DAWN VOLUME EIGHT SELECTION
1
CONTROVERSY
By JAMES STALKER, D.D.
It is no good sign of the times that controversy should be
looked down upon. In the records of the
life of Jesus we have pages upon pages of controversy. It may have been far from the work in which
He delighted most to be engaged; but He had to undertake it all through His
life, and especially towards the close.
The most eminent of His servants in every age have had to do the
same.
The spirit of the true controversialist is the joyful and
certain sense of possessing the truth, and the conviction of its value to all
men, which makes error hateful and inspires the determination to sweep it
away. It was as the King of Truth (John 18:
37) that Christ
carried on controversy, and He was borne along by the generous passion to cut
His fellowmen out from their imprisonment in the labyrinth of error. Excessive aversion to
controversy may be an indication that a Church has no keen sense of possessing
truth which is of any great worth, and that it has lost appreciation for the
infinite difference in value between truth and error.
There are differences, indeed, in the present feeling of the
public mind to different kinds of controversy.
One of the tasks of controversy is to combat error outside of the
Church. Christianity is incessantly
assailed by forms of unbelief which arise one after another and have their
day. At one time it is Deism which
requires to be refuted, at another Pantheism, another Materialism. To defend the
It is controversy within the Church which excites alarm and
aversion. Yet the
controversy which our Lord waged was inside the Church; and so has that
been carried on by the most eminent of His followers. It
would, indeed, be well if the sound of controversial weapons were never heard
in the temple of peace; but only on condition that it is also a temple of
truth.
In the time of Christ the Church was the stronghold of error;
and not once or twice since then it has been the same. Jesus had to assail nearly the whole
ecclesiastical system of His time and a large body of the Church’s
doctrines. To do so must, to a thoughtful
mind, in any circumstances be an extremely painful task; for the faith reposed
in their spiritual guides by the mass of men who have little leisure or ability
to think out vast subjects to the bottom, is one of the most sacred pillars of
the edifice of human life, and nothing can be more criminal than wantonly to
shake it. But it sometimes needs to be
shaken, and Jesus did so.
Of course the opposite case may easily occur; the Church may
have the truth, and the innovator may be in error.
Then the true place of the Christian controversialist is on the side of
the Church against him who is trying to mislead her. This also is a delicate task, requiring the
utmost Christian wisdom and sometimes likely to be repaid with little thanks;
for, while he who defends the Church against error coming from
THE OUTSIDE is loaded with honours as a saviour of the faith, he who attempts
to preserve her from more menacing danger WITHIN may be dismissed with the
odious and withering title of heresy-hunter.
-------
DECAYING FAITH.
Dr. Betts,
professor of Religious Education at the (American)
* * *
2
BASELESS FABRICS
It seems certain, if we are to judge by the portentous silence
around us, that the real horror of the betrayal of the Truth in the Churches
has not yet even begun to be understood.
It is through no wish for controversy that we print these extracts. The matter is infinitely too grave. We print them because ‘Christians’ who are Christians need to be
stabbed wide awake. For it is not the
wild men in theology that are the portent, since such have flaunted infidelity
in the Church of all ages, but their silent authorization in the official
organizations of to-day and their growing support by immense sections of a
bewildered membership. All whom we quote
from hold high rank in the Churches. A
thousand times more true to-day than when it was uttered is the remark Professor Huxley once made to Bishop Ellicott in the Athenaeum:- “Christianity
is a solid-looking bit of furniture riddled through and through with white ants.”
The world hears once more the tolling-bell of a passing Faith, but at
the same moment, and in the same sound, the thunder of His chariot in the
hills. For these men are doing the last
thing they think or wish - bringing Christ.
“When the Son of man cometh,” He Himself asks, “shall He find the
faith on the earth?” (Luke 18: 8).
THE
BIRTH AND THE RISING
It is common to hear men and women profess that their faith as
Christians stands or falls with the literal truth of two dogmas in the Creeds -
the Virgin Birth of Christ and the physical Resurrection. Very well.
Let such a one suppose that as a special favour he is permitted to have
the witness of his own eyes to the two miracles on which the truth of the whole
Christian revelation, as he declares, depends.
Let him suppose that he is privileged to assist at the accouchement of
the Virgin Mary in the stable at
* Thus the foremost Deanery in
Christendom not only openly denies the two basic revelations of the Faith, but
denies them with contemptuous derision.
Remembering that what gives ‘fundamentalists’
their name is solely the upholding of the Incarnation, Virgin Birth, Atonement,
Resurrection, Ascension and Advent, Dean Inge’s words
(Evening
News. June 17, 1930) are
unutterably solemn:- “To-day we laugh at
Fundamentalists. Fifty or sixty years
ago however, all Churchmen were Fundamentalists. But for the work done by Liberyal
Churchmanship, no one could be in the Church of England to-day unless he were a
dunce, a liar, or a bigot.”
THE
HOLY TRINITY
On Sunday morning the new Vice-Principal of Mansfield College,
* The
flower of the Congregational ministry are trained at
THE
GODHEAD OF OUR LORD
Incarnation does not mean that God has come down like an actor
on to the stage, “veiled in flesh”; so to represent it is to deny the whole moral worth of
Jesus. Jesus is God expressed in the
only perfect symbol under which man can apprehend God, the symbol of a perfect
human personality. Jesus is a man living
in full and unbroken union with God and expressing by the whole quality of His
life and person His oneness with the Father.
What does this mean? It means at least these two things, Jesus as the
unique revelation of God, as God expressed in the highest terms that we can
know is our norm of worship. Alike for
what He is and for what He has done and does He claims our utter
adoration. Let there be no mistake
here. When I say that Jesus is God for
us, I mean that He is God in the highest sense in which mankind can use the
term; I mean what St. Paul means when he calls Him “the image” of the invisible God; I mean that He
reveals God more perfectly than the starry heavens or than any truth or beauty
or goodness that we can find elsewhere; that here in Him, in His historic life
on earth and in His continued life as risen and present Lord, is my “Lord and God.”
But it means also and not less necessarily that He differs from us not
in kind but in degree, as the perfect round from the broken arcs; that He
illuminates and guarantees our highest experiences and aspirations; and that to
live in Christ is a literal and practicable deification (the word has Athanasius’ sanction), an extension of the Incarnation, the
embodying by us of the very Godhead.* - CANON
C. E. RAVEN.
* The Church of England Newspaper. June 26,
1931. It is astounding to learn that
this statement on our Lord’s nature was made (at the Cromer Convention) on the
official platform of what calls itself the Anglican Evangelical Group Movement. It ought to open at least some eyes that
Canon Raven’s words met with no faintest protest. Ideal man is measured up to the level of
Deity, and then Jesus, being ideal, is pronounced Divine: the virgin birth, the
resurrection, the ascension are accidentals in thought which are myths in
fact. We are neat an open abandonment of
the Faith of Christ. A gnostic counterfeit is accepted in place of the Christian
Faith, and later the counterfeit itself is abandoned.
THE
CREEDS
To have at almost every service of the Church to profess
belief in the Virgin-Birth of our Lord, His physical resurrection on the third
day, His descent into Hell, His future celestial return to judge the quick and
the dead, who will then rise from their graves, does cause the modern ordinand profound difficulty, and not seldom leads him to
abandon altogether the thought of Holy Orders, to the great loss both of the
Church and himself. It will be said that
this crude literalism in interpreting the Creeds, although the primitive and
medieval way of affirming them, is not required of the modern man. Many Bishops admit this, yet it is popularly
understood that the clergy in affirming the Creeds to-day do affirm them
literally. Many fail to recognize the
devastating effect of Biblical criticism and modern scientific thinking on the
traditional formulation of the Christian Faith. Much that our modem world
values in the Christian Faith is not stressed in our traditional creeds, and
much that it does not value is stressed in them. I plead for the authorization of a simple
practical creed for optional use; and I know from experience, that there are
many Evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics who will support my plea.* - H. D. A. MAJOR, D.D., Ripon Hall,
* The Times, May 5, 1931.
It may even be questioned whether the Westminster Confession
now contains the convictions by which men can patiently and joyfully live, and,
if need be, steadfastly die. The shadow
of external authority, magical rite, and legal transaction still rested upon
it. Revelation was infallible
information; justification was legal acquittal; regeneration was miraculous
change; and election an official transaction.
They had been retreating inch by inch from that old ground, and soon
they would not be able to hold a foot of it. - JOHN OMAN, D.D., Moderator’s
address, Presbyterian Church of England.*
*The Times, June 25 and
July 1, 1931. Bishop Headlam, than whom there are few
more influential Bishops in the Anglican Communion, thus supports Dr. Major (Times June 27, 193l):- “The Thirty-nine
Articles make many theological statements with which an educated person at the
present day is quite out of sympathy - such statements, for example, as ‘The
Resurrection of Christ with flesh, bones, and all things appertaining to the
perfection of Man’s nature’; the statement that Works done before Justification
have the nature of sin; in fact, the whole of the series of Articles 9 -
17. According to Lord Brentford, we have to extract our fundamental platform from a document on which no reliance can
really be placed at all.”
