| VOL. XXVIII | JANUARY 1 | No. 1 |
'I will stand upon my watch, and set my foot upon the Tower, and will watch to see what He shall say unto me, and what answer I shall make to them that oppose me.' Hab. 2:1
Upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity: the sea and the waves (the restless, discontented) roaring: men's hearts failing them for fear and for looking forward to the things coming upon the earth (society): for the powers of the heavens (ecclestiasticism) shall be shaken. . . .When ye see these things come to pass, then know that the Kingdom of God is nigh at hand. Look up, lift up your heads, rejoice, for your redemption draweth nigh. – Luke 21:25-28, 32.
Our "Berean Lessons" are topical rehearsals or reviews of our Society's published "Studies," most entertainingly arranged, and very helpful to all who would merit the only honorary degree which the Society accords, viz., Verbi Dei Minister (V.D.M.), which translated into English is, Minister of the Divine Word. Our treatment of the International S.S. Lessons is specially for the older Bible Students and Teachers. By some this feature is considered indispensable.
This Journal stands firmly for the defence of the only true foundation of the Christian's hope now being so generally repudiated, – Redemption through the precious blood of "the man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom [a corresponding price, a substitute] for all." (I Pet. 1:19; I Tim. 2:6.) Building up on this sure foundation the gold, silver and precious stones (I Cor. 3:11-15; 2 Pet. 1:5-11) of the Word of God, its further mission is to – "Make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery which...has been hid in God,...to the intent that now might be made known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God" – "which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men as it is now revealed." – Eph. 3:5-9,10.
It stands free from all parties, sects and creeds of men, while it seeks more and more to bring its every utterance into fullest subjection to the will of God in Christ, as expressed in the Holy Scriptures. It is thus free to declare boldly whatsoever the Lord hath spoken; – according to the divine wisdom granted unto us, to understand. Its attitude is not dogmatical, but confident; for we know whereof we affirm, treading with implicit faith upon the sure promises of God. It is held as a trust, to be used only in his service; hence our decisions relative to what may and what may not appear in its columns must be according to our judgment of his good pleasure, the teaching of his Word, for the upbuilding of his people in grace and knowledge. And we not only invite but urge our readers to prove all its utterances by the infallible Word to which reference is constantly made, to facilitate such testing.
All Bible Students who, by reason of old age, or other infirmity or adversity, are unable to pay for this Journal, will be supplied FREE if they send a Postal Card each June stating their case and requesting its continuance. We are not only willing, but anxious, that all such be on our list continually and in touch with the Studies, etc.
The publishers of the Dispatch notify us that they will continue to report Brother Russell's weekly discourses during 1907; and we accordingly notify our readers that they may send their subscriptions TO US at once. Indeed we have guaranteed the Dispatch a certain number of subscriptions.
We suggested that if the price were cheaper more would subscribe, but the Dispatch says the weekly sermons should be worth the price aside from the best news service in the world. Its publishers supply the paper to us at clubbing rates, but refuse to allow us to quote a less price than they charge, namely, $6.00 per year.
We adjust matters thus: For $6.00, the price of the Dispatch (2c each), we will send the Dispatch and three dollars worth of any other publications from our Catalogue (Dec. 1, '06). Or, if you subscribe for the Dispatch for 6 months, through us, we will present it to you free for the following six months. Or you can send us three dollars and authority to charge the balance of $3 against your Tract Fund remittance.
These are substantially made of stiff cloth boards, and can hold two years' issues of the WATCH TOWER. They prevent soiling and loss. Price, postpaid, 50c.
As announced in a previous issue we have this year's texts in large supply, very elegantly gotten up and at a trifling cost, so that none need do without them – none need be deprived of this help and encouragement. Desiring that every reader of this journal should have the comfort and profit of this means of grace – this assistance in the narrow way – we have made the prices extremely low, simply to cover cost, but additionally now propose that if there be any of you who cannot afford to purchase we will take pleasure in supplying you without charge: that thus we may assist in washing the feet of the Lord's disciples – assist in cleansing them from earthly defilements and thus in preparing them for the heavenly courts.
The Apostle does not address the world, however morally well disposed they may be. None has an interest in the things above unless first of all he has heard of Jesus as the Redeemer, renounced sin and fled to the Savior for refuge – justification. He must have gone even further than this to have an interest in the things above: he must have consecrated his justified life, presenting it a living sacrifice to the Lord (Rom. 12:1), and been accepted of the Lord and been begotten again of the holy Spirit, and thus have started his experiences as a spirit being – a New Creature in Christ Jesus.
It is well for us to have continually in mind the sharp distinction which the Scriptures draw as between the natural man and the New Creature. The natural man, however well disposed, is of the earth earthy. This does not signify that he must be sensual, degraded, devilish; for, on the contrary, some natural men have very fine characters indeed, considering that they are sharers with all of mankind in the degradation of the fall. Adam thus was a natural man in his perfection, in the image of God. He could not set his affections on things above, for he had no revelation respecting them, no hopes or prospects centered there. His interests, in harmony with his nature, were earthly. So it will be also in the future age. While mankind under the blessings of restitution will be restored to the full perfection of human nature lost through Adam, redeemed by the precious blood of Christ (Acts 3:19-21), although they will be reverencing the heavenly laws, messages, authorities, they will, properly enough, be giving their thought and attention largely to earthly things – appreciating especially the restitution blessings, privileges, opportunities that will then be afforded them.
It is because the Lord has called us out of the world to constitute the New Creation, his "body," his "Bride," to share with him his spiritual, heavenly glories and honors, therefore we should ever keep this in mind and strive for these things, for "even hereunto were ye called." – I Pet. 2:21. Called to "glory, honor and immortality," it remains for us to make this calling and election sure. (Rom. 2:7; 2 Pet. 1:10.) Again he reminds us, "Let us fear lest a promise having been left us of entering into his rest [the heavenly rest] any of you should seem to come short of it." – Heb. 4:1.
The Apostle forewarns us that we must not forget that, although we are reckoned by the Lord and by ourselves and by the brethren as dead according to the flesh and alive according to the spirit, nevertheless we have this treasure of the new life in the earthen vessel, which is only reckoned dead, but which really is very much alive and constitutes our chief enemy. Not that we have two wills and are thus double-minded (Jas. 1:8). Thank God, No! We have only the one will, and it is fully devoted to the Lord according to the terms of its consecration. But this one new will can [R3913 : page 4] not have its new body until it proves itself worthy of it, and then will gain it as a reward in the resurrection. Meantime the conflict is on between the new will (which has no body of its own kind) and the old flesh (which has no will of its own kind). In order to be a conqueror the new will must struggle with the old flesh, and by the Lord's assistance keep it under, in subjection until the end of the course, until literally dead.
The Apostle assures us that in proportion as the new mind, the New Creature, grows on the spiritual food, the promises of the Lord's Word – in proportion as it affiliates with other New Creatures and is thus strengthened and sustained by the holy Spirit granted to all such, it grows stronger and stronger for its conflict with the world and the flesh and the Adversary. It cannot hope to conquer the Adversary nor the world, even though it may resist them; but it is encouraged to hope for victory in its combat with the flesh. The Apostle's assurance along this line is that "If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you." (Rom. 8:11.) If the power of God was sufficient to quicken and energize the dead body of Jesus, surely he is able as well as willing to make it sufficient for us – to give us the victory over our flesh to the extent that sin need not reign in (dominate) our mortal bodies, but instead we, as New Creatures, will be able to use them more and more efficiently in the service of our Lord, to whom we have pledged our all.
Since the new mind (the will) has no way of expressing itself except through the mortal body, and since the latter is prone to sin through inherited weaknesses, the new mind has a difficult task before it to rise from the grovelling things of sin and the sordidly selfish conditions surrounding everything at the present time to the grand heights of perfect love and unselfishness inculcated by the Spirit of the Lord, by which we have been begotten. Realizing that the tendency of the fallen flesh is continually downward, the New Creature is obliged to make heroic efforts to overcome [R3914 : page 4] the tendencies of the flesh and the spirit of the world in order that he may live in the world as not of the world, but on the contrary as a New Creature, a spiritual or heavenly creature, merely tabernacling for awhile with men in a body of flesh, far from perfect or acceptable to himself. Since, then, the constant tendency of the flesh is downward and in opposition to the new mind, it follows that those even who have already consecrated to the Lord need to reset or reestablish their affections on the heavenly things continually. A little carelessness, a little looking away from the things which God hath in reservation for them that love him, a little putting of our minds and affections on earthly things, earthly hopes, earthly ambitions, earthly prospects, would speedily mean great loss to us – the revival, the strengthening of the old nature and the proportionate weakening of the new, and correspondingly a great backset as respects the race we are running for the heavenly crown, the prize of our high calling in Christ Jesus.
Is it any wonder then that the Apostle urges the Lord's faithful ones to set their affections on things above and not on things on earth? Surely not! It was his duty to remind us of the danger along this line and our duty to remind ourselves continually and to remind each other of the necessity for setting, fixing our affections, our minds, our hearts, more and more firmly on the heavenly things. It is with this in view that the Scriptures have been provided us as a guide to our new minds, and the throne of grace has been opened to us that we may come there, too, and obtain mercy and find grace to help in every time of need. And the same gracious Provider has in these days given to the household of faith still further meat in due season whereby we may be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. At a time when earthly things are more attractive, more seductive than ever before in the world's history, the Lord opens before his faithful ones still clearer views of the heavenly crown, heavenly glories, honors and privileges and blessings, that they thus may give the strength to the new mind which will offset the seductive influences affecting us through the flesh.
We have today in the advancement of art, in the increase of wealth, in the better homes and their better furnishments, in improved roads and landscapes and more artistic clothing, in pictures and music and conveniences and wider business prospects and opportunities, in the conveniences of mail, telegraph and telephone – in all these things we have a hundred-fold more to attract our minds and ambitions and desires to the earth and earthly things than had our forefathers of even a century ago. How needful it was that the Lord should open simultaneously to his faithful a clearer understanding of his Word and plan – of the riches of his grace and his lovingkindness toward us, his wonderful provisions which eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of the natural man, but which God hath revealed unto us by his Spirit. (I Cor. 2:9.) Moreover, by the same Word we can see that these heavenly glories are nigh, even at the door, and that the earthly joys, ambitions and prospects under present conditions will be transitory, leading to the great time of trouble and anarchy which will blight every earthly prospect and at the same time mean the realization of our heavenly hopes and prospects and the ushering in of the glorious Kingdom of God's dear Son for the blessing of the world in general.
