September 17, 1896

“The Pharisees Silenced” The Present Truth, 12, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

There seems, from His earliest years, to have been something about the personality of Christ which aroused attention, and excited inquiry. It seems to have been the general impulse either to ask questions about Him, or to question Him directly, wherever He was seen. When a youth of twelve, among the doctors in the temple, questioning and questioned, “all that heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers.”PTUK September 17, 1896, page 594.1

The culmination of this inclination of His enemies to question and cross-question Christ, in the hope of drawing some reply from Him which they could use for their own purposes, is narrated in the twenty-second chapter of Matthew. Indeed the beginning of this final series of questions which resulted in their complete discomfiture, is told in the preceding chapter, where they asked Him, “By what authority doest Thou these things? and who gave Thee this authority.” To this question He replied by asking them another, to which they felt compelled, after consultation among themselves, to make the hypocritical answer, “We cannot tell.” Upon which He refused to give a direct reply to the question they had put to Him.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 594.2

But nevertheless He did answer them, immediately, in parables, in which the language in figures used referred so unmistakably to Himself, as spoken of in their ancient Scriptures, that they could scarcely fail to understand its application. But that they might have no excuse, He says to them further, “Did ye never read in the Scriptures?” and then quotes to them, verbatim, prophetic references to Himself in Isaiah. In this “they perceived that He spake of them.”PTUK September 17, 1896, page 594.3

Still He continued with yet another parable, also based upon scriptural symbolism, in which its application to Himself, and its force as a reply to the question which they had asked, was but thinly concealed. As they had understood that in the previous parables He had spoken of them, so also in this they must have seen themselves and those who asked to be excused from attending the wedding of the king’s son, or ridiculed the invitation, or persecuted and slew the king’s servants. Then they took counsel together systematically, “how they might entangle Him in His talk.”PTUK September 17, 1896, page 594.4

For the accomplishment of this they sent to Him their own disciples with the Herodians, that they might, after flattering speeches, ask Him concerning a matter of civil government, a religio-political question, “Is it lawful to give tribute unto C?sar, or not?” His reply was such that they could take no exception to it. They could only marvel and go away. But more than that it set up the limits and fixed the boundaries beyond which the authority of man cannot go. Render unto God the things that are God’s, and unto man, and his government, the things which are man’s.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 594.5

Then came the Sadducees to Him and put to Him a puerile question which they thought made utterly ridiculous the doctrine of the resurrection. But then He silenced, and at the same time proved to them from the Scriptures the necessity of the resurrection of the dead, that God might be the God of the living. For they were not prepared to accept the logical conclusion of their own position and declare Jehovah to be so futile a being as to be God alone of the dead, and His kingdom to be only the realm of silence and death.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 594.6

When the Sadducees had been discounted the Pharisees came again to the attack, and a lawyer among them questioned him as to the commandments,-which was the greatest. In His reply Jesus epitomised the commandments in two short sentences. To this they could take no exception, and when they had nothing more to say, He questioned them again in reference to the Scriptures as regard Himself. When He asked them whose son Christ is, and they say David’s, He quotes to them the words of David himself, and asks, “If David then call Him Lord, how is He his son?” “And no man was able to answer Him a word, neither any man from that day forth ask Him any more questions.”PTUK September 17, 1896, page 594.7

“The Prophet and the Statesman” The Present Truth, 12, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

That the world is on the threshold of great changes and startling events is very evident. The development of the Eastern Question from week to week show that there is less and less a disposition to help the Turkish Power to stand. “He shall come to his end, and none shall help him.” Daniel 11:45. That we know; and while it seems probable that once again the Powers will agree to keep him up, every time that services are requisitioned the case becomes more desperate and the situation more insecure. We have often repeated it, and shall often do so, that when he does come to his end the time of trouble comes for all nations. Less than a year ago Lord Salisbury told why the Powers are so anxious to maintain the Turkish Power. His words we then printed as a striking comment on Daniel’s prediction of the scenes which would be enacted when the “king of the north” was no longer propped up. They are as follows:-PTUK September 17, 1896, page 594.8

