VOL. XXII March, 1939 No. 3 The Assured Basis of God's Approval Things Coming to Pass"When ye see these things come to pass, know ye
that ISRAEL, THAT most remarkable people, must hold I increasingly the rapt attention
of all earnest Christians. It is impossible, in following through the daily press the
record of their rapid expansion in Palestine, with the realization that our eyes are
beholding the fulfillment of possibly the most definite evidence promised of the proximity
of Christ's Kingdom, not to be stirred in one's innermost being. While it was not ours to
witness the marvelous works of the Master's
first presence, it is our privilege to behold the beginnings of the "greater things
than these," in the time of His invisible second presence, a time of world-shaking
events, the gradual restoration of Israel to long-lost favor being amongst the most
prominent of them. True, humanity, including the Jewish
people themselves, are as yet in ignorance as to the far reaching significance of the
"fig tree putting forth its leaves," and that its full development will result
in the resurrection of the dead (Rom. 11:15); nevertheless signs are not wanting both
from Christian pulpits and from Israel that Zionism has begun to mean more than simply the
founding of a National home for the Jews. It is to be expected that the true meaning of
Israel's restoration will be grasped by more and more believers of God's Word in the
nominal church as the "winter" season of the Gospel Age draws nigh, but not
until the glorification of the true Church and the subsequent entering in of the
"virgins, her companions, who follow her," will God's face again be fully turned
to longsuffering Jacob as it is written. (Rom. 11:26.) Would that the persecutors of the
Jew today could remember and repeat the words of the "mad" Prophet Balaam:
"How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed? or how shall I defy, whom the Lord:
hath not defied? For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold
him; lo, the people shall dwell alone and shall not be reckoned among the nations. Who can
count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death
of the righteous, and let my last end be like his." - Num. 23:8-10. From the days of Moses to our time, the record of this people is probably the most remarkable in the history o f nations, and if it be not acknowledged as a "sign" by unbelievers, it is in reality as well as in appearance a "wonder." Alone of all nations has their history, past, present, and future been recorded in the most ancient of records, the Bible. The reverent contemplation of these, with the corroborative evidence of history, cannot but strengthen mightily the faith of the Christian in Him who knows the end from the beginning, "in whose sight a thousand years are but as yesterday." A perusal of some of these prophecies will prove a blessing. Foretold and FulfilledEre they had yet entered the promised
land, three thousand three hundred years ago, Moses, as a divine legislator, while
promising the Israelites that their prosperity, happiness, and peace would all keep pace
with their obedience, threatened them with a gradation of punishments, rising in
proportion to their impenitence and iniquity. And neither in blessings nor in
chastisements hath the Ruler among the nations dealt in like manner with any people. But
their wickedness and consequent calamities, greatly preponderated, and are yet prolonged,
although the "time to favor Zion, yea, the set time" has approached. The
retrospect of the history of the Jews since their dispersion could not at the present day
be drawn in truer terms than in the unpropitious auguries of Moses so many centuries
ago.. Moses professed to look through the glass of ages, and the astonishing fulfillment
to the letter of his prophecies has been a stumbling-block to infidels, and a tremendous
strength imparting influence to Christians. Note some of his wards, remembering that they
were uttered before Israel had yet entered the land of Canaan: "I will scatter you among the
heathen and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your
cities waste. . . And upon them that are left of you I will send a faintness into their
hearts, in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them;
and they shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth. . .
. And ye shall have no power to stand before your enemies. And ye shall perish among the
heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat you up. And they that are left of you
shall pine away in their iniquity in your enemies' lands; and also in the iniquities of
their fathers, shall they pine away with them. . . . And yet for all that, when they be in
the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to
destroy them utterly." - Lev. 26:33, 36-39, 44. "And the Lord shall scatter you
among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the Lord
shall lead you." "The Lord shall cause thee to be smitten before thine enemies:
thou shalt go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them, and shalt be
removed into all the kingdoms of the earth." - Deut. 4:27; 28:25-46. "The Lord shall smite thee with
madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart: And thou shalt grope at noonday as
the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy way: and thou shalt be
only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee. Thy sons and thy
daughters shall be given unto another people, . . . there shall be no might in thine hand.
