Part 21

An attempt to rally Israel under any of the many party names and creeds might indeed result in a new sect. But this is not what we contend for. Nay, but let us rather burn to ashes these high places of Israel's corruption, and, returning to Jerusalem, let us build "upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone." Let us abandon the nonsense of ecclesiastical succession; cease to inflate our pride and vanity by parading the good and long-since departed, who innocently wore our party badges--the piety of our fathers will not atone for the worldliness of the church at present. Let us also quit flourishing our church creeds as though their excellency were an essential supplement to the wisdom of inspiration. Let us, we pray you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the sake of our holy and divine religion and a world that is lost in sin--oh, let us put away these childish things, and return to Jerusalem, not to form a new sect, but as the 'servants of the God of heaven and earth let us build the house that was builded these many years ago, which a great King of Israel [Jesus Christ] builded and set up' (see Ezra 5:11).

Many say we need more union of hearts, but think a visible organic union unnecessary; but remember that it was a visible union that Jesus prayed for, such as the world could see and be thereby convinced and saved. We quote once more from W. H. Starr.

"They will say to me: Can not we have union of feeling without external union [that is, with external disunion]? I answer No, you can not, except in rare instances, and in an imperfect degree. It is vain to be beating off the leaves of the tree while you continually nourish its roots. And sectarianism is the "root of bitterness," whose acrid and legitimate fruit of divided hearts, and jealousy, and strife, doth continually grieve away the Spirit of our God and Savior, and leave our churches in a comparative poverty of grace and growth that methinks must make the very heavens groan with sorrow as they look down upon our dying world. Up, up! my brother, my sister in Christ, inquire of the Lord concerning this thing! Why slumber ye here while Satan has entered the fold of Christ, a wolf in sheep's clothing, and is rending the flock? Oh, cry to God that he will direct you and all the children of his grace, till the church of his holy Son shall be purified and saved. Alas! it is now 'a house divided against itself.' Oh, pray that the Lord would unite and build it up in the truth; and that he would show you your duty in the matter. The wants of the world require a holy and united Church."

From what has been said, and the uniform teaching of the Bible, the following facts are very evident:

1. The division of the church into sects is one of Satan's most effectual, if not the very greatest, means of destroying human souls.

2. Its enormous sin must be answered for by individual adherents to, and supporters of, sects.

3. The only remedy for this dreadful plague is thorough sanctification, and this is wrought only by a personal, individual contact with the blood of Christ through faith.

4. The union required by the Word of God is both a spiritual and visible union.

5. The divisions of the church are caused by elements that are foreign to it as a divinely constituted body, by deposits of the enemy, which exist in the hearts and practises of individual members, involving their responsibility and requiring their personal purgation.

These facts make your duty plain. What you and I want, dear reader, is "thorough and wide-spread holiness" in our individual souls to destroy denominationalism there. Holiness, ever so thorough and wide-spread around you, will not cleanse your heart; neither can the sin of division in the hearts and lives of others attach to you, unless you drink in their spirit and also become a partisan. You need not waste time in planning general union movements, or praying the Lord to restore the unity of his church, until you go down under the blood and have every bone of contention and cause of division purged out of your own heart; then you may do something to influence others to do the same.

You are praying and longing for the happy time when God's children shall all be one, but are you willing that the "once more" shaking shall have its designed effect =in your own case=? Do you, indeed, suffer the Holy Ghost fire to consume out of your own life, heart, religion, and conversation, all the shaky chaff and stubble the devil has made to divide the children of God? Do you, indeed, withdraw from and ignore all churches, so called, but the one Christ purchased "with his own blood" and founded nearly nineteen hundred years ago, and to which the "Lord added" you by regeneration (Acts 2:47)? Do you discard every church title but that "which the mouth of the Lord hath named" (Isa. 62:2), even the name of the Father, in which Christ and the apostles kept the church (John 17:6,11,12; Acts. 20:28; 1 Cor. 1:2; 1 Tim. 3:15)? Do you honor the divine head of the church by rejecting every creed but the one that "is given by inspiration of God;" every door that is opened and shut by men; and every spirit but the Sanctifier; and every motive but the love of God and humanity? If you, by the grace of God, die to all these prime causes of sectism and their concomitant sins, then, and not until then, will the Lord have "thoroughly purged" so much of "his threshing floor" as you will have to answer for in the day of judgment. Where this is not accomplished, the grace of God is frustrated; holiness is not permitted to reach the Bible standard of thoroughness, nor spread its healing virtue to every part of the soul.