The means for the dissemination of this light of Present Truth for our aid is undoubtedly of the Lord. This journal, under the Lord's providence, cheers, comforts, and helps to inspire with fresh zeal and courage for the heavenly race about 50,000 of the Lord's advancing followers twice a month (we are now publishing about 30,000 at each issue, and estimate that this represents approximately 50,000 readers). The DAWNS, as Helping Hands and Bible Keys, are in the homes of nearly 2,000,000 of the most intelligent of the Lord's people, many of whom we find are considerably interested yet not on the WATCH TOWER list. (We deplore this fact: we would like to have on our lists, even though free, as to the Lord's poor, every child of God interested in Present Truth. We suggest to our readers cooperation along this line.)
An additional aid in setting our affections on things above is the fellowship of the brethren and participation with them in Berean Studies, DAWN Circles for Bible Study, and Prayer and Testimony meetings for mutual upbuilding in the fruits and graces of the Spirit through ministries of the Truth, in proportion as they are found helpful and valuable in aiding us to lose the spirit of the world and to receive more and more the Spirit of Christ – to set our affections on things above, and not on things on the earth.
The whole world is rapidly learning the value of method and resolution – learning that wobbling and indecision are responsible for the majority of failures, learning that a positiveness of will, of intention, is necessary to every good or noble result. As Christians – as disciples of Jesus, as soldiers of the cross, followers of the Lamb – we need to have this great fact well [R3914 : page 5] impressed upon our hearts. All of the Lord's teachings are in accord with this. He instructs us that in order to be acceptable to the Father at all we must make a full self-surrender, turn over an entirely new leaf, because we are now New Creatures in Christ Jesus, to whom old things have passed away and all things have become new – new motives, new hopes, new aspirations, new relationships, new rules, a new mind, a fixity of the will for the Lord and his righteousness.
"A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways," hence the Lord does not expect the double-minded amongst his true followers, running in the race for the prize of the high calling. On the contrary, he instructs those who would be his disciples, his members, to sit down first and count the cost. Those who love sin and its joys and sorrows would not be acceptable to the Lord as members of his Bride class. He desires only those who, after counting the cost – the renouncement of earthly things and ambitions, etc., in favor of the heavenly blessings, hopes, promises and joys – do with full purpose of heart give themselves unreservedly to the Lord, to henceforth be his at any and every cost, with the understanding that if we suffer with him we shall reign with him, if we be dead with him we shall also live with him, and with the resolution to count all earthly ambitions, opportunities and hopes but as loss and dross that we may win Christ and be found in him – members of his body.
Whoever takes this step of full consecration does the proper thing and realizes a blessing, and that blessing will continue and increase in proportion as the same spirit continues to guide and control in all the little affairs of life. If a Christian at all, his will is fixed so far as its general purpose and direction go; nevertheless this is not enough – there might be a firmness, a positiveness of the will as respects the great fact of consecration, yet a slackness as respects the little details of everyday life. Our suggestion is that this fixity of purpose should be extended to all of life's matters – that the words of our mouths, the meditations of our hearts, and so far as possible every act of life might speak forth the praises of him who hath called us out of darkness into his marvellous light. Whoever takes this position is setting, fixing, establishing his affections, his mind, his heart on things above, and loosening them as respects things of earth.
Such will grow the more rapidly, the more thriftily. On the contrary those who, even with fixity of will, rule their mortal bodies slackly, too leniently, are in danger of failing to come off more than conquerors, failing to become members of the little flock. They are in danger of becoming members of the great company, for whose development it will be necessary that they pass through a time of trouble for the washing of their robes in the blood of the Lamb and for the development of character thereby. Much better is it that we develop this character in harmony with the Lord's Word without the bitter experiences, but with, on the contrary, the continued assurance of the Lord's favor and smile, encouragement and blessing upon our endeavors to set our affections on things above, to cut loose from the earthly things, and to take a firm stand in even the small affairs of life for the Lord and his cause in harmony with the directions of his Word.
Let us unite our hearts and our prayers the one for the other, that this Year-Text may be deeply impressive to all of us and deeply helpful, for we realize that its admonition is from the Lord and is the essence of wisdom, the wisdom that cometh from above.
25 Eversholt St., London, N.W., England
DEAR BROTHER RUSSELL: –
Herewith I forward to you reports of the WATCH TOWER BIBLE & TRACT SOCIETY'S work in Great Britain for the fiscal year. It is not all that we could have desired and hoped for, but all that we were able to attain. In some respects, I am sure, you will be pleasurably surprised at the good results. My chief cause for regret is the slowness of the colporteur work here. I realize, too, that this in some respects is the most important branch of the service – for the dissemination of the Truth – for the finding of the wheat, for the gathering of it into the garner. I regret the fact that our sales of DAWN, Vol. I., during the past year were not so large even as during the previous year, whereas in all reason, with the love and zeal and knowledge which the friends of the Truth here seem to possess, we should have put at least five times as many into circulation. I trust that the fault is not mine: that I am doing all in my power to forward this important branch of the service.
How I wish some of the dear friends of the cause here, of good address, and unencumbered, could see their way clear to enter this grand work. Truly, as the Master said in the harvest of the Jewish age, The fields are white for the harvest but the laborers are few. Would that all of the dear ones here might fall in line with the Master's exhortation, "Pray ye the Lord of the harvest that he would send forth more laborers into his vineyard": I should hope that as a result of such earnestness and prayers quite a good many would quickly be saying, "Lord, here am I! accept my little service – send me!" And if this should include some who can only give a part of one or two days a week from business or household duties, as I understand is the case with many in the United States, we would be glad to assign to such what territory they could profitably use nearer at home. I do trust that next year's report will show a great advance in the service of our King in this most valuable department. We have plenty of territory as yet untouched. We feel ashamed to ask aid from the American laborers for this field, yet would be very glad indeed if some of them were here to assist us, to stimulate us, to put more vim in us.
Since our last report of a year ago there has been considerable work done in Wales and Ireland, in both of which there is now a considerable and growing interest.
We had two General Conventions during the year, both of which were very profitable and deeply interesting, besides which some Pilgrim work was done, including that by Brother Barton, whom you so kindly sent to us and whose ministries we so greatly appreciated.
You will note that the volunteer report this year shows well: those of the brethren who did take part have worked hard, and the year shows larger than any before in the distribution of free literature. We are preparing for a great campaign next year, not forgetting that the time is short and that the privilege and opportunity of service is grand beyond compare. We hope for more volunteers this year, too. As the Truth takes hold of our hearts more and more and its spirit energizes us, we will be wanting to do with our might what our hands find to do – and there is so much to be done! How can we be idle or careless or indifferent or overcharged with the cares of this life while we have the opportunity of serving such a Master and of telling such good tidings?
The Tract Fund donations, you will notice, have considerably increased over previous years – another [R3919 : page 6] evidence of the deepening of the work of grace in the heart. When the Truth touches the pocket-book, so that such donations are offered without request, without an appeal, without urging and without collections, it means considerable of love for the Lord, for the Truth, and for the brethren.
Praying divine grace and blessing upon yourself and all the dear brethren, and with much love, I am,
Your fellow-laborer,
DAWNS and STUDIES, various bindings, sold...............23,987
DAWNS in magazine form.................................. 1,898
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Total number of DAWNS and STUDIES put into circulation..25,885
Total number of Booklets, Hymn Books and Manna sold..... 7,897
Total number of Tracts and TOWERS circulated free....1,159,000
(Expressed in usual form of tract pages)............30,195,800
Letters and cards received at this office................7,825
Letters and cards sent out from this office..............8,150
FINANCIAL SUMMARY
Expenditures £ s d.
"Pilgrim" and Convention expenses................... 104 0 10
Cost of Tracts, postage and office expenses.........1318 2 5
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Total...............................................1422 3 3
Donations to Tract Fund............................. 908 14 0
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Deficit for year 1906............................... 513 9 3
45 Mirker St., Elberfeld, Germany.
DEAR BROTHER RUSSELL: –
I send you with this a report of the Society's work done through its German Branch during the past year. It has been a great year with us, a year of great activity, as the report shows. And yet along some lines we might feel discouraged did we not know what to expect in this "harvest" time. We are always glad to have your sympathies, your love and your prayers in this part of the harvest field. The oneness of the Lord's cause is sustaining us, not only financially but in every way. It certainly encourages the less numerous friends of the Truth on this Continent to know of the prosperity and the love of the Lord's people in other parts of the world. We rejoice that the Truth is made more and more accessible to the hungering ones of various [R3920 : page 6] nations through its publications in many languages.
We seem to be unable to accomplish much in that very important department of the harvest work – the colporteur field. We are ashamed of the small showing in this particular, although books are sold at an extremely low price and although there is a large middle class of people here who are able to purchase. We seem not to have been able to find the right method for impressing them with their need of these helps in Bible Study. Indeed, one great difficulty is that good, well-meaning people here are full of prejudice, while those who get free from the prejudice and superstition seem very generally to fall into Socialism, with its earthly aims and prospects, ignoring the Bible, or into open infidelity and antagonism to everything religious. I remember that it is your opinion that great numbers of DAWNS could be sold here if we only get at the proper method. I have been endeavoring to find that method and will still endeavor.
You will be glad to learn that quite a work of grace is in progress amongst those who have received the Truth. Many of them have been subjected to calumny and opposition of various kinds, but now seem to be learning that the "disciple is not above his Lord" – learning to overcome their trials. Letters from these dear soldiers of the cross bring many messages of love and sympathy and requests for remembrances in prayer. The Truth is rooting and grounding them in character, so that none of the attacks of the Adversary move them. Others are fearful and need our tender care, words of sympathy, etc.
Our principal work accomplished has been in the distribution of free literature, some of which, we trust, will ultimately prove to be good seed in good hearts, bringing forth abundantly to the Master's praise.
During the year we received 2474 letters and sent out 1433. Many of these were answered by the mailing of free literature and others by post-card replies.
We had one Convention this year which was very interesting and we trust very profitable to all. We made four extended "Pilgrim" tours (with frequent visits to neighboring towns). The mileage covered in these tours was 7625 – one of them extended a considerable distance into Russia. Through these various methods, by voice and pen and printed page we trust that we have succeeded in bringing the Truth before a considerable number, and that some of these are the Lord's jewels.
Here I mention that I read with concern your kind words of admonition in the November 1st TOWER, "Gathering or Scattering. Which?" I hope and pray that the love of Christ may constrain us each and all more and more to be of "one mind," "one mouth," "of the same judgment," having the "same love." How well meant and tender-hearted are the Apostle's words along this line in Rom. 12:16; 15:6; I Cor. 1:10; 2:16; 2 Cor. 13:11; Phil. 1:27; 2:2; I Pet. 3:8; 4:1.
Your brother and servant in our dear Redeemer,
DAWNS sold, various bindings,.............................2,805
DAWNS issued, magazine form...............................3,250
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Total.....................................................6,055
Various booklets sold.....................................4,290
Sample TOWERS and Tracts free (stated in tract pages) 5,600,000
FINANCIAL SUMMARY
Cost of Tracts, postage, samples, Pilgrim expenses,
rent, light, heat, etc...............................$3,990.82
Volunteer Donations to the Tract Fund................. 1,802.81
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Deficit for 1906...................................... 2,188.01
[This mission, now several years old, is under the general care of the colored brother who sends this report. Thus far the work is almost exclusively among the blacks. However, a little interest is being aroused amongst the whites lately and we will assist them as opportunity may offer.]
