become to us the joy of our soul and create in us a hungering and a thirsting after God and His way. To the unbeliever the Holy Spirit is but a name and the things of God when presented to them are but as darkness itself; as it is written: “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned (that is—by the Spirit).” (1 Corinthians 2:14.) The indwelling Spirit and the Word of God separate us from the people of the world. What is light to us is darkness to them. They cannot understand. No! The world’s incomprehension is witness of their separation from us and our complete, essential separation from them. The Cloud never left the Children of Israel in their wilderness journey. Before the resurrection the Holy Spirit came upon men, entered into, used them, but never took up His permanent abode in them. David was moved by the Spirit, used by the Spirit, but the Spirit did not abide in him as continual guest; therefore he could cry out and say as he did: “Take not thy Holy Spirit from me.” (Psalms 51:11.) No child of God, taught of the Lord, can offer that prayer. The Holy Spirit will never leave the Church, the true, the regenerated Church. He will be her guide till the Lord shall come to receive her and present her to Himself. The Spirit will never be taken away from the genuine believer. We may grieve Him. We may resist Him. We may quench Him as a flame of fire in the soul, but He will never be taken out of us; as it is written: “Grieve not the .Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption (redemption of the body).” (Ephesians 4:30.) He is the resurrection and transfiguration power dwelling in the believer’s body; as it is written: “The Spirit of him that raised up Jesus . . . shall also quicken (make alive) your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.” (Romans 8:11.) The spirit will never leave us. Nay! The Spirit and the written Word in their mutual operation shall be unto us as our cloudy fiery pillar till the journey is over—till the day dawn and the shadows flee away. THE END Printed in the United States of America ======================================================================== CHAPTER 46: 02.39. TABERNACLE IMAGES ======================================================================== TABERNACLE IMAGES ======================================================================== CHAPTER 47: 03,07. IT IS AT THE SECOND COMING OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST THAT THE EARTH WILL BE DELIVERED ... ======================================================================== VII It is at the Second Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ that the Earth Will be Delivered from the Bondage of Corruption and Transformed into the Paradise of God WHEN man fell creation fell. It fell because creation in respect to this earth was headed up in him. God placed a ban upon it, a restraint of its fruitfulness. Instead He gave liberty to thorns and briars and poisonous, creeping things. You may plant your garden, you may plant your orchard, set your vines and sow your fields. You may go to sleep and rest and think your work is done, that nothing remains but to awake again and receive the looked-for fruit and harvest. When you do awake you will find the poisonous, creeping things have climbed over your wall and fence, have glided in among the good seed, flung their tentacles of death about them and are slowly, surely strangling the life out of them. If you would have your garden to grow, your orchard to yield its fruit, your vineyard to hang out its purple clusters, your harvests to ripen in the kiss of sun and developing touch of caressing winds, then you must rise early and toil late. For every acre of worthful land you must crown your brow with the sweat of unceasing and exacting toil. The earth is in bondage. It is held in the close, the gripping and relentless bonds of corruption. Everywhere and in all things is the corruption of the dead. The very air you breathe is dust from the mingled bones of the dead. The earth is crammed with the dead of man and beast. The grain that is reaped and the flowers that bloom grow forth from the fatness of the grave and the impulse of corruption, watered by tears distilled from the heartache of the generations old who have sorrowed above that grave and wept and hoped in vain. Put your ear to the bosom of old mother earth and you will hear a moaning and lament like unto women in travail who seek to bring to the birth. I am told the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now; that it is on the tiptoe of expectation with neck and head stretched out waiting for the Coming of the Son of God and all the sons of glory. O yes! creation in all her borders is crying out for the Son of God to come. It is crying out from all its rivers, from the moan of the sea, in the shiver of earthquake and the rush of the lava tide from the red throat of the flaming volcano. It is crying out in the heat of burning deserts, in every pain that is felt, in every tear of anguish that stains the face and speaks the agony of the heart, in every clod that falls with its accent of woe upon the coffin lid, in all the bitterness, the shame and tragedy of a sin-smitten and Devil-hurt world; everything in nature from rock and worm to man is crying out: “Come, Lord Jesus, and build again this broken and ruined earth of thine.” He will hear the cry. When He comes He will take off the ban. He will deliver from corruption. The earth will no longer shiver as an aspen. Fear will no longer walk forth like a tyrant and set the pulses beating or hold them strangling. Briars and thorns and fiend-like weeds and smothering, choking things that have kept the earth in barrenness where Eden-like gardens should have bloomed, and, thank God, all graves, will disappear. The desert shall bloom as the rose, the earth shall be renewed, made beautiful, and all creation loosened from its prison bonds shall sing and echo with unending harmonies in every freely fruiting and growing thing throughout all its delivered and happy borders. For a thousand golden years under a new heavens and beneath a pure sky where the air shall flow round it as a river of crystal from the throne of God the earth will roll onward to the music of its sister spheres keeping time in the great diapason of the universe that owns and celebrates the glory of God; then, at last, it will pass through gates of fire and come forth into that new orbit, as that new earth wherein is no more dividing sea, storm swept and full of the wrecks of ships, of greater wrecks of hopes, and tiled with the white bones of the dead; that new earth where there shall be no more night with its hidden evil and its long and darksome hours in which the sufferer yearns for morning light, no more tears, nor sorrow, nor pain, nor any more that black and ever multiplying horror they call death; that new earth that shall be no longer the footstool, but the exalted and special throne of God—the center of the universe. Into this new and perfect earth the Church shall descend—a company of redeemed, blood-washed, immortal sons of God. The Son of God and God the Son Himself shall descend and dwell there. Then for the first time shall the children of God behold in Him the full lineament of their Father’s face; for, though He be the eternal Son He shall be seen and known as the “everlasting Father,” or “the Father of the everlasting age.” The onlooking worlds as they swing in their chorus of adoration about this radiant and omnipotent center will learn and proclaim the immense truth that this earth was created, not merely as an expression of the wisdom, genius and might of God in His function as a creator, but as the arena of redemption, as the spot whence in all the wide empire of His power might be known and felt the pulse beat of His heart. As the innumerable hosts of heaven sweep around this center of grace and redemption, as they behold beings who once were lost in sin, wrecked and ruined beyond human hope or angelic aid, now immortal, holy, happy sons of God, they will break forth in ever increasing songs of adoration and shall say as they sing till the universe shall repeat it again and again: “Behold, the glory of God is not alone in his majesty and might, in his holiness and omnipotence, but in his love.” They shall take up that marvellous passage in John 3:16 and cry it aloud so that it will ring with accumulating praise to Him who first uttered it: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” And all the host of heaven shall proclaim: “God is love. God is love.” All this consummation is to find its initial at the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And because I want to see this earth freed from the stain of sin, the torture of pain, the accents of sorrow, the terror of tears, the hour of dying, the black and shameful grave, the trench of corruption and the Devil’s ministry of death; because I want to see a worth-while world where no longer the earth shall turn from night to morn and then from morn to disappointing night again, but shall glow forever in the light of an endless morn; because I want to see a world where the purposes of God in love, in benediction and unfailing grace are no longer seemingly contradicted by untoward events and conditions, by problems that with the best apologies for the divine character no human genius can solve or balance, but are written in high and lifted testimony brighter than the stars of any night and stronger shining than any sun of day; because I want to see a world where man shall be the enthronement of God and shall glorify Him as such, and where every atom of earth shall be full of His love and redolent with His praise, and where life shall be only another name for joy and the unending and the ever new unfoldment of it, the actual joy of unreserved, unlimited living; and because this desire in all its full accomplishment can come and the first notes of infinite triumph alone be struck and the song begin by the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ—I preach His Second Coming. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 48: 03,07. IT IS AT THE SECOND COMING OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST THAT THE EARTH WILL BE DELIVERED ... ======================================================================== VII It is at the Second Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ that the Earth Will be Delivered from the Bondage of Corruption and Transformed into the Paradise of God WHEN man fell creation fell. It fell because creation in respect to this earth was headed up in him. God placed a ban upon it, a restraint of its fruitfulness. Instead He gave liberty to thorns and briars and poisonous, creeping things. You may plant your garden, you may plant your orchard, set your vines and sow your fields. You may go to sleep and rest and think your work is done, that nothing remains but to awake again and receive the looked-for fruit and harvest. When you do awake you will find the poisonous, creeping things have climbed over your wall and fence, have glided in among the good seed, flung their tentacles of death about them and are slowly, surely strangling the life out of them. If you would have your garden to grow, your orchard to yield its fruit, your vineyard to hang out its purple clusters, your harvests to ripen in the kiss of sun and developing touch of caressing winds, then you must rise early and toil late. For every acre of worthful land you must crown your brow with the sweat of unceasing and exacting toil. The earth is in bondage. It is held in the close, the gripping and relentless bonds of corruption. Everywhere and in all things is the corruption of the dead. The very air you breathe is dust from the mingled bones of the dead. The earth is crammed with the dead of man and beast. The grain that is reaped and the flowers that bloom grow forth from the fatness of the grave and the impulse of corruption, watered by tears distilled from the heartache of the generations old who have sorrowed above that grave and wept and hoped in vain. Put your ear to the bosom of old mother earth and you will hear a moaning and lament like unto women in travail who seek to bring to the birth. I am told the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now; that it is on the tiptoe of expectation with neck and head stretched out waiting for the Coming of the Son of God and all the sons of glory. O yes! creation in all her borders is crying out for the Son of God to come. It is crying out from all its rivers, from the moan of the sea, in the shiver of earthquake and the rush of the lava tide from the red throat of the flaming volcano. It is crying out in the heat of burning deserts, in every pain that is felt, in every tear of anguish that stains the face and speaks the agony of the heart, in every clod that falls with its accent of woe upon the coffin lid, in all the bitterness, the shame and tragedy of a sin-smitten and Devil-hurt world; everything in nature from rock and worm to man is crying out: “Come, Lord Jesus, and build again this broken and ruined earth of thine.” He will hear the cry. When He comes He will take off the ban. He will deliver from corruption. The earth will no longer shiver as an aspen. Fear will no longer walk forth like a tyrant and set the pulses beating or hold them strangling. Briars and thorns and fiend-like weeds and smothering, choking things that have kept the earth in barrenness where Eden-like gardens should have bloomed, and, thank God, all graves, will disappear. The desert shall bloom as the rose, the earth shall be renewed, made beautiful, and all creation loosened from its prison bonds shall sing and echo with unending harmonies in every freely fruiting and growing thing throughout all its delivered and happy borders. For a thousand golden years under a new heavens and beneath a pure sky where the air shall flow round it as a river of crystal from the throne of God the earth will roll onward to the music of its sister spheres keeping time in the great diapason of the universe that owns and celebrates the glory of God; then, at last, it will pass through gates of fire and come forth into that new orbit, as that new earth wherein is no more dividing sea, storm swept and full of the wrecks of ships, of greater wrecks of hopes, and tiled with the white bones of the dead; that new earth where there shall be no more night with its hidden evil and its long and darksome hours in which the sufferer yearns for morning light, no more tears, nor sorrow, nor pain, nor any more that black and ever multiplying horror they call death; that new earth that shall be no longer the footstool, but the exalted and special throne of God—the center of the universe. Into this new and perfect earth the Church shall descend—a company of redeemed, blood-washed, immortal sons of God. The Son of God and God the Son Himself shall descend and dwell there. Then for the first time shall the children of God behold in Him the full lineament of their Father’s face; for, though He be the eternal Son He shall be seen and known as the “everlasting Father,” or “the Father of the everlasting age.” The onlooking worlds as they swing in their chorus of adoration about this radiant and omnipotent center will learn and proclaim the immense truth that this earth was created, not merely as an expression of the wisdom, genius and might of God in His function as a creator, but as the arena of redemption, as the spot whence in all the wide empire of His power might be known and felt the pulse beat of His heart. As the innumerable hosts of heaven sweep around this center of grace and redemption, as they behold beings who once were lost in sin, wrecked and ruined beyond human hope or angelic aid, now immortal, holy, happy sons of God, they will break forth in ever increasing songs of adoration and shall say as they sing till the universe shall repeat it again and again: “Behold, the glory of God is not alone in his majesty and might, in his holiness and omnipotence, but in his love.” They shall take up that marvellous passage in John 3:16 and cry it aloud so that it will ring with accumulating praise to Him who first uttered it: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” And all the host of heaven shall proclaim: “God is love. God is love.” All this consummation is to find its initial at the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. And because I want to see this earth freed from the stain of sin, the torture of pain, the accents of sorrow, the terror of tears, the hour of dying, the black and shameful grave, the trench of corruption and the Devil’s ministry of death; because I want to see a worth-while world where no longer the earth shall turn from night to morn and then from morn to disappointing night again, but shall glow forever in the light of an endless morn; because I want to see a world where the purposes of God in love, in benediction and unfailing grace are no longer seemingly contradicted by untoward events and conditions, by problems that with the best apologies for the divine character no human genius can solve or balance, but are written in high and lifted testimony brighter than the stars of any night and stronger shining than any sun of day; because I want to see a world where man shall be the enthronement of God and shall glorify Him as such, and where every atom of earth shall be full of His love and redolent with His praise, and where life shall be only another name for joy and the unending and the ever new unfoldment of it, the actual joy of unreserved, unlimited living; and because this desire in all its full accomplishment can come and the first notes of infinite triumph alone be struck and the song begin by the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ—I preach His Second Coming. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 49: 03.0.0. WHY I PREACH THE SECOND COMING ======================================================================== Why I Preach the Second Coming By I. M. HALDEMAN, D. D. Pastor First Baptist Church, New York City New York Chicago Fleming H. Revell Company London and Edinburgh Copyright, 1919, by FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY ======================================================================== CHAPTER 50: 03.0.1. FORWARD ======================================================================== Foreword THE subject of this volume is an address delivered by the Author before the World’s Conference on Christian Fundamentals at Philadelphia, May 30, 1919. The reasons for preaching and teaching the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ are manifold and each one worth while. The Author has contented himself with presenting a few as follows: The Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ is the one event most often recorded in Holy Scripture. It is bound up with every fundamental doctrine, with every sublime promise and every exhortation to high, to holy and practical Christian living. Only at the Second Coming of our Lord will redemption be complete and the blood of the cross be justified. Not till our Lord Jesus Christ comes the Second time will the Church be exalted into her true function of rulership over the world. Only at the Second Coming will the solemn and covenant promises of God to Israel be fulfilled. Only at the Second Coming of the Christ of God will a government of everlasting righteousness and peace be established on the earth. It is at the Second Coming of Christ alone that the earth will be delivered from the bondage of corruption and transformed into the paradise of God. The Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ for His Church is the most imminent event on the horizon of time. I. M. H. New York, 1919. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 51: 03.0.2. CONTENTS ======================================================================== Contents I. The Second Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ is the One Event Most Often Recorded in Holy Scripture II. The Second Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ is Bound Up With Every Fundamental Doctrine, Every Sublime Promise and Every Exhortation to High, to Holy and Practical Christian Living III. Only at the Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ Will Redemption be Complete and the Blood of the Cross be Justified IV. Not Till Our Lord Jesus Christ Comes the Second Time Will the Church be Exalted into Her True Function of Rulership Over the World V. Only at the Second Coming Will the Solemn and Covenant Promises of God to Israel be Fulfilled VI. Only at the Second Coming of the Christ of God Will a Government of Everlasting Righteousness and Peace be Established Upon the Earth VII. It is at the Second Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ that the Earth Will be Delivered from the Bondage of Corruption and Transformed into the Paradise of God VIII. The Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ for His Church is the Most Imminent Event on the Horizon of Time ======================================================================== CHAPTER 52: 03.0.2. CONTENTS ======================================================================== Contents I. The Second Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ is the One Event Most Often Recorded in Holy Scripture II. The Second Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ is Bound Up With Every Fundamental Doctrine, Every Sublime Promise and Every Exhortation to High, to Holy and Practical Christian Living III. Only at the Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ Will Redemption be Complete and the Blood of the Cross be Justified IV. Not Till Our Lord Jesus Christ Comes the Second Time Will the Church be Exalted into Her True Function of Rulership Over the World V. Only at the Second Coming Will the Solemn and Covenant Promises of God to Israel be Fulfilled VI. Only at the Second Coming of the Christ of God Will a Government of Everlasting Righteousness and Peace be Established Upon the Earth VII. It is at the Second Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ that the Earth Will be Delivered from the Bondage of Corruption and Transformed into the Paradise of God VIII. The Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ for His Church is the Most Imminent Event on the Horizon of Time ======================================================================== CHAPTER 53: 03.01. THE SECOND COMING OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST IS THE ONE EVENT MOST OFTEN RECORDED... ======================================================================== I The Second Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ is the One Event Most Often Recorded in Holy Scripture IT is recorded in type, in figure, in symbol, in analogue, in parable, in hyperbole and metaphor, in exalted song, in noblest poetry and in rarest rhetoric. It is set before us in dramatic and dynamic statement, in high prophetic forecast, in simple narrative, close linked logic, expanded doctrine, divine exhortation and far-reaching appeal. The first promise of the Second Coming was made in Eden. It was made in the promise given to the woman that her seed should bruise the serpent’s head. On the cross the serpent bruised the heel of the woman’s seed, but her seed did not bruise the serpent’s head. Never was his head more uplifted and unbruised than now. The promise of the bruising is of God and must be fulfilled. The record of that fulfillment is to be found in the Revelation 20:1-15 where our Lord descends and in the plenitude of His power by the hand of an angel binds Satan for a thousand years beneath His feet and the feet of His saints. As the bruising of the serpent’s head takes place at the Second Coming, and the promise of the bruising is made in Eden, then the first promise of the Coming is made in Eden; and as you see rising above the figure of the fallen first man the figure of the Second man, you hear for the first time the story of the Second Coming of the Second man; and thus the story and the doctrine of the Second Coming begin with the very beginning of the Book. For three hundred years Enoch walked amid the slime, the slush and the uprising tide of human iniquity in a God-hating and God-defying world. Then one day God took him out of all the riot and wrong of it without dying into the heaven of His glory; and the Apostle Paul writing to the Corinthians of the Second Coming affirms there will be a generation who will continue alive till the Lord comes; and thus Enoch is a type of that deathless generation and by so much a prophecy of the Second Coming. For one hundred and twenty years Noah preached righteousness to a world from which the death penalty had been removed, a world surrendered to conscience (and let it be well remembered conscience is not the gift of God nor evidence of grace but mark of fallen man, the shadow of God’s throne before which the “accuse” and “excuse” of the soul witness to human guilt), a generation given over to unrestrained fallen nature; a generation of murder, assassination, violence, war, utter brutality, sickening sensualism, the invasion of fallen and lust-seeking angels, rank spiritism, diabolism and mocking laughter at God and the things of God. Suddenly, without warning, God called Noah into the ark (the building of which had awakened the derision of the revellers in sin and the would-be wise men of the hour) shut the door and bolted him in. At the end of seven ominous days in which the darksome clouds hung low and threatening, the windows of heaven were opened, the fountains of the deep broken up and the flood fell, sweeping away all save Noah and his family in the ark. When the judgment waters had subsided Noah and his family came forth to set up a new and distinct dispensation in the world. Seated yonder on the Mount of Olives in the shadow of the cross, looking forward to His Second Coming and backward for an illustration that should forecast the times and leave no excuse for exegetical and interpretative theological blundering our Lord said as it was in the days of Noah so should it be when the Son of man should come the Second time. Without warning, out of a world of increasing materialism, self-sufficiency, boasting, pride, violence, war and multiplied peril, a world that under the guise of general indifferentism and cultivated cynicism mocks at the things of God and denies we have a written, final and sure revelation from Him, the Lord will snatch away the genuine, regenerated Church (the dead raised, the living changed) and take them to Himself, into the place prepared. For at least seven years spiritual blackness, measureless woe and indescribable anguish will fall upon a Devil-deceived and Devil-ruled world. Then will the Lord come with His previously gathered Church, execute judgment on the ungodly, sweep away all iniquity and set up the new administration of righteousness and truth. Noah is therefore a figure, a prophecy of the closing hours of this age and its climax in the Second Coming of the Lord. One day Lot went into Sodom, took office, tried to reform the evil city, succeeded in vexing his righteous, but unspiritual soul with the filthy conversation of the wicked, got down to the level of the natural man, lost his testimony and seemed to his friends and intimates like a madman or the most excuselessly inconsistent trifler when he attempted to take up once more his damaged testimony. Then there was a night when God’s angels came and snatched him out of the doomed city. The next morning the fire of God fell and Lot “saved so as by fire” looked on at the blaze and the burning of all his works of righteousness as wood hay and stubble, big in bulk but rejected of God. Looking forward to His Second Coming and backward for an illustration the Son of God declared as it was in the days of Lot so should it be when the Son of man should come again. There are good and righteous Christians—righteous enough but wholly unspiritual who are seeking to make spotless town of a world God has judged and doomed, failing to see the cross is not only the judgment of the individual, but equally the judgment of the world; that not only does the cross reveal the end of all flesh but the end in God’s sight of that system of things which men call the world; that on the cross the world is crucified to the Christian and the Christian to the world; and failing to see this, failing to get the mind of God are daily descending to the plane of the natural man, are losing and in many cases deliberately setting aside the testimony once for all delivered to the saints. Without warning, they will be snatched away to meet a descending Lord (if they be real and regenerated Christians) and this alone because their faith be it never so small holds them securely in the bonds of the covenant. After that the Lord will be revealed in flaming fire to execute judgment on the world and all the works of misguided social reformers because these works are built, not upon the righteousness of God, but the righteousness of man. According to the Word of the Lord Himself therefore Lot is a picture and prophecy of the closing hours of the present age with its climax the Coming and Appearing of the Lord. After Abraham had typically offered up his son on Mount Moriah and typically received him from the dead on the third day the son for a number of chapters in the record disappears from view. Then Abraham the father sends his servant Eliezer into a far country to get a bride for this now invisible son. Eliezer meets the intended bride at a well from whence she is drawing water, goes with her into her brother’s house, takes out a pack of precious things sent from the father in the name of the son, displays them to her and invites her to become the bride of the son. She consents. The servant leads her forth. On the way he talks to her of the promised bridegroom. Suddenly she beholds him coming to meet her. He receives her, takes her into his prepared tent and she becomes his wife. On the same mount nearly two thousand years later God the Father offered up His only begotten Son. On the third day He raised Him from the dead. For two thousand years He has disappeared from view. The Father has sent forth the Spirit to obtain a bride for His Son. He meets her at the Gospel well from whence we draw the waters of salvation. He is calling her through individual selection that she may become the corporate bride. He has brought spiritual gifts which He seeks to display in all her assemblies. He is endeavouring to lead her along the highway of time and to speak to her in the heaven speech of the Coming Bridegroom. Suddenly the Lord will come to meet her and take her into the place prepared and keep her for the marriage hour. In this simple story the analogue finds its prophetic climax in the Second Coming of our Lord. Jacob fled from his home, the brother he had outwitted and the father whom he had deceived. As night drew on footsore and weary he cast himself upon the plain with a stone for his pillow. Visions came to him in the night. A ladder of gold reached from earth to heaven. At the top of it was a host of angels and the Lord Himself in glory. The Lord spoke to him and assured him he and his posterity should have the land on which he was lying for an everlasting possession. It was a confirmation of the oath to and the covenant with Abraham and Isaac. As the covenant can find its fulfillment only at the actual Second Coming of our Lord as the God of Jacob, this vision is the prophetic anticipation of that hour and the heaven-proclaimed assurance the Lord is coming a Second time. Joseph was sent by his father to his brethren. They despised and rejected him. They cast him into the pit of death. He was taken out alive. He was carried away into a far country—even into Egypt. There he was exalted to become co-ruler with Pharaoh. In the hour of famine he became the bread giver, the saviour of a hungry world. At the same time he got a Gentile bride. In the hour when tribulation and sorrow came upon his brethren he revealed himself to them the second time and was owned and acknowledged by them. With his wife he came in his chariot of kingly glory and established his father and his brethren in the promised land of Goshen. The application is so simple it applies itself. God the Father sent His Son to His brethren in the flesh. They despised and rejected Him. They put Him in the place of death. He was raised up alive. He has gone into a far country—even into heaven itself. He is there now as one who has been exiled from earth. He has been exalted to the throne of His Father. For two thousand years of spiritual famine and hunger in the world He has been the giver of the bread of life, the saviour of men. During these years of His exile He has been obtaining a bride from among the Gentiles—that is the Church. When the hour of tribulation and anguish shall come upon His brethren in the flesh, even as He Himself has warned, He will appear in His glory, the scales will fall from their eyes as they did from Paul and they will own Him as their Messiah and Lord, the Holy One of Israel. With His Church in associate power and glory He will deliver them and place them forever in the promised land—the land of their fathers. No sooner has Moses with the host of Israel crossed dry shod through the divided waters of the Red Sea than he lifts up his voice and sings, not of the first, but the Second Coming of the Lord. He sings of Him as a man of war, as the head of celestial armies, coming to execute judgment, overthrow iniquity and establish His reign and rule of righteousness. When you open the historic pages of the Bible, along the seemingly driest and coldest paragraphs you may if you will behold the wheels of the King’s chariot flashing by and catch a gleam of His radiant features, now as the man of war in David, and then as the Prince of peace in Solomon. Yonder, under the far-away stars, Job sat at his tent door and as he meditated on the brevity and vanity of human life, its hopes deferred that make the heart sick, the sound of the clods as they fall upon the coffin lid, he asked the question that has quivered down the ages—“If a man die, shall he live again?” He answers his own question. He says he knows he will die. He knows his soul will go into the underworld of the dead. His body will be laid away in the dust. It will become nothing more than a bundle of skin and bones. He knows, also, this bundle of skin and bones is the work of God’s hand. The Lord will have respect to His work. He will remember He wrought it. At a given time He will call to Job and Job will answer; then in anticipation of the supreme moment he cries out exultantly he knows his redeemer liveth; that he shall stand in the latter day upon the earth and covered with his own flesh once more shall see his incarnate God. Thus in those wondrous days of the long ago Job caught the shining of the morning star, heard the trumpet of the first resurrection and caught the vision of the Second Coming of his Lord. David sweeps his fingers across the answering chords of his golden harp and sings of that hour when the Lord shall come in His glory; when the trees of the wood shall clap their hands; when the mountains shall flow down at His presence, the waves of the sea fling their hallelujahs on the resounding shore; and when the earth shall own the Lord is coming, coming not the first time to die, but the Second time as the risen one to live and reign and with none to dispute Him. In the Song of Songs we who believe are by nature before God as black and uncomely as the sun-burned tents of Kedar, but by grace in God’s sight as beautiful as the Tyre-woven curtains of Solomon. The breath of the spring time is in the air. The voice of the turtle dove is to be heard in the land. It is the time of love and for hearts to find their mates. The leaves of the fig tree of Israel are beginning to put forth. The seeds of hope sown in the graves of the Christian dead and watered with tears from the anguish of the living are ready to bud and blossom forth in the full flower of their assured immortality. The voice of the Bridegroom may be heard saying to the Church: “Come away my beloved. Come thou rose of Sharon and thou lily of the valley,” and presently we see the Bridegroom Himself descending and the Church going up out of the wilderness leaning on the arm of her Beloved. So we may learn and quickly if we will, that the Song of Songs which is Solomon’s is the celebration of the nuptial hour when our Lord shall come the Second time to take His affianced Church to Himself and make her the heavenly bride of His unfolding and unfading glory. The prophet Isaiah hears the seraphs sing their“holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory” till the posts of the door are moved at the wonder of the song. He sees the glory of the Coming of the Lord. He tells us the Lord is coming with fire and with His chariots like a whirlwind, to render His anger with fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire. Jeremiah announces the Lord is coming the Second time. When He comes He will make Jerusalem the throne of His glory. Unto it shall be the gathering of the nations. They shall gather unto it in the name of the Lord, and neither shall they walk any more after the imaginations of their evil heart. Ezekiel beholds the Lord seated on a throne high and lifted up. He sees Him coming out of the purple dawning of the east. He restores Jerusalem. He builds the temple till the shining spendour of it shall fill the promised land; and in a voice as the sound of many waters He says this temple shall be the place for the soles of His feet and thus rebukes those who try to keep Him from dwelling bodily in the land as though forsooth He should lose His heavenliness by so doing, forgetting that earth is His rightful home and is to be His eternal dwelling place. Yea and Amen when He comes to His own again He shall dwell in the midst of His ransomed forever. And the nations of the earth as they ascend to the heights of Jerusalem to behold His glory and to worship Him in His holy temple as they catch the first glimpse of the city, its gardens like unto the garden of the Lord, the temple with its shekinah cloud by day and the flaming fire by night that shall make it to be no more night but day, shall cry out, not “Jerusalem,” but “Yaveh Shamma—the Lord is there.” And from henceforth this shall be the name of the city. Daniel has visions in the night. He beholds the Lord as the Son of man, as eternal judge and king of all the earth. He sees Him coming to the Father to receive His title deeds and then descending in clouds of glory to establish the kingdom that shall never pass away. From Hosea to Malachi the Minor Prophets echo with the declaration the Lord is coming and always this coming is the Second. Hosea foresees Israel will forsake the Lord and for many days be as a dead man out of sight and forgotten. But in the latter times when the Lord Himself shall return Israel will awaken and own Him as Lord and king. Joel tells us the armies of the world league shall be gathered against Jerusalem and under their godless, Devil-incarnate head shall defy the Lord of hosts; that the Lord will come, overthrow them with a great slaughter and deliver the holy city from the treading down of the Gentiles forever. In Amos the Lord is coming to restore the kingdom to Israel and set up and establish the throne of David. Obadiah warns us of the day of the Lord, the day that is introduced by the Second Coming of the Lord. Joel teaches us under the madness and folly of Gentile rule ploughshares are to be beaten into swords and pruning hooks into spears and the nations are to give themselves to war and all the horror and desolation of it. But this Scripture is never quoted by those who preach peace where there can be no peace. Always they quote Micah who tells us the swords will be beaten into ploughshares, the spears into pruning hooks and the nations shall learn war no more. The two prophets seem to stand in absolute opposition to each other. They do not. Joel tells us what will happen just before the Lord comes. Micah tells us what will take place after the Lord comes. In Joel the Lord will come, meet the armies of the League in the valley of decision, the valley of Jehoshaphat, and overthrow them; then will the implements of war be beaten into the implements of peace and war be at an end forever. Micah announces the end of war and the beginning of lasting peace will come as the consequence of the Lord’s appearing in glory and not till He does so appear. Nahum proclaims the Second Coming. The Lord’s way shall be in the whirlwind and the storm, the clouds shall be the dust of His feet, the mountains shall quake at Him, the hills shall melt and the very earth burn at His presence. In Habakkuk the Spirit carries human language to its loftiest height till it glows on peaks of thought sublime. The prophet sees the Lord coming the Second time. His brightness is as the shining light. In His hands once pierced for such as we is the hiding of His power. Pestilence and burning coals are His vanguard. He stands and measures the earth. He drives asunder the nations. The everlasting mountains are scattered. The perpetual hills bow before Him and the inhabitants of the onlooking worlds lift up their voices and sing: “His ways are everlasting.” Zephaniah proclaims the Second Coming. The Lord will come and smite the world league in the pitifulness of its gathering and the pigminess of its might. He will pour forth His indignation and fierce anger upon all the exaltation and pride of man. He will devour the earth with the fire of His jealousy, deliver Jerusalem, turn to the people the pure speech of the old Hebraic tongue, bid Zion to sing, Israel to shout and calling Jerusalem her daughter, bid her to rejoice. He will overthrow the false Christ and as the true Messiah will Himself dwell in the midst of Jerusalem forevermore. Haggai declares the Lord will come and will shake all nations so that only the things which are of God may remain. Zechariah tells us in terms so plain, so clear no one need misunderstand nor be in darkness for a moment that the Lord is coming the Second time. He will come with all His saints. His feet shall stand in that day on the Mount of Olives; and that no false teacher nor wilful perverter of the truth about the reality of the Lord’s bodily presence on the earth at that time may have even the shadow of a shadow to rest on, and as a proof that this coming is not spiritual but actual and the testimony of His very feet under the most pronounced topographical conditions, the prophet says the mount on which those blessed and real feet shall descend is not only on the Mount of Olives, but that “Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east.” At the touch of the Lord’s feet this wondrous and sacred Mount of Olives will split in twain. One half of it will roll like a wave northward. The other half will roll to the south. A great valley will be formed. That valley is named in Scripture, but never has been found on any map and cannot be found in Palestine to-day. It is the valley of Jehoshaphat, the valley of decision, the valley of judgment of the nations. And into this valley pell-mell shall rush the Antichrist-led and Devil-deceived armies of the league of ten nations to find their overthrow at the hand of the Lord and the inauguration of that hour when the once despised and crucified Christ shall be the revealed and recognized God of the whole earth; when there shall be one Lord and His name one—even that name which is above every name whether in heaven or on earth—the name of Jesus. Malachi closes the book of the Old Testament. He beholds our Lord Jesus Christ coming the Second time. He sees Him coming as the rising sun filling the heavens and flooding the earth with the benediction of His majesty and might. From Malachi to the New Testament we pass over four hundred years of prophetic silence and then we are in the book of the Gospel according to Matthew. Here we are face to face with the night of nights. The stars like silver squadrons sail close to the waiting earth. The angels fling down their wreath of natal song and the virgin mother cradles upon her white and unsullied breast the Christ of God. We follow Him in the days of His unfolding ministry. Every time He touches the earth His footsteps leave a benediction. Each time He breathes the air He sweetens it. His low and modulated voice starts a note of music whose rhythmic accents have not done sounding and whose heavenly harmony outsings the discords of earth. He looks daylight into blind eyes. He cools the fever pulse to quiet beating. He makes the lame man to leap as a hart. He hushes the storm on Galilee till the ruffled, windswept waters are as calm and peaceful as a babe upon its mother’s breast. With a word He raises the wept-for dead. Everywhere and at all times His miracles are wrought, not merely that He may do good and bring needed blessings as He passes by, but as the credentials and sign warrant of the truthfulness of His claim that He is Son of God, God the Son, the Anointed of the Lord and Israel’s king. But in all His ministry of hand or word never does He speak save incidentally of His first coming. Always and in fullest degree He speaks of His Second Coming. Seated upon the Mount of Olives He affirms, after the cross shall have slain and stained Him and the grave shall have briefly held Him He will come again; but, just before He comes it will be as it was in the days of Noah—a time of materialism, sensualism, the culture of self-consciousness, an hour of boasting, pride, lawlessness and war; and when He is revealed it will be as with the driving judgment of the flood. In Matthew 25:1-46 and the first part of the chapter He declares He is coming as the bridegroom comes—seeking the marriage hour of his bride. In the last part of the chapter and as the climax of His bridegroom coming He will appear as the king of glory and the judge of the living nations. When He stands before His guilty judges and their suborned witnesses and while they mock and deride Him He breaks His hitherto amazing silence not to demonstrate to them the truth of His incarnation nor the proof of His preexistence, but in calm and measured utterance to tell them that after they shall have put Him to death He will come the Second time; and they shall see Him descending from heaven seated upon the cloud of shekinal glory and with the power of God. In Mark He is the householder who goes into a far country, gives to each of His servants a work to do, puts the