Newspaper Page Text
March 5, 1913] 1 * M W
subversion of faith in God and the destruction
of spiritual life. As children of God our
prayer should be, "Teach me to do Thy will,
for Thou art my God; Thy Spirit is good;
lead me into the land of uprightness;" Psalm
143:10.
Furthermore by nature we crave pleasure,
and go to great lengths in trying to obtain it
in things pertaining to this life, only to find
that such pleasures are but for a moment, and
so often leave us more unsatisfied than ever.
The true delight of the Child of God is found
- otherwise. "I delight to do Thy will, 0 my
God; yea, Thy law is within my heart."
Once more it is a craving of our natures to
desire long life. The world is bending its energies
to the prolongation of life as never before.
and much oan hp. dnnp tr> hrir>r? tln> " ?
age of man's days from some 33 years nearer
toward the "three score and ten" allotted by
his Maker, but even the full "three score and
ten" we know does not satisfy. The way for
God's Children to prolong their days is not
along tut, lines prescribed by science, but as
the Word says: "And the world passeth
away, and the lust thereof, but he that doctli
the will of God abideth forever." 1 Jno. 2:17.
What is the chief end of man, is well answered
in the Shorter Catechism: "Mun's
chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him
forever." But how are we to glorify God?
By winning souls? Bv doinc cnnHi Rtr
_ V ?O O""'" J
ing to make the world better? Many seem to
think some of these things is the way, but is
not the way to glorify God to do His will, whatever
that will may be? "I seek not mine own
will, but the will of the Father which hath
sent me." Jno. 6:30.
NOTES HERE AND THERE.
"Do you realize the fact that your nature occupies
this awful position of being borne by the
eternal Son of God? That your human nature
is the vesture in which this everlasting Priest
is attired? How can you dare to sully a nature
thus dignified, or make your bodies unworthy
to share in the tlesh and blood of Christ! When
who won 1/1 Tir.+ toU. tT:? /.I- ?1 "
..VU.U nut laav UU -IJLiLU LUC LlHlUre Ol
ungels has taken on Himself our manhood as
the pledge and earnest oi its purification, how
great is the guilt of debasing that nature which
He has so honored:" Christ was the Son of
God from eternity, but also the Son of God by
his incarnation, for the angol said unto the
Virgin, "that Holy Thing which shall be born of
thee shall be called the Son of God;" with the
sonship by incarnation we are most deeolv con
r -ff "
cerned because it laid the foundation of all
truly filial relationship between Qod and man,
being itself the conduit that connects deity and
its graces with humanity and its weakness, the
source, cause, and principle of every divine
blessing whatever. In every form of his divine
relationship we are interested in "the Son of
God;" in His generation we see our regeneration.
He would make us sharers of His own
unspeakable privileges, and teach us not to
tllo mirPnl ? 11 1
? ?.. ,..v u.nui b"jij ui repusiug in tnai oosom
of the Father where he himself from all eternity
has dwelt."
Among what great and awful mysteries the
Christian life of believers begins and ends, and
how little Christians realize these solemn and
mysterious realities, amid which their life is enshrined
and the great things done in them, and
done for them by the incarnation of Christ
.Tocma TVin s ?
ujjoici/ ui aiysLenea, me wonaer
of heaven and earth, each alike astonished at
the union of both, the one everlasting miracle
of divine power and love, as it is the mightiest
boast of our race that we have thus been inhabited
by a Divine presence. "So it is our
Prophecy a\
hev. a. w. 1
Prophecy is the knowledge of God expressed in
human language. Miracles the nnwer nf OnH e*.
ercised upon the creation.
If there is a God, and if he is to be a Factor in
human history, then he will and must speak and
do. His knowledge and power must and will
express themselves ir uords and acts.
God's revelation of Himself to me in the past,
as that revelation is recorded in the Scriptures,
manufests, knowtiedge in prophecies, and his
power in acts. And the attempt to eliminate the
"Supernatural.'" from the Keeord is simply to
banish God as a factor from the history of the
race as written in the Book.
God makes minself known to us by words and
deeds, and lience it would seem that "Paopiiecv
and Miracles" are necessities in any Revelation
that Uod may make ol himself. We come
to know each other by words and acts. We come
to know Uod through Divine Words and Divine
actions; the Bible claims to be the Record of
what God said and did; his Words and deeds;
Prophecy and Miracles, to ehminate these is to
get rid altogether of the Loving and Acting God.
As Omniscient, he knows all that is or will be,
hence he speaks of the future as present; both
are alike to him. As OmniDotent. his nower
over ail the works of Creation is supreme; and
he sustains, controls and directs at ins will.