DEAR BRO. RUSSELL: –
We send you herein our General Report for the fiscal year 1906. Our tongues can but feebly express the gratitude we feel for our heavenly Father's leadings during a year so fraught with wonderful experiences for us all. We feel like David when he said, "Truly God is good to Israel, even to those who are of a pure heart."
We are pleased to say that the spiritual condition of all the brethren is constantly growing better and the number of interested ones is gradually increasing. We were agreeably surprised at the many inquiries from strangers who had come in contact with colporteurs or with tracts bearing our address stamp. Some of these we are continually watering with DAWNS and TOWERS and they give evidence of genuine interest.
The Pilgrim service has been used effectively and chiefly to establish an assembly in Montego Bay, the [R3920 : page 7] second city of importance in the Island, situated in the west. The Adversary was strenuously opposed to it and gave us much trouble, but he who is on our side proved to be mightier than all those who are against us; and now there are about a dozen brethren and deeply interested ones in regular attendance: and Bro. Condell is rendering good service.
The inconvenient situation of the brethren in the country parts as well as the difficulty of reaching them prevented us from paying them Pilgrim visits as often as we desired. We made two trips during the year which took in all the assemblies except Cedar Valley, covering a distance of 362 miles and holding sixteen semi-private meetings and two public ones. In addition to these we held three public meetings in Kingston which have done much to arouse some of the sleeping ones.
The Colporteurs have done better work this year, though they were not able to go out as constantly as last year. The whole number engaged was 17, four of whom gave all their time.
Number of DAWN volumes sold.............................2,210 Number of Booklets sold.................................1,593 Number of Tracts distributed free (tract pages).....1,267,886
The Colporteur brethren should be specially mentioned: the work here is extremely hard, even distressing, and we are sure that it is only the love of the Truth that would lead anyone to give up his life to it.
There are no facilities for traveling or for conveying books. All the work is done in the mountains and brethren have to walk from 20 to 60 miles, carrying on their shoulders from 15 to 30 books. It is difficult traveling over the mountains and into the valleys, sometimes being overtaken by rain, sleeping out often at night because unable to find lodging, and, being disappointed many times in deliveries, have to return long distances with the books they carried. And yet some of them call it a joyful privilege to be so engaged. Their appreciation is shown by the fact that others are joining the ranks. The physical condition of our colporteurs in general is very poor: at one time during the year every one was sick and the work had to stop.
DAWNS......................451 Booklets.....................91 Free Tracts (pages)....................................123,186
Brother Hudson is the only one colporteuring there.
Your brother in Christ,
Our Lord's interest in the world will be fully manifested in due time. He has already given his life with a view to the world's blessing – he tasted death for every man; but now in the present age his chief interest is in the Church, which is his body. The development of the Church is a necessary step in the divine plan before the blessing of the world in general can be accomplished. As it was necessary that Christ should come as the Seed of Abraham, so also it was necessary that the Church, his body, his Bride, should be developed as members of the same Seed before their work could be accomplished, "In thy Seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed." Thus the Apostle's words are clearly applicable to the Church: "If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's Seed, and heirs according to the promise" – heirs of the promise that through you, as members of Christ, a blessing shall proceed to all the families of the earth. – Gal. 3:29.
What constitutes the distinction between the Church and the world may properly be asked. Why should the Lord favor one class more than another during this Gospel age? We answer that the distinctions between the classes is the basis for the difference in the divine dealings: the Church are those who are hungering and thirsting after righteousness – desiring to know and to do the Lord's will, walking after the spirit of his law to the best of their ability, not after the flesh. God is pleased to accept such, and to make known to them the riches of his grace in Christ Jesus, and to receive them into his family by the adoption which is in Christ Jesus.
But as for the world, the Scriptures clearly set forth that its children are strangers, aliens, foreigners, enemies of God through wicked works. They have not the spirit or disposition to be sons; they have suffered so severely through the fall that they are quite alienated from God and considerably in sympathy with sin and injustice, so that they do not desire to walk after the spirit of God's law but prefer to walk after the flesh. Notwithstanding the sin and imperfection, injustice, hypocrisy, double dealings, etc., they love the world and the things of the world; they do not love righteousness and hate iniquity in such degree as to recognize that all unrighteousness is sin, that they themselves are full of blemishes and imperfections, and therefore justly under divine condemnation as unworthy of eternal life amongst the perfect and holy.
Not seeing their need of the great Physician the worldly are not listening in that direction and do not hear his voice. The Gospel message sent hither and thither throughout the world during this Gospel age has been sifting, separating – electing – the lovers of righteousness and Truth and God from the lovers of sin and selfishness and those who are in sympathy with them. The result is a household of faith, among whom there are not many wise, not many great, not many learned, not many noble, not many altogether who enjoy the divine favor and blessing and privileges of this present time. On the other hand are the great mass of mankind, still outside of divine recognition, still under condemnation, still children of wrath, still in darkness and ignorance respecting the divine character and plan, which thus far they have not been counted worthy to understand, because "The secret of the Lord is with them that reverence him, and he will show them his covenant." – Psa. 25:14.
Seeing the distinction which God's Word sets forth between the Church and the world, it does not surprise us to learn that totally different terms express the relationship of Christ to the Church and to the world. He is our Advocate [R3915 : page 8] now, and by and by he will be the world's Mediator. A mediator is one who interposes between two persons who are at variance, with a view to reconciling them. Thus the Scriptures teach that there is "one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time." (1 Tim. 2:5,6.) The due time for this testimony to be known, as the Scriptures clearly show, will be the Millennial age, the period of our Lord's reign, his mediatorial reign, as some have expressed it – a reign as a mediator for the purpose of effecting reconciliation between God and others opposed to him – the world, for God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.
As the Apostle Paul explains, a mediator is not of one party only but of two parties. (Gal. 3:20.) In this case the two parties are God and Adam and his race. Justice lay on God's side: he had a charge of disobedience against mankind, and he justly placed his ban or condemnation upon Adam and his race – "Dying thou shalt die." As the Apostle expresses the matter, "By one man's disobedience sin entered the world and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men because all are sinners." (Rom. 5:12.) Originally man had no antipathy to God: on the contrary, we may be sure that Adam felt contrition, realized that his penalty was just, and longed for restitution to divine favor. But as centuries rolled around the fallen conditions worked havoc in man, and mentally and morally he got out of harmony with his Creator, got to be the enemy of God, learned to love unrighteousness and to delight in sin. The record is that God gave him over to a reprobate mind – allowed him to take his wayward course of opposition to God and to righteousness – and the result has been increasing degradation and increasing opposition not only to righteousness but to God, the great King and representative of righteousness.
In addition to man's natural depravity the Scriptures inform us that Satan and the fallen angels have conspired to his undoing, blinding him to principles of Right and Truth, putting darkness for light and light for darkness, good for evil and evil for good. As a result the heart of man has become exceedingly warped and twisted from the principles of righteousness, and much out of harmony with God himself. To such an extent is this true that only a very few now have the ear to hear or any appreciation of heart for the divine message of God, that they through Christ may now come back into harmony with him. This is the declaration of the Apostle, The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the glorious light of the goodness of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ should shine in their hearts. – 2 Cor. 4:4-6.
The need of a mediator under these circumstances is very apparent: God refuses to recognize sin or to tolerate it in any degree. His law declares that the "wages of sin is death." The world has gotten to love sin, and is so blinded to its best interests that it hates God's righteousness – strict righteousness. The first thing necessary was the satisfaction of justice in respect to our race. There would have been no propriety in exhorting men to return to God when the divine law inexorably commanded the death of the sinner and declared that God could have no communion with the unrighteous, the blemished. Hence it was that God provided the Lord Jesus to be the Mediator between himself and the race of sinners, to the intent that through his work so many of the sinners as possible might be brought back into accord with God and thus to the enjoyment of his approval and blessing instead of the curse or death sentence. Our Lord Jesus at his first advent died, gave himself a ransom for mankind, that thus through him the divine sentence against mankind might be remitted, cancelled, and that then the Mediator might have the opportunity of taking hold of the race he had redeemed with a view to bringing the rebels back from their blinded and fallen condition, by restitution processes, to perfection; and thus to the condition where the Father could receive them without condemnation and grant them his blessing of life eternal.
The Mediator's work in the world will be considerably one of force, compulsion: he will lay righteousness to the line and justice to the plummet, and sweep away the refuge of lies. (Isa. 28:17.) His anger will burn against all injustice and unrighteousness; stripes or punishment will be visited upon those who are out of the way and who need correction; the plowshare of trouble will be run through the hearts of men, to break up the fallow ground and to prepare them for a resowing of the good word of God, the gracious promises and appreciation of divine favors. That will be a time of reconstruction. At the very beginning of the Millennial age the Mediator will be revealed in flaming fire, taking vengeance, executing punishments upon all wrong doers, upon all who know not God, who appreciate not his character and plans and government and righteous laws – to the intent that they may learn what these are, in hope that by experience therewith they may come to learn righteousness and hate iniquity instead of loving iniquity and hating purity.
God's arrangement or dealing with the world during the Millennial age is said to be under the New Covenant. The great original covenant was the one made with father Abraham, which reads, "In thy Seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed." This we sometimes designate the "Oath-Bound Covenant," because the Lord swore to it. That covenant, the Apostle points out, had no mediator – it needed none so far as Abraham was concerned. He loved the Lord and desired to serve him: he was not an alien or a stranger or a foreigner, not a rebel, but was acknowledged to be a "friend of God." (Jas. 2:23.) No mediator was necessary then; God merely promised Abraham a certain great blessing. The children of Abraham, the Seed of Abraham, are [R3916 : page 8] counted in with him under this covenant which needed no mediator.
Anyone, at heart or otherwise an alien from God, could not be counted as the real Seed of Abraham: only those coming into relationship to God through faith and obedience to Christ are counted of this Abrahamic Seed. They are not in alienation from God, and need no forced measures to bring them back. Rather they are looking longingly for the heavenly city and the glorious conditions of the Kingdom which God has promised to them that love him; they are to him as children, and he to them as a father; they inherit his gracious promises and delight therein, and of his sentiments toward them it is written, "The Father himself loveth you." (John 16:27.) No wonder that that covenant and those represented under it as its beneficiaries need no mediator, no go-between, to enforce upon them terms and conditions. There is a willing love which leads them to willing sacrifices that they may do the will of the Father in heaven.