porter on guard to watch the door of the house and announces that no one in heaven nor on earth knows when He will return. He will return, He will come the Second time. It will be in one of the four watches of the spiritual night. It may be at even, it may be at midnight, it may be at cockcrowing and it may be in the morning. Because it is certain He will come, but uncertain when He will come, each one who claims to be His servant is under bond to watch. The whole household must be in the attitude of watching, of readiness and expectation; and His word of exhortation and warning to His Church is: “What I say unto you, I say unto all—watch.” In Luke He is the nobleman who goes into a far country to get the title deeds of His kingdom and return. When He returns He comes first to His servants, gathers them to Himself and rewards them. After that with them He executes judgment on His enemies and then sets up His kingdom. In the Gospel of John He eats with His disciples the last and memorial supper. He goes out with them, bids them lift their glances to the wide, extended sky where the jewelry of the night as the scattered largess of a king burns in the fire of opal, the purple and violet of amethyst and the white splendour of uncounted diamonds. He assures them these gleaming things are no fiction fire-flies of gaseous worlds in the making, but illuminated dwelling places in His Father’s house. He is going thither. He will ascend into that congeries of inhabited worlds and will prepare a place for them, a glorious palace home befitting their high estate; when all is ready He will come back and receive them in corporate unity to Himself. His words are simple, but the simplicity is the simplicity of light and every accent is as the touch of peace to troubled hearts; for this is what He said: “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” In the book of Acts, in Acts 1:1-26 you have a scene no artist has really ever painted, no writer ever fairly portrayed and no mortal tongue can fittingly describe. Our Lord is going up from the Mount of Olives. He is going up from the midst of His disciples. He is going heavenward. The disciples watch Him as He ascends. He enters a cloud. Do not, I beseech you, imagine for a moment this cloud is a fog bank, a mass of watery mist and vapour; it is the shekinal cloud which once covered the tabernacle in the wilderness and was the vehicle of His presence when Israel in that far time marched on their way to the promised land. It is His chariot of state. In this chariot sent to meet Him He passes between the onlooking worlds ever higher and higher till at last He takes His seat upon the throne of the Highest at the right hand of the invisible majesty. Then, as through the dimness of their tears the disciples watch Him disappear, they hear a voice which says to them: “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” “This same Jesus.” Mark that well! The Jesus who on the Sunday night of His resurrection did meet these disciples in the upper room and said to them as they shrank back into a frozen silence of hope and fear: “Peace be unto you.” “Why are ye troubled?” “And why do thoughts arise in your hearts?” “Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.” Still these disciples were afraid, afraid it could not be true. Then He showed them His hands and His feet that they might see where the nails had gone in, torn through the flesh and left eternal wounds as the chevrons of glory. And still the silence of hope mingled with fear. Then he said: “Have ye here any meat?” And they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. And He took and did eat before them. He had said to them He was flesh and bones, not flesh and blood. He was not flesh and blood because in the sin-offering all the blood must be poured out at the bottom of the altar, and He was Himself the antitypical sin-offering. He had poured out His blood. It had run as a living stream from every vein and artery. Because He was the sin-offering in death, in resurrection He became for the first time a priest—high priest after the order, not of Aaron, but Melchisedec. That very morning as the high priest He had ascended to heaven, within the vail, and sprinkled His redeeming blood (how is not revealed) on the eternal throne, changing it from the throne of judgment to a throne of grace. That night He stood before them He was their high priest, not of earth, but heaven. He breathed upon them, imparted to them the Holy Spirit—the Comforter—linking them to His immortal body. He remained with them, going and coming, during forty days, operating with them officially by and through the Holy Spirit as His unseen executive; for we are told that, “until the day he was taken up he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles;” and then, finally, as this scene in the book of Acts shows us, ascended to His high-priestly function and unceasing service of intercession. He is seated in heaven now, seated there as the same Jesus who met His disciples that first Sunday night, the same Jesus who ascended out of their midst from Olivet. This same Jesus! The same not only in realistic, human body, but the same in character, full of the same measureless compassion and grace as when He sat on the well curb in Samaria and though thirsting as a real man for real water offered to give to the sinful woman who by divine and eternal ordination met him there, the water that should be in her as a well of water springing up into everlasting life. This same Jesus is coming again, not a phantom, not an impalpable spirit, not a ghost Christ, but a Christ who is a real man of real flesh and real bones. This is the key-note of the book of Acts. He who died for men, who has sanctioned the Holy Spirit to operate in His name, speak in His name, reveal to us the things that are His and show us things to come concerning Him, He is coming again, coming not only as very God, the Holy One of Israel, He who has been exalted to be both Lord and Christ, but as this loving, tender, compassionate Jesus, and in a body that may be seen and handled—a body of flesh and bones. In Romans we have the promise the Lord is coming to bruise Satan under His feet and the feet of His saints; and according to the calendar of heaven and the way in which they measure time there this great event must come to pass, as it is written, “shortly.” In First Corinthians the Lord is coming to raise the dead who shall be His “at his coming.” In Second Corinthians He is coming to transfigure the living who believe in Him and thus clothe them with their“house from heaven,” give them the body that shall be the handiwork of God and not man. In Philippians our citizenship is in a country which is in heaven from whence we are to look for a Saviour, even the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change this body of our mortal humiliation that it may be fashioned like unto His immortal and glorious body, a change which He will effectuate by that mighty power according to which He is able to subdue all things unto Himself. In Colossians our life is hid with Christ in God, a double environment of security, and when Christ who is our life shall appear, we shall appear with Him also in glory. In the epistles to the Thessalonians each chapter closes with a testimony to the Second Coming. In 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 the Apostle commends the Thessalonian Church because they had turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for His Son from heaven. From the beginning the Apostle Paul taught the new converts the next possible event might be the Coming of that Lord whom he had declared had been sacrificed for them, was now risen and in heaven. This was the one supreme thing for which they were to be in readiness every day—the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. In 1 Thessalonians 2:1-20 he assures the Thessalonians he will meet them in the presence of the Lord at His Coming; when He comes and they are all gathered before Him, saved through the Gospel Paul has preached to them in the demonstration of the Spirit and power, they will be the guarantee and occasion of the crown he shall receive. In 1 Thessalonians 3:1-13 he exhorts them to increase and abound in love to one another that their hearts may be established unblameable in holiness before the Lord when He shall come the Second time with all His saints. In 1 Thessalonians 4:1-18 he announces as a special revelation from the Lord that the Lord Himself is coming to awaken those whom He has put to sleep in His name. He will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God. The dead in Him shall rise first, then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up with them in clouds to meet the Lord in the air; so shall we ever be with the Lord and with one another. In 1 Thessalonians 5:1-28 the Coming of the Lord for His saints as just noted in the fourth and preceding chapter will bring in the day of the Lord; and we further learn this coming for the saints not only precedes the day of the Lord, but as the introduction to it will be as secret, sudden and unknown to the world as is in general the coming of a thief. In 2 Thessalonians 1:1-12 the Lord is seen coming with all His saints to execute judgment on the ungodly and the unbelieving. In 2 Thessalonians 2:1-17 we learn the word, “Rapture,”so often given as the name and title for the translation of the Church to meet the Lord, while it may be a deducible truth and exegetically, or, rather philologically sustained, is not the Holy Ghost title. The true and Scriptural title is: “Our gathering together unto Him.” In this chapter we learn also when the Church has been gathered to the Lord in heaven the man of sin, the Antichrist will be revealed; then will the Lord appear in glory, overthrow him and his league of nations and set up the heaven-ordained kingdom of righteousness and peace. In 2 Thessalonians 3:1-18 the Apostle prays the Lord may direct their hearts into the love of God and into—patient waiting for Christ. In the First Epistle to the Thessalonians the Lord comes for His Church. In the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians He comeswith His Church. In First Timothy He is coming that He may be shown forth as the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords. In Second Timothy He is coming to judge the quick and the dead and to give reward to all those who love His appearing. Titus gives us the inspired and official title of the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ as, “That Blessed Hope.” In Hebrews we see this age is the antitypical Day of Atonement; just as at the close of the day in Israel the people were waiting for the man who led away the scapegoat into the wilderness to come back without it as evidence their typical redemption was complete and secure for another year; just so our Lord Jesus Christ having appeared in the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, reconcile the world to God and bring in the day of grace and salvation, to them that look for Him shall He come the “second time, without sin, unto salvation”; that is, He will come back not as the sin offering, but as the triumphant Redeemer and as witness that our redemption will then be completed by Him in the immortal bodies He shall give us. James testifies that in the closing hours of this age Capital and Labour will look at each other with wrinkled brows, clenched hands and nervous, impatient expectation. He exhorts the Christian labourer to be patient because, as he says, “the Coming of the Lord draweth nigh,” is so near, so imminent He standeth as a judge—verily “at the door”—and ready to intervene. In the First Epistle of Peter the Lord is coming to justify the faith of His elect. In the Second Epistle He is coming to bring in the new heavens and the new earth. In the First Epistle of John we who believe are sons of God. It is not yet manifested to the world what we really are, nor what we shall be; but we know when He shall appear we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is. When He shines out we shall shine out with Him. We are told every one who has this hope in him, purifieth himself even as he is pure. And thus in this special fashion the Holy Spirit affirms the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ is not only the climacteric of our avouchment as sons of God, but, when held as a hope in the heart, will keep us pure and clean as the Holy Christ Himself. In the Second Epistle of John we are warned false teachers will abound; teachers who shall deny the eternal incarnation of the Son of God. They will deny He is coming the Second time; but, above all, they will deny He could possibly come in the flesh. The Apostle unhesitatingly affirms those who hold and teach this falsehood are nothing less than antichrists; and he warns us as faithful followers of the true Christ not to receive them into our houses, nor bid them Godspeed. Jude is the smallest, that is to say, the shortest, of all the epistles. It is a clasp between the Old and the New Testaments. Jude tells us Enoch the seventh man who lived on the earth testified, not of the first, but the Second Coming, saying: “Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints.” Then we find ourselves in the Revelation. This is the book of the Consummation. The supreme subject is the Second Coming. There are twenty-two chapters. Each of the chapters portrays conditions and circumstances leading up to the great climax—the Second Coming and the immense and measureless consequences—the millennial reign and the eternal state. The book is like the roof of a great cathedral, like the interior of the roof, groined and panelled—each panel a chapter. It is like the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in which, however, may be found figures and forms such as Michel Angelo never drew nor such even as his imperial and suggestive mind could conceive. You will find in these chapters the figures of wild beasts, the dragon, fallen angels, fiends from the pit, that old Serpent called the Devil and Satan. If you will read and listen you will hear the blast of trumpets, the breaking of vials, the sounds of woe, the tramp of marching feet, the clash of battle, fire falling out of the heavens, trees and grass in flame, the waves of the sea turned to blood, fountains and streams become as wormwood and gall, the sun as black as a starless midnight, the moon hanging in the lowering heavens like a clot of blood, earthquakes, the scarlet tongues of outpouring volcanoes, thunderings and lightnings, all manner of wickedness and pervading sin, a world quivering as a ship in the storm, the bending heavens as though unbolted and insecure, all foundations apparently shattered and the universe itself as though rushing forward to its funeral pyre. Heaven opens and the Lord comes forth riding a white horse, followed by armies on white horses, the horses the symbols of His power, each hoof beat as it smites the slant of heaven the sound of swift descending judgment. On the Lord’s head are many crowns. He is wrapped in a garment dyed in blood. His eyes are as a flame of fire. His glances penetrate to the secret intents and purposes of the heart. They get behind every cloak of deception and every pretense. All the spotted nakedness of interior and intensive sin is revealed. Nothing remains in shadow, everything is illuminated to bareness, and the searching light of His looks goes through every fibre of being. He is coming to reign and rule. All the things the chapters record have been driving us to look forward to that; the woe, the anguish and the hell on earth have been pleading and crying out for a master to master and put an end to the cataclysms of catastrophic iniquity; the very nature of things has been testifying that He must come. He is responding to the demand that lies in the nature of things. He is coming to reign and rule as a king. He is not coming with an olive branch in one hand and a cooing dove on His shoulder. Nay! He is coming with a rod of iron. He is coming to trample all opposition beneath His feet, put down all rule and authority, break to pieces and shatter as a potter’s vessel the pride of nations and the self-exaltation of man. He is coming to establish peace, but not by means of compromise, by gentle and persuasive ways, but by war and as a man of war, as the man who is very God and judge omnipotent. The book closes with the thrice repeated announcement from the Lord Himself: “Behold, I am coming quickly.” This is the last utterance of the Lord from heaven. To this the Church replies with its last recorded prayer: “Amen, even so, come, Lord Jesus.” When you close the book you feel the next thing is—the Coming of the Lord. If the value of a statement or doctrine is to be measured by the number of times repeated, then, since from Genesis to Revelation, in every form of human language the Second Coming is proclaimed, is stamped upon almost every page of the Bible, is inwrought with every fibre of truth it finally presents; since in the New Testament alone it is mentioned directly and indirectly more than three hundred times, as there is no other theme in the Bible that approaches it in frequency of repetition, it should seem that this event and doctrine of the Second Coming with all its promises and certified consequences should easily be of supreme and all-compelling importance; and because the Holy Spirit has made it of such importance I am under bonds to preach it. Those who persist in saying it is incidental, secondary and sporadic might well be said to be of that class of theological disputants who never study their Bible; for the fact is should you cut out every reference to the Second Coming, its cognate truths and all the events to which it gives emphasis, you would have but a fragment of the Bible; and the Book upon which faith is founded, from which hope casts its glances heavenward, sees light in the grave and immortality assured, would be but as a broken reed, a garment of beauty torn and shredded, or as a harp whose main chord had been snapped asunder. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 54: 03.01. THE SECOND COMING OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST IS THE ONE EVENT MOST OFTEN RECORDED... ======================================================================== I The Second Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ is the One Event Most Often Recorded in Holy Scripture IT is recorded in type, in figure, in symbol, in analogue, in parable, in hyperbole and metaphor, in exalted song, in noblest poetry and in rarest rhetoric. It is set before us in dramatic and dynamic statement, in high prophetic forecast, in simple narrative, close linked logic, expanded doctrine, divine exhortation and far-reaching appeal. The first promise of the Second Coming was made in Eden. It was made in the promise given to the woman that her seed should bruise the serpent’s head. On the cross the serpent bruised the heel of the woman’s seed, but her seed did not bruise the serpent’s head. Never was his head more uplifted and unbruised than now. The promise of the bruising is of God and must be fulfilled. The record of that fulfillment is to be found in the Revelation 20:1-15 where our Lord descends and in the plenitude of His power by the hand of an angel binds Satan for a thousand years beneath His feet and the feet of His saints. As the bruising of the serpent’s head takes place at the Second Coming, and the promise of the bruising is made in Eden, then the first promise of the Coming is made in Eden; and as you see rising above the figure of the fallen first man the figure of the Second man, you hear for the first time the story of the Second Coming of the Second man; and thus the story and the doctrine of the Second Coming begin with the very beginning of the Book. For three hundred years Enoch walked amid the slime, the slush and the uprising tide of human iniquity in a God-hating and God-defying world. Then one day God took him out of all the riot and wrong of it without dying into the heaven of His glory; and the Apostle Paul writing to the Corinthians of the Second Coming affirms there will be a generation who will continue alive till the Lord comes; and thus Enoch is a type of that deathless generation and by so much a prophecy of the Second Coming. For one hundred and twenty years Noah preached righteousness to a world from which the death penalty had been removed, a world surrendered to conscience (and let it be well remembered conscience is not the gift of God nor evidence of grace but mark of fallen man, the shadow of God’s throne before which the “accuse” and “excuse” of the soul witness to human guilt), a generation given over to unrestrained fallen nature; a generation of murder, assassination, violence, war, utter brutality, sickening sensualism, the invasion of fallen and lust-seeking angels, rank spiritism, diabolism and mocking laughter at God and the things of God. Suddenly, without warning, God called Noah into the ark (the building of which had awakened the derision of the revellers in sin and the would-be wise men of the hour) shut the door and bolted him in. At the end of seven ominous days in which the darksome clouds hung low and threatening, the windows of heaven were opened, the fountains of the deep broken up and the flood fell, sweeping away all save Noah and his family in the ark. When the judgment waters had subsided Noah and his family came forth to set up a new and distinct dispensation in the world. Seated yonder on the Mount of Olives in the shadow of the cross, looking forward to His Second Coming and backward for an illustration that should forecast the times and leave no excuse for exegetical and interpretative theological blundering our Lord said as it was in the days of Noah so should it be when the Son of man should come the Second time. Without warning, out of a world of increasing materialism, self-sufficiency, boasting, pride, violence, war and multiplied peril, a world that under the guise of general indifferentism and cultivated cynicism mocks at the things of God and denies we have a written, final and sure revelation from Him, the Lord will snatch away the genuine, regenerated Church (the dead raised, the living changed) and take them to Himself, into the place prepared. For at least seven years spiritual blackness, measureless woe and indescribable anguish will fall upon a Devil-deceived and Devil-ruled world. Then will the Lord come with His previously gathered Church, execute judgment on the ungodly, sweep away all iniquity and set up the new administration of righteousness and truth. Noah is therefore a figure, a prophecy of the closing hours of this age and its climax in the Second Coming of the Lord. One day Lot went into Sodom, took office, tried to reform the evil city, succeeded in vexing his righteous, but unspiritual soul with the filthy conversation of the wicked, got down to the level of the natural man, lost his testimony and seemed to his friends and intimates like a madman or the most excuselessly inconsistent trifler when he attempted to take up once more his damaged testimony. Then there was a night when God’s angels came and snatched him out of the doomed city. The next morning the fire of God fell and Lot “saved so as by fire” looked on at the blaze and the burning of all his works of righteousness as wood hay and stubble, big in bulk but rejected of God. Looking forward to His Second Coming and backward for an illustration the Son of God declared as it was in the days of Lot so should it be when the Son of man should come again. There are good and righteous Christians—righteous enough but wholly unspiritual who are seeking to make spotless town of a world God has judged and doomed, failing to see the cross is not only the judgment of the individual, but equally the judgment of the world; that not only does the cross reveal the end of all flesh but the end in God’s sight of that system of things which men call the world; that on the cross the world is crucified to the Christian and the Christian to the world; and failing to see this, failing to get the mind of God are daily descending to the plane of the natural man, are losing and in many cases deliberately setting aside the testimony once for all delivered to the saints. Without warning, they will be snatched away to meet a descending Lord (if they be real and regenerated Christians) and this alone because their faith be it never so small holds them securely in the bonds of the covenant. After that the Lord will be revealed in flaming fire to execute judgment on the world and all the works of misguided social reformers because these works are built, not upon the righteousness of God, but the righteousness of man. According to the Word of the Lord Himself therefore Lot is a picture and prophecy of the closing hours of the present age with its climax the Coming and Appearing of the Lord. After Abraham had typically offered up his son on Mount Moriah and typically received him from the dead on the third day the son for a number of chapters in the record disappears from view. Then Abraham the father sends his servant Eliezer into a far country to get a bride for this now invisible son. Eliezer meets the intended bride at a well from whence she is drawing water, goes with her into her brother’s house, takes out a pack of precious things sent from the father in the name of the son, displays them to her and invites her to become the bride of the son. She consents. The servant leads her forth. On the way he talks to her of the promised bridegroom. Suddenly she beholds him coming to meet her. He receives her, takes her into his prepared tent and she becomes his wife. On the same mount nearly two thousand years later God the Father offered up His only begotten Son. On the third day He raised Him from the dead. For two thousand years He has disappeared from view. The Father has sent forth the Spirit to obtain a bride for His Son. He meets her at the Gospel well from whence we draw the waters of salvation. He is calling her through individual selection that she may become the corporate bride. He has brought spiritual gifts which He seeks to display in all her assemblies. He is endeavouring to lead her along the highway of time and to speak to her in the heaven speech of the Coming Bridegroom. Suddenly the Lord will come to meet her and take her into the place prepared and keep her for the marriage hour. In this simple story the analogue finds its prophetic climax in the Second Coming of our Lord. Jacob fled from his home, the brother he had outwitted and the father whom he had deceived. As night drew on footsore and weary he cast himself upon the plain with a stone for his pillow. Visions came to him in the night. A ladder of gold reached from earth to heaven. At the top of it was a host of angels and the Lord Himself in glory. The Lord spoke to him and assured him he and his posterity should have the land on which he was lying for an everlasting possession. It was a confirmation of the oath to and the covenant with Abraham and Isaac. As the covenant can find its fulfillment only at the actual Second Coming of our Lord as the God of Jacob, this vision is the prophetic anticipation of that hour and the heaven-proclaimed assurance the Lord is coming a Second time. Joseph was sent by his father to his brethren. They despised and rejected him. They cast him into the pit of death. He was taken out alive. He was carried away into a far country—even into Egypt. There he was exalted to become co-ruler with Pharaoh. In the hour of famine he became the bread giver, the saviour of a hungry world. At the same time he got a Gentile bride. In the hour when tribulation and sorrow came upon his brethren he revealed himself to them the second time and was owned and acknowledged by them. With his wife he came in his chariot of kingly glory and established his father and his brethren in the promised land of Goshen. The application is so simple it applies itself. God the Father sent His Son to His brethren in the flesh. They despised and rejected Him. They put Him in the place of death. He was raised up alive. He has gone into a far country—even into heaven itself. He is there now as one who has been exiled from earth. He has been exalted to the throne of His Father. For two thousand years of spiritual famine and hunger in the world He has been the giver of the bread of life, the saviour of men. During these years of His exile He has been obtaining a bride from among the Gentiles—that is the Church. When the hour of tribulation and anguish shall come upon His brethren in the flesh, even as He Himself has warned, He will appear in His glory, the scales will fall from their eyes as they did from Paul and they will own Him as their Messiah and Lord, the Holy One of Israel. With His Church in associate power and glory He will deliver them and place them forever in the promised land—the land of their fathers. No sooner has Moses with the host of Israel crossed dry shod through the divided waters of the Red Sea than he lifts up his voice and sings, not of the first, but the Second Coming of the Lord. He sings of Him as a man of war, as the head of celestial armies, coming to execute judgment, overthrow iniquity and establish His reign and rule of righteousness. When you open the historic pages of the Bible, along the seemingly driest and coldest paragraphs you may if you will behold the wheels of the King’s chariot flashing by and catch a gleam of His radiant features, now as the man of war in David, and then as the Prince of peace in Solomon. Yonder, under the far-away stars, Job sat at his tent door and as he meditated on the brevity and vanity of human life, its hopes deferred that make the heart sick, the sound of the clods as they fall upon the coffin lid, he asked the question that has quivered down the ages—“If a man die, shall he live again?” He answers his own question. He says he knows he will die. He knows his soul will go into the underworld of the dead. His body will be laid away in the dust. It will become nothing more than a bundle of skin and bones. He knows, also, this bundle of skin and bones is the work of God’s hand. The Lord will have respect to His work. He will remember He wrought it. At a given time He will call to Job and Job will answer; then in anticipation of the supreme moment he cries out exultantly he knows his redeemer liveth; that he shall stand in the latter day upon the earth and covered with his own flesh once more shall see his incarnate God. Thus in those wondrous days of the long ago Job caught the shining of the morning star, heard the trumpet of the first resurrection and caught the vision of the Second Coming of his Lord. David sweeps his fingers across the answering chords of his golden harp and sings of that hour when the Lord shall come in His glory; when the trees of the wood shall clap their hands; when the mountains shall flow down at His presence, the waves of the sea fling their hallelujahs on the resounding shore; and when the earth shall own the Lord is coming, coming not the first time to die, but the Second time as the risen one to live and reign and with none to dispute Him. In the Song of Songs we who believe are by nature before God as black and uncomely as the sun-burned tents of Kedar, but by grace in God’s sight as beautiful as the Tyre-woven curtains of Solomon. The breath of the spring time is in the air. The voice of the turtle dove is to be heard in the land. It is the time of love and for hearts to find their mates. The leaves of the fig tree of Israel are beginning to put forth. The seeds of hope sown in the graves of the Christian dead and watered with tears from the anguish of the living are ready to bud and blossom forth in the full flower of their assured immortality. The voice of the Bridegroom may be heard saying to the Church: “Come away my beloved. Come thou rose of Sharon and thou lily of the valley,” and presently we see the Bridegroom Himself descending and the Church going up out of the wilderness leaning on the arm of her Beloved. So we may learn and quickly if we will, that the Song of Songs which is Solomon’s is the celebration of the nuptial hour when our Lord shall come the Second time to take His affianced Church to Himself and make her the heavenly bride of His unfolding and unfading glory. The prophet Isaiah hears the seraphs sing their“holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory” till the posts of the door are moved at the wonder of the song. He sees the glory of the Coming of the Lord. He tells us the Lord is coming with fire and with His chariots like a whirlwind, to render His anger with fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire. Jeremiah announces the Lord is coming the Second time. When He comes He will make Jerusalem the throne of His glory. Unto it shall be the gathering of the nations. They shall gather unto it in the name of the Lord, and neither shall they walk any more after the imaginations of their evil heart. Ezekiel beholds the Lord seated on a throne high and lifted up. He sees Him coming out of the purple dawning of the east. He restores Jerusalem. He builds the temple till the shining spendour of it shall fill the promised land; and in a voice as the sound of many waters He says this temple shall be the place for the soles of His feet and thus rebukes those who try to keep Him from dwelling bodily in the land as though forsooth He should lose His heavenliness by so doing, forgetting that earth is His rightful home and is to be His eternal dwelling place. Yea and Amen when He comes to His own again He shall dwell in the midst of His ransomed forever. And the nations of the earth as they ascend to the heights of Jerusalem to behold His glory and to worship Him in His holy temple as they catch the first glimpse of the city, its gardens like unto the garden of the Lord, the temple with its shekinah cloud by day and the flaming fire by night that shall make it to be no more night but day, shall cry out, not “Jerusalem,” but “Yaveh Shamma—the Lord is there.” And from henceforth this shall be the name of the city. Daniel has visions in the night. He beholds the Lord as the Son of man, as eternal judge and king of all the earth. He sees Him coming to the Father to receive His title deeds and then descending in clouds of glory to establish the kingdom that shall never pass away. From Hosea to Malachi the Minor Prophets echo with the declaration the Lord is coming and always this coming is the Second. Hosea foresees Israel will forsake the Lord and for many days be as a dead man out of sight and forgotten. But in the latter times when the Lord Himself shall return Israel will awaken and own Him as Lord and king. Joel tells us the armies of the world league shall be gathered against Jerusalem and under their godless, Devil-incarnate head shall defy the Lord of hosts; that the Lord will come, overthrow them with a great slaughter and deliver the holy city from the treading down of the Gentiles forever. In Amos the Lord is coming to restore the kingdom to Israel and set up and establish the throne of David. Obadiah warns us of the day of the Lord, the day that is introduced by the Second Coming of the Lord. Joel teaches us under the madness and folly of Gentile rule ploughshares are to be beaten into swords and pruning hooks into spears and the nations are to give themselves to war and all the horror and desolation of it. But this Scripture is never quoted by those who preach peace where there can be no peace. Always they quote Micah who tells us the swords will be beaten into ploughshares, the spears into pruning hooks and the nations shall learn war no more. The two prophets seem to stand in absolute opposition to each other. They do not. Joel tells us what will happen just before the Lord comes. Micah tells us what will take place after the Lord comes. In Joel the Lord will come, meet the armies of the League in the valley of decision, the valley of Jehoshaphat, and overthrow them; then will the implements of war be beaten into the implements of peace and war be at an end forever. Micah announces the end of war and the beginning of lasting peace will come as the consequence of the Lord’s appearing in glory and not till He does so appear. Nahum proclaims the Second Coming. The Lord’s way shall be in the whirlwind and the storm, the clouds shall be the dust of His feet, the mountains shall quake at Him, the hills shall melt and the very earth burn at His presence. In Habakkuk the Spirit carries human language to its loftiest height till it glows on peaks of thought sublime. The prophet sees the Lord coming the Second time. His brightness is as the shining light. In His hands once pierced for such as we is the hiding of His power. Pestilence and burning coals are His vanguard. He stands and measures the earth. He drives asunder the nations. The everlasting mountains are scattered. The perpetual hills bow before Him and the inhabitants of the onlooking worlds lift up their voices and sing: “His ways are everlasting.” Zephaniah proclaims the Second Coming. The Lord will come and smite the world league in the pitifulness of its gathering and the pigminess of its might. He will pour forth His indignation and fierce anger upon all the exaltation and pride of man. He will devour the earth with the fire of His jealousy, deliver Jerusalem, turn to the people the pure speech of the old Hebraic tongue, bid Zion to sing, Israel to shout and calling Jerusalem her daughter, bid her to rejoice. He will overthrow the false Christ and as the true Messiah will Himself dwell in the midst of Jerusalem forevermore. Haggai declares the Lord will come and will shake all nations so that only the things which are of God may remain. Zechariah tells us in terms so plain, so clear no one need misunderstand nor be in darkness for a moment that the Lord is coming the Second time. He will come with all His saints. His feet shall stand in that day on the Mount of Olives; and that no false teacher nor wilful perverter of the truth about the reality of the Lord’s bodily presence on the earth at that time may have even the shadow of a shadow to rest on, and as a proof that this coming is not spiritual but actual and the testimony of His very feet under the most pronounced topographical conditions, the prophet says the mount on which those blessed and real feet shall descend is not only on the Mount of Olives, but that “Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east.” At the touch of the Lord’s feet this wondrous and sacred Mount of Olives will split in twain. One half of it will roll like a wave northward. The other half will roll to the south. A great valley will be formed. That valley is named in Scripture, but never has been found on any map and cannot be found in Palestine to-day. It is the valley of Jehoshaphat, the valley of decision, the valley of judgment of the nations. And into this valley pell-mell shall rush the Antichrist-led and Devil-deceived armies of the league of ten nations to find their overthrow at the hand of the Lord and the inauguration of that hour when the once despised and crucified Christ shall be the revealed and recognized God of the whole earth; when there shall be one Lord and His name one—even that name which is above every name whether in heaven or on earth—the name of Jesus. Malachi closes the book of the Old Testament. He beholds our Lord Jesus Christ coming the Second time. He sees Him coming as the rising sun filling the heavens and flooding the earth with the benediction of His majesty and might. From Malachi to the New Testament we pass over four hundred years of prophetic silence and then we are in the book of the Gospel according to Matthew. Here we are face to face with the night of nights. The stars like silver squadrons sail close to the waiting earth. The angels fling down their wreath of natal song and the virgin mother cradles upon her white and unsullied breast the Christ of God. We follow Him in the days of His unfolding ministry. Every time He touches the earth His footsteps leave a benediction. Each time He breathes the air He sweetens it. His low and modulated voice starts a note of music whose rhythmic accents have not done sounding and whose heavenly harmony outsings the discords of earth. He looks daylight into blind eyes. He cools the fever pulse to quiet beating. He makes the lame man to leap as a hart. He hushes the storm on Galilee till the ruffled, windswept waters are as calm and peaceful as a babe upon its mother’s breast. With a word He raises the wept-for dead. Everywhere and at all times His miracles are wrought, not merely that He may do good and bring needed blessings as He passes by, but as the credentials and sign warrant of the truthfulness of His claim that He is Son of God, God the Son, the Anointed of the Lord and Israel’s king. But in all His ministry of hand or word never does He speak save incidentally of His first coming. Always and in fullest degree He speaks of His Second Coming. Seated upon the Mount of Olives He affirms, after the cross shall have slain and stained Him and the grave shall have briefly held Him He will come again; but, just before He comes it will be as it was in the days of Noah—a time of materialism, sensualism, the culture of self-consciousness, an hour of boasting, pride, lawlessness and war; and when He is revealed it will be as with the driving judgment of the flood. In Matthew 25:1-46 and the first part of the chapter He declares He is coming as the bridegroom comes—seeking the marriage hour of his bride. In the last part of the chapter and as the climax of His bridegroom coming He will appear as the king of glory and the judge of the living nations. When He stands before His guilty judges and their suborned witnesses and while they mock and deride Him He breaks His hitherto amazing silence not to demonstrate to them the truth of His incarnation nor the proof of His preexistence, but in calm and measured utterance to tell them that after they shall have put Him to death He will come the Second time; and they shall see Him descending from heaven seated upon the cloud of shekinal glory and with the power of God. In Mark He is the householder who goes into a far country, gives to each of His servants a work to do, puts the porter on guard to watch the door of the house and announces that no one in heaven nor on earth knows when He will return. He will return, He will come the Second time. It will be in one of the four watches of the spiritual night. It may be at even, it may be at midnight, it may be at cockcrowing and it may be in the morning. Because it is certain He will come, but uncertain when He will come, each one who claims to be His servant is under bond to watch. The whole household must be in the attitude of watching, of readiness and expectation; and His word of exhortation and warning to His Church is: “What I say unto you, I say unto all—watch.” In Luke He is the nobleman who goes into a far country to get the title deeds of His kingdom and return. When He returns He comes first to His servants, gathers them to Himself and rewards them. After that with them He executes judgment on His enemies and then sets up His kingdom. In the Gospel of John He eats with His disciples the last and memorial supper. He goes out with them, bids them lift their glances to the wide, extended sky where the jewelry of the night as the scattered largess of a king burns in the fire of opal, the purple and violet of amethyst and the white splendour of uncounted diamonds. He assures them these gleaming things are no fiction fire-flies of gaseous worlds in the making, but illuminated dwelling places in His Father’s house. He is going thither. He will ascend into that congeries of inhabited worlds and will prepare a place for them, a glorious palace home befitting their high estate; when all is ready He will come back and receive them in corporate unity to Himself. His words are simple, but the simplicity is the simplicity of light and every accent is as the touch of peace to troubled hearts; for this is what He said: “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” In the book of Acts, in Acts 1:1-26 you have a scene no artist has really ever painted, no writer ever fairly portrayed and no mortal tongue can fittingly describe. Our Lord is going up from the Mount of Olives. He is going up from the midst of His disciples. He is going heavenward. The disciples watch Him as He ascends. He enters a cloud. Do not, I beseech you, imagine for a moment this cloud is a fog bank, a mass of watery mist and vapour; it is the shekinal cloud which once covered the tabernacle in the wilderness and was the vehicle of His presence when Israel in that far time marched on their way to the promised land. It is His chariot of state. In this chariot sent to meet Him He passes between the onlooking worlds ever higher and higher till at last He takes His seat upon the throne of the Highest at the right hand of the invisible majesty. Then, as through the dimness of their tears the disciples watch Him disappear, they hear a voice which says to them: “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” “This same Jesus.” Mark that well! The Jesus who on the Sunday night of His resurrection did meet these disciples in the upper room and said to them as they shrank back into a frozen silence of hope and fear: “Peace be unto you.” “Why are ye troubled?” “And why do thoughts arise in your hearts?” “Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.” Still these disciples were afraid, afraid it could not be true. Then He showed them His hands and His feet that they might see where the nails had gone in, torn through the flesh and left eternal wounds as the chevrons of glory. And still the silence of hope mingled with fear. Then he said: “Have ye here any meat?” And they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. And He took and did eat before them. He had said to them He was flesh and bones, not flesh and blood. He was not flesh and blood because in the sin-offering all the blood must be poured out at the bottom of the altar, and He was Himself the antitypical sin-offering. He had poured out His blood. It had run as a living stream from every vein and artery. Because He was the sin-offering in death, in resurrection He became for the first time a priest—high priest after the order, not of Aaron, but Melchisedec. That very morning as the high priest He had ascended to heaven, within the vail, and sprinkled His redeeming blood (how is not revealed) on the eternal throne, changing it from the throne of