| Summary: | Gospel Trumpet 1881-June 3, 1962, Vital Christianity June 10, 1962-Sept. 1996, One Voice June/July 2004-Apr/May 2007 " C" t N\ 01 IR/ ONENESS IN ClikAW And he sh‘ 11 Bend his angels with a great sound of a Trumpet, and they shall gather to-ther elect il• om the iblar winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Mat. 24: 31. 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. Eze. 34: 12. der. 32: 39. VOLUME XVIII. MOUNDSVILLE, WEST VIRGINIA, U. S. A., THURSDAY, SEPT. 15', 4898. NUMBER 37 044 tent * OJAI, j'Yom a tract pi A" I' tkling nor pouring can as we stated in CONSOLATION. BY tUCY M. LEWIS. I love to think there is a home Of rest beyond this world of care, A land where tears are wiped away, And sorrow never enters them And with an eye of faith I see A mansion bright prepared for me. I love to think, when tempted sire, And storms of persecution rise, That Jesus trod the way before; He sets my tars and hears my sighs. ' Tis then by faith on him I call, Who heedeth e'en the sparrow's fall. I love to read his precious Word, So lull of counsel, truth, and love; Its promises are stepping stones, Lending from earth to heaven above. Lord, keep me in the narrow way, And help me humbly watch and pray. oh, may our lives to others prove Tlut weir the Lord's by heavenly birth, And live that we will help to make Ha name a lasting praise on earth. May we he worthy tit Out home Moth Christ around the father's throne. of the New Testa-ment. the previous proper definitions of that important word. If the true 8141160 of the word baptize Leetly conveyed in the English words iv- 4We and pour, then those words are aynonymous with the word baptize. The best way to test a synonym, sulkaitute I which it is said to be synenvtnousand see what kind of sense it ma " Then went out to hilly Jerusalem. udea, and all the regions round and were sprinkled "— Matt. 6. lass in those days. Nazareth of Gali-in Jordan." by proxy. Jno. 4: 1, 2. 2d. This sprink-ling is to effect a cleansing of the heart from all filthiness, and the New Testament tells us baptism is " not the putting away of the filth of the flesh."- 1 Pet. 3: 21. • The water God promised by the month of the prophet Ezekiel to sprinkle upon us is the same as that mentioned by our Savior in Jno. 7: 38. " He that be-lieveth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of liv-ing water." " But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive. "— Var. 39. The jailer's baptism is also frequently resorted to to prove the orthodoxy of sprinkling and pouring. In this the sprinklers seem to see a bulwark of argu-ment. In speaking of the jailer's bap-tism they are frequently heard to sav, - He could not have been immersed, be-cause we read that he was baptized the same hour of his conversion, and there was no water suitable to immerse in that might have been reached within one hour." There is a slight misrepresentation of the scriptures in this assertion; for it is not stated that he was baptized the same hour of his conversion. The Word says, " He took them [ Paul and Silas] the same hour of the night, and washed their ripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway." From this it appears that the washing of the apostles' stripes oc-curred the same hour of the jailer's con-version, and the baptism was administered traightway; that is, as soon as it could be accomplished. Thin would have given the apostles two hours, or three hours, to baptize the jailer, if it had. required that length of time to reach the water. But it is very strange that water was so scarce in a great city like Philippi, that hey could not find enough to immerse the jailer and his household. Let us amine the Word carefully on this point. Luke says of Paul and his company in Philippi, just before he and Silas were cast into prison: " And on. the sabbath we went out of the city by a riverside, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither."-- Acts 16: 13. We see by this text that Philippi was situated near a river. The ancient name of this river was Gangites; and its modern name is Gangista. See Ency-clopedia Britannica. In Acts 20:-. 6 we read: " And we sailed away from. Philippi after the days of unleavened bread." So we see the river that flowed by the city of Philippi was navigable for boats. It would be wisdom for the defenders of sprinkling to post themselves a little before they try to preach a waterless city. It is sometimes affirmed by the advo-cates of sprinkling that the- jailer was baptized in the jail werein Paul and Silas were imprisoned. But this the inspired narrative itself refutes; for it is clearly stated that the jailer brought them out of the jail into his own house. And after himself and his entire household had obtained salvation, he took them and washed their stripes. Then with his entire family he received baptism at their hands, after which it says: " And when. he had brought them, ' into hie house, he set meat before them." Read verses 29- 34. We now come " to another very com-mon. argument of those who try to de-fend sprinkling and pouring; which is based upon Acts 2: 11—" Then they that gladly received his word were bap-tized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls." Those who favor sprinkling argue that it would have been impossible for the apostles to have immersed three thousand that same day. It is very evident that those who make use of this argument have never made a very accurate calcu-lation upon what they are speaking against, or else they are wanting in candor. To show the folly of their vain talk, we will calculate on the baptism of the three thousand. We will first find out how many ministers were present on the day of Pentecost. We read that Jesus first ordained twelve apostles ( Mark 3: 13, 14); after that seventy others. Luke 10: 1. One of the twelve made shipwreck ( Jno. 13: 21- 30; 18: 1- 5; Matt. 27: 3- 5), but another was ordained in his stead. Acts 1; 15- 26. So there were in all eighty- two ministers present on the day of Pentecost to assist in the admin-istration of baptism. The usual time required to administer immersion is about three minutes for two persons. At this rate the eighty- two ministers would have immersed 3,280 in one hour. It was nine o'clock when Peter began his sermon. If he preached one hour and a half, he had finished ' his sermon by half past ten. Supposing they spent half an hour praying with the seekers ( We be-lieve that would have been ample time on that powerful occasion.), they could still have been ready to begin the im-mersion by eleven, and woald have fin-ished by noon. It is useless for the defenders of sprinkling to plead insuf-ficiency of water in this instance, for numerous pools were to be found throughout the city. Even had they been compelled. to go five miles to find a sufficient place to immerse, they would still have completed the noble work long before the day was ended. We now come to the Gibraltar of the defenders of aspersion— the phrase " with water." This expression is found eight times in the New Testament, and is held by those who believe in sprinkling to express the mode of J ohm's baptism. Their argument runs about as follows: " The Word says John baptized with water, and if he baptized with water, the water must have been applied to the applicant, and not the applicant to the water. Sohn must therefore have baptiz-ed by sprinkling or pouring, and not by immersion." This indeed has a show of argument before the uninformed; but a small degree of enlightenment removes the thin veil of argument from around it, and exhibits its falsity. Prepositions in. Greek as in English are generally very elastic, therefore no great argument can be founded upon them. The major parts of speech are the more forcible. But the preposition from which with, in the phrase under consideration, is trans-lated, is one of the most uniform