(Continued from p. 13.)
This mingling heathen practices with God’s things is the starting-point of the trouble. Rome is verily guilty on many counts, and not the least on this of attempting to blend the religion of the world with an apparent Bible one. I say apparent, for at heart she hates the Bible. It was this mingling that led Solomon sadly astray, and that in direct contradiction to God, Who had said, “Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in to you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.” How suggestive of meaning are the next words, “Solomon clave unto those in love.” Sure enough, the same old story must be told: “His wives turned away his heart after other gods: for Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Zidonians;” he lost the kingdom for his sin of mingling (I. Kings xi. 18, 41). Surely it is the solemn obligation of all who pretend to be servants of Jehovah to endeavour to keep His holy worship as far removed from the taint of evil as possible, just as it is incumbent on His people to “Abstain from all appearance of evil.” The old ditty about it being the Church’s duty to mix with the world to save the world is utterly unworthy of common manliness. Remember Lot, who pitched his tent towards Sodom, and what the issue was. The Church is to be a witness against all forms of worldliness, and how it can do this by mixing with the world’s ways is yet to be found out. To-day in some so-called churches the world’s latest craze—dancing (John the Baptist had his head danced off)—is to follow the service! No marvel at this, for we have heard professing parents say “that dancing is good for their children: it helps them to walk more gracefully.” If religious professors see no harm in it, then the demand will create the supply in this commodity as in others, and ministers (not of God) will be found to preach the union of “Christ with Belial,” and that there is no difference between him “that believeth and an infidel,” and that “the temple of God (joined) with idols” is the one thing worth living for in these days (II. Cor. vi. 15-16). Let the pew have its measure of blame for what is in the pulpit, for if they will pay the piper, thousands abound who will play the tune they love. It is very largely a question of pleasure with the former and money with the latter. As to the “walking gracefully,” God has a word to say about that, and it will be proved true. “Moreover, the Lord saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet;” then follows what the Lord will do to such, “And it shall come to pass, that instead of a sweet smell there shall be a stink.” (Read Isaiah iii. 16-24).
If such parents see their children “walk gracefully” into the snare of the devil, can they place all the blame on their children? Is this bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord? Do what we will, we cannot make our children fear God, but if we have named the name of the Lord we can tell them by precept, and better still by example, that “graceful walking” is done by “coming out from among (all such things) and being separate” (II. Cor. vi. 17). Separation is the great thing needed to-day. Where there is no separation from the world’s religion and the world’s fleshly ways, there is no vital godliness. The day is fast coming too, if we mistake not, when there will be this separation made; all denominations are struggling hard to bring about a vast religious combine, another Babylonian image and another attempt to unify the world’s religion, and all who are not possessors of sterling godliness and love of the truth, will fall down and worship the image. But Jehovah will have His Shadrachs, Meshachs, and Abednegos, and they will be manifest as standing separate from every endeavour to blend the worship of God with the worship of Astarte. Some of the Roman Catholics are more honest than the flimsy so-called Protestants, for they tell us plainly they have no intention to alter their creed and ritual; if Protestants like to return to the fold they can, but as for the Holy See giving up anything of its idolatry, that is impossible; yet we see so-called Protestants tumbling over one another to get to Rome. Unions and associations to-day are honey-combed with traitors to the Bible and the Protestant faith. It was by unions and associations the confederacy of Rome grew, and the day is fast approaching when all who really fear God will have but one alternative: either they must sell their soul to the devil (which they cannot do) or separate. Each child of God must see signs to-day that loudly proclaim he must stand alone with God, and Churches of Truth will have to do the same. The Lord rid us of vile Astarte in the worship of God. The Lord help us to clear out the rubbish, for now, as in the time of Nehemiah, “the strength of the bearer of burdens is decayed, and there is much rubbish” (iv. 10).
The Buns of Good Friday
What of the buns of Good Friday? They came from Babylon. “Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger” (Jer. vii. 17-18; xlv. 15-19). Here is old Astarte once more in this bun-making. Is this in imitation of the show-bread which stood before God? Dr Gill suggests “these cakes might have the form of the moon upon them, and be made and offered in imitation of the show-bread.” Paganism is an apeish religion throughout—one of imitation—may we not follow their pernicious ways. It has borrowed from all shades of Paganism just as suited her love of the flesh of money, and love of power over men’s consciences. Why does it not publicly acknowledge her indebtedness to others? Is it because a certain book has described her thus, “The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again?”