The fruit of thy land, and all thy labors, shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up;
and thou shalt be only oppressed and crushed alway: so that thou shalt be mad for the
sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see. The Lord shall bring thee . . . unto a nation
which neither thou nor thy fathers have known; . . . and thou shalt become an
astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all the nations whither the Lord shall lead
thee. . . . Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with
gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things; therefore shalt thou serve thine
enemies which the Lord shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in
nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck,
until he have destroyed thee. . . . And the Lord will make thy plagues wonderful, and the
plague of thy seed, even great plagues, and of long continuance." - Deut. 28:28-59. "All these curses shall come upon
thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, . . and they shall be upon thee for a sign
and for a wonder, and upon thy seed for ever. And it shall come to pass, that as the Lord
rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you; so the Lord will rejoice over you
to destroy you and to bring you to nought; and ye shall be plucked from off the land
whither thou goest to possess it. And the Lord will scatter thee among all people, from
the one end of the earth even unto the other; . . and among these nations shalt thou find
no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest; but the Lord shall give thee there
a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind: And thy life shall stand in
doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of
thy life. In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt
say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and
for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see." - Deut. 28:45, 63-67. "Ye Are My Witnesses"The writings of all the succeeding
Prophets, too numerous to be listed, abound with similar predictions. All of them were
delivered with the clearness of history and the confidence of truth and all have been
fulfilled marvelously in every detail. The history of their sufferings is a continued
tale of horror, not exceeded even by the sufferings of the Christian martyrs. And through
all the terrible fulfillment of each prophetic statement, the Jewish peoples were God's
witnesses (Isa. 43:10, 12) to the immutability of His righteous judgments, and are living
evidences to the truthfulness of His Word. Though the events, various and singular as they
are, have been brought about by the instrumentality of human means, and the agency of
secondary causes, yet they are equally prophetic and miraculous; for the means were as
impossible to be foreseen as the end, and the causes were as inscrutable as the event;
and they have been, and still in numberless instances are, accomplished by the
instrumentality of the enemies of Christianity. Whoever seeks a miracle, may here behold
a sign and a wonder, than which there cannot be a greater. And the Christian may bid
defiance to all the assaults of his enemies from this stronghold of Christianity,
impenetrable and impregnable on every side. Keith, in his notable work on prophecy, over
a century ago, has some inspiring words in this connection: "These prophecies concerning the
Jews are as clear as a narrative of the events. They are ancient as the oldest records in
existence; and it has never been denied that they were all delivered before the
accomplishment of one of them. They were so unimaginable by human wisdom, that the whole
compass of nature has never exhibited a parallel to the events. And the facts are visible,
and present, and applicable even to a hair's breadth. "Could Moses, as an uninspired
mortal, have described the history, the fate, the dispersion, the treatment, the
dispositions of the Israelites to the present day, or for three thousand two hundred
years, seeing that he was astonished and amazed, on his descent from Sinai, at the change
in their sentiments, and in their conduct, in the space of forty days? Could various
persons have testified, in different ages, of the self-same and of similar facts, as
wonderful as they have proved to be true? Could they have divulged so many secrets of
futurity, when, of necessity, they were utterly ignorant of them all? The probabilities
were infinite against them. For the mind of man often fluctuates in uncertainty over the
nearest events, and the most probable results; but, in regard to remote ages, when
thousands of years shall have elapsed-and to facts respecting them, contrary to all
previous knowledge, experience, analogy, or conception-it feels that they are dark as
death to mortal ken. "And, in viewing only the
dispersion of the Jews, and some of its attendant circumstances-how their city was laid
desolate -- their temple, which formed the constant place of their resort before,
leveled with the ground, and ploughed over like a field -- their country ravaged, and
themselves murdered in mass -- falling before the sword, the famine, and the pestilence
-- how a remnant was left, but despoiled, persecuted, enslaved, and led into
captivity-driven from their own land, not to a mountainous retreat, where they might
subsist with safety, but dispersed among all nations and left to the mercy of a world that
everywhere hated and oppressed them-shattered in pieces like the wreck of a vessel in a
mighty storm -- scattered over the earth, like fragments on the waters -- and, instead of
disappearing, or mingling with the nations, remaining a perfectly distinct people, in