* * * * *
A Church to-day which has abandoned the Bible is a rudderless
derelict on a shoreless ocean, caught in the last storms. The Churches themselves are breeding
spiritual anarchists, and earth is losing its salt and the world its
light. Even secular eyes see the
crisis. “In a single word,” says the Scots Observer, “the
situation of our time is bankruptcy. In
every sphere of life men, as never before, are at their wits’ end. And the worst is yet to be. In every sphere of life it is midnight, and
out of that midnight a cry of multitudes, and the world has nothing to set
before them. The experiences through
which the world is passing now have in them the possibility of the greatest
revival that has yet been known, or the sternest revolution. From the crisis of these days there must come
something desperate, or something divine.”
* *
*
3
SOME DAY AND IT MAY BE THIS
Some day will be the last
For the toiling and the trying,
For the weeping, and the dying -
In a moment all is past!
Some day, such as this,
In a moment the skies sunder!
In a moment caught up yonder!
Oh, the rapture and the wonder -
We are with the Lord in bliss
Some day will be the last
For the Church’s long affliction,
Striving for earth’s benediction,
Mourning for her Lord’s rejection -
In a moment all is past!
Some day, such a day as this,
Suddenly, the Lord descending,
Victory His steps attending,
Suddenly the conflict ending -
Share we His triumphant bliss!
Some day will be the last!
Keep us, Lord, from idly throwing
Hours away, so quickly going;
Let us use each moment, knowing
Sunset shadows lengthen fast.
Some day - and it may be this,
In a moment work is ended;
No more marr’d,
and no more mended;
Past the time for work intended -
Wheels and whir of labour cease!
- ELIZABETH PADFIELD.
* *
*
4
READINESS FOR RAPTURE
By D. M. PANTON.
The undated Advent is the perpetual lodestar for the Church’s
undying preparation, a preparation never ceasing, never finished, short of the
event. “Every one that hath this hope purifieth
himself, even as He is pure”
(1 John 3: 3). As Dr. R. A. Torrey
says:- “The imminent return of our Lord is the great Bible argument
for a pure, unselfish, devoted, unworldly, active life of service. In much of our modern preaching we urge
people to live holily and work diligently because death is swiftly coming, but
that is never the Bible argument. The Bible argument always is, Christ is
coming. Be ready when He comes. This leads inevitably to the question, ‘What constitutes readiness for the coming Christ?’ Answer: Separation
from the world’s indulgence the flesh, from the world’s immersion in the
affairs of this life, and intense daily earnestness in prayer is the first part
of preparation for the Lord’s return.”
Readiness, therefore, does not consist in conversion
alone. So our Saviour says:- “Pray always,
that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to
pass, and to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke
21: 36). God has not revealed the date of the Advent, in order that we may always be
watchful; nor has He revealed the standard of holiness for rapture, in order
that we may be always pressing on to perfection. What then is required?
1. - THE GIRT LOIN: “Let your loins be girded
about” (Luke 22: 35). Flowing Oriental
garments, if loosed, check work, and impede flight. “Thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your
staff in your hand: and ye shall eat it in haste it is the Lord’s passover. For I will go through Egyp and will smite” (Exod. 12: 11). A pilgrim people,
on the eve of the last judgments, must be instant in service, and unimpeded for
flight: the world will become our coffin unless it becomes our enemy.
Heb. 3: 17.
“The time is shortened, that henceforth both those that have wives be as though they
had none; and those that weep, as though they wept not; and those that rejoice,
as though they rejoiced not; and those that buy, as though they possessed not;
and those that use the world, as not
abusing it: for the fashion of this world is passing away” (1 Cor. 7: 29).
They who stand on the brink of the last flight must stand with tightened
robe and shod feet (1 Pet. 1: 13).
2. - THE BURNING LAMP: “Let your lamps be burning.” Lamps are kept burning at night only; and all night, unless we sleep. “Now it is high time for you to awake
out o sleep: for now is salvation nearer to us than when we first
believed. The night is far spent,
and the day is at hand” (Rom. 13: 11).
“The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord”
(Prov. 20: 27); every disciple is [or should
be] a lit lamp; and right through the moral
midnight Christ expects a burning flame.
Of John He said:- “He was the lamp,” holding the
Light, “that burneth and shineth” (John 5: 35):
“from evening to morning before the Lord” the lamp is “to burn continually” (Exod. 27: 20). Burning without
shining - zeal without knowledge; shining without burning - light without love:
God demands both: burning with heat to God,
shining with light to men. Matt. 5: 16.
3 - THE FIXED GAZE: “Be ye yourselves like unto men looking for their lord.”
Christ said:- “It is expedient that I go away”; He never said, It is expedient that
I stay away: He commands conscious acceptance of the truth of the Second
Coming.
A visionary is one who sees visions that
have no correspondence with reality: the looking disciple beholds the march of
God’s purposes from eternity to eternity, crystallizing into fact as they
precipitate into time, so that every prophetic word is an inevitable fact. “Watch, for ye
know not the hour”: “Pray, that ye may be
accounted worthy”:
perpetual watchfulness; perpetual prayer - these are the mind and heart that
come from God. So “blessed are
those servants.” Not, blessed are all servants; but, “blessed are those servants, whom the Lord when
He cometh shall find watching.” Heb. 9: 28;
Tit. 2: 13; 2 Tim. 4: 8; Rev. 3: 10. The carnal
disciple forfeits the beatitude. Matt. 24: 48-51; Luke 21: 34; Rev. 3: 3.
The deeper the midnight, the more urgent the vigil. The first watch has yesterday’s wakefulness in it; the fourth watch has to-morrow’s wakefulness in
it: but, “if He shall come in the second watch, and if in the third,
and find them so, blessed are those
servants.” Christ returns not so early as impatience
desires, nor so late as carelessness assumes.
The unknown hour of the burglary compels that the householder sit up all night, watching, in
The fruit of the vigil is such as to make the loss of a
thousand worlds as dust in the balance. “He cometh” - inquisition, approval, promotion; “He maketh
them sit down” -
rest, glory, enthronement; “HE SERVES
THEM” - the King
of kings girding Himself once again with a towel, at the side of His watchful
child. This is a verse beyond all human
comment. Then build all life upon this fact, for to build on aught else is faithlessness to Him,
and folly for eternity.
4. - THE PREPARED LIFE: incessant readiness. “Be ye also ready: for in an hour that ye think not the
Son of Man cometh.” Death can be sudden, but it nearly
always throws out warning symptoms: there will be no warning symptoms here (1 Thess. 5: 2). Sudden as an
avalanche, swift as the lightning, irrevocable as death - one flash, and the
watchful will be gone, and the last judgments will be here. (Matt. 24: 40-42; 1 Cor. 15: 52). One fact is supreme. Christ might have returned at any
moment these eighteen hundred [now after two days – according
to our calendar - two thousand]* years: He may return at any moment
now.
Much unfulfilled prophecy remains before He comes with His saints, but none before He comes for
them. Therefore “become” - so the Greek – “ye also ready.”
One known sin un-dropt, one known command un-obeyed, one known truth
unbelieved, one part of the life knowingly un-yielded, and the perfection of
our readiness stands in jeopardy. [Christian] Unbeliever, the last
shadows are falling across the world, and therefore across your life; yet you are still utterly unready. But “there is time”
- as Napoleon said, on the news of a
great defeat – “to win a victory before the sun goes
down.” Your coming judge is your
present Saviour: “BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, AND THOU SHALT BE SAVED.”*
[* NOTE. That is, “saved” from having to “endure
unto the end”. Some will be “accounted worthy to escape” - via selective rapture - the
Great Tribulation at the ‘end’ of this evil age;
and the unwatchful and disobedient amongst the regenerate will not!]
* * *
5
MARANATHA
Hark, what a sound, and too divine for
hearing,
Stirs on the earth and trembles in the
air!
Is it the thunder of the Lord’s
appearing;
Is it the music of His people’s
prayer?
Surely He cometh, and a thousand voices
Shout to the saints, and to the deaf
and dumb
Surely He cometh, and the earth rejoices*-
Glad in His coming who hath sworn “I
come.”
[*
* *
*
6
THE
By J. G. WILES, L.R.I.B.A.
Ezekiel’s temple differs, in some respects, from any of the
now historic Jewish temples, it has, as yet, never been erected, and I believe
it to be the Divinely given pattern (Ezek. 43: 10,
11) for the “House of prayer for all nations” in the restored kingdom of Israel
in the Millennial age, just as God gave the pattern to David for the temple in the former days
of the Kingdom.