judgment to a throne of grace. That night He stood before them He was their high priest, not of earth, but heaven. He breathed upon them, imparted to them the Holy Spirit—the Comforter—linking them to His immortal body. He remained with them, going and coming, during forty days, operating with them officially by and through the Holy Spirit as His unseen executive; for we are told that, “until the day he was taken up he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles;” and then, finally, as this scene in the book of Acts shows us, ascended to His high-priestly function and unceasing service of intercession. He is seated in heaven now, seated there as the same Jesus who met His disciples that first Sunday night, the same Jesus who ascended out of their midst from Olivet. This same Jesus! The same not only in realistic, human body, but the same in character, full of the same measureless compassion and grace as when He sat on the well curb in Samaria and though thirsting as a real man for real water offered to give to the sinful woman who by divine and eternal ordination met him there, the water that should be in her as a well of water springing up into everlasting life. This same Jesus is coming again, not a phantom, not an impalpable spirit, not a ghost Christ, but a Christ who is a real man of real flesh and real bones. This is the key-note of the book of Acts. He who died for men, who has sanctioned the Holy Spirit to operate in His name, speak in His name, reveal to us the things that are His and show us things to come concerning Him, He is coming again, coming not only as very God, the Holy One of Israel, He who has been exalted to be both Lord and Christ, but as this loving, tender, compassionate Jesus, and in a body that may be seen and handled—a body of flesh and bones. In Romans we have the promise the Lord is coming to bruise Satan under His feet and the feet of His saints; and according to the calendar of heaven and the way in which they measure time there this great event must come to pass, as it is written, “shortly.” In First Corinthians the Lord is coming to raise the dead who shall be His “at his coming.” In Second Corinthians He is coming to transfigure the living who believe in Him and thus clothe them with their“house from heaven,” give them the body that shall be the handiwork of God and not man. In Philippians our citizenship is in a country which is in heaven from whence we are to look for a Saviour, even the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change this body of our mortal humiliation that it may be fashioned like unto His immortal and glorious body, a change which He will effectuate by that mighty power according to which He is able to subdue all things unto Himself. In Colossians our life is hid with Christ in God, a double environment of security, and when Christ who is our life shall appear, we shall appear with Him also in glory. In the epistles to the Thessalonians each chapter closes with a testimony to the Second Coming. In 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10 the Apostle commends the Thessalonian Church because they had turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for His Son from heaven. From the beginning the Apostle Paul taught the new converts the next possible event might be the Coming of that Lord whom he had declared had been sacrificed for them, was now risen and in heaven. This was the one supreme thing for which they were to be in readiness every day—the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. In 1 Thessalonians 2:1-20 he assures the Thessalonians he will meet them in the presence of the Lord at His Coming; when He comes and they are all gathered before Him, saved through the Gospel Paul has preached to them in the demonstration of the Spirit and power, they will be the guarantee and occasion of the crown he shall receive. In 1 Thessalonians 3:1-13 he exhorts them to increase and abound in love to one another that their hearts may be established unblameable in holiness before the Lord when He shall come the Second time with all His saints. In 1 Thessalonians 4:1-18 he announces as a special revelation from the Lord that the Lord Himself is coming to awaken those whom He has put to sleep in His name. He will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God. The dead in Him shall rise first, then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up with them in clouds to meet the Lord in the air; so shall we ever be with the Lord and with one another. In 1 Thessalonians 5:1-28 the Coming of the Lord for His saints as just noted in the fourth and preceding chapter will bring in the day of the Lord; and we further learn this coming for the saints not only precedes the day of the Lord, but as the introduction to it will be as secret, sudden and unknown to the world as is in general the coming of a thief. In 2 Thessalonians 1:1-12 the Lord is seen coming with all His saints to execute judgment on the ungodly and the unbelieving. In 2 Thessalonians 2:1-17 we learn the word, “Rapture,”so often given as the name and title for the translation of the Church to meet the Lord, while it may be a deducible truth and exegetically, or, rather philologically sustained, is not the Holy Ghost title. The true and Scriptural title is: “Our gathering together unto Him.” In this chapter we learn also when the Church has been gathered to the Lord in heaven the man of sin, the Antichrist will be revealed; then will the Lord appear in glory, overthrow him and his league of nations and set up the heaven-ordained kingdom of righteousness and peace. In 2 Thessalonians 3:1-18 the Apostle prays the Lord may direct their hearts into the love of God and into—patient waiting for Christ. In the First Epistle to the Thessalonians the Lord comes for His Church. In the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians He comeswith His Church. In First Timothy He is coming that He may be shown forth as the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords. In Second Timothy He is coming to judge the quick and the dead and to give reward to all those who love His appearing. Titus gives us the inspired and official title of the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ as, “That Blessed Hope.” In Hebrews we see this age is the antitypical Day of Atonement; just as at the close of the day in Israel the people were waiting for the man who led away the scapegoat into the wilderness to come back without it as evidence their typical redemption was complete and secure for another year; just so our Lord Jesus Christ having appeared in the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, reconcile the world to God and bring in the day of grace and salvation, to them that look for Him shall He come the “second time, without sin, unto salvation”; that is, He will come back not as the sin offering, but as the triumphant Redeemer and as witness that our redemption will then be completed by Him in the immortal bodies He shall give us. James testifies that in the closing hours of this age Capital and Labour will look at each other with wrinkled brows, clenched hands and nervous, impatient expectation. He exhorts the Christian labourer to be patient because, as he says, “the Coming of the Lord draweth nigh,” is so near, so imminent He standeth as a judge—verily “at the door”—and ready to intervene. In the First Epistle of Peter the Lord is coming to justify the faith of His elect. In the Second Epistle He is coming to bring in the new heavens and the new earth. In the First Epistle of John we who believe are sons of God. It is not yet manifested to the world what we really are, nor what we shall be; but we know when He shall appear we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is. When He shines out we shall shine out with Him. We are told every one who has this hope in him, purifieth himself even as he is pure. And thus in this special fashion the Holy Spirit affirms the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ is not only the climacteric of our avouchment as sons of God, but, when held as a hope in the heart, will keep us pure and clean as the Holy Christ Himself. In the Second Epistle of John we are warned false teachers will abound; teachers who shall deny the eternal incarnation of the Son of God. They will deny He is coming the Second time; but, above all, they will deny He could possibly come in the flesh. The Apostle unhesitatingly affirms those who hold and teach this falsehood are nothing less than antichrists; and he warns us as faithful followers of the true Christ not to receive them into our houses, nor bid them Godspeed. Jude is the smallest, that is to say, the shortest, of all the epistles. It is a clasp between the Old and the New Testaments. Jude tells us Enoch the seventh man who lived on the earth testified, not of the first, but the Second Coming, saying: “Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints.” Then we find ourselves in the Revelation. This is the book of the Consummation. The supreme subject is the Second Coming. There are twenty-two chapters. Each of the chapters portrays conditions and circumstances leading up to the great climax—the Second Coming and the immense and measureless consequences—the millennial reign and the eternal state. The book is like the roof of a great cathedral, like the interior of the roof, groined and panelled—each panel a chapter. It is like the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in which, however, may be found figures and forms such as Michel Angelo never drew nor such even as his imperial and suggestive mind could conceive. You will find in these chapters the figures of wild beasts, the dragon, fallen angels, fiends from the pit, that old Serpent called the Devil and Satan. If you will read and listen you will hear the blast of trumpets, the breaking of vials, the sounds of woe, the tramp of marching feet, the clash of battle, fire falling out of the heavens, trees and grass in flame, the waves of the sea turned to blood, fountains and streams become as wormwood and gall, the sun as black as a starless midnight, the moon hanging in the lowering heavens like a clot of blood, earthquakes, the scarlet tongues of outpouring volcanoes, thunderings and lightnings, all manner of wickedness and pervading sin, a world quivering as a ship in the storm, the bending heavens as though unbolted and insecure, all foundations apparently shattered and the universe itself as though rushing forward to its funeral pyre. Heaven opens and the Lord comes forth riding a white horse, followed by armies on white horses, the horses the symbols of His power, each hoof beat as it smites the slant of heaven the sound of swift descending judgment. On the Lord’s head are many crowns. He is wrapped in a garment dyed in blood. His eyes are as a flame of fire. His glances penetrate to the secret intents and purposes of the heart. They get behind every cloak of deception and every pretense. All the spotted nakedness of interior and intensive sin is revealed. Nothing remains in shadow, everything is illuminated to bareness, and the searching light of His looks goes through every fibre of being. He is coming to reign and rule. All the things the chapters record have been driving us to look forward to that; the woe, the anguish and the hell on earth have been pleading and crying out for a master to master and put an end to the cataclysms of catastrophic iniquity; the very nature of things has been testifying that He must come. He is responding to the demand that lies in the nature of things. He is coming to reign and rule as a king. He is not coming with an olive branch in one hand and a cooing dove on His shoulder. Nay! He is coming with a rod of iron. He is coming to trample all opposition beneath His feet, put down all rule and authority, break to pieces and shatter as a potter’s vessel the pride of nations and the self-exaltation of man. He is coming to establish peace, but not by means of compromise, by gentle and persuasive ways, but by war and as a man of war, as the man who is very God and judge omnipotent. The book closes with the thrice repeated announcement from the Lord Himself: “Behold, I am coming quickly.” This is the last utterance of the Lord from heaven. To this the Church replies with its last recorded prayer: “Amen, even so, come, Lord Jesus.” When you close the book you feel the next thing is—the Coming of the Lord. If the value of a statement or doctrine is to be measured by the number of times repeated, then, since from Genesis to Revelation, in every form of human language the Second Coming is proclaimed, is stamped upon almost every page of the Bible, is inwrought with every fibre of truth it finally presents; since in the New Testament alone it is mentioned directly and indirectly more than three hundred times, as there is no other theme in the Bible that approaches it in frequency of repetition, it should seem that this event and doctrine of the Second Coming with all its promises and certified consequences should easily be of supreme and all-compelling importance; and because the Holy Spirit has made it of such importance I am under bonds to preach it. Those who persist in saying it is incidental, secondary and sporadic might well be said to be of that class of theological disputants who never study their Bible; for the fact is should you cut out every reference to the Second Coming, its cognate truths and all the events to which it gives emphasis, you would have but a fragment of the Bible; and the Book upon which faith is founded, from which hope casts its glances heavenward, sees light in the grave and immortality assured, would be but as a broken reed, a garment of beauty torn and shredded, or as a harp whose main chord had been snapped asunder. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 55: 03.02. THE SECOND COMING OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST IS BOUND UP WITH EVERY FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINE... ======================================================================== II The Second Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ is Bound up With Every Fundamental Doctrine, Every Sublime Promise and Every Exhortation to High, to Holy and Practical Christian Living IT is bound up with every fundamental doctrine. The resurrection from the dead, the transfiguration of the living, the judgment seat of Christ, the judgment of the living nations, the consequent judgment of the white throne, the rewards of the righteous and the punishment of the wicked. It is bound up with every sublime promise. The recognition of the dead, the overthrow of Satan, the deliverance of creation, the triumph of God and Christ and the eternal felicity of the saints. It is bound up with every exhortation to high, to holy and practical Christian living. We are not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is. On the Lord’s day we are to break bread and drink the fruit of the vine, show forth the Lord’s death and make known to heaven and to earth that the only ground of approach to a holy God is the sacrificial offering and vicarious sufferings of the Son of God and God the Son, and that on the ground of His atoning blood as our sin offering and personal substitute we claim Him as redeemer, saviour and interceding priest. We are to love God and love one another. We are not to judge one another. We are not to cast stumbling blocks in each other’s path. We are to walk worthy of our vocation. We are to let our moderation be known to all men. We are to be patient, long-suffering and forbearing. We are to engage continually in prayer and supplication. We are to live blamelessly before men and holily before God. As pastors we are to shepherd the sheep over whom God has made us to be overseers. We are to feed the flock, not with the philosophies and fictions of men, but with the truth of God. We are to restore the wandering, sustain the weak and comfort the sorrowing. We are to go to the house of mourning and give consolation to those who are Christians and who weep above their Christian dead. As preachers we are to preach the Word. We are to preach in season and out of season, and to exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. We are exhorted to this high, this holy, this exalted and practical Christian living, this reincarnation of Christ in daily experience, this translation of His character, this manifestation of His guiding and ruling presence, not by the fact that we must die and appear before God, but by the fact the Lord Himself is coming, may come at any time, that any moment we may meet Him at His judgment seat. In all the universe of God there is nothing so impressive as the thought that you, that I, that we must give a personal account to God for the manner in which we have used our time, our talent, our opportunity and substance; and when we are told—as we are told in Holy Scripture—that any moment we may be summoned to give an account of our stewardship, and that without dying, just suddenly, without a moment’s warning, translated bodily and with all the sense of the daily life we have been living upon us into the presence of Him whose name we have been professing—impressiveness has reached its ultimate and exhortation the fullest leverage of appeal. And he who says the Coming of Christ considered as a doctrine, as a truth or a motive, is not intensely practical and all-compelling to Christian devotion and service, is either blindly and excuselessly ignorant of the Word of God or brutally and perversely guilty of denying a truth that flashes like lightning from one end of the Bible to the other and illuminates every hortative passage in the Word of God. When thus you are face to face with the indisputable fact that every basic doctrine of the Christian faith, every outshining promise of hope, of comfort, of consolation, of abiding peace, every appeal to the noblest and purest life as a Christian, every demand that the Christian shall unceasingly be the light of heaven in the spiritual darkness of earth is bound up inextricably with the fact of the Second Coming, it carries with it the inevitable corollary that the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ as a certified and imminent event is the very sum and substance of all available motives that can lead to a life of practical service to God and man. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 56: 03.02. THE SECOND COMING OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST IS BOUND UP WITH EVERY FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINE... ======================================================================== II The Second Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ is Bound up With Every Fundamental Doctrine, Every Sublime Promise and Every Exhortation to High, to Holy and Practical Christian Living IT is bound up with every fundamental doctrine. The resurrection from the dead, the transfiguration of the living, the judgment seat of Christ, the judgment of the living nations, the consequent judgment of the white throne, the rewards of the righteous and the punishment of the wicked. It is bound up with every sublime promise. The recognition of the dead, the overthrow of Satan, the deliverance of creation, the triumph of God and Christ and the eternal felicity of the saints. It is bound up with every exhortation to high, to holy and practical Christian living. We are not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is. On the Lord’s day we are to break bread and drink the fruit of the vine, show forth the Lord’s death and make known to heaven and to earth that the only ground of approach to a holy God is the sacrificial offering and vicarious sufferings of the Son of God and God the Son, and that on the ground of His atoning blood as our sin offering and personal substitute we claim Him as redeemer, saviour and interceding priest. We are to love God and love one another. We are not to judge one another. We are not to cast stumbling blocks in each other’s path. We are to walk worthy of our vocation. We are to let our moderation be known to all men. We are to be patient, long-suffering and forbearing. We are to engage continually in prayer and supplication. We are to live blamelessly before men and holily before God. As pastors we are to shepherd the sheep over whom God has made us to be overseers. We are to feed the flock, not with the philosophies and fictions of men, but with the truth of God. We are to restore the wandering, sustain the weak and comfort the sorrowing. We are to go to the house of mourning and give consolation to those who are Christians and who weep above their Christian dead. As preachers we are to preach the Word. We are to preach in season and out of season, and to exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. We are exhorted to this high, this holy, this exalted and practical Christian living, this reincarnation of Christ in daily experience, this translation of His character, this manifestation of His guiding and ruling presence, not by the fact that we must die and appear before God, but by the fact the Lord Himself is coming, may come at any time, that any moment we may meet Him at His judgment seat. In all the universe of God there is nothing so impressive as the thought that you, that I, that we must give a personal account to God for the manner in which we have used our time, our talent, our opportunity and substance; and when we are told—as we are told in Holy Scripture—that any moment we may be summoned to give an account of our stewardship, and that without dying, just suddenly, without a moment’s warning, translated bodily and with all the sense of the daily life we have been living upon us into the presence of Him whose name we have been professing—impressiveness has reached its ultimate and exhortation the fullest leverage of appeal. And he who says the Coming of Christ considered as a doctrine, as a truth or a motive, is not intensely practical and all-compelling to Christian devotion and service, is either blindly and excuselessly ignorant of the Word of God or brutally and perversely guilty of denying a truth that flashes like lightning from one end of the Bible to the other and illuminates every hortative passage in the Word of God. When thus you are face to face with the indisputable fact that every basic doctrine of the Christian faith, every outshining promise of hope, of comfort, of consolation, of abiding peace, every appeal to the noblest and purest life as a Christian, every demand that the Christian shall unceasingly be the light of heaven in the spiritual darkness of earth is bound up inextricably with the fact of the Second Coming, it carries with it the inevitable corollary that the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ as a certified and imminent event is the very sum and substance of all available motives that can lead to a life of practical service to God and man. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 57: 03.03. ONLY AT THE COMING OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST WILL REDEMPTION BE COMPLETE AND THE BLOOD ... ======================================================================== III Only at the Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ Will Redemption be Complete and the Blood of the Cross be Justified OUR Lord Jesus Christ did not come into this world that He might go through the unspeakable horror of the cross; He did not hang on that brutal and torturing instrument of death as the criminal of the universe; He did not receive the down sweep of the essential antagonism of a holy God against the sin He represented; He did not cry the cry of the lost, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?”; He was not flung out like a derelict thing into the black, starless night of God’s inexorable law, measureless wrath and indignation where His humanity unanchored and alone was forsaken both by God and man; He did not hang there in the torment of His body, suffering all the agony the most exquisitely wrought, nerve-centered body of the universe could suffer of physical pain and anguish; God did not make Him to be sin and treat Him as the blackest and most repulsive thing in existence; He did not lay upon Him the weight and demerit of a world’s guilt that He might suffer in His innocence, His purity and innate sinlessness on behalf of the vilest outcast this side of Gehenna, the lake of fire, just that He might keep us from lying, cheating, swearing, getting drunk, giving ourselves up to immorality, licentiousness and sensualism; He did not send Jesus Christ His only begotten and well-beloved Son to die a spectacle to heaven, to earth and hell that He might make us merely decent and right and morally correct in our relations to one another. All that is involved in the fact of redemption just as fragrance is involved and included in the rose, as harmony is expected to be a part of music and rhythm as well as metre a part of verse and song. Cleanness and morality are involved quantities in a Christian. The moment the new life of the risen Christ is wrought in a believer and he is linked up by the Holy Ghost to the glorified body of the Son of God he has in him all the impulse and power of the highest morality, the most exalted purity, the rarest spirituality and the discernment of spiritual things. All that is self-evident—but the Son of God came into this world and went through the amazing tragedy and sacrifice of the cross to do something more than to make us merely moral and good. He came into the world, He died the foreordained death of the cross that He might deliver us from death and the grave. Death is the blackest and most shameful blot on the face of the earth, the grave the most repulsive of scandals, drawing the trench of its corruption and stain round the girdle of the globe. To bring a human being into the world, give him no choice of father or mother, of place, of time and circumstance, endow him with a brain to think, a heart to feel and love and then set him face to face with death, hide from him the hour of his going like a criminal who knows not the hour of his execution; to allow the old to live till they are withered, shrivelled and helpless, a burden to others and a still greater burden to themselves, cursing the fact they must live and yet afraid to die; to take a young man in the splendour of his youth, on the threshold of assured success, snatch him away without warning from the parents devoted to him, the wife who loves him and the children dependent on him; and then leave them both, the decrepit and useless old and the needed young to drop into the tongueless silence of the grave, that silence broken only by the sound of the clods as they fall on the coffin lid or the plash of tears, or the choking sob; to allow the living whose hearts are torn and twisted and smashed by the robbery that death brings upon them to stand there and strangle themselves with the unanswered and unanswerable questions: “Whence,” “What,” and“Whither,” and then say all this is the work of a good, a compassionate, a tender and loving God, and that death is as natural as birth? Nay! Those who say and teach that death is as natural as birth are guilty of pure unintellectualism and are unwarranted deniers of the facts. The birth of a child is like the coming of the dawn. It is like the note of a new and joyous song. It is the revelation of a new world, a world of life, of hope, of promised and larger activities. No one who is sane and true and wise will deliberately seek to hinder birth; but death! ah! everything is against death and by right against it. Every fibre in the body repudiates death. Pain is the protest of life against it and the scout that brings in news of its approach. The brain, the mind, the heart shiver at it, not merely because of the native fear at the unknown, but at the mockery it makes of life, the uselessness of living a time, at the longest, so brief, so full of disappointment and bitterness, a life where plans are never accomplished nor hopes fulfilled, where tears and sorrow outweigh laughter and song. Every remedy taken from materia medica, every operation of the surgeon’s knife that adds even a day to the sufferer’s existence, every hospital, every precaution and invention to prevent accident, all the genius exercised by man to conserve health and strength are a protest against death and a proclamation that it is unnatural, a discord and a wrong. Every human being who has the slightest pulse of sentiment, who is not sunken in the soddenness of moral unconsciousness feels that death is the shadow shutting out the sun of day and hiding the stars of night, the false note that breaks the lilt in any song, the thief who takes the treasure no money can replace, the mocker who bids us readjust our days and live as though those whom we have loved and lost had never been a part of us, so that their going has put more of death in those of us who remain to live than life—even the brute beast feels and knows death is—an enemy. Nor does God Himself leave us in any doubt about it. He says death is an enemy; even as it is written: “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” And since in itself it is an enemy, it is, necessarily, the work of an enemy. It is the work of an enemy who has the power of death. He who has the power of death is—the Devil; even as it is written: “Him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.” The Son of God came into the world that He might destroy the Devil and his work of death. He came to abolish death and bring life and immortality to light. He came to make us something more than—just moral. He came to make us—immortal. There is only one man in the universe who has immortality; and that man is He who is our Lord Jesus Christ, very God and yet true and actual man. There is not an immortal human being on earth to-day. There is no such thing as an immortal soul. But here I bid you halt! Let no one take up this statement and go hence and say I teach the final annihilation of the soul. He who should go forth and say that would be, after what I shall further tell you, a robber of truth and character. On this round earth at this hour there is no man who has spoken more, written more and, under God, done more to rebuke and smite this slavering, slobbering, unintellectual and Devil-inspired deception known as Russellism, Christadelphianism and Seventh Day Adventism than the man who now speaks to you. I affirm here that by the will of God the soul must exist forever whether it be in heaven or in hell; but, I say to you the preacher who seeks to deny and overthrow the doctrine of annihilation by defending the immortality of the soul is beaten before he begins. He has his pains for his labour. He can find no such expression as “immortal soul” in the Bible nor any such doctrine taught there. Above all, he is guilty of excuseless philological blundering. The soul is immaterial. Immortal is applied to that which is material. The words, “immortal,” and“immortality” are never applied in the New Testament to the soul—never! but always and exclusively to the body. To be immortal means to have a deathless, incorruptible body like unto that of the Son of God. This, and this alone—as related to man—is Scriptural immortality. The Son of God came into the world to give this boon of immortality to men. This is the supreme objective of redemption. Till that objective is obtained redemption is not complete and the blood of the cross is not justified. Do you call the redemption of Paul complete so long as his body lies mingled with the dust of the highway by the banks of that yellow Tiber where he was slain? Do you call complete the redemption of those you love and I love so long as the Devil like the strong man armed with the law holds the mortgage on their bodies and keeps them in his dark and worm-filled house—the grave? It is true, blessedly true, thank God, the moment a believer dies he is absent from his home in the body and immediately present at his home with the Lord in the third heaven, in the beautiful country of Paradise, in the Holy City, the place prepared. It is true the dear departed ones are clothed with the white robe of immaculate light woven on the unjarring looms of heaven, a temporary clothing which preserves their form and makes them visible and recognizable to one another; but with it all they are disembodied, and in spite of the comfort and the consolation of it, in spite of the fact that their state is “far better” than this at its best, still they are souls whose vehicle is no longer body, but spirit (wherefore after death they are sometimes spoken of as spirits); nevertheless, the Son of God did not come to make us eternal, even if happy—ghosts. If Christians should continue to die and should remain as white clothed ghosts in heaven forever they would be an incongruous environment and abiding scandal to the immortality of the Son of God Himself. A living, immortal man shining in a glorified human body surrounded by bodiless souls forever! What a contradiction that would be, what a scandal, indeed. It would be the declaration that the Son of God had power to rise from the dead, make His own body immortal, impervious to death, but in respect to those for whom He died and who died trusting in His promise He either did not have the power or did not care to keep His promise. Such a conclusion in either member of the proposition is impossible. It is impossible, for no such postulate as inability or faithlessness can be laid against the Son of God. By His own immortality as the first-fruits of them that slept, as the ordained forerunner and sample of all those whom He has redeemed He is, and in the nature of things, under bonds to give immortality to each, to raise the dead and transfigure the living in His likeness. As the dead can be raised and the living changed only when He is personally present then He must come to this world again to give that immortality of which seated on yonder throne in heaven He is the promise and the pledge. He made this promise by the grave of Lazarus. Standing there with His cheeks wet with tears of sorrow over the one He loved and in profound sympathy with the grief-stricken sisters, groaning in Himself, not merely as one who was under the spell of sorrow and heartache, but full of“indignant protest” (this is the meaning of the word “to groan”) against the havoc of death as the work of that being whom we so familiarly call “Devil,” without stopping to measure his dignity, malignity and power, He said: “I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.” Wondrous, gracious, far reaching and full of measureless comfort is the promise, but nine out of ten who repeat it seem never to have comprehended the full import of it. For this is what He meant. Listen to it as I quote it in its fullness of intent: “I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet—when I come again—shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me—when I come again—shall never die.” Nor is this a fictional fancy of mine, but the direct declaration of the Holy Spirit to the Church speaking through the Apostle Paul; for he says: “Behold, I shew you a mystery: we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then (and not till then—not when we die and go to heaven, but when the dead are raised and the living are changed—then—and not till then) shall be brought to pass the saying that is written (written by the Prophet Isaiah in the twenty-fifth chapter of his prophecy), death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” And mark it well, the context of this Holy Ghost promise is the declaration that the resurrection of the dead, the transfiguration of the living, this changing from mortality to immortality will be the resurrection and the transfiguration of those who are “Christ’s at His coming.” Yes! He will come. He will descend from heaven with a shout of command. He will pass it on to the archangel. The archangel will pass it to the angel who is called the “trump of God.” He will cause a sound, a blast, an utterance of power at which the doors of graves of every sort shall open outward, every secret hiding place of the purchased dead will be revealed and the sacred dust will bloom with life; for, in the body of every regenerated soul there is planted the germ of the new body; and just as the buried seed is linked by the unseen air to the fructifying sun in heaven and as at a given moment we call the germination is quickened and at last comes forth in new form yet the same essential embodiment as when planted; so, the regeneration nucleus of the new body is held by the Holy Spirit (of which the air is the symbol) to the risen, glorified body of the Son of God in heaven; and no matter what may befall the body in which it was buried it will abide to that hour we call the resurrection and transfiguration and at the shout, the voice and action of the trump of God will come forth in the glow of unfolded and eternal beauty as the sheath, the house, the home, the perfect dwelling place, the royal robe of the souls the Lord shall bring with Him; while the living shall flash forth in the same immortality and glory. Yes! the dust of death shall bloom and mortality shall put on immortality at the Coming of the Lord. And I for one want Him to come. I have loved ones waiting within the gates of the upper city for that morning hour. I have one there my heart in these days yearns to see. But a short time ago death with rude and sudden hand snatched from me my only child, the son of my heart; a son grown to splendid young manhood; a son who loved me, reverenced me, believed as I believe, a member of my own Church, baptized by my own hand in early days: a son on whom I hoped to lean in peace if the shadows should deepen round me ere my Lord might come. And in the going of that beloved son of mine the light of day has seemed at times to fail, the stars of heaven have grown so dim and far away I think of them often as tears of distant eyes that pity me. There are moments when I crave him as a hungry man does food and as a thirsty man in desert ways yearns for a draught of limpid waters. I have a hurt here in the heart of me no medicine of earth can cure; but because I know when the Lord comes this son of mine shall rise and I shall meet him and the old glad life renew in larger, richer, fuller measure; and because I know there is only the sound of the trump between me and that longed-for hour; that the door of heaven is always ajar and my Lord may come at any moment and bring us to the hand clasp and the love embrace again, I bear my hurt, I rest in the Lord and preach this blessed hope to other hearts that ache—the Coming of Him who is the resurrection and the life and whose last earthward utterance to His Church is: “Behold, I come quickly.” ======================================================================== CHAPTER 58: 03.03. ONLY AT THE COMING OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST WILL REDEMPTION BE COMPLETE AND THE BLOOD ... ======================================================================== III Only at the Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ Will Redemption be Complete and the Blood of the Cross be Justified OUR Lord Jesus Christ did not come into this world that He might go through the unspeakable horror of the cross; He did not hang on that brutal and torturing instrument of death as the criminal of the universe; He did not receive the down sweep of the essential antagonism of a holy God against the sin He represented; He did not cry the cry of the lost, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?”; He was not flung out like a derelict thing into the black, starless night of God’s inexorable law, measureless wrath and indignation where His humanity unanchored and alone was forsaken both by God and man; He did not hang there in the torment of His body, suffering all the agony the most exquisitely wrought, nerve-centered body of the universe could suffer of physical pain and anguish; God did not make Him to be sin and treat Him as the blackest and most repulsive thing in existence; He did not lay upon Him the weight and demerit of a world’s guilt that He might suffer in His innocence, His purity and innate sinlessness on behalf of the vilest outcast this side of Gehenna, the lake of fire, just that He might keep us from lying, cheating, swearing, getting drunk, giving ourselves up to immorality, licentiousness and sensualism; He did not send Jesus Christ His only begotten and well-beloved Son to die a spectacle to heaven, to earth and hell that He might make us merely decent and right and morally correct in our relations to one another. All that is involved in the fact of redemption just as fragrance is involved and included in the rose, as harmony is expected to be a part of music and rhythm as well as metre a part of verse and song. Cleanness and morality are involved quantities in a Christian. The moment the new life of the risen Christ is wrought in a believer and he is linked up by the Holy Ghost to the glorified body of the Son of God he has in him all the impulse and power of the highest morality, the most exalted purity, the rarest spirituality and the discernment of spiritual things. All that is self-evident—but the Son of God came into this world and went through the amazing tragedy and sacrifice of the cross to do something more than to make us merely moral and good. He came into the world, He died the foreordained death of the cross that He might deliver us from death and the grave. Death is the blackest and most shameful blot on the face of the earth, the grave the most repulsive of scandals, drawing the trench of its corruption and stain round the girdle of the globe. To bring a human being into the world, give him no choice of father or mother, of place, of time and circumstance, endow him with a brain to think, a heart to feel and love and then set him face to face with death, hide from him the hour of his going like a criminal who knows not the hour of his execution; to allow the old to live till they are withered, shrivelled and helpless, a burden to others and a still greater burden to themselves, cursing the fact they must live and yet afraid to die; to take a young man in the splendour of his youth, on the threshold of assured success, snatch him away without warning from the parents devoted to him, the wife who loves him and the children dependent on him; and then leave them both, the decrepit and useless old and the needed young to drop into the tongueless silence of the grave, that silence broken only by the sound of the clods as they fall on the coffin lid or the plash of tears, or the choking sob; to allow the living whose hearts are torn and twisted and smashed by the robbery that death brings upon them to stand there and strangle themselves with the unanswered and unanswerable questions: “Whence,” “What,” and“Whither,” and then say all this is the work of a good, a compassionate, a tender and loving God, and that death is as natural as birth? Nay! Those who say and teach that death is as natural as birth are guilty of pure unintellectualism and are unwarranted deniers of the facts. The birth of a child is like the coming of the dawn. It is like the note of a new and joyous song. It is the revelation of a new world, a world of life, of hope, of promised and larger activities. No one who is sane and true and wise will deliberately seek to hinder birth; but death! ah! everything is against death and by right against it. Every fibre in the body repudiates death. Pain is the protest of life against it and the scout that brings in news of its approach. The brain, the mind, the heart shiver at it, not merely because of the native fear at the unknown, but at the mockery it makes of life, the uselessness of living a time, at the longest, so brief, so full of disappointment and bitterness, a life where plans are never accomplished nor hopes fulfilled, where tears and sorrow outweigh laughter and song. Every remedy taken from materia medica, every operation of the surgeon’s knife that adds even a day to the sufferer’s existence, every hospital, every precaution and invention to prevent accident, all the genius exercised by man to conserve health and strength are a protest against death and a proclamation that it is unnatural, a discord and a wrong. Every human being who has the slightest pulse of sentiment, who is not sunken in the soddenness of moral unconsciousness feels that death is the shadow shutting out the sun of day and hiding the stars of night, the false note that breaks the lilt in any song, the thief who takes the treasure no money can replace, the mocker who bids us readjust our days and live as though those whom we have loved and lost had never been a part of us, so that their going has put more of death in those of us who remain to live than life—even the brute beast feels and knows death is—an enemy. Nor does God Himself leave us in any doubt about it. He says death is an enemy; even as it is written: “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.” And since in itself it is an enemy, it is, necessarily, the work of an enemy. It is the work of an enemy who has the power of death. He who has the power of death is—the Devil; even as it is written: “Him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.” The Son of God came into the world that He might destroy the Devil and his work of death. He came to abolish death and bring life and immortality to light. He came to make us something more than—just moral. He came to make us—immortal. There is only one man in the universe who has immortality; and that man is He who is our Lord Jesus Christ, very God and yet true and actual man. There is not an immortal human being on earth to-day. There is no such thing as an immortal soul. But here I bid you halt! Let no one take up this statement and go hence and say I teach the final annihilation of the soul. He who should go forth and say that would be, after what I shall further tell you, a robber of truth and character. On this round earth at this hour there is no man who has spoken more, written more and, under God, done more to rebuke and smite this slavering, slobbering, unintellectual and Devil-inspired deception known as Russellism, Christadelphianism and Seventh Day Adventism than the man who now speaks to you. I affirm here that by the will of God the soul must exist forever whether it be in heaven or in hell; but, I say to you the preacher who seeks to deny and overthrow the doctrine of annihilation by defending the immortality of the soul is beaten before