and specific of Greek prepositions. It is en, acknowledged by the unani-mous voice of scholars to literally signify in. Even the revisers of our standard version say in the margin opposite , Matt. 3: 11, its literal rendering is i/ n. A literal translation of " Ego men bap tizo humas en hudati," in Matt. 3: 11, is, " I indeed immerse you in water." This; rendering may be sustained by other expressions in the common version, which prove that John's baptism was by immersion. We read. that John bap-tized the people " in Jordan" ( Matt. 3: 6); " in the river of Jordan" ( Mark 1: 5); etc. If John baptized his converts in the river,. he certainly baptized them in the water, and why should there be further quibbling about it? Our translators gave the preposition its literal significa-tion in the phrases " in Jordan," " in the river, " etc., which comes from the same Greek preposition. as with in the phrase " with water;" and. we are unable to see why d in both instances it should not have been. rendered in,, except that the translators were desirous of with-holding the truth for the sake of their creed. The reader may see from the above that even the prepositions of the Bible are in harmony with the doctrine of im-mersion, but - upon the true meaning of the word Laptizo, which our translators have criminally withheld from the English reader, is to be based the weight-ier We believe we have now brought forth infficient argument to justify us in saying that the custom of sprinkling for Chris-tian baptism did not begin with Christ and his apostles. The writings of the early Fathers show that immersion only, was looked'. non as baptism amongst the orthodo. Christians for at least two hun-dred years after the ascension of our Lore. Barnabas. " We indeed descend into the water, . • but come up," etc.— Ch. XI. Tertullian in the early part of the third century also clearly states that Christians continued to practice im-mersion. In fact the united testimonies of the ante- Nicene fathers show th immersion continued - nninterrupted a-mongst the Christians during that period. Sprinkling originated among the -- eret-ical Gnostics of the second century. Irenus gives us the following account of its origin. " But there are some of them who as-sert that it is superfluous to bring persons to the water, but mixing oil and water together, they place this mixture on the heads of those who are to be initiated, with the use of some such expressions as we have already mentioned."— Book I, Ch. 21. The earliest case of pouring on record is that of Novatian in the third century. See Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History, A Thorn in the Flesh. d was pou - Mark I : 9. " And John also - Enon near to Salim, because there was ucA water there: anti thc came, and u• inkle41." no. 3: 23. in w sprinkling the people on n, he certainl y gave them a Tinkling, for it seems to are bt. ried with him by sprinkling iota death."— Rom. 4. " Buried with him in pouring." It is useless to proceed further, for we certainly believe the reader is convinced by this time that sprinkle and pour are not synonymous with the word baptize. Having clearly seen that those who ' believe in sprinkling or pouring have no argument in the definition of the word lapti. ae, l'fia now proceed to examine the texts of scripture which they interpret in their favor. Ezek. 36: 25 is frequently used by these aspersionists to substantiate their doctrine. It says: " Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse You." That the sprinkling of water mentioned here is to be received in. the Christian dispensation is very evident, but it does not signify water baptism, for two reasons. 1st. It was to be ap-plied by the Lord, and he never admin-istered water baptism to anybody except BY J. W. BYE S. - 4 4 A ND lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revel there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of are wholly sa, netifiea to do right, license they have the nature of God. 2 Pet. 1: 4. They are in possession of God's holiness. Heb. 12: 10. They are full of the Holy Ghost, which is the spirit of love, the spirit of power, and. the spirit of a sound mind. 2 Tim. 1: 7. It is re-ceived by faith. Acts 26: 18. Dear read-er, are you in possession of this pearl of great price? Remember, that without this holiness, no man shall see the Lord. Heb. 12: 14. Do not listen to the vain babbling of carnal humanity, who say that we can not be perfectly holy in this life. The Bible is full of holiness; and was not given for the benefit of dead men, but for the living. Dent. 29: 29. You can not get it to be used in the building up of a sect, or heresy, because they are the works of the flesh. Gal. 5: 20. God says come out from among them. 2 Cor. 6: 17; Rev. 18: 4. The influence of one who is so filled with all the fullness of God will stir earth and hell; and cause joy in the presence of the angels; and it is for you and your chil-dren, and all that are afar off: even as many as the Lord our God shall call. Acts 2: 39. Praise ye the Lord! " The wicked flee when no man pur-sueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion."— Prov. 28: 1. Boldness is a char-acteristic of the true minister of Christ. " Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were . ignorant and unlearned men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus."— Acts 4: 13. 2 THE GOSPEL TRUMPET Satan to buffet me, lest I should- be ex-alted above measure."- 2 Cor. 12: 7. Supposition and theory have said much upon this subject. In preaching the doctrine of sanetificdtion it is not unfrequent that some one will raise an objection, using the above text as a proof that no . one can live without sin; for " Paul had a thorn in the flesh to keep him humble." When the doctrine of healing is taught, the same text is fre-quently used by some who oppose this precious Bible truth, as an argument that all can not be healed; who say Paul had. an incurable disease, which served, as a thorn in his flesh to keep him hum-ble: and if it was necessary for him to be thus afflicted, it is also necessary for us; therefore we should be submissive to the will of God, and not expect to be headed when sick. Strange, however, that nearly if not all who make such an excuse for sickness, will spare no pains nor means in the employ of every avail-able - material remedy and physician for healing, and yet plead Paul's thorn and that it is God's will ', for them to be sick. Perhaps much of this inconsistent argu-ment is due to a lack of understanding. It is the purpose of the welter to call at-tention to a few thoughts in the text, that are commonly associated with the arguments against divine healing. WHAT IT WIS. The apostle plainly says it was " the messenger of Satan." Therefore its nature and characteristics were satanic, and could in no wise be cherished as any-thi g heavenly. It was for the purpose of buffeting him. Buffet— to strike. The exact nature of the operations of this satanic messenger is not definitely stated, but from the language of verses 9 and 10 it can be clearly seen that the buffetings were not always the same. The apostle calls them infirmities, reproaches, neces-sities, persecutions, and distresses. Through these various avenues this sa-tanic messenger had ample opportunity to strike this apostle of the gospel of Christ, and no doubt in many unexpect-ed ways often troubled and embarrassed him. No doubt this was at times at-tempted through bodily afflictions and diseases, but there is nothing given in his writings to prove that he had an incur-able disease, although it is evident that he suffered often with pains and afflic-tions in his many severe persecutions. A thoughtful perusal of his language in 2 Cor. 11: 23- 28 will convince us that he suffered many pains. " In stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the - Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten - with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils_ by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in per-ils in the sea, in perils among false breth-ren; in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold. and nakedness. Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches." He speaks of these things to show that if any one has a reason to boast of enduring hardships for the gospel he has more, but he glories in them only as infirmities- and not as any-thing that might make him commendable above any one else. No apostle ever suffered the amount of privations and persecutions that he did, and up to the time of his writing none had been honor-ed with visions and revelations of the Lord. as he had, and because of the a bundance of these revelations there was need that he should be humiliated with these many infirmities, " the thorn in. the flesh," lest he should be exalted above measure. While it is evident that God permits - each of his children to suffer sufficient trial and affliction to keep us humble, it is far more evident that none of us ever had an abundance of revelations to the extent of the apostle Paul, that we should re-quire a " thorn in the flesh," like his. In this respect it is not likely that any of us could be comparable with him; there-fore to apply his thorn to some disease that some of us may have would be in-consistent. Nothing is said of any of the other apostles having such abundance of revelations and a necessary thorn to keep them from. being exalted above measure, although each had sufficient buffetings no doubt to keep them in con-stant remembrance of their utter depend-ance upon the Lord for strength. But we have nothing to prove that any of these hnmiliations were of the nature of incurable diseases. WHAT PAUL DID ABOUT IT. " For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me." — Ver. 8. If every one who is tempted to compare his sickness with Paul's thorn, would meet the scriptural condi-tions fol. healing, and pray as he did for the departure of this messenger of Satan from him, there would be no need for this thorn theory. Some advocate that this thorn was weak eyes, being caused by the heavenly light which shone upon him at the time of his conversion, from which he was blind for three days; and that he never was fully recovered from this. With ell due respect to those who have advocated this theory, I would call attention to the fact that the apostle dates the receiviang of this thorn with, or subsequent to, the receiving of the abundance of the reve-lations, which was but above fourteen years prior to the time of his writing, and therefore it could be nothing from the effects of the heavenly light at his conversion. Also we read that God commissioned Ananias to lay hands upon him, that he might receive his sight and be filled with the Holy Ghost. This healing under these extraordinary air-cnmetances would most certainly be per-fect. Also it is evident that the parch-ment rolls used in Paul's time required good eyesight. Some have advocated that he had an impediment in. his speech which he call-ed the thorn, and base this theory upon 2 Cor. 10: 10. But this was not the apostle's own statement of himself. It was a false report of his enemies. The next verse tells what will be in presence as well as absence. He had great power of speech before king Agrippa, and at Lystra he was called lefercurius, by the heathen, because he was the chief speaker. Therefore it is not likely that he had any very great trouble with his speech. Others claim that history substantiates the theory that he had a deformed body, but this theory lacks sufficient support to be admitted as a fact. There is no inti-mation in his writings that he ever lacked sufficient physical strength to labor in-cessantly in the gospel, and sometimes day and night with his hands to sup-ply his own needs and also the needs of those who were with him. It is evident, however, that his body must have carried many marks and scars from the terrible lashings and beatings he received. He testifies ( 2 Cor. 4: 10, 11) that he always bears about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, and was always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake. In the same sense he testifies that he dies daily ( 1 Cor. 15: 31), and that he rejoices in his sufferings to fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in his flesh ( Col. 1: 24), and that he bears in his body the marks of the Lord Jesus. Gal. 6: 17. None of these testimonies signify one single symptom of disease, and yet they do very plainly convey the thought of, much suffering. Perhaps no one of the followers of Jesus ever experienced such an amount of these things. He testifies to the G- alatian brethren that at the first he preached the gospel to them through infirmity of the flesh, and the temptation that was in his flesh they despised not thous . stones. He abhors all worldly nor rejected. - Gal. 4: 13, 14. amusements, such as banquetings, sugar The date of the abundance of his reve- and tea socials, grab- bag parties, church lations and the receiving of the accom- sprees, picnics, dancing and card parties, panying thorn in the flesh, carries us modern forms of courtship, where male back to the terrible scene of the persecu.- and female keep late hours in darkened tion at Lystra, where Paul was stoned and drawn out of the city for dead. This is doubtless when. he was caught up into the third heaven; not knowing if he was in the body or out of the body, but knew that he was in paradise and heard words unspeakable, which were not expedient for him to utter. If there was any one characteristic of physical infirmity above another that he was sub-jected to that might be termed the thorn, its origin is found here, and ap-parently remained with him, notwith-standing his urgent request to have it removed. The wounds and bruises from this inhuman treatment no doubt left their effects upon his body in marks and Scars so that he could consistently say that he bore in. his body the marks of the Lord Jesus. Yet it is wonderful that as he was lying for dead. outside the city of Lystra, as the disciples stood round about him he rose up and went into the city, and the next day was en-abled to go with Barnabas to Derbe and preach the gospel. This is a clear proof that there was even in this marvelous experience no infirmity fastened upon him that hindered his active ministry. So from whatever standpoint this subject may be looked upon, the opposers to the grace of healing find no consolation. THE ANSWER PAUL RECEIVED FROM THE LORD when. he besought him thrice that this satanic messenger might depart from him was more to the glory of God than if his desire had been directly granted. " My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in weakness." This signifies that the apostle had no stock of physical strength in store, that he could fora moment be independent of the grace of God, but as he realized this fully and went forth in constant faith, he was day by day undergirded by the strength of God and enabled to outstrip the strongest in labor for the Master, and learned the secret that when he was weak then he was strong; for then the power of Christ rested upon him and he could boldly say, " I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." Complete Sanctification. BY JOHN C. BLANEY. 44 A ND the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."- 1 Thess. 