The Apostle explains to us that although this Oath-Bound Covenant is the real, genuine first one, nevertheless it was not time for it to go into operation at once; but instead the Law Covenant was added, and developed during the Jewish age the Jewish nation, as a typical people of God under the Law Covenant, with Moses as its mediator, which was typical of the New Covenant, with Christ as its Mediator. The Apostle points out that this Covenant failed to bring forth [R3916 : page 9] any children of God – it brought forth only servants – and that with its failure it was set aside when our Lord Jesus at his first advent, by his obedience, proved his right to be heir to the Abrahamic Covenant. The Apostle points out that Sarah, Abraham's wife, typified that Oath-Bound Covenant, which for more than 2000 years was barren – did not bring forth the spiritual Seed of Abraham to bless the world. He declares that Hagar, the bondwoman of Abraham's family, represented the Law Covenant, that her child Ishmael represented the Jews, and that the casting off of the Jewish nation and the setting aside of their Law Covenant was typified in Abraham's dealing with Hagar – "Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for he shall not be heir with the son of the free woman." – Gal. 4:30.
The Apostle points out that antitypically the Son of the free woman, the son of Sarah, the Seed of Abraham that was to inherit this promise, was primarily the Lord Jesus himself, and in a larger and secondary sense the entire Gospel Church, the "little flock," of which he is the Head and Captain – "If ye be Christ's then are ye Abraham's Seed and heirs according to the promise." Thus we have before our minds now, by the Apostle's aid, a clear view of the Jewish nation and their Law Covenant; and also a clear view of the true Seed, Christ and the Church, the heirs of the Abrahamic Covenant, which had no mediator. It has required all of this Gospel age for the selection of this spiritual Seed (house of sons) just as it required all of the Jewish age for the selection of the class symbolized by Ishmael, the house of servants, born in bondage under the Law.
Entirely separate and distinct from both of the foregoing covenants is the Lord's promise of a New Covenant. It also was represented in Abraham's family by a woman, for after the death of Sarah Abraham married again, his wife's name being Keturah; and by her we are told that he had many sons and daughters, whereas there was but the one son by Hagar, and but one by Sarah. The intimation thus clearly is that under the New Covenant God will bring many into the relationship of sons, as it is written of Abraham, who typified God, "I have constituted thee a father of many nations." – Gen. 17:4.
Not unnaturally there has been a disposition to apply the New Covenant promises to the Gospel Church, for two reasons:
(1) Because during the "dark ages" God's purpose for the blessing of all the families of the earth in ages to come was lost sight of, and the theory accepted instead that death is the end of all hope, and that with the end of this Gospel age would come a wreck of matter and crash of worlds, with nothing beyond.
(2) Another reason why the promises respecting a New Covenant have been more or less applied to this Gospel age is that remarkably few of the Lord's people during and since the "dark ages" have seen clearly what the Apostle designates as the "mystery of God" – which he explains to be "Christ in you [the overcomers of the Church] the hope of glory." (Col. 1:27.) Not seeing that the Church are to be fellow-heirs with Jesus in the Kingdom which is to bless all the families of the earth, indeed not seeing with any distinctness that there is to be a Kingdom at all, it is not surprising that the promises of the New Covenant were applied exclusively to this age.
Now, however, in the clearer dawning of the Millennial morning, in the brighter shining of the Lamp of God's Word upon our pathway as a light in a dark place, we see most distinctly that the New Covenant belongs exclusively to the coming age, as the Abrahamic Covenant belongs exclusively to the Gospel age, and as the Law Covenant applied exclusively to the Jewish age. And when we examine the matter all the Scriptures confirm this interpretation. For instance, note the Apostle's application of the words of Jeremiah 31:33. He says: –
"Behold the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the days when I took them by the hand to lead them forth out of the land of Egypt....For this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws within their mind and write them in their hearts, and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people: and they shall not teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me from the least to the greatest of them. And I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. In that he saith a new covenant he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away." – Heb. 8:8-13.
It is evident that the Apostle here is contrasting the New Covenant with the Law Covenant, which did vanish away. He is not contrasting the New Covenant with the Abrahamic Covenant, under which we inherit. Moreover, the New Covenant is to be made with the House of Israel and the House of Judah, and they have been cast off from divine favor during the eighteen or more centuries since their Law Covenant passed away. They are waiting therefore for the New Covenant – for the blessed arrangement of the Millennial age, under which the Lord declares he will be merciful to them and remember no more their past sins and iniquities.
That this is the Apostle's thought let us note carefully his teachings in Rom. 11:25-33. There the Apostle is pointing out that Israel did not obtain the chief blessing sought for, that the elect obtained it, and that the rest were blinded and cast away from divine favor. Nevertheless he tells us that they are not forever cast away nor forever blinded, but as soon as the elect class shall be completed the divine blessing will turn toward the blind and outcast ones to recover them and to save them all from that blindness and cast-off condition, as it is written, "There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer that shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. – Rom. 11:26.
This Deliverer is the Christ, Jesus the Head, and the Church, his body, or, under another figure, his Bride. As soon as this great Deliverer is completed Israel's time for restoration to favor will be due. Mark now the Apostle's words further, "For this is my covenant unto them when I shall take away their sins." Notice the similarity of the terms here: The Apostle says they are to be blessed under a covenant, and that it will mean the cancellation of their sins. He cannot mean the Abrahamic Covenant, because the spiritual Seed inherited it and took the place of the natural seed: neither can he mean the Law Covenant, for it passed away – the bond woman and her son were cast out at the end of the Jewish age. He must, therefore, refer to the New Covenant, and the expression is in exact accord with the prophecy respecting the New Covenant in which the Lord declares the taking away of the sins of natural Israel.
Our Lord Jesus is specifically declared to be the Mediator of the New Covenant (Heb. 12:24); and again it is declared, "There is one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time." But where is the New Covenant? [R3916 : page 10] Where is the mercy to the Jew and the forgiveness of his sins? We answer that the New Covenant is not yet in existence, and hence the Jew, who is first to be blessed under it, is not yet receiving his portion. Nevertheless the work has been begun: the man Christ Jesus has appeared, he has already paid the ransom price sufficient for the satisfaction of justice in respect to Adam and all of his race. He is fully prepared, therefore, to be the Mediator and to proceed in the work of mediation, and under the New Covenant to bless the world. Why, then, so long delay – over 1800 years?
We answer that the Mediator, in the interim, is accepting, in harmony with the divine plan, a Bride from amongst the redeemed ones. As we have already shown, this Bride class – now being called and accepted and tested in faithfulness even unto death – needs no mediator, needs no go-between, [R3917 : page 10] needs no urging, needs no stripes to bring them to an appreciation of God and a desire to be his. Rather, after the manner of Abraham and in the spirit of their Lord, they delight to do God's will, they delight themselves in righteousness, they seek to walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. They realize indeed their imperfections, but they glory not in these. They do rejoice that he who called them out of darkness into his marvelous light, out of the abundance of his merit has applied a portion on their behalf, that they may be reckoned perfect, clean every whit, holy, and may be accepted as his joint-sacrificers and joint-heirs in the Kingdom that is to bring the blessing to Israel under the New Covenant and through Israel to all mankind.
That the Oath-Bound Covenant could not go into effect without the shedding of blood was evidenced by the fact that Isaac, the seed of promise, died typically and typically was received from the dead by a resurrection, as the Apostle explains. (Heb. 11:17-19.) So no part of the great plan of God, either toward the Church or the world, could have succeeded without the death of Christ. Thus the Apostle, speaking of the Bride class, says that, "Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that he might present it to himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing." – Eph. 5:25-27.
As for the world, the death of the Mediator is the basis of its reconciliation under the New Covenant. By his death on our behalf Jesus proves himself worthy before the divine law to be the Mediator of the New Covenant. He has associated the Church with himself, and shortly the inauguration of the New Covenant will take place. This inauguration is typified in the Law Covenant, for Moses its mediator took the blood of the typical sacrifices for sin-offerings and sprinkled the book of the Law, which represented the Almighty, as being bound by the Covenant, and then sprinkled the people by the same blood, as intimating that they also were bound by it. Meantime stirring scenes were enacted at Sinai: the mountain shook, the earth quaked, and tempest and storm prevailed with flames of lightning. And all of this the Apostle explains to us was typical of the way in which the New Covenant will be inaugurated at the second coming of Christ and the establishment of his Kingdom. We who are now being called as the joint-heirs with Christ belong to the antitypical house of Levi, and are members of the Royal Priesthood, whose work it is to offer the sin-offerings and to do the sprinkling of the blood.
The Apostle clearly intimates that this age will end with a time of trouble, which will be an antitype of the shakings and tumults at Sinai, and that here everything will be shaken, things political, religious, financial and social, until everything contrary to the divine will shall have been overthrown, and only that which God would approve will be permitted to stand. And this the Apostle intimates will be the inauguration of the Lord's Kingdom: his words are, "Wherefore, receiving a Kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace whereby we can serve God acceptably." The very thought of this Kingdom of righteousness, which God is about to establish through us for the blessing of Israel and all the families of the earth under the New Covenant, should give us a realization of the holiness necessary to be pleasing in the sight of the Lord, and should lead us to more and more sanctity of life, as it is written, "He that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure."
Moses was the Mediator of the Law Covenant, which typified the New Covenant, and he foretold the greater Moses, the Mediator of the New Covenant, saying, "A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you from amongst your brethren like unto me." (Acts 3:22.) Our Lord Jesus himself was the great Head of this antitypical Prophet, Priest, King, Mediator, for Moses was all this to Israel. But it pleased the Father to associate with our Lord in these glorious offices the "little flock," his Bride and joint-heir. Again: all through this Gospel age the Lord has been raising up from amongst the brethren the "more than conquerors" who shall be counted worthy of membership, joint-heirship, as the glorified body of the Messiah – the great antitypical Mediator in whom will be vested all the powers of kingship for the rule of the world, of prophet for the instruction of the world, and of priest for the relief and succor of the world under the New Covenant.
The Church's share in the work of mediation will be a great one, as the Apostle declares, "Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world?" (1 Cor. 6:2.) It will not only be the mission of the Church to shine forth with their Redeemer as the great Light of the world, the Sun of Righteousness (Matt. 13:43), and to invite the world to a knowledge and appreciation of divine mercy (Rev. 22:17), but also it will be their mission to judge, to correct, to discipline the world in righteousness. "And it shall come to pass that the soul that will not hear [obey] that Prophet shall be utterly destroyed from amongst the people." Indeed we may assume that this is a large part of the divine purpose in connection with the calling of the elect Church, to make them joint-heirs with his Son and co-laborers with him in the glorious work of the Kingdom, for the judging and uplifting and blessing of all Israel, of whom it is written, "They shall obtain mercy through your mercy," and of all the families of the earth.
It being thus evident that the Church will have as Mediator an important share with our Lord in the reconciling of the world during the Millennial age, the next question is, Has the Church any share with her Lord in that part of the mediatorial work which satisfies divine justice as against the world?