he begins. He has his pains for his labour. He can find no such expression as “immortal soul” in the Bible nor any such doctrine taught there. Above all, he is guilty of excuseless philological blundering. The soul is immaterial. Immortal is applied to that which is material. The words, “immortal,” and“immortality” are never applied in the New Testament to the soul—never! but always and exclusively to the body. To be immortal means to have a deathless, incorruptible body like unto that of the Son of God. This, and this alone—as related to man—is Scriptural immortality. The Son of God came into the world to give this boon of immortality to men. This is the supreme objective of redemption. Till that objective is obtained redemption is not complete and the blood of the cross is not justified. Do you call the redemption of Paul complete so long as his body lies mingled with the dust of the highway by the banks of that yellow Tiber where he was slain? Do you call complete the redemption of those you love and I love so long as the Devil like the strong man armed with the law holds the mortgage on their bodies and keeps them in his dark and worm-filled house—the grave? It is true, blessedly true, thank God, the moment a believer dies he is absent from his home in the body and immediately present at his home with the Lord in the third heaven, in the beautiful country of Paradise, in the Holy City, the place prepared. It is true the dear departed ones are clothed with the white robe of immaculate light woven on the unjarring looms of heaven, a temporary clothing which preserves their form and makes them visible and recognizable to one another; but with it all they are disembodied, and in spite of the comfort and the consolation of it, in spite of the fact that their state is “far better” than this at its best, still they are souls whose vehicle is no longer body, but spirit (wherefore after death they are sometimes spoken of as spirits); nevertheless, the Son of God did not come to make us eternal, even if happy—ghosts. If Christians should continue to die and should remain as white clothed ghosts in heaven forever they would be an incongruous environment and abiding scandal to the immortality of the Son of God Himself. A living, immortal man shining in a glorified human body surrounded by bodiless souls forever! What a contradiction that would be, what a scandal, indeed. It would be the declaration that the Son of God had power to rise from the dead, make His own body immortal, impervious to death, but in respect to those for whom He died and who died trusting in His promise He either did not have the power or did not care to keep His promise. Such a conclusion in either member of the proposition is impossible. It is impossible, for no such postulate as inability or faithlessness can be laid against the Son of God. By His own immortality as the first-fruits of them that slept, as the ordained forerunner and sample of all those whom He has redeemed He is, and in the nature of things, under bonds to give immortality to each, to raise the dead and transfigure the living in His likeness. As the dead can be raised and the living changed only when He is personally present then He must come to this world again to give that immortality of which seated on yonder throne in heaven He is the promise and the pledge. He made this promise by the grave of Lazarus. Standing there with His cheeks wet with tears of sorrow over the one He loved and in profound sympathy with the grief-stricken sisters, groaning in Himself, not merely as one who was under the spell of sorrow and heartache, but full of“indignant protest” (this is the meaning of the word “to groan”) against the havoc of death as the work of that being whom we so familiarly call “Devil,” without stopping to measure his dignity, malignity and power, He said: “I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.” Wondrous, gracious, far reaching and full of measureless comfort is the promise, but nine out of ten who repeat it seem never to have comprehended the full import of it. For this is what He meant. Listen to it as I quote it in its fullness of intent: “I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet—when I come again—shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me—when I come again—shall never die.” Nor is this a fictional fancy of mine, but the direct declaration of the Holy Spirit to the Church speaking through the Apostle Paul; for he says: “Behold, I shew you a mystery: we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then (and not till then—not when we die and go to heaven, but when the dead are raised and the living are changed—then—and not till then) shall be brought to pass the saying that is written (written by the Prophet Isaiah in the twenty-fifth chapter of his prophecy), death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” And mark it well, the context of this Holy Ghost promise is the declaration that the resurrection of the dead, the transfiguration of the living, this changing from mortality to immortality will be the resurrection and the transfiguration of those who are “Christ’s at His coming.” Yes! He will come. He will descend from heaven with a shout of command. He will pass it on to the archangel. The archangel will pass it to the angel who is called the “trump of God.” He will cause a sound, a blast, an utterance of power at which the doors of graves of every sort shall open outward, every secret hiding place of the purchased dead will be revealed and the sacred dust will bloom with life; for, in the body of every regenerated soul there is planted the germ of the new body; and just as the buried seed is linked by the unseen air to the fructifying sun in heaven and as at a given moment we call the germination is quickened and at last comes forth in new form yet the same essential embodiment as when planted; so, the regeneration nucleus of the new body is held by the Holy Spirit (of which the air is the symbol) to the risen, glorified body of the Son of God in heaven; and no matter what may befall the body in which it was buried it will abide to that hour we call the resurrection and transfiguration and at the shout, the voice and action of the trump of God will come forth in the glow of unfolded and eternal beauty as the sheath, the house, the home, the perfect dwelling place, the royal robe of the souls the Lord shall bring with Him; while the living shall flash forth in the same immortality and glory. Yes! the dust of death shall bloom and mortality shall put on immortality at the Coming of the Lord. And I for one want Him to come. I have loved ones waiting within the gates of the upper city for that morning hour. I have one there my heart in these days yearns to see. But a short time ago death with rude and sudden hand snatched from me my only child, the son of my heart; a son grown to splendid young manhood; a son who loved me, reverenced me, believed as I believe, a member of my own Church, baptized by my own hand in early days: a son on whom I hoped to lean in peace if the shadows should deepen round me ere my Lord might come. And in the going of that beloved son of mine the light of day has seemed at times to fail, the stars of heaven have grown so dim and far away I think of them often as tears of distant eyes that pity me. There are moments when I crave him as a hungry man does food and as a thirsty man in desert ways yearns for a draught of limpid waters. I have a hurt here in the heart of me no medicine of earth can cure; but because I know when the Lord comes this son of mine shall rise and I shall meet him and the old glad life renew in larger, richer, fuller measure; and because I know there is only the sound of the trump between me and that longed-for hour; that the door of heaven is always ajar and my Lord may come at any moment and bring us to the hand clasp and the love embrace again, I bear my hurt, I rest in the Lord and preach this blessed hope to other hearts that ache—the Coming of Him who is the resurrection and the life and whose last earthward utterance to His Church is: “Behold, I come quickly.” ======================================================================== CHAPTER 59: 03.04. NOT TILL OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST COMES THE SECOND TIME WILL THE CHURCH BE EXALTED INTO ... ======================================================================== IV Not Till Our Lord Jesus Christ Comes the Second Time Will the Church be Exalted into Her True Function of Rulership Over the World THE Church was not sent into the world to convert or Christianize it. It was sent into the world to preach the Gospel to every creature. It was not to condone the world but to condemn it. With its twin doctrines of Incarnation and Regeneration it was to ring the knell of evolution and deny the hope of any saving energy in the flesh. It was not to flatter, to paint, to gild nor endeavour in any wise to reform or organize the world. It was to deal with the world, with the system called the world, as a ship pounding to pieces, and pounding helplessly, upon the rocks of fallen human nature, the dethronement of God in the soul and the enthronement and exaltation of self-interest in the soul. The Church in its ministry and widely commissioned effort was to plunge, as a well-equipped and perfectly manned life-boat may do, into the sea and surf of natural and Satanic things and get men out of an old system under the doom and judgment of God into Christ as the head of a new system under grace and the coming glory of God. The Church was not to build up a kingdom during the absence of the Lord. On the contrary, she was to recognize herself as the affianced bride of a rejected king and coming bridegroom. She was to walk in separation from the world, refusing the seductive enticements of her would-be lovers and with an upward and heavenly look serve while she waited for a returning Lord. The Lord did not come. The Church grew weary of her vigil. She exchanged the heavenly for the earthly look. She met the Devil and felt the magic of his bewitching glances. He had led her Lord to the mount of temptation. He had shown Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. He offered them to Him on condition that He would turn His feet out of the pathway that led to the sacrificial cross. He offered them on condition that He should refuse to go to the cross and there in the agony of His soul and body and on the loom of His vicarious sufferings weave the seamless robe of divine righteousness for sinful men. The Lord refused. The Devil turned and slew Him. He now led the willing Church to the same mountain height of temptation. He tempted her with the same temptation he had offered her Lord: The rulership of the world. If she would turn aside from a heaven-ordained bridegroom and a king whose face she could not see, she might win the world as her kingdom and rule it in spite of the cross. The offer of world rulership sounded pleasant in her ears. She yielded. She fell into the arms of the world. The world became her paramour. She became the world’s mistress. Out of that ungodly and sensual alliance was born the illegitimate child, that woful ecclesiastical offspring, we call the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church became the Holy Roman Empire. The Empire was the Church. For long and dismal ages the Roman Church exhibited to perfection the evil, the folly and fatality of that false and deceptive proposition that the Church is the kingdom of Christ on earth. Then came the Reformation. It so smote the Catholic Church that men imagined the tiara to be broken, crushed and scattered to the winds forever. They were mistaken. It came from underneath that blow almost as if it had risen from the dead. To-day it is more populous than ever, having a membership of at least two hundred millions. It has a more intensely emphasized solidarity. It is filled with enthusiasm, with ever-increasing arrogance and persistent aggression. It is the religious incubus of the hour, the spiritual paralysis of nations and their most dangerous political menace. With brazen effrontery and calculating boldness it has its clutch upon the throat of this Republic, controls its government from the Presidential office down through army and navy, has open mass in the shipyards of the latter, in camp and barracks its priests are masters and its wily knights of Columbus have obtained governmental favours and consideration the Young Men’s Christian Association would not dare to claim. It rules your cities, holds the balance of political power and can, when it will, elect a President, and will promptly do so when the candidate for that high office shall be willing, as already it has been done by the present occupant of that office, to visit the Vatican or officially recognize the civil as well as religious authority of the Pope or receive the Apostolic delegate of the Papal See. The clutch of Romanism with its strangle hold is on the throat of what remains of Protestantism. Protestantism is the after birth of the Reformation. Protestantism repudiated all the temporalities of Rome but held on to the proposition that the Church is the kingdom of Christ on earth. Protestantism is to-day broken up into multiplying fragments. If there be any unity remaining in it it is the unity that comes from the compromising denial of the convictions that led to the original break into fragments; a unity that hopes to maintain itself by classifying many of its former convictions as“non-essentials” and thus constitutes a combination that must become more and more colourless and inefficient in respect to doctrine. Some of its theological institutions are nothing better than clearing houses of infidelity and the curricula made up of Jericho theology. It has universities in which many of the professors have been graduated in Germany, having passed through the poison gas factory of the Berlin university, and under the camouflage department of “sacred literature” are sending out the mentally and spiritually asphyxiating poison of German rationalism, inoculating every fresh lot of newly made ministers and would-be missionaries with rank unbelief and Bible repudiation, distributing the poison into the back counties as well as municipal centers until there are scores of men who once stood for a whole Gospel and a certified Word of God who now stand first on one foot then on the other debating with themselves whether this Scripture that was once considered holy and sufficient is after all a revelation from God or an invention of man. A large number of men who are at the front in the teaching, the management, the organization and control of the churches of the different denominations repudiate practically every fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith. They deny the Virgin birth. The denial of the Virgin birth puts a stain upon the mother of Jesus as of a woman who has broken wedlock and sends her son forth as a bastard, an illegitimate who had no legal right to come into the world; and then illogically, if not hypocritically, those who deny it bid us take this son and make Him the exemplar of righteousness, forgetting or ignoring the self-evident fact that if, indeed, He had but a human and natural father then was He bred in sin and unfit to be set up as the supreme standard of righteousness and holiness among men. There are those who deny the sacrificial character of the death of the cross. They repudiate atonement by the shedding of blood. When we tell them it is written without shedding of blood there is no remission and it is the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, that alone cleanseth from all sin they fling up their hands in protest, tell us we are to be numbered among the figures of the past and that the theology we seek to maintain is the theology of the butcher shop, the barbarous doctrine of the shambles and the shadow of old-time tribal gods whose vengefulness and wrath could be appeased only by the murder of a victim. They repudiate the doctrine of the bodily resurrection of the Lord. His body has long ago mingled with the dust of Palestine and been blown afar by careless winds. If He rose at all it was as the principle of righteousness and truth, whatever such a resurrection may mean. They will no longer tolerate the insistent need of regeneration. It has been said that “if a man is well born the first time he does not need to be born the second time.” In the nature of the case such teaching rejects our Lord’s bodily ascension to heaven and His session as a glorified man who is very God at the right hand of the Father. Above all, and as a further consequent of such an attitude, teachers of this class repudiate with an almost hysterical outcry, not only the thought that the Lord will come a second time to this world, but that those who love Him and yearn to see Him will ever behold Him coming in visible glory so that they may stand face to face with Him and get the very touch of His hands upon them in the vital benediction for which they are longing. These advanced teachers repudiate the Bible as the inspired, infallible, inerrant Word of God, The Pentateuch, the writings of Moses, is a bundle of folk lore, Moses himself a fiction no more substantial than Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The historic books of the Old Testament are unreliable and therefore not history at all. The book of the prophet Isaiah instead of one author has many, each in turn contradicting the other. The book of Ezekiel from its incomprehensible wheels as they flash by the banks of the river Chebar to the impossible temple and its animal offerings with the ever-deepening river flowing out of it, is as mystic as the amazing cherubim which the prophet seeks, but apparently fails, to describe. The prophecies of Daniel were written long after the events they pretend to foretell. From Genesis to Malachi the Old Testament is in reality the mixed history of a tribal people with a national god whose attributes and demands are no more authentic and authoritative than those of the gods of Greece and Rome. The New Testament while a degree of advance on the Old by reason of the progress of the times and the more cultivated environment of its origin is not a whit more divinely inspired. The three Synoptic Gospels are witnesses summoned to court where their success is the contradiction and confusion of the story they attempt to tell. The book of Acts is a combination pamphlet put together by the followers of Peter and Paul as an attempt to compromise between the one who was the Apostle to the Circumcision and the other who was the Apostle to the Gentiles. The epistles of Paul are filled with the pernicious influence of apocalyptic, Jewish fictions and the crass concept the Apostle had of the kingdom of Christ. Page after page is filled with proof that he expected the Lord to come in his day and was sorely mistaken, making that confession at the close of his writings and turning his attention to death and the grave, no longer having expectation of the Coming of the Lord as the daily hope of the Church. It is these palpable errors of Paul, his honest, but undoubted mistakes that are wholly responsible for that strange thing (so the Post-millennialists think it) known as Pre-millennialism, a system of teaching which stands for a whole Bible, a Gospel of redeeming blood, a risen and actually coming Saviour, coming again in the flesh, and seeks with an insistent and constant “thus saith the Lord” to win the souls of men to a grace-given and grace-dealing Saviour. (And I may say in passing that Paul, under God, is undoubtedly responsible for this doctrine so persistent and aggressive, this doctrine of Premillennialism.) To the advanced theological professor Revelation is a piece of crazy quilt patchwork, so full of symbols that have no intelligent meaning, symbols that can be interpreted by twenty different expositors in twenty different ways, is so full of monsters and nightmare doings that only an unbalanced mind could have written it and one equally unbalanced would alone attempt to decipher it. To these teachers and leaders who count themselves as progressive followers of the Christ of God, who practically set aside the matter of miracles as no more worthy of credence than the stories of Alice in Wonderland, the final place of the deposit of authority is in the individual and subconscious mind. These professors, teachers and leaders to a large degree are an expression of Protestantism. Protestantism to-day stands for everything in general and nothing in particular, except its protest against being definite and particular. It has thrown eschatology overboard. It no longer has any interest in hereafter things. There may be a holy city in heaven; it does not know, it will not affirm for nor against; but it does know there are unholy cities on earth. The streets of the upper city may be paved with gold; it will not enter into controversy about it; but it is certain the streets down here are paved with poor asphalt and trodden by footsore and weary men. Heaven may be more desirable than earth. The condition there may be a great advance on this. Advanced thinkers in Protestantism will neither affirm nor deny that; but they are convinced the conditions down here should be made much better and if possible even that of heaven on earth. The truth is, both heaven and hell, like angelology, have fallen out of modern theology. Heaven is too high and hell too deep. No telescope has ever revealed the one and modern sweetness, gentleness and light repudiate the cruelty and sufferings of the other. The Gospel for the individual soul, the soul the Son of God once outweighed against a whole world in all that the world might stand for of wealth and riches and power and attained ambitions, saying the profit in the gain of a whole world would not equal the loss of one soul, has been set aside. Instead we have that modern and amazing evangel known as the “Social Gospel.” Here for illustration are two old people living in a miserable cabin in a reeking, malarial swamp with a dozen children drinking in the poison of their environment. What folly to spend time and money on the father or mother. How inefficient any effort to save the children just one by one. Get to work at once and drain the swamp, drive out the poisonous and infectious insects with which the place is swarming, fill in the land with fine clean earth, plant flowers and sow seeds of fruitful harvests, let the salt sea blow in and breathe across the spot. The old people may die, in all probability they will, but under right and sanitary conditions the children will grow up into vigorous elements of a strong and worthful society. Why spend time, money, heart and enthusiasm in seeking to overcome or straighten out and make correct the bent lives that have come down to us through the unsanitary moral conditions of a previous generation? We have had wretched laws, desperate customs, children have grown up under them to become fathers and mothers of generations no better than themselves. It is neither economy of mind nor matter, so the modernists teach, to build mission houses, gather the people, old and young, and frighten them with the thought that when they die they shall pass into an environment worse than the one in which they are endeavouring to eke out a handicapped existence. Let us do the wise thing—go not so much to the prayer meetings, but to the legislatures, get bills passed, laws made that will drive out the false and disastrous conditions now obtaining; legislate so that it will no longer be possible for people to drink themselves drunk, steep themselves in drugs, smoke themselves yellow with tobacco, yield to the fascination of gambling in any form. Let society be cleaned from these evils and the result will be certain. A generation that shall never see a saloon, a bottle of wine or whiskey; a generation that will never know the meaning of rum and tobacco and will never see a house of ill fame will be a generation that must grow up in righteousness and truth. There will be no more drunken brawls, no multiplied lawlessness, no diseased bodies, no moral leprosy. The world will be safe for each individual. Each individual will have a saved, moral life here, a life lived in obedience to the laws of nature, and as the laws of nature are the laws of God, in obedience to God. And what danger can the hereafter, if there be such a thing as the hereafter, hold for any one who is so obeying the laws of God? Get society right and the individual will become right. That is the modern Gospel. That is the message to a needy world: “Get society right and the individual will become right.” I do not interject here in full testimony the nevertheless fact that such a pagan city as Rome, or licentious Corinth or idolatrous Ephesus were lifted into cleanness and moral decency, not by legislative action, by reorganization of local conditions, but by the regeneration of one individual at a time until the divine sanity and personal spirituality enthroned in them built up societies, assemblies of such heaven-given health that the old social conditions were overthrown; so overthrown by the personal Gospel Paul preached that throughout Asia Minor the people had been turned away from the worship of their gods, in Ephesus the temple of Diana was largely deserted and the craftsmen who made the silver, souvenir images of the goddess complained their business was almost at an end. Strangely enough the advocates of this social Gospel set up the individual life of the Son of God as the means by which society is to be made right; but they set up, not the life He is living now as the risen, glorified God-man; on the contrary the life He lived before He died, the character He exhibited as a social reformer and an exemplar in righteousness. Men, they say, are not to be saved by the death Christ died, but by the life He then lived. He is to be taken as the proof of the doctrine of evolution and the possibilities in the natural man. He is the most advanced son of God who ever lived. All other men are innately sons of God, but undeveloped. The fact of Christ, it is said, is a sublime encouragement to any man. He has only to copy Him in His words and deeds to find the divine life unfolding. Get away from the sacrificial Christ, this modern Gospel teaches, to the social Christ, the Christ who was interested in the poor and needy and who arraigned wrong social conditions; take the attitude of Christ in relation to the evil of His times and with Him as the inspiration institute right legislation and right social conditions and the world will soon approach the condition of heaven on earth. This is the infidellic drive of Protestantism today. Protestantism has come down from the plane of the supernatural to the plane of the natural. Every day Protestantism is becoming more and more a society for competitive morality. In short, the Protestantism of the hour is a combination of religiousness, civilization, Christianity, socialism, pagan philosophy, unitarianism and the energy of the flesh. Nor need we be startled at this as though some strange thing had taken place. Long ago the Apostle warned us that it would be necessary to preach the Word in season and out of season—just as a watchman is under bonds to flash light in the darkness—because the time would come when the Church should have a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof; when it would not endure sound doctrine, but in obedience to the itching of the flesh should heap to itself teachers who should endeavour to respond to these worldly demands; teachers who in the end should turn the people away from the truth and turn them to the fictions and fables of men; teachers of whom the Apostle Peter warned who should bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord who had bought them, teachers whom Jude foresaw would creep in unawares. Men who consult the chart of a seacoast which marks the place of breakers and treacherous, hidden ledges, now and then thrust out through the white foam like the gleaming sharp teeth of waiting sharks, are not startled when they see the surf breaking at the indicated spot and hear the roar of the waters where it was announced they should lift up their thunder; they are not surprised, instead their confidence in the accuracy of the chart is emphasized. Likewise when those who have read the forecast in Holy Scripture, while they may feel a certain grief at the facts as they are, rejoice when they see these things that even the failure of man as man and the betrayal of committed trust bear witness to the accuracy of Holy Writ. With all its failure the professing Church still claims to be the kingdom of Christ on earth and asserts its determination to rule the world. Rome holds to the idea with unfailing faith and with consistent Jesuitical and political scheming is moving forward with united front to temporal sovereignty. Protestantism with its new watchword of a“reorganized world” is making all its plans to attain the place of power by social, moral and political means. What would be said of a queen who entered into partnership with men whose hands were still red with the blood of her murdered husband and rejected king? What could be said but that she had wholly forgotten or proved totally false to the principles for which her husband had died? What shall be said of a Church which seeks to enter into partnership with a world that slew her Lord; which under all the smile and smoothness of moral, social and philosophical phrases and all the hypocritical laudations of His human character rejects His deity and hears in His cry of agony on the cross the proof that He was only a man who failed as other men have failed at the last. Such a Church as that has lost the vision of its true attitude during the absence of its rejected Lord and is well-nigh to forfeiting its commission. Over the professing Church is sounding to-day with ominous significance the Apostolic words of warning: “What, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God; and that whosoever will be the friend of the world, is the enemy of God?” The Corinthian Church attempted to take the place of rulership in the world. With keen and biting words the Apostle rebukes them. Thus he writes to them: “Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us: and I would to God ye did reign, that we might also reign with you.” Then he adds by way of contrast: “I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels and to men.” It is this same apostle who under the inspiration of the Spirit in his second epistle writes to Timothy: “If we suffer, we shall also reign with him.” It is not while her Lord is the crucified and rejected that the Church is to reign and rule over the world. Not while He is seated on His Father’s throne in heaven and His own throne on earth is cast down and trampled in the dust. Nay! if the Church is faithful she will walk in separation from the world. If the Church is faithful she will testify against the world, not testify merely against certain abuses, but against the world as a system, that it is built upon the principle of the enthronement of self and not God, the exaltation of the flesh and not spirit. If the Church shall be faithful and like Noah in the building of his ark condemn the world; if the Church will take up earnestly the solemn truth of God and warn men that no matter how good a government may be established by human means, no matter what culture and morality may fill the earth, no matter to what extent advance may be made in art, in science, nor no matter how safe a place the world may be made to live in, no matter to what heights of natural morality and righteousness man as man may attain, the judgment of God against this system of man called the world is certain, and that He will arise in His majesty to shake terribly the earth, and that only the things that are built on God can remain, the Church will suffer and be rejected even as was her Lord. The Church is to be faithful to the testimony of Christ and enter into the fellowship of His sufferings. The day of her triumph will come. She is yet to rule over the world. The hour and the circumstances are fixed. Listen, I pray you, to the words of the Spirit as He speaks through the Apostle Paul: “When Christ who is our life shall appear—then (and not till then) shall ye also appear with Him in glory.” Only when Christ shall come to take to Himself His long deferred rulership can the Church enter into her rulership over the world. In the fifth chapter of the Revelation you have the new song of the Church, the song of redemption and rule. This is the triumphant song; it is a song of praise addressed to the Son of God Himself: “Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation: And hast made us unto our God kings and priests; and we shall reign on the earth.” But mark the moment when that song is sung, the occasion of occasions! It is at that supreme moment when as the Lion of the tribe of Judah yonder in His risen and glorified humanity in heaven He steps forward, Son of man, king of the Jews and king of Israel to take the title deeds of His kingdom from the hand of the Father; that moment when He is getting ready to cast His judgments on the earth and come forth as in the days of Noah to sweep away all iniquity and unrighteousness. It is at this moment when He is about to take to Himself His great power and descend in judgment glory that the Church bursts forth into her song of redemption and rule. It is at the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ alone that the Church will enter upon her function of rulership over the world. She cannot reign till He comes and puts her in the place of His queen and in associated power with Himself. And because I want to see the Church lifted up out of social, political and fleshly partnership with the world; because I want to see the Church in the place of authority and power making and fulfilling the edicts of God; because I want to see the Church so exalted into the place of rulership that all the nations shall walk in the light of her excellency, her righteousness and holiness; and because this high and glorious state will be attained alone at the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ I preach His Second Coming. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 60: 03.04. NOT TILL OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST COMES THE SECOND TIME WILL THE CHURCH BE EXALTED INTO ... ======================================================================== IV Not Till Our Lord Jesus Christ Comes the Second Time Will the Church be Exalted into Her True Function of Rulership Over the World THE Church was not sent into the world to convert or Christianize it. It was sent into the world to preach the Gospel to every creature. It was not to condone the world but to condemn it. With its twin doctrines of Incarnation and Regeneration it was to ring the knell of evolution and deny the hope of any saving energy in the flesh. It was not to flatter, to paint, to gild nor endeavour in any wise to reform or organize the world. It was to deal with the world, with the system called the world, as a ship pounding to pieces, and pounding helplessly, upon the rocks of fallen human nature, the dethronement of God in the soul and the enthronement and exaltation of self-interest in the soul. The Church in its ministry and widely commissioned effort was to plunge, as a well-equipped and perfectly manned life-boat may do, into the sea and surf of natural and Satanic things and get men out of an old system under the doom and judgment of God into Christ as the head of a new system under grace and the coming glory of God. The Church was not to build up a kingdom during the absence of the Lord. On the contrary, she was to recognize herself as the affianced bride of a rejected king and coming bridegroom. She was to walk in separation from the world, refusing the seductive enticements of her would-be lovers and with an upward and heavenly look serve while she waited for a returning Lord. The Lord did not come. The Church grew weary of her vigil. She exchanged the heavenly for the earthly look. She met the Devil and felt the magic of his bewitching glances. He had led her Lord to the mount of temptation. He had shown Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. He offered them to Him on condition that He would turn His feet out of the pathway that led to the sacrificial cross. He offered them on condition that He should refuse to go to the cross and there in the agony of His soul and body and on the loom of His vicarious sufferings weave the seamless robe of divine righteousness for sinful men. The Lord refused. The Devil turned and slew Him. He now led the willing Church to the same mountain height of temptation. He tempted her with the same temptation he had offered her Lord: The rulership of the world. If she would turn aside from a heaven-ordained bridegroom and a king whose face she could not see, she might win the world as her kingdom and rule it in spite of the cross. The offer of world rulership sounded pleasant in her ears. She yielded. She fell into the arms of the world. The world became her paramour. She became the world’s mistress. Out of that ungodly and sensual alliance was born the illegitimate child, that woful ecclesiastical offspring, we call the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church became the Holy Roman Empire. The Empire was the Church. For long and dismal ages the Roman Church exhibited to perfection the evil, the folly and fatality of that false and deceptive proposition that the Church is the kingdom of Christ on earth. Then came the Reformation. It so smote the Catholic Church that men imagined the tiara to be broken, crushed and scattered to the winds forever. They were mistaken. It came from underneath that blow almost as if it had risen from the dead. To-day it is more populous than ever, having a membership of at least two hundred millions. It has a more intensely emphasized solidarity. It is filled with enthusiasm, with ever-increasing arrogance and persistent aggression. It is the religious incubus of the hour, the spiritual paralysis of nations and their most dangerous political menace. With brazen effrontery and calculating boldness it has its clutch upon the throat of this Republic, controls its government from the Presidential office down through army and navy, has open mass in the shipyards of the latter, in camp and barracks its priests are masters and its wily knights of Columbus have obtained governmental favours and consideration the Young Men’s Christian Association would not dare to claim. It rules your cities, holds the balance of political power and can, when it will, elect a President, and will promptly do so when the candidate for that high office shall be willing, as already it has been done by the present occupant of that office, to visit the Vatican or officially recognize the civil as well as religious authority of the Pope or receive the Apostolic delegate of the Papal See. The clutch of Romanism with its strangle hold is on the throat of what remains of Protestantism. Protestantism is the after birth of the Reformation. Protestantism repudiated all the temporalities of Rome but held on to the proposition that the Church is the kingdom of Christ on earth. Protestantism is to-day broken up into multiplying fragments. If there be any unity remaining in it it is the unity that comes from the compromising denial of the convictions that led to the original break into fragments; a unity that hopes to maintain itself by classifying many of its former convictions as“non-essentials” and thus constitutes a combination that must become more and more colourless and inefficient in respect to doctrine. Some of its theological institutions are nothing better than clearing houses of infidelity and the curricula made up of Jericho theology. It has universities in which many of the professors have been graduated in Germany, having passed through the poison gas factory of the Berlin university, and under the camouflage department of “sacred literature” are sending out the mentally and spiritually asphyxiating poison of German rationalism, inoculating every fresh lot of newly made ministers and would-be missionaries with rank unbelief and Bible repudiation, distributing the poison into the back counties as well as municipal centers until there are scores of men who once stood for a whole Gospel and a certified Word of God who now stand first on one foot then on the other debating with themselves whether this Scripture that was once considered holy and sufficient is after all a revelation from God or an invention of man. A large number of men who are at the front in the teaching, the management, the organization and control of the churches of the different denominations repudiate practically every fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith. They deny the Virgin birth. The denial of the Virgin birth puts a stain upon the mother of Jesus as of a woman who has broken wedlock and sends her son forth as a bastard, an illegitimate who had no legal right to come into the world; and then illogically, if not hypocritically, those who deny it bid us take this son and make Him the exemplar of righteousness, forgetting or ignoring the self-evident fact that if, indeed, He had but a human and natural father then was He bred in sin and unfit to be set up as the supreme standard of righteousness and holiness among men. There are those who deny the sacrificial character of the death of the cross. They repudiate atonement by the shedding of blood. When we tell them it is written without shedding of blood there is no remission and it is the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, that alone cleanseth from all sin they fling up their hands in protest, tell us we are to be numbered among the figures of the past and that the theology we seek to maintain is the theology of the butcher shop, the barbarous doctrine of the shambles and the shadow of old-time tribal gods whose vengefulness and wrath could be appeased only by the murder of a victim. They repudiate the doctrine of the bodily resurrection of the Lord. His body has long ago mingled with the dust of Palestine and been blown afar by careless winds. If He rose at all it was as the principle of righteousness and truth, whatever such a resurrection may mean. They will no longer tolerate the insistent need of regeneration. It has been said that “if a man is well born the first time he does not need to be born the second time.” In the nature of the case such teaching rejects our Lord’s bodily ascension to heaven and His session as a glorified man who is very God at the right hand of the Father. Above all, and as a further consequent of such an attitude, teachers of this class repudiate with an almost hysterical outcry, not only the thought that the Lord will come a second time to this world, but that those who love Him and yearn to see Him will ever behold Him coming in visible glory so that they may stand face to face with Him and get the very touch of His hands upon them in the vital benediction for which they are longing. These advanced teachers repudiate the Bible as the inspired, infallible, inerrant Word of God, The Pentateuch, the writings of Moses, is a bundle of folk lore, Moses himself a fiction no more substantial than Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The historic books of the Old Testament are unreliable and therefore not history at all. The book of the prophet Isaiah instead of one author has many, each in turn contradicting the other. The book of Ezekiel from its incomprehensible wheels as they flash by the banks of the river Chebar to the impossible temple and its animal offerings with the ever-deepening river flowing out of it, is as mystic as the amazing cherubim which the prophet seeks, but apparently fails, to describe. The prophecies of Daniel were written long after the events they pretend to foretell. From Genesis to Malachi the Old Testament is in reality the mixed history of a tribal people with a national god whose attributes and demands are no more authentic and authoritative than those of the gods of Greece and Rome. The New Testament while a degree of advance on the Old by reason of the progress of the times and the more cultivated environment of its origin is not a whit more divinely inspired. The three Synoptic Gospels are witnesses summoned to court where their success is the contradiction and confusion of the story they attempt to tell. The book of Acts is a combination pamphlet put together by the followers of Peter and Paul as an attempt to compromise between the one who was the Apostle to the Circumcision and the other who was the Apostle to the Gentiles. The epistles of Paul are filled with the pernicious influence of apocalyptic, Jewish fictions and the crass concept the Apostle had of the kingdom of Christ. Page after page is filled with proof that he expected the Lord to come in his day and was sorely mistaken, making that confession at the close of his writings and turning his attention to death and the grave, no longer having expectation of the Coming of the Lord as the daily hope of the Church. It is these palpable errors of Paul, his honest, but undoubted mistakes that are wholly responsible for that strange thing (so the Post-millennialists think it) known as Pre-millennialism, a system of teaching which stands for a whole Bible, a Gospel of redeeming blood, a risen and actually coming Saviour, coming again in the flesh, and seeks with an insistent and constant “thus saith the Lord” to win the souls of men to a grace-given and grace-dealing Saviour. (And I may say in passing that Paul, under God, is undoubtedly responsible for this doctrine so persistent and aggressive, this doctrine of Premillennialism.) To the advanced theological professor Revelation is a piece of crazy quilt patchwork, so full of symbols that have no intelligent meaning, symbols that can be interpreted by twenty different expositors in twenty different ways, is so full of monsters and nightmare doings that only an unbalanced mind could have written it and one equally unbalanced would alone attempt to decipher it. To these teachers and leaders who count themselves as progressive followers of the Christ of God, who practically set aside the matter of miracles as no more worthy of credence than the stories of Alice in Wonderland, the final place of the deposit of authority is in the individual and subconscious mind. These professors, teachers and leaders to a large degree are an