Now as to your queries.*
* Mr. Wiles’ remarks are based on questions put to him on his
very beautiful diagram of Ezekiel’s
Question 1.
“Should not the Holy Chambers north and south
of the Separate place be 50 and not 100 cubits long? (42: 2-8).”
Answer. I think both 50 and
100, as shown on the plan. The 50 cubits
mentioned in 42: 2 refer to the breadth of the place of these chambers.
The Holy Chambers next to the “Separate
place” (or, “before the temple,” verse 8) were 100 cubits long, while those next
the “
These chambers were in 3 storeys, diminishing in size upward,
and between them was a passage 10 cubits in width at ground level, and 100
cubits long.
The number of chambers is not specified, but you will see I
show 10 on a floor, that is 30 in all
on the north side and, of course, the same number on the south side.
Question 2.
“How was the walk in 42: 1 accomplished?”
etc.
Answer. The prophet and the
angelic Surveyor, leaving the temple proper, went forth into the outer Court,
presumably by the North gate of the inner Court, and came ultimately into the
Holy Chambers, perhaps via some ante-chamber.
There is scope here for modification of my plan, perhaps, for the only “chamber” accessible from the outer Court, and also
leading (through other apartments) to the Holy Chambers shown on the plan, is
that one situated in the internal angle of the cloisters of the outer Court, on
the west side, where the axial line passes through from the “building towards the west.” This may of course not be the best or correct
solution.
Question 2a.
“Are the fine parallel lines just north of No.
7XX (see ref. in side chambers N. side) steps, or the passage which he walked?”
Answer. These lines indicate
steps down from the inner Court to the Separate place. No steps are mentioned in the text, but I
inserted them for the following reason:- Chapter
41: 8 reads, “the foundations of the side
chambers were a full reed of 6 great cubits.” These foundations appear to be a sort of
platform six cubits in height (on which the
NOTE.
- The Cubit. My letter in the DAWN states that the “great” cubit, according to
Question 3. “Utter
Court.” I consider this to be the innermost Court, marked on his map
“
Answer.
I am sorry to emphatically differ from your view, and also your reasons
for it. In the first place the same Hebrew
words are used exactly for “utter Court” and “outward Court.”
The Hebrew is (fem.):‑ Chatzer chitzonah and
occurs in the following passages: 40: 17 and
20, where it is translated “
Again, the “Separate
place” can hardly be said to be “the utter
extremity of their walk towards God,” for they had both gone into the
The Separate place, as its name implies, surely emphasizes the
peculiar sanctity of the House and probably would seldom, if ever, be
officially used in the worship ceremonies.
I cannot think that the words so constantly employed to
designate the outer Court would, just in one instance, be used to describe what
is, in its relation to other Courts, distinctly an inner one, for the terms “inner” and “outer” are
descriptive of the Courts as related one to the other, and not relative to the
Holy House, or any other building within the precincts.
Question 3a.
“The problem of Chapter
46: 19 and 20 and 22 to 24. I consider that those
boiling places are in the corners of the Separate place (on diagram) which is
possible if the Holy Chambers are 50 instead of 100 cubits,” etc.
Anawer.
There are 6 boiling places referred to in the above-named passages. Two mentioned in verses
19 and 20 - and four mentioned in 21 to 24. The first two were for boiling the trespass
offering and sin offering, and were so placed (westward of the Holy Chambers)
that access to them was possible without going into the outer Court “to sanctify the people” (Verse
20). You will see I have placed
these two boiling places next the outside wall on the west. So far as the text goes they might be
anywhere between that wall and the Holy Chambers - the student has his own
choice here.
As to the other four boiling places (situated in small corner
courts), these were for the boiling of the “sacrifice
of the people” (Verse 24). The very fact of the restriction as to
sanctifying the people, in the case of the first two boiling places, seems to do away with your objection
as to the position in which I have placed these four Courts, no such
restriction being hinted at, i.e. “the parading of dead
sacrifices through the outer Court.”
The sacrifices boiled in these four Courts are for the people, and I do
not think there will be any fear of the nature you suggest, in the temple
services of the Millennial age. Further
- even if, as you think they ought to be, the Holy Chambers were 50 cubits
instead of 100 where shown, there still would not be room to put these four boiling
Courts in the corners of the “Separate place,”
without seriously upsetting the symmetry of the pillar and cloisters in the
outer Court, for they measure 40 X 30 cubits internal dimensions,
undoubtedly. Also, if they were so
placed, the priests would have to pass through them to reach the boiling places
of the trespass and sin offerings, but placed as they are on my plan, they are
not only following the text, but are much better distributed for their purpose,
and no great “problem” arises.
Though not mentioned in the text, I have taken the liberty of
showing a private passage all round the outer Court, between the external wall,
and the 30 Chambers (40: 17). If needful this could easily be made to
communicate with the inner Court, so that access thereto could be had from any
one of the boiling Courts. Architecturally the position and projection I have
given to these 4 Courts, not only serve to emphasize the angles of the whole
structure, but seem better to suit the expression “Courts
joined” (or “joined on”) 46: 22, than if they occupied internal angles of
the Separate place.
I hope you will appreciate my reasons for differing from you
in this matter. It is wonderful how the
canons of architectural design have been observed in this
Question 4.
“May I ask in 42:
1 what ‘the
chamber’ is and also ‘the building’?”
Answer. The wording of this verse
is difficult. “The chamber may imply some such ante-chamber as mentioned in my
answer to Q. 2, or it may infer one of the Holy Chambers, and that this chamber
was facing the “Separate place” on the northern
side of “the Building,” i.e. the Holy House. There would also, of course, be a similar
arrangement on the southern side,
but it was on the north side that Ezekiel and the angel walked. The Septuagint reads: “And he brought me
into the inner Court eastwards, opposite the northern gate, and he brought me
in, and behold five chambers, near the Vacant space (separate place) and near
the northern partition.” Though
this is not very enlightening, it supports my contention that the Separate
place is not to be regarded as an “
Before closing, I would like to say that the details shown on
my plan within the walls of the “Building towards the
West” are purely conjectural, as no particulars are given in the text,
the only things specified being the length, 90 cubits, the breadth, 70 cubits,
and the thickness of the surrounding wall, 5 cubits; neither is its purpose
stated. I suppose it would be devoted to
store rooms, for material required in the upkeep and services (fuel, etc.) of
the whole sanctuary, possibly also for sanitary accommodation, workshops, etc.
* *
*
7
UNASHAMED
Watch for Him and be always ready that you may not be ashamed
at His advent. Should a Christian go
into worldly assemblies and amusements? Would
he not be ashamed should His Lord come and find him among the enemies of the
Cross? I dare not go where I should be
ashamed to be found should my Lord come on a sudden. Should a Christian man ever be in a
passion? Suppose his Lord should there
and then come; would he not be ashamed at His coming? One here says of an offender, “I will never forgive her; she shall never darken my door
again.” Would you not be ashamed
if the Lord Jesus came and found you unforgiving? Oh, that we may abide in Him, and never be in
such a state that His coming would be unwelcome to us! I called to see one of our friends and she
was whitening the front steps of the house.
She apologized; but I assured her that I should like my Lord to come and
find me, just as I found her, doing my
daily work with all my heart. We are never in better trim for seeing our Master than when we are
faithfully doing His work.
There is no need for a pious smartening up; he that abides in Christ
always wears garments of glory and beauty; he may go in with His Lord into the wedding* whenever
the midnight cry is heard.
[* See Rev. 19: 8.]
- C. H. SPURGEON.
* *
*
8
CHRIST IN
OUR PLACE
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
Did the Lord Jesus die on our behalf,
or in our place? did He die for us, or instead of us? Sincere
minds, puzzled by the rarity with which the New Testament states it (e.g., …, Matt. 20: 28) directly, have doubted a substitutionary
Atonement, and have overlooked a solution of the problem extraordinarily
decisive. God has silently and
deliberately embodied, in one of the most gigantic illustrations of history,
staged on the only holy centre of the world, a meaning of sacrifice which
requires no words, and is unanswerable for ever; the hugest object-lesson in
history; an argument in stone; a demonstration by God Himself, extending over
sixteen centuries, of the exact meaning of Calvary. The
* Thirty-seven chapters, or as much as
one of the larger books of the Bible, are given solely to a description of the
Tabernacle and
THE
So now we enter the
SUBSTITUTION
But the
* The Scape Goat is not given to God,
but, figuring the unredeemed lost, is dismissed (Lev.
16: 10) to Azazel (Satan): “depart from me, ye
cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil” (Matt. 25: 41).
See DAWN, vol.5., p. 495.
