INTERESTING LETTERS.
Virginia.
DEAR BROTHER:-I
have been thinking much on the covenants lately. It is a significant fact that
in all ages God has made Covenants, with visible signs thereof. His
first covenant was made for all nations, and called an everlasting covenant,
the sign of which he produces. (Gen. 9:12-17.) The token of the next covenant
is described in Gen. 17:11. His covenant made with and for Israel at Horeb has
its visible sign to be repeated by those under that covenant.-Ex. 31:17; Ezek.
20:12.
Now, I want to ask, what is the visible sign of the New Covenant, if not
the Memorials? Does not the Apostle bear out this, by saying, “As often as ye
eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death,” etc.?
Does it not show that we are under the New Covenant of love? He said, “Do this
in remembrance of me,” and, when we “do this,” we show our love for him, for,
“he that loveth me keepeth my commandments.” Would like to hear from you on
this. We could not tell whether Israel recognized their Law Covenant or not,
were it not for the observance of the Sabbath sign. This, of all the Ten
Commandments, was the only one that others could decide as to their observance.
Yours in the blessed hope, M. L. STAPLES.
[In reply: While we believe that symbolic immersion is enjoined as an
outward testimony or witness to the true immersion of the will into the will of
God, as expressed in Christ; and that the Memorial Supper is enjoined as the
proper and helpful remembrancer of our Lord’s death, yet we do not regard these
in the same light as circumcision to the children of Abraham and the Sabbath of
the Jew, for they were compulsory as to outward form: ours are obligatory in
their essence, but not in their outward form if not clearly seen. For
instance, Cornelius was accepted under the New Covenant when he had eaten of
the Paschal Lamb by faith and had immersed or buried his will into the divine
will, before he ate of the symbolical Memorials (bread and wine), and
before he had been symbolically buried with Christ into death in immersion.
The same has been true of many since who did not at first, and others who,
perhaps for lack of proper instruction, never discerned the relationship
between the symbols and the facts.
The Passover and the Sabbath and Circumcision were so strictly enjoined
that the man who did not observe them could not be reckoned a Jew; but many are
recognized both by God and men as Christians, under the New Covenant, who do
not properly appreciate either baptism or the Memorial supper.
Rather we would say that all the typical things of the past find
antitypes under the New Covenant. The Passover lamb typified Christ slain as
our ransom price; the eating of the lamb represents our faith-appropriation of
Christ’s righteousness, and was perpetuated as a type in the bread and wine
Memorial. Circumcision typified our putting away the filth of the flesh
[selfishness in every form] as new creatures; the Sabbath typified the rest of
faith provided for all who come into New Covenant relationship with God. But the seal or mark of the New Covenant is on a wholly
different plan: it is the possession of the spirit of
Christ.
The manifestations of this holy spirit are
three-fold. (1) Love supreme to God and joyful loyalty to his cause even at
the cost of suffering. (2) Love of the brethren-unselfish, noble, pure,-a
desire for their welfare which is always alert to do them good. (3) Love,
sympathetic, for the world, prompting to good works, as opportunity may afford,
and to a desire and effort always to live peaceably with all men.
Necessarily the foregoing will imply development in patience, meekness, etc.
“If any man have not the spirit of Christ [in some degree, and
progressively] he is none of his.” His spirit is the bond of perfectness, the
seal of the New Covenant.-EDITOR.]
Pennsylvania.
DEAR BROTHER:-Last Sunday at our meeting we had a lesson from Romans
12:1, and among many thoughts brought out from such a prolific subject were
some on the use we make of our consecrated time. I am engaged in the grocery
business; but the condition of trade in general demands almost “eternal
vigilance” at the present time.
The question which has presented itself to me many times is, Should I, as
one of the consecrated, put forth such efforts to make and maintain custom as
it is now necessary to do? I issue weekly price-lists, many times offering
goods at less than cost for baits, and give away many more “gifts” with more
profitable goods; not of preference to that sort of dealing, but because all my
competitors are doing the same thing, and, to maintain my trade and living (as
I am not wealthy), I am compelled to follow suit.
