It Is Better Farther On

The doctrine of the immediate contact of God's Spirit with my spirit, without the medium of symbol or sacrament or absolving priest, does not rest upon one, two or three cardinal proof texts, but upon a wide variety of scriptural proofs, such as the communion of the Holy Spirit, the revelation of Christ within the soul, the knowledge of God, the strengthened form of the Greek epignosis, clear, certain, thorough and perfect knowledge of Christ, a favorite term with both Paul and Peter, together with plerophoria, full assurance, excluding all doubt. Count up the many times in John's first Epistle in which he says "we know," and add the stronger words, "ye all know," instead of "ye know all things" (I John ii. 20), found in the Revised Version margin and the text of Westcott and Hort, and our reader will see the broad basis on which this doctrine stands.

The direct witness of the Spirit is intermittent in most young Christians. Before the fulness of the Spirit is received there are only occasional gleams of light through the rifted clouds, followed by sunless intervals when doubts distract and harass the soul. The cry of such Christians when seeking the abiding witness, the indwelling Comforter, is voiced by Charles Wesley, who alone among all the versifiers of the eighteenth century gave due prominence to the Holy Spirit; "the author," says James Montgomery, "of a great number of the best hymns in the English or any other language." The superiority of the permanent to the transient witness of the Spirit is thus finely expressed:

"O that the Comforter would Come!

Nor visit as a transient guest,

But fix in me His constant home,

And take possession of my breast,

And make my soul His loved abode,

The temple of indwelling God."

This alternation of experience from sunshine to shadow affords occasion for the temptation to cast away our confidence in Christ and to abandon His service. Many yield to this suggestion of Satan and go back to the world instead of climbing to altitudes above the clouds. Some are told by stationary and retrograde Christians that they will never be so happy as they were when they first entered the kingdom of God. This dismal outlook upon the future intensifies the temptation with which they are wrestling. Hence It is not surprising that not a few young converts turn away from Jesus and walk no more with Him. They should have been told that in the normal Christian experience "it is better farther on." It is to be regretted that there are so few normal Christians who are at hand to give the discouraged convert this word of good cheer. Many professors of faith in Christ are living on so low a level amid the miasmas and fogs that they never have even a glimpse of the sunny spiritual uplands,

"Where dwells the Lord our Righteousness,

And keeps His own in perfect peace

And everlasting rest."

— The Gospel of the Comforter Chapter 16.

The Earnest of the Spirit

"Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts." — 2 Corinthians 1:22 KJV

From its very beginning the normal regenerate life is a continuous progression in spirituality, arithmetical if not geometrical, receiving with its widening capacities richer gifts of the wisdom and holiness of God.

"New births of grace new raptures bring;

Triumphant the new song we sing,

The great Renewer bless.

Darkness and dread we leave behind,

New light, new glory still we find,

New realms divine possess."

With respect to the obligation which the earnest of the Spirit lays on its recipient, it has been well said that it is a lien upon the future service of the receiver. If the service be unperformed, the earnest will be withdrawn; whereas if the service be lovingly rendered with the whole might of the heart, the measure of the gift will be filled up even to the sanctification of the whole body, soul and spirit. The Church in its infancy as to the realization of spiritual blessing, as mankind is in babyhood in its appreciation of electricity to human utilities. To what surpassing altitudes will the individual believer and the Church as a whole be lifted when the gift of the Spirit is fully realized and appropriated.

"Spirit, who makest all things new,

Thou leadest onward; we pursue

The heavenly march sublime.

'Neath Thy renewing fires we glow,

And still from strength to strength we go,

From height to height we climb."

— The Gospel of the Comforter Chapter 16.

The Witness of the Spirit

This is the doctrine of assurance which Wesley did more to elucidate and to relieve of obscuring misapprehensions than any preceding theologian. He thus describes the direct witness of the Spirit as "an inward impression on the souls of believers, whereby the Spirit of God directly testifies to their spirit that they are children of God."

The indirect witness is an inference from the discerned presence of the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, etc., and it follows the direct witness in the order of time, "because," says Wesley, "in the nature of the thing, the testimony must precede the fruit which springs from it." The voice of the Spirit within the believer is to all who know God the most real of all realities. It is sometimes called a seal which secures, authenticates and appropriates.

The Devil, Demons, and Angels

QUESTION: (1) Is there more than one devil? (2) What is his origin? (3) Is there more than one archangel? (4) What does the name Gabriel signify? (5) What is a demon? (6) His origin? (7) Are the kingdoms of this world delivered to the devil as he claims (Luke 4:6)?

