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VOL. XXII September, 1939 No. 9 Selections for the Family Circle The Master's Work
"I have
glorified Thee on the earth. I have finished PHILIP MELANCHTHON, the Reformer, said:
"There has never been any voice more holy or sublime than this of John 17:4." The words of the Master cause us to
ask, What was the meaning of the life of Jesus? What was His work? The life and the work of Jesus tell us
that love is at the heart of things, that love is an everlasting principle, co-eternal
with God. Jesus Himself was the highest earthly expression of this love, and thus He could
say, "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." Who else but the Master could
have said that in the full sense of its meaning? Who else could say that he had
transmitted from his life the full measure of the effulgence of truth? Who else could say
that he had absolutely completed his work? Victor Hugo, the great author, in the
fifty years of his labors, poured out great thoughts to the world, dealing with
practically every phase of human life. He said: "I have expressed myself in prose,
in verse, in song, in tale, in history, but have not said the one-thousandth part of what
I had to say." Mozart, the great musician, was called
"music made man." He electrified audiences by' the mighty strains of his
compositions. He seemed to translate the very universe into the power and the glory of
sound. But at the time of his death he said that he had only come to see what might be
done. Jesus died young, and yet had completed
His work. John Keats died young, but had not completed his work. Tennyson said that had
Keats lived, he would have been the greatest of all poets. Keats was but reaching out
after something that he could not find. It seemed a will-o-the-wisp that ever eluded his
grasp. And so he craved death, with his life's work not really begun. Raphael, one of the most brilliant of
all artists, was cut down pat an early age, when he could see the immense possibilities
that lay in the realm of achievement where his talents had been employed. It is character, not time, that does
great things. One of the poets said,
Jesus died at the age of thirty-three,
and he could look up to God and say: "I have glorified Thee on the earth. I have
finished the work which Thou gayest Me to do." From the very first there was no guess
work in the life of Jesus. He did not spend half His lifetime trying to find out what
God wanted Him to do. At twelve years of age we find Him in the temple discussing learned
questions with the doctors of the Law; and it was on this occasion that He said to
Joseph and Mary, "Wist ye not that I must be about My Father's business?" At
this early age evidently Jesus realized that He was on earth for a very special purpose.
In the mighty determination of His mind He was not to be swerved from this purpose. After
His immersion in Jordan, when He was out in the wilderness, Satan tried to divert the
current of the Master's resolution, but was in every point foiled in his attempt. From
that time to the end of His earthly career Jesus walked a road that was clearly defined
for Him. He knew exactly the purpose for which He was on earth, and nobody else on earth
knew this but Himself. The life-work of Jesus may be divided
into five parts: (1) the truth which He taught; (2) the miracles which He performed; (3)
the Law which He fulfilled; (4) the death which He died; (5) the resurrection hope which
He made real. The Truth He Taught
Taking these up in order, we may say
that the truth which Jesus taught marked a transitional period in the development of the
Divine Plan. Jesus dealt with truth past, present, and future. In dealing with the past,
He called attention to the Prophets and what they had written. He upheld the Word of God
as being truth that had sanctifying power. His references were not to the poets and
philosophers of Greece or of Rome, but to such personages as Abel, Moses, Abraham, David,
Elijah, and John the Baptist. In His teachings He swept aside traditions and penetrated to
the heart of things. No teacher had ever set forth truth in so crystallized a form. The
"Sermon on the Mount" is "a mountain of truth in a signet ring." Every
statement in that wonderful discourse cuts a straight path to a definite end. Verbosity
was no part of the preaching of Jesus. "The Lord's Prayer" can be offered up
in about thirty-two seconds; but it is doubtless the most complete prayer ever offered by
any person at any time. In His teachings Jesus recognized the
value of practical illustrations. In setting forth His teachings, He uses birds, foxes,
fish, flowers, trees, harvest, grapes, water, bread, sheep, leaven, seed, thorns,
thistles, and various other things. By thus using many comparisons, He brought out the
many sides of truth. In the vine-and-the-branches parable we find the thought of unity;
in the sheep parable is contained the great fact that God had set one true Shepherd over
His sheep, and the real sheep follow Him, and "a stranger will they not follow, for
they know not the voice of strangers." Thus all the illustrations were necessary so
that the truth might be presented in a rounded and completed form. The terms used by the
Master were terms from things of every-day life, such as would appeal to people in the
humbler strata of society. He was not preaching to princes and kings, but to those to whom