Easter Eggs
Eggs—who has not heard of the Easter egg? Bacchus of old had eggs used in part of his worship, for a part of the ceremony was the consecration of an egg. Egyptian worshippers had eggs hanging in their temples for mystic purposes. The tale of the egg is told by a learned Egyptian thus: “An egg of wondrous size is said to have fallen from heaven into the river Euphrates. The fishers rolled it to the bank, where the dove having settled upon it, hatched it, out came Venus, who afterwards was called the Syrian goddess,” that is, our old goddess Astarte. Thus it was the egg became one of the symbols of Astarte or Easter. This is the history, reader, of your Easter egg! “Every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: For it is sanctified by the Word of God and prayer.” True, indeed, but you must needs know the mystic meaning of this egg in the hands of the idolaters. It represented the human race enclosed in the ark during the time of the flood as the chick is enclosed in the egg. As everything held good to mankind was represented in the Pagan mysteries as in some way connected with the Babylonian goddess, so the greatest blessing to the human race, which the ark contained, was held to be Astarte. Though the queen whom Astarte represented had no existence till centuries after the flood, yet through the doctrine of transmigration (the doctrine of the passing of the soul after death into some other animal body), which was established in Babylon, it was easy for her worshippers to believe that in a previous incarnation she had lived in the period of the flood, and passed in safety through the waters that then drowned the world. The Romish system adopted this egg of Astarte, and consecrated it as a symbol of Christ’s resurrection. Pope Paul V. appointed a prayer to be used in connection with the egg: “Bless, O Lord, we beseech Thee, this Thy creature of eggs, that it may become a wholesome sustenance unto Thy servants, eating it in remembrance of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
It is a shame that these idolatrous rites should be connected with the Name of the Lord Jesus: they serve to prove, however, that the Papacy is old; it is the old religion verily, hoary with the lumber of practices done by the Pagans four thousand years before the present era. It is truly “Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth,” yet many of the so-called Protestants think very differently of those solemn words of God. He has declared that it is the “habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.” It is thought by some that education will not allow this enemy of all liberty, social, political or religious, to rob us of the privileges we now enjoy; but surely such forget that Babylon, Egypt, Greece, were not lacking in worldly wisdom, and yet those cities were under Paganism; and to-day it cannot be said that Europe is ignorant of secular knowledge, and yet what do we find? We see statesmen helpless to check this formidable enemy: its ramifications are too strong and too many for our political rulers; indeed, intelligence, apart from grace, knows no more of vital religion than a child with no education whatever, and rather tends towards modern Paganism than otherwise. There is no hope for this land relative to this matter in education. Satan is in the system, and he is no mean antagonist, and he will not, cannot, make the seed of the serpent deal rightly with the things nor the Word of God. As for the bulk of the people, their outlook is for pleasure; give them facilities for that, they care not what religion (or if no religion) gains the ascendancy. The Church and Nonconformity for the greater part is too sunk in the arms of the devil and carnality to be disturbed about Gospel liberties; in fact, they neither know nor want to know anything about realities in religion. There is no hope in that direction either. And if we look at many who profess to love the truth of God, even among them you may find those who think this evil system is “not quite so bad after all,” utterly forgetting that the privileges we yet have were given to us at a great price. “In her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.”
Reader, the Word of God reveals a much older religion than the one copied from ancient idolaters—one that is pure in its origin, for it emanated from the Holy God. The Lamb of God was slain from the foundation of the world (Rev. xiii. 8); indeed, before the foundation of the world was laid the Father gave His chosen people to Christ (John xvii. 6). He alone is the one true Priest Who, once for all, offered Himself a sacrifice for sin, and has revealed this great truth, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” Everything in the so-called worship of God that appeals to the natural senses, such as images, incense, dresses, crosses, music, is no help in the approach of a guilty sinner before a Holy God. What is needed is the Holy Spirit, Who alone can give us a heart to worship Him, reveal the Christ of God in His sin-atonement blood, as the way to the Father, and enable us to pour out our hearts before Him in simple, plain, and earnest language. We need no man and no woman to mediate for us; they can do no such thing, for how shall another sinner deal with God for us? Observance of “days, and months, and times, and years” can only tend to “bondage,” for they are weak and beggarly elements (Gal. iv. 8-10). The Lord gave no command that His people should keep these varied festivals, and the Apostles did not observe them.
The resurrection of Christ demonstrates salvation to be a finished work, and it is the comfort of saved sinners to know His resurrection is the infallible proof that they also shall rise from the dead into a glorious state: “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.” The essential point is to understand this word, “That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection.” Of what avail to us in death if we have only the chaff of man’s inventions, and lack the wheat of God’s Word in our hearts? How can “nothing” yield us salvation? (I. Cor. viii. 4). May we have Christ as the Son of God as our only Foundation for present comfort and future bliss: this the resurrection of Christ from the dead declares Him to be—”Declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead” (Rom. i. 4).