5: 23. To be sanctified wholly is to be set apart or consecrated entirely to ful-fill perfectly. the purposes and will of God. He who is entirely sanctified is thoroughly cleansed " from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit," and " loves his neighbor as himself," and God with all his heart, mind, soul, and strength; be-cause God has purposed that man should do so. " The law of God is in his heart, and none of his steps shall slide. He is pure even. as he [ God] is pure," and con-sequently whether he eats or drinks, or whatsoever he does, it is done to the glory of God: and " the righteousness of the law is fulfilled" in him because he " walks not after the flesh but after the Spirit." • He has a pure mind, and that is the mind of Christ. He can not have any of the carnal mind dwelling in him, as it is " enmity against God, and is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be;" and consequently it would be impossible to love God perfectly with such an opposing element in him. He can not have pride in him, or anger, or desire for earthly praise or glory; nei-ther can he have the love of money, as it is the root of all evil. He can not have a desire for costly apparel, as gold or sil-ver ornaments, or to - wear pearls or pre-rooms; yea, he even abhors the popular music and singing so much practiced at those places of amusement, and loves only to sing " psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs: malting melody in his heart to the Lord." He so loves his en-emy, that if he would come to borrow of him he would " lend hoping for nothing again," and if he would ask him for any-thing to eat or drink, he would delight to give to him, even though he be his enemy. e If a man would smite him on one cheek he would turn to him the other without a desire to strike back, since his heart is purified from anger. W hen peo-ple say all manner of evil against him falsely for Christ's sake, he can rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory, yea, leap for joy. And because his every action and word is the result of toy ing God with all his heart, mind, souletnd strength, and his neighbor as himself, " he is perfect even as his Father which is in heaven is perfect." He does not fear death in any form when he knows it is the will of God for him to die, because he is free from the sting of death, which is sin. He is not afraid of men or devils, be-cause that " perfect love" which is shed abroad in his heart by the holy Ghost which - is given unto him, " casteth out fear." This experience can only be had by those who consecrate themselves to God to be thus purified or sanctified. They must present their bodies as well as their time, talents, and earthly store, to be used as the Lord inay direct. They must be will-ing to go anywhere God may direct them, even if it be to India or Africa, or any part of God's universe. They must be willing to die for the sake of the gm. pel of the Son of God, or for their breth-ren. They will then find it easy to be-lieve that the limy ( lutist sanctifies them. The old man must be put to death, and they can then say with Paul, " I am cru-cified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."— Gal. 2: 20. It is natural for those who THE GOSPEL - rmniapEr Ii THE CHRIST JESUS REPRESENTED HIMSELF I which it is unnecessary to quote. That TO BE. •! Jesus made an atonement for both the 1 In the first part of the 9th chapter, of salvation of our soul, from sin, and the 1 St. Matthew we have an account of the healing of the diseases of our bodies, is healing of a palsied man, by the Lord Jesus Christ. Instead of saying to him, as was usual in performing healings, " Arise and walk," he said to him, " Thy sins be for-given thee." The scribes objected to him using these words, for they did not. believe that he had the power to forgive sins, but they had been convinced by his mighty works, that he had power to heal the sick. Their unbelief was somewhat different from the unbelief of the people of to- day, who believe that Jesus can forgive sins, but do not believe that he can heal. Jesus, in verse 5, rebukes both the unbelief of the Jews of ancient times, and of the Gentile skeptics of to-day, with the words: " For whether is it easier to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise and walk?" Observe that he sets himself up as a two- fold Christ, one who could as easily say, " Thy sins be forgiven thee, " as to say, " Arise and walk;" that is to say, one who can both forgive sins and heal bod-ily afflictions. " For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should un-derstand with their hearts, and should be converted, and I should heal them."— Matt. 13: 15. Here again Jesus represented himself as a two- fold Christ. He charges the Jews with closing their eyes lest they should see and understand with their heart, and be converted and he should heal them. In his last commission to his apostles he set forth the same two- fold idea of himself, saying: " Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. lie that believeth and is bap-tized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; in my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover."— Mark 16: 15- 18. Jesus here shows that bi g power, as a two- fold Christ, should continue with his people after his ascension; those who be-lieve should obtain salvation, also those who believe should work signs, wonders, and healings. That part of the above text which relates to the saving power of Christ, is universally believed to be in vogue to- day; all believe that down to the end of the world " he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved," but the last of the text, although given in such direct connection with the promise of salvation, is set aside as something of the past. If it be held that the signs that were to folio* the believers were only for the apostolic times, why not also affirm that the salvation obtained by the believers was only for the apostolic times? Sure-ly the langtage of this text shows, con-clusively, that they were to go hand in hand. Further texts might be cited, but the above mentioned are sufficient to show that Jesus represented himself to be both a Savior and a Healer. THE OREM SET FORTH IN THE WRITINGS OF THE APOSTLES. " Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sins, should live unto righteous-ness; by whose stripes ye were healed." — 1 Pet. 2: 24. The above words relate to the atone-ment of Christ, and show that in it Jesus is set forth as a two- fold Christ. He bore our sins on the tree, and also by his stripes we were healed. The same idea that the death of Christ purchased prophets. They all looked for a Savior both the salvation of our souls and the and a Healer in the Christ when he healing of our bodies, is set forth in the shoucol mde . 33d chapter of Isaiah, verses 4 and 6-, The Bible Christ. BY W. G. SCHELL. VI OR the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after - wisdom: but we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness. "- 1 Cor 1: 22, 23. In the above text the apostle describes two great classes of people of his day, the Jews and the Greeks. He shows the peculiar disposition of each, and how their dispositions hindered their faith in the Messiah. From the fall of man, it appears from the writings of the Old Testament, the Jewish people looked for a Christ. Their inspired prophecies formed a continuous chain of prophetic declarations, which not only affirmed the fact of Christ coming, but minutely described every feature of his character. The hand of God had led them for two thousand years prior to the coming of the Messiah. Through this period he had manifested his power in the per-formance of mighty wonders. These wonders had cultivated in the Jews a disposition to seek after signs according to the statement of the apostle in the above text. Jesus came working mira-cles more than all his predecessors, yet he could not satisfy the peculiar desire of the Jewish people for miracles, hence they would not accept him to be the Afessiah. They had formed an opinion lit' the Christ, and as he did not perfectly wet their expectation, they were ready to reja And crucify him. There is a class of professing Chris-tians, to lay, who are the