It may look foolish to many thus to blow the trumpet of the Lord around the high and massy walls of sectarian glory and selfishness, but the power of God with the faith and shouts of the "holy people" will surely bring them down. Though the heaps of sectarian chaff have reached the magnitude of mountains, God has some wheat scattered through them, and he will have it separated for his garner. Therefore he says to Jacob, "Fear not ... thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and thou shalt make the hills as chaff. Thou shalt fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them."

The pure elements of God's church possess a wonderful inherent attraction and cohesion; but the devil neutralizes the divine cement by mixing in his chaffy and sloughy trash, thereby effecting divisions; therefore, the Lord restores union by the "removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made" by the enemy, thus removing discord and schism. Glory to God! Little Jacob has barely commenced threshing and separating. Soon we shall see clouds of chaff driven by the "mighty rushing wind from heaven."

Says Bro. I. Reed, in his paper, The Highway: "The great holiness movement is shaking harder than ever. It is to be a real moral earthquake yet. We have nothing to fear in that direction. We have allied ourselves to the Power that does the shaking, and feel a kind of holy joy at the falling walls, reeling Babels and ecclesiastical fortifications that can not stand the grand holiness shock. In anticipation we enjoy the grand smash-up of things semi-religious--this half and half, linsey-woolsey type of 'Good God, Dear Mammon,' kind of fashionable moral froth, too often called 'religion'--that is coming some of these days. It is coming. We hear the tread of the mighty army."

Amen. Let the conflict come. God will have a pure church. He will shake the chaffy works of the devil out of his kingdom, though all hell be moved in rage; though Gog and Magog surround the camp of the saints on the breadth of the whole earth.

Dear reader, I am aware that I have here written things that will be unwelcome to many, truths that will assail and stir up many prejudices; but in doing so I have determined to cast from me the fear of man, and clear my conscience in the sight of God.

It is, indeed, my honest conviction that the great holiness reform can not go forward with the sweeping power and permanent triumph that God designs it should until the gospel be so preached and consecration become so thorough that the blood of Christ may reach and wash away every vestige of denominational distinction, and "perfect into one"--yea, one indeed and in truth--all the sanctified.

I am aware that this will elicit storms of persecution, but in the name of the Lord it must come. God will be glorified in the escape of his holy children from all human enclosures into the "one" and identical "fold of Jesus Christ." Oh! let us be honest before God in this matter.

[Music: Prophetic Truth.

D. S. WARNER. (EZEK. 34:12-14; ISA. 51:11.) B. F. BEAR.

1. 'Twas sung by the po-ets, fore-seen in the Spir-it, A time of re- 2. We stand in the glo-ry that Je-sus has giv-en, The moon, as the 3. Now filled with the Spir-it and clad in the ar-mor Of light, and om- 4. The proph-et's keen vi-sion, trans-pierc-ing the a-ges, Be-held us to 5. The fig-tree is bud-ding, the "eve-ning" is shin-ing, We wel-come the

fresh-ing is near; When creeds and di-vi-sions would fall to de-mer-it, day-spring doth shine; The light of the sun is now e-qual to sev-en, nip-o-tent truth; We'll tes-ti-fy ev-er, and Je-sus we'll hon-or, Zi-on re-turn; We'll sing of our free-dom, tho' Ba-by-lon ra-ges, won-der-ful light! We look for the Sav-ior, for time is de-clin-ing,

And saints in sweet un-ion ap-pear. So bright is the glo-ry di-vine. And stand from sin Ba-bel a-loof. We'll shout as her cit-y doth burn. E-ter-ni-ty's loom-ing in sight!

CHORUS.

Oh, glo-ry to Je-sus! we

hail the bright day, And high on our ban-ner sal-va-tion dis-play,

The mists of con-fu-sion are pass-ing a-way. ]

XIII

A PROPHETIC TIME

That many events of the world are foreshadowed in the prophecies of the Bible is something which perhaps the average reader does not pause much to reflect upon. He rather inclines to regard the prophecies as a difficult portion of the Sacred Writings, and in consequence of their being passed by, ignorance generally prevails concerning them. There is nothing inconsistent in the idea that events in the world occur in accordance with prophetic utterance. It does not necessarily give credence to the doctrine of fatalism--that everything which happens must happen. The affairs in man's life are largely subject to his control. He has a scope of freedom all his own. He can make his own choices and govern his own career. He may do an act or he may not do it. An accident occurs which may have been avoided had more care been exercised. Nevertheless, from this free volitionary scope which belongs to man we may not exclude God's design; for he does exercise a controlling hand in the affairs of man.

