According to the Shastras, or religious code, of the Hindus, the sanctity of the Ganges is shortly to cease. They are not clear as to the precise date, but it will be somewhere about six months from the present time.
It is to be hoped that many who now worship the river, will be led to consider what kind of a god it can be whose power and sacredness depart with the lapse of time, and that the Gospel of a Saviour who, because He continues ever, is able to save unto the uttermost, (Hebrews 7:24-25) will gain new value in their eyes by contrast with their own decaying deities.
Why is it that men all over the world have come to worship "the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever?" (Romans 1:25)
The answer is given: "Because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful." (Romans 1:31)
If thankfulness is involved in glorifying the Creator, it is evident that to know Him as God is to know Him as giving occasion for thankfulness. Nor is the thankfulness to be on a small scale, but on a divinely infinite one. Therefore to know Him as God is to know Him as blessing men to an infinite extent.
This must be true still of God, or men would now be justified in not glorifying Him as God; but all who do not "are without excuse." (Romans 1:20)
Therefore God is still giving infinitely to every man. If He were not, ingratitude would cease to be a sin. "That which may be known of God is manifest in them." (Romans 1:19)
The creation reveals eternal power and divinity. These may be clearly seen. Take the Ganges for instance. Why does it flow on and on for centuries, carrying down to the ocean a vast volume of water without cessation? Why does the sun pour out unreservedly every moment the fullness of its light and heat, yet have as much today as it had ages ago? These things reveal the everlasting power of God. Men who think more of the creature than the Creator predict a distant time when the sun will have parted with all its light, because they do not recognize in the working of all nature the everlasting power of God.
It is this power which keeps the heathen alive, and which keeps up the uninterrupted flow of the Ganges. But does not God know that His precious gifts will be perverted, that the Ganges will get the honor due to himself, and that the men whom He has made will pervert His life, and change the truth of God into a lie? Yes, He knows it perfectly, and it grieves Him at His heart, as did the wickedness of the world before the flood. Yet the current of blessing given in His life flows with unabated volume, because not only is His power everlasting, (1 Timothy 6:16) but His mercy also endures forever. (1 Chronicles 16:34)
In God's hand is the soul of every living thing. (Job 12:10) No one can go anywhere in the universe out of the presence of God. No matter where he may be "even there shall your hand lead me, and your right hand shall hold me." (Psalm 139:10)
So God is trying to lead the heathen. They will not be guided by Him, but He does not therefore give them up. "Consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself." (Hebrews 12:3)
Because He loves them with an everlasting love, He draws them everlastingly to himself with loving-kindness. "The Lord has appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved you with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn you." (Jeremiah 31:3)
The more determinedly a man resists this love, the more wonderful it is seen to be. Truly it is love that "hopes all things, endures all things;" (1 Corinthians 13:7) and thus, even where God is rejected by men, they cannot hinder that which may be known of God being manifested in them. The more they do despite to the Spirit of grace, the more they bring out its wonderful long-suffering, its patient, Godlike endurance. "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." (Romans 5:20)
Every man who does not recognize that he receives his life and breath and all things direct from God, and that God's hand is leading and upholding him every moment, is in the same condition as the Hindu worshipers of the Ganges. Indeed he is worse, for to the extent that he has more light than they, his ingratitude is the baser. He is serving the creature rather than the Creator.
What is the way out of this deplorable condition? Be thankful. Glorify Him as God. We may not see very much to be thankful for at first, but if we give thanks for that, "the righteousness of God [will be] revealed from faith to faith," (Romans 1:17) and the occasion for gratitude will be seen to greatly increase. We will not then glorify ourselves as God, but Him, and know that He has all things, while we in ourselves have nothing.
In this humility lies the only hope of our exaltation. While we glorify ourselves we will trust in self for everything, and having no power in ourselves will never make any advancement. When we know ourselves helpless, and know that God has all power, we will look to Him for help, and He will not leave us helpless. "He raises up the poor out of the dust, and lifts up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory." (1 Samuel 2:8)
God's princes dwell in His palaces, and in those palaces God is known. "God is known in her palaces for a refuge." (Psalm 48:3)
He is known as what He is, a refuge. So knowing Him as God, and glorifying Him as God, His people find infinite occasion for thankfulness. "Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God." (Psalm 48:1)--Present Truth, November 24, 1898.