expression of Protestantism. Protestantism to-day stands for everything in general and nothing in particular, except its protest against being definite and particular. It has thrown eschatology overboard. It no longer has any interest in hereafter things. There may be a holy city in heaven; it does not know, it will not affirm for nor against; but it does know there are unholy cities on earth. The streets of the upper city may be paved with gold; it will not enter into controversy about it; but it is certain the streets down here are paved with poor asphalt and trodden by footsore and weary men. Heaven may be more desirable than earth. The condition there may be a great advance on this. Advanced thinkers in Protestantism will neither affirm nor deny that; but they are convinced the conditions down here should be made much better and if possible even that of heaven on earth. The truth is, both heaven and hell, like angelology, have fallen out of modern theology. Heaven is too high and hell too deep. No telescope has ever revealed the one and modern sweetness, gentleness and light repudiate the cruelty and sufferings of the other. The Gospel for the individual soul, the soul the Son of God once outweighed against a whole world in all that the world might stand for of wealth and riches and power and attained ambitions, saying the profit in the gain of a whole world would not equal the loss of one soul, has been set aside. Instead we have that modern and amazing evangel known as the “Social Gospel.” Here for illustration are two old people living in a miserable cabin in a reeking, malarial swamp with a dozen children drinking in the poison of their environment. What folly to spend time and money on the father or mother. How inefficient any effort to save the children just one by one. Get to work at once and drain the swamp, drive out the poisonous and infectious insects with which the place is swarming, fill in the land with fine clean earth, plant flowers and sow seeds of fruitful harvests, let the salt sea blow in and breathe across the spot. The old people may die, in all probability they will, but under right and sanitary conditions the children will grow up into vigorous elements of a strong and worthful society. Why spend time, money, heart and enthusiasm in seeking to overcome or straighten out and make correct the bent lives that have come down to us through the unsanitary moral conditions of a previous generation? We have had wretched laws, desperate customs, children have grown up under them to become fathers and mothers of generations no better than themselves. It is neither economy of mind nor matter, so the modernists teach, to build mission houses, gather the people, old and young, and frighten them with the thought that when they die they shall pass into an environment worse than the one in which they are endeavouring to eke out a handicapped existence. Let us do the wise thing—go not so much to the prayer meetings, but to the legislatures, get bills passed, laws made that will drive out the false and disastrous conditions now obtaining; legislate so that it will no longer be possible for people to drink themselves drunk, steep themselves in drugs, smoke themselves yellow with tobacco, yield to the fascination of gambling in any form. Let society be cleaned from these evils and the result will be certain. A generation that shall never see a saloon, a bottle of wine or whiskey; a generation that will never know the meaning of rum and tobacco and will never see a house of ill fame will be a generation that must grow up in righteousness and truth. There will be no more drunken brawls, no multiplied lawlessness, no diseased bodies, no moral leprosy. The world will be safe for each individual. Each individual will have a saved, moral life here, a life lived in obedience to the laws of nature, and as the laws of nature are the laws of God, in obedience to God. And what danger can the hereafter, if there be such a thing as the hereafter, hold for any one who is so obeying the laws of God? Get society right and the individual will become right. That is the modern Gospel. That is the message to a needy world: “Get society right and the individual will become right.” I do not interject here in full testimony the nevertheless fact that such a pagan city as Rome, or licentious Corinth or idolatrous Ephesus were lifted into cleanness and moral decency, not by legislative action, by reorganization of local conditions, but by the regeneration of one individual at a time until the divine sanity and personal spirituality enthroned in them built up societies, assemblies of such heaven-given health that the old social conditions were overthrown; so overthrown by the personal Gospel Paul preached that throughout Asia Minor the people had been turned away from the worship of their gods, in Ephesus the temple of Diana was largely deserted and the craftsmen who made the silver, souvenir images of the goddess complained their business was almost at an end. Strangely enough the advocates of this social Gospel set up the individual life of the Son of God as the means by which society is to be made right; but they set up, not the life He is living now as the risen, glorified God-man; on the contrary the life He lived before He died, the character He exhibited as a social reformer and an exemplar in righteousness. Men, they say, are not to be saved by the death Christ died, but by the life He then lived. He is to be taken as the proof of the doctrine of evolution and the possibilities in the natural man. He is the most advanced son of God who ever lived. All other men are innately sons of God, but undeveloped. The fact of Christ, it is said, is a sublime encouragement to any man. He has only to copy Him in His words and deeds to find the divine life unfolding. Get away from the sacrificial Christ, this modern Gospel teaches, to the social Christ, the Christ who was interested in the poor and needy and who arraigned wrong social conditions; take the attitude of Christ in relation to the evil of His times and with Him as the inspiration institute right legislation and right social conditions and the world will soon approach the condition of heaven on earth. This is the infidellic drive of Protestantism today. Protestantism has come down from the plane of the supernatural to the plane of the natural. Every day Protestantism is becoming more and more a society for competitive morality. In short, the Protestantism of the hour is a combination of religiousness, civilization, Christianity, socialism, pagan philosophy, unitarianism and the energy of the flesh. Nor need we be startled at this as though some strange thing had taken place. Long ago the Apostle warned us that it would be necessary to preach the Word in season and out of season—just as a watchman is under bonds to flash light in the darkness—because the time would come when the Church should have a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof; when it would not endure sound doctrine, but in obedience to the itching of the flesh should heap to itself teachers who should endeavour to respond to these worldly demands; teachers who in the end should turn the people away from the truth and turn them to the fictions and fables of men; teachers of whom the Apostle Peter warned who should bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord who had bought them, teachers whom Jude foresaw would creep in unawares. Men who consult the chart of a seacoast which marks the place of breakers and treacherous, hidden ledges, now and then thrust out through the white foam like the gleaming sharp teeth of waiting sharks, are not startled when they see the surf breaking at the indicated spot and hear the roar of the waters where it was announced they should lift up their thunder; they are not surprised, instead their confidence in the accuracy of the chart is emphasized. Likewise when those who have read the forecast in Holy Scripture, while they may feel a certain grief at the facts as they are, rejoice when they see these things that even the failure of man as man and the betrayal of committed trust bear witness to the accuracy of Holy Writ. With all its failure the professing Church still claims to be the kingdom of Christ on earth and asserts its determination to rule the world. Rome holds to the idea with unfailing faith and with consistent Jesuitical and political scheming is moving forward with united front to temporal sovereignty. Protestantism with its new watchword of a“reorganized world” is making all its plans to attain the place of power by social, moral and political means. What would be said of a queen who entered into partnership with men whose hands were still red with the blood of her murdered husband and rejected king? What could be said but that she had wholly forgotten or proved totally false to the principles for which her husband had died? What shall be said of a Church which seeks to enter into partnership with a world that slew her Lord; which under all the smile and smoothness of moral, social and philosophical phrases and all the hypocritical laudations of His human character rejects His deity and hears in His cry of agony on the cross the proof that He was only a man who failed as other men have failed at the last. Such a Church as that has lost the vision of its true attitude during the absence of its rejected Lord and is well-nigh to forfeiting its commission. Over the professing Church is sounding to-day with ominous significance the Apostolic words of warning: “What, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God; and that whosoever will be the friend of the world, is the enemy of God?” The Corinthian Church attempted to take the place of rulership in the world. With keen and biting words the Apostle rebukes them. Thus he writes to them: “Now ye are full, now ye are rich, ye have reigned as kings without us: and I would to God ye did reign, that we might also reign with you.” Then he adds by way of contrast: “I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels and to men.” It is this same apostle who under the inspiration of the Spirit in his second epistle writes to Timothy: “If we suffer, we shall also reign with him.” It is not while her Lord is the crucified and rejected that the Church is to reign and rule over the world. Not while He is seated on His Father’s throne in heaven and His own throne on earth is cast down and trampled in the dust. Nay! if the Church is faithful she will walk in separation from the world. If the Church is faithful she will testify against the world, not testify merely against certain abuses, but against the world as a system, that it is built upon the principle of the enthronement of self and not God, the exaltation of the flesh and not spirit. If the Church shall be faithful and like Noah in the building of his ark condemn the world; if the Church will take up earnestly the solemn truth of God and warn men that no matter how good a government may be established by human means, no matter what culture and morality may fill the earth, no matter to what extent advance may be made in art, in science, nor no matter how safe a place the world may be made to live in, no matter to what heights of natural morality and righteousness man as man may attain, the judgment of God against this system of man called the world is certain, and that He will arise in His majesty to shake terribly the earth, and that only the things that are built on God can remain, the Church will suffer and be rejected even as was her Lord. The Church is to be faithful to the testimony of Christ and enter into the fellowship of His sufferings. The day of her triumph will come. She is yet to rule over the world. The hour and the circumstances are fixed. Listen, I pray you, to the words of the Spirit as He speaks through the Apostle Paul: “When Christ who is our life shall appear—then (and not till then) shall ye also appear with Him in glory.” Only when Christ shall come to take to Himself His long deferred rulership can the Church enter into her rulership over the world. In the fifth chapter of the Revelation you have the new song of the Church, the song of redemption and rule. This is the triumphant song; it is a song of praise addressed to the Son of God Himself: “Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation: And hast made us unto our God kings and priests; and we shall reign on the earth.” But mark the moment when that song is sung, the occasion of occasions! It is at that supreme moment when as the Lion of the tribe of Judah yonder in His risen and glorified humanity in heaven He steps forward, Son of man, king of the Jews and king of Israel to take the title deeds of His kingdom from the hand of the Father; that moment when He is getting ready to cast His judgments on the earth and come forth as in the days of Noah to sweep away all iniquity and unrighteousness. It is at this moment when He is about to take to Himself His great power and descend in judgment glory that the Church bursts forth into her song of redemption and rule. It is at the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ alone that the Church will enter upon her function of rulership over the world. She cannot reign till He comes and puts her in the place of His queen and in associated power with Himself. And because I want to see the Church lifted up out of social, political and fleshly partnership with the world; because I want to see the Church in the place of authority and power making and fulfilling the edicts of God; because I want to see the Church so exalted into the place of rulership that all the nations shall walk in the light of her excellency, her righteousness and holiness; and because this high and glorious state will be attained alone at the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ I preach His Second Coming. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 61: 03.05. ONLY AT THE SECOND COMING WILL THE SOLEMN AND COVENANT PROMISES OF GOD TO ISRAEL ... ======================================================================== V Only at the Second Coming Will the Solemn and Covenant Promises of God to Israel be Fulfilled GOD sware to Abraham that he and his posterity should have the land of Palestine for an everlasting possession. Abraham never got a foot of the land under covenant promise. The only bit of ground he was able to call his was the burial plot he purchased with his own money. The children of Israel never entered the promised land under the Abrahamic covenant. The Lord redeemed them from Egypt, brought them through the divided waters of the Red Sea, led them by His presence, bore them up as on eagle’s wings and dealt with them in pure, unconditional grace till they came to Sinai. There in all the pride and self-sufficiency of the flesh they took themselves off the ground of grace and unconditional covenant and put themselves under the covenant of the law. This covenant was a covenant of good behaviour. They were to possess the land as long as they fulfilled the terms of the covenant under the seal of its blessing and cursing. After the first generation had perished in the wilderness because of their unbelief, the second generation crossed the Jordan dry shod as their fathers had crossed the Red Sea and entered the land under pledge and bond of good behaviour. They were not able to keep the covenant of their own suggestion. Ten tribes went into an abomination of organized and politically inspired idolatry. In judgment and according to His warning He caused them to be carried away captives and buried nationally among the people whither they were led and for twenty-five hundred years have been nationally lost to view. For two thousand years because of similar and aggravated offenses and finally, because as a nation guilty of manslaughter in slaying the Lord their covenant king, the Jews have been the wanderers of the earth, the people of the restless foot, finding a home in every land but their own. Has God failed to keep His promise? Has He been unable or unwilling to keep His promise? Neither postulate is possible. God’s counsel is immutable. He confirmed it by an oath. And since He could swear by nothing greater He sware by Himself. In the nature of the case then scattered Israel and wandering Judah must be gathered. They must return to their own land. God has so promised. These promises are to be found upon the pages of Holy Writ like the leaves of autumn—so many, so thickly strewn, now in single phrase, in connected passages, in whole chapters that should I attempt to read them slowly and distinctly, giving the sense, it would take me till the morning light. The Lord declares He has written their names upon the palms of His hand. They are as near and sensitively dear to Him, He says, as the apple of His eye. He is so interested, so determined concerning their restoration that He uses the most intensive language to express it, language that almost thunders aloud from the page as you read it. He uses language no less intense than this: “Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land (the land of Palestine) assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul.” Try and think of that! Let it penetrate your mind. The Lord who made heaven and earth, whose very name is omnipotence, says He will put the whole of His omnipotent heart and the whole of His omnipotent soul into the execution and the accomplishment of His determination and purpose to plant the children of Israel once more and forever in their own land. In the face of that registered will and purpose what power is there of man or Devil; what force is there in all the sweep of the universe that can hinder the chosen and covenant people of God from going back to Palestine and possessing that land as theirs and theirs alone, forever? But what evidence have we, what demonstration and proof that God will fulfill this postscript promise and plan? What evidence have we from the bare statement of God that He will keep this promise? The evidence is manifold and overwhelming. Before even the children of Israel crossed the Jordan the Lord warned them in language which burns and blisters that if they did not keep the law covenant and walk in the ways of righteousness and truth He would cause them to fall before their enemies. They should go out one way before them and flee seven ways. Their cities should be taken and their wives ravished. They should be led captives into every land. They should become a proverb, a byword, a hissing and a scorn. Every hand should be against them to do them ill. They should find no ease whither they went, nor should the soles of their feet have rest. Amidst those nations the Lord should give them a trembling heart, failing eyes and sorrow of mind. Their life should hang in doubt. They should fear night and day, and have no assurance of life. In the morning they should say, Would God it were even, and at even they should say, Would God it were morning. Their land should be made desolate and be an astonishment to the passer-by. In its desolation it should keep the sabbaths they should fail to give it. If they would not allow the land to rest in its sabbatic years, the Lord would cause it to have its ordained and natural rest by driving them out of it and allowing wind and rain and sun to take care of it and keep it fruitful. Later on all this warning of woe and terror of judgments was emphasized by the prophets against the Jews. They should become a nation of sorrows and acquainted with grief. But while the Lord should use the nations to correct them He would not make a full end of His own people. He would use the nations as the rods of His anger, as the instruments of discipline. He would use them by taking advantage of their own aggressive desires and ambitions, then after using them He would turn upon them, punish them for their pride and godless enmity to His people and make a full end of them. Then as the hour should draw nigh for the restoration to the land He would cause the Jews as the national representatives of all Israel to bud, to blossom and fill the face of the whole world with fruit. They should be the first to be restored to the land. They would go back in unbelief. And mark how the prophecies have been fulfilled! The illustration of this fulfillment finds its most tragic emphasis in the history of the Jews since that day when their king, the Son of God and the Holy One of Israel was hung as a malefactor on a Roman cross. They have not only been wanderers in every land, but they have suffered an agony no tongue can fittingly tell. The men have been robbed. They have been broken on the wheel. They have been stretched on the rack. They have been flayed alive. They have been burned alive. They have been sent to sea by thousands as herded cattle; and they have been sent thither in rotting and sinking ships. Their wives and daughters have suffered worse than torture or death. Their children have been mutilated; and when they failed to bring a full and satisfactory price in the public market, men, women and children have been given away as worthless slaves, not worth even the price of a kennel dog. They have been hunted like wild beasts of the mountain. Like frightened beasts they have trembled at the sound of approaching footsteps and the sound of a shaken leaf has caused them to flee. If their Lord was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, truly may it be said of them that they have been through the centuries a nation of sorrows and acquainted with grief; but the sorrows were unlike those of their Lord. He carried the sorrows, the griefs and woes of others that He might relieve them; they carried their own sorrows put upon them by the wickedness and cruelty of others until tears were their meat and drink night and day. Behold how the prophecies have been fulfilled in respect to their land. For centuries it has kept a sabbath of rest. It has rested from the toil of man; harvests have neither been sown nor reaped, nor the vintage gathered save here and there as with the sword in one hand and the sickle in the other. The land is there as a land just as it was in the days when the man of Nazareth walked by the shores of blue Galilee or trod the hills of Judah. The mountains of Moab draw their lines of beauty against the measureless deeps of an orient sky. The valleys lie between like fruitful bosoms where wheat and barley may grow. The olive trees stand dusky in the deepening shade. Pomegranate and apricot stretch forth their weighted boughs and the grapes in Eschol clusters hang purple in the slant of westering suns. It is even yet a land of brooks and fountains of waters and men may still dig iron and brass from out of its rugged hills. Yonder in Bashan within the range of your eyes you may count sixty cities of stone, walls and roofs and windows of stone, great swinging doors of stone. The centuries have beaten the wind, the rain, the storms and flying sand upon them. They remain. They have outworn the centuries. They are silent. No footfall is heard upon the threshold. The houses are empty save for a fox, a swiftly gliding viper, or a belated Bedaween who may stable his horse in a deserted room where once a happy family dwelt in the long ago. The stone cities are waiting and every stone in door and window seems to be crying out: “We are waiting till they return whose right alone it is to live and dwell here.” But what of the nations that scattered them and made them to suffer? Where is Babylon the proud empire that took them captive; where is Babylon the golden city that saw them hang their harps upon the willows, sit down upon the banks of the strange river and give way to weeping as they yearned for their own land again? Where is Greece whose phalanxes swept through their fields and spoiled their vineyards? Where is Rome whose iron legions took their city, put thousand on thousands to the sword, destroyed the beautiful temple once hallowed by a Saviour’s feet and then drew a ploughshare over Zion that it might become a ploughed field as foretold? The Rome that sculptured on its triumphal arches the figures of the captive Jews it had led in boastful mockery at the chariot wheels of returning conquerors? These nations in their ancient glory have disappeared, the Lord as He promised has made a full end of them. But what of Israel? The Jews have answered for them. There are fifteen millions of Jews to-day. They are the most vital and vigorous race on the earth. They are five times the number of all Israel who left Egypt; and they are but a sixth part of them—two tribes, Judah and Benjamin. They are the money makers and money loaners of the world. They are the merchants, the bankers, the musicians, the professors in school, in college and university. They are the philosophers, the scientists, the electricians and chemists. They have furnished prime ministers, statesmen, judges and generals. Such a statesman as Disraeli who glorified England, such a general as Massena whom Napoleon characterized as the “child of victory.” If to-day you should seek a representative in every department of human genius and endeavour you would find that representative to be either a Jew or a Jewess. Fifteen millions of Jews! What are these fifteen millions of Jews but fifteen millions of proofs that the book we call the Bible is true, is inerrant, infallible? Fifteen millions of demonstrations and fifteen millions of indubitable proofs. By so much as they prove that God keeps faith with His warnings of woe and judgment, by so much will He keep faith with the promise of good He has made; by so much is it sure He will yet plant them as He has said in their own land and will do so with His whole heart and His whole soul. Already the sound of their footsteps may be heard on the homeward march. Zionism is now an immense fact. The spirit of nationalism has come back to Judah. The blue and white flag of David has been unfurled. Diplomats in the nations’ counsels agree there can be no settled peace between Europe and the East till the Jew is back in his own land and Judah once more a recognized political state; that the Jews are the only people all the nations will agree should have Palestine, and the words, “Jewish State” are words repeated in common speech round the globe. England has driven the Turk out of Jerusalem. The corner-stone of a five million dollar university has been laid upon that Mount of Olives where once the Son of God amid its lonely shades prayed and agonized, a begun fulfillment of the prophecy of Zephaniah that in the latter days the Lord would execute judgment on the Gentile nations that should be gathered there and to His restored and delivered people turn again a pure speech, no longer the stuttering and smattering phrase of Yiddish, but the old Hebraic tongue of their fathers. Already there are papers in Jerusalem published in Hebrew, schools are taught and many speak in the ancient language. Many Jews are going back to Palestine. Many more are there now than returned from Babylon. They are going back as the Word of God foretold, in utter and absolute unbelief and bitter repudiation of the idea that Jesus of Nazareth was their foretold and foreordained Messiah. They are going back with the vail upon their eyes and as blind as in the day when their fathers caused Him to be crucified by Roman hands. They are going back to a time of anguish of which Jeremiah solemnly warns as “the day of Jacob’s trouble,” and our Lord describes as the tribulation, “the great one,” the like of which the world has never seen and will never see again. They are going back to be set up by a league of ten nations and to enter into an alliance and covenant with its godless head as their political and false Messiah. They will suffer until there shall come upon that generation all the righteous blood shed upon the earth from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zacharias, the son of Bacharias who was slain between the temple and the altar, and the blood of the Son of God which they invoked in judgment on themselves and their children in that fatal hour when Pilate convinced of the innocence of Jesus and wishing to let Him go had washed His hands in water, putting the responsibility of the crucifixion upon them as a people. Then it was they cried that terrible cry: “His blood be on us, and on our children.” But then as now, and always since the days of Elijah, there was and is an elect remnant in Israel. For their sakes the Lord will come. He will descend with His host to Mount Sinai, the place of the law; the spot where Israel rejected grace and sought that covenant which neither they nor their children have ever been able to keep. He will sweep with His mighty army to Jerusalem. He will overthrow the Gentile nations gathered there under the Devil-incarnate Antichrist. He will stand upon the Mount of Olives. The elect remnant will behold Him come. They will look upon Him whom their fathers pierced. They will fall down in anguish before Him. They will mourn for Him as one mourneth for his only son. They will take up the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah and make it their confession of faith and bitter, self-accusing lamentation. They will say: “We did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” And in that hour, in that day of days shall there be a fountain opened to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and uncleanness. The Lord will cause Jerusalem to be rebuilded “upon her own heap.” He will ordain the erection of that temple in which He shall establish the throne of His holiness. Like David He will reign first over Judah. After that He will send Gentile messengers like “fishers” to seek out and find the descendants of the ten lost tribes. They will respond to the proclamation that will be made and to the search that will be instituted in that eastern land and among those peoples whither they were first carried away. There will be many impostors among them; but the Lord will make them to “pass under the rod” as when the true sheep are struck with the owner’s mark and as they take up their journey Zionward all who are not of Israel will be purged from their midst. Those who are really of the covenant people will be quickened, regenerated, and when they enter the land will be welcomed by Judah and Benjamin. They shall become one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel. One king shall be king to them all. They shall not be two nations any more, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms at all. The Lord will make a covenant of peace with them and multiply them and set His sanctuary in the midst of them forever. His tabernacle shall be with them. He will be their very God as He shall be the God of the whole earth. They shall be His peculiar people. All the Gentiles shall know that He has set them apart for Himself when they behold His temple erected in their midst, the most wonderful building in all the earth. And thus will be fulfilled the prophecy concerning Israel quoted and emphasized by the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul that the Deliverer should come to Zion and turn away ungodliness from Jacob and that all Israel—that is—Israel united and as twelve tribes, should be saved. It is at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, then and not till then that the solemn and covenant promises of God made to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob will be fulfilled and united, redeemed, regenerated and saved Israel set in their own land as the center and channel of blessing to the earth. And because there can be no permanent peace in the world till Israel has been restored; and because I wish to see, not only peace among the nations and Israel reaping the blessings of the unconditional covenant of God’s grace and unchanged faithfulness, but because I yearn to see the hour when the Lord shall enter upon His own inheritance and justify Himself before heaven and earth as Judah’s Lord, as Israel’s God and turn the accusation of His cross: “This is Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews” into the pean of His coronation as such, I preach the Second Coming. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 62: 03.05. ONLY AT THE SECOND COMING WILL THE SOLEMN AND COVENANT PROMISES OF GOD TO ISRAEL ... ======================================================================== V Only at the Second Coming Will the Solemn and Covenant Promises of God to Israel be Fulfilled GOD sware to Abraham that he and his posterity should have the land of Palestine for an everlasting possession. Abraham never got a foot of the land under covenant promise. The only bit of ground he was able to call his was the burial plot he purchased with his own money. The children of Israel never entered the promised land under the Abrahamic covenant. The Lord redeemed them from Egypt, brought them through the divided waters of the Red Sea, led them by His presence, bore them up as on eagle’s wings and dealt with them in pure, unconditional grace till they came to Sinai. There in all the pride and self-sufficiency of the flesh they took themselves off the ground of grace and unconditional covenant and put themselves under the covenant of the law. This covenant was a covenant of good behaviour. They were to possess the land as long as they fulfilled the terms of the covenant under the seal of its blessing and cursing. After the first generation had perished in the wilderness because of their unbelief, the second generation crossed the Jordan dry shod as their fathers had crossed the Red Sea and entered the land under pledge and bond of good behaviour. They were not able to keep the covenant of their own suggestion. Ten tribes went into an abomination of organized and politically inspired idolatry. In judgment and according to His warning He caused them to be carried away captives and buried nationally among the people whither they were led and for twenty-five hundred years have been nationally lost to view. For two thousand years because of similar and aggravated offenses and finally, because as a nation guilty of manslaughter in slaying the Lord their covenant king, the Jews have been the wanderers of the earth, the people of the restless foot, finding a home in every land but their own. Has God failed to keep His promise? Has He been unable or unwilling to keep His promise? Neither postulate is possible. God’s counsel is immutable. He confirmed it by an oath. And since He could swear by nothing greater He sware by Himself. In the nature of the case then scattered Israel and wandering Judah must be gathered. They must return to their own land. God has so promised. These promises are to be found upon the pages of Holy Writ like the leaves of autumn—so many, so thickly strewn, now in single phrase, in connected passages, in whole chapters that should I attempt to read them slowly and distinctly, giving the sense, it would take me till the morning light. The Lord declares He has written their names upon the palms of His hand. They are as near and sensitively dear to Him, He says, as the apple of His eye. He is so interested, so determined concerning their restoration that He uses the most intensive language to express it, language that almost thunders aloud from the page as you read it. He uses language no less intense than this: “Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land (the land of Palestine) assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul.” Try and think of that! Let it penetrate your mind. The Lord who made heaven and earth, whose very name is omnipotence, says He will put the whole of His omnipotent heart and the whole of His omnipotent soul into the execution and the accomplishment of His determination and purpose to plant the children of Israel once more and forever in their own land. In the face of that registered will and purpose what power is there of man or Devil; what force is there in all the sweep of the universe that can hinder the chosen and covenant people of God from going back to Palestine and possessing that land as theirs and theirs alone, forever? But what evidence have we, what demonstration and proof that God will fulfill this postscript promise and plan? What evidence have we from the bare statement of God that He will keep this promise? The evidence is manifold and overwhelming. Before even the children of Israel crossed the Jordan the Lord warned them in language which burns and blisters that if they did not keep the law covenant and walk in the ways of righteousness and truth He would cause them to fall before their enemies. They should go out one way before them and flee seven ways. Their cities should be taken and their wives ravished. They should be led captives into every land. They should become a proverb, a byword, a hissing and a scorn. Every hand should be against them to do them ill. They should find no ease whither they went, nor should the soles of their feet have rest. Amidst those nations the Lord should give them a trembling heart, failing eyes and sorrow of mind. Their life should hang in doubt. They should fear night and day, and have no assurance of life. In the morning they should say, Would God it were even, and at even they should say, Would God it were morning. Their land should be made desolate and be an astonishment to the passer-by. In its desolation it should keep the sabbaths they should fail to give it. If they would not allow the land to rest in its sabbatic years, the Lord would cause it to have its ordained and natural rest by driving them out of it and allowing wind and rain and sun to take care of it and keep it fruitful. Later on all this warning of woe and terror of judgments was emphasized by the prophets against the Jews. They should become a nation of sorrows and acquainted with grief. But while the Lord should use the nations to correct them He would not make a full end of His own people. He would use the nations as the rods of His anger, as the instruments of discipline. He would use them by taking advantage of their own aggressive desires and ambitions, then after using them He would turn upon them, punish them for their pride and godless enmity to His people and make a full end of them. Then as the hour should draw nigh for the restoration to the land He would cause the Jews as the national representatives of all Israel to bud, to blossom and fill the face of the whole world with fruit. They should be the first to be restored to the land. They would go back in unbelief. And mark how the prophecies have been fulfilled! The illustration of this fulfillment finds its most tragic emphasis in the history of the Jews since that day when their king, the Son of God and the Holy One of Israel was hung as a malefactor on a Roman cross. They have not only been wanderers in every land, but they have suffered an agony no tongue can fittingly tell. The men have been robbed. They have been broken on the wheel. They have been stretched on the rack. They have been flayed alive. They have been burned alive. They have been sent to sea by thousands as herded cattle; and they have been sent thither in rotting and sinking ships. Their wives and daughters have suffered worse than torture or death. Their children have been mutilated; and when they failed to bring a full and satisfactory price in the public market, men, women and children have been given away as worthless slaves, not worth even the price of a kennel dog. They have been hunted like wild beasts of the mountain. Like frightened beasts they have trembled at the sound of approaching footsteps and the sound of a shaken leaf has caused them to flee. If their Lord was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, truly may it be said of them that they have been through the centuries a nation of sorrows and acquainted with grief; but the sorrows were unlike those of their Lord. He carried the sorrows, the griefs and woes of others that He might relieve them; they carried their own sorrows put upon them by the wickedness and cruelty of others until tears were their meat and drink night and day. Behold how the prophecies have been fulfilled in respect to their land. For centuries it has kept a sabbath of rest. It has rested from the toil of man; harvests have neither been sown nor reaped, nor the vintage gathered save here and there as with the sword in one hand and the sickle in the other. The land is there as a land just as it was in the days when the man of Nazareth walked by the shores of blue Galilee or trod the hills of Judah. The mountains of Moab draw their lines of beauty against the measureless deeps of an orient sky. The valleys lie between like fruitful bosoms where wheat and barley may grow. The olive trees stand dusky in the deepening shade. Pomegranate and apricot stretch forth their weighted boughs and the grapes in Eschol clusters hang purple in the slant of westering suns. It is even yet a land of brooks and fountains of waters and men may still dig iron and brass from out of its rugged hills. Yonder in Bashan within the range of your eyes you may count sixty cities of stone, walls and roofs and windows of stone, great swinging doors of stone. The centuries have beaten the wind, the rain, the storms and flying sand upon them. They remain. They have outworn the centuries. They are silent. No footfall is heard upon the threshold. The houses are empty save for a fox, a swiftly gliding viper, or a belated Bedaween who may stable his horse in a deserted room where once a happy family dwelt in the long ago. The stone cities are waiting and every stone in door and window seems to be crying out: “We are waiting till they return whose right alone it is to live and dwell here.” But what of the nations that scattered them and made them to suffer? Where is Babylon the proud empire that took them captive; where is Babylon the golden city that saw them hang their harps upon the willows, sit down upon the banks of the strange river and give way to weeping as they yearned for their own land again? Where is Greece whose phalanxes swept through their fields and spoiled their vineyards? Where is Rome whose iron legions took their city, put thousand on thousands to the sword, destroyed the beautiful temple once hallowed by a Saviour’s feet and then drew a ploughshare over Zion that it might become a ploughed field as foretold? The Rome that sculptured on its triumphal arches the figures of the captive Jews it had led in boastful mockery at the chariot wheels of returning conquerors? These nations in their ancient glory have disappeared, the Lord as He promised has made a full end of them. But what of Israel? The Jews have answered for them. There are fifteen millions of Jews to-day. They are the most vital and vigorous race on the earth. They are five times the number of all Israel who left Egypt; and they are but a sixth part of them—two tribes, Judah and Benjamin. They are the money makers and money loaners of the world. They are the merchants, the bankers, the musicians, the professors in school, in college and university. They are the philosophers, the scientists, the electricians and chemists. They have furnished prime ministers, statesmen, judges and generals. Such a statesman as Disraeli who glorified England, such a general as Massena whom Napoleon characterized as the “child of victory.” If to-day you should seek a representative in every department of human genius and endeavour you would find that representative to be either a Jew or a Jewess. Fifteen millions of Jews! What are these fifteen millions of Jews but fifteen millions of proofs that the book we call the Bible is true, is inerrant, infallible? Fifteen millions of demonstrations and fifteen millions of indubitable proofs. By so much as they prove that God keeps faith with His warnings of woe and judgment, by so much will He keep faith with the promise of good He has made; by so much is it sure He will yet plant them as He has said in their own land and will do so with His whole heart and His whole soul. Already the sound of their footsteps may be heard on the homeward march. Zionism is now an immense fact. The spirit of nationalism has come back to Judah. The blue and white flag of David has been unfurled. Diplomats in the nations’ counsels agree there can be no settled peace between Europe and the East till the Jew is back in his own land and Judah once more a recognized political state; that the Jews are the only people all the nations will agree should have Palestine, and the words, “Jewish State” are words repeated in common speech round the globe. England has driven the Turk out of Jerusalem. The corner-stone of a five million dollar university has been laid upon that Mount of Olives where once the Son of God amid its lonely shades prayed and agonized, a begun fulfillment of the prophecy of Zephaniah that in the latter days the Lord would execute judgment on the Gentile nations that should be gathered there and to His restored and delivered people turn again a pure speech, no longer the stuttering and smattering phrase of Yiddish, but the old Hebraic tongue of their fathers. Already there are papers in Jerusalem published in Hebrew, schools are taught and many speak in the ancient language. Many Jews are going back to Palestine. Many more are there now than returned from Babylon. They are going back as the Word of God foretold, in utter and absolute unbelief and bitter repudiation of the idea that Jesus of Nazareth was their foretold and foreordained Messiah. They are going back with the vail upon their eyes and as blind as in the day when their fathers caused Him to be crucified by Roman hands. They are going back to a time of anguish of which Jeremiah solemnly warns as “the day of Jacob’s trouble,” and our Lord describes as the tribulation, “the great one,” the like of which the world has never seen and will never see again. They are going back to be set up by a league of ten nations and to enter into an alliance and covenant with its godless head as their political and false Messiah. They will suffer until there shall come upon that generation all the righteous blood shed upon the earth from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zacharias, the son of Bacharias who was slain between the temple and the altar, and the blood of the Son of God which they invoked in judgment on themselves and their children in that fatal hour when Pilate convinced of the innocence of Jesus and wishing to let Him go had washed His hands in water, putting the responsibility of the crucifixion upon them as a people. Then it was they cried that terrible cry: “His blood be on us, and on our children.” But then as now, and always since the days of Elijah, there was and is an elect remnant in Israel. For their sakes the Lord will come. He will descend with His host to Mount Sinai, the place of the law; the spot where Israel rejected grace and sought that covenant which neither they nor their children have ever been able to keep. He will sweep with His mighty army to Jerusalem. He will overthrow the Gentile nations gathered there under the Devil-incarnate Antichrist. He will stand upon the Mount of Olives. The elect remnant will behold Him come. They will look upon Him whom their fathers pierced. They will fall down in anguish before Him. They will mourn for Him as one mourneth for his only son. They will take up the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah and make it their confession of faith and bitter, self-accusing lamentation. They will say: “We did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.” And in that hour, in that day of days shall there be a fountain opened to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and uncleanness. The Lord will cause Jerusalem to be rebuilded “upon her own heap.” He will ordain the erection of that temple in which He shall establish the throne of His holiness. Like David He will reign first over Judah. After that He will send Gentile messengers like “fishers” to seek out and find the descendants of the ten lost tribes. They will respond to the proclamation that will be made and to the search that will be instituted in that eastern land and among those peoples whither they were first carried away. There will be many impostors among them; but the Lord will make them to “pass under the rod” as when the true sheep are struck with the owner’s mark and as they take up their journey Zionward all who are not of Israel will be purged from their midst. Those who are really of the covenant people will be quickened, regenerated, and when they enter the land will be welcomed by Judah and Benjamin. They shall become one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel. One king shall be king to them all. They shall not be two nations any more, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms at all. The Lord will make a covenant of peace with them and multiply them and set His sanctuary in the midst of them forever. His tabernacle shall be with them. He will be their very God as He shall be the God of the whole earth. They shall be His peculiar people. All the Gentiles shall know that He has set them apart for Himself when they behold His temple erected in their midst, the most wonderful building in all the earth. And thus will be fulfilled the prophecy concerning Israel quoted and emphasized by the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul that the Deliverer should come to Zion and turn away ungodliness from Jacob and that all Israel—that is—Israel united and as twelve tribes, should be saved. It is at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, then and not till then that the solemn and covenant promises of God made to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob will be fulfilled and united, redeemed, regenerated and saved Israel set in their own land as the center and channel of blessing to the earth. And because there can be no permanent peace in the world till Israel has been restored; and because I wish to see, not only peace among the nations and Israel reaping the blessings of the unconditional covenant of God’s grace and unchanged faithfulness, but because I yearn to see the hour when the Lord shall enter upon His own inheritance and justify Himself before heaven and earth as Judah’s Lord, as Israel’s God and turn the accusation of His cross: “This is Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews” into the pean of His coronation as such, I preach the Second Coming. