May 1, 1906 deliverance, their help must come in another way—by the fall of present institutions and the establishment of the kingdom of God’s dear Son in power and great glory, the binding of Satan and the uplifting of all the debased ones and the enlightening of the whole world. What further evidence do we need that those people, professing to be the chosen people of God, professing to hope for the coming of Messiah and his kingdom, were making such professions only with their lips and that they did not come from the heart? They loved better the ways of sin than the promised ways of righteousness. Our Lord did not force himself upon them—with his disciples he again entered into the ship to leave their shore. The time had not yet come to establish the kingdom by force. That was deferred until the election, the selection of the faithful ones, should be accomplished—the selection of the Israelites indeed from amongst natural Israel, and eventually, by the begetting of the Spirit, from among all nations, peoples, kindreds and tongues, to whom the message of God’s love and grace will be sent. Soon the selection will be accomplished and the reign of Messiah begin. While it would not be true to say that all mankind are possessed of devils, possessed of these evil spirits, these demons, and we thank God that it is not so, yet it would be true to say that through the influence of evil all mankind has become more or less possessed of the spirit of demons, the spirit of selfish. ness, the spirit of sin, alienation from God. From this standpoint the whole world is slightly insane, some more, some less so. The Apostle corroborates this thought, saying of those who have accepted Christ and who have received of his Spirit, the new mind, that they have ‘‘the spirit of a sound mind.’’ (2 Tim. 1:7). He thus implies that previously they did not have a sound mind, and that the world in general does not have a sound mind, but unsound. The poor man out of whom a legion of devils was cast is an extreme example of all out of whom the spirit of evil is cast through the power of the truth. We are not so bad as he, thank God! No! Nevertheless it was not until we had received the new mind of Christ, not until the old things were done away and all things became new that we really stood at Jesus’ feet, clothed and in our right mind. (2 Cor. 5:17). Thank God for the clothing which we have in Christ’s robe of righteousness, covering our blemishes and imperfections, the bruises of sin and the injury which we did to ourselves. Thank God that this is stopped, that we can now see things from the better standpoint, from the only true standpoint. The healcd man alone appreciated Jesus of all the people of that country. They wished him to depart, but this poor man entreated the Lord that he might go with him, that he might become one of his disciples. How touching! What a picture we have of those who receive the spirit of a sound mind, who now long to be with the Lord, who now long to be his disciples, to proclaim him to others, who now appreciate him as others do not. As the Apostle declared, ‘‘To you, who believe, he is precious.’? (1 Pet. 2:7). The man may have been fearful of being left lest the demons should take possession of him again, or he may have been ashamed of his previous course in life and of his old associates, and thought to find new ones; but more probably we think he desired to be a witness to the Lord respecting the great blessing which he had received through him. “GO TO THY HOME AND THY FRIENDS’’ While Jcsus refused the request he did not spurn the conse ZION’S WATCH TOWER (143-147) eration, but sent the man back to his home and his friends, saying, ‘‘Tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee. And he departed and began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done to him: and all men did marvel.’’ We know not how many of the people as a result of that preaching ultimately became the Lord’s disciples—after Pentecost, after the Spirit dispensation had been ushered in, under the power and guidance of which all the Israelites indeed were found and sealed by the Truth as followers of the Lord. We may reasonably suppose that there was some fruitage of the labor. Indeed our Lord’s journey on that occasion seems to have resulted in the conversion of but the one person, the demoniac, his subsequent work there being done through him. We thank God that the proportion of those possessed by evil spirits is comparatively small, and we thank him also that amongst the whole of unsound minds we and others who have heard his message have been reached by it, reclaimed, and that we have come to the feet of Jesus clothed and in our right minds, Has he not a work for us to do? If we cannot be the apostles to follow his footsteps we can at least follow the example of this one freed from the demons: we can go to our own homes and to our friends and there confess the Lord and his mighty power in us. We can thus sound forth the praises of him who hath called us out of darkness into his marvellous light; we can thus be co-laborers together with God in the ministry of the truth, in the ministry of reconciliation, telling how great things the Lord hath done for us. Moreover, we are glad that he has had compassion on us, forgiven our sins, and, when we consecrated, accepted us and adopted us into the heavenly family and made us partakers of his holy Spirit and commanded us to proclaim the good tidings of his grace. Truly it would appear that none who have received God’s favors thus should receive them in vain—that all so honored should be awakened to newness of life and energy in the service of the Lord. One of the best testimonies we have ever heard as respects the power of Christian living and its influence upon others was from a lady who asked to be remembered in prayer, that she might be enabled to see clearly and to follow the truth. Subsequently we asked her why she had been anxious to see the truth, and her reply was: ‘‘I have a sister-in-law who has received this truth, and her course in life since has convinced me that there is a power in the religion of Jesus that I did not previously recognize. For years I have been an agnostic, an unbeliever, and my friends and associates are of this class. I thought there was nothing to religion but merely ignorance and superstition, but when my sister took up with the MILLENN1AL Dawn views it made such a great change in her life, all her conduct seemed so transformed, that I said to myself, ‘There is a power, there must be truth in the religion of Jesus, for I see it now demonstrated in the life of this woman, and I desire the same for myself.’ ’’ O, that we all might be diligent to be thus faithful stewards of the grace of God, and faithful representatives of our great Redeemer—not only witnessing with our lips, but in all the departments of life testifying that we are now sane, that we have now the spirit of a sound mind, that we love the things that are right and true and noble and good, that we hate and are living in opposition to the things which are sinful and contrary to the mind of the Lord and the ways of rightcousness. Vou. XXVII ALLEGHENY, PA., MAY 15, 1906 No. 10 VIEWS FROM THE WATCH TOWER SADLY CONFUSED TEACHING The Christian Evangelist, in a prominent article entitled, ‘‘What is the Soul?’’ says: “‘To man is given the power to create an immortal soul, and father and mother walk hand in hand with God. It is fitting that the halo of love should shine around the mated pair, and that the new home should glow with light from the glory-world, for Eden’s morn is dawning again to sweet new souls—souls that are born of man and also born of God.’’ When our friends of the Christian denomination get sufficiently awake to inquire for a Seripture authority for all religious teaching, the editor of the Evangelist and others will criticize what is published much more thoroughly than they do now; and a totally unscriptural article of the kind referred to will not appear in journals claiming ‘‘No creed but the Bible.’’ The idea that God would go into partnership with the vV—6 majority of parents who know him not or who are his enemies through wicked works is absurd on the face of it, as well as unscriptural. Worse, it is blasphemy against God! The very idea! That God should be charged with the responsibility of the direct creation of the poor misshapen, diseased little babes, the one-half of which have not vitality enongh to reach maturity, is surely the product of a deficient or sadly misdirected reason. Let God be true, though at the risk of making out that many men are liars or foolish, God’s Word declares that infants are ‘‘born in sin, shapen in iniquity’’; and the only exceptions to this rule are the comparatively few children of the sanctified. (1 Cor. 7:14.) That the image of God has largely given place to the image of Satan is manifest in the many who ‘“‘go astray as soon as they are born’’ (Psa. 53:3), and respecting some of whom our Lord declared, ‘‘Ye are of your father the devil, for his works ye do.’’—John 8:44. Alas that we must admit it, but who will deny that [3773]
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