perfect succes-to ancient Jews— naturally they an opinion of the Christ, and ' lig a wrong opinion and seated in their minds, c^ ttete rs the ttt unlit tea lay ieve in the true tailed to them. He is a as he was to the great scholars of studied literature of every a acted colleges and libraries, and hee: tine the marvel of the world, in their day, for scholarship. They lwanio great philosophers, and be-coming elated by scholar hip, they were rendered unfit to believe in the humble Christ whom God had sent into the world. Had Christ come as a philoso-pher, he would have been extolled by the Greeks, but coming, as he did, in a hum-ble way, and presenting his doctrine, as in such a humble manner, he could but be rejected by the philosophical minds of the Greeks. There. is also a class of people in the world toda y professing Christianity who are perfe t successors of the ancient They are scholars, and are spen ling their time pursuing the liter-ature of all nations and all ages. Their scholarship has inclined them to look upon everything philosophically and to explain everything in a philosophical manner, consequently they have formed a philo-sophical idea of Christ, which has ren-demi them incapable of believing in the true Christ set forth in the New Testa-ment. These things sway such a univer-sal influence over the minds of the nom-inal Christian world that one would scarcely make a mistake if he woul . affirm that the Christ of nineteen hundred years ago, if he were to come incarnate unto his own to- day, would be reject-: ed and crucified. We now proceed to give a description of the Christ of the Bible under • three headings: 1st. The Christ looked for by the prophets. 2d. The Christ Jesus represented himself to be. 3d. The Christ set forth in the writings of the apostles. THE CHRIST LOOKED FOR BY THE PROPHETS. (. 93less the Lord, 0 my soul, and for-get not all his benefits: W ho forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases."— Ps. 103: 2, 3. The above is- sometimes thought to set forth the standard of the faith of David , but we are inclined to believe, inasmuch as the Psalms are generally of a pro-phetic nature, that David was prophesying of the Christ who was to come, and the reader - will observe that he speaks of a two- fold Christ, who forgiveth all our iniquities, and heals all our diseases. If we were held to the belief that this text sets forth the faith of David him-self, it would still be in favor of our position, forasmuch as the New Testa-ment affords us greater privileges than the Old Testament afforded the people of David's time. We are not to believe that our privileges are beneath those of David; but we leave this text and turn to the prophecy by Isaiah. " Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recom-pense; he will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be open-ed, and the ears of the deaf shall be un-stopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert." — Isa. 35: 3- 6. Here the prophet plainly sets forth the same idea that was contained. in the teit in the Psalms; that of a two- fold Christ. He shows that he was come to save the people, in verse 4, and in the two succeeding verses, he affirms that he would " open the eyes of the blind and unstop the ears. of the deaf, and cause the lame man to leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb to sing;" in other words, that he would heal the diseases of his people. We can not fail to see in this text that the great prophet expected a Christ who would be a Savior and a Healer. In the 33d chapter of his prophecy he also teaches this same idea. After affirming in verse 32, " He will save us," he proceeds to say also in verse 21, " And the inhabitants shall not say, " I am sick." In this latter quota-tion he must mean that Christ shall heal the people of their sicknesses. Further evidences are unnecessary to prove that Isaiah believeth in a two- fold Christ. We will next bring the prophet Mal-achi on the witness stand. In the third chapter of his book he prophesied that the Messiah who was to come should sit " like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap." Further he prophesies that " he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of sil-ver, and he shall purify the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness." All this is intended to convey the idea that Christ should save his people from their sins. In the 2d - verse of the 4th chapter of his book, he shows also that the Messiah should heal the people of their bodily-- afflictions, in the following words: " But unto you that fear my name, shall the Sun of righteousness arise with heal-ing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall." Comments are unnecessary to show from this prophecy that Malachi expected a Christ who should heal the afflictions of the body. The latter part of this verse is applied, by some, to the benefit of the soul, but such is an unfair interpretation, because healing is the subject of the words immediately preceding. He could, therefore, have meant nothing else than that we should find the healing power in. the coming Christ, that would enable us in bodily health to " grow up as calves of the stall." It is nnneeessary to quote further texts from the prophetic writings, for those we have cited give the substance of the teachings of all the 3 the strongest argument that might be brought forth to substantiate the two-fold Christ. The doctrine- of the atone-ment might be worded as follows: " All for whom Jesus died may possess all for which he died." He tasted death for every man ( Bob. 2: 9), and he died to purchase salvation- and healing. There-fore, every man may possess both the salvation of his soul and perfect healing of his bodily afflictions. In the 5th chapter of James we have another plain description of the two- fold Christ. " Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess you faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man avail-eth much."— James 5: 13- 16. Healing is the subject of this text, and we are here told what to do to re-ceive it. A digression is made in verse 15 to bring in the other feature of the character of Christ, that of a Savior, in the promise, " If he have committed sins they shall be forgiven him." If God has promised both to forgive our sins and to heal our bodies when the con-ditions laid down in the above text are complied with, they being found among the regular instructions for the saints, do we not justly believe that James in-tended we should enjoy the two- fold character of Christ unto the end of the present dispensation? We have another mention of the two-fold character of Christ in 3d John, 2d verse, " Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth." With this we conclude our discussion of the two- fold Christ of the Bible, for we believe what has been set forth to be sufficient, and we proceed to show that CHRIST IS TO THE CHURCH OF THE NINE-TEENTH CENTURY WHAT HE WAS TO THE CHURCH OF THE FIRST CENTURY. This can- be denied only upon the ground that Christ is not with his peo-ple or that he has changed. The former can not be true because we have the special promise from Christ's own lips that he would be with us even to the end of the world. Matt. 28: 20. Neither can the latter be true, because Paul affirms in Heb. 13: 8, that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and to- day, and forever. So we must admit that Christ is, to us, what he was to the Christians of the apostolic times. But we need not marvel at the skepti-cism of those who will not accept the true Bible Christ, because it was proph-esied by Paul in 2 Tim. 3: 5 that many in the last days should have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof. He is speaking of professors, because he says they have " a form of godliness." Sinners have no form of godliness. Those who have the form were to deny the power of godliness. What is the power of godliness? I would place it under two headings, The power of ( iltrist to same the soul from, sin and The power of Christ to heal the body of all diseases. The world is thronged with professors who deny these things in toto. Who is not afraid to accept the Christ of the Bible? - - Preach the word. " Jesus pitied sin-ners, pleaded with them, sighed over them, warned them, and wept over them; but never sought to amuse them." If you lack steadfastness, learn to trust in the Lord with all your heart. " They that trust in the Lord shall be as- mount I Zion, which can not be removed, but a-bideth forever."