We answer Yes to this question, and refer to the words of the Apostle that we are to suffer with Christ if we are to reign with him, that we are to go to him without the camp bearing the reproach with him. (Rom. 8:17; Heb. 13:13.) We notice his remark here that the sin-offerings were burned without the camp, and reason therefore that we are invited to be participants in the same offering – "burned without the camp."
Turning to the principal account of the sin-offerings in Leviticus 16 we find the matter there most interestingly set forth, yet in a manner which none can understand except as the eyes of their understanding open to these things. Hence the Apostle prayed for the Church that, the eyes of [R3917 : page 11] their understanding being opened, they might be able to comprehend with all saints; and our Lord declared, "Blessed are your eyes for they see." This spiritual sight, however, is granted only to those who abide in the shadow of the Almighty, in the secret place of the Most High, in nearness and fellowship with him; – these alone may see that there were two sin-offerings on Israel's typical Atonement Day – the bullock, which represented our Lord Jesus, and the goat, which represented the Church, his followers.
The value of these animals as sacrifices was typically represented in the amount of their fat, which was burned upon the brazen altar as a sweet incense to God – as a mark of the love and devotion of the sacrificed ones. And here the figure is beautifully appropriate, for the goat, which represents the Church, is a very lean animal, while the young bullock, which represented our Lord Jesus, had much fat, much zeal, much love, which gave incense before God. Furthermore, these two sacrifices were not treated as equals in any sense of the word: they were not offered together, but the bullock first as making atonement for the class represented by the goat. Thus it was necessary that Christ should die and pay the penalty for our sins, and that this should be accepted on our behalf by the Father before we could have any part or lot with him in Christ's sacrifices; or, as the Apostle expresses it, "Fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ," – afflictions which Jesus' sacrifice was so abundantly able to complete, but which he purposely left for us, in order that by participation in his sufferings we might also in harmony with the divine program be enabled to participate in his divine glory, his Kingdom.
Reading the account carefully we find that these two parts of the sin-offering were appropriately different: the valuable sacrifice, the bullock, was appropriated not for all the people but merely for the priest and his house – the house of Levi – the tribe of Levi. The signification of this is not difficult to find, for over and over the Scriptures assure us that Christ is the High Priest of our profession or order, and that we are a Royal Priesthood under him. He is the Head, the chief of this body of priests, the little flock. And these all are selected from the household of faith, which was typified by the house of Levi. So, then, when we read that the High Priest offered the bullock for himself and his house, we are to understand it as signifying that the merit of the death of Christ was by God's order and arrangement applied for himself (for the Church his body – the Head himself being holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, had no sins to atone for) and for his house, the household of faith.
This sacrifice of the bullock was accomplished by our Lord Jesus – he "finished" it at Calvary. In the type the bullock represented the man Christ Jesus consecrated to [R3918 : page 11] death at his baptism, and gradually fulfilling that consecration for three and a half years of his ministry, laying down his life for his brethren, until finally he finished his baptism into death at Calvary. At the moment that our Lord made his consecration he received the begetting of the holy Spirit, of which John bore witness that it descended in the form of a dove. From that moment our Lord was reckoned as a New Creature, which, as the Priest, had the duty of sacrificing the mortal body consecrated to death. Our Lord's consecration was represented in the type by the first vail of the Tabernacle, under which he passed in consecration into the Holy, which signifies his life as a New Creature, in the closest fellowship with God, enlightened by the holy Spirit, typified by the Golden Candlestick, fed by the truth, symbolized by the table of shew bread, and privileged to offer sweet incense acceptable to God on the Golden Altar. Our Lord continued in that condition, symbolized by the Tabernacle's Holy, during all of his ministry, until he as the Priest passed under the second vail, which represented his actual death. He was under that vail for parts of three days and nights, and arose on the other side of it in the Most Holy in the perfect spiritual condition of his resurrection, concerning which he himself said, "All power is given me in heaven and in earth." A little later our Lord appeared in the presence of the Father, to lay before the divine presence the merit of his atoning sacrifice. This in the type was illustrated by the High Priest sprinkling the blood upon the Mercy Seat and before the Mercy Seat to make atonement. The efficacy of the High Priest's work was solely for the class for which he offered the sacrifice, namely, himself and his house – the Royal Priesthood, the household of faith. This is in full accord with the Apostle's statement, "He ascended up on high, there to appear in the presence of God for us." – Heb. 9:24.
Jesus did not "appear" for the world: it would not have been proper to have advocated the cause of those that were aliens, strangers and foreigners through wicked works; but he could and did appear for us who have fled away from sin, who desire full harmony with the Father, and who delight to know and to do his will. The great High Priest Jesus offered his sacrifice for the Church, and we have the blessed assurance that we are reconciled to God by the death of his Son. Through the sacrifice of Christ we whose hearts long for righteousness and delight to do to the extent of our ability the Father's will, were brought into accord with him. The Father's acceptance of the High Priest's sacrifice on behalf of the Church and the household of faith was indicated by the remarkable manifestation of Pentecost, this, the Apostle declares, assuring us that Jesus procured of the Father this blessing which he shed forth upon his followers, and which indicated divine reconciliation.
The second sin-offering of the Day of Atonement was the goat, which, as already stated, typified the elect Church, "the body of Christ" – the body of the Priest whose cleansing and reconciliation was typified by the sprinkling of the blood of the bullock. The New Testament abounds in exhortations to this class that they faithfully follow in the footsteps of Jesus, that they walk with him in the narrow way of self-sacrifice, self-denial, even unto death. The Apostle's words are, "I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God [your reconciliation, already accepted], that ye present your bodies living sacrifices, holy, acceptable to God, your reasonable service." – Rom. 12:1.
In the type of the Day of Atonement we see how the sacrifice of the Church is accepted – we see it typified in the sacrifice of the goat. If at first we are disposed to say that it is impossible that we, who by nature are children of wrath even as others, should be acceptable to God as participants with Jesus in his great work of atonement, we must remember again the words of the Apostle above quoted to the effect that our sacrifices are both holy and acceptable to God, and this by reason of the fact that the merit of our Redeemer has been appropriated to us. Our sins were laid upon him, his righteousness is imputed to us.
The record states that the Priest laid his hands upon the head of the Lord's goat and slew it, as he slew the bullock. This is interesting as showing that it is not alone our consecration to the Lord that is necessary. Our consecration is shown in the fact that the goat stood at the door of the Tabernacle, and the fact that the High Priest killed the goat of the sin-offering illustrates that it is the [R3918 : page 12] power of the Lord operating in us as members of his body, working in us to will and to do of his good pleasure, that enables us to accomplish our sacrifice – he by his Spirit in us sacrifices us, assists us to perform the great transaction we have undertaken, to be dead with him, to suffer with him, to walk in his steps, to be baptized into his death.
The record is that the goat in everything was treated exactly as the bullock had previously been treated. Its fat (very little, however) was placed upon the altar, and its hide, hoofs, etc., were burned without the camp in the same place that the hide, hoofs, etc., of the bullock had been burned, and its blood was taken into the Most Holy and sprinkled as the blood of the bullock had been. Thus we, like our Lord, present all that we have in sacrifice. The proportion of our love and zeal is what the Father recognizes upon the altar – alas that we have no more! Our suffering of the contempt of the world and the nominal Church, the opposition of sinners, is represented by the burning outside of the camp, and in this respect resembles our Lord's experience, "The world knoweth us not, even as it knew him not" – they called the Master of the house Beelzebub, why should they think that his followers were anything better than fools and the offscouring of the earth? as the Apostle declares. – 1 Cor. 4:13.
After telling us that only the sin-offerings were burned outside the camp, the Apostle exhorts us to go unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach; and thus he identifies us with the goat and our Lord with the bullock, and the adverse experiences of both with the burning outside the camp. But we also have advantages, for like our Lord we at our consecration pass beyond the vail into the Holy, and there, as the Apostle declares, are seated together with Christ in the heavenlies, enjoying the light of the Golden Candlestick, eating of the Shewbread, and coming with courage to the Golden Altar, realizing ourselves as accepted in the Beloved. Finally, we all, as members of the great High Priest's body, will pass under the second vail, pass into death actually, and rise beyond it in resurrection power. The entire company complete, the great High Priest – without a member of his body missing, and without a superfluous member – will then present the blood of the goat as his own blood, because it represents the sacrifice of all of those whom he has accepted as his members. The value of the sacrifice of the Church is thus to be presented before the Father in the end of this age, when all shall have passed beyond the vail.
On what account will this blood, this merit represented in the Church, the body of Christ, be applied? The Scriptures answer: The type tells us that whereas the blood of the bullock was applied only for the tribe of Levi, typifying the household of faith, the blood of the goat was applied for all the other eleven tribes of Israel, which typified all mankind who will ever desire to come into harmony with God – all the Israel of God as they shall be ultimately numbered at the close of the Millennial age. How beautifully these matters harmonize! what a grand message of divine love and mercy they speak! and what strength, what courage, it brings us to realize the privileges thus granted us by our Lord and our Redeemer, of having fellowship with him in his sufferings that by and by we may be sharers in his glory.
A little while and all the sufferings of all the members will be at an end. There will never be any more sin-offerings for Adam and his race, no more burnings without the camp, no more walking in the narrow way of self-sacrifice. Thank God for the privileges brought to us in this way, and thanks be to his name also for the blessed assurances that the whole world shall, in consequence of divine favor thus bestowed, be brought into fullest opportunities for reconciliation to the Father – to the Jew first, also to the Greek and to all men. While in the type the sacrifices were offered for one tribe first and then for the other eleven, in the antitype we see this is much larger – that the one tribe represents the believers of this present Gospel age, and the eleven tribes represent the world of mankind in general, at the head of which will be natural Israel, the first to share the benefits of the New Covenant.
We content ourselves here with a mere reference to the Golden Text, noting the fact that the Bible records assume the existence of the Creator himself "from everlasting to everlasting." (Psa. 90:2.) This lesson discusses merely the things pertaining to this world – their beginnings – leaving out of account entirely the other worlds of the universe. It is our thought, however – and the general inference of Scripture, we think – that the other worlds are less advanced in their development than this one. For aught we know to the contrary, the lessons and experiences wrought out on our earth are yet to have to do with other planets whose inhabitants have not yet been created. All that, however, is beyond us, and we are not authorized to speculate on it, and hence must restrain our imaginations and content ourselves with the things which God has [R3921 : page 12] already revealed, assured that we shall have in this a sufficiency to occupy our limited time and talent.
Nothing in this lesson takes in the wide scope of John 1:1, which declares, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with the God and the Word was a God....All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made." The beginning here mentioned was evidently long prior to the beginning mentioned in today's lesson. Our Lord himself, we are told, was "the beginning of the creation of God," and divine power was exercised through him in the creation of the various orders of angels, for "without him was not anything made that was made." (Rev. 3:14; John 1:3,10.) This comprehensive statement would undoubtedly embrace the creative work mentioned in the lesson of today. We thus have an assurance that the Only Begotten of the Father, the beginning of the creation of God, was the superintendent of the various affairs connected with the creation of the earth and its inhabitants.