every kingdom the same, retaining similar habits and customs, and creed, and manners, in
every part of the globe, though without ephod, teraphim, or sacrifice-meeting everywhere
the same insult, and mockery, and oppression -- finding no resting place without an
enemy soon to dispossess them -- multiplying amidst all their miseries -- surviving their
enemies -- beholding, unchanged, the extinction of many nations, and the convulsions of
all -- robbed of their silver and of their gold, though cleaving to the love of them
still, as the stumbling-block of their iniquity --often bereaved of their very children --
disjoined and disorganized, but uniform, and unaltered --ever bruised, but never broken --
weak, fearful, sorrowful, and afflicted -- often driven to madness at the spectacle of
their own misery -- taken up in the lips of talkers -- the taunt and hissing and infamy of
all people, and continuing ever, what they are to this day, the sole proverb common to the
whole world,; -- how did every fact, from its very nature, defy all conjecture, and how
could mortal man overlooking a hundred successive generations, have foretold any one of
these wonders that are now conspicuous in these latter times? Who but the Father of
spirits, possessed of perfect prescience, even of the knowledge of the will and of the
actions of free, intelligent, and moral agents, could have revealed their unbounded and
yet unceasing wanderings -- unveiled all their destiny -- and unmasked the minds of the
Jews, and of their enemies, in every age and in every clime? The creation of a world might
as well be the work of chance as the revelation of these things. It is a visible display
of the power and of the prescience of God-an accumulation of many miracles. And, although
it forms but a part of a small portion of the Christian evidence, it lays not only a stone
of stumbling such as infidels would try to cast in a Christian's path -- but it fixes an
insurmountable barrier at the very threshold of infidelity, immovable by all human
device, and impervious to every attack." Predictions of RestorationAnd just as the Scriptures have
foretold the evil that was to come upon them, so just as definitely have they spoken of
their pardon and restoration. The uniform experience of the literal truth of every
prediction respecting their past history may suffice to give assurance of the certainty
of their predicted restoration. Today we are witnessing the restoration of Israel, and
well may the Christian rejoice to see the fulfillment of God's promise which presages the
deliverance of all humanity also "The Lord thy God will turn thy
captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the
nations, whither the Lord thy God hath scattered thee. If any of thine be driven out unto
the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, and from
thence will He fetch thee. And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy
fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it: and He will do thee good, and multiply thee
above thy fathers." - Deut. 30:3-5. "Oh, scenes surpassing fable, and
yet true! - W. J. Siekman "Till He Come""The cup of blessing which we
bless, is it not the communion ONCE again the Passover season, as
commemorated by the Jews, is approaching, beginning this year on the 8th of April.* This
festival, which lasts for seven days, celebrates the deliverance of the people of Israel
from Egyptian bondage; it recalls the thraldom of that nation to Pharaoh, and its
redemption therefrom under the mighty hand of God. Furthermore it reminds them of the
series of plagues which God sent to incline the heart of Pharaoh to do His will, to end
their bondage, to "let My people go." It reminds them especially of the tenth
and last of these plagues, in which the destroying angel smote the firstborns throughout
the land, but "passed over" the firstborns of the children of Israel because of
the blood of the lamb which, in obedience to the divine command, had been sprinkled on the
lintels and door-posts of their houses. ---------------------------- Two Passovers in Type and AntitypeThese two passovers, the one of the
firstborns by the destroying angel, and the other of the entire nation at the Red Sea,
were instances of the miraculous power of God operating in behalf of His people, and they
might well be had in everlasting remembrance by Israel. Christians, however, heeding
the instructions of their New Testament guides, realize that the chief intention of
these passovers was to serve as pictures or types of God's greater purposes. In the light
of the "spirit dispensation," the "passing over" of the firstborns of
Israel in the last night of their long bondage in Egypt is seen to point to the passing
over of the Church of the Firstborns during the long night time of this Gospel Age now
drawing to a close. The passing over of the nation at the Red Sea shortly thereafter, well
illustrates the ultimate deliverance from the bondage of sin and death of every member of
Adam's race, who, before the close of the Millennial Age, shall have demonstrated his
desire and purpose to live in accord with the laws of truth and righteousness to
worship God in the beauty of holiness. Praise God for His purposes, now seen to be
ripening fast! In the typical arrangements the lamb
held the place of chief importance, and was the subject of very special and particular
instructions. In the first place it was to be one without blemish, reminding us of
"Christ our Passover [Lamb]" as the Apostle Paul suggests. (1 Cor. 5:7, 8.) He
had no blemish of sin in Himself, nor did He contract any stain or spot of sin by His