“Turkey is in that remarkable condition that it has now stood for half a century, mainly because the great Powers of the world have resolved that for the peace of Christendom it is necessary that the Ottoman Empire should stand. They came to that conclusion nearly half a century ago. I do not think that they have altered it now. The danger, if the Ottoman Empire fall, would not merely be the danger that would threaten the territory of which that empire consists; it would be the danger that the fire lit should spread to other nations, and should involve all that is most powerful and civilised in Europe in a dangerous and calamitous contest. That was a danger that was present to the minds of our fathers when they resolved to make the integrity and independence of the Ottoman Empire a matter of European treaty; and that is a danger which has not passed away.”PTUK September 17, 1896, page 594.9

“Turks and Armenians” The Present Truth, 12, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

How can Turks bring themselves to butcher Armenians by the thousands? How can Armenians retaliate in king to the extent of their power? How can the civilised nations order their subjects out to mangle and cut one another down? The killing is no softer a thing in war than are massacre and riot. It is because Satan fills the heart with hatred, and men become as calloused as brutes. What an awful thing fallen human nature is!PTUK September 17, 1896, page 594.10

“The Promises to Israel. Saved by the Life” The Present Truth, 12, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

Of Moses we read, “By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible. Through faith he kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the first-born should touch them.” Hebrews 11:27, 28.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 595.1

It was not at the first, when he fled in fear, that Moses forsook Egypt in faith, but when he went out after having kept the passover. Then the wrath of the king was nothing to him, because “he endured as seeing Him who is invisible.” He was under the protection of the King of kings.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 595.2

Although this text speaks only of Moses, we need not suppose that he was the only one of the children of Israel who had faith; for we read in the next verse of the whole company that “by faith they passed through the Red Sea.” But even if it were true that Moses alone of all the company left Egypt by faith, that fact would prove that all ought to have left it in the same manner, and that the entire deliverance was a work of faith.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 595.3

“He endured as seeing Him who is invisible.” Moses lived in the same way that true Christians of the present day live. Here is the parallel: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations; that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried in the fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ; whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see Him not; yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory; receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.” 1 Peter 1:3-9.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 595.4

Moses and the children of Israel were called to the same inheritance that is reserved for us. The promise was to them in Christ, as well as to us. It was an inheritance to be gained only by faith in Christ, and that faith was to be such as would make Christ a real, personal presence, although invisible. And more, the basis of the faith and hope was the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Christ then, as now, was the head of the church. The true church has not and never has had any other than an invisible head. “The Holy One of Israel” was given to be “a leader and commander to the people” ages before He was born a babe in Bethlehem.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 595.5

We see therefore that personal faith in Christ was the basis of the deliverance of Israel from Egypt. This was shown in the institution of the passover. Matters had then come to a crisis. Pharaoh had persisted in stubborn resistance until the mercy of the Lord had no effect upon him. That Pharaoh had acted deliberately, and had sinned against light, is shown by his own statement after the locusts had been sent. He called for Moses and Aaron, and said, “I have sinned against the Lord your God, and against you. Now therefore forgive, I pray thee, my sin only this once, and intreat the Lord your God, that He may take away from me this death only.” Exodus 10:16, 17. He had come to acknowledge the Lord, and he knew that rebellion against him was sin, yet as soon as there was respite he was as stubborn as ever. He definitely and fully rejected all the Lord’s advances, and now nothing remained but to execute such judgment upon him as would compel him to desist from his oppression, and to let Israel go.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 595.6

THE FIRST PASSOVER

It was the last night that the children of Israel were to spend in Egypt. The Lord was about to bring His last great judgment upon the king and people, in the destruction of the first-born. The children of Israel were instructed to take a lamb “without blemish,” and to kill it in the evening, and to eat the flesh. “And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it.” “It is the Lord’s passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt will I execute judgment; I am the Lord. And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.” Exodus 12:5-13.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 595.7

The blood of that lamb did not save them, and they well knew that. The Lord told them that it was but a token. It was simply a sign of their faith in that which it represented, namely, “the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot,” for “Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.” 1 Corinthians 5:7. The blood of the lamb was therefore only a token of the Lamb of God; and they who “endured as seeing Him who is invisible” understood this.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 595.8