For the details respecting the six creative periods, the harmony between the Scriptural statements, and the best findings of Geology, see DAWN, Vol. VI., Chapter I.
Some may say, "What difference does it make? – let them account for the origin of man as they choose. It is admitted that he is not now a monkey – why quarrel or dispute on the subject? Let us leave all discussion and disputation and go forward to make the best we can of what we are." This has a wise sound, but it has not the wisdom that comes from above, which is first pure, then peaceable. (Jas. 3:17.) It is not pure at all, it is not wise at all; for it ignores God and his revelations on these subjects and looks solely to human wisdom, which means merely human guess-work supported by insufficient evidence. Its acceptance means, not merely a reliance upon human guess-work, but far worse than this – it means the rejection of the entire system of divine truth furnished to us in the Bible. It is in conflict with every proposition of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation respecting man's origin – so violently in conflict that if the one be true the other must be false.
Since many fail to see this conflict, and seem to think that the evolution theory of man's origin, that Adam had an ape for a grandfather, does not conflict with the teachings of Christianity and of the Bible in general, it is well that we take this opportunity for a fresh statement of the conflict, not only that our own minds may be more firmly established, but as opportunity may offer we may be able to assist others who are rapidly but unconsciously sinking into infidelity. This is our apology for a fresh rehearsal along these lines.
As for the lower animals we will not on their behalf quarrel with the deductions of evolutionists, although we do hold that the fixity of species today is not very favorable to their contention. If an evolutionary process did take place in the past we hold that it was so under divine supervision and guidance – that different species of plants and animals were brought to perfection, so that no further evolutionary processes in them are possible. On the other hand be it noted that the Scriptural account might be understood to rather favor the Evolution theory in respect to the lower creatures. For instance the statement, "God said, Let the earth bring forth the grass, the herb yielding seed and the fruit tree," etc.; and again, "God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life and the fowl"; and again, "God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping things and beasts." But when we come to the creation of man there is no suggestion that this was a bringing forth or a development. On the contrary, the account is most explicit that God formed man, and "God created man in his own image." This distinction in the statement implies that there was a difference between the ordinary development of plant life and the special creation of man to be the lord of earth, the representative of the Creator.
Whoever believes that Adam was developed from a monkey is in violent conflict with the faith once delivered to the saints, to the effect that man was specially created in the image of his Maker. Scientists agree that there is a wide difference between the so-called "man-ape" and even the lowest form of human being. Professor Rice points out that the highest man-ape known has a brain capacity of only 34 cubic inches, while the lowest of men has 68 cubic inches of brain capacity. In other words, the very lowest form of man has twice the brain capacity of the highest ape. He says, "No specimen of the stone age that has yet been discovered is inferior to the lowest of existing men." A reasonable inference from this statement would be that we have today lower specimens or forms of humanity than any of those discovered by science supposed to belong to the remote past.
Thus does "science falsely so-called" receive a rebuff at the hands of its own facts and in the mouths of its own teachers, while at the same time the Word of God, the Bible, receives corroboration. The Bible teaching is that man has deteriorated seriously from his original grand perfection as the image of God in the flesh. The Bible accounts for the degraded races of mankind by the fall of our first parents into disobedience and under divine condemnation to death. The Bible shows that this death-sentence affected our race not only physically but also morally and mentally, and that thus the mental, moral and physical deterioration that surrounds us in the world are more or less directly connected with original sin. – Rom. 5:12.
The Apostle Paul most particularly describes some of this extreme degradation which we witness today in heathendom, saying that God gave them over unto evil passions, and that as they did not care to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting. "Because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise they became fools." (Rom. 1:20-30.) Thus we see that the Scriptural account hangs together and takes cognizance of every fact known to us, and maintains its position as fully as does science even on the outside.
It is when the Lord's people look at matters from the inside – from the standpoint of a divine revelation respecting man's fall and redemption and recovery – that he perceives the strength of the Bible's position and the weakness and untenableness of the Evolution theory. According to that theory, if man were evolved from a monkey, and if the first man were very little better than a monkey, he would have been in no condition mentally or physically or morally to be put on trial for eternal life or eternal death. Moreover, if the race has been gradually rising during the past six thousand years, has been losing its monkey weaknesses and failings and attaining more and more to manhood, where would be the original sin? Why would there be the curse, the divine displeasure and condemnation, and where would be the room or necessity or propriety in the plan of human redemption from sin? According to this theory the race has been going grandly onward, evolving itself according to the law of nature, and may hope surely to attain to some still higher position or condition than it now enjoys.
The Bible takes the very reverse position, and declares that man was in God's image at the beginning, that the first man was in a proper condition to be tried [R3922 : page 14] by the divine law, that he was tried, that he failed and was condemned to death, and that none of his children since have been in proper condition mentally or physically to be tried as he was – that they all first need to be redeemed and restored before they could be fit for a testing as respects eternal life. Note the consistency of the Scriptures in every detail, that the disobedient Adam was condemned and punished, and that various apologies and excuses were made by his children – that they were unlike him, but were "born in sin and shapen in iniquity," and are "prone to sin as the sparks to fly upward," and that they need a Redeemer through the merit of whose sacrifice they may be reconciled to God, and under whose superintending care they may be brought back through restitutionary processes to all that was lost in Adam and redeemed by Jesus.
How appropriate, too, that this coming Millennial age for man's restoration to what was lost should be called "times of restitution," the inference of which most signally confirms the Scriptural record that man was originally "very good," the image of his Creator. The Scriptures do not claim that the first Adam had perfection of knowledge, but merely perfection of capacity, that it was the Creator's design that he should gain the knowledge by experience, and that while gaining it he should trust to the wisdom, love, justice and power of his Creator and be guided and instructed thereby. It was his failure to thus rely upon the Creator that got him into difficulty and disobedience and the penalty therefor, death.
Professor Thomas Dwight, of Harvard Medical School, in a recent address (1906) is reported to have said that he did not think it impossible that plants might develop into animals, although he did not think it likely; "but when it is said that man had an ape for his grandfather we are talking nonsense, – if indeed we are talking by the principles of sane reason." He added that it is not proved that man came from the lower animals. As a scientific secret, he added, the leaders of science are at a pause on this subject. Professor LeConte remarks, "The earliest known man, the river-drift man, though in a low state of civilization, was as thoroughly human as any of us." Recent discoveries in Egypt and Babylonia show conclusively that the people of long ago were no more monkeys than the people of today. They had a civilization which in many respects corresponded to our own, and yet these ancients, according to the Bible account, were members of the fallen race who had experienced two thousand years of degrading influence without any counteracting influence from God for their uplift – without anything that would correspond to the stimulating influences that have come to those of our day through the Law and the prophets of the past, and through the instructions of Christ and the apostles of the present age.
We prefer to read verse 26 of our lesson thus, "And God said, Let us make man in our image, that after our likeness he may have dominion over the fish of the sea," etc. In other words, man was not only made morally and intellectually to resemble his Creator, so that he would be able to think on higher planes than would be possible to the lower animals, but he was also endowed with authority to control the lower creatures – to be the god of earth as Jehovah is the God of the universe. This agrees well with the statement of Psalm 8:5-8, in which it is declared that God created man but a little lower than the angels, so far as his intelligence and capacity were concerned, and that thus he was "crowned with glory and honor" and given dominion over the lower creatures. Be it noted also, that we not only have the original proposition of God to create man thus in his own image but the after declaration, "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them." This statement that God's work was fully accomplished in Adam, thoroughly contradicts the suggestion of some that God merely began a creation which he purposed should eventually attain to perfection in his image. "Let God be true though it make every man a liar." – Rom. 3:4.
The creation of mother Eve is a further testimony in contradiction to the Evolution theory, for had Adam been merely a higher type of monkey no doubt he would have found companionship amongst the monkeys; but the Scriptural account is that he was so far superior to all other creatures that he had no companionship amongst them. They were his servants, under his control, but none of them suitable to be a helpmate for him; hence the declaration of the particular formation of Eve as a part of Adam, to be his companion and joint-heir with him in the blessings of the Lord.
The story of creation is rehearsed throughout the Scriptures, in the New Testament as well as in the Old. As the latter tells of the perfection of Adam, so the former tells that Jesus in the flesh gave himself to be the ransom, the corresponding price for the first man. And this very statement of correspondence implies not that our Lord was an inferior man corresponding to a first inferior man, but, quite the contrary, that he was a superior man, corresponding to the first superior man, by whose disobedience life was lost for himself and the race. The fact then that our Lord is the Redeemer, the corresponding price for father Adam, establishes well the conclusion to those who are logical and who accept without question the Word of God, that the first man was perfect.
The divine blessing is withheld from that which is imperfect. The entire theory of Scripture being that "all his work is perfect," and that any imperfection or blemish implies sin, degradation from the original divine concept. The fact that God blessed Adam in his original condition, and that the Scriptures teach that since the fall there is a curse or condemnation upon all the members of the race, is but another way of telling us that we all are imperfect and that father Adam was originally perfect. Another thought connected with this blessing is the declaration, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion," etc. According to this original condition it evidently would have been possible for our first parents to have had their home in Eden and to have gradually carried on the work of subjugation and rectification of the as yet unfinished earth, had they continued under divine favor. It was their disobedience that led to their expulsion from the Garden of Eden and compelled them to rely upon the sweat of face for their daily bread, struggling therefor amongst the thorns and thistles, and hindered from approaching the life-sustaining fruits of the trees of Eden by the cherubim with flaming sword which barred the way.
Thus, had disobedience, sin, not entered the world, the intimation is that there would have been no death in the human family, but that a perfect race would have been developed, all of them in the image and likeness of God. We have here then strong condemnation of the thought of some that it is sinful to marry and to bring forth children. On the contrary, the Lord expresses this as a part of the blessing upon the first pair, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth." It was a part of the curse that woman's conceptions and incidental sorrows were increased – leading, nevertheless, to the rapid filling of the earth so that our estimate of 20,000,000,000 of Adam's children who have been born and died would constitute quite a fair filling of the earth in its perfection, when the great Redeemer shall bid them all come forth from the tomb.
While thus contradicting those who speak against marriage and the begetting of children, our position should not be misunderstood; hence we add that the [R3922 : page 15] Lord's words in this connection were to the natural man and woman and not to the Church – New Creatures in Christ Jesus. It is for each one of the Church to consider his consecration of life to the Lord and his service, his cause, and to remember the example of our Lord Jesus who, by the power of his consecrated will, became a eunuch for the Kingdom of heaven's sake. (Matt. 19:12.) The Apostle lays down certain lines and furnishes certain advice which we merely refer to and endorse (see I Cor. 7, and DAWN, Vol. VI., Chap. 12).