CHRIST
But now we confront a fact of enormous challenge. If man entered God’s presence only when
covered by sacrifice, how is it that not a single sacrifice has been offered
for two thousand years, and the sole site of sacrifice, where alone sacrifice
can be offered, is occupied by a Mohammedan Mosque? There is no solution to any problem except in
the Christian revelation, and its answer here is life itself. The Lard Jesus Himself answers. “Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest
not, but a body didst thou prepare for me: He taketh away the first” - animal bodies on the altar - “that he may
establish the second” (Heb. 10: 5, 9)
- the one Body on
THE
BODY
So now the secret of our problem lies bare. The Body replaces the ‘bodies’ to serve
exactly the same purpose - substitution.
Therefore ponder carefully the Body and its preparation. Our Lord’s words - uttered before He had
assumed human nature, before He was born, and uttered as one of the Godhead
speaking in the counsels of God (Heb. 10: 5) - reveal the very kernel of all
atonement. “Sacrifice and
offering” - animal
carcases - “thou wouldest not” - “but a
body” - a real
human body - “didst thou prepare for me” - the pre-existent Christ. The body of the animal sacrifice had to be
immaculate, without a blemish. So here
the Lord’s body is immaculately born, sinless, perfectly and positively human,
summing in itself a complete humanity; therefore a body which could suffer
exposure, exhaustion laceration, the death-rattle; a body which was a
displacement of all animal bodies, and a substitution for all human bodies; a
body which God prepared, and which the Lord accepted, deliberately to supersede
all other conceivable bodies in sacrifice.
But the critical value of the body was that it could be broken in death,
with the inevitable haemorrhage: because a body, fractured, involves an
outpoured soul, since the soul is in the blood.
“Thou shalt make his soul,” we read of
our Lord, “an offering
for sin,” for “He poured out His soul” - in the blood that gushed from the soldier’s spear - “unto death”
(Isa. 53: 10, 12); and He himself says,- “This is my blood which is poured
out for you” (Luke 22: 20).
Without blood-effusion there is no remission, for there is no proof of
death; and this explains the enormous emphasis the Holy Spirit lays on the
Blood of Christ as the element of salvation.
Body and soul have been offered: the substitution is complete. The Old Testament said,- “The Lord hath
laid [made to meet]
on him the
iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53: 6): the New Testament says exactly the same thing,- “who bare our
sins in his body on the tree” (1 Pet. 2: 24).* This Body, therefore, virgin-born, was
a preparation, as no other body has been or could be, for incarnate Deity and
spotless Sacrifice.
* Very suggestive is Dr. A. R. Kuldell’s
translation of Is. 53: 5: “He was bored through on account of our transgressions. He was crushed on account of our sins; the
chastisement of our peace was upon him, and through his wounds we have healing.”
INCARNATION
So we now reach the supreme moral
reason of the Incarnation. The
perfection of the Sacrifice, the vast substructure of the Substitution, the under-girding,
the under-pinning, of the sin-load, perfectly and completely depends on the
Person who bore the load, and is expressed in an utterance so divine as to be
fully comprehensible only by Deity. “In whom
dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead BODILY”
(Col. 2:
9): that is,
Infinity underlay universal sin, and could alone bear it, or expiate it: “the
propitiation, not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world”
(1 John 2: 2). For a parable
so vast as the
* The body ‘prepared’
was not Mary’s, but Christ’s, who alone of mankind has had an immaculate
conception.
So, then, “we have an altar” (Heb.
13: 10). Calvary is the real altar, of which all
earlier altars - no altar has been recognized by God since - were shadowy, but
studied, forecasts:- a mound of earth and stone, to picture a hillock; stones
which no tool had touched (Ex. 20: 25), to stand for the natural rocks of
Golgotha; wood laid on the altar - the cross, recumbent on the hillock,
awaiting the Saviour; the sacrifice bound to the altar (Ps. 118:
27) - the nailed
Saviour, on the prone cross, ere it was jerked up into its socket; and the four
blooded horns of the altar - the dripping brows and oozing palms and feet:- it
is the Lord, as He “tasted death FOR EVERY
MAN” (Heb. 2: 9).
So the great forerunner, than whom has been none greater born of woman,
the organ-voice of God chosen to proclaim Messiah, sums Him up in one word:- “Behold the LAMB of God” - the epitome of all lambs upon all
altars - “which taketh away” - by His own blood-effusion once for all - “the sin of
the world” - the iniquity of the entire race: “THE LAMB THAT HATH BEEN SLAIN FROM THE
FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD” (Rev. 13: 8).
* *
*
9
PHASES OF CRUCIFIXION
By W.
P. CLARK
In the Epistle to the Galatians five phases of crucifixion
occur. The first in order of date is
found in chapter
3. verse 1:- “Jesus Christ openly set forth crucified.”
The most amazing spectacle the world has ever witnessed! The incarnate
Son of God hanging on a gibbet for the sins of a lost world! “When I survey the wondrous Cross on
which the Prince of Glory died, I count my richest gain but loss and pour
contempt on all my pride.”
The second phase occurs in the preceding chapter, verse 20:- “Crucified
with Christ.” The [regenerate] believer is judicially reckoned so, and the
resultant effect is a life of faith in the One “Who loved me and gave Himself
for me.” Wondrous love. “Our old man was crucified with Him,
that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in
bondage to sin” (Rom. 6: 6).
This is God’s side of our crucifixion: our side of it (the
third phase) is set out in chapter 5. verse 24:- “They that are of Christ Jesus
have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof”: it is self-crucifixion. The ‘lusts’ of the flesh are enumerated in the preceding verses, 19-21, the deadly result of the practice
of which excludes from the [millennial] Kingdom of God. What the ‘affections’
of the flesh are is more difficult of definition. May we say, anything and all things which, though possibly right in themselves,
hinder us in the race set before us, and may, therefore, forfeit to us the Prize.
Two illustrations in real life may be helpful. An old gentleman of over 70 years of age,
completely blind, whose pipe was his solace in hours of loneliness,
deliberately put it away after years of use, because, as he said, he found it
hindered him in prayer. The second illustration
is that of two girls who were the champion players of lawn tennis in the
A full surrender, a presentation of
our bodies as living sacrifices, holy, acceptable to God is enjoined on the
Christian believer; but crucifixion
must precede surrender. The Holy Spirit
cannot fall on un-crucified flesh. In
the cleansing from leprosy - God’s own type of sin, in the Book of Leviticus -
the oil - a type of the Holy Spirit - might only be placed on those parts of
the leper’s body on which the blood had first been put. A missionary in
The fourth and fifth phases of Crucifixion are - “crucified
unto the world,”
and “the world crucified” to the believer; and they form part of the concluding
portion of the Epistle, chapter 6. verse 14. By the world, of
course, is meant the aims, principles, spirit and society of the world, and our
crucifixion thereto, “not from any pharisaic conceit of our moral superiority, but
for our safety and usefulness and for the honour of God.”
It has been somewhat humorously said that the world is the Devil
external; the flesh the Devil internal; and the Devil himself, the Devil
infernal. Certain it is that the world,
the flesh and the Devil will combine to drag us down, and trail our Christian
profession in the dust if given way to.
Many Christians profess to go into the world to win worldlings to
Christ, but do they ever succeed in doing so?
It is easier far, as in the physical realm, to be dragged down than to
lift others up in any such attempt. The
Greek in the text implies not only that the world has been crucified, but
remains a crucified thing. “Henceforth,
we are dead each to the other” (Lightfoot). “Let self be
crucified and slain, and buried deep, and all in vain may efforts be to rise
again.”
“Forbid it,
Lord, that I should boast
Save in the Cross of Christ
my God;
All the vain things that
charm me most,
I sacrifice them to his
Blood.”
* *
*
10
An Expositor of
Extraordinary Fidelity
and Extraordinary Insight
THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT EXPOUNDED
By R. Govett,
M.A.
“The Church of all ages has
instinctively felt that in the Sermon on the Mount is embodied, once for all,
the practical teaching of our Lord; and the tendency in a section of modern
evangelicals to shelve it, or even to disown it altogether as non-Christian, is
a much more serious error that most people dream. For not only is it bound upon the Church of
all ages by the Lord Himself, as being the largest consecutive section that has
reached us of the ‘all things that I commanded You’ (Matt. 28: 20), which (He says) the baptized disciples out of all nations
are to be taught until the end of the Age; but the Sermon embodies that [disciple’s]* ‘righteousness’ higher than
the Legal without which our Lord states explicitly and with a double negative (Matt, 5: 20), no disciple
will enter the coming Kingdom. And the unique implication with which it
closes is priceless. The Lord states
that when all storms throng together to the attack, as they will in the Great
Tribulation so close at hand, the solitary ‘house’ that stands - the sole structure of discipleship that will weather the storm - is the
wise life that has built itself on obedience to ‘these sayings of Mine.’