contacts with the world. As the Apostle Peter says: "We 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 Pet. 1:18, 19. The blood of the typical lamb was sprinkled on the door-posts and lintels
of the Israelite's house, but the blood of Jesus,
the unforfeited life which was made available to us by the shedding of His blood, has
been graciously applied to our hearts, removing from us the burden of unforgiven sin,
setting us free from all consciousness of evil. In instituting the typical passover, we
read (Exod. 12): "This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be
the first month of the year to you." How truly this feature is fulfilled in the
experience of a consecrated believer of this Gospel Age! Everything in his life dates from
the time when he came "under the blood." Before that all is darkness; before
that all is death. He does not care to even think of the darkness of his unconverted days,
and when he does occasionally mention them, it is only that his Savior may be the more
magnified, in the minds and hearts of those to whom he speaks; and that the contrast of
that past with his present happy state may awaken in hint a still greater realization of
his cause for gratitude and devotion. Mary's Deed of LoveAs this year we once again take
"the loaf" and "the cup" we can think of no better preparation of
heart than to meditate on the events connected with our Lord's celebration of the Last
Passover and of His institution of the Supper in its stead. We might begin at Bethany,
where the last journey that Jesus made from His Galilean home ended. It was here, three
months previously, that He had raised Lazarus from the dead-an act which had decided the
Sanhedrim to put Him to death. It was here, on the 9th day of the month of Nisan, just six
days before the Passover, that the feast was given +in His honor, at which Mary's
beautiful deed was done, when she took her box of spikenard perfume-very costly and
precious-representing perhaps a man's wages for a whole year, and broke it over the head
and feet of our Lord, and wiped His feet with the hair of her head, and the house was
filled with the odor of the perfume. All! the perfume of that beautiful deed will cling to
the garments of the Church as long as time shall last. "Wherever this Gospel shall be
preached," said our Lord, "this also, that she hath done, shall be spoken of for
a memorial of her." Praise God that once at least in His life on earth our Lord
received the love, and gratitude, and devotion, that His heart craved, and that were His
due. For her deep insight, her understanding heart, her act of loving, generous,
unhesitating devotion, Mary has placed us today-has placed the whole Church of Christ,
for all time-under an endless, unpayable, debt. Praise God for Mary, then; praise God
for the men and women since who have shared her large, generous, devoted spirit and
disposition. And may a rich odor of the selfsame perfume of love ascend from our hearts to
our Lord as at the "Table" we hold sweet communion with Him and with each other. On the day after Mary's deed of love,
our Lord started on His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The following day He cleansed the
temple for the second time; and for the remainder of that day, and all of the next, He was
occupied in teaching the people who hung upon His lips, and in frustrating and
confounding those who sought to entangle Him by captious questions. At the close of the
day He poured out His infinitely pathetic appeal: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that
killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have
gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and
ye would not!" As they left the temple He foretold its overthrow: "There shall
not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down," Panorama of Future UnrolledLater, in the cool of the evening, He
sat down on the brow of Mount Olivet, and in answer to the questioning of His four close
disciples, Peter, James, John and Andrew, He unrolled the panorama of the future to
them-the whole course of events from and including the destruction of the temple and the
city down to and including His own return, when He would come in power and glory. These
ever-living, ever-weighty words, closed the greatest day of His teaching ministrations
on earth. He ended them with a gracious prophecy of Israel's ultimate reception of Himself
"Ye shall not see Me henceforth till ye shall say: Blessed is He that cometh in the
name of the Lord." Late in the evening of this same day He announced the coming
Passover in connection with which He instituted the Supper which for His followers was to
take its place thereafter. "Now it came to pass that when Jesus had ended these
sayings, He said unto His disciples, Ye know that after two days cometh the passover, and
the Son of Man is 'betrayed to be crucified."-Matt. 26:1, 2. The disciples knew, of course, that the
passover festival was due in two days, but that their Master was to .be betrayed and
crucified then must have affected them with great concern, stupification, and dread. His
words must have come to them as a stunning blow. Only afterwards, when they would collect
their thoughts, and calmly weigh the past, would they be able to realize their full
significance. The next day our Lord apparently spent
alone, on Mount Olivet. There, where He had so often done before, He quietly poured out
His heart in prayer, and engaged in sweet fellowship and communion with His Father.
There He was refreshed and strengthened for the coming sorrow, suffering, humiliation, and
death. The following day the disciples came to
Him at Bethany. They knew that preparations had to be made for the passover that evening.