Had our first parents remained loyal to God and hence free from the curse and more and more possessors of the spirit of a sound mind we may be sure that, under the Lord's blessing, their development of a family would have been profitable not only to the family but also to themselves. Even under present fallen conditions, where the spirit of a sound mind rules, children may to a large extent become precious blessings instead of being nuisances to themselves, their parents and their neighborhood. The parent who does his duty by his children, instructing them, controlling them, guiding them in harmony with the precepts of the Lord's Word, will not only greatly advantage his offspring but additionally will bring to himself a rich blessing of experience, because while attempting to be the guide and instructor of his children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, he will continually find he is teaching himself valuable lessons that will be helpful in his own character-development and tend to bring him increasingly to the character-likeness of the Lord.
Man's original power over the animal creation is evidently considerably lost through his own fall. Professor Charles Darwin points out that brutes trust man until they learn to know him from his bad conduct, and that the more civilized peoples can raise the brute creation to a higher condition than savages have ever done. When the times of restitution have brought mankind back again to all that was lost in Adam, and redeemed him and his race through the precious blood of Jesus, we have the assurance in Scripture that nothing shall hurt or destroy throughout the Lord's holy Kingdom, but that peace and blessing shall reign throughout the earth.
The wisdom of God is able to take hold of the affairs of his creatures and to so transform and reshape them as to bring blessings even out of some of our calamities and curses. Thus in man's case, while God did not cause the disobedience but merely permitted it, he has overruled the matter so as to make of man an exhibit that would be profitable not only to himself [R3923 : page 15] and posterity but also to the angels. The lessons taught show us divine justice in connection with the condemnation and destruction that have come upon our race – the redemptive work accomplished through Jesus shows us as nothing else could have shown the love and compassion and mercy of God toward those to whom he was under no obligation. The entire plan, when it is consummated, will show the wisdom of God in having permitted the evil, because he saw how he could overrule its dire results and make them profitable both to angels and to men. The power of God will be manifested through the fall and especially in the resurrection of the dead – the most wonderful exhibit of divine power anywhere referred to. Furthermore we must not lose sight of the fact that the Lord has so utilized the fall of man as to provide, in connection with the redemption from it, that the little flock might become New Creatures in Christ Jesus, partakers of the divine nature, joint-heirs with him as his Bride in the glorious Kingdom to come and the everlasting glory and service of the Father.
As for other features of this lesson, including the blessing of the seventh day, we refer our readers to DAWN STUDIES, Vol. VI., page 46.
1. What did the consecration of Israel's priesthood typify? T.39, par. 1.
2. What is the object of the antitypical consecration? What does this consecration signify? T.39, par. 1.
3. What is the present result and the promised future reward to those who thus consecrate? T.39, par. 1.
4. Will all who consecrate to sacrifice reach the future royal service? T.40, par. 1.
5. Why must one class come up "through great tribulation" in order to be "saved"? T.40, par. 1.
6. How do the Scriptures point out a class of priests who will be destroyed in Second Death? T.40, par. 2.
7. How did the type of Aaron's sons represent these two classes which fail of the prize? T.40, par. 3; Z.'02-238 (2nd col.) and 239.
8. Why were Aaron and his two remaining sons forbidden to make lamentation for their brethren thus cut off? T.40, par. 3.
9. Who are invited to sanctify themselves, and what does this invitation signify? T.41, par. 1; Z.'03-437 (2nd col.)
10. What are the conditions of our acceptance and begetting on God's part? T.41, par. 1.
11. What two parts of our consecration were shown by the typical consecration service? T.41, par. 2.
12. How were the spiritual and the earthly natures represented in the type? T.41, par. 2.
13. What was first done with the bullock? and what did this signify? (See Lev. 1:4.) Why was the bullock next delivered over to Moses? and what did this signify? T.41, par. 3.
14. Why did Moses apply the blood to the horns of the altar? and what did the blood poured at base of the altar signify? T.42 (top of page).
15. What was done with the hide, flesh, etc., of the bullock? and what did it typify? What represented the heart devotion which prompts our sacrifice? T.42, par. 1.
16. What was done with "the ram of burnt-offering"? and what did this typify? T.42, par. 2.
17. Briefly what did "the ram of burnt-offering" and "the ram of consecration" signify? T.45, par. 1.
18. What was done with "the ram of consecration"? and what did it show? T.45, par. 1. Z.'03-437 (2nd col.)
19. What significance in the priests' waving the choice parts of the ram before the Lord? T.45, par. 2.
20. Why did Moses take "the wave-offering" off the hands of the priests? T.46 (top of page).
21. What was laid upon "the wave-offering" while in the hands of the priests? T.46, par. 1.
22. What did the "three cakes" represent? T.46, par. 2. (Ex. 16:31).
23. Why were these a necessary part of the typical service? T.46, par. 3.
24. What significance in the sprinkling of oil mingled with blood over Aaron and his sons? T.46, par. 4. F.131, par. 1.
25. Why was the flesh boiled and eaten? T.47, par. 1.
26. What did the seven days of consecration typify? T.47, par. 2. (See Ex. 29:30,35,37.)
27. Why is it especially necessary now that all who consecrate should see to it that they be "dead with him?" T.47, par. 3,4.
28. When will all opportunity to enter the Royal Priesthood cease? T.47, par. 4.
page 17
January 1st
| VOL. XXVIII | JANUARY 15 | No. 2 |
'I will stand upon my watch, and set my foot upon the Tower, and will watch to see what He shall say unto me, and what answer I shall make to them that oppose me.' Hab. 2:1
Upon the earth distress of nations with perplexity: the sea and the waves (the restless, discontented) roaring: men's hearts failing them for fear and for looking forward to the things coming upon the earth (society): for the powers of the heavens (ecclestiasticism) shall be shaken. . . .When ye see these things come to pass, then know that the Kingdom of God is nigh at hand. Look up, lift up your heads, rejoice, for your redemption draweth nigh. – Luke 21:25-28, 32.
Our "Berean Lessons" are topical rehearsals or reviews of our Society's published "Studies," most entertainingly arranged, and very helpful to all who would merit the only honorary degree which the Society accords, viz., Verbi Dei Minister (V.D.M.), which translated into English is, Minister of the Divine Word. Our treatment of the International S.S. Lessons is specially for the older Bible Students and Teachers. By some this feature is considered indispensable.
This Journal stands firmly for the defence of the only true foundation of the Christian's hope now being so generally repudiated, – Redemption through the precious blood of "the man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom [a corresponding price, a substitute] for all." (I Pet. 1:19; I Tim. 2:6.) Building up on this sure foundation the gold, silver and precious stones (I Cor. 3:11-15; 2 Pet. 1:5-11) of the Word of God, its further mission is to – "Make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery which...has been hid in God,...to the intent that now might be made known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God" – "which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men as it is now revealed." – Eph. 3:5-9,10.
It stands free from all parties, sects and creeds of men, while it seeks more and more to bring its every utterance into fullest subjection to the will of God in Christ, as expressed in the Holy Scriptures. It is thus free to declare boldly whatsoever the Lord hath spoken; – according to the divine wisdom granted unto us, to understand. Its attitude is not dogmatical, but confident; for we know whereof we affirm, treading with implicit faith upon the sure promises of God. It is held as a trust, to be used only in his service; hence our decisions relative to what may and what may not appear in its columns must be according to our judgment of his good pleasure, the teaching of his Word, for the upbuilding of his people in grace and knowledge. And we not only invite but urge our readers to prove all its utterances by the infallible Word to which reference is constantly made, to facilitate such testing.
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UNDER this caption quite a striking article has appeared recently in the London Daily Mail. The form of the question is very suggestive. It is not a great while since the question continually asked was, "What shall we do with the poor?" How shall we build almshouses for them, restrain them, and arrange soup-kitchens and shelter for those out of work? It is quite a new question, therefore, to reverse the matter and say, "What shall the poor do with the rich?" This great change has been effected by two things: (1) The public demand for universal suffrage which has only prevailed, except in our own land, for a comparatively short time; and (2) the other factor in the situation is the increase of knowledge. Many are running to and fro, and knowledge is being increased – and knowledge, as some one has said, is power. The poor have learned that they are in the majority, that each vote has its count, and that the majority of votes means the control of the government. It is surprising that it has required so long a time for the masses to awake to the power that is in their hands through the ballot. When they do become thoroughly awake it is very easy to be seen that with the power in their hands the poor will see to it that the rich do not have as great advantage in the future as in the past.
Only in this last election, as we have stated, have the British voters gotten awake to the situation, and now they are planning for the future, arranging to take over as much of the government as possible into their own hands and to effect legislation favorable to their own interests. In the United States a similar movement is on foot amongst the labor unions. It may be a few years before it reaches the point of danger to the present social structure, but its coming is inevitable. We may be sure that it will be heard in full force and weight by the end of "Gentile times." In Germany matters have already progressed further. The Socialists there would have matters in their own hands were the voting privileges theirs on the same basis that they are in the United States and Great Britain. The Germans, however, foresaw something of coming conditions and shielded the government and the wealthier and middle classes from the poor by providing certain conditions under which the favored classes have a larger number of votes at the polls. Nor do we think this an unreasonable position – that education and property should be represented. The point we make, however, is that all these matters are culminating on time. Hearken to the words of Scripture, applicable now: "Go to now, ye rich men; weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you." – Jas. 5:1.
We quote below the article referred to: –
"Of peculiar importance and significance at the present time, when England is wondering whether or not the Socialist Party is in the immediate future to control the fate and fortunes of the United Kingdom, is Sir Henry Wrixon's political study, published under the obscure title of 'The Pattern State.' Sir H. Wrixon stands far aloof from purely British controversies; he is an Australian publicist and statesman; yet his contribution to political science is the more valuable since he has seen in Australia the working of the very tendencies which he describes.
"The great problem of today, to his mind is, 'What will the poor do with the rich?' The general election in England has marked a change more profound than the French Revolution. Power has passed finally and forever from the English middle-class to the wage-earner. Nor is it probable that the conditions which now exist in this country will speedily change. The middle class, Sir Henry thinks, were accessible to argument and reason; the wage-earning class are not. The middle class sought, on the whole, the interests of the nation, and were divided because some took one view and some another of what those interests might be. The wage-earning class seek first and foremost their own personal interest, to ameliorate their own economic condition, to obtain higher wages and greater [R3923 : page 20] comfort from the State, at the expense of others, and, in a word, to eliminate the struggle for existence. Hence they are and will remain solid and united. The political pendulum will swing no longer.
"The political forecasts of the immediate past have been belied. Political reformers, down to the late Mr. Gladstone, thought that the wage-earners would, if given votes, be content to follow the judgment 'of those who have superior opportunities, and have also, or are supposed to have superior fitness of all kinds.' The very contrary has happened. The wage-earners, instead of voting for the orthodox Liberal or the orthodox Unionist, have voted for Labor members, trade unionist representatives, and others of their own class and station, without the education and training which gave Mr. Gladstone's 'superior fitness' to govern. The poor are not following the lead of the well-to-do, but are kings in their own right.