He said: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." In setting forth the new truth, Jesus
did not disparage the Law of Israel. On the contrary, He said, "One jot or one
tittle shall in no wise pass from the Law till all be fulfilled." And to the rich
young ruler He said, "This do [keep the Law] and thou shalt live." The truth which Jesus taught upheld
decorum, order, and law. He was not eccentric, nor did He oppose the government of His
time, although it had won its power by the sword. In regard to the matter, of paying
tribute He plainly said, "Render therefore unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's
and unto God the things that are God's." He taught His followers to be submissive to
earthly authority in so far as the law of God would allow. Yet while living in the world,
they were not to have the world's spirit. They were to put truth first and be living
witnesses therefore. They were to be lights shining forth during a period of darkness,
so that men might in due time see their good works and glorify their Father which is in
heaven. Christ's Miracles
The miracles performed by Jesus were of
the greatest significance. They were performed at the call of humanity's needs. They were
not of the character suggested by Satan -- that Jesus would turn stones into bread for His
own requirements and jump down from a pinnacle of the temple and thus astonish the
multitude. Evidently the Master had no thought that the spectacular element should have
any part in His miracles. He saw people around Him who needed the boon of healing, and He
healed them. When they were hungry, He fed them. In certain cases -- only three -- He
raised the dead. He was a great practicalist, and did the thing required at the time, and
this while He held in His mind a vision of the earth's coming glory and the future outflow
of blessings to all. Thus did Jesus avail Himself of the
opportunities as they came to Him, and in so doing He left a great'' example for all
those who have the discernment to see the value of His life. The fleeting days with the
Master were things of value. He did not put off to a future date what the present called
upon Him to do. He was aware of the magnitude of His work; He was fully alive to His
privileges, and all His activities were directed by one purpose and by one law, and He
moved majestically forward to the goal that shone before Him. Let us consider one of the acts of the
Master as illustrating the "law of necessity" which He observed in performing
His miracles. Jesus crossed the lake of Galilee in a fishing boat. Here in the wilderness
it was quiet, and our Lord had sought to getaway from the multitude for a brief space. But
the people walked around the shore, and ere long He was once more in the midst of a crowd.
The day slipped past and the evening hour came on. The disciples suggested that Jesus send
the people away so that they might go into the towns and villages and buy food, but He
said, "Give ye them to eat." They replied, "We have but five loaves and two
fishes." And the Lord said, "That will do." We are all familiar with the story. The
miracle simply meant that the Lord took a small thing and made it go a long way. No one of
that great multitude could tell how the marvelous thing was done, but, could then have
looked behind the scenes, they might have seen angels working. And were not the Lord's
other miracles much of the same character? On one occasion He took some clay and made it
go so far that it cured a man that had beer born blind. At another time He took a towel
and some water and washed the disciples' feet, and that act went so far that it has come
down to us through nineteen centuries, and shows that Jesus was truly humble and did not
disdain to perform an act that should have been attended to by some one. He made vitality
go a long way, for He imparted it to sick people and healed all their infirmities, and so
we are told that when a certain woman had been cured, He perceived that virtue (vitality)
had gone out of Him. He made prayer go a long way, for when He wrought the greatest of all
His miracles in the raising of Lazarus, He prayed to His Father in heaven, and He was
heard in the thing that He desired. No miracle performed by the Master was done merely for
show, but in every case some necessity lay behind it. The Law which He Fulfilled
One of the most interesting things in
the life of Jesus is His fulfillment of the divine law. No one had ever fulfilled this law
before. To the Jewish people the moral code was given on tables of stone. When Jesus was
on earth, a young man thought that he himself had kept the divine law perfectly, but the
Master speedily undeceived him, saying, "One thing thou lackest." And that one
thing was a full measure of love. Not only did Jesus do no ill to His neighbor, but
"He went about doing good." He was the embodiment of law fulfilled in a positive
way. Truly He paid Israel's debt to the law, and on such a basis as that He could call
disciples to follow Him, and the Apostle Paul could say, "There is therefore now no
condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus . . . for the law of the spirit of life in
Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not
do in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending His own Son in the likeness of
sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law
might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit." - Rom.