[* Matt. 5: 1, 2.]
In Robert Govett we have an expositor of extraordinary fidelity
and as extraordinary insight, whose own everyday life was no faint transcript
of the Sermon. In this new edition,
Messrs. Thynne have made a most excellent
reproduction.”
* *
*
11
DEVOTIONAL AND PROPHETICAL
1
LEPROUS ALL OVER
“He began to be sore amazed” (Mark 14: 33).
To be ‘made sin’ amazed our Lord; it absolutely overwhelmed Him, cast Him into
an agony; it loaded Him and sickened Him, and slew Him down to death and
hell. A terror at sin and a horror: a
terror and a horror at Himself - to absolute stupefaction - took possession of
our Lord’s soul when He was made sin.
The only thing anywhere at all like His amazement and
heaviness is the amazement and the heaviness, and exceeding sorrow and utter
anguish, of God’s saints; when in their life of highest holiness and most
heavenly service, they, at the same time, both see and feel that they are still
‘made
of sin,’ as Andrewes has
it. Their utter stupefaction of soul as
they see all hell opening and pouring up its bottomless wickedness all over
their soul - that is to taste something of what is behind of the ‘amazement’ of Christ.
Take away all its terrible wages; take away its sure and full
discovery and exposure; take away its dreadful remorse; take away both the
first and second death; take away the day of judgment and the fire that is not
quenched - all which is the mere froth of the cup - take away all that and
leave pure sin; leave pure, essential, unadulterated sin - what the apostle so masterfully calls ‘the
sinfulness of sin.’ Conceive that if you have the
imagination. Look at that if your eyes
been sufficiently anointed. Taste that if your tongue is sufficiently tender
and strong. Carry about that,
continually, in a broken, prayerful, holy heart - and you, of all men, are
within a stone’s cast of Christ in the garden; you are too near, indeed, for
mortal man to endure it long. If you remain
long there, you will need an angel from heaven to you.
- ALEXANDER WHYTE, D.D.
2
I HAVE CREATED HIM FOR MY GLORY
(Isa. 43: 7)
Dai Yoosef has lost both arms and legs, yet he is one of the happiest
men you can meet in a day’s walk. I went
to see him in hospital after his second arm had been amputated, and he was all
smiles and full of joy; and not a word of murmur or complaint. I had taken him a flower, and for the moment
I forgot he could not hold it. He looked
up and laughing heartily said: “Sorry, Bishop, but I’ll have to trouble you to
put it in my button hole for me!”
When I sympathized with him about the loss of his arm he
smiled and said: “Surely God needed such a one as me to show what He can do
with a man who has neither arms nor legs, but who has learnt to praise Him for
all His goodness and His love.” I had come to
sympathize with him, but he sent me away rejoicing.
He had been an important servant in the house of a rich
Persian gentleman, and had a little property of his own. Then he got some
disease of the arteries, and one by one his limbs had to be amputated. About the time his first leg was taken off he
had a dream in which he saw the Lord Jesus, Who told him to take His hand and stand
up, and He would make him well. He never forgot this dream, and later, when
his second leg was amputated, he definitely took the Lord Jesus as his Saviour,
and was baptized.
- BISHOP LINTON.
3
Dost thou consider that thou art too
small,
Too weak or feeble thus to serve at
all?
0 limit not His power, His wondrous
grace,
Whose wisdom infinite did’st choose thy place.
He takes the weak things to confound
the wise,
The feeble things, the things which
men despise,
With which to do His most effective
deeds –
With which to satisfy men’s deepest
needs.
Then
let Him take thee, as He only can -
To show some aspect of His love to
man,
Which not another in His universe
(Composed of all the saints, with
lives diverse)
Is qualified to show, as thou can’st show;
And through thy circumstance lead men
to know
Some glint of glory, grace, or love
Divine
Which He could never show except thro’
thine!
- ANNA MCCLURE.
4
PRAYER
Hast thou within a care so deep
It chases from thine eyelids sleep?
To thy Redeemer take that care,
And change anxiety to prayer.
Hast thou a hope with which thy heart
Would almost feel it death to part?
Entreat thy God that hope to crown,
Or give thee strength to lay it down.
Hast thou a friend whose image dear
May prove an idol worshipp’d
here?
Implore the Lord that naught may be
A shadow between heaven and thee.
Whate’er the care which breaks thy rest,
Whate’er the wish that swells thy breast,
Spread before God that wish, that
care,
And change anxiety to prayer.
5
IF
If you can hear God’s call, when those
about you
Are urging other calls and claims on
you;
If you can trust your Lord when others
doubt you,
Certain that He will guide in all you
do;
If you can keep your purpose with clear
vision,
Bear lack of sympathy, yet sympathize
With those who fail to understand your
mission,
Glimpsing His world-task through your
Master’s eyes:
If you can work in harmony with others
Yet never lose your own distinctive
aim,
Mindful that ever among Christian brothers
Methods and plans are often not the
same;
If you can see your cherish’d
plans defeated
And tactfully and bravely hold your
peace,
Nor be embitter’d
when unfairly treated
Praying that love and good-will may
increase:
If you can trust to native Christian
brethren
The church you’ve built in lands
across the sea,
Seeing in them, as in your own growing
children,
Pledge of the martyrs that are yet to
be;
If you can lead these eager weak
beginners
By methods indirect - your life, your
prayer,
For failures and mistakes not judge as
sinners,
But make their growth in grace your
earnest care:
If you can share the humblest folk your
virtue;
If noble souls are richer for your
touch;
If neither slights nor adoration hurt
you,
‘If all men count with you,
but none too much’;
If you can fill your most discouraged
minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of
constancy:-
Yours is the task, with all the
challenge in it,
Yours is the vision: - HERE AM I, SEND
ME.*
- EVELYN H. WALMSLEY.
6
A GOLDEN PROMISE
Now unto him that is able to
do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the Power
that worketh in us (Eph. 3: 20).
Unto Him. He is the One. He is
the One that has wisdom. He is the One
that has power. He is the One that is
able. Nothing is too hard for Him. He is able to do. Here is activity, accomplishment, executive,
performance. He is able to do above what we ask. Let us ask more. We limit Him by our poor petition. He is able to do above what we think. I can think great things. He surpasses our thought. He rises beyond our imagination. Not simply a little above some things that we
ask or think, but above all things, - above all that we ask or think.
The power is present. It is in us.
It is Himself and His [Holy] Spirit dwelling in us. It is infinite and limitless because He is
divine. It is power adapted to our human
needs, for He is human as well as divine.
It is supernatural power because is His resurrection power. The same power that raised
Him from the dead and elevated Him to God’s right hand.
This promise is a wonderful faith creator and increaser,
because when our faith says nothing can be done, it says He can do
something. When our faith says He will do
but little, this promise says He will do more than that. When our faith says He will do much, this
promise says He will do more than much. When our faith grows and says, I can now
believe for the more, this promise says much more. When our faith enlarges to
believe for the “much more,” this promise says “exceeding abundantly.” When our faith is strengthened to say “exceeding
abundantly”, this promise says “more than you ask or even think.” Faith rises to believe for the seeming impossible* - and lo, the mighty, supernatural
achievements of our God.
[* NOTE. See 2
Pet. 1: 10, 11, A.V,. Is the abundant “entrance,”
- “into the everlasting kingdom” - not something
well worth our asking God for? For only by
His grace, forgiveness and the strength can we “do”
‘the seemingly impossible’ fore-mentioned “things;” and “give diligence
to make our calling and election sure”?]
‑ C. H. P.
7
A FULFILMENT
A lady called on Dr. Boardman, of
8
READINESS FOR THE ADVENT
It is a cardinal principle of exposition that God’s mind is
deduced not from one or two passages, but from a consensus of His utterances on
the subject under review. This is too
often overlooked in the problem (ever more urgent as the years bring the event
nearer) of rapture. Mr. C. S. Utting
well says in the Christian (April 2,
1931):- ‘The
ground upon which many refuse the clearest teaching on the subject is 1 Thess. 4: 15-18 and 1 Cor. 15. But how is truth to be arrived at by building
on two Scriptures and ignoring twenty others?
A system which makes the Word of God contradict itself is unsound. 1 Thess. 4: 15-18 is a
precious and beautiful miniature, showing the Lord’s dealing with the living
and dead saints at His parousia: it was given to the Thessalonians, and applies to all
Christians who are like what these were at the time the miniature was given. The question of transactions at the Bema in the case of those who, like
thousands of believers to-day, neither ‘serve’ nor ‘wait,’ is not brought in.
Again the magnificent passage of 1 Cor.