“The life of the flesh is in the blood.” Leviticus 17:11. In the blood of Christ, that is, in His life, we have redemption, even the forgiveness of sins; because God hath set him forth, “to be a propitiation through faith, by His blood, to show His righteousness, because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime, in the forbearance of God.” Romans 3:25, R.V. God passes over sins, not in that He compromises with them, but because “the blood of Jesus Christ His son cleanseth us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7. The life of Christ is the righteousness of God, for out of the heart are the issues of life, and the law of God was in His heart as perfect righteousness. The application of the blood or the life of Christ, is therefore the application of the life of God in Christ; and that is the taking away of sin.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 595.9

The sprinkling of the blood upon the door posts signified what was said later: “The Lord our God is one Lord; and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart; .... and thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.” Deuteronomy 6:4-9. The righteousness of the law of God is found only in the life of Christ. It can be in the heart only as the life of God in Christ is in the heart, to cleanse it from all sin. Putting the blood on the posts of the door of the house was the same as writing the law of God on the posts of the house and on the gates; and it indicated nothing else but dwelling in Christ-being encompassed with His life.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 596.1

Christ is the Son of God, whose delight was found in doing His Father’s will. As He was the Passover of the children of Israel in Egypt, so He is ours, because His life is everlasting and indestructible, and those who are dwelling in it by faith share its safety. No man nor devil could take His life from Him; and the Father loved Him, and had no desire to take His life from Him. He laid it down of His own free will, and took it again. He laid it down that we might take it, and He took it again, that He might take us with it. The dwelling in Him, therefore, which was signified by the sprinkling of the blood upon the door posts, means being made free from sin, and so being saved from the wrath of God which cometh upon the children of disobedience.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 596.2

Jesus Christ is “the same yesterday and to-day and for ever.” Hebrews 13:8. Faith in His blood, which was signified by the sprinkling of the blood of the lamb upon the doors of the houses, accomplishes the same result to-day that it ever did. When we celebrate the Lord’s Supper, which was instituted at the time of the passover at which Christ was betrayed and crucified, we celebrate the same thing that the Israelites did in Egypt. They were yet in Egypt when they celebrated that first passover. It was an act of faith, showing their confidence in Christ as their Deliverer. So we, through the blood of the covenant, show our faith in the power of His life to preserve us from sin and from the destruction that is coming upon the earth because of sin. In that day the Lord will spare those whose life is hid with Christ in God, “as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.” Malachi 3:17. And it will be for the same reason, because God spares His own Son, and men are spared in Him.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 596.3

THE LAST PASSOVER

When Christ celebrated that last passover with His disciples, He said, “With desire have I desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” Luke 22:15, 16. From this we learn that the institution of the Passover had direct reference to the coming of the Lord to punish the wicked and to deliver His people. So we are told, “As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till He come.” 1 Corinthians 11:26. The death of Christ is nothing without the resurrection; and the resurrection of Christ means simply the resurrection of all those whose lives are hidden in His life. It is by His resurrection that He begets us to a lively hope of the inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away; and the same faith and hope, laying hold of the same inheritance, was shown by the true Israel in Egypt. The inheritance for which we look is one that is reserved in heaven; and the inheritance that was promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to which God was prepared to lead the children of Israel, was “a better country, that is, an heavenly.”PTUK September 17, 1896, page 596.4

“The sprinkling of the blood” (compare Exodus 12:5-14; Hebrews 11:27, 28; 12:24; and 1 Peter 1:2-10) is the grand link that unites us in our Christian experience with ancient Israel. It shows that the deliverance that God was working for them was identical with that which He is now working for us. It unites us with them in the one Lord and the one faith. Christ was as really present with them as He is with us. They could endure as seeing Him who is invisible, and we can do no more. He was “slain from the foundation of the world,” and therefore risen from the foundation of the world, so that all the benefits of His death and resurrection might be grasped by them as well as by us. And the deliverance that He was working for them was very real. Their hope was in the coming of the Lord to raise the dead, and thus to complete the deliverance, and we have the same blessed hope. Let us take warning from their subsequent failures, and “hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end.”PTUK September 17, 1896, page 596.5