They knew that two day-, before He had declared that this Passover was connected with His
being delivered up to be crucified. And therefore it must have been with peculiarly
mixed feelings of awe, anxiety, and sense of duty, that they said unto Him: "Where
wilt Thou that we prepare for Thee to eat the Passover?" We are familiar with His reply: how He
sent Peter and John ahead to make ready; how they were to go to a certain man's house; how
they would be led to the right place by following a water-carrier servant who would meet
them as they entered the city; and how, on telling the goodman of the house: "The
Master saith: Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the passover with My
disciples?" he would show. them a large upper room furnished and prepared. And we
remember how they went, and found as He said, and made ready the Passover. Into that
upper room, where the Passover had 'been made ready, came Jesus in the evening, when the
hour for the celebration, sunset, had come, and sat down, or reclined, at the table,
and the twelve Apostles with Him. Into that same upper room let us enter now, in spirit,
with unshod feet, with hushed breath, with holy reverence, with hearts attentive and
subdued. For it is in that room that our Lord's wondrous character shines forth in
clearest brilliancy. In full view before Him-only a few hours away-were Gethsemane and
Calvary. But these are not permitted to disturb His serenity, as in that room He breaks
for His loved ones a box of ointment infinitely more precious than the one of Mary, and
filled the room with a heavenly fragrance. "With Desire Have I Desired"The words of mingled sadness and joy
with which He introduced the Passover services were themselves a most affecting revelation
of His heart: "With desire have I desired to eat this Passover with you before I
suffer." How strange it seems to us, now, as we look back on that scene, with our
hearts melting at the memory of His love, that one of the Twelve could have been unmoved
thereby, but persisted in following, to its bitter end, his previously determined course
of treachery. How strange it seems to us, now, that another of the Twelve, bold and
impulsively courageous as a rule, would prove, under test, to be so weak as to deny his
Lord. How impossible it seems to us, now, as under the guidance and in the power of the
Holy Spirit we yield our hearts to Him afresh, in a glad renewal of our consecration
vows-how strange it seems, that apparently all of them should have given way to a spirit
of strife and contention, as to which of them should be counted the greatest. Yet these
are the recorded facts, and they may well occasion in us each a most solemn and earnest
heart-searching, that their lessons may not be lost on us. But sad and unseemly though their
selfish strife had been, Jesus knew that at heart the Eleven were loyal to Him. And He
knew that because this was so they would ultimately triumph through the power of the Holy
Spirit, over all the forces of sin and selfishness which would oppose them. But this was
not true of Judas. His heart was disloyal, and it would be morally impossible for Jesus to
proceed with the institution of the Supper so long as Judas remained. Our Lord's next
step, therefore, is to dismiss Judas from the Apostolic circle, that only loyal hearts
might remain. Yet even this He did in so gentle a manner that only Judas himself, and
John, knew that the Master was aware of his treachery. The rest thought that our Lord
merely instructed Judas to buy some things they might need for the coming feast of
unleavened bread, or perhaps that He had told him to give something to the poor. We do not care to dwell long on the
treachery of Judas; it will be sufficient if we remember that his fall came about through
the exercise of a spirit the exact opposite to that displayed by Mary-a spirit of
selfishness, avarice, love of money, love of position, wrong ambition. If in our hearts we
should ever find any trace of this spirit, let us be prompt to seek the Lord's grace to
overcome it; to dispel it, to thoroughly root it out. And as we may be able to recognize
in our hearts the spirit of Mary, that spirit of unselfish sacrifice, which our Master
Himself possessed in such superlative degree, let us not quench it, but rather let us
allow it to have sway there, and to permit its freest exercise in deeds of love which He
can and will approve. After Judas had left their company,
Jesus seemed to breathe more freely. He seemed no longer greatly troubled in spirit,
notwithstanding the dark experiences that lay ahead. Only a few hours remain in which to
say all He wishes to say to His disciples, and He proceeds at once to comfort their
hearts as He poured forth upon them in all the fulness and freedom of His love those great
thoughts and exalted feelings and emotions, which St. John, through the Holy Spirit, has
preserved for us in the 14th, 15th, 16th, and 17th chapters of his Gospel. A New CommandmentHis first word is an expression of
triumph: "Now is the Son of Man glorified." Following this outburst of triumph
is a word of tenderness addressed to His own. He gives them the endearing name
"Little children." He tells them that but a little while would He yet be with
them. And so deeply would His absence be felt by all who had once enjoyed companionship
with Him that they would have the loneliness of orphans. Nor could they now go through the
loneliness, suffering, and death through which alone His future glorification could be
reached. And until the reunion, which could not be until after these events, He gave them
that wonderful, new commandment, to love one another. This commandment was not new in the
sense that it had never been given before. The commandment, or law, of love, was written
