We shall have to be perfect—without spot or wrinkle or any such thing—when probation closes: there will be no time to become so afterward. And to be perfect when probation closes, we must be so before it closes.ARSH September 5, 1899, page 572.2

“When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth.” Guide you where?—Into all truth. Where is the truth?—In the word of God; for “thy word is truth;” “thy law is the truth.” The Holy Spirit then is given to guide you into the word of God, into the Bible, to give the true knowledge of the word of God. Yet it is a solemn and serious fact that thousands of persons expect the Holy Spirit to guide them without the Bible. That is a very serious mistake.ARSH September 5, 1899, page 572.3

Before Jesus came into the world in the flesh, the word of God was in the world. In his coming into the world in the flesh, the Word was made flesh. While he was in the world, there was not more of the word of God in the world than there was before: it was here only in a different shape. Before he came, the Word was here in the shape of books; while he was here, that same Word was in the flesh, in human shape. He returned to heaven. The Word is still here in the shape of books—the Bible. And it is Christianity for the Holy Spirit, through the faith of the believer, to take that Word and transform it from its shape in a book to human shape. When the great burning day comes, all the books in the world will be burned up; but the word of God, being transformed to human shape, will not be burned up. It will abide forever. Christianity is the word of God made flesh. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.”ARSH September 5, 1899, page 572.4

“Editorial Note” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, 76, 36, p. 572.

WHAT is it that cleanses the conscience? You answer, “The blood of Christ.” But let us connect with that another text: “For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh.” Hebrews 9:13, 14. Here the apostle directs our minds back to the olden time, when a red heifer, without spot or blemish, and on which had never come a yoke, was to be taken without the camp, killed and burned, and the ashes used to sprinkle upon an unclean person for purification. This sprinkling of ashes upon him made him pure. How did he know it?—By faith. Not in any other way; because, with the ashes sprinkled all over him, he was to all appearances more unclean than before. There was nothing in the ashes of themselves that could make him clean but the Word says that he was made clean: he accepted that word; and in spite of all appearances, he was clean. “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.”ARSH September 5, 1899, page 572.1

Now when that is so,—and all say that it is,—then, “how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God”! Christ through the eternal Spirit offered himself to God without spot or blemish. Now can not you do the same thing through the same Spirit?—Certainly you can, and you all say so; then there is nothing to hinder you from being spotless, without fault before God. What sprinkling cleanses us from an evil conscience?—The sprinkling of the blood of Christ, through the sanctification of the eternal Spirit, presents us before God without spot.ARSH September 5, 1899, page 572.2

“Editorial Notes” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, 76, 36, p. 572.

THAT certificate of naturalization we printed last week is worth considering again: for it illustrates a most important point in Christian experience.ARSH September 5, 1899, page 572.1

It declares that, whosoever the man may be, he, “on being admitted to citizenship by this court, took the oath to support the Constitution of the United States of America, and that he then did absolutely and forever renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to every foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty whatsoever, and particularly to the “sovereignty to which he had formerly been particularly subject5.ARSH September 5, 1899, page 572.2

In becoming a citizen of the commonwealth of Israel, a fellow citizen with the saints, did you “absolutely and forever renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to every foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty whatsoever, and particularly to the” one to which you were formerly subject, as every alien must do to become a citizen of the United States?ARSH September 5, 1899, page 572.3

If not, then do you count citizenship in the commonwealth of Israel, fellow citizenship with the saints, of as much value as any alien must count citizenship in the United States?ARSH September 5, 1899, page 572.4

In truth and in fact, is citizenship in the commonwealth of Israel, is fellow citizenship with the saints, of as much value as is citizenship in the United States?ARSH September 5, 1899, page 572.5

If citizenship in heaven, if citizenship in the commonwealth of Israel, if fellow citizenship with the saints, if to be of the household of God, is indeed as valuable as is citizenship in the United States, then to be truly a citizen of the commonwealth of Israel, just as certainly as to be a citizen of the United States, it is required that every such one shall “absolutely and forever renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to every foreign prince, potentate, state of sovereignty whatsoever, and particularly to the” one to whom, when an alien, he is subject, which is “the prince of this world.”ARSH September 5, 1899, page 572.6

And if this is not done, what then? if all allegiance to every prince, potentate, state or sovereignty whatsoever, other than that of the commonwealth of Israel, other than that of heaven, other than that of the saints, other than that of the household of God, is not absolutely and forever renounced and abjured, then there is certainly attempted a divided allegiance.ARSH September 5, 1899, page 572.7