The prophets, who foretold the events of the
future, tell us plainly that it was the Spirit of
God speaking through them?the prophecy came
not from the will or knowledge of man, but from
God.
The Apostle Peter thus sums up and states the
case of all the prophets:
(a) The Spirit of Christ was in them.
(b) No prophecy ever came by the will of
man.
(c) Men spake from God, being moved by the
Holy Spirit.
God's knowledge of all beings, of all worlds, of
all ages, ot' all acts and events, make itself manifest
in the Prophecies of the Sacred Scriptures;
loftiest office to sympathize with all the high
destinies of that Person who thus incorporated
us with infinity, who introduced us into the very
sphere of supreme Deity, and who carries our
fortunes with liim when He traverses the adoring
heaven, and while millions of worshipping
seraphs are prostrate as He passes, teaches even
them to adore in Him a man no less truly than
a God."
we are suen stun as ureams are maae 01,
and our little life is rounded with a sleep."
Those words said Leon Paul awolte w*hole volumes
of thought within me. But what are those
words to these!?"God who caused the light to
shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ." Dwell on
each of these words, and see if they do not awake
whole volumes of thought within us. What
mysteries of God's power are here revealed.
We are taken back to creation when God said,
"Let light be." and light was. And that mightv
power which evolved light from darkness hath
shined in our hearts (where there was darkness)
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory
of Ood in the face of Jesn9 Christ. "What mysteries
are here set before us. "What deep wells
of thought here opened! What great stars kindle
into splendor and glory above us! God shining
in light in our darkness, and that light giving
the knowledge of the glory of God revealed in
Christ Jesus. How we fail to realize God's
power in our being born of God. How many
IOVB (195) 8
nd Miracles
?rrzKB, d. d.
if he speaks of salvation, there must be, of neces- .
sity, prophecies.
And so of miracles. If there is a Qod, and if
he ever come into this world to take part in the
uirairs oi men, and "to preserve and govern all
creatures and all actions," then, of necessity,
there will be Divine Acts, as well as Divine
Words.
Not the rod of Moses, nor Moses himself,
wrought the mighty works done in Egypt centuries
ago; but Jehovah the Personal Covenant
God of his people, was present in Power to make
himself known.
Jehovah, not Joshua, drove out the Canaanites;
Jehovah, not Elijah, withheld the rain from
the Promised Land; Jehovah, not the Hebrews
at Babylon, restrained the lions and quenched
the flames of the furnace,?and the same Divine
Being as the Messiah of Gospel History wrought
'Miracles by the scores and hundreds and thousands.
The "Power" of this Messiah acts on all the
forms and forces and beings of this creation;
winds and waves, disease and death, demons and
darkness, these works mark him as the Promised
One of the Prophets, and certify him to us as
God manifest in the flesh.
To eliminate or minimize these "Miracles"
is to destroy or impair tlie proofs of Christ's
Deity and Messiakship: since any revelation of
God must necessitate Divine Words and Divine
Acts. Any record of a revelation from God [
without these two marks of "Prophecy and
Miracles" is natural, not supernatural, human,
not divine
"We do not help, but hinder, the acceptance
of the Gospel by eilorts to reduce the number of
Bible miracles, or to account for them by
natural causes; if God is not here at work, j
speaking and doing; if there is no "Prophecy
or Miracij?," then indeed is our Lord taken
away, and nothine bicker or better is left us
than the Human and Natural.
Salem, Va.
of those who preach the gospel realize that by
their "high pressure methods" they are trying !
to do God's work in the soul; and the results
show God's light has not shined there. Of His
own will begot he us; not by works of righteousness
hath He saved us, but by the washing
of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy
Ghost. "No other words can do justice to the
case, so complete and absolute is the sovereignty
which interposed the possibility of regeneration
between sin and death." From the human side
f al. J*? ? - ? ? *
iiuuuug, irum me uivine siae everyming; new
life, new light, new hope.
Regeneration carries its own witness because
it carries with itself its own fruits. We are
God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus
unto good works; if they are lacking, that creation
has not taken place. So also the fruit of
the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance."
Why use so many words t Would not the one
word goodness suffice? No, because spiritual
growth is often in individual points, rather than
in the central substance of the character, and
it is helpful to have many lights by which to
judge of progress; by a movement toward new
graces, will the wise man determine his personal
?cj/e7i(TOHin?.
Where God has really shined ihere trill be
light found there. Who is the real orthodox
raant Orthodox in speech, in spirit, in temper,
in desire. It is the man of humble and contrite
(Continued on page 5.)
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