From this point on, our way will be much more plain, because at every step we shall see clearly that we are only studying the dealings of God with His people in the plan of salvation, and are learning his power to save and to carry on the work of proclaiming the Gospel. “Whatsoever things are written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.”PTUK September 17, 1896, page 596.6

“Unprecedented Conditions” The Present Truth, 12, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

Unprecedented Conditions .-The meteorological conditions on the continent of North America, this past summer have been both unusual and startling. Speaking of only a portion of the month of August, an editorial paragraph from an American paper says:-PTUK September 17, 1896, page 596.7

The long-continued excessive heat, and the number and violence of electrical storms and other meterological disturbances experienced during the first thirteen days of the month, will place August, 1896, on record as unequalled in the annals of previous history. The loss of life and property by rain, hail, floods, cloudbursts, hurricanes, tornadoes, cyclones, lightning, and prostrations from heat, have been unequalled and appalling.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 596.8

When we recollect that the summer was ushered in by tornadoes of great violence which caused unexampled loss of life, and that the season throughout has shown an extraordinary record of untoward natural phenomena, while the financial and political situation in the country threatens a similar condition of disturbance, if not disaster, it may well be that people should turn to prophecy to understand the meaning of these things.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 596.9

“The Alcoholised Brain” The Present Truth, 12, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

The Alcoholised Brain .-Some authorities claim that “a once-thoroughly intoxicated brain never becomes what it was before, though the outward evidence of a debauch may wholly pass away if the use of the alcohol is abandoned.” If this be true no wonder that the mental and moral results of habitual intoxication are so serious.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 596.10

“He is Responsible” The Present Truth, 12, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

He is Responsible .-If you have committed your ways and yourself to God, do not rob yourself of the joy of His salvation by doubting His power to keep you. “I know whom I have believed,” said Paul, “and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” He has the responsibility of the keeping if only we continually choose Him. “Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory,...be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and for ever. Amen.”PTUK September 17, 1896, page 598.1

“Divorcing Religion from Conduct” The Present Truth, 12, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

Formal religion presents very often such amazing contradictions that it would be amusing if it were not so pitiful. The Mexican or Italian brigand will count his beads or invoke the aid of the Virgin Mary to secure Divine assistance and protection in his criminal career. He thinks, of course, that God is altogether such an one as himself. He makes a god after his own imaginations, just as many do who do not use their religion to cover criminal conduct, but to use it nevertheless to serve their own inclination and pleasure.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 598.2

But the Leipsic Christliche Welt gives some instances of the unconscious inconsistency of the Russian formalist which point a good moral; for it is not alone in Russia that men are in danger of separating religion from the life. We quote two paragraphs:-PTUK September 17, 1896, page 598.3

“In Russian court in the city of Odessa some years ago there was a trial between two peasants, one of whom had bodily maltreated the other. The examination revealed the fact that the injured party had claimed that Almighty God was superior to St. Nicholas. The other, in the interests of his patron saint, presented this and abused his neighbour. This is a specimen of Russian religiousness. Some years ago, when the compulsory conversion in mass of Protestant peasants in Livonia to the State Church of Russia was in process, a Greek Catholic superior pope expressed his surprise that Protestants were opposed to this change of base. There was no ground for this opposition, he thought; for had not Luther at one time been the Court preacher of Queen Catherine of Russia? This is a specimen of theological training in Russia. At Warsaw the Emperor Nicholas was taking part in a religious service in which, according to custom, the worshipper was to kiss the hand of the officiating priest. The latter, in his confusion at the presence of the visible head of the State Church, failed to offer his hand. Thereupon the Emperor cried out: ‘Give me your hand, you dog; I want to kiss it.’ This is a characteristic trait in Russian Church life.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 598.4