8:1-4. Had Jesus not fulfilled the divine law,
He could not have been accepted as a sacrifice, and then where would have been our
salvation and that of the world? It has been said that Jesus had three perfections,
namely: His perfection as a spiritual being before. He came into the world, His
perfection as a man, and His perfection as a High Priest; and all these were necessary.
Concerning the last mentioned perfection we read: "Wherefore, holy brethren,
partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our
profession, Christ Jesus; who was faithful to Him that appointed Him, as also Moses was
faithful in all his house." As a High Priest of a higher order than the Jewish
priesthood, He was qualified to offer up Himself, and then the Church, which is His
Body-the latter offering having consumed the entire Gospel Age. The fact that Jesus fulfilled the law
of righteousness and died on our behalf means that we have been justified from the
Adamic transgression, and therefore have a standing of perfection. Whereas His
perfection was absolute, ours is reckoned. So then, the merit of the sacrifice of Jesus
has been applied to the Church for nearly two thousand years. Some use the expression,
"passed through the Church." However, it is the same thing. The actual thought
is that it has been utilized by the members of the Church through the Gospel Age, and has
not yet gone to the world. By means of the sanctifying power of
the truth and life's present experiences the Church is preparing to bless the world in
the Age to come. Certainly the Church is not blessing the world now; at least, not in
any special sense. The followers of Jesus have to graduate from the school of Christian
experience before they will be considered qualified to confer the necessary benefits
upon the world. Without the merit of Jesus, the Church could do nothing, but by means of
that merit the members of the Church are permitted to suffer for the truth's sake that
they may reign with their Lord and Head. The Death He Died
Part of the work of Jesus-and indeed,
the most important part-was the death which He died. Had He not died as a ransom, our
salvation would not have been secured by the means that God has used. In dying, Jesus
fulfilled two great types -- the bullock of the Day of Atonement, and the Passover Lamb.
Whatever other types He fulfilled, these were the most important. By virtue of the
first, Israel had typical justification; that is, a standing of acceptance with God during
the coming year. By virtue of the second, Israel recognized and memorialized her
deliverance from Egyptian bondage, and the fact that her first-born ones were saved from
death. The bullock -- as perfect an animal as could be secured-provided the merit which
was the basis of other sacrifices. Its blood was taken into the Most Holy by the High
Priest and was there sprinkled on and before the Mercy Seat. Its fat was burned on the
brazen altar in the court, and its hide and hoofs were consumed with fire outside the
camp. And so the Apostle tells us that Jesus
"entered not 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." During the
Gospel Age He has been the great Head of the Church, the great dispenser of truth, for
John tells us in the Book of Revelation, "The Lion of the tribe of Judah hath
prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven seals thereof." And how did He
prevail? Simply by doing the will of God, which was that He should die. The doing of the
divine will, even though it led to death, meant final victory for Jesus, just as it means
victory for every member of His Body, the Church. The Resurrection Hope
And then there is the resurrection hope
which Jesus made real. The Jews had a hope of resurrection from early times, for it was
set forth by their prophets. Thus, Hosea said (the Lord speaking): "I will ransom
them from the power of the grave, I will redeem them from death. O death, I will be thy
plagues, O grave, I will be thy destruction." And the Lord said to Israel, "I
will open your graves, O My people, and will bring you up out of your graves, and bring
you into the land of Israel." Concerning Lazarus, Martha said, "I know that he
will rise again in the resurrection at the last day." And, while the Sadducees had
fallen away from this hope of resurrection, the people at large still adhered to it. Jesus the First-fruits of the Resurrection
But Jesus was the very first-fruit of
the resurrection, and is called "the first-fruit of them that slept." When the