15: 20-58
deals with those who win the ‘Kingdom of heaven,’ the glories of reigning with
Christ (vers. 24, 25); and by no means with those ‘scarcely saved’ (1 Pet. 4: 17-19). What chance of a right verdict is there
in a court where three-quarters of the evidence is suppressed? The Gospels, Epistles, and the Apocalypse
give overwhelming evidence that the Lord, the judge, will not only give to some to share His very throne (Rev. 3: 21), but also will dismiss
with shame, for the time, others who on earth ceased to ‘abide’ in Him (1 John 2: 28). Peter warns us to give diligence that we may be found before Him ‘in peace’ (2 Pet. 3: 14).”
9
TRIUMPHANT THROUGH TRIAL
Katar Singh, a Tibetan, was sentenced, by the
Lama of Tshingham, to death by torture for professing
his faith in Christ. Sewn up in a heavy
wet yak skin, he was exposed to the heat of the sun. The slow process of contraction of this death
trap is the most awful means of torture ever devised by human cruelty. At the close of the day the dying man asked
to be allowed to write a parting message.
It was as follows:‑
I give to Him, Who gave to me my life,
my all, His all to be,
My debt to Him how can I pay, though I
may live to endless day?
I ask not one, but thousand lives for
Him and His own sacrifice;
Oh will I then not gladly die
for Jesus’ sake, and ask not why?
Well might we paraphrase the thirteenth verse of the second
chapter of the Revelation, and say, “Katar Singh, My witness, My
faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwelleth.” This testimony, uttered in a moment of direst
agony, did not go unfruitful, for one of the highest officials in the Lama’s
palace was gripped by the martyr’s cry and confessed Christ that same night.
10
THE TRIBULATION
It is curious
how a fatal flaw in an argument - often an extremely simple flaw - can be
completely overlooked. Prophetical interpreters
who maintain that all [regenerate] believers must of necessity pass through the
Great Tribulation stress - as they must - that our Lord’s promise (Rev. 3:
10) to keep the
Philadelphian Angel ‘out of the hour of trial’ means that he would be kept ‘through’ the hour - in a moral exemption, or
else in a physical preservation through the storm, or both. But Christ’s statement is absolute, not
hypothetical: “I will keep thee from the hour”; not, I will keep thee from the hour,
if it should come in thy lifetime: thus
the Lord could not have meant ‘through’ as the Angel is dead, and by no means whatsoever can he
ever pass through the Tribulation. Nor
is the promise either a passage through or an exemption from the Tribulation,
but from its hour: that is, the Lord is pledged that
when the Hour strikes, dead or alive the Angel will not be there. That he is exempt proves that not all [regenerate] believers enter the Tribulation: that he is
exempted individually, solely on the ground of a ‘kept word,’ proves that not all believers escape. The death of the Angel is the death of the
gloss put upon the text.
11
THE KINGDOM
The revolution
in the outlook of the Churches stands out vividly when we compare their present
attempt to build the
12
ADVENT
It is wonderful
how the [Holy] Spirit’s
very words are used with perfect unconsciousness by those who are thus
fulfilling Scripture. The Archbishops of
13
IN A MOMENT
Quite
suddenly - it may be at the turning of a lane,
Where I stand to watch a skylark soar from out the swelling
grain.
That
the trump of God shall thrill me, with its call so loud and clear,
And I’m
call’d away to meet Him, Whom of all I hold most
dear:
Quite
suddenly - it may be in His house I bend the knee,
When
the kingly Voice, long hoped for, comes at last to summon me,
And
the fellowship of earth-life that has seemed so passing sweet
Proves
nothing but the shadow of our meeting round His feet:
Quite
suddenly - it may be as I tread the busy street,
Strong
to endure life’s stress and strain, its every call to
meet,
That through the roar of traffic, a trumpet, silvery clear,
Shall
stir my startled senses and proclaim His coming near:
Quite
suddenly - it may be as I lie in dreamless sleep,
God’s
gift to many a sorrowing heart, with no more tears to weep -
That
a call shall break my slumber and a Voice sound in my ear:-
Rise
up, my love, and come away, behold the Bridegroom’s here!
14
NATIONALISM
A worldwide
revival of nationalism, our Saviour implies, will indicate an imminent
Advent. “Behold the fig tree [
* * *
12
PARDON ON CONFESSION
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
Scripture exhausts language and figure in assuring us of the
perfection of pardon a man receives when he is converted to Christ. It is an obliteration of the past so complete
that it is wiped out even from the mind of God.
“Their sins and their iniquities will I REMEMBER NO MORE” (Heb. 10: 17).
For the sin has disappeared like a melting cloud dissipated by the hand
of God Himself. “I have
blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins”
(Isa. 44: 22). The geographical
illustration is wonderful. “As far as the
east is from the west” - a distance which is never compassed, because it for ever recedes - “so far hath
he removed our transgressions from us” (Ps.
103: 12). Pardon means that all penal consequences of a
sin vanish, and its moral stain is removed from the conscience: so that the
illustration from nature is exquisitely beautiful - pardon produces a whiteness
which out-bleaches anything in nature. “Though your
sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red
like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isa. 1: 18).
In distance, pardoned sin is the east never overtaking the west; in
substance, it is a cloud melting out; in colour, it is scarlet changed to the
whiteness of snow; and in memory, it is total oblivion.
SIN AFTER CONVERSION
But probably in the whole history of the
* “The believer who denies that he has sin in him deceives himself: it is
hardly possible that he could deceive any one else, and he most surely cannot
deceive God” (W. S. Hottel). The Apostle has just dealt with this
inherited and inherent defilement. “If” - for this pardon also is conditional – “we walk in the light” - not only are in it, but walk in it, so that we are without
conscious, known sin – “as he is in the light, we”
- God and our souls – “have fellowship one with
another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us” - habitually
cleanses, keeps clean - “from all sin” (1 John 1: 7): that is, indwelling sin, so long as
there is a walk with God, is covered by the Blood. For the intervention of the
Blood for believers’ sins. see DAWN, vol. v., P. 495. The contrast between ‘our sins’ and ‘the sins of the whole world’ (2: 2) proves beyond all doubt that the ‘we,’ throughout the context, is confined to [regenerate]
believers, ‘my little children’ whom the Apostle
is addressing throughout. The ‘we’ in the first four verses of chapter 1, is even confined to the Apostles.
PARDON
ON CONFESSION
Now as it is not only conceivable but natural to suppose that
God, having forgiven so completely, might well regard all subsequent sin - sin
against light, and after a gift of pardon so amazing - as unforgivable, we
would turn trembling - were we not so over-familiar with the mercy of the Most
High - to the tremendous revelation which is the crux of the sin-problem in the
child of God. Here it is. “If we confess” - in confession
we do two things we condemn our sins, and we renounce them - “our sins”* - not our general sinfulness, but the
specific, concrete sins we have committed, naming them to God - “he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our
sins” - the actual
offences confessed: no more, no less, and no other - “and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness” - namely, all the uncleanness of the sins confessed. Here is a threefold disclosure of a practical
importance incalculable:- (1) a [regenerate] believer’s sins are not ranked by God as among the
pardoned sins of his unregenerate life;** (2) our sins as [regenerate]
believers, if confessed, are forgiven at once and for ever; and (3) if our sins as [regenerate]
believers are not confessed, they are not forgiven, but must appear (if we die in them) before the Judgment Seat of
Christ. Here then is perfect comfort for the penitent
child of God. To ‘forgive’ is to remit the penalty; to ‘cleanse’ is to remove the stain: and God (says
the Apostle) is faithful and righteous - not compassionate and merciful - to do
this double act - faithful, because He has said He would; and righteous,
because the penalty, having been exhaustively paid, has been sincerely
applied. Mercy provided the ransom, but
it is justice which accepts it. It was
after murder and adultery - defined as such by God Himself (2 Sam.
12: 9) - committed
by one of the most conspicuous and beloved of God’s saints, that his broken
heart said, and said by inspiration:- “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be
clean; wash me, and I shall
be WHITER THAN SNOW” (Ps. 51: 7).***
* For an unbeliever to confess the sins
of a lifetime, the hideous spectres of a largely forgotten past, would be so
mentally impossible as to make pardon depend on what no man could do: his
saying cry is simply- “God be merciful to me a
sinner.”
** God cannot grant a future pardon, or forgive, at conversion, sins that may he committed
decades later: e.g., if I commit a theft six months hence, God cannot forgive
it now;
for pardon is possible only after a sin has been committed.
*** It is very comforting to know that for a [regenerate]
believer’s forgotten sins, which therefore it is impossible to confess,
there is another method of pardon:- “Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven” (Luke 6: 37).