deep in the constitution of the first man. Love to one's neighbor is enjoined in the Old
Testament. (Lev. 19:18.) But it was new in that it was to commence from a new center, even
Jesus Himself; and it would be suited to new circumstances. The Church, which was His Body, was
about to be founded, and love was to be the mighty influence animating its members, the
powerful bond uniting the members of that Body to each other and to Him their Head. His
Body members, united to each other in love, were to be His love-bearers to the world. To
the world, the constant love which would be seen in the relationship of the members of the
Church to each other would be taken as proof of their discipleship. "By this shall
all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another." This love
would be to the world a pledge of the purifying, ennobling, humanizing, influences of
the salvation of the Lord, and an evidence, both unfailing and incontestable, of that
salvation's heavenly origin. This "new commandment" was most loyally obeyed. And
the flame of this entirely new affection on
earth, streaming forth from the holy fires burning in the early churches, proved a mighty
influence in the spread of the Gospel. And we, too, are determined, are we not, that our
fellowship shall be similarly attested; that men shall be constrained to say of us, as
of them, "See how these Christians love one another." Yet one more word came from the
Master's lips before He instituted the Memorial Supper we celebrate-a word of too
important a significance for us not to mention it here. It was a warning of the coming
sifting which Jesus foresaw would come upon the Eleven, and though it was addressed to
Peter, indeed, it was applicable to them all.* ------------------------------ *In a future issue we hope to submit a
fuller discussion of St. Peter's sifting and conversion. In this whole scene our Lord stands
before us in the noblest light. In it His wisdom, love, faithfulness, and tenderness shine
forth conspicuously; His foreknowledge of the future and of what goes on in the world
unseen; His word of warning His sympathy with, His powerful intercession on the behalf of,
His tempted, struggling, disciples; the strong foundation which he lays for them when they
do stumble and fall, namely: "I have prayed for thee"; His genuine joy in their
restoration, and His "When thou art converted strengthen thy brethren"; -- all
these unite in forming, or strengthening, in our minds, the conviction that Jesus was
indeed, what He claimed to be, the very Son of God, sent forth by the Father, to redeem
mankind. "This Do in Remembrance of Me"The time had now come for the
institution of the Memorial Supper. After Jesus had washed the disciples' feet, and while
He was explaining to them its import, and holding conversation with Peter, the Passover
meal was progressing. It had now come to an end. The eating of the lamb, and of the
unleavened bread, reminding them of the salvation of their nation from Egypt, had taken
place. The Psalms associated with the Passover services had been sung; the several cups of
wine had been passed in their order. And now Jesus proceeds to institute a new thing.
Taking some of the bread and fruit of the vine He consecrated them to higher and holier
uses. Henceforth they are to be memorials of deliverance from a bondage more dreadful
than that of Egypt; by a Savior infinitely holier than Moses. He Himself had come and was
about to lay down His life as the antitypical Lamb of God. As the Apostle declares:
"Christ [Jesus] our Passover' [Lamb] is sacrificed." Henceforth, for those who
realize this, and who trust in Him, old things would pass away. Even the old Passover
would no longer be appropriate for them as, by reason of its fulfillment, this type would
now become obsolete. But in its place, they, His followers, should have another feast.
As we read (Luke 22:19, 20), "And He took bread [or, as the Revised Version
translates, "a loaf"], and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them,
saying, This is My body, which is given for you: this do in remembrance of Me. Likewise
also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the New Testament in My blood, which is
shed for you." The evident meaning of our Lord's words
is "This loaf and this cup symbolize or represent My body and blood." The loaf
was not actually His body, for that He still possessed, and in no sense had it yet been
broken. So also the contents of the cup was not His blood, which was still in His veins.
But the picture is complete when we recognize that the unleavened (pure, unfermented)
loaf represented our Lord's sinless flesh; and the fruit of the vine represented His blood
-- the life poured out in sacrifice. The Apostle Paul throws an additional
light on the meaning of these symbols; when he inquires: "The cup of blessing which we
bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not
the communion of the body of Christ? For we, being many, are one bread [or loaf] and one
body; for we are all partakers of that one loaf." - 1 Cor. 10:16, 17. Fellowship with ChristWhat then, is this feast? It is a
communion; communion with Christ, and communion with each other. But what is meant by
communion? The word breaks up easily into "union" and its prefix
"com," which means "with"; so that the whole word means "union
with." Union, then, lies at the basis of communion. We must be one with Christ in
heart; baptized into His death; quickened by His spirit; joined, here and now, to His
resurrection life. Thus are we brought to 'be members of His Body, one with the whole
Church, of which He is the Head. We cannot have communion with Christ until we are in
union with Him; and we cannot have communion with the Church, which is His Body, until
we are in vital union with it. How may we have communion with Christ?
