Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1910-11-26

Lamb shall come. for his Wife will
have made herself ready Rey. xix. u.
Then the worlds salvation will be
due TO begin. The Times of Restitu-
ton will be the thousand years of Mes
slabs spiritual reign as King of kings
and Lord of lords, Fieshly Israel, we
are assured. will then be restored TO
Divine favor and become the special
and active agents Of the Messianic
Kingdom IN the distribution of the hi
vine favors to all the families of the
earth In the end all the incorrigibly
wicked, who love iniquity rather than
righteousness. win be destroyed.
Thus, as the Apostle declares, the
sacrifice Of Jesus constitutes q salts
faction for our sins (the Church's sinsp
and not for ours only, but also for the
sins Of the whole world q John II, =.
NonsensicsI, Spurious Context.
Let us briefly notice another absurd
ity in the addition to Gods Word found
In the last twelve verses of st. Marks
Gospel, fraudulently added and not
found in any Of the oldest Greek MSS.
Notice the statement, These signs
shall follow them that believe: In my
name shall they cast out devils; they
shall speak with new tongues. They
shall take up serpents; and If they
drink any deadly thing, it shall not
hurt them. They shall lay hands on the
sick and they shall recover" oversees
II, 49,. The majority of Christian min
listers and their congregations seem not
to be troubled by the fact that they do
not have these evidences of their rela-
tionship to the Lord, and they do not
attempt to heal the sick, TO speak with
tongues, and would not dare to drink
any poisonous thing. But there are
certain conscientious people, the very
cream of all the Churches, who are
greatly perplexed by these words be-
they know that they are not true
In their experience. With them, there
fore, it is a matter of feeling doubtful
about their own salvation, or a ques-
ton as to the reliability of the Bible
as a whole. They need to have the re-
lief which we now seek to give them.
They need to know that these are not
inspired words, but poisonous and in
furious additions made during the Dark
Ages. They may, consequently, look
elsewhere in the Scriptures and find
the proper assurances Of their relation
ship with God being demonstrated by
the fruits of the holy Spirit in their
lives and in their hearts-'meekness.
gentleness, patience, long suffering,
brotherly kindness, love"
Miracles In the Early Church.
This spurious passage of our text is
used by many ministers who know, or
ought to know, of it's falsity. But they
have a certain theory in their minds
to the effect that the miracles and un-
known tongues of the early Church
were lost by reason of unfaithfulness
to God, and that Christians today
should seek for their recovery. Not
having any Scriptures to support their
claim they use this Interpolation and
allow their hearers and readers TO be-
lieve 1t to be the inspired message. To
what length have people gone In sup
port of human theory! The first prin-
ciple of preaching should be to preach
the Truth. the whole Truth and moth
ing but the Truth. Every theory which
requires bolstering up by spurious pas
sages should be abandoned, and WiH be
abandoned by those who are honest
tr~uth-seekers, "Bereans."
Our Lord performed miracles. SO
1fl HE ANAnN1nn nl pn AS1 eLnnA" NJ
the early Church upon whom the
Apostles laid their hands. But no
others have this gift. Consequently,
when the Apostles were dead and
when all those upon whom they had
laid hands of blessing were dead, these
miracles in the Church were at an
end. We all see the propriety of this.
Miracles were appropriate at the be-
ginning for the establishment of the
Church and. for a time, were necessary
for their encouragement. In their
early meetings they had no source of
information aside from the Apostles,
whom they rarely saw oil heard. They
had no Bibles-no copies OF the Gospel
nor of the Epistles. They needed the
very arrangement which God provid-
ed-tongues and interpretations of
tongues, etc, to draw them together and
to instruct them until, in due time, the
canon of Scripture would be completed
that. through it, the nan of God might
be thoroughly furnished unto every
good word and work Oh Tim. iii, 10, III.
BY the time the Apostles died the
Church had become established, had
regular meetings. pastors and teach
ers, the Gospels and Epistles, and
some OF them had begun to develop
the fruits of the Spirit. Thus the early
Church naturally outgrew the tongues
and miracles and entered a larger
sphere, just as a child loses its swad-
ding clothes in favor of more suitable
attire. For Gods people today to de-
sire to 90 back TO speaking with
tongues, etc, such as was practised,
and very proitably, in the early
Church. would be like an adult person
desiring to be dressed and treated as