disciples saw Him and realized that He was the same one that had been crucified, it must
have seemed to them that He had opened the very gates of life. And so indeed He had, for
are we not told that "He brought life and immortality to light," and that He
has the keys of death and of hades (the grave)? "If Christ be not risen," said
the Apostle Paul, "then our preaching is vain, your faith is also vain ye are yet in
your sins and they that sleep in Christ are perished." By this reasoning 'Paul proves
that he knew the sacrifice of Christ had been a perfect one, !and that therefore God could
not leave Jesus in the state of death, for the intrinsic right that Jesus had to life was
vested in His perfection, and while He gave up His life as a human being, He did not
forfeit His right to live on the spiritual plane. And just what does the resurrection
hope mean to us? Truly it means everything; for what would life amount to without the
prospect of a resurrection? Then, too, there is a sense in which we are risen with
Christ even in this present time, for the Apostle says, "If ye then be risen with
Christ, seek those things that are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
For ye are dead [to sin and to the world], and your life is hid with Christ in God.
Sitting with Christ in the heavenly places, we can see the futility of earthly things, and
we can behold the glories of the truth, and we know that the Spirit searcheth all things,
yea, the deep things of God, which of course means that those who possess the Spirit will
search the deep things of God, so that they may gain a more adequate conception of the
"breadth, length, depth, and height" of divine love, and get more of that love
into their own hearts. Love that Never Faileth Makes All Things New
There is nothing deeper than love,
nothing grander than love, nothing more desirable than love. "Love never
faileth." Is it not the love of God that we are continually studying? The more one
studies art, tine more he appreciates it; and the same is true of music, science, and
other things. When we are studying the Plan of God, we are chiefly studying the love of
God, for that is the highest and greatest of all the divine attributes. "This is
life eternal, that they may know Thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou has
sent." To know God we have to enter into the knowledge of His love, and if we do
this, His wisdom, justice, and power will surely become manifest to us. It is love
engendered by the truth that lifts us up into the heavenly places, so that we can
realize we are risen with Christ and that "all things have become new." Is not
love itself, therefore, the power of the resurrection that is passing us over from death
unto life? Verily it is; for without divine love there would be no resurrection, no hope
of the future, no satisfaction in the truth. Such were the things that Jesus came to
do, and which He accomplished for us. Some of these things no one but He could do. In a
general sense, however, He "left us an example, that we should follow in His
steps." It is a blessed privilege to be a follower of Christ, and thus to show our
appreciation of gall that He did. As His followers endeavor to do this, they may feel
the power of His guiding hand,, and realize His blessing on their lives, as they continue
in the "narrow way." - Contributed. His Leading
Present and Future
Vision
"For now we see through a glass
darkly [obscurely]; but then face to face." - 1 Cor. 13:12. THE WORD translated "glass"
is from the Greek "esoptrou," a transparent substance through which,
owing to its imperfect condition of clarity, one could only see the object faintly,
obscurely; it was not as clear as one could wish. Paul is dealing with the growth of
character -- his analysis of character under its personification of "Love,"
for God is love, and those who have been begotten of His Spirit as sons of God must also
develop the same character. So Paul analyzes love in its every-day habit of thought,
word, and deed. He would give us to understand that it is only in proportion as we develop
this essential God-like characteristic that we can appreciate the purport of our
experiences. Paraphrasing this verse, then, we would suggest it would read, "For now,
in proportion to our growth in grace we understand the purpose of our experiences is to
the end that we might reflect the character-likeness of God." This means that when we
have developed this characteristic to the degree that if we could look into a mirror