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 63: 03.06. ONLY AT THE SECOND COMING OF THE CHRIST OF GOD WILL A GOVERNMENT OF EVERLASTING ... ======================================================================== VI Only at the Second Coming of the Christ of God Will a Government of Everlasting Righteousness and Peace be Established Upon the Earth IT was the original purpose of God to make the people of Israel the head of nations, place them in Palestine as the geographical center of the earth, make them its political center, send His own Son to be their incarnate king, use them as a channel of earthly and spiritual blessing and make this world the most perfect and happiest spot in all the wide universe. They failed to meet their opportunity. Then the Lord transferred the possibility of world rulership from the Jews to the Gentiles. He did this by handing political power and authority to Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon. This rulership and sway of the world descended in its ordained and foretold succession down through Medo-Persia with its incorporation of Babylon, through the temporary but immensely extended empire of Greece which under Alexander included both Babylon and Medo-Persia, and after that the colossal and magic empire of Rome, swallowing up as it did the three empires or kingdoms which preceded it. Since the division of Rome into Western and Eastern empires the rulership of the world has been maintained by the various nations composed of those people dwelling in the territory once occupied by Rome. The world has been ruled by Turks, Spaniards, Germans, by the French and by the English. The Gentile nations in this special and prophetic territory have been the world rulers. It has been peculiarly Gentile rulership and in Scripture is called, “The times of the Gentiles.” Gentile times, Gentile rulership has lasted for twenty-five hundred years. It has been an amazing rule. It has been a rulership that has revealed the genius, the brilliance and the God-given powers of man. It has been a rulership that has revealed the iniquity, the sin, the mad ambition and devil-inspired policies of man. In all the twenty-five hundred years of this Gentile rule there have not been one hundred consecutive years of universal peace. It has been twenty-five hundred years of war, of rapine, murder and measureless lust. Cities have been destroyed, fields have been laid waste, women have endured the last outrage. Children have been orphaned, right has been upon the scaffold and wrong upon the throne, prison chains have been for virtue, silk and velvet for vice, civilization after civilization has been destroyed, the earth has been filled with anguish beyond the power of tongue or pen to describe, and blood enough has been shed through man’s inhumanity to man to float all the navies of the world, and money and treasure enough wasted to have provided a palace for every man and woman on earth. A little less than five years ago men everywhere were talking of peace and safety. Christianity and civilization were walking hand in hand. Christianity or that which professed to be Christianity had accepted all the claimed benefits of civilization. Rapid transit, the telephone, all the triumphs of applied science were announced as the by-products of the Gospel. Even though the churches were becoming more or less empty and the people were turning away to other centers of instruction or enlightenment or consolation or hope, preachers were everywhere and with great insistence announcing that the world was growing better every day and that we were rapidly approaching the purple and the gold of millennial times. The hour was not far distant when the lion and the lamb should lie down together. There was much talk about the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. People were coming together and having a better and more disinterested estimate of each other. Religion was ceasing to be dogmatic and precise and becoming more and more a profession that was free from restraint. Christian ministers in the pulpit and supposedly wise men in the counsels of the nations with optimistic utterance announced that the days of barbarism had passed away, the brutality of war was at an end. Men and nations would no longer adjourn their differences to the field of battle. A magnificent palace of peace had been erected in that country that had for centuries been the bloody ground where Europe settled its political issues. In this splendid home of arbitration the nations were to meet as friends and brothers and calmly arrange and solve all matters that had hitherto kept them menacingly apart. War had become so abhorrent to what was called the Christian sense of the nations that mothers were exhorted to banish from the nurseries anything that might suggest the thought of war, such as trumpets, drums or toy guns. So completely had the peace idea pervaded the mind of the people, the idea that peace had come to stay and nothing must be tolerated that would even hint at war, that a soldier or a sailor wearing the uniform of his country was no longer acceptable in a public place, were it a restaurant, a music hall or even a church. Men who were opposed to spending a dollar to make a nation ready for the possibility of war were hailed as the advanced thinkers and the men worthy of the suffrage of the people; while those who contended human nature had not been changed, that a nation was simply the individual grown large and the jealousies, the covetousness and ambitions of governments would always make it possible for the strong to prey upon the weak and for the unprincipled under the guise of national necessity to attack their unprepared neighbours and therefore just as much as a city rests in confidence with the presence within it of a well-equipped police force, equally so the comfort and security of peace could be best maintained by a nation governed by right principles whose army and navy were ready to resist successfully any unjust assault upon its honour or integrity, were treated with pity, if not scorn, as still under the spell of benighted and barbaric days. “Peace and safety!” these were the pleasant words that lulled a pleasure-seeking and money-making generation into self-satisfied rest and the mirage of millennial days already arrived. Then, suddenly, like a bolt out of a clear sky, or the overflow in raging lava tide of an unsuspected volcano, the most stupendous, ghastly and brutally devilish war the world has ever known was on in all its fiendish fury, sweeping from England to the Euphrates and from the Rhine and Danube on the north to the glittering sands of Africa on the south, rolling its waves of blood and sending its sickening and indescribable horrors through those lands and among those people at one time constituting the four kingdoms to whom God had committed the rulership of the world; that region occupied by Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome and whose administration of world affairs is called “the times of the Gentiles.” To-night ten millions of the world’s flower of manhood lie rotting in their graves. Six millions of women and children have been starved to death. Women have been unspeakably ruined, children mutilated and flung as helpless debris upon the charity of strangers, suffering their orphaned estate and not knowing why. All the genius, the science and invention of man with poured out, unlimited wealth, have been drafted to produce the most terrifically destructive means of war. All the boasted progress and culture of the preceding centuries were called upon to wage the contest until it should affright even the participants themselves. Clouds of poison gas filled the once sweet and vital air of spring time and summer mornings. Human beings wearing hideous masks and looking like other world monsters rushed in mad onslaught upon one another. They burrowed in holes and trenches like wild beasts concealed in their lair and waiting for the prey. Through the startled heavens winged things like huge vampires vomiting fire and blood took their way over cities, towns and unprotected hospitals, leaving behind them the dead, the dying and the tortured. Hunger with its sunken cheeks, and pestilence with its green eyes, its slavering lips have trod the earth till horror with wordless anguish has kept vigil by the blackened hearthstones of ruined homes and deserted firesides. To-night, the fields of Flanders where the poppies grow and where the dead who died too soon and lie almost too thick to count, are as though a mighty juggernaut had rolled its fearful wheels over them, crushing both man and earth together into one monstrous pulp of hopeless ruin. To-night France, where the lilies were wont to bloom, is torn and ripped in all the one-time beauty and fascination of her white and winding roads, poplar fringed, in the culture of her fruited gardens, her orchards and her royal forests, as though some monstrous creation of pre-Adamite days had survived and broken through all restraint of all the ages to riot and gorge himself with unlimited delight of destruction. All this after two thousand years of professed Christianity and the constant iteration that the Church was slowly winning its way to the ruler-ship of the world; that each hour the world was growing better and more and more the principles of the Christ of God dominating the universal heart of man. The world awoke to find its heart unchanged and war with aggressive animalism still the underlying and primal force in man. To-night in face of all this, in face of the solemn declaration of the Son of God that during the whole time of His absence there would be war and rumours of war, and specially within the territory once occupied by Rome; that there would be distress of nations with perplexity, men’s hearts failing them for fear for looking after the things that should be coming on the earth; that the people like the waves of the sea should be roaring, uttering their discordant voices in the thunder of protest and bitter discontent, breaking the bonds of old customs and lashing the times with lawlessness and unprecedented crime; in face of the warning of the Apostle Paul that in the last days, that is to say in the closing hours of this age, there should be, not peaceful but perilous times; that evil men should wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived; in the face of the inspired assurance of the Apostle James that as this dispensation should draw to its close Capital and Labour should stand in bitter attitude to each other; that the accumulated wealth of a special class called “rich men” should be “heaped together” that they might be spoiled and that miseries should come upon them; that on the one side should be the aggression of the profiteers and on the other the violence of those who would refuse to be exploited; in face of this assurance of industrial and class war; in face of the fact that the softest toned apostle whose pen is always transcribing the word “love,” and who has reached the highest and most sublime definition of God as love; in face of the fact that this apostle affirms the hour will come when the whole world under religious, political and devilish inspiration will rush to conflict, that everywhere will be heard the tramp of armed men and the gathering of the nations for a war such as the world has not yet seen; in face of the picture which this apostle of love paints where the armies of the world are seen gathered in battle array against the Lord Christ and His right to reign; in the face of this divine warning the statesmen of the world are assembled in counsel at Paris, the world’s capital of pleasure, in a palace once dedicated to lust and wanton self-gratification, whose panelled ceiling and mirrored walls are filled with and reflect the scenes and glorification of war, that by the stroke of a pen, by a series of resolutions, they may constitute a league of nations bulking so big that every threatened wave of future war may be flung back as when the dykes of Holland reject the sea. The astonishing and suggestive thing is that in the making and remaking of the map of Europe and Asia undertaken by the framers of the league, they are, all unconsciously, restoring the outlines of the old Roman Empire and preparing the way for the final and desperate revival of Rome under the form of ten confederate nations, with its last kaiser, that dark and woful figure, the man of sin, the son of perdition, the Antichrist. And there are Christian teachers who see in this league another herald of the millennium before Christ comes which they so sedulously preached previously to the war. They see in this league an evidence that the Lord Jesus Christ as the Prince of Peace is in reality reigning over the earth and bending the nations to His will for the reign of peace. In the whole history of theological exegesis and interpretation I know of nothing so utterly faulty, illogical and wholly unscriptural as that exegesis which teaches the angel song at Bethlehem to be the announcement of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ as the Prince of Peace and that as such He should establish it among the nations after His ascension to heaven and during His absence from the world. The angels sang glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace to “men of good will.” The angel who spoke to the shepherds keeping the temple sheep for the morning and the evening sacrifice was testifying to them that there was no longer need to keep the sheep for such a purpose. The day of animal sacrifices had passed, the living God had provided the true sacrifice, He who was born beneath the chaplet of heaven’s music, the Lamb of God ordained before the foundation of the world. He had been born into the world that He might make peace by the blood of His cross, not between man and man, not between nation and nation, but between man and God. He had been born to die and by His death reconcile a rebel world to God; on the basis of this sacrifice yet to be and when He should have risen from the dead as witness of the efficacy of His death He would bring peace to every soul that should be of good will—every soul that should surrender to the will of God by believing on Him, offering Him by faith as a sacrifice and claiming Him as a substitute. Every such soul should be at peace with, and have the peace of, God. This was the meaning of that natal hour at Bethlehem. The angels were not singing over Him as the Prince of Peace who had come to abolish war among the nations, but as the ordained sacrifice who should bring peace between the individual man and his God. And yet—He is to be the Prince of Peace and reign and rule as such over the earth, putting an end to war and establishing perfect peace among the nations. The promise of His reign and rule as the Prince of Peace is clearly set forth in Scripture; as it is written in the book of the prophet Isaiah: “Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his peace and government there shall be no end.” But when? Where? Listen: “Upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom to order it.” And hear what Gabriel says to Mary when he comes to announce to her that she has been chosen of Almighty God to give birth to the Messiah of Israel. The angel says: “Thou shalt call his name Jesus . . . He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.” He is to be the Prince of Peace when He sits upon the throne of united Israel in their own land and not before. He was born in fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah. He was a Son given. The Son of God who was God the Son. He was a Son given and became a child born. He grew up to the station of manhood. He entered upon His pre-arranged ministry. At the appointed hour and to the very second foretold by Gabriel to Daniel and in the exact manner announced by the prophet Zechariah He rode into Jerusalem, went into the temple, claiming it as His Father’s house of prayer and by so much declaring Himself to be the Son of the Highest and the heir of David’s throne. The shout of the multitude had announced Him officially. They had said: “Hosanna! Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.” In crying this aloud they were fulfilling the prediction of Zechariah. He had, under the vision of God, looked forward to this hour and with the Spirit of God upon him had exhorted the people who should be alive when Jesus should come to acclaim him. He said: “Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold thy King cometh unto thee; he is just, and having salvation (political as well as spiritual salvation); lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.” The multitude were shouting as Zechariah said they should shout. They were confessing that He who came that day up the slopes of Zion was the Prince of Judah and King of Israel. He came to His own, but His own received Him not. Instead of the diadem of David He got a crown of thorns. Instead of the sceptre of Israel He got the vine stick of a Roman centurion thrust through His rope-tied hands. Instead of a throne He got a malefactor’s cross. Instead of a robe of royal purple He got the winding sheet of the dead. Instead of a palace He got a borrowed grave. The Jews have paid the price of that blindness and betrayal. The man-slayer who unwittingly slew his neighbour or was even ignorant of it at the moment sooner or later found he had to flee from the avenger of blood instantly upon his track. He became an exile from his home, forced to dwell in a provided place called the city of refuge. He could not return to his home till the second coming of a priest. The Jews were guilty, as a nation, of manslaughter. They were deceived and involved by their leaders. They really did not know that He whom they hounded to death at the last was not only the covenant king of Israel, and the Holy One of their fathers, but the Prince of life. Because of their blindness, blunder and sin they were cast out of the land. Because, even though in ignorance, they slew their King, they were exiled by the judgment of God from their home. They deprived the Lord of that land that was His through the covenant of Abraham, and the Lord in turn deprived them of the right of dwelling in the land. They should be exiles so long as He was an exile. Nor can they return till He comes the second time as a priest, not after the order of Aaron, but Melchisedec; for it is written that He shall be both a king and priest upon His throne. Only can the Jews return and be owned nationally of the Lord when He shall come. He will come and He will come as the Prince of Peace. He will not come, I repeat, with the olive branch in His hand and the cooing dove nestling upon His shoulder. Nay! not at all! He will come as the Avenger of His elect, as the Son of man, as the judge of all flesh. He will come to overthrow the combination of Devil and man. His Coming will be the climax of old and outworn ages, the beginning of the new. The glory of His Coming cannot be described. Through years of meditation and continued effort at description I have exhausted my vocabulary and worn to tatters the oft-repeated phrases with which I have sought with heart full of adoring enthusiasm to announce the wonders of that hour. If all the suns and systems were turned into speech till every flaming center of light were an adjective with increasing emphasis of qualification and expression the attempt to put into words the glory of that Coming would be a pitiful and overwhelming failure. He will come surrounded by an innumerable host whose hallelujahs shall so vibrate that the very heavens will roll apart at their soundings. The Lord will come in His threefold glory, the glory of the Father, the glory of the angels and His own glory: the glory of His eternal and unbegun sonship with the Father, as chief of the angels and as that man who is very God, as that God who is real and immortal man. Then will He set up the kingdom, the government for which the ages have dreamed and groaned and guessed and prayed. That hour of hours! Satan bound, iniquity overthrown, God and Christ and the Holy Spirit ruling in the lives of men. The very air surcharged with the righteousness of God; so surcharged that he who thinks a lie shall fall dead in the tracks where he meditated it. No longer need of judge, of jury, of prison bars, nor hangman’s rope, nor electric chair. An hour when no longer the scarlet poppies of hate, of jealousies and mad ambition shall bud and blossom into war. War over forever, swords beaten into ploughshares and spears into pruning hooks. Every man the same right as any other man, the right to sunshine, to air, to water, the beauty of the landscape and all the usufruct of earth. That hour when no man shall call another his master; when no longer a man shall toil and bend his back and break his heart for a stipend of bread; for a hole in the ground and the worm of corruption as mistress of his bed. That hour when life shall be worth while and when the centuries of peace and perfectness of actual being shall pass on till they are counted as eternity. And because this government of peace and splendour and all the outflowing possibilities of a world in which righteousness shall reign and God shall be first can be brought about only by and at the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; because until He does so come wars and sorrows and the darkness of sin will continue; because all the legislation of man and all the leagues of nations will utterly fail to establish permanent peace; because in spite of the best endeavours of all the merely moral forces in the earth there is nothing can keep this system called the world from going on the rocks; because only the hand of God’s Christ can break the bands of iniquity, quiet earth’s fever pulses and putting down all authority bring in the peace that never can be broken; because when He comes the government of right and truth and the life that is really worth while shall come; and because from my heart I want to see that longed-for hour of heaven on earth, I preach the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 64: 03.06. ONLY AT THE SECOND COMING OF THE CHRIST OF GOD WILL A GOVERNMENT OF EVERLASTING ... ======================================================================== VI Only at the Second Coming of the Christ of God Will a Government of Everlasting Righteousness and Peace be Established Upon the Earth IT was the original purpose of God to make the people of Israel the head of nations, place them in Palestine as the geographical center of the earth, make them its political center, send His own Son to be their incarnate king, use them as a channel of earthly and spiritual blessing and make this world the most perfect and happiest spot in all the wide universe. They failed to meet their opportunity. Then the Lord transferred the possibility of world rulership from the Jews to the Gentiles. He did this by handing political power and authority to Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon. This rulership and sway of the world descended in its ordained and foretold succession down through Medo-Persia with its incorporation of Babylon, through the temporary but immensely extended empire of Greece which under Alexander included both Babylon and Medo-Persia, and after that the colossal and magic empire of Rome, swallowing up as it did the three empires or kingdoms which preceded it. Since the division of Rome into Western and Eastern empires the rulership of the world has been maintained by the various nations composed of those people dwelling in the territory once occupied by Rome. The world has been ruled by Turks, Spaniards, Germans, by the French and by the English. The Gentile nations in this special and prophetic territory have been the world rulers. It has been peculiarly Gentile rulership and in Scripture is called, “The times of the Gentiles.” Gentile times, Gentile rulership has lasted for twenty-five hundred years. It has been an amazing rule. It has been a rulership that has revealed the genius, the brilliance and the God-given powers of man. It has been a rulership that has revealed the iniquity, the sin, the mad ambition and devil-inspired policies of man. In all the twenty-five hundred years of this Gentile rule there have not been one hundred consecutive years of universal peace. It has been twenty-five hundred years of war, of rapine, murder and measureless lust. Cities have been destroyed, fields have been laid waste, women have endured the last outrage. Children have been orphaned, right has been upon the scaffold and wrong upon the throne, prison chains have been for virtue, silk and velvet for vice, civilization after civilization has been destroyed, the earth has been filled with anguish beyond the power of tongue or pen to describe, and blood enough has been shed through man’s inhumanity to man to float all the navies of the world, and money and treasure enough wasted to have provided a palace for every man and woman on earth. A little less than five years ago men everywhere were talking of peace and safety. Christianity and civilization were walking hand in hand. Christianity or that which professed to be Christianity had accepted all the claimed benefits of civilization. Rapid transit, the telephone, all the triumphs of applied science were announced as the by-products of the Gospel. Even though the churches were becoming more or less empty and the people were turning away to other centers of instruction or enlightenment or consolation or hope, preachers were everywhere and with great insistence announcing that the world was growing better every day and that we were rapidly approaching the purple and the gold of millennial times. The hour was not far distant when the lion and the lamb should lie down together. There was much talk about the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. People were coming together and having a better and more disinterested estimate of each other. Religion was ceasing to be dogmatic and precise and becoming more and more a profession that was free from restraint. Christian ministers in the pulpit and supposedly wise men in the counsels of the nations with optimistic utterance announced that the days of barbarism had passed away, the brutality of war was at an end. Men and nations would no longer adjourn their differences to the field of battle. A magnificent palace of peace had been erected in that country that had for centuries been the bloody ground where Europe settled its political issues. In this splendid home of arbitration the nations were to meet as friends and brothers and calmly arrange and solve all matters that had hitherto kept them menacingly apart. War had become so abhorrent to what was called the Christian sense of the nations that mothers were exhorted to banish from the nurseries anything that might suggest the thought of war, such as trumpets, drums or toy guns. So completely had the peace idea pervaded the mind of the people, the idea that peace had come to stay and nothing must be tolerated that would even hint at war, that a soldier or a sailor wearing the uniform of his country was no longer acceptable in a public place, were it a restaurant, a music hall or even a church. Men who were opposed to spending a dollar to make a nation ready for the possibility of war were hailed as the advanced thinkers and the men worthy of the suffrage of the people; while those who contended human nature had not been changed, that a nation was simply the individual grown large and the jealousies, the covetousness and ambitions of governments would always make it possible for the strong to prey upon the weak and for the unprincipled under the guise of national necessity to attack their unprepared neighbours and therefore just as much as a city rests in confidence with the presence within it of a well-equipped police force, equally so the comfort and security of peace could be best maintained by a nation governed by right principles whose army and navy were ready to resist successfully any unjust assault upon its honour or integrity, were treated with pity, if not scorn, as still under the spell of benighted and barbaric days. “Peace and safety!” these were the pleasant words that lulled a pleasure-seeking and money-making generation into self-satisfied rest and the mirage of millennial days already arrived. Then, suddenly, like a bolt out of a clear sky, or the overflow in raging lava tide of an unsuspected volcano, the most stupendous, ghastly and brutally devilish war the world has ever known was on in all its fiendish fury, sweeping from England to the Euphrates and from the Rhine and Danube on the north to the glittering sands of Africa on the south, rolling its waves of blood and sending its sickening and indescribable horrors through those lands and among those people at one time constituting the four kingdoms to whom God had committed the rulership of the world; that region occupied by Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome and whose administration of world affairs is called “the times of the Gentiles.” To-night ten millions of the world’s flower of manhood lie rotting in their graves. Six millions of women and children have been starved to death. Women have been unspeakably ruined, children mutilated and flung as helpless debris upon the charity of strangers, suffering their orphaned estate and not knowing why. All the genius, the science and invention of man with poured out, unlimited wealth, have been drafted to produce the most terrifically destructive means of war. All the boasted progress and culture of the preceding centuries were called upon to wage the contest until it should affright even the participants themselves. Clouds of poison gas filled the once sweet and vital air of spring time and summer mornings. Human beings wearing hideous masks and looking like other world monsters rushed in mad onslaught upon one another. They burrowed in holes and trenches like wild beasts concealed in their lair and waiting for the prey. Through the startled heavens winged things like huge vampires vomiting fire and blood took their way over cities, towns and unprotected hospitals, leaving behind them the dead, the dying and the tortured. Hunger with its sunken cheeks, and pestilence with its green eyes, its slavering lips have trod the earth till horror with wordless anguish has kept vigil by the blackened hearthstones of ruined homes and deserted firesides. To-night, the fields of Flanders where the poppies grow and where the dead who died too soon and lie almost too thick to count, are as though a mighty juggernaut had rolled its fearful wheels over them, crushing both man and earth together into one monstrous pulp of hopeless ruin. To-night France, where the lilies were wont to bloom, is torn and ripped in all the one-time beauty and fascination of her white and winding roads, poplar fringed, in the culture of her fruited gardens, her orchards and her royal forests, as though some monstrous creation of pre-Adamite days had survived and broken through all restraint of all the ages to riot and gorge himself with unlimited delight of destruction. All this after two thousand years of professed Christianity and the constant iteration that the Church was slowly winning its way to the ruler-ship of the world; that each hour the world was growing better and more and more the principles of the Christ of God dominating the universal heart of man. The world awoke to find its heart unchanged and war with aggressive animalism still the underlying and primal force in man. To-night in face of all this, in face of the solemn declaration of the Son of God that during the whole time of His absence there would be war and rumours of war, and specially within the territory once occupied by Rome; that there would be distress of nations with perplexity, men’s hearts failing them for fear for looking after the things that should be coming on the earth; that the people like the waves of the sea should be roaring, uttering their discordant voices in the thunder of protest and bitter discontent, breaking the bonds of old customs and lashing the times with lawlessness and unprecedented crime; in face of the warning of the Apostle Paul that in the last days, that is to say in the closing hours of this age, there should be, not peaceful but perilous times; that evil men should wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived; in the face of the inspired assurance of the Apostle James that as this dispensation should draw to its close Capital and Labour should stand in bitter attitude to each other; that the accumulated wealth of a special class called “rich men” should be “heaped together” that they might be spoiled and that miseries should come upon them; that on the one side should be the aggression of the profiteers and on the other the violence of those who would refuse to be exploited; in face of this assurance of industrial and class war; in face of the fact that the softest toned apostle whose pen is always transcribing the word “love,” and who has reached the highest and most sublime definition of God as love; in face of the fact that this apostle affirms the hour will come when the whole world under religious, political and devilish inspiration will rush to conflict, that everywhere will be heard the tramp of armed men and the gathering of the nations for a war such as the world has not yet seen; in face of the picture which this apostle of love paints where the armies of the world are seen gathered in battle array against the Lord Christ and His right to reign; in the face of this divine warning the statesmen of the world are assembled in counsel at Paris, the world’s capital of pleasure, in a palace once dedicated to lust and wanton self-gratification, whose panelled ceiling and mirrored walls are filled with and reflect the scenes and glorification of war, that by the stroke of a pen, by a series of resolutions, they may constitute a league of nations bulking so big that every threatened wave of future war may be flung back as when the dykes of Holland reject the sea. The astonishing and suggestive thing is that in the making and remaking of the map of Europe and Asia undertaken by the framers of the league, they are, all unconsciously, restoring the outlines of the old Roman Empire and preparing the way for the final and desperate revival of Rome under the form of ten confederate nations, with its last kaiser, that dark and woful figure, the man of sin, the son of perdition, the Antichrist. And there are Christian teachers who see in this league another herald of the millennium before Christ comes which they so sedulously preached previously to the war. They see in this league an evidence that the Lord Jesus Christ as the Prince of Peace is in reality reigning over the earth and bending the nations to His will for the reign of peace. In the whole history of theological exegesis and interpretation I know of nothing so utterly faulty, illogical and wholly unscriptural as that exegesis which teaches the angel song at Bethlehem to be the announcement of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ as the Prince of Peace and that as such He should establish it among the nations after His ascension to heaven and during His absence from the world. The angels sang glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace to “men of good will.” The angel who spoke to the shepherds keeping the temple sheep for the morning and the evening sacrifice was testifying to them that there was no longer need to keep the sheep for such a purpose. The day of animal sacrifices had passed, the living God had provided the true sacrifice, He who was born beneath the chaplet of heaven’s music, the Lamb of God ordained before the foundation of the world. He had been born into the world that He might make peace by the blood of His cross, not between man and man, not between nation and nation, but between man and God. He had been born to die and by His death reconcile a rebel world to God; on the basis of this sacrifice yet to be and when He should have risen from the dead as witness of the efficacy of His death He would bring peace to every soul that should be of good will—every soul that should surrender to the will of God by believing on Him, offering Him by faith as a sacrifice and claiming Him as a substitute. Every such soul should be at peace with, and have the peace of, God. This was the meaning of that natal hour at Bethlehem. The angels were not singing over Him as the Prince of Peace who had come to abolish war among the nations, but as the ordained sacrifice who should bring peace between the individual man and his God. And yet—He is to be the Prince of Peace and reign and rule as such over the earth, putting an end to war and establishing perfect peace among the nations. The promise of His reign and rule as the Prince of Peace is clearly set forth in Scripture; as it is written in the book of the prophet Isaiah: “Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his peace and government there shall be no end.” But when? Where? Listen: “Upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom to order it.” And hear what Gabriel says to Mary when he comes to announce to her that she has been chosen of Almighty God to give birth to the Messiah of Israel. The angel says: “Thou shalt call his name Jesus . . . He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.” He is to be the Prince of Peace when He sits upon the throne of united Israel in their own land and not before. He was born in fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah. He was a Son given. The Son of God who was God the Son. He was a Son given and became a child born. He grew up to the station of manhood. He entered upon His pre-arranged ministry. At the appointed hour and to the very second foretold by Gabriel to Daniel and in the exact manner announced by the prophet Zechariah He rode into Jerusalem, went into the temple, claiming it as His Father’s house of prayer and by so much declaring Himself to be the Son of the Highest and the heir of David’s throne. The shout of the multitude had announced Him officially. They had said: “Hosanna! Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.” In crying this aloud they were fulfilling the prediction of Zechariah. He had, under the vision of God, looked forward to this hour and with the Spirit of God upon him had exhorted the people who should be alive when Jesus should come to acclaim him. He said: “Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem; behold thy King cometh unto thee; he is just, and having salvation (political as well as spiritual salvation); lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.” The multitude were shouting as Zechariah said they should shout. They were confessing that He who came that day up the slopes of Zion was the Prince of Judah and King of Israel. He came to His own, but His own received Him not. Instead of the diadem of David He got a crown of thorns. Instead of the sceptre of Israel He got the vine stick of a Roman centurion thrust through His rope-tied hands. Instead of a throne He got a malefactor’s cross. Instead of a robe of royal purple He got the winding sheet of the dead. Instead of a palace He got a borrowed grave. The Jews have paid the price of that blindness and betrayal. The man-slayer who unwittingly slew his neighbour or was even ignorant of it at the moment sooner or later found he had to flee from the avenger of blood instantly upon his track. He became an exile from his home, forced to dwell in a provided place called the city of refuge. He could not return to his home till the second coming of a priest. The Jews were guilty, as a nation, of manslaughter. They were deceived and involved by their leaders. They really did not know that He whom they hounded to death at the last was not only the covenant king of Israel, and the Holy One of their fathers, but the Prince of life. Because of their blindness, blunder and sin they were cast out of the land. Because, even though in ignorance, they slew their King, they were exiled by the judgment of God from their home. They deprived the Lord of that land that was His through the covenant of Abraham, and the Lord in turn deprived them of the right of dwelling in the land. They should be exiles so long as He was an exile. Nor can they return till He comes the second time as a priest, not after the order of Aaron, but Melchisedec; for it is written that He shall be both a king and priest upon His throne. Only can the Jews return and be owned nationally of the Lord when He shall come. He will come and He will come as the Prince of Peace. He will not come, I repeat, with the olive branch in His hand and the cooing dove nestling upon His shoulder. Nay! not at all! He will come as the Avenger of His elect, as the Son of man, as the judge of all flesh. He will come to overthrow the combination of Devil and man. His Coming will be the climax of old and outworn ages, the beginning of the new. The glory of His Coming cannot be described. Through years of meditation and continued effort at description I have exhausted my vocabulary and worn to tatters the oft-repeated phrases with which I have sought with heart full of adoring enthusiasm to announce the wonders of that hour. If all the suns and systems were turned into speech till every flaming center of light were an adjective with increasing emphasis of qualification and expression the attempt to put into words the glory of that Coming would be a pitiful and overwhelming failure. He will come surrounded by an innumerable host whose hallelujahs shall so vibrate that the very heavens will roll apart at their soundings. The Lord will come in His threefold glory, the glory of the Father, the glory of the angels and His own glory: the glory of His eternal and unbegun sonship with the Father, as chief of the angels and as that man who is very God, as that God who is real and immortal man. Then will He set up the kingdom, the government for which the ages have dreamed and groaned and guessed and prayed. That hour of hours! Satan bound, iniquity overthrown, God and Christ and the Holy Spirit ruling in the lives of men. The very air surcharged with the righteousness of God; so surcharged that he who thinks a lie shall fall dead in the tracks where he meditated it. No longer need of judge, of jury, of prison bars, nor hangman’s rope, nor electric chair. An hour when no longer the scarlet poppies of hate, of jealousies and mad ambition shall bud and blossom into war. War over forever, swords beaten into ploughshares and spears into pruning hooks. Every man the same right as any other man, the right to sunshine, to air, to water, the beauty of the landscape and all the usufruct of earth. That hour when no man shall call another his master; when no longer a man shall toil and bend his back and break his heart for a stipend of bread; for a hole in the ground and the worm of corruption as mistress of his bed. That hour when life shall be worth while and when the centuries of peace and perfectness of actual being shall pass on till they are counted as eternity. And because this government of peace and splendour and all the outflowing possibilities of a world in which righteousness shall reign and God shall be first can be brought about only by and at the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; because until He does so come wars and sorrows and the darkness of sin will continue; because all the legislation of man and all the leagues of nations will utterly fail to establish permanent peace; because in spite of the best endeavours of all the merely moral forces in the earth there is nothing can keep this system called the world from going on the rocks; because only the hand of God’s Christ can break the bands of iniquity, quiet earth’s fever pulses and putting down all authority bring in the peace that never can be broken; because when He comes the government of right and truth and the life that is really worth while shall come; and because from my heart I want to see that longed-for hour of heaven on earth, I preach the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 65: 03.08. THE COMING OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST FOR HIS CHURCH IS THE MOST IMMINENT EVENT ... ======================================================================== VIII The Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ for His Church is the Most Imminent Event on the Horizon of Time BETWEEN us and the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in glory to Mount Zion to set up and establish His kingdom there are many predicted and consecutively fixed events. Between us and the moment when our Lord shall suddenly and secretly descend to take the Church to Himself into the place prepared, hold her in security above the woe hour coming on all them that dwell on the face of the earth and then bring her back to reign and rule with Him in glory, there is not a single, predicted event; and this—in the very nature of the case. In the nature of the case because this age in which we live is a parenthesis between the kingdom postponed upon the one side and the kingdom to be brought in upon the other. In this age God is not seeking to convert the world, but to take out of it a people for His Name. It is an age of selection and therefore an age of election. When you take some things out of the midst of other things there will be, not only a first one, but necessarily a last one. As there was a first one elected, called out and taken into union with a risen Lord, so must there be a last one who shall be called through the Gospel, quickened by the Spirit and bound up in indissoluble union with a living Lord. When that last one is called and responds to the life-giving power of the Spirit the Lord will descend into the upper air and take the completed and corporate Church to Himself—the dead raised, the living changed. When that last elect one will be called you do not know, it is not known to a single soul on earth. Since you do not know when the last elect of God shall be called, and it is sure the Lord will come when that last elect one is called, then you do not know when the Lord will come; and so far as you are concerned, and so far as any revelation otherwise is given, it may be any hour and, therefore,“any moment”; consequently the Coming of the Lord for His Church is—imminent. Thus the imminency of the Lord’s Coming for His Church is grounded on election. Imminency is so absolutely linked up with election that you cannot deny imminency without denying election; and to deny election is to deny God Himself, deny Him in the very essence of His own prerogative, the prerogative of foreordination, of decree. The imminency of the Lord’s Coming for His Church is grounded on the Lord’s own declaration that He is coming for her as a thief comes. This is His declaration and warning to the Church at Sardis, that Church which is the symbol of Protestantism in the closing hours of the age. The warning is given to the pastor, through the pastor to the Church and through the local assembly at Sardis to the whole Church. This is what the risen Lord actually says: “Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard; and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will arrive over thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will arrive over thee.” The characteristics of thief coming are marked and clear. The thief does not come with strident voice, with thunderous noise, nor in open daylight, but between the midnight and the morn, with shodden feet, silently, softly, and takes the treasure while all in the house are sunken in the depths of sleep. When the sunbeams of the morning pelt the eyelids of the laggard sleepers they awake to find the thief has come and gone and in his going has taken the treasure with him. If the symbol be of avail and not a mere exercise in logomachy then will the Lord, indeed, descend in the moral and spiritual night of the world while men are sleeping and in fancied security pleasantly dreaming. He will descend unseen, unnoted. If men shall hear the sound of a trump it will have no greater significance to their spiritually deaf ears than any other passing sound. He will take, not the “great house” of religious profession, but those alone in that profession who have been regenerated and are indwelt by the Spirit, the dead who have fallen asleep in His name and the living who abide in Him. Above all—imminency is grounded in the integrity of the Son of God and His apostles. Unless all language is a deception; unless the promises of God are a baited lie; unless the apostles of Christ are the most shameless of all wanton tricksters; unless the Son of God Himself is the coolest traitor to truth who ever fooled the trusting hearts of needy men; unless He is the one being of all others who had the subtle and effective genius of making promises that fill the ear and are broken to the heart; unless He was the most skillful of all deceivers and rejoiced with malignant delight in deceiving the souls of men and thus proved Himself to be not the Son of God at all but the very son of falsehood, then seeing He is the reverse of all that, is in truth the very Son of God and truth itself, by His own unqualified statement, by its very character as exhortative warning His Coming must be and is—imminent. It is on the threshold of unfolding history and the gates of heaven are ajar ready for His Coming. So imminent is it that there is nothing between us and that event of events but the shout of command, the voice of the archangel and the shattering sound of the trump. So imminent that there is not the thickness of an eyelash between us and that moment when the door in heaven shall open wide and His voice with all compelling power shall say, “Come up hither.” Listen to what He says: “Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.” Watch! because He is coming. Watch! because you do not know what hour He will come. Watch! because as the householder He said He might come in any one of the four watches, at even, at midnight, in the cockcrowing or in the morning. He did not come at even. Surely the midnight has come. It is dark enough spiritually. There is not only enough of sorrow, sin, confusion and unbelief in a godless world, but rank treason to the truth and repudiation of the written Word in the professing Church to call it spiritual midnight. It seems sometimes like the cockcrowing. There are sounds of chanticleer, blasts of trumpets, changing of the guards and sentinels of old customs and ways, and echoes in the events now unrolling that prelude the great morning and the great day. There is nothing certain about the hour but its—uncertainty. Watch! because you may be alive at His Coming. That is the word of Holy Scripture and not my suggestion. Listen to the Apostle: “We which are alive, and remain unto the coming of the Lord.” The Apostle said that for his generation. He said it not under his own mistaken idea as the Chicago department of “sacred literature” would suggest, but under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of the Holy God. Paul as a mere man might make mistakes just as the modern theological professor not infrequently does. The Holy Spirit speaking through Paul could not make a mistake Himself, neither could it be possible for Paul under the direction of the Holy Spirit to make a mistake. Paul was led by the Holy Spirit to believe it possible the Son of God might come in his day. What Paul under inspiration said for his generation, he said for our generation. He said it for you and for me. Because no man knows the hour when the Lord will come it might be in your hour and my hour. The Master Himself said: “You know not what hour your Lord doth come.” Who is he who will have the hardihood to fix the hour when the Master has said no man knows? Who is he who will put a thousand years between the Church and her returning Lord? Where is the difference between a thousand years’delay and one moment that can be fixed by any man? If the Lord says you do not know the hour and necessarily do not know the minute of the hour, if you fix a minute between us and the Coming you deny the words of the Son of God Himself that the minute and the hour are unknown. Who is he who has it all fixed and polished and pumice stoned to the exact date? The Lord has said no man on earth knows, not an angel in heaven knows. He Himself took the place of a servant and by the exercise of His omnipotent will residing in His eternal and unchanged personality as Son of God and God the Son, shut out the knowledge of it from His humanity, from Himself as man, and said He did not know when He should come. Admit that a revelation has since been given to Him as a man or that He has taken the ban off His human side Himself and that He knows when He will come for the Church and the exact hour of His appearing in glory; admit this if you like and for the sake of argument (although there is not the slightest shade of a shadow of evidence for such an argument) it still remains that no such revelation has ever been given to the Church; neither has the restriction of the Son of God to His disciples been removed. You remember what He said just before He ascended! This is what He said: “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.” That this restriction was for the Church is the declaration of the Apostle. This is what he said to the Church at Thessalonica: “Of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.” Why had he no need to write to them? Because the day of the Lord, he said, should come as a thief, and as that day is introduced by the Coming of the Lord for His Church, then His coming for the Church was, as He Himself afterwards declared in his letter to Sardis, like the coming of a thief. This Coming Paul had described in the fourth chapter of his first letter to the Thessalonians. It was not for the Church to know in Paul’s day when the Lord should come as the bridegroom for His bride. No revelation has been given in any epistle to the Church since. What was true in Paul’s day as to the attitude of the Church is true in this day. Listen to the commended attitude of the Thessalonian Church: “Ye turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God; and to wait for his Son from heaven.” There you have it. The Church is to wait; that means to watch, to expect, to be ready. This is what the Apostle said. This is what the Son of God Himself said and still says to-day. He affirms we do not know the hour. He exhorts us to watch. The affirmation and the exhortation hold for this hour. If therefore the Son of God be not incarnate falsehood; if He seek not to play with my heart and make me a spectacle to the lost souls of the pit as well as to the mockers among men—He means what He said. If He meant what He said, then He means that any day, and any hour of the day so far as I know I may meet Him at any turn of the road. And what would that mean if He should come to-night or to-morrow? I have told you what it would mean to me. What would it mean to you, to some of you who have so much invested in Laurel Hill, in that white and beautiful city of the dead, by the banks of your winding river? When I was a boy my father took me there and I watched as the winds rippled through the long grasses, and I could hear the wash of the river below, I was startled and sometimes shivered as I walked under the shadow of tall monuments, carved figures, and by stately tombs of marble. And once I started back and broke into tears at the sight of the sculptured form of “Old Mortality” bending above a slab with chisel and mallet in hand—and I suppose is there still, grown older in his stony face because more stained with the passing years. What would it mean to you whose loved ones are lying in that cemetery or any other of the sleeping places of the dead? Ah! it would mean the home-coming, the greeting, the rapturous kiss and hand-clasp of recognition, the joy of that heaven life that shall know no end and that immortality that shall compensate for all the weariness and the heartache of the mortal path here below. Yes! it would mean to those of us who by faith in Christ Jesus are children of the living God, the gathering to our arms again of those who have left us and for whom our arms still ache to enfold them once more. And O my soul! it would mean the seeing of Him whom our soul loveth and who unfailingly has loved us; it would mean that boon of boons—seeing Him face to face. Do you wonder the Holy Spirit who is the finger of God has written over against the word “hope,” that qualification,“blessed,” and affixed to it the demonstrative, “that,” so it doth read: “That blessed hope”? And yet! and yet! there are men who call themselves the ministers of Christ who would blot out that hope and take away the vision of it from our souls. With cold, acute, metallic voices in which you may hear the sound of the wheels of machinery and the buzz of business, they tell us that should the Lord suddenly come it would paralyze all industry, put an end to commerce and to trade, overthrow all progress, make worthless every high endeavour for the betterment of man, shut the doors of school, of college and university, render useless the architect’s and builder’s plans, throw down the mechanic’s tools, the artist’s brush, the sculptor’s chisel, the writer’s pen, still the orator’s tongue, make null and void the legislator’s high emprise and draw a line of atrophy across the unfolding processes of human life. Oh, foolish, blind and slow to believe, do you not see that if the Lord should come it would lift our so-called civilization out of the slime and shame of its brazen folly and reeking, though perfumed sin into the glory of eternal righteousness and peace? Do you not see that it would, at last, make men immortal and give them such beauty of form, such sanity and such culture and worth of being as all the gymnasia and all the eugenics of the hour have failed and will ever fail to achieve? Do you not see that if the Lord should suddenly come it would at once open the gates of knowledge and bring us face to face with the secrets of the universe and make us masters under God of all natural laws such as all the curriculæ of all the institutions of learning, of applied science and philosophy have failed to impart? Do you not see it would be the fulfillment of the highest ideals and aspirations and would make man what the creator of heaven and earth originally intended man should be—not an animal working with tools and breaking his heart in vain finally to achieve—but a very God who should speak and it should be done, command and it should stand fast; and who should be the incarnate revelation, the eternal enthronement of the invisible God, in power, in character and holiness? Do you not see it would change this old earth from the swinging cemetery of the dead into the home of deathless men, the home of the eternal and worth-while life? Oh, listen to me all who hear me! The hope for this world of daily toil and tears, of graves and unceasing tragedy, of pitiful woe, is not that slow creeping thing called evolution, wallowing on its serpentine belly amid the dust of death and the crime and sin of unchanged and unchangeable human nature—but God Himself—God in Christ, the personal Coming of Him who is the maker of heaven and earth, coming to bring in the new dawn, the new day, the new earth and the new empire of God and man. Oh, tell me those of you who have been redeemed by blood, regenerated by the Spirit, made partakers of the divine nature, turned heavenward by the power of God, who see cloudless daylight in the Bible, even in the darkness of a spiritual night, hear music in its promises and whose souls are filled with love to God and love to man, tell me would you like Him to come, would you like to see your Lord face to face? Oh, you who have had the vision of His cross behold it, I beseech you, there! The head crowned with thorns, the nailed hands, the nailed feet, the pierced side, the blood pouring out of those hands, gliding round His body, weaving itself in its sinuous course over the white flesh into a robe of crimson, and then streaming out into a fringe of intense scarlet as it drops, drop by drop to the thirsty ground, dripping, dripping there. Oh, I can see it and I seem to feel the warm touch of it, the strange, the wonderful cleansing touch of it, the only thing that can make a blackened sinner white; and as it drops each drop seems to say till it turns to very music in the soul: “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Listen to the dropping of that blood out of the heart of God, every drop the price current of the merchant, the half shekel of the sanctuary, the purchase price of your redemption and mine and the seal of infinite love, of measureless grace. Oh, tell me would you like Him to come, transfigure you into the beauty of His likeness and put the benediction of His peace upon this old sin-smitten, tear-stained earth? Do you ever pray the last prayer recorded in Holy Scripture, the last prayer of the Holy Apostolic Church? Listen to it! Listen to it well! “Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” Is this prayer in your heart? Does it ever come to your lips? Do you ever genuinely and openly offer it, wishing with all your heart it might be so, might be answered in your time; or, have you forgotten it like the Church at large? Do you feel ashamed or afraid to offer it in public? When you try to offer it in private or public does unbelief smother it? I once heard a boy say to his mother: “O mother, don’t do so much for me; love me more.” I tell you the truth whether you hear or forbear: as preachers and teachers many of you are doing too much for the Lord. You are busy, morning, noon and night in His name, running here and there, tinkering religiously and morally, putting things together and increasingly active; so busy doing for the Lord that like Martha you have no time to sit still at His feet as did Mary and hear His Word, hear what He has to say to you; so busy doing for Him that you are losing sight of Himself. This was the“somewhat” He had against the Ephesian Church. That Church was full of works and labours. They had tested false doctrines and false teachers. They stood squarely for fundamentals and were theologically sound; but they had left their “first love,” love to Himself, love to His person, devotion to His person, a flaming, outbreaking, overflowing enthusiasm for a personal, a realistic Saviour and Lord. They were taken up with what they were doing for Him rather than with Himself. They had got away from the loving, impelling touch and contact with Himself. The personal touch with Christ! That is what He wants from us. Not so much what we are doing for Him, but what He is to us personally. He wants to be the first and the last, the chiefest among ten thousands and the one altogether lovely. This is the definition of true and efficient Christianity—personal devotion to a living and loving Saviour. Looking down from heaven He is saying to us, no matter how much we may be doing for Him, He is saying this to us: “Love me more.” And until there is this flaming, burning, out-flowing enthusiasm for and devotion to a personal Lord, to Him for what He is as well as for what He has done for us, there can be no sweeping, wide, resultant revival and ingathering of the elect of God. You may plan and organize and get together, you will have only a flame that will flare for a time and then go out. Nay! only when we are on fire for Him can we make the hearts of men to burn with the faith that shall turn them to Him and make them hate and forsake whatever does not honour and glorify Him. Over all the noise and rush of things, and all the machinery well motived men sometimes set going in His name He is saying: “Love me more! love me more!” When some one you love with this intense personal love is absent you are not satisfied till that absent one returns, fills your vision and responds to the touch of your greeting and your love. If you love the very person of the Son of God; if you have a quivering, all-pervading enthusiasm for Him so that He is, indeed, above all personalities in the universe to you, you will want Him to return where you may look upon Him—not as Thomas did for doubt’s sake and stumbling hope’s sake—but for the very joy of it until the print of the nails in His hand and the print of the nails in His feet shall be to you as the apocalypse of His glory and the illumination of your soul. Do you really want Him to come—this long absent Redeemer and Lord? He is listening to hear whether you want Him to come; whether above every plan and scheme you may have been building in His name; above any religious, even spiritual ambition you may have, you want Him to come for—Himself. He is very still. He is listening to hear whether you will say that one little word that has in it such vibrant meaning, that one word: “Come.” The Church as a Church has long ago ceased to say—“Come.” But the old prayer is still written here in the closing page of Holy Scripture: “Amen. Even so, Come, Lord Jesus.” Are you willing to-night to put your faith and your heart into that old prayer and bid Him come? Have you the faith and sincerity to do it? You say, “Yes.” Then rise to your feet as one person and say that prayer as I line it out to you until it shall roll upward like a wave on the infinite shore and break on our Lord’s listening ears with the music of love’s unfailing appeal: “Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” In response to Dr. Haldeman the great audience filling the building from pit to dome rose to its feet as in a flash and repeated the prayer as he gave it out. It was a moving sight and full of impression as the mighty volume of united voices rose and swelled upward to that throne where our Lord sits as Bridegroom as well as King and yearns in these days to hear His true Bride in all the wonder of her spiritual beauty and the strength of her essential unity say—“Come.” ======================================================================== CHAPTER 66: 03.08. THE COMING OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST FOR HIS CHURCH IS THE MOST IMMINENT EVENT ... ======================================================================== VIII The Coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ for His Church is the Most Imminent Event on the Horizon of Time BETWEEN us and the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in glory to Mount Zion to set up and establish His kingdom there are many predicted and consecutively fixed events. Between us and the moment when our Lord shall suddenly and secretly descend to take the Church to Himself into the place prepared, hold her in security above the woe hour coming on all them that dwell on the face of the earth and then bring her back to reign and rule with Him in glory, there is not a single, predicted event; and this—in the very nature of the case. In the nature of the case because this age in which we live is a parenthesis between the kingdom postponed upon the one side and the kingdom to be brought in upon the other. In this age God is not seeking to convert the world, but to take out of it a people for His Name. It is an age of selection and therefore an age of election. When you take some things out of the midst of other things there will be, not only a first one, but necessarily a last one. As there was a first one elected, called out and taken into union with a risen Lord, so must there be a last one who shall be called through the Gospel, quickened by the Spirit and bound up in indissoluble union with a living Lord. When that last one is called and responds to the life-giving power of the Spirit the Lord will descend into the upper air and take the completed and corporate Church to Himself—the dead raised, the living changed. When that last elect one will be called you do not know, it is not known to a single soul on earth. Since you do not know when the last elect of God shall be called, and it is sure the Lord will come when that last elect one is called, then you do not know when the Lord will come; and so far as you are concerned, and so far as any revelation otherwise is given, it may be any hour and, therefore,“any moment”; consequently the Coming of the Lord for His Church is—imminent. Thus the imminency of the Lord’s Coming for His Church is grounded on election. Imminency is so absolutely linked up with election that you cannot deny imminency without denying election; and to deny election is to deny God Himself, deny Him in the very essence of His own prerogative, the prerogative of foreordination, of decree. The imminency of the Lord’s Coming for His Church is grounded on the Lord’s own declaration that He is coming for her as a thief comes. This is His declaration and warning to the Church at Sardis, that Church which is the symbol of Protestantism in the closing hours of the age. The warning is given to the pastor, through the pastor to the Church and through the local assembly at Sardis to the whole Church. This is what the risen Lord actually says: “Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard; and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will arrive over thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will arrive over thee.” The characteristics of thief coming are marked and clear. The thief does not come with strident voice, with thunderous noise, nor in open daylight, but between the midnight and the morn, with shodden feet, silently, softly, and takes the treasure while all in the house are sunken in the depths of sleep. When the sunbeams of the morning pelt the eyelids of the laggard sleepers they awake to find the thief has come and gone and in his going has taken the treasure with him. If the symbol be of avail and not a mere exercise in logomachy then will the Lord, indeed, descend in the moral and spiritual night of the world while men are sleeping and in fancied security pleasantly dreaming. He will descend unseen, unnoted. If men shall hear the sound of a trump it will have no greater significance to their spiritually deaf ears than any other passing sound. He will take, not the “great house” of religious profession, but those alone in that profession who have been regenerated and are indwelt by the Spirit, the dead who have fallen asleep in His name and the living who abide in Him. Above all—imminency is grounded in the integrity of the Son of God and His apostles. Unless all language is a deception; unless the promises of God are a baited lie; unless the apostles of Christ are the most shameless of all wanton tricksters; unless the Son of God Himself is the coolest traitor to truth who ever fooled the trusting hearts of needy men; unless He is the one being of all others who had the subtle and effective genius of making promises that fill the ear and are broken to the heart; unless He was the most skillful of all deceivers and rejoiced with malignant delight in deceiving the souls of men and thus proved Himself to be not the Son of God at all but the very son of falsehood, then seeing He is the reverse of all that, is in truth the very Son of God and truth itself, by His own unqualified statement, by its very character as exhortative warning His Coming must be and is—imminent. It is on the threshold of unfolding history and the gates of heaven are ajar ready for His Coming. So imminent is it that there is nothing between us and that event of events but the shout of command, the voice of the archangel and the shattering sound of the trump. So imminent that there is not the thickness of an eyelash between us and that moment when the door in heaven shall open wide and His voice with all compelling power shall say, “Come up hither.” Listen to what He says: “Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.” Watch! because He is coming. Watch! because you do not know what hour He will come. Watch! because as the householder He said He might come in any one of the four watches, at even, at midnight, in the cockcrowing or in the morning. He did not come at even. Surely the midnight has come. It is dark enough spiritually. There is not only enough of sorrow, sin, confusion and unbelief in a godless world, but rank treason to the truth and repudiation of the written Word in the professing Church to call it spiritual midnight. It seems sometimes like the cockcrowing. There are sounds of chanticleer, blasts of trumpets, changing of the guards and sentinels of old customs and ways, and echoes in the events now unrolling that prelude the great morning and the great day. There is nothing certain about the hour but its—uncertainty. Watch! because you may be alive at His Coming. That is the word of Holy Scripture and not my suggestion. Listen to the Apostle: “We which are alive, and remain unto the coming of the Lord.” The Apostle said that for his generation. He said it not under his own mistaken idea as the Chicago department of “sacred literature” would suggest, but under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of the Holy God. Paul as a mere man might make mistakes just as the modern theological professor not infrequently does. The Holy Spirit speaking through Paul could not make a mistake Himself, neither could it be possible for Paul under the direction of the Holy Spirit to make a mistake. Paul was led by the Holy Spirit to believe it possible the Son of God might come in his day. What Paul under inspiration said for his generation, he said for our generation. He said it for you and for me. Because no man knows the hour when the Lord will come it might be in your hour and my hour. The Master Himself said: “You know not what hour your Lord doth come.” Who is he who will have the hardihood to fix the hour when the Master has said no man knows? Who is he who will put a thousand years between the Church and her returning Lord? Where is the difference between a thousand years’delay and one moment that can be fixed by any man? If the Lord says you do not know the hour and necessarily do not know the minute of the hour, if you fix a minute between us and the Coming you deny the words of the Son of God Himself that the minute and the hour are unknown. Who is he who has it all fixed and polished and pumice stoned to the exact date? The Lord has said no man on earth knows, not an angel in heaven knows. He Himself took the place of a servant and by the exercise of His omnipotent will residing in His eternal and unchanged personality as Son of God and God the Son, shut out the knowledge of it from His humanity, from Himself as man, and said He did not know when He should come. Admit that a revelation has since been given to Him as a man or that He has taken the ban off His human side Himself and that He knows when He will come for the Church and the exact hour of His appearing in glory; admit this if you like and for the sake of argument (although there is not the slightest shade of a shadow of evidence for such an argument) it still remains that no such revelation has ever been given to the Church; neither has the restriction of the Son of God to His disciples been removed. You remember what He said just before He ascended! This is what He said: “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.” That this restriction was for the Church is the declaration of the Apostle. This is what he said to the Church at Thessalonica: “Of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you.” Why had he no need to write to them? Because the day of the Lord, he said, should come as a thief, and as that day is introduced by the Coming of the Lord for His Church, then His coming for the Church was, as He Himself afterwards declared in his letter to Sardis, like the coming of a thief. This Coming Paul had described in the fourth chapter of his first letter to the Thessalonians. It was not for the Church to know in Paul’s day when the Lord should come as the bridegroom for His bride. No revelation has been given in any epistle to the Church since. What was true in Paul’s day as to the attitude of the Church is true in this day. Listen to the commended attitude of the Thessalonian Church: “Ye turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God; and to wait for his Son from heaven.” There you have it. The Church is to wait; that means to watch, to expect, to be ready. This is what the Apostle said. This is what the Son of God Himself said and still says to-day. He affirms we do not know the hour. He exhorts us to watch. The affirmation and the exhortation hold for this hour. If therefore the Son of God be not incarnate falsehood; if He seek not to play with my heart and make me a spectacle to the lost souls of the pit as well as to the mockers among men—He means what He said. If He meant what He said, then He means that any day, and any hour of the day so far as I know I may meet Him at any turn of the road. And what would that mean if He should come to-night or to-morrow? I have told you what it would mean to me. What would it mean to you, to some of you who have so much invested in Laurel Hill, in that white and beautiful city of the dead, by the banks of your winding river? When I was a boy my father took me there and I watched as the winds rippled through the long grasses, and I could hear the wash of the river below, I was startled and sometimes shivered as I walked under the shadow of tall monuments, carved figures, and by stately tombs of marble. And once I started back and broke into tears at the sight of the sculptured form of “Old Mortality” bending above a slab with chisel and mallet in hand—and I suppose is there still, grown older in his stony face because more stained with the passing years. What would it mean to you whose loved ones are lying in that cemetery or any other of the sleeping places of the dead? Ah! it would mean the home-coming, the greeting, the rapturous kiss and hand-clasp of recognition, the joy of that heaven life that shall know no end and that immortality that shall compensate for all the weariness and the heartache of the mortal path here below. Yes! it would mean to those of us who by faith in Christ Jesus are children of the living God, the gathering to our arms again of those who have left us and for whom our arms still ache to enfold them once more. And O my soul! it would mean the seeing of Him whom our soul loveth and who unfailingly has loved us; it would mean that boon of boons—seeing Him face to face. Do you wonder the Holy Spirit who is the finger of God has written over against the word “hope,” that qualification,“blessed,” and affixed to it the demonstrative, “that,” so it doth read: “That blessed hope”? And yet! and yet! there are men who call themselves the ministers of Christ who would blot out that hope and take away the vision of it from our souls. With cold, acute, metallic voices in which you may hear the sound of the wheels of machinery and the buzz of business, they tell us that should the Lord suddenly come it would paralyze all industry, put an end to commerce and to trade, overthrow all progress, make worthless every high endeavour for the betterment of man, shut the doors of school, of college and university, render useless the architect’s and builder’s plans, throw down the mechanic’s tools, the artist’s brush, the sculptor’s chisel, the writer’s pen, still the orator’s tongue, make null and void the legislator’s high emprise and draw a line of atrophy across the unfolding processes of human life. Oh, foolish, blind and slow to believe, do you not see that if the Lord should come it would lift our so-called civilization out of the slime and shame of its brazen folly and reeking, though perfumed sin into the glory of eternal righteousness and peace? Do you not see that it would, at last, make men immortal and give them such beauty of form, such sanity and such culture and worth of being as all the gymnasia and all the eugenics of the hour have failed and will ever fail to achieve? Do you not see that if the Lord should suddenly come it would at once open the gates of knowledge and bring us face to face with the secrets of the universe and make us masters under God of all natural laws such as all the curriculæ of all the institutions of learning, of applied science and philosophy have failed to impart? Do you not see it would be the fulfillment of the highest ideals and aspirations and would make man what the creator of heaven and earth originally intended man should be—not an animal working with tools and breaking his heart in vain finally to achieve—but a very God who should speak and it should be done, command and it should stand fast; and who should be the incarnate revelation, the eternal enthronement of the invisible God, in power, in character and holiness? Do you not see it would change this old earth from the swinging cemetery of the dead into the home of deathless men, the home of the eternal and worth-while life? Oh, listen to me all who hear me! The hope for this world of daily toil and tears, of graves and unceasing tragedy, of pitiful woe, is not that slow creeping thing called evolution, wallowing on its serpentine belly amid the dust of death and the crime and sin of unchanged and unchangeable human nature—but God Himself—God in Christ, the personal Coming of Him who is the maker of heaven and earth, coming to bring in the new dawn, the new day, the new earth and the new empire of God and man. Oh, tell me those of you who have been redeemed by blood, regenerated by the Spirit, made partakers of the divine nature, turned heavenward by the power of God, who see cloudless daylight in the Bible, even in the darkness of a spiritual night, hear music in its promises and whose souls are filled with love to God and love to man, tell me would you like Him to come, would you like to see your Lord face to face? Oh, you who have had the vision of His cross behold it, I beseech you, there! The head crowned with thorns, the nailed hands, the nailed feet, the pierced side, the blood pouring out of those hands, gliding round His body, weaving itself in its sinuous course over the white flesh into a robe of crimson, and then streaming out into a fringe of intense scarlet as it drops, drop by drop to the thirsty ground, dripping, dripping there. Oh, I can see it and I seem to feel the warm touch of it, the strange, the wonderful cleansing touch of it, the only thing that can make a blackened sinner white; and as it drops each drop seems to say till it turns to very music in the soul: “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Listen to the dropping of that blood out of the heart of God, every drop the price current of the merchant, the half shekel of the sanctuary, the purchase price of your redemption and mine and the seal of infinite love, of measureless grace. Oh, tell me would you like Him to come, transfigure you into the beauty of His likeness and put the benediction of His peace upon this old sin-smitten, tear-stained earth? Do you ever pray the last prayer recorded in Holy Scripture, the last prayer of the Holy Apostolic Church? Listen to it! Listen to it well! “Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” Is this prayer in your heart? Does it ever come to your lips? Do you ever genuinely and openly offer it, wishing with all your heart it might be so, might be answered in your time; or, have you forgotten it like the Church at large? Do you feel ashamed or afraid to offer it in public? When you try to offer it in private or public does unbelief smother it? I once heard a boy say to his mother: “O mother, don’t do so much for me; love me more.” I tell you the truth whether you hear or forbear: as preachers and teachers many of you are doing too much for the Lord. You are busy, morning, noon and night in His name, running here and there, tinkering religiously and morally, putting things together and increasingly active; so busy doing for the Lord that like Martha you have no time to sit still at His feet as did Mary and hear His Word, hear what He has to say to you; so busy doing for Him that you are losing sight of Himself. This was the“somewhat” He had against the Ephesian Church. That Church was full of works and labours. They had tested false doctrines and false teachers. They stood squarely for fundamentals and were theologically sound; but they had left their “first love,” love to Himself, love to His person, devotion to His person, a flaming, outbreaking, overflowing enthusiasm for a personal, a realistic Saviour and Lord. They were taken up with what they were doing for Him rather than with Himself. They had got away from the loving, impelling touch and contact with Himself. The personal touch with Christ! That is what He wants from us. Not so much what we are doing for Him, but what He is to us personally. He wants to be the first and the last, the chiefest among ten thousands and the one altogether lovely. This is the definition of true and efficient Christianity—personal devotion to a living and loving Saviour. Looking down from heaven He is saying to us, no matter how much we may be doing for Him, He is saying this to us: “Love me more.” And until there is this flaming, burning, out-flowing enthusiasm for and devotion to a personal Lord, to Him for what He is as well as for what He has done for us, there can be no sweeping, wide, resultant revival and ingathering of the elect of God. You may plan and organize and get together, you will have only a flame that will flare for a time and then go out. Nay! only when we are on fire for Him can we make the hearts of men to burn with the faith that shall turn them to Him and make them hate and forsake whatever does not honour and glorify Him. Over all the noise and rush of things, and all the machinery well motived men sometimes set going in His name He is saying: “Love me more! love me more!” When some one you love with this intense personal love is absent you are not satisfied till that absent one returns, fills your vision and responds to the touch of your greeting and your love. If you love the very person of the Son of God; if you have a quivering, all-pervading enthusiasm for Him so that He is, indeed, above all personalities in the universe to you, you will want Him to return where you may look upon Him—not as Thomas did for doubt’s sake and stumbling hope’s sake—but for the very joy of it until the print of the nails in His hand and the print of the nails in His feet shall be to you as the apocalypse of His glory and the illumination of your soul. Do you really want Him to come—this long absent Redeemer and Lord? He is listening to hear whether you want Him to come; whether above every plan and scheme you may have been building in His name; above any religious, even spiritual ambition you may have, you want Him to come for—Himself. He is very still. He is listening to hear whether you will say that one little word that has in it such vibrant meaning, that one word: “Come.” The Church as a Church has long ago ceased to say—“Come.” But the old prayer is still written here in the closing page of Holy Scripture: “Amen. Even so, Come, Lord Jesus.” Are you willing to-night to put your faith and your heart into that old prayer and bid Him come? Have you the faith and sincerity to do it? You say, “Yes.” Then rise to your feet as one person and say that prayer as I line it out to you until it shall roll upward like a wave on the infinite shore and break on our Lord’s listening ears with the music of love’s unfailing appeal: “Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” In response to Dr. Haldeman the great audience filling the building from pit to dome rose to its feet as in a flash and repeated the prayer as he gave it out. It was a moving sight and full of impression as the mighty volume of united voices rose and swelled upward to that throne where our Lord sits as Bridegroom as well as King and yearns in these days to hear His true Bride in all the wonder of her spiritual beauty and the strength of her essential unity say—“Come.” ======================================================================== CHAPTER 67: S. THE SCARLET WOMAN OR THE REVIVAL OF ROMANISM ======================================================================== The Scarlet Woman or The Revival of Romanism By I.M. Haldeman, D.D. [Editor’s note:- Dr. Haldeman was one of the great fundamental prophets of the early 20th century. This sermon, which we reprint here, was preached in 1910 in the First Baptist Church, New York City, and indicates his vision and understanding of the anti-Christianity of the Church of Rome. His comment on world events of the time makes it unique and gives us an insight into Biblical Christian thinking in the early years of the last decade of the Millennium. We believe that such preaching against Popery needs to be resurrected and a new era of opportunity created to alert those who have been almost overcome by the false opinions of Rome. When these sermons were first published, the preacher said: "I am convinced that the ’signs of the times’ call for a reading and study in this hour as never before. Heaven, and earth, and hell - the professing church, the nations, and, now and then, the clanging of nature’s forces, bid us realise that we are on the threshold where the shifting of events, at any moment, may usher in that vast and solemn process, whose terminus ad quem is the Coming and Kingdom of the Son of God." - If this was so at the beginning of our century, how much more