The Spirit of Prophecy
God has graciously placed in the remnant church the gift of the Spirit of prophecy. This fact is gladly acknowledged by every loyal member of the movement. And this inspired instruction is available to all in printed form. But each passing year carries us farther away from the hour when the living messenger was in our midst, and when her personal application of counsel and correction was operative. This change introduces an opportunity for differing attitudes toward this gift. It is therefore a point that needs to be guarded. Divergent attitudes toward the prophetic gift will tend toward confusion, so unity in our relationships thereto should be earnestly fostered.
Two differing positions have been formed in the minds of small groups, at the opposite ends of the central majority view. Some, on the one side, tend to make these writings a second Bible or an actual part of the canon of Scripture, which position these writings expressly deny. Such ardent souls likewise claim for them a well-nigh verbal inspiration, which they likewise disavow. Their unique and special objective is expressly declared to be to draw us back to the Bible and to apply and expand the principles of the Bible in particular cases. They were never designed to supplant nor to add to the Scriptures in our teaching and our preaching. But there is complete and unique harmony between them, and both have their origin in the same heavenly Source.
On the other hand, there are a few who incline to sift and to segregate these writings with all the rigor and the methods of the higher critic. And the end of such a course is similar to the customary end of the Bible critic. There are things even in the Bible that mortal man cannot fathom nor satisfactorily explain. The finite can never fully comprehend the Infinite. But, notwithstanding, the sacred Book bears the divine credentials, which cannot be gainsaid. It is the living word of God. Small wonder, then, that there are also difficult statements and presentations in the writings of the Spirit of prophecy.
The hypocritical tend to discount those expressions in the Spirit of prophecy which do not harmonize with their own views, but usually quote approvingly other excerpts from the same writings when they substantiate their own ideas. Such a procedure is a perilous and, we believe, a dishonest use of and attitude toward this heavenly gift. It should not be once named among the readers of this journal.
Let us guard against and frown upon these two biased and distorted positions. Our safety lies in avoiding these two marginal attitudes, and standing upon the firm central platform of loyal, consistent acceptance of this gift, according to those declared statements of position and authority. We believe this has been the majority attitude through the years. And thereupon we stand today.
The beliefs and practices of the outstanding molders of the movement constitute a safe and helpful guide to a sound and sure, a loyal and balanced, view in relation to this blessed gift in the remnant church. But let us read what those leaders themselves recorded, not what later comers say they held. Their own writings are on record for us. It will pay us as workers to read what James White, Udall Smith, and other stalwarts wrote upon this in the earlier days.
L. E. F.
Book Study for Balance
Topical and textual study of the Bible or the testimonies is most helpful, and should be pursued by every truth lover and public teacher. But if one's study be virtually confined to those methods, he unwittingly invites certain perils. Be it clearly understood that it is not the method, but the abuse of the method that brings the danger. Extremists and faddists are always topical experts, and their study is largely confined to this favorite plan.
As a safeguard we all need the breadth and larger vision of the whole that comes through book study and copious consecutive reading of the Bible and the Spirit of prophecy. Then the detailed parts are seen in right relation to the whole. A balanced vision results, and the microscopic enlargements of particular truths obtained by topical study do not then assume a disproportionate size that threatens to exclude everything else. God desires us to have clear vision, breadth of understanding, and balance in judgment, in both the knowledge and the preaching of His word.
Along with our valuable Testimony study by topics, in which by use of the "Index" we find pertinent paragraphs here and there, let us also read through this Heaven-indited instruction by course, first one volume and then another, until we have compassed the whole—and then begin all over again. No one can so read without being profoundly convinced of their divine origin, and also of their height and depth, their breadth and balanced unity.
L. E. F.
Songs Which Jesus Sang
Gun Saviour recognized the uplifting power of song in the midst of His hours of strenuous labor. We are told that " with the voice of singing He welcomed the morning light. With songs of thanksgiving He cheered His hours of labor, and brought heaven's gladness to the toilworn and disheartened."—"Ministry of Healing," p. 52. In the narrative of the last supper in which Jesus and His disciples participated, Mark explains that " when they had sung a hymn, they went out into the Mount of Olives." An enlightening comment on this inspired statement follows:
" The Lord has just instituted the sacred ordinance of His love, the Lord's supper, and according to custom at the feast of the Passover, He commences with His disciples, in the silence of the night, the Hanel,' or great song of praise, which consisted of Psalms 115 to 118. . . . Singing—this language of the feelings, this exaltation of an exalted state of mind, this pinion of an enraptured soul is heaven's valuable gift to earth. Adopted into the service of the sanctuary, how beneficial and blissful its tendency! Who has not experienced its power to raise us high above the foggy atmosphere of daily life; to transport us so wondrously, even into the precincts of heaven; to expand and melt the heart; to banish sorrow, and burst the bands of care? And it can effect greater things than these, when the Spirit from above mingles His breath with it. . . . Like a genial gale of spring, it has blown across the stiff, frozen plains, and has caused stony hearts to melt like wax, and render them arable and capable of receiving the seed of eternity. We find the Lord of glory singing with His followers. O, if David who wrote those psalms, could have supposed that they would experience the high honor of being sung by the gracious lips of Him who was the supreme object of his songs and the sole hope of his life, he would have let the pen drop in joyful astonishment from his hand."