we should reflect God's likeness, in the same way as when we see Him face to face, we as
sons of God shall be like our Father. You remember Jesus said, "Be ye
perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect," and it was to this end that Jesus
interpreted for us many aspects of His Father's character. Jesus further told us in Luke
6:40: "Every disciple when his course of instruction is complete shall be as his
Master." For a few moments, then, we want to
apply our minds to the "course of instruction," remembering that Paul also
reminds us that God has called us unto His Kingdom and glory. "We see through a glass
darkly" -- our life sometimes appears to us to be an enigma; we sometimes appear to
be walking in nothing more than a maze where in the apparent monotony of the daily round
and the common task we are prone to lose sight of the real purpose for such experiences,
the true object of all such training in the school of Christ. We are prone to lose
consciousness of the unseen presence of Him who is our daily companion and with whom
life's dark maze is in reality the plan of One who is too wise to err, and too good to be
unkind. In Luke 12:6, 7 Jesus would sweetly
remind us, "Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings and yet not one of them is
forgotten before God, . . . are ye not more precious than many sparrows?" Do we lose
sight of all these precious truths when confronted in our daily walk by a crisis, some
molehill which by smallness of faith appears a mountain? Do you think God gave Moses all the
minutiae of the Tabernacle's services as a matter of course or of delighting to make as
much work as possible? No! Can we not view it from the standpoint that it was to show that
the commonplace duties of life were sanctified to God and should be done as unto Him with
a consciousness that He took note of each and every moment lived? Suppose Aaron had said, "Tomorrow
morning I will have a rest and not offer the burnt-offering -- I will not matter much if
I miss just once, as I have offered the same offering so many times." Do you think
God (who Jesus assured us took heed of the sparrow's fall) would have been too busy to
have failed to enjoy the sweet incense which accompanied the. burnt-offering and was the
means of union between Him and Israel through Aaron? Aaron's contact with God would have
been interrupted, and God did not provide for that. (Psa 27:4. See Heb. 9:3-5.) Let us
think of this if we are apt to consider that our life is sometimes monotonous. One reads the Psalmist's words,
"My times are in Thy hands." Do we ever see in those words the depths suggested
by the translation of one of the Indian dialects, "All my hows, and whens, and whys
are in His care"? It is a continual growth in grace and
love that keeps us in constant touch with God, and therefore every prophecy that is
fulfilled appeals to us in proportion to our growth and love for God; every indication
of our Lord's second presence stirs up the emotion of our hearts and the prayer escapes,
"Even so come, Lord Jesus, come quickly"; every evidence of His providential
care for us deepens our love for Him and strengthens our faith in His unerring wisdom; and
our service for the brethren is not from us, but from Him through us. Each child of God is
the special object of our Father's attention, and He has in His care all our hows and
whens and whys. We see some of life's problems
obscurely. Perhaps it is because we lose sight of the ultimate issue, the end God has
in view
It may seem strange that divine love
wounds to heal, but "My ways are not your ways, neither are My thoughts your
thoughts." God often leads us through Gethsemane to get to Bethany. We only see the
reason for some sorrowful experience in our life when we pass over to the other side and
look back at the panorama and see the way He has led us and what pains He has taken to
prove His love for us that we might prove our love for Him. Thorns and Blessings
You know how sometimes in picking fruit
off a prickly bush, you lift the prickly branch in order to get the fruit, and in doing so
you get a thorn in your hand. It is the fruit you desired, and you are willing to pay the
price of pain, sometimes, in order to obtain it. Some of the grandest and sweetest
characters God has ever blessed this earth with have had their moments when they must have
caused the great Husbandman much pain, and yet He saw in them the ultimate luscious