EXPIATION FOR POST-CONVERSION SIN
The Apostle further unfolds the exact provision made for
restoring our original whiteness, in a Scripture rare and priceless because it explicitly states that
UNCONFESSED
SIN
A consequence no less tremendous, however, must also be
faced. It is exceedingly solemn that
when we claim pardon on confession, by that very act we acknowledge that without the confession
the sin must appear before God without the pardon. Too often the awful assumption is made that
the blood of
* Does any one really suppose (what much
prophetic theology tacitly assumes) that the impenitent backslider, the gross
carnal [regenerate] believer
- and such exist in tens of thousands, some of whom are perfectly known to all
of us - between the earth he leaves and the Parousia he enters, or [in Hades] between
the deathbed and the breaking tomb, undergoes a magical change whereby he is ‘presented faultless,’ and the [wilful,
unconfessed and unabandoned] sins in which he
lived and died are simply declared non-existent? Theologians need to he very
careful how they make Christ a minister of sin.
A
CONCRETE EXAMPLE
To make a believer’s pardon on confession finally convincing
the [Holy]
Spirit has put on record a perfect instance with every point proved. For (1) the Lord Jesus sets His seal on Peter’s
regeneration:- “Blessed art thou,
for flesh and blood hath not revealed it [the saving vision of Christ] unto thee, but my Father” (Matt.
16: 17). (2) For three years Peter was not only a
miracle-gifted Apostle, but the right hand Christ. (3) His sin was deliberate, public,
shameless; was one of the most terrible of all possible sins, apostasy
- “I know not this man of whom ye speak” (Mark 14: 71); and it was sin consciously and deliberately repeated three
times.* (4) His repentance was so deep that his are the only
tears described in the New Testament as bitter weeping; and the Lord’s gentle triple question “Lovest thou
me?” is the tender
absolution for a triple denial. (5) So complete the pardon that he is given, after the sin, one of
the two supreme apostleships - the Apostleship of the Circumcision (Gal. 2: 8).
(6) His ultimate courage - the very point in which he once sinned - is
proved by his deliberate resolve, (according to tradition) to be crucified head
downwards. And (7) so complete is his
final victory, after sin so gross, he alone - except Paul (2 Tim. 4: 8) - has had it revealed him, in his
sunset, that he would be “a partaker of the [millennial]
glory that shall be revealed” (1
Pet. 5: 1). Every one
of these points (except the joint disclosure to Paul) is unique; and the
Apostle’s experience covers every point we need to know, by concrete facts
which cannot be questioned or denied, and on a stage as conspicuous as could
be, of God’s perfect pardon for a [regenerate] believer’s abandoned sin.
* No reply could be more conclusive to
those who, to escape God’s solemn threats to the [regenerate] believer, advance
the trite but unscriptural plea that necessarily the offender could never have
been born again. The Lord purposely
analyzes His apostle as (1) ‘Peter,’ a splinter:
the true Rock; and ‘Bar-Jonah,’ a son of the Dove, a sample of the regenerate
of all time against whom the Gates of Hades shall not prevail.
SIN
NOT
Yet while we thus rejoice at our present pardon, over
confessed sin, only less than at our past perfect absolution, it is striking
that the Apostle ends on another note altogether. “My little
children, these things write I unto you” - not, that ye may be forgiven, but - “that ye may NOT SIN.” Powerful reasons dissuade us from sin. It is a far higher achievement to be sinless than to be pardoned; it is possible to
misuse this truth so as to excuse incessant falling and repenting; all the
years spent in the Prodigal’s Land, even though forgiven, are a blank where
there might have been a harvest; it is easier to contract a
sinful habit than to break it; and the sins we fall asleep in, we shall wake
in. Therefore with full
passion of heart let us turn “unto him that is able to KEEP YOU FROM FALLING,
and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding
joy” (Jude 24).*
* If the sin has been public, public
confession is right; if private, the confession is to the God alone who saw
it. Secret
sins can be such that they ought never to he confessed in public. The
Scriptures are far more emphatic and plain-spoken on the sins of [regenerate] believers than we are. It
names sins of doctrine (Gal. 5: 4), sins
of ritual (1
Cor. 11: :22), church sins (3 John 10.), dispensational sins (Matt. 5: 34), sins
of temper* (Eph. 4: 26), sins of the mouth (Jas. 3: 9), sins
of worldliness (Rev. 3: 17), sectarian sins (Titus 3: 11), sins of
unbelief (Rom. 14: 23), trade sins and immoralities (1 Cor. 5: 11), sins of pride (Jas.
2: 9), sins of neglect (Jas. 4: 17), sins
even against Christ (1 Cor.
8: 12), and sins which we are to
confess one to another (Jas. 5: 16,
R.V.). “To say that they [believers’ sins] are to be recognized as sins, and yet that no acknowledgment
is to be made, and no forgiveness sought for them, is a statement so monstrous
as to carry its own refutation” (B.
W. Newton). It is obvious
that sins we die in can only he dealt with beyond death, at that Judgment Seat which handles a
believer’s actions “whether good or bad” (2 Cor. 5: 10).
-------
TEMPER
“No other form of vice, not
worldliness, nor avarice [greed], nor lust, nor drunkenness
does more to make life utterly intolerable than bad temper. For embittering existence, for breaking up
friendships, for devastating homes, for withering up men and women, for taking
the bloom off children, the sin of anger stands alone.”
‑ G. D. ROSENTHAL.
* * *
13
By D. M. PANTON, B.A.
In the private
journal of a lady in
For our Lord lifts the limit sharply on the horizon. “The night cometh, when no man can work.”
The Saviour’s own activity was never strained, but it was always full;
and when the disciples wondered, He explained that He had so much to do and so
little time in which to do it; for (He said) night comes, when work is
over. Jesus thus confirms Solomon’s word:- “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might: for Were
is NO WORK, nor device, nor
knowledge, nor wisdom in Sheol, whither
thou goest” (Eccl. 9: 10). There are insects that are born,
mature, breed, and die, all within twenty-four hours. So
Our little life
Is rounded
with a sleep.
As the light was fading on the evening before the Battle of
Waterloo, Napoleon, pointing towards
the setting sun, said:- “What would I not give for Joshua’s power, to hold back that sun for two
hours!” The old naturalists used to say that no
swallows fly so fast as the Norwegian, because their summer is so short.
So the
burning heart of it all lies in the fact for all of us that the Lord
reveals. “The night is coming.”
Canon Knox Little says:- “By waning power, by failing health, by weakening memory, you
find in some way or other that the finger of God is touching you. The world may not see it; friends may not
read it; those who are dear to you may not tell it; but you know it - the
witness, whatever it is, is come. It
speaks to you in the silence of the night.
It wakens with you when you waken in the morning; it travels with you as
a settled consciousness, when you are going about the world; it is the whisper
of that unrelenting law of unchanging changefulness – ‘the night is coming.’”
So one golden maxim
irradiates our horizon. “While we have the opportunity, let US DO GOOD”
(Gal. 6: 10). Should we not be very much more tender and more habitually kind in
speech and action if we only realized the brevity of our opportunity? “For this I say, brethren, the time is
shortened” (1 Cor.
7: 29). A well-known Christian figure in
A little girl approached the lifeless form of her grandfather,
and taking his hand in hers she said:- “Dear
grandpa, you know I was always good to you while you were alive.”
What a world it is worth to be able to say that! Perhaps few of us, looking back on all we
have done and said to loved ones, would not say that the past does not bear
thinking about; or would not say, “I should be so glad if I had never
said that word, not have taken that line of action, and never done what I did!”
A wife was offered a kiss of reconciliation by her husband at
the cottage door, ere he departed for business, after a domestic
misunderstanding, and she refused it. At
mid-day he was brought home dead. “0 God,” cried the heart-broken woman, “if I had
only spoken to him as I should have done!” Let the law of
kindness be upon our hearts and upon our tongues before it is too late. We are accustomed to heap the flowers upon
the bier. Mary did not wait till the Saviour was dead before she broke the oil
upon His feet.
On the fortieth year of his ministry Mr. Cuff preached in Shoreditch Tabernacle from the text on which
he had preached his opening sermon forty years before; and there were but five of the old faces
in that vast congregation, only five who heard both sermons.
Oh, friends, I pray to-night
Keep not your kisses for my dead cold
brow,
The way is lonely, let me feel them
now.
Think gently of me; I am travel-worn,
My faltering feet are pierced with
many a thorn.
Forgive, 0 hearts estranged, forgive,
I plead;
When dreamless rest is mine, I shall
not need
The tenderness for which I long
to-night.
Our opportunity is at least as magnificent as it ever was if
we have run steadily, our influence is greater, our opportunities are more
numerous, our circle is wider than it ever was; and it is possible for all of
us to begin seeking the highest and the best.
God is as strong as ever; Christ is as fresh as ever; the Holy Ghost is
as full of love and the power to impart love as ever He was.
After the last speech Mr.