“The religiousness of the Russian Church is an odd combination of elements, difficult to understand even for him who has come into constant contact with it, and even more difficult to make clear to others. In it are remnants and remains of the oldest kinds of Christianity, a certain barbarian naiveté, a lifeless formality from the times of Byzantine sterility, and a wilderness of confused ideas.”PTUK September 17, 1896, page 598.5

“Terrible and True” The Present Truth, 12, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

How picturesque and terrible is the language of Isaiah! Yet if we but think of the wonders of the things of which he speaks, and their import to the world, we cannot feel surprised at the marvellous heights of mysterious grandeur to which he rises. In the thirtieth chapter he breaks forth:-PTUK September 17, 1896, page 598.6

“Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of Me; and that cover with a covering, but not of My spirit, that they may add sin to sin.... Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever; that this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord; which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits; get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us. Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon; therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant.”PTUK September 17, 1896, page 598.7

These words are noted in a book, that they may be, as they should be, a warning for ever. It is the characteristic of the world to this day to take counsel of anyone but God. It is the practice of the world to this day to hide behind any subtle devices that it may add sin to sin. The people of to-day will not hear the law of the Lord, but stultify themselves with false logic and foolish inconsistencies, that they may uphold a misconstruction and misrepresentation of God’s law. And when their substitute for God’s law is ignored they strike by legal enactments and penalties to enforce it. This very year and day the people are saying to those who see and understand the signs of the times, “See not!” “We do not wish to understand that these are prophetic evidences. Give us flights of fancy, and pleasant rhetoric, and flattering speeches. Lead us in the depths of the higher criticism rather than in the way of that ancient Book.”PTUK September 17, 1896, page 598.8

Is not all this true of the present age and shall it not cause God to cease from among men? And when He has withdrawn His presence from the world, shall He not see just such things as we are told are now happening in Turkey? The breezes heated by an equatorial sun is now carrying the hotter breath of slaughter round the world. When their odours shall have penetrated to cooler climes and roused the quest of war in the slower tempered peoples of the North, all these things may well be expected to combine in a sudden breaking forth which will appal the hearts of men, but from which, and from the results of which, there will be no escape. All intelligent men may well stand aghast at the possible outcome of that which is now taking place in Turkey.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 599.1

“‘The Seeing Eye’” The Present Truth, 12, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

“The hearing ear, and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made even both of them.” Proverbs 20:12.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 605.1

Have you ever thought what a very wonderful piece of machinery the eye is? Each part acts in perfect obedience to the messages which come to it by the nerves from the brain, so that when we wish to open or close our eyes, it is done instantly and almost unconsciously.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 605.2

Now in Matthew 6:22, we find the eye called “the light of the body,” and I do not think there could be a better name. In front of the eyeball there is a round, transparent window, always kept beautifully clean, through which the rays of light pass into the eye, and after being collected by a lens, they strike on a delicate membrane at the back of the eye, known as the retina. Here, an image of the object at which we look is formed, and here the sensation of sight is felt. We do not value this precious gift of sight so much as we ought. Too often we strain our eyes by small print and reading in dim lights. Let us take more care in future of our sight.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 605.3

But what about the eye of our souls? That eye is faith. How many are blind with this eye! They have never asked God to open “the eyes of their under.”PTUK September 17, 1896, page 605.4

“Items of Interest” The Present Truth, 12, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

-Spain continues sending troops to Cuba and the Philippines.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 606.1

-The revenues of Cape Colony increased by over a million pounds this year.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 606.2

-It is stated that more money is made out of coal mines than out of gold mines.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 606.3

-Since the first of the year over ?11,000,000 hat been invested in new bicycle companies.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 606.4

-Great forest fires are reported from Canada, thousands of sores of timber being destroyed.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 606.5

-Hundreds of Armenians are emigrating from Turkey, anxious to get anywhere away from that country.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 606.6

-There are, it is said, at least 200 horse-butcher shops in Paris. The first one dates from July 1, 1866, since when the consumption has grown continuously.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 606.7

-At the Battle of Trafalgar, the heaviest gun used threw a projectile weighing only 32lb., which was 6.41 inches in diameter; the modern 110-gun uses a shell weighing 2,000lb., of 1? inches in diameter.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 606.8