fruitage of character that would give Him such inexpressible joy and happiness. Some days
it seems almost as if we are being dealt with by God in the same way as the photographer
who develops his sensitive plates in a dark room under the obscure red light. The plates
go through various processes in which any other light must not penetrate, and it is the
photographer and his plates who alone share the secret of the dark room. Often our developing experiences are a
matter between God and ourselves -- we are being submitted to the various processes in
order that the great Photographer might see in us His own likeness. He carries on His
secret processes in the shadow of the red light-the glowing love of Jesus, because we are
God's gift to Jesus as a further expression of God's love to Him for the great love
Jesus manifested to His Father in giving His life a ransom for all. It is in this dark
room God helps us to know wisdom secretly and teaches us truth in the hidden parts. Then we think of the weaver
intertwining woof and warp with various colored threads. If we were to stand on the
reverse side of the cloth to which the weaver was working we should see what appears to be
an unintelligible design and a bewildering mass of threads, It is only when we pass round
to the other side and take our stand by the weaver and view the weaving from his vantage
point that we can see the beauty of design. How often we are apt to look at the
converse side of the Weaver's woof and web as He interweaves in our experiences the
variegated thread, which seem to us so purposeless, so bewildering. We need to understand
the Weaver's grand design and see the loom of life where the woof and warp of life's
vicissitudes are interwoven by divine love, wisdom, justice and power that He might be
glorified. Enlarging on the thought of the Weaver,
we might be able to see something in the colors He uses. In Ezek. 1:28 God's glory is like
unto a rainbow. Some features of the divine character were portrayed in the cherubim woven
on the Tabernacle's second veil. In His design God has used the following colors to
portray the life of His Son, from His prehuman existence to the end of the Millennium, and
in such design we can see the Plan of the Ages: White, silver, and green, to represent
the purity, the spiritual life of the Logos in His creative works and activities as the
Father's Agent in the affairs of man; Copper and red to represent the Logos
taking upon Himself the "seed of Abraham," human conditions to give Himself a
ransom for all; Blue, purple, and gold, to represent
the faithfulness of our Lord in His covenant of sacrifice with His Father, His reward to
be King of kings and His exaltation to the divine nature. Taken singly these threads may mean
little or nothing, especially if viewed from the converse side of the Weaver's pattern.
They mean a good deal to us if we are associated and identified with Jesus. Read Psa.
45:13, 14; 139:15; Rev. 3:3; 14:1; 21:11, which show that the Church will also reflect the
glory of God. Then read Rev. 22:4, which shows mankind ultimately manifesting God's
character. "We see through :a glass darkly," obscurely, so long as we look on
the converse side of the Weaver's pattern. Then take the lapidarist with his
precious stones which come to him for his skilled attention when they are in an uncut and
unpolished condition. He has a design in which he foresees the jewels mounted in the
royal diadem. He sets to work, cutting and polishing each jewel until it is fit to be
mounted in the king's crown. Each jewel requires the individual attention of the
lapidarist, who is familiar with its peculiarities and knows what treatment to give. As the Lord's jewels being prepared for
the royal diadem, are we always conscious of His care for us? "He careth for
you" -- even in the cutting and polishing experiences of life. He values the jewels
He is preparing; they are His workmanship, precious in His sight "They shall be Mine,
saith the Lord, in that day when I gather up My jewels" -- "a crown of glory in
the hand of the Lord," to show forth His praise. Go down and see the potter at work on
the wheels with his clay, which he so deftly molds into a vessel he has previously
designed and in his mind seen completed to his own satisfaction and enjoyment. The clay
goes through various processes after being formed on the wheels-it is glazed and placed
in an oven to harden it so that it might endure and be fit for the service for which it
was designed. Possibly our experiences are similar.