In many ways. First of all, by personal fellowship with Him. We speak with Him in prayer;
He speaks to us through His Word. We have communion with Christ in His thoughts, views,
and purposes; for His thoughts are ours according to our capacity and the degree of our
sanctification. Those things which please Him, please us; those which grieve Him, grieve
us, if we have "the mind of Christ." We may also have communion with Christ
in our actions. Have we ever tried to pass on the Gospel to those who know it not? This
Jesus did. Have we found it difficult? So Jesus found it. Have we ever striven, with
tears, to reclaim a backslider? Then we were in communion with the Good Shepherd who,
hastening into the wilderness to find one lost sheep, finds it, lays it on His shoulder,
and brings it home rejoicing. Yes, in acts of self-denial, liberality, benevolence, piety,
we enter into communion with Him who went about doing good. So it is with our sorrows. Certain of
us have had large fellowship with Jesus in affliction. Jesus wept. He lost a friend, and
so have we. Jesus grieved over the hardness of men's hearts; we know that grief. Jesus was
exceedingly sorry that the hopeful young man turned away, and went back to the world; we
know that sorrow. Those who have sympathetic hearts, with love for others, readily enter
into the experience of the Man of Sorrows. Nor this alone; we have been with our
Divine Master in His joys, especially in that joy which was set before Him of bringing
salvation to the dying race. For that joy He endured the cross. And though the fruition of
His sacrifice is not yet matured, yet even now He must be joyful at the prospect of seeing
the travail of His soul. And in the spirit of our minds we rejoice with Him, and covet a
share in the fellowship of His sufferings, a privilege offered only to His
"brethren." Fellowship with the Brethren So also with the communion to be had
with the fellow-members of the Body of Christ. This is richly enjoyed with all who possess
His Spirit. Much of it is experienced in our conversation, and in our correspondence,
although of course it is not limited to these. We who reverence the Lord speak often one
to another in regard to mutual hopes and aspirations. Others may from time to time speak against each other, but Christians worthy of the
name do not do so. Nod their communion is well expressed in that dear hymn we love to
sing: "Blest be the tie that binds"
Who May Participate?Just one word more in closing. Who may
participate in the Lord's Supper? To this question we would reply: No one should join in
this celebration who does not trust in Christ as his or her personal Savior from sin and
death; and who does not purpose to walk worthy of the Name of Jesus, in His footsteps
wherever they may lead, to the best of his or her ability. No one should come to the
Lord's table lightly, carelessly, but, as the Apostle exhorts: "Let a man examine
himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup." But on the other
hand none should absent himself or refrain from communion from a sense of unworthiness.
Thank God for a sense of sin, for a keen conscience about it; but let not that keep any
away. "If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous," and "If we confess our sins He is faithful and righteous to
forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness " Thus cleansed,
let us draw near, gladly confessing our love for our Lord, rejoicing in the pleasure and
privilege of remembering Him, in this, the way appointed, "For, as often as ye eat
this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till He come." "'Tis Midnight'"
The Assured Basis of God's Approval"There is a way that seemeth right unto a man; THE MOST important of warnings is
contained in this text. It is a solemn warning against self-deception-against pursuing a
course of conduct which is radically wrong, being opposed to the spirit and intent of the
divine law, and yet which may be made to seem right
by a line of false reasoning, suggested by the will of the flesh and apparently founded
upon the Word of God, yet denying its fundamental principles of righteousness. The
delusions of Satan also greatly help along such deceptions, and thus the blinded one is
urged on in a course which seems to him to be right, but the end of which is death. Christians should above all things
guard themselves against the folly of this way. To do this, let us ever remember that,
even though through Christ we have a reckoned standing of justification before God, the
human heart which we still have is "deceitful above all things and desperately
wicked" (Jer. 17:9), and that it requires constant watching and purging to enable us
to put into practice the Apostle Paul's rule: in simplicity and godly sincerity have our
conversation in the world. (2 Cor. 1:12.) This requires humility, sobriety, godliness. If
the heart be puffed up with pride, or is ambitious for vainglory, or if it be selfish, or
in any measure intoxicated with the spirit of the world, then beware; for there is great
danger of getting into that way that seemeth right to a man because blinded by his own perverse will or
fleshly mind. The best safeguard a Christian can have
against the snares of Satan is that "understanding" referred to in the
twenty-second verse of this sixteenth chapter of Proverbs and there described as "a
wellspring of life unto him that bath it." Such understanding is not merely of
the head, but of the heart specially; for, "With the heart man believeth unto
righteousness," and "Out of the heart are the issues of life." If the heart
be wrong, the head will seek to justify it, and in so doing will pervert judgment and
truth. Therefore, take heed, and "keep thy heart with all diligence." Not only will the "wise and
understanding heart" keep the feet in the paths of righteousness, but also "the
heart of the wise teacheth his mouth, and addeth learning to his lips" (verse 23),
so that he shall speak forth "words of truth and soberness," words of wisdom, of
kindness, and of love. How important that the fountain should be sweet, that thus the
stream that issues from it may be healthful and refreshing to all within the range of its
current! Truly, "pleasant words [of wisdom, of counsel, and loving-kindness] are as a
honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones," in that they refresh and
comfort and stimulate courage and thus fortify the soul and strengthen it to noble deeds.
