* The path of the just is as
the shining light, that shin-
eth more and more unto the
perfect day.”
Vol. XVI
RS a a a a a Ta We We Ne a a a
THE WATCHMAN
NASHVILLE, TENN., MARCH 19, 1907
A NI NI NIN NNN NN NSN
“The way of the wicked
is as darkness; they know
not at what they stumble.”
No. 12
AANA ANA
— WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
It does not matter what it nieans, poor heart,
The dear Lord knows; to bear it 1s your part,
Nor think some strange thing happens unto ‘you
Which he would not allow so if he knew.
He does know. In his all-wise Fatherhood,
He knows it, and allows it for your good.
He is not hard, you do not think he is,
When in the dark you find your hand in his:
When it was light, you tried to walk alone,
And thought the strength he gave you all your
own.
You did not question what the blessing meant,
Just smiled and took it, satisfied, content;
You did not think it strange, you thought he
knew,
And planned the sweet surprise which came
to you.
Tried one, then do you take life sweet and
good, '
Yet cannot trust that tender Fatherhood,
But think it makes mistakes whene'er it sends
Some hindrance, which your cager haste of-
fends?
Or when he lets the wicked plot you harm,
And stir a whirlwind when you seek a calm:
You think it strange, this trial swift and keen,
And in your weakness ask, “ What does it
mean?”
I think the language of God's heart would
read:
“1 love my child, IT note his slightest need:
I long to prosper him in all his ways,
To give him quiet nights and peaceful days:
But if I do, he'll lose himself from me,
My outstretched hand he will not wait to see:
I'll place a hindering wall before his feet,
There he will wait, and there we two will meet,
I do it not in wrath for broken laws
Or wilful disobedience, but because
I want him nearer, and I cannot wait
For him to come, for he might wander late;
My child will wonder, will not understand,
Still half in doubt he'll clasp my outstretched
hand;
But when at last upon my heart he leans,
He will have ceased to wonder what it means.”
— Anna J. Graniss, in ©“ Sandwart.”
THE TREASURES
OF GOD'S WORD |
|
Mrs. E
HE kingdom of heaven is like
unto treasure hid in a field,
the which when a man hath
found, he hideth it, and {for
joy thercof goeth and selleth
all that he hath, and buyeth
that field.”
In his lessons Christ
sought to reach the understanding
through the actual occurrences and
In-
struction of the highest value is given in
the parables by which Christ illustrated
the spiritual character of his kingdom.
The Great Teacher used the things of
nature to reflect the wisdom of the Cre-
ator. Human life in all its bearings
is similar to nature. Nature and human
They
answer to his majestic, wonder-working
power.
events that take place in this world.
life obey the commands of God.
And he who created the world and
made the lofty mountains, who opened
the fountains of the great deep, who
formed the mighty rocks and the lofty
. G. White
trees, has given man power to appreciate
these wonders of earth and heaven,
power to understand the lessons drawn
from them by Christ. But human intel-
ligence could never have originated these
lessons, and neither can man understand
them only as God by his Holy Spirit
sanctifies the observation. When the
mind is freed from perverting influences,
it can receive and understand these les-
sons.
The field containing the treasure rep-
resents the word of God. As the treas-
ure was found in this field, so by earnest
searching, treasure is found in the Scrip-
tures. The Bible is God’s great lesson
book, his great educator. Dut few are
true Bible students. Few understand
that it contains instruction not only in
spiritual matters, but in all branches of
knowledge.
The gained by
searching the Scriptures is strangely neg-
lected. If men had closely, earnestly,
education to be
continuously studied God’s word, making
the Bible its own commentator, the key
with which to unlock Scripture, they
would have been as much astonished
at the golden treasure revealed as the man
who found the treasure in the field. But
men have departed from God's great les-
son book, and their senses have become
confused.
“No man can serve two masters: for
either he will hate the one, and love the
other; or else he will hold to the one, and
despise the other. Ye cannot serve God
and Therefore I say unto
vou, Take no thought for your life, what
ye shall eat or what ye shall drink nor yet
for your body what ye shall put on. Is
not the life more than meat, and the body
than raiment? Behold the fowls of the
air; for they sow not, neither do they
reap, nor gather into barns; yet your
Heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye
not much better than they? Which of
you by taking thought can add one cubit
unto his stature®> And why take ye
thought for raiment? Consider the lilies
of the field, how they grow; they toil
not, neither do they spin: and yet I say
unto you, That even Solomon in all his
glory was not arrayed like one of these.
. . . But seek ye first the kingdom of
God, and his righteousness; and all
these things shall be added unto you.”
These are precious lessons. The
mountains, the rivers, the stones are
full of truth. They are our teachers.
The instant the Tord bids nature speak,
she utters her voice in lessons of heav-
enly wisdom and eternal truth.
Christ gave to the world a lesson that
should be engraved on mind and soul.
“This is life eternal,” he said, * that
they might know thee the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”
But Satan works on human minds, say-
ing, Do this or that action, and ye shall
be as gods. By deceptive reasoning he
led Adam and Eve to doubt God’s word,
and to supply its place with a theory
that led to transgression and disobedi-
ence. And this sophistry is doing to-
day what it did in Eden.
Christ finds the religionists of this time
so full of erroneous sentiments that there
mamiion.