522
sin and sorrow. A better world opens to our
view, where death will never come, pain will
never be felt, tears will never be shed, evil
in any form can never enter. Jesus, our love,
will be there, leading his people beside the
still waters, in endless joy and blessed reality.
O Lord, speed that glad day. We long
for thine appearing. Broken families will
then unite, never to be separated. All the
blest will come “from one new moon to an-
other, and from one Sabbath to another,” to
worship God, partake of lifes fair tree, and
see Jesus’ blessed face. Not one joy will be
lacking. ‘This old earth, with its sin and the
curse, will never, for all eternity, come to any
saved heart with the slightest desire.
G. I. B.
Fa
MMM J
THE LAW UNTIL JOHN
U. Smith.
NE of the pleasing features of the
truths of God's word is the wonderful
strength in which they are entrenched.
They are surrounded, as the prophet
declares, with “walls and bulwarks.” They
are defended by the munitions of rocks.”
How pleasing to the military commander are
the granite walls and battlements that render
his position impregnable! How safe {from
any outward foe the garrison feels in Gibral-
But stronger works than these the Lord
throws up around his truth. He pledges the
very heavens and earth in its defense. Hear
his words to his disciples: “It is easier for
heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the
Luke 16:17. This word “fail”
tar!
law to fail.”
means, “to fall to the ground; to become null ,
and void.”
The claim that the law of God has been
made null and void, and has fallen to the
ground, is the one supreme error the enemy
would be most glad to establish; and against
this the Lord has taken special pains to defend
that sacred instrument, which is the embodi-
ment of his will to men. So he does not entrench
it behind any strongholds of nature, or the
fortresses reared up by men, but rolls in the
heavens and the earth as a safeguard against
its destruction. It is easier for these to pass
away than for one tittle of the law to fail.
The easier of two things will, of course, take
place first. It would take a mighty power
to annihilate the heavens and the earth; it
would take a mightier one to render null and
void the law of God. But the heavens and
earth have not yet passed away. They still
stand as an unshaken witness of the perpetuity
and immutability of every tittle of the law of
God. Then this law, in all its entirety, still
remains.
But is it not said in just the verse before
(Luke 16:16), that the law was only till
John? and as we are a long way this side the
days of John, has not the law also ceased to
Look again: Does it not say the same
“The law
and have
exist?
of the prophets as of the law?
and the prophets were until John;’
the prophets been annulled or done away?
Notice what is said of them: they “ were until
John.”
NM
Were what? — The verb “were,” it
THE WATCHMAN
will be seen, is supplied. There is no verb
expressed in this part of the text; one must
therefore be supplied to make the sense com-
plete. What verb shall it be? — It must be
one which will be in harmony with the verb
in the latter part of the sentence; and the only
one there is the verb “is preached.” This,
therefore, is the verb to be expressed in both
members of the sentence to make them har-
monize.
A slight analysis of the sentence will make
this plain. Leaving out the supplied word
“were,” we have this: “The law and the
prophets until John; since that time the king-
dom of God is preached.” To put any other
verb in place of the supplied one, except the
one that is expressed in the last member of the
sentence, would be to act arbitrarily, and with-
out reason. The verb “preach” is the only
one that can be used; and to conform to the
construction, it must be in the past tense,
plural number, and passive form, “were
preached” Then we have this: “The law
and the prophets were preached until John;
since that time the kingdom of God 1s
preached.”
What, then, does the text affirm? — Simply
this: that until John, the people had the
preaching of the law and the prophets only,
but that since that time they have had, in ad-
dition, the preaching of the kingdom of God
as set forth in the wonderful discourses of
Christ. This must be the correct view; for
no one will claim that the prophets or the ful-
filments of past prophecies ceased when John
appeared. Indeed, some of the most impor-
tant prophecies have been fulfilled since John’s
day; and even now, the most important proph-
ecies for the world are yet future.
If the text spoke of the law only, a little
better showing for its abolition could be made;
but the “prophets” entirely spoil that argu-
ment. And then, as if for the very purpose
of anticipating the assault that would be made
upon the law, Christ adds the words of the
following verse, virtually saying, “ But I would
have you understand that heaven and earth
will both pass away, sooner than that a tittle
of the law will cease to be binding.”
EE
“IN the line of duty every man is at his
best.”
EDITORIAL NOTES
THE great enemy of the cause of Christ is
a deceiver. Deception is his forte. First he
deceived the angels in heaven, many of them,
so that they joined his standard of rebellion.
Next he deceived Eve in the garden of Eden.
He “is
transformed into an angel of light,” in order
that he may deceive the people; and in the
last days he is to work “with all power and
signs and lying wonders,” so that if it were
possible he would deceive the very elect. Matt.
24:24. We are right now in the time of those
deceptions.
is a prayerful study of the word of God.
And he has been deceiving ever since.
And the only salvation from them
Ture Scriptures assure us that it is “through
much tribulation” that we must enter into the
kingdom of heaven. Acts 14:22. But the
Bible also assures us that heaven is worth the
price that we pay for it. No martyr was ever
put to death but that will testify in the pres-
ence of God that heaven is cheap enough.
A NorEworTHY fact regarding the recent
trial of the secretary of the Western Federa-
tion of Miners, at Boise, Idaho, is the sym-
pathy shown by the Catholic press for this and
the other indicted officials of this labor union.
The Catholic Church and the labor unions in
this country are on very friendly terms.
THE advance of Socialism continues to be a
striking sign of the times. At the recent elec-
tions in Rome, Italy, the Socialists achieved
a signal triumph, electing twenty-four out of
twenty-nine members chosen in the city coun-
cil this year. “Taken in conjunction with the
remarkable Socialist advance in Austria,” says
the American Review of Reviews, “the recent
increase in the Socialist vote in Germany, . . .
large Socialist gains in the bye elections in
England, and the growing power of Socialistic
organization and legislation in France, the re-
sult of this election is a significant sign of the
times.”
Tur Missionary Review of the World makes
the following comment on the significance of
the present unrest in India:—
“Probably the causes of unrest lie deeper
than these occasions. ‘The rapid strides of
Japan, the reforms and new attitude of China,
and the new régime in Persia, with the general
upheaval of the whole Orient, now awaking
from the sleep of ages, may sufficiently account
for the disturbances of IHindu society. Like
a powerful steed that begins to know his own
power to be greater than that of his rider or
driver, India begins to take the bit between
the teeth and show impatience of the rein. Ra-
cial antagonism, religious differences, invasion
of superstitious notions and customs, resent-
ment under real or fancied wrongs, the con-
ceit of conscious but latent power, jealousy of
foreign political ascendency — these are sufli-
cient motives to explain the existing uprising;
and, if we mistake not, there will be more
trouble rather than less unless some efficient
remedy is speedily found. Forcible suppres-
sion and repression will not do—it does not
last and rather leaves matters worse in the
end. India is a world in itself, and has all
the elements of a volcanic outbreak gathered
in its own bosom. . . . But the same spirit that
is now crying Africa for the Africans is cry-
ing India for the Indians.”
Bisaor HarrzeLr (Methodist) believes that
religious liberty is not so secure under the rule
of the world’s most enlightened governments
as most people to-day would have us believe.