-Icebergs have made more trouble than usual this summer in the Transatlantic trade. A fortnight ago a London steamer was sunk by collision with a great floating mountain of ice. The crew escaped in boats.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 606.9

-A town to be named Ecathorinagrad is to be built on the Mourman coast, the shores of Russian Lapland, to serve as a naval station for Russia, giving the latter country a free entry to the Atlantic seaboard.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 606.10

-Storms and rainfall in Egypt of an extent and violence heretofore unknown occurred during the first few days of September. The tempest did great damage to the railway being constructed by the Egyptian force.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 606.11

-The World’s Women’s Christian Temperance Union has collected a monster petition, signed by women throughout the world, containing seven and a half millions of signatures, against the liquor and opium traffic. The section which contains the signatures from the British Empire has been forwarded to Balmoral for presentation to the Queen.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 606.12

-In Sicily the language of signs is universal, says a writer in Macmillan’s Magazine. It is per. featly possible for a Sicilian to carry on a long conversation from a distance with hands, eye-brows, lips, and even nostrils. Even the children are expert in silent communication, and when using ordinary speech they accompany their words with most expressive gesture.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 606.13

-Over ?200 was spent in drink in one week by a Hertfordshire family making a tour of America. The family consisted of the mother, aged about sixty, and two sons and a daughter. They pus chased the liquor wholesale, and drank it in their hotel. After the carouse, which ended on Saturday, the debauchees were found lying on the floor of one of the rooms in the hotel. One son was dead, the daughter was isane, and the other son and the mother were suffering from delirium tremens.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 606.14

“Back Page” The Present Truth, 12, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

Two of our friends who have devoted themselves to work in India sailed from London last week for Calcutta.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 608.1

The gambling dens recently running just across the water, at Ostend, are said to be already rivaling Monte Carlo, and women, English women especially, are said to be the heaviest gamblers.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 608.2

One of the most difficult tasks is to try to help the person who thinks that he holds back from doing right because someone else is doing wrong. The objector is often sincere but always deceived. The trouble is a personal one, and very often when the heart is set right and the vision clarified the trouble in the other person, that was supposed to be the stumblingblock, disappears also.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 608.3

The Amalgamated Bakers are still at it,-not baking, but spying upon Jewish baker’s on Sunday mornings, and preferring complaints against them for Sunday baking under the old law of Geo. IV., as witness the following:-PTUK September 17, 1896, page 608.4

J. L. Meek, a baker was summoned yesterday at Marlborough-road under an Act passed in the reign of George IV. for unlawfully baking bread on Sunday,-Mr. Travers Humphreys, a barrister, prosecuted on behalf of the Amalgamated Society of Bakers. Two working bakers stated that they saw baking going on in defendant’s shop at two o'clock last Sunday morning.-Mr. Humphreys said the defendant was fined for a similar offense on August 13.-Mr. Newton imposed a fine of 20s., with 2s. costs. Benjamin S. Cohen, a baker, was similarly summoned. In this case the evidence showed that the bake-house windows were boarded up, but after some little trouble the witnesses were able to see bread being made. A previous conviction for a similar offence having been proved, Mr. Newton fined the defendant 20s., with 2s. costs.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 608.5

Are these men criminals? Is justice being meted out to them, or are they being persecuted?PTUK September 17, 1896, page 608.6

“A moment really seems to have come in the history of humanity when Christianity may effectively deliver to the nations its message concerning war,” says a religious journal. But the same article treats war as a necessary evil at times, when rights cannot be maintained without it. The nations are ready for this message-in fact will fight for it at any time when they can safely do so. However, Christianity’s message has not waited till now. Wherever the faith of Christ has been preached a message concerning war has been delivered.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 608.7

The “Tourists’ Church Guide” has become the hand-book for recording the progress of Ritualism. The eastward position is now adopted in nearly 6,000 churches in the Church of England.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 608.8

“Pitcairn Island” The Present Truth, 12, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