It may be said, however, of the greater things that occur in the world, the trend of public thought, the drift of conditions, the great political upheavals, things which are rather beyond man's individual control, and which involve mankind as a body and their destiny as a race--these more particularly belong to God and are made the subject of prophetic forecast. God did not create the world and then abandon its processes. He created all things according to design, and we may be assured that he has design in the progress of things as well as in their first creation. Nor will the grand play of the world's events reach its conclusion without the decree of him whose prerogative it is to say, "It is enough; time shall no longer be."

Christ's coming into the world was freely prophesied hundreds of years in advance of that event. This is so plain that no student of the Bible, unless he means purposely to be infidelic, will dispute the fact. Likewise, the fulfilment of prophecies that went before concerning the Jews and their city Jerusalem is much in evidence.

The events of the world naturally group themselves into periods, or epochs. They are like panoramic scenes that unfold in the theater of the universe. Thus we have the two dispensations separated by the incarnation of Christ, the grandest event in all history. And thus we have, as divisions of the latter dispensation, the event of paganism giving place to the papacy and ushering in a dark day of apostasy, known in history as the Dark Ages; and the Renaissance and the Reformation of the sixteenth century, ushering in a period of Protestantism, which is also an age of letters and invention.

In the interests of his church and the progress of his truth God has shown in advance in prophetic vision the periods and epochal events covering not only the Christian dispensation, but also a considerable time previous to it. These are for the Bible-student, the minister of God, and for all Christians, to know and understand.

There is a prophecy in the 7th chapter of Daniel fore-shadowing the four successive world empires--the Babylonian, Medo Persian, Grecian, and Roman--and the papal power, that grew out of the Roman. The book of Revelation is but a series of panoramic displays of the events of the entire Christian dispensation and the end of the world.

And so we may expect that, inasmuch as the prophecies served primarily the interests of the church, or the New Testament kingdom, any marked advance for the church, such as the deliverance of the saints from spiritual Babylon, should have its foregleam in the utterance of the seer. In our preceding chapter, Brother Warner has already given quotations from the prophets relating to bringing out a pure church through the preaching of holiness. We wish to show by several other lines of prophecy that this state of the church, as being free from the bondage of human ecclesiasticism and enjoying her primitive glory, marks a distinct prophetic time or period in this evening of the dispensation.

Referring again to the 7th chapter of Daniel, where four successive world kingdoms are represented by the four beasts, we note that special attention is given to the description of the fourth beast, which is the Roman power in its pagan phase. It was a beast "dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns. I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things" (vs. 7, 8).

Daniel wished to know the truth respecting the little horn that had eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking great things. He beheld that the "same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom" (vs. 21, 22). Now this horn that came up from among the other ten horns was nothing other than the elements of Roman Catholicism, developing into popery. It was the "man of sin," the product of the substitution of man rule for the Holy Spirit rule, the date for which change historians have fixed at about the year 270 A. D. This horn was to "speak great words against the Most High," and to "wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time. But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end. And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him" (vs. 25-27).

The "time and times and the dividing of time," marking the period during which the elements of the papacy should have full sway and should wear out the saints of the Most High, etc., are interpreted as three and one half years; a time in prophetic reckoning being one year, times two years, and the dividing of time one half year. Three and one half years would be forty-two months, or, if reduced to days according to the Jewish reckoning of thirty days to the month, twelve hundred and sixty days. Taking each day for a year, which is proper prophetic counting, we have twelve hundred and sixty years, and this added to the year 270 brings us to the year 1530, the date of the beginning of organized Protestantism, and the end of the universal sway of the papacy. Following this, "the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end" (v. 26). Since her universal spiritual supremacy ended, the judgment against Roman Catholicism has gradually proceeded and her political power has waned. "And the time came when the saints possessed the kingdom" (v. 22). The saints' possessing the kingdom is the culminating point in this line of prophecy, and means nothing other than the victory over human ecclesiasticism which the saints now possess.