- Ver. 24. How different is the picture of the
ungodly man! (Ver. 27-29. ) "An ungodly man diggeth up evil [apparently finding a
morbid satisfaction in searching for it], and in his lips there is a burning fire. A
froward man soweth strife, and a whisperer separateth chief friends. A violent man
enticeth his neighbor, and leadeth him into the way that is not good. He shutteth his eyes
to devise froward things: moving his lips, he bringeth evil to pass." Thus, as Isaiah
says, "The wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up
mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." - Isa. 57:20, 21. But blessed is the man that hath
learned the right ways of the Lord, and walketh therein with a perfect heart. Such a one,
unlike the wicked who go about digging up evil, delights himself in doing good and in
speaking forth the words of truth and soberness. He is slow to anger, and studies
carefully how to rule his own spirit, which is surely a great work and worthy of the
ambition and effort of every Christian. (Ver. 32.) How blessed (ver. 31) are the closing
years of a long life devoted to this most worthy end of ruling one's own spirit in harmony
with the principles and precepts of the Word of God; when, as Mr. Whittier has
beautifully expressed it
and when the hallowed influences of
ripened Christian graces are manifest to every beholder. Truly, "the hoary head is
a crown of glory if it be found in the way of righteousness." But if not, it is but a
monument of folly and its ripened evil fruitage is most undesirable. "I, too, Am a Christian"In 2 Cor. 13:5, Paul says, "Try
yourselves whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves,
how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" Christ says (John 15:14),
"Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you." By such rules each of us
may know what the Lord requires of us. While our standing in justification is a
"hidden in Christ" provision of abounding grace, the possession of
"Christ formed in us" comes under the rule, "If any man have not the spirit
of Christ, he is none of His." (Rom. 8:9.) And putting on Christ, and being made like
Him is our true objective. It is said that one of the gifted painters of the world stood
before the masterpiece of the greatest genius of the age. This he never hoped to rival,
nor even to equal, yet the infinite superiority did not rush him, nor cause him to
despair. He saw realized those conceptions that had long floated vaguely before him in
unsubstantial form; in every line and touch he felt a spirit immeasurably superior. As he
stood gazing at it, his heart swelled with emotion, his feelings became elevated, and he
turned away exclaiming, "And I, too, am a painter." So we need to look on
Christ and see in Him the embodiment of the highest and holiest of all conceptions, until
we know His touch and power and until our walk speaks for us before the world, saying
"I, too, am a Christian." If we be sincerely concerned to give
such a testimony of the power of Christ and the Word of truth in our lives, will it not
be profitable to recall in a very personal way some of the very important things we
need to remember as requirements of such as God will approve. Let us then, each for
himself remember --
If I be true to my profession, I will
daily strive to realize an increasing mastery over sin in myself, and will be able from
time to time to distinguish some degree of advancement in this direction. I will grow more like Christ --
more self possessed, more meek and gentle, more disciplined and refined, more temperate
in all things, and more fully possessed of the mind that was in Christ Jesus. And thus the
silent example of a holy life will reflect honor upon that holy name which it is my
privilege to bear and to represent before the world, as a living epistle, known and read
of all men with whom I come in contact. I realize that the formation of such a noble and
pure character is the result of the reception of divine truth into a good and honest
heart. Or, rather, such is the transforming power of divine truth upon the whole
character, when it is heartily received and fully submitted to. I need the instruction and guidance and
inspiration of the truth for holy living; and our Lord's words imply that all the truth
that is necessary to this end is in the Word of God, and that, consequently, I am not
looking for any further revelations through visions or dreams or imaginations of myself
or others.. The Word of God, says the Apostle (2 Tim. 3:16, 17), is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness (Heb. 4:11),
that the man of. God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. It reveals
to me the spirit, mind, or disposition of God, and exhorts me to let the same mind dwell
richly in me; and in conjunction with the study of the mind of God as revealed in His Word
and communion with Him in prayer, I receive the blessed influences of His Spirit, which
brings me more and more into conformity with His perfect will. I realize that to live a
holy life is not to do some great and wonderful things: it is to live from day to day a
life of quiet, unostentatious conformity to the will of God-of secret communion with Him
in my closet, devotions and daily walk, and of zealous activity to the extent of my
ability and opportunity in His service. As I have named the name of Christ, it is my
determination-God helping me-to depart more and more from iniquity and apply my heart
unto instruction, confident that I shall be led of God into green pastures and beside
still waters; my table will be richly and bountifully spread, and my cup of blessing and
joy and gladness will overflow. Surely then, "He that in these
things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men." "Wherewith
shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before Him
with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? . . . He bath showed thee, 0 man, what is
good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to
walk humbly with thy God." - Micah 6:6, 8. -Selected from early Watch Towers.
In the Vineyards of Grace
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