Gladstone ever made in the House of Commons, when the House had emptied,
another Member saw the old man go and stand alone behind the Speaker’s Chair,
and, shading his failing vision as he looked out over the arena of all his
battles, he knew that he looked out upon it for the last time: then the old man
quietly slipped out of the House for ever.
It was the last
look. Some year it must be so with
us. As we stand to-day shading our eyes
and looking out over the misty unknown, and remembering that there must come a
year when we are looking out for the last time; backward also over the life:- how it makes us feel the pilgrim spirit, and desire to
use wisely the little time in the old home - the old church - the old business;
for to-day, for aught we know, we may be taking the last look. “While we have
the opportunity, let us do good”; a whole harvest may gathered in the
closing weeks: “unto all men” - unto all who come within the circle of our touch.
There are moments quickly passing,
Opportunities which rise
Nevermore to cross our pathway
As we journey to the skies;
Opportunities, God-given,
With these precious moments flow,
Oh if we are watching, waiting,
We shall seize them as they go.
There are moments quickly passing,
Soon our little day is done
Soon beyond the far horizon
Fast will fade the setting sun:
Let us use these golden moments
Which the Lord to us doth give,
Till at length with Him in Heaven
We the life of lives shall live.
-------
“Reader, if you have been made to
drink of the bitter chalice of pain, mental or bodily, think of it not only as
an initiation into the fellowship of Him in Whose hands is still the print of
the nails, but as a summons from Him to you to do what He did - yea, to be His
instrument - in binding up the broken-hearted, giving deliverance to the
captives of sin and fear: opening the eyes of the morally blind and a door of
hope to the helpless in the fortress of despair. Do not miss or reject it through resentment,
self-pity, or mournful retrospect. For
suffering can make us very selfish; if we are not the better for it we shall
almost certainly be the worse, farther from God instead of nearer to Him. But if we take it in a right spirit, humble,
contrite, un-murmuring, neither regarding it as good in itself nor as
unbelievably evil, but as used of God as a means of blessing to come, we shall
come forth from its embrace possessed of a new charisma, endued with a new
power, filled with a tenderer love, a diviner compassion for the miseries of
mankind, bearers of the water of life to a thirsty world.”
* *
*
14
THOUGHTS
BY W. P. CLARK
The old adage “Take care of the pence, and the pounds will take
care of themselves,” may well be transposed so as, to read, “Take care of the thoughts, and the
actions and words will take care of themselves.” Few realize the importance of the
thoughts. “Out of the heart proceed evil
thoughts,” and the
catalogue of awful sins which follow - in our Lord’s words - are but the outcome
of the thoughts. There can be no deed
that is not preceded by a thought. “These -
the thoughts - defile the man.” Solomon
truly says:- “As a man thinketh in his heart so is
he.” What God saw in man before He sent the Flood
was that “Every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart was only
evil continually,” and it “grieved Him at His heart.”
In the Sermon on the Mount Christ gives the true estimate, and
the real meaning of evil thoughts. “Whoso is
angry with his brother without cause is in danger of the judgment” - that judgment which the Law
pronounced on the murderer. No act, only
a thought! and again, “Whoso looketh on a woman to
lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.” No act, only a thought! and
yet those thoughts, He says, mean murder and adultery, as if the very acts had
been committed. So the Apostle James traces the transition of a
thought to its ultimate end, as he writes:- “When lust (evil thoughts) hath conceived it bringeth. forth sin, and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death.” A man may be
outwardly moral, and in heart and thoughts a moral leper!
Some thoughts are with deliberate desire and intent to sin, if
opportunity offers, but even if there be no real intent to commit the sin, the foul, impure, angry, envious, proud, uncharitable,
unkind thought constitutes real sin. Well
may we examine ourselves and see wherein we sin in
thought! In the words of Dr. F. B. Meyer:- “Away from
the realm of sense there lies a world of illusion, the atmosphere of which is
brilliant but deadly, its scenery is bewitching but corrupting, the inhabitants
wicked spirits, some of whom are robed in exquisite costumes veiling their
deformity, whilst others are at no pains to hide their loathsomeness. Thither imagination can at will transport us. Like a swift boat it can convey to those
mystic shores, and disembarking, we can take part in unseemly revels, whilst
our face is buried in our hands in the attitude of prayer, or our outward
presence is sharing the amenities of the home circle. No heart can be kept pure unless the fancy is
kept strictly under control. It must not
be permitted to bear us away into the world of unholy and sensuous dreams or
introduce into the temple of the soul any picture which would taint or defile.” Well may the Psalmist exclaim, “Search me, O
God, and know my heart: try me and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way
everlasting.” May God send the searchlight of His Holy
Spirit into our hearts and reveal to each one of us the hidden thoughts of
those hearts, and Oh! never let us forget, “He is a
discerner of the thoughts and intents
of the heart, and all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him with whom we
have to do.”
Search all my thoughts, the secret
springs,
The motives that control,
The chambers where polluted things
Hold, empire o’er the soul.
Search till Thy fiery Glance has cast
Its holy light through all,
And I, by grace, am brought at last
Before Thy face to fall.
And if our thoughts (the secret springs, the motives that control)
are laid bare and we see ourselves as He sees us, we shall, with Job of old, “abhor
ourselves and repent in dust and ashes.” What then shall
we do to rid us of this awful burden? It
is useless chopping off the heads of weeds, they will only spring again, we must get at the roots and dig them out. We can’t, as an old writer has said, help the
birds flying over our heads, but we can at least prevent them roosting in our
hair! It is useless beginning at the outside, we must begin at the inside and cure that. Purity of heart will ensure purity of life and conduct. “Cleanse that which is within the cup
and platter,” as
our Lord said to the Pharisees, “that the outside may be clean also.” Let us seek first His forgiveness,
and put these sinful thoughts under the precious Blood, and begin again to run
the race with diligence. Let
us, in the words of the Church of England prayer book, ask Him “to cleanse
the thoughts of our hearts by the
inspiration of His Holy Spirit, that
we may worthily magnify His holy Name.” Let us, above all else, choose this purity of heart and be prepared to surrender everything and
count no sacrifice too great to attain it.
And how shall we avoid in the future our thoughts from running
riot again, and leading us afresh into sin? Is it possible to control these thoughts and
keep them pure? To quote again Dr. Meyer:- “To know sin
only to abhor it, to keep so strong a hold on appetite that, like some spirited
horse it shall only fulfil its legitimate purpose, to be always blameless and
harmless, to ever wear the white flower of a blameless life, to allow no lewd
visitant to cross the threshold of the soul, to permit no foul picture to
remain for a moment on the lens of the inner eve? Yes, it is the great gift of the Gospel to
teach men that such purity of heart is possible - possible for those whose
habits of evil thinking and living have been most debased, possible for those
who have striven in vain to keep the marble palace of the inner life from being
defiled by the tides of ink which sweep through the world. Purity of heart is not a dream. The Lord Jesus is prepared to do
for the inner life what he did for the leprous flesh.”
“God (says Peter) who knows the heart cleanses
it by Faith.” But how does Faith cleanse the heart? Again, Dr.
Meyer’s words are appropriate. He
says:- “Faith brings the soul to the cross
and applies the precious blood that cleanseth from all sin. She has the marvellous power of handing over
to Christ every suggestion of the Evil One. Whilst the fiery dart is flaming
through the air, and before it reaches the soul, Faith catches it upon her
shield. When the sooty hand is reached
out to pluck her white flower, Faith suddenly interposes the protective
covering of the purity of Christ, and appropriates the purity of Christ.” Well may we
covet and pray for such faith, and exercise it at every moment of temptation. “Above all, taking the
shield of faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the
wicked one.” Let our prayer be that of David.- “Cleanse thou me from secret faults, keep back thy servant
from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me”; and we have the triumphant New
Testament answer:- “Sin shall not have dominion over you,” sin not only of word and deed, but
also of thought.
Many have found the words in Paul’s second epistle to the
Corinthians (chap. 10: 5) of wonderful
help. “The weapons of our warfare are
not of the flesh (thank God for that, or we should be utterly undone), but mighty through God to
the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations (thoughts) and every high thing that
exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every
thought to the obedience of
Christ”; or, as Dr. Scofield
has it in the margin, “leading captive every thought”; and as the evil thought assails us
we may cry out to the One Who stands ever ready to help:- “O Lord, lead
this thought captive to Thy obedience.” A very solemn
thought presents itself to our mind, namely that, even if we pride ourselves on
our separation from the world, our devotion to God’s service, and our
uprightness and honesty of character, yet our thoughts may outweigh and over-balance
all these and at last cost us very dear, even possibly to the loss of entrance into Christ’s Kingdom in
the next Age, even as
one act of rebellion and
“speaking unadvisedly with his lips” forfeited to Moses his entry into
THE END