We for a time seem in the hands of God enjoying the sunshine of His love, and then we are
placed in circumstances calling for a proof of our faith in the Potter -- shall we be
true to His design -- will the fire of testing and trial be too much? It is then we need
to be mindful that He watches over His own. We should learn to say with job, "He
knoweth the way that I take: when He bath tried me. I shall come forth like gold," a
vessel unto honor for the King's palace, to give the King that pleasure and happiness He
foresaw He would enjoy when before the foundation of the world He conceived the design
of creating all things for His pleasure. The Foreknowledge of God
One must acknowledge and appreciate the
foreknowledge of God with the predestination of the Christ, Head and Body, if he is to
make any progress in character development. (See Psa. 139:14-18.) It is often the answer
to many a perplexing question, many a difficult situation in which we often find
ourselves, and what is more important still, it is preeminently the means God uses to
conduce rest of faith in Him and is the means of enjoying true peace of mind. "Until the day break and the
shadows flee away" is only another way of illustrating the Apostle's words in our
text. "Until the day cools," matures in experience, after morning light, the
heat of noonday and the approaching eventide, when all the shadows, the hazy
recollections, the half appreciated experiences, flee away and we understand exactly all
their true import, because, as we said in another connection, "our course of
instruction is complete." Studying the Song of Solomon 2:17; 4:6-8, we see that we abide on the
mountains dividing Him from us "until the day break," and we see Him face to
face. The scientist will endeavor to explain
the riddle of life as he probes the wonders of the atmosphere and universe, and pretends
to tell the age of the world by some archaeological discovery that will afford a field for
both wild speculation and an opportunity for challenging the divine Word. One scientist
will dare sum up his life's discovery and go so far as to say that "death ends
all"-thereby maintaining his disbelief in the purpose of the present life, which is
notwithstanding a valuable experience to prepare man for the future ages. Another
scientist makes bold to declare that he. has been able to create life in a cell in his
laboratory, but he is forced to admit it is not an intelligent form of life-it is not a
life that can hold fellowship with either God or man; so what use is it Scientists will
not meet with success in explaining the riddle of life until they learn to live a
consecrated life in constant touch with the Creator, the Fountain of life and Source of
light, and until they acknowledge that "the reverence of the Lord is the beginning of
wisdom." When we reverence God, we can learn to love Him and His Son, who is the
resurrection and the life. It may well be that the riddle of life
appeals to you never more strongly than when you first gaze into the eyes of your
newly-born child and see that mutual recognition which speaks without words and holds
silent fellowship. Or it may equally well be that life's riddle appeals to you in all its
earnestness when you stand at the grave side to pay your farewell tribute to a life well
lived; a life so unselfish, patient, loving, and gentle, noble in its purity and
fragrant in its sweetness of virtue; a hidden life with its joys and sorrows, its secret
fellowship in the Holy; a life perfumed with the sweet incense ascending from that altar
in the Holy;, a life that having faithfully sacrificed its little all, passes under the
second veil -- into His presence to see Him face to face --what a moment! Jesus has waited
throughout the centuries of the Gospel Age for this
moment. God foresaw it before the foundation of the world. Each member of the Body of
Christ has waited patiently throughout his life's little day for it. What a meeting! According to Gen. 24:63-67 Isaac meets Rebekah and sees his bride for
the first time when the veil is removed from off her face. We wonder what were the first
words Isaac spoke to his bride and what were her first words to him. Equally we wonder
what our Bridegroom's first words will be to His Bride when He sees her for the first time
within the veil and what will be her first words to her adorable Bridegroom! And then to think that just as Isaac
took Rebekah to his own home and comforted her, so will Jesus take His Bride to His
Father's home and present us to His Father before His throne faultless, without blemish;
and we shall see Him face to face, be with God throughout the ages of glory, not for forty
days with hidden face, as Moses in the mount, but to enjoy the fulness of God's
fellowship, and with Jesus complete God's happiness and pleasure in the restitution
work.during the Millennial Age and in whatever work our Father may be pleased for us to
cooperate with Him in the ages of glory. "Now abideth faith, hope, love,
these three; bit the greatest of these is Love." "We all, with open face
beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory
to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." - l Col.. 13:13; 2 Cor. 3:18.
- Contributed.
Confession of Sin
"I have sinned."
- Exod. 9:27; Num. 22:34; 1 Sam. 15:24;
Josh. 7:20; Matt. 27:4; Job 7:20; Luke 15:21. THIS CONFESSION, "I have
sinned," occurs in seven different portions of God's holy Word, from Exodus to Luke.