In the 11th chapter of Revelation we have the wearing out of the saints expressed as treading under foot the holy city, and the time-period of "a time and times and the dividing of time" expressed as forty-two months (v. 2). In v. 3 the same time-period is expressed as twelve hundred and sixty days. During this time the two witnesses--the Word and the Spirit--prophesy in sackcloth, which represents the low estate to which they were relegated during the dark age of popery. It will be remembered that the twelve hundred and sixty days (years) end with the year 1530. Following this comes three days and a half (three centuries and a half) of Protestantism during which the two witnesses (Word and Spirit) are, in the governmental sense, operatively dead, the organized systems of man rule having usurped the place of divine government and authority which these witnesses originally held. At the end of the three days and a half, three hundred and fifty years (which, added to 1530, brings us to the year 1880) "the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet" (v. 11). They ascended to their place in the ecclesiastical heaven, to the true church, and were thus victorious. This brings us to the present reformation. This is soon followed by the sounding of the seventh angel, which represents the end of time when the 'kingdoms of this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ; and he shall reign forever and ever' (v. 15). The curtain drops.

Another scene is presented in the 13th chapter, where the rise of the papacy, or Roman Catholic power, is represented by a leopard beast having the same "mouth speaking great things" that appeared in the "little horn" of Daniel seven. "And power was given unto him to continue forty and two months" (v. 5), which is the same time-period, again, of twelve hundred and sixty years. Following this the period of Protestantism is represented by a beast "coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon" (v. 11). The length of the time-period of this second beast is here omitted, but the sphere of its activity is succeeded (in chap. 14) by a victorious church, the fall of Babylon, and the present reformation work in which the everlasting gospel, the gospel that really saves, is once more preached "unto them that dwell on the earth." In connection with this also is the judgment which Daniel says is "given to the saints of the Most High;" that is, the judgment against the false religions of spiritual Babylon.

In the 18th chapter, in connection with Babylon's fall, we have God's people called out of her. "And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double" (vs. 4-6). Thus the time is come that 'judgment is given to the saints' and the 'saints possess the kingdom.'

Spiritual Babylon represents Rome first, and Protestantism second. In the Critical Commentary by Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown, in the comments on Rev. 18:4, we have the following quoted from Hahn in Auberlen: "The harlot is not Rome alone (though she is preeminently so), but every Church that has not Christ's mind and spirit. False Christendom, divided into very many sects, is truly Babylon, i. e., confusion." The literal Babylon was an ancient city situated on the Euphrates River. In it God's people Israel were held captive for seventy years, or until liberated by the Persian king Cyrus. This is used as a figure of the captivity of God's spiritual Israel in spiritual Babylon. The word Babylon means confusion, and it is fittingly applied to the confused religion as represented by the whole picture of Roman Catholicism and the Protestant sects.

In the 34th chapter of Ezekiel the gathering of God's people and their deliverance from false relations is represented by a shepherd seeking out his flock and delivering them. "As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel" (vs. 12-14).

The cloudy and dark day of Protestantism, when the light of truth shines, not in its entire brightness, nor yet as entirely obscured, is also referred to in the 14th chapter of Zechariah. "And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark: but it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light" (vs. 6, 7). Thank God, the day of mingled light is past, and we are in the full light of the evening, when the whole truth is once more preached in its fullness, without hypocrisy and without reserve.

Thus we see that the present movement among God's people toward holiness and unity, out of denominationalism, is prophetically represented as a new epoch for the church.

[Music: Louder, Louder.

D. S. WARNER. ALLIE R. FISHER.

1. On-ward moves the great E-ter-nal In the or-der of his plan; 2. Since by sin this earth was blighted, God has whis-pered of his love, 3. Loud-er speaks his love in Je-sus, Heav-en sweet-ly chants his fame; 4. Yet the world is wrapped in slumber, Loud-er raise the trumpet's blast; 5. In the cag-es of de-cep-tion Souls are pin-ing to be free;

Loud-er, near-er rolls the thun-der Of his aw-ful word to man. Dreams and vi-sions by his proph-ets Breathed of mer-cy from a-bove. Earth re-ceives its glo-rious Sav-ior, Hal-le-lu-jah to his name! Oh, in mer-cy let it thun-der, Ere the day of mer-cy's past. Quick-ly sound the proc-la-ma-tion Of the glo-rious ju-bi-lee.

CHORUS.

Loud-er, loud-er, hal-le-lu-jah! See the glo-rious foun-tain flow;