now as it ends!] "So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. "And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones, and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: "And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. "And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her I wondered with great admiration. [...] And the woman which thou sawest is that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth." (Revelation 17:1-6, Revelation 17:18.) A woman in scripture is a symbol of the church. The church, under the figure of a woman, is first espoused, and then presented, as a chaste virgin to Christ. "I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ." (2 Corinthians 11:12.) What is written to the Corinthian church is written to "all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours". (1 Corinthians 1:2.) The announcement of the virginal character of the Corinthian church in its standing before God is an affirmation as to the standing of the church in "every place", necessarily in all time, and, therefore, of the church everywhere, and in our time. It is a symbol of the church universal. The woman is the church. The church is also symbolised by a city. "And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife. "And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God." (Revelation 21:9, Revelation 21:10.) The Lamb is our Lord Jesus Christ. The bride, the Lamb’s wife, when espoused and presented to Him, must have been a chaste virgin. The chaste virgin espoused and presented by Paul to Christ, is the church. As the holy city is the bride of Christ, His wife and, in the nature of the case, must have been espoused and presented to Him as a chaste Virgin, and the chaste virgin when so espoused and presented becomes a bride, a wife, then the holy city, the bride, the Lamb’s wife, the wife of Christ, is a symbol of the church. A chaste virgin, a bride, a wife, is a woman; and as the city is the symbol of a wife, then the city is the symbol of a woman. As the woman is the symbol of the church, and the church is symbolised by a city, then the woman is, also, a symbol of the city. The woman is a symbol of the city, the city is a symbol of the woman, and both the woman and the city are symbols of the church; and thus, whether it be a woman or a city, the one identifies the other. But it is evident that while the woman is exclusively a symbol, and not a real woman, the city is both a symbol and an actual city. The city is a symbol. The city is the symbol of a woman, and as a woman is an organised body, and is the symbol of the church, then the city is the symbol of the church as an organised body, a polity, a system. The city is actual. A city consists of people and the place in which people dwell. The church as an organised body, a polity, a system, consists of people and, as such, must have a place to dwell. When, therefore, the Apostle John in vision sees the holy city as the bride, the Lamb’s wife, he sees that city both as the people and the place in which they dwell; and the name of the city includes them both. Just as New York signifies the people and the city in which they dwell, so the holy city, the New Jerusalem, signifies the church as a polity, a system, a body of people, and the real and actual place, the real and actual city in which, as real and actual people, they shall dwell, and from whence they shall shine forth as the glorified bride of Christ, the triumphant wife of the Lamb. In the scripture quoted at the head of this article we have the picture of a woman, and this woman declared to be a city. What is true of the woman who is the Lamb’s bride, who is also a city, is equally true of this woman who is called a city. The woman is exclusively a symbol, she is not a real woman; the city is both symbolic and actual. By the preceding evidence of symbolry this scarlet-clad woman and the city, where of necessity she must be centralised, where she must dwell, and from which she must be manifested in her power, both represent a church. But this woman and this city stand in terrific contrast to the woman and city which set forth the church of Christ. They contrast and contradict each other. The church is represented by a chaste virgin. This woman is a bedizened harlot, and is called in plain speech, "the whore." The church is espoused to one husband. This woman holds promiscuous commerce with the kings of the earth. The church is the mystery of godliness. This woman is "MYSTERY, BABYLON". The church is called "the pillar and ground of the truth." This woman is called "Babylon", signifies "confusion", and recalls an unfinished tower. The church offers the cup of salvation and stands for holiness. This woman holds in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and filthiness. The church is the mother of the saints. This woman is "THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS". The church is the bride of Christ. This woman, by the law of symbolry, is a professed church of Christ, and therefore a would-be bride of Christ; but, as she is a harlot, she cannot be the true bride of Christ, she cannot be the true church of Christ. If she is not the true church of Christ but a corrupt and corrupting harlot, then she is a false and corrupt church professing the name of Christ. The identity of this false and corrupt church is not far to seek. She is called a city, a city that "reigneth over the "kings of the earth". A city that reigns over the kings of the earth is a universal city. A universal city is a catholic city. As this universal-catholic city is, also, symbolically, a woman, and this woman a professed church, then this woman is a universal, a catholic church. This universal, this catholic church, is represented as exceedingly rich in gold, in precious stones and pearls. The distinctive colour of the woman is scarlet. She has not only committed fornication herself, but has made the inhabitants drunk with the wine of her fornication. Fornication in the book of the Revelation signifies idolatry, and idolatry is - image worship. This woman, therefore, is a church whose official and distinguishing colour is scarlet. Just as our schools, colleges and universities, have their colours, so this church has hers - and her colour is scarlet. This woman is a church which practises, and has taught the people of the earth to practise, idolatry, to engage in the worship of images. This scarlet-clad woman is drunken with the blood of saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. It is the picture of a universal, a catholic, church, in the name of Christ, causing the martyrdom of the followers of Christ, and revelling in their blood till she has become frenzied and drunken by it. This woman not only represents a church, but the city in which it dwells and is capitalised, the centre and manifestation of its glory. Just as much as the New Jerusalem represents not only the church, but the central place where she is to reveal her glory, so this woman represents the actual city of her own abode. The reality and identity of the city are set before us with indelible marks. The Apostle John says it is "that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth". There was but one city in John’s day which reigned over the kings of the earth, and that city was ROME. That the city was Rome is corroborated topographically. We are told that the woman is seated on seven mountains. "The seven heads [that is, of the beast] are seven mountains. And there are [they are] seven kings." (Revelation 17:9-10.) The heads are symbolic, but they set forth two real things - mountains and kings. If the kings are real, equally so are the mountains; the mountains indicate the place where the kings rule. The location of the kings, the location of the woman and, therefore, the location of the city, was on seven mountains. The Rome of Saint John’s day, the Rome of our day, is seated on seven hills, and these hills are definitely called mountains; but the city is known in the pages of every history as "the seven-hilled city". The city, then, which the woman symbolises is Rome; and as the woman is also the symbol of a church, then you have a church in the city of Rome, a church which, like the city, is universal and catholic in its rule. A church in the city of Rome is a Roman church; a catholic church in Rome is, therefore, a Roman Catholic Church. And here you have the riddle read, the symbol told, the identity disclosed. The woman foreseen and described by the Spirit of God in John is - THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. As the name of the woman is Babylon, and the woman is, symbolically, the city, the name of the city must, also, be Babylon; but, as the city is actual Rome and not the real city of Babylon, then the name Babylon is given to it, as to the woman, simply to set forth the moral character of both. In Revelation 11:18, Jerusalem is called Sodom and Egypt, so called to mark its moral and spiritual degeneration. This woman and city likewise go by the name of Babylon to set forth the turpitude, the uncleanness and the abomination, both of the city and the system. The Roman Catholic Church is called Babylon from God’s point of view; from God’s point of view it is the mystery of abomination. Go to that city of the seven hills, where every hill is called a "mount", and you will find that from thence the Roman Catholic Church rules over nations, peoples, kindreds and tongues - a universal rule, counting its subjects by the hundreds of millions, and is thus in deed and in very fact a universal church, an actual kingdom over which one man as Pope is head supreme. Take up history, and you will find that it has reigned over the kings of the earth and made them its willing slaves, holding over them the terrors of excommunication, paralysing the hands that held the sceptre, and forcing the onetime proudest emperor of the world to stand shivering on a winter’s day in his penitential shirt at a papal palace door, while the exalted pontiff within turned indifferently away. Examine, and you will find that this church today is rich in gold, in silver, and in precious stones, its buildings storehouses of the world’s most coveted wealth. Visit the "treasuries", fittingly so called, in her great cathedrals, Notre Dame at Paris, the statue-pointed cathedral at Milan, Saint Peter’s at Rome, and you will find gold, silver, pearls, and all precious things. You will find them in mitres and crosiers, in chasubles and patens, in cups, in crystals and vestments, as gifts from kings, from emperors and queens; offerings from the richest of earth, wealth enough to make even kings envy. Look at this church filled with gold, with silver and precious stones, and you will find that its official colour is scarlet, scarlet in the hat of its cardinals, scarlet in the robes of its pontiff and priests, scarlet everywhere - a scarlet-coloured church. Go into its wonderful buildings, some of them monuments of the mightiest architectural genius of the world; visit them, and you will find them full of images, images of the virgin mother, images of the saints. Stand inside Saint Peter’s on a festal day. The vast building sweeps upward through mighty pillar and colossal arch to the sublime, impending dome. On every side are chapels, in themselves monster buildings, vast churches. There is the exalted altar, the countless lights, the smoking incense, the chanting choirs, the scarlet-robed priests, the voice of intonation, prayer and confession, the echoing ora pro nobis, and everywhere kneeling devotees, bowing down to marble images, doing penance and lifting up petitions before their lifeless faces. There are churches specially devoted to the worship of the virgin; her images are covered with gold and silver tributes. In one church the image is piled about with crutches and almost hidden under the offerings of those who believe themselves to have been healed or blessed by her interposition and intercession. Before that stony figure, men and women and little children kneel in rapt adoration. It is idolatry - pure and simple. Cast your eyes over the past centuries and you will come upon an era when the rule of this church was so supreme; when she so clutched the throat of the nations with her almost omnipotent hand; so stifled all learning and spiritual knowledge, that by common consent that age has been called the dark age, the midnight of the world’s moral, intellectual and spiritual life - so dark and cruel was this time, so full of idolatry, that the Arab, as he swept a victor into Europe, paused at the doors of Catholic churches, then turned and fled as though he were in that very temple of heathen idolatry from which his religion bade him to flee. And it is of this time and this Arab that Mrs. Browning sings when she says that knowledge was at last "thrust into the eye of Europe upon the point of a Paynim’s spear". Read history, not the history written by one author, but by all, and in their pages you will learn how men and women were led into torture chambers or buried in dismal dungeons. You will read how beautiful women were stripped before black masked judges gloating over unprotected shame, and were led away to racks and stretched till their delicate limbs were snapped and their tender flesh torn into shreds. You will read how men and women were broken on the wheel, or flayed alive, their eyes put out, their tongues plucked forth by the roots, their feet placed in boots filled with boiling oil, bags thrust down their throats and then filled with water till they agonised with slow and calculated strangulation, legs placed between boards and the boards driven together by wedges till the bones were crushed little by little to a pulp, nails wrenched from the fingers, bodies sawn asunder as you might saw a log in two, members of the body cut off one at a time, now a hand, then an arm, first one leg, then another, till the victim was a mere quivering, though still living, trunk; men and women taken to the stake and burned alive, the wood dampened, or green wood used, that the fire might burn slowly and the agony and torture of the victim be lengthened. Try and count, if you can, the men and women driven from their homes, their houses burned, their property confiscated, and themselves hunted on the mountains and pursued through the valleys like beasts of prey. Look at the blood flowing like water from the martyred bodies of men and women, whose only crime was that they loved the Lord Jesus Christ, believed in His finished redemption on the Cross, refused to buy their salvation by penance or good works, rejected the intercession of a human priest, or a woman, no matter how good, claimed the Lord Jesus Christ as their sin-bearer and Saviour at the right hand of the Father, owned Him their only high-priest and intercessor and would not, even at the price of their own life, deny Him who died for them and rose again. And remember, while you read, that these martyrs were led to agony and to death by the authority and express command of the Roman Catholic Church; a church that did all this in the name of that most fiendish of all inventions, the "Holy Inquisition"; a church whose Pope at so late a date as the massacre of Saint Bartholomew’s caused a special celebration to be sung in all the churches as a thanksgiving to God that the enemies of Romanism had been thus cruelly and cowardly slain, stabbed in their beds, thrown from the windows of upper stories into stone courts below, or stricken from behind as they walked in the streets; a massacre so horrible, so revolting in all its details, that, even at this hour, when you pass by the gilded gates in front of the Louvre at Paris, it is impossible not to recall the picture of the piled up bodies of the murdered Huguenots flung in the gutter there and weltering in their own blood; it is impossible not to lift the eyes, involuntarily, and look at that Catholic church of Auxerrois just across the way, from whose tower the tocsin, which was to give the signal for the awful night of blood, sounded forth its brazen knell of doom. Bring all this to mind as you read, and you will recognise the perfect accuracy of the Spirit’s description when he says that this scarlet-clad, this universal, this catholic church of Rome was drunken with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. In the vision the woman is seen to be seated upon a seven headed, ten-horned, scarlet-coloured beast. This scarlet-coloured beast is identical with the fourth beast of Daniel’s vision. Daniel says: "After this I saw in the night visions, and, behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth; it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it; and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns." An angel explains the vision to Daniel: "Thus he said, the fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces. And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise." (Daniel 7:23-24.) The first three beasts are identical with the three kinds of metal forming part of the image which Nebuchadnezzar saw in a dream and which Daniel by the wisdom of God interpreted, as recorded in the second chapter of the prophecy that bears his name. In that dream the image had a head of gold, breast and arms of silver, and belly and thighs of brass. The golden head, Daniel tells us, represents the Babylonian kingdom. "Thou art," says Daniel, "this head of gold." As the first beast in the vision which Daniel records in the seventh chapter is, also, the first kingdom, and is a lion, then the golden head and the lion are the equivalent symbols of the first kingdom. The second beast is a bear, and is equivalent to the second kingdom represented by the silver breast and arms of the image. This second kingdom comes in after Babylon and, necessarily, overcomes it, takes it. This kingdom is identified for us in the fifth chapter of Daniel’s prophecy, as it is written: "And Darius the Median took the kingdom" (that is, the kingdom of Babylon). (Daniel 5:31.) The second beast as thus identified is the Medo-Persian kingdom. The third beast is a winged leopard and is equivalent to the third kingdom represented in the image by the belly and thighs of brass. This brazen-leopard kingdom, in the order of succession, is the kingdom which overcomes the second, or Medo-Persian kingdom. Daniel gives us the name of that third kingdom. He has a vision in which he sees a ram standing by a river and then pushing its way westward till a rough he-goat from the west rushes upon him with great fury, overcomes him, and tramples him with his feet. Daniel is perplexed as to the meaning of the vision till an angel appears and gives the interpretation: "And he said, Behold, I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation: for at the appointed time the end shall be. The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia." And the rough goat is the king of Grecia." (Daniel 8:19-21.) The first three beasts then are identified by the Word of God. They are: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece. The fourth beast is the fourth kingdom and is represented in the image by the legs of iron. The iron in the image is matched by the iron in the teeth of the beast: it had great iron teeth. Iron then is the symbol and character of the fourth beast kingdom. What great world kingdom is symbolised by iron, is known as the iron kingdom ? All history answers, every student of history knows, the veriest tyro at school knows, every lip is ready to speak the name - it is ROME. It is of Rome and Rome alone that iron is used as the symbol - we speak of the iron legions of Rome. But it is not necessary to go to history to identify the fourth beast, to find the name of the fourth kingdom. The New Testament answers the question and gives the affirmation. The New Testament tells us that Rome was the wide ruling world power in the day when Christ was born. It was, under God, by the edict of a Roman Caesar that the mother of Christ came to Bethlehem, where he was to be born in fulfilment of Holy Scripture. The fourth kingdom then is Rome; and this Rome included all the territory that once comprised Babylon, Medo-Persia and Greece. Rome was the legatee and heir of the three first kingdoms, and thus by right of succession is, as foretold, the fourth kingdom as it is the symbolic fourth beast. This fourth beast is identical with the beast of John’s vision, the scarlet-coloured beast that marries the Babylonian woman. This scarlet-coloured beast is a composite symbol. In it are the elements of a leopard, a bear and a lion. "And the beast which I saw (the beast described in the l7th chapter) was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion." (Revelation 13:2.) The leopard has been seen to be the third beast, and, therefore, the third kingdom; and has been shown by Daniel in the eighth chapter of his prophecy to be one with the he-goat which overcame the ram, in other words the kingdom of Greece. The bear has been identified and named, both by symbol and by Darnel’s actual statement, as the Medo-Persian kingdom. The lion is the first symbolic beast in Daniel’s vision, is equivalent to the golden head of the image, and is Babylon. The fact that the three beasts, the lion, the bear, and the leopard, are seen comprised in one beast, is the symbolic, but clear statement that the beast of John’s vision is a fourth beast, including the three that preceded it. As Daniel’s fourth beast is the symbol of Rome and includes the three preceding kingdoms, Babylon, Medo-Persia and Greece, then John’s beast and the beast of Daniel are identical, and both agree in the one testimony that this is Rome. As the woman who sits upon the beast has been not only symbolically, but topographically identified as Rome, the fact that the very beast upon which she sits is civil and govern mental Rome, becomes the repeated and doubly corroborative demonstration that the city and system of which the woman is a symbol - is Rome. There is further identification of the two beasts in the fact that each, the beast of Daniel and the beast of John, has ten horns. The ten horns in Daniel’s vision are ten kings, so declared by the angel. The ten horns in John’s vision are, likewise by an angel, declared to be ten kings. THIS REVIVAL HAS ALREADY BEGUN. It began in the hour when the Protestant Reformation was at its zenith. Protestantism rose up, smote Catholicism and drove it from Germany headlong to the Mediterranean. It seemed as though it were about to be flung as with a millstone about its neck into the depths of the sea, when, suddenly it halted, stood still, recovered its strength, shook itself free from the hands of its assailants and began steadily to return to the lands from whence it had been so fiercely expelled. Nothing is more impressive than the recovery of Romanism from what seemed to be its death-blow. It reads on the page of history like a veritable resurrection of the dead. And this resurrection has been followed by an immense and ever increasing vitality, by a propaganda that extends to every kingdom, nation and tongue. Austria is Catholic to the core. Germany is filled with devotees of the church, and her supporters may be counted by the millions. The progress in Protestant England is astounding. A year ago all London poured into the streets to see for the first time since the Reformation the triumphant march of a Roman Catholic procession extending for miles, while thousands on either side of the immense column bowed the knee in adoration as the sacred symbols of the church were held aloft. Recently, in this same London, there has been dedicated with imposing ceremonies a stupendous and costly cathedral. Everywhere throughout England the Romish priest is a power, the chapels and churches are filled to overflowing; daily, converts from the Church of England go over to the Church of Rome, and that by easy steps, as though the English church itself had become a half-way house. The non-conformist oath once administered to English kings on the day of coronation has been repealed. The official head of English Protestantism has ceased to protest. Enthusiastic Romanists consider the day not far distant when England will return officially to the faith and be received by Rome as a long wandering, but sincerely repentant and beloved daughter of the church. In this country Romanism is advancing with giant strides. A little over one hundred years ago there were only 33 priests and less than 50,000 Catholics, scarcely a decent church building, one college and no schools. Today there are nearly twenty millions of communicants, one cardinal, 14 archbishops, 77 bishops, 14 church provinces, nearly 20, 000 priests, to say nothing of the thousand on thousands of oath-bound nuns, between 15,040 and 20,000 church buildings, some of them models of architecture and of immense cost of construction. There are 7 great universities, 80 seminaries, or theological institutions, 213 colleges for boys, over 700 academies for girls (to which Protestant mothers send their daughters, and where the daughters become converted to Romanism and furnish the church in turn with Catholic mothers), and nearly 5,000 private schools, each school a protest against the public school system of the Nation. While the population of the United States has increased twenty-five times, the Roman Catholic population, in a little over a century, has increased 320 times, nearly twelve times as fast. The solidarity of the church is amazing; it seems miraculous. Out of the fifteen or twenty millions in this country, there is not a Catholic, in the final analysis, who would be disloyal to the church. Whatever his private opinion, in the end, he submits to her as the supreme authority over his conscience and soul. This solidarity extends around the globe. A Catholic church in one place is a duplicate of a Catholic church in every other. What you see in New York you will find in China and in the isles of the sea. Wherever a Catholic sees a Romish church and the cross upon its spire, he knows, whatever may be his nationality or tongue, in that church he will find the same faith, the same worship, which was taught him in his native land, at his mother’s knee, and in the hour of his first communion. This solidarity finds its significance in contrast to the division, the confusion, and the uncertainty of Protestantism. In this country Romanism has conquered social distinction and an accepted standing. Not many years ago and the Catholic church was a sort of social pariah, looked down upon with disdain, its services rejected, and its priests regarded with aversion. There was a time when for an American to be a Catholic, was sufficient to ostracise him from family and friends as though he were a religious and social leper. To-day, the Catholic finds all doors open, from the hovel to the palace. The most exclusive sets welcome the priest, invite him to marry their sons and daughters and dedicate private chapels in city homes or summer villas. Where Romanism once stood as the symbol of that which was foreign and alien, it is, today, represented by American families, their names recorded on its marriage books, its birth and baptismal registers. In no land has the Roman Catholic Church more loyal, more devoted, or more liberal supporters than those who claim to be Americans and to the manor born. And startling still is the f act that the Roman Catholic Church is steadily taking the place of the most eloquent defender of the Bible. Startling, indeed! The church which has always been afraid of the Bible; the church which has martyred men and women in cold blood for even daring to read it; the church which is careful in this day to give only an expurgated edition for the common laity to read, and legislates the most severe penalties against the indiscriminate use of the book; the church which has been the actual enemy of the Bible, bitter, deadly, inveterate, exercising all its hatred against it as the source of Protestantism, the arsenal of its weapons, and its mightiest stronghold, this ancient antagonist is now taking the place of Holy Scripture’s most uncompromising apologist, rallying to its defence its keenest logicians, its most intellectual writers, its most brilliant orators. And the Roman Catholic Church is coming into this place, not only by its own seeking, but by reason of the undisguised and wide spread infidelity of the Protestant Church. Go into so-called, up-to-date Protestant churches, listen to some of their most advanced thinkers and preachers. You will hear them striking at the very foundation of Protestantism, repudiating the only authority on which it can rest the Word of God - the written Word. You will hear them with oracular utterance and much-claimed scholarship rejecting the Old Testament, ridiculing its statements and demonstrating in modern formula that its personages are fictitious, its history worthless, its prophecies unfulfilled, its cosmogony, astronomy and geology unscientific, and the laughing-stock of the learned. You will hear them deny the infallibility of the New Testament, prove its human and not divine inspiration, and set before you a Christ who was limited in knowledge, who was not always sure of his mission, was sometimes filled with vacillation, who was, nevertheless, a good man, and whose death on the cross was simply the tragedy of one too gentle for the times, a good man torn to pieces at last by "the whirling wheel of the world’s evil". You will hear them preach the all-Fatherhood of God, the sonship of all men, both good and bad, scout the idea that man is a lost sinner, laugh at the fable of hell and the danger of future punishment, and conclude with the self-satisfied postulate that the great saving force in the earth is the law of evolution; that each man is working out in his own way his own problem; that each man is an avatar of God; that salvation is the reformation of society and the final deliverance of the race from the impedimenta of religiousness, superstition and ignorance. Science, they declare, is the true God and civilisation is its handmaid. In short, in a Protestant pulpit and, specially, if that pulpit is occupied by a recent graduate of an advanced theological institution, you are liable to hear utterances as treasonable to the Word of God and the revealed mission of Jesus Christ, as ever fell from the lips of the most pronounced, most blatant, but unconcealed, infidel and enemy of the church of God. You will listen in vain to hear such utterances in a Catholic church, be the preacher never so learned, never so bright or brilliant. On the contrary, and with rare sagacity, considering the state of Protestantism, you will hear the Catholic pulpits now echoing with addresses which exalt the Bible as the Word of God, handed over, it is true, to the custody and authoritative interpretation of the church still, but proclaimed, nevertheless, with increasing emphasis as the inspired thought of the living God. Rome is wise enough to seize the strategic moment and, at the same time, take advantage of the differing opinions, the confusion, and the infidelity among Protestants, to draw attention to the favourite thesis of the church, that the Bible can be read and understood only when under the strict surveillance and inspired interpretation of the church; and that Protestantism with its undivine hands has wrested the Scriptures to its own damnation and the damnation of all who have been led into Protestantism. By this subtle seizure of the opportune moment Romanism places itself in the forefront, not only as the defender of the Bible, but as its only true, sane, and authoritative interpreter. Not only is the Catholic church taking the place of defender of Holy Scripture and seeking to rescue it from profane hands; it is rapidly rising as the bulwark of the family, the champion of the home. The Roman Catholic Church stands four-square against the growing iniquity and excuseless wickedness of divorce. The Protestant Church takes no such stand. There is no unity in the Protestant Church concerning this shame. There are to be found Protestant ministers who will, without hesitation, marry a divorced man, or a divorced woman, or both. In some Protestant churches the representative men and women - men and women who are the most liberal supporters of the church and foremost in its work - are divorced people. Condemned as they are by the Word of God and the legislative utterances of our Lord Jesus Christ, they find in the church which professes his name, the church which has been "espoused to him as one husband " instead of judgement, the place of honour and, often, of exalted fellowship. Not so in the Catholic church. The priest will not marry, baptize or receive into communion those who are living in open defiance of the law and testimony of God. To the Roman Catholic Church marriage is a sacrament, is inviolable, and cannot be annulled by the laws or acts of man. The divorced man or woman may enter a Protestant church and find shelter there. The Roman church shuts its doors and stands like an insurmountable barrier against the inflood of the tide that would shipwreck the home and destroy the sacredness of such holy titles as husband and wife, father and mother. Unified in faith, defending the Bible, standing against divorce, loyally supported by liberal contributions, the poor being taught to give in the same proportion as the rich, counting among its membership some of the most representative families of America, with stately buildings, schools, colleges and universities, numbering its followers by millions, those millions increased by every steamship that lands its load of emigrants on our shores, and guided by a wisdom, a genius that makes her ready to meet each new demand that will strengthen her cause, absolutely cosmopolitan - Italian in Italy, Spanish in Spain, English in England, Irish in Ireland and, pre-eminently, American in America, she is steadily and marvellously moving on. Nor is this advance confined alone to religious lines. Nay, the march is far away beyond that! The Roman Catholic Church in this country is an immense political organisation, holds the balance of voting power, on the eve of a presidential election defeated the candidate whom all the world expected to be successful, and can, if she will, name the next man who shall sit in the Presidential chair. In the year 1902, the mission of the present incumbent of the White House to the Vatican was a political one. He was to all intents and purposes accredited from these United States as Ambassador to the Pope of Rome. He had instructions from the Secretary of State which said: "Any negotiations which you may desire on the part of the officers of the civil court or of military officers to enable you to perform your negotiation with the Vatican will be afforded"; and this high Commissioner from the United States acted and spoke in Rome as the special envoy of the great American Republic to the Catholic Church. He was received and accepted by the ambassadors to the Pope as one of themselves; and in a remarkable ceremony at Saint Peter’s, he was invited as an ambassador to the Roman Catholic Church, and took his place in the diplomatic tribune. Besides all that, an agreement was entered into between the Pope and himself concerning the Catholic Church in the Philippines and, although the contract failed, yet, as a recent writer, himself a Catholic, has said: "This does not destroy the fact that Washington was ready to enter into a regular treaty with the Pope, similar to those existing between the Vatican and the leading Catholic governments of the world." Today, Romanism is politically, as well as religiously, entrenched in the great cities of our land and, from its university centre at Washington, exercises its mysterious and far-reaching power. Romanists confidently expect the time to arrive when the whole land will be under its political control; when the machinery of office and legislation will be in the power of the church and when, with her astounding increase of numbers, she will be the religious and political dictator of the new world. The grasp of Rome is on the sceptre of temporal power. It is true, France has separated her from the State and, for a time, refuses to carry her; it is true, the Vatican and the Quirinal are at odds in Italy, and the Pope still styles himself "prisoner" in Rome; it is true that Spain is in the throes of an issue whether the civil or the religious power shall dominate. But, while the separation has taken place in France, that "eldest daughter of the church", a sentiment has been aroused and a partisanship for Rome emphasized such as has not been seen since the days when Versailles and the Vatican were in intimate touch. Italy is loyal to the king, proud of the day when Garibaldi broke through the walls of the "holy" city and gave her the right of civic liberty; but Italy is Catholic even to frenzy, and no matter how many millions may be spent on the new capitol, or how far Paganism may be glorified in the re-opening of the Appian Way, to the Italian, the dome of Saint Peter’s still overtops the Parthenon and the palace of the king. Spain may advance sufficiently out of the gloom of candle-light into the glare of the electric light; she may allow the breath of Twentieth Century toleration to breathe through her streets, permitting Protestants to write the name of their church on the walls of their buildings; she may, in an issue, exalt the civil authority into its due place, but the born Catholic in Spain looks upon Spain as the kingdom of Jesus Christ and blindly and fanatically, even unto death, believes that in the Roman Church Jesus Christ is alone to be found; and that, in final terms, Spain and the kingdom of the Roman Church are one. Should the issue for one moment depart from the civil and become religious, the government would be overthrown in a night and Alphonse and his English Queen repudiated as foes to the faith. It is true that Germany has protested against the last encyclical, but this very protest is a witness that the Germany of today is not the Germany of Luther, nor the days of the Great Elector; that she does no more than protest is a witness that the political power of Rome has been felt upon the banks of the Spree, and that the Protestant Emperor of the birth land of Protestantism is satisfied to go no further than the limits of diplomacy permit. And it is because of this that Rome with her soft tread and more than mortal wisdom has accepted the protest, explained the encyclical, and given orders that it shall not be read in German churches. It is the answer, not of a trembling suppliant, but of a church that feels itself sufficiently strong in the headquarters of the Reformation to meet diplomacy with diplomacy. Rome may be turned back for a moment, for a season be deflected from her course, but her course is onward. Those who hail the present separation of church and state in Europe as a witness of the waning power of the church as a political factor have only to reflect that separation in this country is more radical, more absolute, than it is, or ever can be, in Europe; and that in this country, in spite of the separation, the church increases in population, adds to her wealth, and is to-day the mightiest force at the polls; it is only necessary to contemplate the results of separation here, to see that separation in Europe is no evidence of the diminution of her strength, but is, really, in the sympathy and partisanship which it is sure to arouse, one of the guarantees of her final ascension to sovereignty and power. While Protestantism is at war with itself - is full of treason to Holy Scripture, and is breaking up into new and more absurd denominational factions every day - Rome, systematically, unrelentingly, and yet smoothly, secretly, and without noise, is marching to her ordained place. Protestantism lifts up the banner of guess, of doubt, of dethroned authority, and stands insistently for organised uncertainty. Rome speaks with certainty, with authority and relentless fixity. Protestantism seeks favour of the unbelieving world, apologises for her creeds, and would establish herself by denying them. Romanism hurls anathema at the unbeliever, magnifies her office, and claims to be wholly divine. Protestantism builds schools, and endows universities, that she may teach the rising generation to reckon doubt as the beginning of wisdom, and unbelief as the sign-patent of knowledge. Romanism spends her wealth in establishing schools and institutions of learning that she may lay hold of the rising youth and teach them that the church is the symbol of God, and that the highest wisdom is to obey her commands. Protestantism, in its reaction from ritualism, has turned the church into a lecture room and destroyed the feeling of reverence. Romanism sanctifies her buildings and creates a feeling of awe within the shadow of her churches. The Protestant enters his church as one might enter a concert room or a hall of debate. The Romanist bows on the threshold of his church as the sanctuary of God. Protestantism has stepped down on to the high road of the natural and the commonplace. Romanism more and more exalts itself into the realm of the supernatural. Protestantism prides itself on the denial of miracles. Romanism claims to work them. Protestantism carries with it the impression of newness and divisibility. Romanism is covered with the dust of centuries, has in it the echo of the distant ages, and is superior to schism. As the present age goes on, multitudes will turn away from the interrogation points of Protestantism, to the unqualified assertion and assurance of Romanism, to her gorgeous ritual, her spectacular worship, the glamour of her two thousand years of unbroken history, and the fact that, on the edge of eternity, she offers to take the whole responsibility of a human being, prepare him for the hour and the article of death, go with him into the shadows, keep with him by her power and influence in the unseen world, nor quit him till she has delivered him from danger, and secured him, as she claims, in the mercy of God. Some years ago, while on an ocean trip, I became acquainted with a versatile Irishman, a graduate of Dublin university, and a world wide traveller. He had eaten rice with the Chinese, tasted salt with the Arabs of the desert, clinked his glass in the offices of the Quai d’Orsay, was able to express his suggestive thoughts in the fluency of some half dozen languages beside his own, and was as much at home in one as in another. He was, when I met him, in the employ of the British Government, and had been a commissioner to this country. He was witty, at times full of pathos, mercurial and, frequently, overflowing with wordy heat. He was a scholar. He was abreast of the times. He claimed to be an agnostic. His speech was spiced with satire against the Christian religion. He said nothing coarse, but his assaults were keen, far-reaching and, often, cut me to the heart. One night as we drew near to the Irish coast, we sat together in the aft of the ship where we could see the phosphorescent glow in the waves. He was in a reflective mood. He spoke of the brevity and the uncertainty of life and, then, of the eternity beyond. Suddenly he turned to me and said, calling me by name: "When I die, I am going to die a good Catholic. I am going to have mass said for my soul. I have made provision for that." Seeing my amazement and that I was, evidently, puzzled to know whether he was seeking to outdo himself in travesty, he said earnestly: "Do not misunderstand me; I am an unbeliever, but I am superstitious. I have been brought up a Catholic. As I look about me in the world, the Church is the only thing which has seemed to stand in the midst of changing mentality and the reversal of human knowledge. To stand unmoved in the swirl of such conditions counts for something. The Church comes with an audacious claim of authority and the power of completeness. She leaves nothing for me to do. She takes all the responsibility for my soul - for the past and the future. You may call it what you please, but I tell you, her position counts in the end, and I am going to give my soul, if I have one, over into her hands. She is the only thing that offers certainty when you are about to leave this world." It was pitiful, but it was, and is, an illustration of how thousands feel, and how that feeling is likely to grow in the increasing infidelity and guess of Protestantism, in its total surrender of all final authority, and in its suicidal determination to wash its hands of the soul’s future. It is this appeal to the latent superstition in man, this splendid and uncompromising assertion, this unfaltering claim of authority, this unity of faith, together with the most perfect organisation on earth, and the unalterable purpose to be supreme in the world, that will give the Catholic Church her underhold in the final religious and political struggle of the age. Everything is making for that hour when Rome, once more seated on the back of human government, will rule the earth. The revival of Romanism is, then, a sign of the times. It is a sign that the world is hastening on to its Roman and Antichristian climax; and, by just so much, it is an increased and solemn warning that at any moment the Lord may descend in his unheralded secrecy, and snatch away from earth to Himself all who are truly His. It is the solemn warning that, at any moment, those who have made a mere profession of His Name; who have no real knowledge of Him in the heart; who, in spite of the profession they make, still walk according to "the course of this world", will be left behind to the judgements of the Great Tribulation, and the righteous wrath of a long suffering God. Well, indeed, may we heed the admonition of the Apostle Peter: "Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure." (2 Peter 1:10.) It is fitting that we should hear the searching words of Paul: "It is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation [that is, the redemption and glorifying of our bodies at the Coming of the Lord] nearer than when we believed. "The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. "Let us walk honestly, as in the day [the day of Christ]; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. "But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof." (Romans 13:11-14.) http://www.fbinstitute.com/articles/revivalofromanism.html ======================================================================== Source: https://sermonindex.net/books/writings-of-i-m-haldeman/ ========================================================================