Another objectionable feature about that kind of method is that it
squeezes my weaker brother in the same line of business. I am acquainted with
many of them; some are widows striving to make an honest living by selling
goods, but I am compelled to throw all my better feelings to the wind and “wade
in,” no matter whom it injures. This is a sad confession for one who is bidding
for the position of assisting our Lord in the lifting of mankind out of the
chasm of selfishness from which they must be saved in the age we believe to be
so close at hand. I am not trying to get you to justify my actions in this
matter, but desire your opinion as to the advisable course of God’s professed
children engaged in business during the present time, when it is a case of the
big fish eating the smaller ones.
Yours in Christ,
[In reply: The conditions you name are common to nearly every form of
business, and prevail throughout the civilized world increasingly. It is a part
of the general “trouble” of our times. The increase of machine capacity and
the increase of the human family, both contribute to reduce wages and make
steady employment more precarious. More men seek to engage in business; and
competition and small profits, while beneficial to the poor, are commercially
killing the small store and high prices. In consequence small stores and small
factories are giving way to larger ones which, by reason of better and more
economical arrangements, permit better service and lower prices. Larger stocks
of fresher goods at lower prices and with better service are to the general
advantage of the public as compared with the old time little shops with stale
goods, high prices and careless service; even though temporarily some poor
widows or worthy ones may suffer through mental, physical or financial
inability to keep up with the new order of things. And even these, if they can
take a broad, benevolent view of the situation, may rejoice in the public
welfare, even though it enforces an unfavorable change in their own affairs.
They may rejoice with those that are benefited and wait patiently for the
coming Kingdom which will make God’s blessings more common than at present to
all. But only those who have the “new nature” and its love can be expected to
view things thus unselfishly. The present commercial competition is not,
therefore, an unmixed evil. It is one of the great lessons being given to the
world as a preparatory study before entering the great Millennial age, when the
business of the world will be largely, if not wholly, on a socialistic
footing-not for the wealth or advantage of the individual, but for the general
welfare.
Meantime, however, the selfish competitive strain grows more galling
continually to those possessed of noble, generous impulses, whether Christians
or not. We are glad to note your own appreciation of the subject and your
dissatisfaction.
Our advice is that you keep a sharp lookout, and, if you see some other
branch of business less beset with competition and therefore more favorable,
make a change. If not, or until you find a more favorable business or more
favorable conditions, we advise that you continue where you are and modify
your course to some extent; i.e., divide matters as evenly as you can
between the three conflicting interests,-your own, your competitors’ and your patrons’
or neighbors’ interests. If your business is meeting expenses and a reasonable
profit, endeavor to keep it there, but do not push it in the endeavor to become
“rich;” for “they that will [to] be rich fall into temptation and a
snare.” (1 Tim. 6:9.) We should avoid any dishonorable competition or meanness
toward competitors, and any misrepresentations of goods to customers. Justice
and honesty must be carefully guarded at any cost: then add all the
“moderation” in favor of your competitor that love may suggest and
circumstances permit.
We are not forgetting the injunction, “Thou shalt not follow a multitude
to do evil” (Exod. 23:2), nor counselling the slightest compromise with
injustice. Your question, we take it, is not whether you may do injustice, but
whether love will permit you to do all that justice would not
object to and that custom sanctions. The worldly heart does not scruple about
such “trifles:” it is your “new nature,” whose law is love, that would prefer
to see your competitor prosper, and longs to do good unto all men as it has
opportunity-especially to the household of faith. Cultivate this “new nature”
by obeying its law of love in every way possible. “If it be possible,
so much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men,”-dealing generously and
according to love. He who is imbued with the spirit of love thinketh no evil
toward his competitor, and seeketh not his own (welfare, merely) and would not
rejoice in a competitor’s failure.
The difficulty is that the whole world is running on the depraved basis of
selfishness, which is quite incongruous to love. With some the plane is
higher, and with some lower: some limit their selfishness to the line of justice,
others descend in selfishness to injustice and dishonesty, and the tendency is
always downward. The “New Creature” in Christ must never go below justice and
honesty and must seek as much as possible to rise above this highest worldly
standard toward perfect love. It is the fault of the present competitive
system that the interests of the buyer and those of the seller are ever in
conflict. No power can correct, control and alter all this except the one
power that God has promised,-the Millennial Kingdom, which shall enforce the
rule of love and liberate from the propensities and bonds of selfishness all
who, when they see and know the better way, will accept of the help then to be
provided.-EDITOR.]