But will a divided allegiance answer? Will a divided allegiance be accepted? Will any earthly government accept a divided allegiance? If any alien asking to become a citizen of the United States, should refuse to make that renunciation, full and complete as it is; if he should ask to have the renunciation divided, that he might retain and show some fidelity, only a little, to some foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereign, would he be accepted? Everybody knows that he would not, for even a moment. How, then, can it be supposed that such reserved, such divided, allegiance could be accepted in any one asking to be a citizen of the commonwealth of Israel?ARSH September 5, 1899, page 572.8

It is not enough, however, to inquire whether a divided allegiance will be accepted. The true question is, Can there really be any such thing as a divided allegiance? And the true answer is, No; for it is written, “No man can serve two masters.”ARSH September 5, 1899, page 572.9

It is therefore certain that no Gentile, no alien, seeking to be a citizen of the commonwealth of Israel, can ever expect to carry with him there any shadow of allegiance to anything in this world or of this world. It is written, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any many love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” Princes, potentates, states, and sovereignties are only of this world. To retain allegiance or fidelity to any of these, is to retain allegiance and fidelity to the things that are only of this world, and, so, to the world itself.ARSH September 5, 1899, page 572.10

Christian citizenship is citizenship in heaven; for “our citizenship is in heaven.” Philippians 3:20.ARSH September 5, 1899, page 572.11

Christian citizenship if citizenship in the commonwealth of Israel; for ye are no more “aliens from the commonwealth of Israel,” “no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.” Ephesians 2:12, 13, 18, 19.ARSH September 5, 1899, page 572.12

Christian patriotism is love of the country of one’s citizenship. And true citizenship is the absolute and everlasting renunciation and abjuration of al allegiance and fidelity to every other prince, potentate, state or sovereignty whatsoever.ARSH September 5, 1899, page 572.13

Is yours a true Christian citizenship? Are you a Christian patriot?ARSH September 5, 1899, page 572.14

“Studies in Galatians. Chapters 1:6 to 2:4” Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, 76, 36, pp. 572, 573.

AS the “Pharisees which believed” said that Paul was not a true apostle, so also they said that the gospel which he preached was not the true gospel. And as the first verse of the epistle is a defense of his apostleship as true, so chapters 1:6 to Galatians 2:14 is a defense of the gospel that he preached as the true, and the only true, gospel.ARSH September 5, 1899, page 572.1

Therefore he writes: “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him who called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: which is not another; but [“simply a contrivance of some people to disturb you.”—Fenton] there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.”ARSH September 5, 1899, page 572.2

And as those “false brethren” had reported that he preached, and was ever ready to shift his ground, only to please men, he now interjects the words, verse 10, “Well, am I NOW trying to be plausible to men, or to conciliate God himself? Had I still been trying to be a man-pleaser, I should not have been what I am—a slave of Christ.”—Farrar’s Translation.ARSH September 5, 1899, page 572.3

Again, he turns to the defense of the gospel which he preached, verses 11, 12: “Not I declare to you, brethren, as to the gospel preached by me that it is not a mere human gospel. For neither did I myself receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but by revelation from Jesus Christ.”—Ibid.ARSH September 5, 1899, page 572.4

And that he could not possibly have received it from merely man, he proves—verses 13, 14—by the fact that “you have heard of my former behavior in the days of my Judaism, how I persecuted beyond measure the church of God, and strove to root it out, and outran in Judaism many of my own age and nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers.”—Conybeare and Howson’s Translation. That is to say: As when he was a Pharisee, he was ahead of many of his own day and nation, was more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of the fathers than were others, and was far beyond them in persecuting the church of God, and in striving to root it out as wild boars uproot a vineyard,—since all this was true, there was no mere man from whom he could have possibly received what he was now preaching.ARSH September 5, 1899, page 572.5

But the false brethren were saying that even though he had not received his gospel merely from man, at the very most he had received it only from the true apostles, and not from the Lord direct, as had the true apostles. This he confutes by a series of indisputable facts:—ARSH September 5, 1899, page 572.6

