VIEWS FROM THE
WATCH TOWER
ANCIENT TABLETS
AGREE WITH THE BIBLE
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IN view of the fact
that most lecturers on the Babylonian excavations are endeavoring to prove that
their findings date back thousands of years before the flood, and hence are in
total disagreement with the Bible narrative, the following testimony to their
corroboration of Scripture is the more appreciated. Excavators seem prone to
“magnify their office” and to make their services and findings more wonderful
than they really are.
“Dr. Albert T. Clay, curator of the Babylonian department in the museum of the
University of Pennsylvania, lectured in Widener hall yesterday on ‘The Old
Testament in the Light of Recent Excavations.’
“‘Accounts of the creation and deluge,’ he said, ‘have been deciphered from
early Babylonian monuments. No direct account has been found referring to the
fall of mankind, although engraved rocks representing a man and woman sitting
under a tree, with a serpent near by, have been found, which undoubtedly refer
to it.’
“The lecturer went on to show that the events recorded in the Bible had taken
place contrary to what had been contended by critics of the Old Testament in
the past few years. He presented a photograph of an engraved rock referring to
the deluge and translated it. Although the period of time which elapsed while
Noah was in the ark did not exactly correspond to the number of days given in
the Bible, yet the historical significance of the event was corroborated. Dr.
Clay presented many such photographs, all of which had been excavated in
Babylonia, and are now in the museum. The translations of these were parallel
accounts to passages found in the Bible.
“He further said: ‘This work is yet in its infancy. Research has not yet come
to a limit. The lowest excavations show civilization in advanced stages and
there is every reason to believe that future excavations will bring to light
the majority, if not all, the history recorded in the Old Testament.’”-Philadelphia
Times.
A STATESMAN’S
VIEW OF EUROPE’S FUTURE.
A Philadelphia Ledger
correspondent writing of the eminent correspondent of the Times, M.
de Blowitz, deceased, says:-
“Blowitz believed that his own forecast of events was more accurate than that
of any living statesman. He not only placed himself on an intellectual level
with Bismarck, but he spoke of himself as belonging to the same rank; I am not
at all sure that he was not right, and that if his early lot had been cast in
high places Blowitz would not have been a greater man than Bismarck. He had his
faults and vanities, but he was a man of extraordinary capacity.
“His opinions about the future of Europe are interesting, because his
predictions were so often fulfilled, and his views, therefore, on the subject
are worth consideration. As far back as ten years ago de Blowitz held that in
the course of a generation Europe would be a congerie of bankrupt states; that
all the national debts in Europe would be repudiated, with the exception of
Britain’s, and that vast social changes, involving bloody wars and reigns of
terror, would come to pass in many countries. He took a pessimistic view of the
future of Britain, though he admired the qualities of persistence and freedom,
which form part of the British character.
“He believed that the twentieth century would be a century of struggle, and
that in Germany and Russia especially the development of the industrial idea
would lead to the evolution of new surfaces of society, just as the iceberg
which has changed its centre of gravity presents a new profile to the
spectator. If these predictions had been made today no great power of
discrimination would be credited to the prophet. To have formed such views ten
years ago implies the possession of great analytic power, coupled with
imaginative faculty.”
* * *
This is interesting, as showing how the wisdom of this world corroborates the
forecast of prophecy-the revelations of the divine Word. “We have a more sure
word of prophecy, unto which we do well to take heed, as unto a light shining
in a dark place until the day dawn.”-2 Pet. 1:19.
CHRISTIAN SOLDIERSHIP.
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We are pleased to
credit the following article to a secular journal-the Atlanta Constitution:-“Endure
hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.”-2 Tim. 2:3.
“The service of Christ resembles no other so much as that of a soldier. There
are few life-callings among men that demand such absolute self-surrender from
the recruit as that of the soldier....
“In the decision to be a soldier one subordinates all other
considerations-those of self-will, family supremacy and the varied
opportunities of the freeman. It is to go under a vow of complete,
unquestioning obedience to the orders of superiors. It is to abandon home for
the camp, to forego the right of first serving the interests of father and
mother, wife and children, business or friends. It means the entire suppression
of every selfish interest for the advancement of the supreme cause one has
contracted voluntarily to serve, to follow and for which, if need be, to die.