ANSWER: (1) The Greek diablos (devil), - Hebrew (Satan) denotes the one prince of demons. But in Paul's epistles to Timothy and Titus it is plural and translated in the R. V., "slanderers." Demons are fallen angels subject to the devil. In sixty-two places in the N. T. the R. V. simply transfers this word instead of incorrectly translating it "devils," as in the old version. This is a great improvement. (2) An apostatized being of a high angelic order. (3) It seems to be plural in Daniel 10:13, "Lo, Michael, one of the chief princes," etc. Seven is their number in Rev. 8:2 "And I saw the seven angels that stand before God." (4) God's hero, or the man  of  God. (6) Created by God. (7) No. The devil lied. He has usurped about all the political control of all nations; it was not given by God. This usurpation of so-called popular governments in modern times is easy when good men are too busy or too lazy to vote. When a city allows the saloon, the brothel, and the gambling hell to rule, it has as good a government as it deserves. Let every one when tempted remember that every promise of good which the devil makes is a false promise. It is our business to become sharp-sighted enough to detect his falsehoods and not to put our feet  into his trap for the sake of nibbling his poisoned bait.

— Steele's Answers pp. 245-247.

Getting the Mail on Sunday

QUESTION: Is it wrong for a Christian to open his P. O. box and get his Witness or other religious paper on Sunday?

ANSWER: I think it is wrong to require the postmaster to be in his office on the Lord's Day. If you can get your paper without this requirement, I see no evil in it.

— Steele's Answers p. 245.

Taking Children to Entertainments

QUESTION: Is it wrong to take children to see strenuous athletic contests, a street trapeze, or a man dive from a bridge or a logging contest for prizes?

ANSWER: It is wrong to give children low ideals. "Just as the twig is bent the tree is inclined."

— Steele's Answers p. 245.

Christ Our Sanctification

QUESTION: In what sense is Christ our sanctification as in I Cor. 1:30?

ANSWER: Not that his personal holiness is reckoned as ours, but that we are indebted to him for procuring the Paraclete (John 14:16), by whom we are sanctified (II Thess. 2:13; II Pet. 1:13).

— Steele's Answers p. 245.

King Asa

QUESTION: How could Asa have been perfect all his days in view of the bad conduct of which he was guilty in the latter part of his reign? See II. Chron. 15:17; 16:2, 10, 12.

ANSWER: No other answer can be given than that his apparent eclipse of faith was due to an eclipse of  intellect in the last years. In other words, that he was irresponsible because he was insane. That is my charitable explanation of the sudden change in his conduct. In that case God could pronounce his heart perfect while his head was awry. The commentators with great unanimity skip this verse.

— Steele's Answers pp. 244, 245.

The Ending of Mark

QUESTION: Did Mark write 16:9-20, the last fourteen verses of his Gospel?

ANSWER: No, they are not found in the two oldest manuscripts, and the 8th verse ends in Greek with gar 'for,' an ending as absurd as "and" in English. It seems that the original ending was torn off and some one has supplied an ending containing twenty-one words and expressions — some  of  them repeated — which are never elsewhere used by Mark. Its omission is a great relief to our missionaries in India, who are often challenged to prove their doctrine true by handling cobras and rattlesnakes and drinking deadly poisons. The different ending referred to in the R V. margin is this: "They concisely announced to Peter and his company all things that were commanded." After these things Jesus himself also through them sent forth, from the rising of the sun to its going down, the sacred and incorruptible proclamation of the eternal salvation."

— Steele's Answers p. 244.

Did the Cock Crow Twice or Three Times?

QUESTION: Harmonise Mark 14:72, "Before the cock crow twice," and Luke 22:61, "Before the cock crow thou wilt deny me thrice."

ANSWER: Dr. Robinson harmonises it thus: "The cock often crows irregularly about midnight, and again always and regularly about the third hour, which is named the cock-crowing. Mark speaks more definitely and Matthew more generally." There are other slight discrepancies relating to the persons who questioned Peter, for which I am thankful, since they prove that the two evangelists are independent witnesses and not drilled after the manner of perjury to utter exactly the same words. Of such testimonies judges and juries are justly suspicious. My theory of inspiration is that the Bible is the infallible directory to eternal life, and that such fly-specks as these minute differences do not in the least damage that directory. In this respect I do not believe, as Dr. Adam Clarke does not, in the absolute inerrancy of the Holy Scriptures, especially in respect to numbers.

— Steele's Answers pp. 243, 244.