1. Verses 15-17: “But when he who set me apart even from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace thought good to reveal his Son in me that I should preach him among the Gentiles, immediately I did not confer with mere human teachers, not did I go away to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned to Damascus.”—Farrar’s Translation. And these very false brethren who had now disconcerted the Galatian Christians, knew that at Damascus he had preached the gospel, and confounded the Jews who dwelt there, “proving that this is very Christ,” that this he had done many days at Damascus; and that he was driven away from Damascus by the Jews who sought to kill him—all this before he had ever met personally a single one of those who were apostles before he became an apostle.ARSH September 5, 1899, page 572.7

2. Verses 18-20: “Next, after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to visit Kephas, and I stayed at his house fifteen days; but not a single other apostle did I see, except James, the Lord’s brother. Now in what I am writing to you, see, before God, I am not lying.”—Ibid.ARSH September 5, 1899, page 573.1

3. Verses 21-24: “Next I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia; and was quite unknown by person to the churches of Judea which were in Christ, only they were constantly being told that our former persecutor is now a preacher of the faith which once he ravaged. And they glorified God in me.”—Ibid.ARSH September 5, 1899, page 573.2

4. Chapter 2:1-5: “Then fourteen years after, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took Titus with me also. At that time I went up in obedience to a revelation, and I communicated to the brethren in Jerusalem the glad-tidings [the gospel] which I proclaim among the Gentiles; but to the chief brethren I communicated it privately, lest perchance my labors, either past or present, might be fruitless. Yet not even Titus, my own companion (being a Greek), was compelled to be circumcised. But this communication [with the apostles in Judea] I undertook on account of the false brethren who gained entrance by fraud, for they crept in among us to spy out our freedom (which we possess in Christ Jesus) that they might enslave us unto their own yoke. To whom I yielded not the submission they demanded; no, not for an hour; that the truth of the glad-tidings might stand unaltered for your benefit.”—Conybeare and Howson’s Translation.ARSH September 5, 1899, page 573.3

In this citation of fact there are several facts, each of which disproves the charge that he had received his gospel from the apostles at Jerusalem:—ARSH September 5, 1899, page 573.4

(a) He communicated to them the gospel which he preached, instead of their having communicated it to him.ARSH September 5, 1899, page 573.5

(b) And this he did, not especially to teach the apostles anything, but because of the false reports of the false brethren, so that the apostles might understand the truth of the matter.ARSH September 5, 1899, page 573.6

(c) He took Titus with him, whom, with him, the apostles received, and did not compel him to be circumcised: thus the apostles at Jerusalem themselves utterly disregarded the claim of the “Pharisees which believed,” that “except ye be circumcised... ye can not be saved.”ARSH September 5, 1899, page 573.7

(d) He gave not an hour’s subjection to the demands of the false brethren; this in the very presence of the apostles at Jerusalem; and the apostles did not require him to yield.ARSH September 5, 1899, page 573.8

(e) Not only did the apostles not require him to yield anything; but “James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars,” actually gave to him and Barnabas “the right hands of fellowship.” Verse 9.ARSH September 5, 1899, page 573.9

(f) And more than this, those who were the chief in reputation, he says, “added nothing to me”—“gave me no new instruction.” Verse 6.ARSH September 5, 1899, page 573.10

All this was positive and conclusive confutation of the claim that he had received his gospel from the apostles. But he does not stop even here: that which is already conclusive, he makes overwhelming by the citation of—ARSH September 5, 1899, page 573.11

5. (Verses 11-14) “When Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed. For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation. But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter, BEFORE THEM ALL,” “If thou, being born a Jew, art wont to live according to the customs of the Gentiles, and not of the Jews, how is it that thou constrainest the Gentiles to keep the ordinances of the Jews? We are Jews by birth, and not unhallowed Gentiles; yet, knowing that a man is not justified by works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, we ourselves also have put our faith in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.”ARSH September 5, 1899, page 573.12

When he had publicly withstood to the face even Peter, and had called him back to the truth of the gospel, and through him even James, for it was “certain which came from James” who caused Peter to swerve, nothing more needed to be said, and indeed what more could be said, to settle it forever that the gospel which he preached was not received from men, nor from the Lord through men, not even through the first apostles, but from the Lord himself DIRECT.ARSH September 5, 1899, page 573.13

Thus in the book of Galatians is set forth the only true gospel, in its perfect purity, direct from the Lord himself by the hand of Paul. And whosoever misses this perfect gospel in the book of Galatians misses the whole book of Galatians.ARSH September 5, 1899, page 573.14

August 29, 1899

September 12, 1899