“It seems hard to some minds to compare the service of Christ with that of a
good soldier. Nine-tenths of those who call themselves Christians refuse to
give their service that significance, and mutiny outright when called upon to
act upon that principle. The weakness of the church universal as the leader of
morals and life culture in the world is due to the fact that most Christian men
and women serve Christ as independent camp followers. They are unattached, or
uncommanded, or disobedient to the duty of discipline, and do as they please
rather than as they are obligated by the commands and principles of Christ.
“Goethe said that ‘earnestness is eternity,’ and the spirit of God is the spirit
of earnestness. He who is informed and inflamed by that spirit will be filled
to overflowing with zeal, courage, daring, fortitude and the faith of conquest.
In the fervor and forcefulness of these feelings he will serve his Master, as
the soldiers of Alexander followed unquestioning where he led; as the soldiers
of Leonidas, who died rather than retreat; as the soldiers of Napoleon, who
believed him invincible always; and as the soldiers of Lee, who felt that he
could not lead them wrongly or to defeat.
“If Christ possessed in this world today an army of men and women one-hundredth
part the figures of official Christendom, who would follow him-who would labor,
fight and endure as do the soldiers of our American armies-he could not long be
kept from his world-wide conquest.
“But he has few real soldiers in his service. Most of his followers are
pensioners, pleading always that he will do something for them-ease their
pains, disperse their enemies, smooth their paths, increase their fortunes and
bed them in places of plenty and comfort. They are a hungry and a helpless
host.
“One would expect naturally to find in the pulpits stalwart captains of the
army of our Lord. And yet how few are they who do not look more closely to
their hire than to their opportunities to endure hardness? They are eager for
rich and easy pastorates, they dwell in luxuries and preach as those who make
pleasant music on a lute. Transfer them to posts of poverty, scant rations,
hard service among the poor and the sick, and they become broken-hearted over
their lot as soldiers!
“The true soldier does not debate his cause. He is
rightly supposed to have settled upon its justice and righteousness before he
enlisted to serve it. Thereafter he avouches it and defies contradiction of it.
He is ready to spend all and be all spent in its defense. He does not
fight for the rations that are doled to him, but for the great principles and
great purposes of the cause to which he is committed....
“No man should deceive himself in a matter so plain and serious as the service
of Christ. If he doesn’t mean to abandon himself to the commands and demands of
his Master, he ought to be honest enough not to offer a hypocritical profession
and a treacherous or abortive promise of service. The causes of Christ on earth
need men who are strong in will, courageous of heart and hardened to
self-sacrifice, sufferings and the perils of conflict and death. None other can
do the work that is needed to pull down the strongholds of sin, rout the
enemies of righteousness and set forward in hostile territories the standards
of the Kingdom of Christ.
“It is glorious to serve Christ in honesty and in
fullness of fidelity. There is an ineffable joy in being on the right side, in
knowing that one’s service is toward victory and that beyond the field of blood
and the valley of shadows is an abundant entrance into the joys and peace of
the triumphant King of kings. For that hope none should shrink from the harness
of battle, none quail before the rage of the enemy, and none tremble before the
certainty of hunger, thirst, nakedness, wounds or death!”
THE
EVOLUTIONISTS’ TREND.
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The Western
Recorder tersely expresses the truth, thus:-
“When a man starts on the line of evolution and higher criticism he gives up
more and more, and he has no logical stopping-place till he has given up
everything. The frantic efforts of those who start on this line to hold to
‘what is vital,’ while giving up more and more, are pitiful. Their claiming
that ‘after all we have this or that much left’ is simply whistling to keep
their courage up. They have surrendered everything, and have left themselves at
the mercy of the enemy. As George Adam Smith says, it is left only for the
critics to fix the indemnity, and to take all they want, and everybody ought to
have learned that they want everything. With them ‘progress’ means to deny more
and more. And their work will not be done as long as any belief is left.”