— Ps. 125: 1. R. THE GOSPEL TRUMPET in some way, a little leaven may have crept in unawares, or some actions and ways that are not just in accordance to the leadings of the Holy Spirit, and these have a tendency to lead into trouble and to prevent spiritual advancement. Many things might be named which would be termed e ' secret faults," but earnest prayer and supplication to God will bring about a revelation of these things : and put us in a way to get rid of them. As the- children of Israel were making their escape out of the land of Egypt, they moved along very nicely until they came to the Red Sea. There they reach-ed the place where before them was the sea, on either side was a mountainous country, behind them was Pharaoh's army. There was one of two things to be done. One was to fall into the hands of the enemy, and the other, to place themselves entirel y into the hands of God, and stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. When the command came for them to move forward, the orders were obeyed and they were enabled to escape out of the hand of their enemy. hile in the wilderness they were hindered by their murmurin gs and com-plaining, like a great many people of to- day get to murmuring and complain-ing, and just because things do not go just as they think they should. For some reason, apparently unknown to them, they do not reach a point of spirit-ual advancement, and often wonder why it is. Many times people die a spiritual death because of their murmurings, like the children of Israel, who for the same cause died in the wilderness. But finally the time came for crossing the river Jor-dan, and as the command came from the Lord for them to move forward, they did not hesitate on account of the waters before them, but moved out, even wad-ing into the water to their ankles; and as the foremost one stepped out in all confidence in this way, again the waters parted before them; and they were enabled to move over into the land of Canaan, and possessed the land. Had they hesitated and been fearful because of the waters, they never would have gotten possession of the and of Canaan; but knowing that the Lord had com-manded, they moved out in all confi-dence. And after coming into possession of the land, they were where the Lord fought the battles for them as long as they obeyed his command. When the command of the Lord is given to move forward on any point, if we do not obey the command we are sure to lose ground, and find ourselves going backward. And when the matter is searched out the trouble is sure to be an unwillingness to obey. At one time when Jesus had been preaching some strong truths to the people, " many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him." They were unwilling to do the whole will of God, and had reached the point where they were to make a forward move; and as it was either take a step forward, or go back, many of them chose to go back, just as people often do to- day; rather than move out into deeper experiences and walk in the light of his word, they go back- into the world, and choose rather to lose their soul than give up their stub-born will. After so many had turned away from Jesus, he turned to the twelve disciples and said, " Will ye also go a-way?" But Peter turned to him and said, " To whom shall we go?. thou bast the words of eternal life." Truly, it is better to choose the ways of the Lord and obey his voice than to turn back into the ways of sin. When people con-sider that what God says in his word is true, and is to be obeyed, and follow him with a, willing heart, they will find it a blessed privilege to learn what more he has for them to do. It will be a blessing to them to find out where there are " secret faults" to be swept out of the way in order to make advancement. THE GOSPEL TRUMPET. Moundsville, W. Va., Sept. 15, 1898. A WEEKLY HOLINESS JOURNAL. Entered at the Fostaffine at Xonndralle, W. u Suand- class Matter. E. E. BYRUM, Editor. - E. E. BYRUM and N. H. BYRUM, Publishers. DEFINITE, RADICAL, and Aivri- seCTARIAN, sent forth in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, for the publication of full Salvation, Divine Healing of the body, and the Unity of all true Christians in " the faith once delivered to the saints." Subscription price, postage paid, United States, Canada, and Mexico, - - $ 1.00. England, - 6s. 2d. Germany, 6 marks 18 pf. Business Communications, moneys. etc., must to addressed to GOSPEL TRUMPET PUB. CO., MOUNDS V/ LLE, W. VA. to Insure credit; otherwise we will not be responsible. Editorial. The Cherokee, Oklahoma tabernacle meeting previously advertised to begin Sept. 7. was postponed and will begin Sept. 20. Reports are coming in from the various camp meetings of many _ souls being saved, the sick healed, and a general ad-vance in the ways of the Lord, by those who " contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints." CORRECTION. In last week's issue, page 5, first col-umn, where it reads, " The Babylon of the Revelations can not mean the reli-gious world," it should read, " irreligious world," instead of " religious world." INDIA IS STILI_ GALLING FOR THE GOSPEL. The brethren in India are anxiously waiting for some true minister to come and aid theta in the work. Places are opening for the truth in the interior of the country, the calls coming from. the heathen people themselves, begging to hear the preaching of the true gospel. Thai ' l is an unusual thing for the worship-ers of " strange gods" to have a desire to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ preached. hay God send his messengers forth to carry the holy messages to those people and teach them the way of salvation. all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith yea shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: pray-ing always with all prayer and supplica-tion in the Spirit, and watching thereun-to with all perseverance and supplication for all saints."— Eph. 6: 11- 18. Now here we see what kind of armor is needed. " For the weapons of our war-fare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong-holds."-- 2 Cor. 10: 4. When we are thus equipped then we can begin to move out for God; and until we do get the equipment we can not make the progress. In the first chapter of 1 Peter we have an illustration of spiritual atjthmetic, as we may call it. There we find after having obtained , this like precious faith through Jesus Christ, whereby are given to us exceeding great and precious promises, then we are to add to our faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temper-ance patience, and to patience godliness, and to godliness brotherly Mildness, and to brotherly kindness charity. This is quite an addition, which summed up will make a wonderful progress in our Christian life. But now in order to prop-erly add this to the amount we already have, we must have them so they abound in us, " for if these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." Here is one of the real secrets of spiritual progress— to see that we are abound-ing in these Christian graces. But now, suppose some one does not abound in them. Then we have the Word, " He that lacketh these things is blind, and can not see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins." Have you never seen persons who have had a real experience at one time, and then failed to make the progress they should, and after awhile the enemy of their souls would blind them to the truth, and make them really believe that they had never been purged from their old sins, fulfilling the scripture in 2 Pe-ter 1: 9? But the next verse says, " If ye do these things, ye shall never fall;" as much as to say, If you do not do them, you will fall. Another point which must be consider-ed. is that of walking in all the light of the Word as it flashes upon our pathway. To refuse to do so will soon cause us to go into darkness. " Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you: for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth."— Jno. 12: 35. We can not set up our grandfathers and grandmothers as a standard of light and truth, and because they could do so and so think we can do the same things_ Jeans Christ is our pattern and we must walk up to all the light and truth he gives us from his word. Some of our grandfathers perhaps could enjoy them-selves in the Lord and go about smoking their pipes, and doing many such things, not having the light upon the evil of such; and because the light had not come it was not sin to them. But we live in a time when the evils on various lines are set forth in the light of God's word, where our forefathers knew noth- - -- e about such things. - W e sometimes r the expression, If my grandfather_ uld have salvation and do this, or that, I can do the same. But the word of God teaches us that we are to walk in the light of his word, and when that is given and comes to us as light, then we must walk in it or lose our experience. David said, " Cleanse thou me from secret faults." Now there are often some faults about us, which God has not imputed against us as sin, and which we are net really aware of having as hin-drances to oar spiritual progress until the Lord uses some one to being it to our mind, or he in some other way shows us. There may be a little exaltation about us Sometimes there are things in our lives that are a hindrance to a forward move, which we are unable to find out until the Lord permits us to pass through some severe trial, or seemingly withdraws from us for a time; although if we trust - in him he will never leave us nor forsake us. Yet if we will not learn lessons an y other way, he will at times give us a chance for much earnest prayer and sup-plication before he will grant an answer. He sometimes lets us get into a real spiritual lock, where we have to pray our way out. For an illustration, a vessel may be sailing along a river or canal very smoothly, and not a thing to hinder rapid progress, and as it advances down the stream the vessel seems to have a more rapid and easy motion, and there is little else to do but to drift carelessly along with the tide. But finally during this rapid movement it runs into a place and comes to a sudden standstill. There is a solid wall in front, a wall on either side; and, in fact, it is closed up in a place where there is no means of further progress until a great change takes place. After it is brought to this standstill it is observed that it has just been passing over the falls, and before it can sail any further must be let down to the level of the water below. So the valves of this lock in which it is enclosed are opened, and as the water gushes out the vessel begins to gradually sink down until it reaches the level of the water below. Then the doors of the lock are thrown open, and it sails off as readily as lac- flare. This is a good illustration of the Christian who is on just a little too elevated a plane to glorify God in all things. Ire may sail along very nicely for a while until he readies the point where God wants him to settle down upon the Word a little more firmly and in greater depths of hu-mility; so he just lets him got into a spiritual lock, and lets him stay there until he can pray his way out. And when the prayer of faith begins to ascend, and there is a real sinking down into hu-mility as he keeps settling more and more upon the Word and promises of God, soon the windows of heaven are opened and he is in good sailing condition again, better qualified for what is before him. It is necessary for persons to be placed in such positions now and then in order that they may be fitted for greater use-fulness for God. Whether this is brought about through some severe trial, or a real present need felt of higher attainments, does not matter, just so sse learn to come to the Lord and speedily learn the lesson. Humility and meekness will open the way for many a forward move. And again, we must have perfect confi-dence in God, that he will lift us up in every time of need; and when the way seems almost impossible we can look up to him with perfect confidence and trust, and soon find ourselves outriding every obstacle, every mountain of difficulty re-moved, and our pathway strewn with victories all the way along, just like the vessel sailing up the stream. On reach-ing the falls it would be impossible for it to pass over them, but as before it runs into a lock and is closed up and the water let in, and it gradually rises higher and higher until it reaches the point on a level with the water above; then the gateway is opened, and it sails out on an elevated plane. In our Christian life there need be nothing stand in our way to hinder our progress in the ways of the Lord. There are often things that would appear as barriers, and would be, were we to permit them to be such; but if we prop-erly take them to the Lord, knowing that everything works together for good to them that love the Lord, we can get some profit out of every obstacle that would be thrown in our way, and make a forward move in spite of all that the enemy of our souls may try to bring against us. We ' learn from a recent letter from Bro. and Sister B. F. Elliott, of Mazat-lan, Sinaloa, Mex., that they are doing what they can to give light and truth to the people of that country. They greatly feel the need of Bibles and liter-ature to distribute to hasten the spread of the truth. At present they are work-ing with their hands to earn money to support themselves and the work there, and are not enabled to hold as many meetings as usual, but report that the seed of truth is now and then taking effect upon the hearts of the people. They desire in a few weeks to move on to other new fields. Let us aid them with our prayers. A Forward Move. NE of the first things for a person to do in order to make spiritual ad-vancement after having obtained an ex-perience of salvation is to have a perfect willingness to walk in all the light of God's word, not only for the present, but for the future also; and in order to do this it is necessary to have on the whole gospel armor and be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. " Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against prin-cipalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. . . . Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteous-ness; and your feet shod with the prep-aration of the gospel of peace; above — From "` the Secret or Salvation." TT- TR GOSPEL TRUMPET The children of sanctified parents do not inherit holiness from their parents; nor yet do they inherit from their pa-rents the carnal nature, in the same way that various dispositions are inherited. If they inherited holiness, then holiness would not be by grace to every individ-ual being. If , they inherited the carnal nature direct from their parents, then it would be impossible for individuals to be sanctified wholly, or cleansed through and through, at least so long as they are capable of producing offspring. Chil-dren can inherit neither holiness nor the carnal nature '( sin) from their parents. The one comes through faith in Jesus Christ, and is an individual matter, those only possessing it who will voluntarily receive it; the other is entailed upon the human race from the fall of Adam, affecting every individual born into the world. - Why and how is this? Why it is, is because God has designed that every person shall be equally responsible for himself. As to h, ow it is, we will illus-trate. Suppose a person is in a room filled with total darkness. By some means he learns of a large electric lamp in the room, and also how to turn on the current. He turns the button, and like a flash . every particle of darkness is- ex-pelled from the room. All is light with-in, and this condition remains subject to the will of the person. If he shuts off the current, he is in complete darkness Now by the fall of our first parents into sin, spiritual darkness has enveloped and submerged the whole human race: but " to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up."— Matt. 4: 16. " The light shineth in dark-ness; and the darkness comprehended it not."— Jno. 1: 5. But some have awa-kened from their sinful sleep, and arisen , from their spiritual death, and Christ has given them light. Eph. 5: 14. If we have Christ for a light, does there any darkness remain? On condition that " thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light."— Matt. 6: 22. " If we walk in the light as he [ God] is in the light. . . . the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin."- 1 Jno. 1: 1. The moment we lose Christ the light, we are in darkness again. Spirit-ual darkness envelopes the soul as a nat-ural consequence. wherever Christ is ab-sent. Christ lights only the individual's soul that possesses him. The act of faith whereby an individual is cleansed from sin does not avail for any one else, not even. for his own offspring. Therefore, when a human being is generated it is generated in ( enveloped in) spiritual dark-ness, or sin, not that sin must necessarily exist in the parents, but from the fact that Christ ( the light) is absent in its own case. It begins its existence in and par-takes of the spiritual death that results from the fall of our first parents. Thus it can be seen that there is a sense in which the carnal nature is brought on us as a race, without regard to whether our parents were still in sin or had sin cleansed out of them. When we are sanctified wholly we are back to where Adam and Eve were be-fore the fall, in point of moral purity as concerns our individual soul, but not as concerns the future generations born of US. In 1 Cor. ' T: 14, the sense in which the children of parents ( one sanctified and ore unsanetified) are holy, is the sense of recognition by the church, as- not being Questions Answered. Je1su. Ps lteaalksein egx tpo ltahine ainpo tshtlee sT RalUoMneP, E oTr Mto atthte. m5: u1l. t iWtuadse and the apostles? 2. Who are the ' s poor in spirit," mentioned in Matt. 5: 3? W. R. J. 1. llatt. 5: 1 reads: " And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples Caine un-to him." Verse 2 continues to say, " And he opened his mouth, and • taught them, saying." Some gather from this text that the Lord Jesus was speaking unto his dis-ciples only; but that is not the idea intend-ed to be conveyed, as will be seen from a careful consideration. Jesus went up into the mountain. This is the first thing declared in the text. It might be asked, What did he go up into the . mountain for? It was his " seeing the. multitudes/' that caused him to go up into the mountain. We must certainly answer that he went up „ into the mountain to preach unto these multi-tudes. And when he was set, that is, to preach unto the multitudes, his disciples came Unto him. They certainly felt it their place to come close by his side while he was preaching. lie then opened his mouth and taught them; that is, the multitudes. The disciples, of course, were in the multitude. But the language makes it very clear that he taught the entire multitude, and not the disciples only, 2. The s poor in spirit," mentioned by our Savior in the text cited, are not those, as some have supposed, who have a small degree of fh: , Spirit. Jesus never pronounced a biassing Upon such. It is our duty to he - tilled with the Spirit."— Eph. a: IS. The Savior's words, " Blessed are tile pun. in spirit," apply to the pour in this: Nvo • ld .: 4 goods. lie Meant to say that tho poor of this world are blessed in the Spirit: or, in other words, ar• blessed spiritually, since it is the poor generally who obtain salvation. Jas. 2: 5. Matt. 5: 3 is bet-ter untlersa sal by reading it in connection with Luke 6: 20, where the same idea is expressed in the following words: " Blessed be 0 poor: for yours is the kingdom of G 1. Can and do God's ministers all speak the same thing? 2 Can we shun the very appearance of evil? 3. Have we a right to worship with drums and horns? W. H. C. 1. Yes; God's ministers all speak the same things. We do not mean this in the absolute sense that some might take it. There are a great many little ideas that are not treated in the word of God, and are left entirely to the consciences of the people. The eating of meats and the keeping of holy days are set forth in the word of God as specimens of this class of ideas. See Rom. 14. In these . ideas, which should be termed matters of conscience, God's people are not re-luired to see the saute, and such ideas ire not to be advanced in the pulpit. So as real Bible doctrines are concerned, we are to see eye to eye. There may annetimes be some minister recently led tut into the light who may not see the 3vening light clearly hence would not eve eve to eye; but God's ministers in general— and generally speaking we mow God's ministers do— speak the ale things. 2. Yes; if we ask God to give us much dsdom, and. it is very necessary that we bstain from the very appearance of evil or the sake of others. 3. No; it is not right to use drums or erns, or any other musical instrument, 1 religious worship. The Jewish people sed to blow horns sometimes in wor-hip, but that is done away with the law C Moses. The use of musical instru-lents was never instituted by Christ, id never practiced by any of his apos-es; hence forms no part of Christian orship. It belongs to the worship of • malists, and is never used except here worship is - drifting into formal- 11. It is the Spirit of God that puts Resist the Devil. BY VLANNAH CRITES. T ro the dear afflicted ones into whose hands these lines may fall: I will try to relate a part of my experience, with the hope that it will do some one good. Some of you will remember a former tes-timony I gave several weeks ago, in re-gard to some of the- severe afflictions that I had been going through for over a year. I know some of you will remem-ber it, for I have been made to feel the effect of your prayers. So dear ones, you that have been afflicted for a long time and have almost given up in de-spair, I say unto you, despair not; but resist the Devil, and if needs be resist him steadfast in. the faith; for I have found the greatest victories come after the hardest battles. Praise God! Well, dear ones, it was a case of long resisting with me; but, praise God, vic-tory is mine through Jesus. The dear Lord seemed to show me when : I was taken sick with spinal, meningitis and heart trouble one year ago last April, that it was a case that would require resisting steadfast in the faith; for when I had been sick some days and had done everything I knew God's word required me to do, still. I was such a great suf-ferer. But I did not realize it was go-ing to be a battle that was to last for more than a year. During this time God healed me of different things; but it seemed : that I could not get where I could take God at his word and realize that it was his will to heal me entirely of meningitis; for Sata
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