It is necessary, however, for us to consider them separately, as each confession conveys
an entirely different meaning or feeling. While one confesses, "I have
sinned," and receives forgiveness, another says, "I have sinned," and goes
his way to blacken himself with worse crimes than he had before committed.
I. The
Hardened Sinner -- "I Have Sinned"
Exod. 9:27
The first case is that of the hardened
sinner Pharaoh, who under terror says, "I have sinned." In Exod. 9:27 we read:
"And Pharaoh sent and called for Moses and Aaron, and said unto them, I have sinned
this time: The Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked." But why this
confession from the lips of the haughty tyrant? Did he desire from a contrite heart to
humble himself before God? We may judge the value of his confession when we recall the
circumstances under which it was made. The context beginning with the twenty-third verse
reads: "And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven; and the Lord sent thunder
and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and the Lord rained hail upon the land
of Egypt. So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous such as there
was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation." While the thunder is rolling through
the sky; while the lightning flashes are setting the very ground on fire; while the hail
is falling in big lumps of ice -- "Now," says Pharaoh, "I have
sinned." Is this the first time that Pharaoh knew that he had sinned against God and
His children? Ah no, he knew that he had been treating them unjustly for years, but he was
too proud to humble himself and confess his sin, and seek the forgiveness of God and His
children, and mend his ways. So, as time went on, his conscience became seared, wrong
conduct and unjust practices had little or no effect upon him. He hardened his heart. Of
what value was his confession? That confession, which was begotten during the terrors of
the storm, died in the calm. That repentance, which was born amid the thunder and the
lightning, ceased when all was hushed in quietness, and Pharaoh returned to his former
evil ways.
II.-The
Double-minded Man --"I Have Sinned"
Num. 22:34
The second case to consider is that of
the doubleminded Balaam; who says, "I have sinned," and feels that he has, and
feels it deeply too, but who is so worldly-minded that he prefers the "wages of
unrighteousness" to the obeying of the Lord's commands. We recall how Balak, king of
the Moabites, feared the children of Israel, who had encamped in great numbers on the
plains of Moab. So Balak sent messengers to the Prophet Balaam, asking him to come and
curse the Israelites that the Moabites might go out and defeat them in battle.. These
messengers had with them rewards for the service of Balaam. Now Balaam was desirous of
serving them, receiving from them their rewards and words of commendation, so he said unto
them: "Lodge here this night, and I will bring you word again, as the Lord shall
speak unto me." Balaam pled the cause of Balak: "And God said unto Balaam, Thou
shalt not go with them; thou shalt not curse the people; for they are blessed." The next day Balak received this
message from Balaam. He then sent back his own sons who promised, in addition to the
rewards, promotion to very great honor if he would come and curse the Israelites.
"And Balaam answered and said unto the servants of Ballak, If Balak would give me his
house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God, to do less
or more." The next day Balaam went to see Balak, and on his way an angel interrupted
his journey, and it was here that he realized that he had done wrong in not listening to
the commands of God. It was to the angel he said: "I have sinned." Upon meeting Balak Balaam was taken to
an high place from whence he could view the hosts of the Israelites. He was again offered
rewards and positions of honor if he would but curse the Israelites, so Balak could defeat
them in battle. Balaam again went before God and pled the cause of the Moabites. Returning
to Balak he said: "How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed? or how shall I defy
whom the Lord hath not defied?" With all sincerity of heart he went before God
several times and pled the cause of Balak, and with all sincerity of heart he came each
time to Balak with a refusal; and on one occasion he speaks of the "times of
refreshing, . . the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the
mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began," saying: "I shall see Him,
but not now; I shall behold Him, but not nigh." Balaam was double-minded in the
respect that he would serve righteousness and at the same time he would like to receive
the wages and honor of unrighteousness. III.-The Insincere Man -- "I Have Sinned"
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