There is now more light for the Lord's people, and more darkness for the world. The ridicule to which the Bible has been subjected by the Higher Critics, etc., has never hurt the Lord's people. Gen. 10:11,12 was used to prove that the Bible is untrue. The scripture says that a great city called "Resen" was built between Nineveh and Calah, and these scientists said that was false, for if such a great city had existed they would certainly have discovered it's remains. But not long ago some one went out there to excavate and discovered the remains of a city as great as Nineveh, and records were found showing that as the two cities grew they united, the name Nineveh being retained, and Resen was forgotten, although for some time the absorbed city was know as the Resen district. It was a case similar to the absorption by Boston of some of the surrounding towns. Thus the Bible was corroborated. The more effort there is to ridicule the Bible, the greater is the evidence of its truth.

Not long ago a brother was talking with a person who said he did not believe all the Bible, but was an Evolutionist. And in illustrating his reason for discrediting the Bible the stranger said that it could not.have been true that Moses was set afloat in an ark of bulrushes on the Nile, because the Nile had so many crocodiles there. The brother says that he never thought before of answering just as he did, but it came to him at the moment, and he answered that however many crocodiles are there now, there could not have been so very many then, because Pharaoh's daughter was accustomed to bathe there.

So every objection brought against the Bible will bring out some new truth in it. Is it at all surprising that the world does not understand the Bible, when even the apostle Peter says in 2 Peter 3:15,16, that some of Paul's writings were hard to understand?

"Now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept." (1 Cor. 15:20.) "As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order, Christ the first fruits; afterwards they that are Christ's at His presence." (1 Cor. 15:22,23.) The [PE60] Christ is really of two parts: 1-Jesus, the head, and 2-the church, His body. "Christ" means "anointed," both the head and body are anointed (2 Cor. 1:21; Psa. 133). As in the beginning when God created Adam and Eve, God called their name Adam. So with the Second Adam and Eve. Both together are called Christ, and such is the meaning in 1 Cor. 15:13. Jesus was first to be awakened as Paul says (Acts 26:23). He was resurrected to perfection. Lazarus and some others were awakened but not resurrected. Resurrection means more than an awakening from the dead. Lazarus and these others died again. Resurrection in the Greek, (anastasis) means a standing up straight, as when rising from a kneeling posture before a king. Some are to come forth to a resurrection of life, and the wicked to the resurrection of judgment, and upon their trial will depend whether they obtain a complete resurrection or not. Jesus and the church will be raised to a perfect state. (1 Cor. 15:52-54.) First fruits imply that there are later fruits. Every man in his own order. There is order in all of God's plans. (See Dan. 12:13.) Daniel is to stand in his place at the end of the days. Christ the first fruits."-The entire Christ, head and body. This is one of Paul's writings hard to understand. Jesus is called a first fruit, and the church also are called a first fruit (James 1:18; Rev. 14:4). In the Jewish law the first fruits were offered to the Lord, and sometimes we hear of a first of the first fruits (such was Jesus).

So during the Gospel Age the church, a kind of first fruit is being gathered, and the Millennium will be the great harvest, fruit will be plenty then; just as in the type the gathering of the first fruits was followed by a general harvest. It takes more care to develop the first fruits, and they bring higher price in the market. So the Lord has wonderfully provided for the development of the church, and she will.receive the special reward, the "great salvation," the divine nature and its honors, while the other fruits get less honor.

"Behold the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain." (James 5:7.) Jehovah is the husbandman (John 15:1), and the first fruits are gathered in the Gospel age, it taking 1900 years to develop the church, so we see how patiently the Father has waited.

Precious fruit of the earth is elsewhere called jewels (Mal. 3:17). (In James 5:7 "Ho" could equally well be rendered "it.") This thought of the latter rain is much used in the scriptures. Israel's climate was overruled so as to be typical of the spiritual climate of the Gospel age. The season began with an early rain, and the seed was started.

Then followed a season of drought, and afterwards the latter rain.

God's truth is often compared to rain. The seed of truth was sown early in the Gospel age by Jesus, and the early rain of truth was poured out by God's holy spirit through [PE61] the apostles. Then came a season of dearth of the word of God (Amos 8:11,12), when the Bible was buried under dead languages. Now we are receiving the latter rain.

Hosea 6:1-3-"After two days he will receive us, in the third day he will raise us up." After 2,000 years (days), Israel will be revived, and in the third day the Millennium, God will raise them and the race in general up. The Millennium is the seventh day since man's creation; the seventh thousand-year period, the day of rest from sin and from Satan's power. Jesus was crucified on the fifth day (fifth 1,000-year day), then came the sixth day, and now after the fifth and sixth days (the two days of Hosea 6:3) we see Israel is beginning to be raised up. "It shall come as the latter rain upon the earth" (the former rain is omitted, see Leeser). The former rain was at the first advent, and the latter rain at the second advent.

Joel 2:23-35-"The former rain moderately." At the first advent the truth came moderately, but now the truth is poured out in abundance, during "the first month," or first thirty years. "I will restore to you the years that the cankerworm hath eaten," etc. We now have restored to us the truths which were lost. In these past 1900 years, He has been pouring out His spirit upon His handmaidens, afterwards He will pour it out upon all flesh. (v. 28.) (Notice in those days v. 29, and afterwards v. 28 the order is reversed in the fulfillment, to what it is in the text.)

Zech. 10:1-"Ask of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain. "Pray for light then, for it will then be poured out abundantly from bright clouds or lightnings. The idols, the creeds, have spoken vanity, untruth, Falsehood.

Rev. 11:6 --"These (two witnesses) have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy." That is: the Bible had foretold, in the types by Elijah, that there should be no rain for a period of 3- 1/2 years (James 5:17,18; 1Ki 17:1), and this was antitypically fulfilled in the 1260 years (days in type) of Papacy's rule (539-1799 A.D.), wherein very little truth was given. Thus the Two Witnesses, the Old and New Testaments had power to fulfill whatever was prophesied should come to pass. After these 1260 years the truth began to come to light again.

The Bible makes a wonderful distinction upon the first born, first-fruits, firstling of the flock, etc. The law provided that the eldest son should have a double portion of the inheritance. So God's first-born is to have the greatest inheritance.

The Church are not the only ones to be saved. God is interested in all others. Israel was the most wicked nation upon earth, not in the amount of crime committed, but in that it sinned against greater light [PE62] than any other nation had. Sodom and Gomorrah were not as wicked (Ezek. 16:48). The promises being so rich toward Israel, God used that nation to show that he had blessings for all other nations.