Pitcairn Island .-Reports from our South-Sea missionary ship, Pitcairn, state that all are well on Pitcairn Island. “The principal events of the year,” they tell us, in this out-of-the-way but famous island, “have been the opening of the industrial school and the establishing of water-works.” A number of the islanders accompanied the force on board the Pitcairn which is leaving workers and various island groups.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 608.9

“Mammon’s Tribute” The Present Truth, 12, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

Mammon’s Tribute .-An evening paper, the Echo, in calling attention to the fact that “murders, suicides, and lunatics are alarmingly increasing in England,” attributes this increase to the true cause, the rush of money-getting and pleasure-seeking which characterises not our national life only but the age in which we live. Our contemporary says:-PTUK September 17, 1896, page 608.10

Mammon is the god most worshipped in England, and we pay the penalty in the usual unrest, and morbid activity, and feverish competition, in trampling down the weak, and increased drink bills, in the conspicuous development of the social evil; and increased infanticide, suicide, madness, and murder. If anyone doubts the accuracy of the indictment let him look at the facts.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 608.11

“The Rise of the Ottoman Power” The Present Truth, 12, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

The Rise of the Ottoman Power .-In the ninth of Revelation the prophet by specifications which have been exactly fulfilled, sketches the rise of the Turkish Power. The sons of the desert swept out from the Arabian wastes like smoke issuing from the bottomless pit. “And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which had not the seal of God in their foreheads.” The historian Gibbon quotes the instructions which Abubeker, the successor of Mohammed, issued to his hordes, as he led them into the Greek Empire. Notice how exactly the verse quoted was fulfilled in these instructions:-PTUK September 17, 1896, page 608.12

When you fight the battles of the Lord, quit yourselves like men, without turning back; but let not your victory be stained with the blood of women and children. Destroy no palm-trees, nor burn any fields of corn. Cut down no fruit-trees, nor do any mischief to cattle, only such as you eat. When you make any covenant or article, stand to it, and be as good as your word. As you go on you will find some religious persons who live retired in monasteries, and propose to themselves to serve God that way; let them alone, and neither kill them nor destroy their monasteries; and you will find another sort of people that belong to the synagogue of Satan, who have shaven crown; be sure you cleave their sculls, and give them no quarter till they either turn Mohammedans or pay tribute.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 608.13

“A Destroyer” The Present Truth, 12, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

A Destroyer .-The name given to the Mohammedan power in the Scriptures is that of Apollyon, or Destroyer. Revelation 9:11. The first king, who in this verse has this symbolic name given him, was Othman. As one of our Armenian correspondents said in our columns last year, “As though to be in harmony with the prophetic name, Apollyon, his name Othman, means ‘Bone-breaker.’” Such has it been-a Destroyer throughout its history, a scourge like locusts from the desert, as the Revelator describes it. But as in its rise, so in its history, it has been very largely a scourge upon a corruption of Christianity, upon Roman and Greek Catholicism, which but for this enemy at their gates would often have carried further persecution and torture of those who followed the Word during the Dark Ages and later times.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 608.14

“‘Not Religious Fanaticism’” The Present Truth, 12, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

“Not Religious Fanaticism . ” -The Daily Chronicle gives this head to one portion of the despatches of its own correspondent in Constantinople. The fact which the correspondent states is almost universally overlooked in comments which are made on the terrible crime in Constantinople, although his words are full of significance to those who would get at the true situation in Turkey:-PTUK September 17, 1896, page 608.15

It certainly was not religious fanaticism which caused the massacres in Anatolia. In like manner, these massacres in Constantinople were clearly arranged by the Sultan, and strictly ordered to be confined to Armenian Christians. If Moslem fanaticism were really the cause, it is absurd to pretend that Greek and other Christians would have been passed unnoticed by the mob.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 608.16

“For Little Ones” The Present Truth, 12, 38.

E. J. Waggoner

For Little Ones .-A new third edition of “The Gospel Primer” for little folk has just been prepared by our publishers. It consists of a picture alphabet, with Scripture texts, simple lessons on the subject of Creation and the Gospel, and several poems and illustrations. Price 2nd.PTUK September 17, 1896, page 608.17