"This kingship of the people (by 'the people' being understood the poor, who are in every nation the majority) will produce immediate and inevitable results. In the first place, we shall see the rule of ignorance.
"'Theories and proposals that under a middle-class rule would be regarded as too wild to require an answer will be favorably regarded even by learned professors. ...They will be discussed with all the care and respect that is due to a monarch's words.'
"Municipal government in England and the United States has already shown that political intelligence does not widen as we descend in rank and station, and that universal education has not the enlightening results which were promised in its name. Hence the prospect of the future is the rule of the wire-pullers, bribing the electorate with the plunder of the rich, to be bestowed in the form of 'political outdoor relief.'
"The elector will no longer be asked, What have you done for your country? but, What has the Government done for you? We have reached a condition of affairs where the political conditions are in absolute opposition to the industrial. At the polling station the worker is the equal of the master, nay, even his superior, since he has on his side a vast numerical advantage, which virtually reduces the employer to a state of political impotence. But within the factory affairs are reversed. There the employer is king, and his equal at the voting station is his inferior.
"Such conditions could only persist while the attention of the voter was confined to 'what are properly called politics, or the public affairs of the nation.' If the scope of politics is extended – as it has been – so 'as to include the management of the industrial side of life, with the purpose of there enforcing that equality which is so dearly prized on the political side of life, then we come directly upon that problem which western civilization must either solve or perish in the attempt to solve.' In a word, political equality is irreconcilable with industrial inequality. One or other must go.
"This is clearly seen and understood by the Labor party; it is the doctrine also of a considerable body of Liberals, numbering not much less than 100, outside the Labor ranks, though Sir Henry does not note this. If that section gives effect to its doctrines, backed by the majority of voters, the whole order of civilization as we now know it must change.
"Already in the municipalities the change has begun. The exploitation of the few rich by the many poor, their oppressive taxation, and the provision of comfortable conditions for the poor, who find themselves [R3924 : page 20] possessed of supreme power in virtue of their numbers, is the system known as municipal Socialism. Already it is taken for granted.
"'That it is the duty of the State to find work for its people; to provide all citizens with pensions in old age; to fix hours of work and rates of wages...and it is the duty of county councils to tax property so many shillings in the pound, to improve the surroundings of the poor.'
"The municipal Socialist, when resisted, can always appeal to an army of the proletariat and vote down those owning property. In fact a stage has been reached where taxation is levied on one small class by another large class, and spent wholly or mainly in the interests of the latter class. That is a state of affairs which earlier thinkers pronounced contrary to the rights of man; it is, in other words, a barely disguised tyranny.
"This tendency will proceed further, Sir H. Wrixon holds. The tyranny will become as complete as it was in the democracies of Greece, when the plunder of the rich was the normal rule, and as it was in the French Revolution, when the assertion of political equality was instantly followed by an attack on property. He points out that the modern demagogues exhibit a marked antagonism to private property, and propose to wipe it out of existence by graduated taxation.
"There will be no violent revolution, unless property resists by force, but simply a series of confiscatory laws. Industry after industry will be municipalized or taken over by the State, when efficiency will inevitably decline. 'All the causes that promote expense and inefficiency' will be present; absent only the causes which stimulate energy and inventiveness. There will be no penalties for slackness, and, if for a time, all goes well, this will be because the State is living on its accumulated capital. A gradual decay will set in, and either a fresh revolution will be accomplished, or the State will be crushed by some foreign power...."
At the First Presbyterian Church, St. Louis, Rev. Chas. Steizle, secretary of the Church and Labor Department of the general Presbyterian Church, delivered a sermon in which he asserted that the labor problem is purely a religious question. He said in part: –
"For three years I have traveled all over the country. I have a personal acquaintance with all the labor leaders of the United States. It seems to me the workingmen are moving in two general directions: (1) Political; (2) economic. Who has not been appalled by the tremendous growth of socialism? In our own country the growth in the last four years has been sevenfold. If it increases in the same ratio in the next eight years the socialists will be able to elect a President. [R3924 : page 21] Whatever one may think of the economic value of socialism, this fact remains that socialism is becoming to thousands of workingmen a substitute for the Church."
"Words will not wake up the masses to realize the maze into which capitalism is plunging them, but words will wake up a few of them. It will take conditions to do what words have not the power to do. And these conditions are coming like a cyclone. But when conditions begin to press harder and harder, when the clock strikes the ominous sound, precipitated by some insignificant matter, perhaps, then the words that the masses have read will come to them with great force.
"The howling of the abolitionists did not awaken the antagonism to chattel slavery, but the firing on Fort Sumter with popguns created a condition that made the people jump to their feet with a determination to settle the question of which power should rule the nation."
– Appeal to Reason.
There can be no doubt about it that recent revelations of how rich men have acquired much of their wealth has come as a revelation to the general public. Though long known among the rich, it has been hidden from "the man in the street" by financial terms which he did not comprehend. With his increase of knowledge he has received a "shock." His reverence for the rich and the great is shattered. This is but the precursor of the complete loss of confidence in everybody and every thing, pointed out in the Scriptures as the very foundation of the coming anarchy.
The immediate effect upon many is to lead them to philosophise thus: "So, so; I see now how it is all done! I used to wonder how a man could accumulate even one million dollars honestly, but supposed the honorable millionaires were the very personification of honor and justice, after the style of their requirements of the bank clerks and cashiers of railroads, etc. Now I see differently. Well, I hope my chance may come soon, that I also, by the methods which I see are 'usual,' may become a multi-millionaire."
"The disposition among worthy and earnest men to ignore religious differences in pursuit of common and noble ends was strikingly shown at the recent international arbitration conference at Lake Mohonk. There, at the opening devotional exercises which marked each daily session of the conference, were to be seen as active participants a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church in his scarlet robes, a Quaker in his simple garb, an Episcopal bishop, a Congregational judge, together with Presbyterian, Baptist and Methodist clergymen. The Quaker read the hymn of peace, written by a Unitarian. The Roman Catholic and Quaker sang from the same book, and after a psalm the cardinal read prayers in English, with many a Protestant responding 'Amen.'
"To say such a scene was remarkable is simply to recognize the fact that as respects religious and sectarian differences the world has moved forward out of that bigotry and intolerance which for so many ages obscured the vision and warped the judgment of many otherwise good and worthy men. We are doing now only what rational and sincere men should always have done in the past, and which they will continue to do in the future, until scenes like that at Mohonk will be so much in the natural order that they will cease to be notable."
– Leslie's Weekly.
In view of the above general tendency to religious toleration is it not remarkable the amount of intolerance that is displayed against all who sympathize with the teachings of MILLENNIAL DAWN? The manifestations of hatred and opposition come from all denominations, and the various persecutions in a small way practised against individuals in their homes, amongst their business and Church relatives, is surely remarkable. Why is it so? We might just as well ask why was it that Scribes and Pharisees and Doctors of the Law, all classes and parties of the Jews, opposed Christ and his simple, straightforward teachings at the first advent. Why was it that with the wide differences existing between themselves these all could unite in the opposition to the light, the truth? Whoever can answer those questions respecting the harvest of the Jewish age will be able probably in similar vein to answer the similar questions pertinent to the harvest of this Gospel age. General doubt and darkness on all theological questions is settling down rapidly upon all denominations – "They believe they know not what," hence why should they any longer quarrel with each other? We know what we believe, and in that sense of the word are certainly amongst the few Christians. Our presentations in MILLENNIAL DAWN are clear cut, Scriptural; and the Scriptures are thus shown to be opposed to all the sects and parties of Christendom, and their various creeds are shown to be out of accord with the Word of God. "If the world hate you ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world the world would love its own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." – John 15:18,19.
It would appear that the average German citizen has a higher sense of the obligation of an oath than have some religious teachers. This is shown in the following report from the London Daily Mail. It causes us to wonder how the common people would decide the matter if some of the clergy were put on trial for the violation of their vows of ordination – in preaching contrary to their solemn covenants. The item follows: –
"Father Geisert, a Catholic priest, of Lautenbach, Baden, has been sentenced to a year in the penitentiary for attempting to induce a parishioner to swear falsely in the Catholic Party's interest in the course of a bye-election contest for the Landtag.
"The priest made a pathetic supplication to his judges to let him off, confessing that the letter wherein [R3924 : page 22] he made the incriminating suggestion was written to a parishioner in a moment of foolish zeal, and that he had done penance for it many times over.
"The defense introduced as a last resort the evidence of Professor Mayer, the authority on 'moral theology as related to the question of the oath.' He declared that during the time of the Inquisition a certain 'mental restriction' was permitted to persons who took oath, and said that Geisert may have had this in mind when he advised his parishioners to lie."
"The recent increase in the activity of socialist propagandists has been noticeable. The latest development is the formation of an intercollegiate society to spread the principles of socialism not only in the colleges of the country but among the pupils of high schools in the larger cities. Literature is to be distributed [R3925 : page 22] broadcast, while lecturers will be sent from school to school to explain the doctrines for which it is hoped to make many converts. Among those back of this movement we are not surprised to find E. Benjamin Andrews, Jack London and Charlotte Perkins Gilman."
– Pittsburgh Gazette.
At a recent medical conference Dr. Hyslop paid a remarkable tribute to the hygienic value of prayer, says the English Churchman. In treating of the influence of moral and religious environment, he said it ought to be their object, as teachers and physicians, to fight against all those influences which tended to produce either indifference or intemperance towards religion. Of all hygienic measures to counteract disturbed hope or depression of spirits, he would undoubtedly give first place to the simple habit of prayer. Its effect on the mind was more beneficial than any other therapeutic agent known.
Apropos of which may be quoted the following from Longfellow's "The Day is Done":
From Genesis to Revelation the serpent is set before us as the synonym of Satan. The introduction of sin is charged to the great Adversary of God, who, following his ambition, sought to secure our first parents and their posterity as his subjects under the new empire which he hoped to establish, that he might be like the Most High. This sinful, disloyal ambition not only wrought havoc in a cherub, degrading him and making him an adversary of God, but through him it wrought havoc to our race – divine condemnation to death, with all the attendant miseries of sickness, pain – mental, moral and physical – deteriorating, culminating in death. We all are witnesses of the penalty; the doctors' signs, no less than the crape and the cemetery, assure us that the sentence of death still rests upon our race – the most awful calamity that could be imagined.
That a serpent was used in Mother Eve's temptation there can be no doubt, but whether it spoke with audible voice or only by its actions we cannot know – it was quite probably the latter, as we sometimes say, "Actions speak louder than words." Satan merely used the serpent as the instrumentality of his temptation. His desire was to alienate the affections, love and respect of our first parents from God to himself. He attempted to do this by passing as their friend and giving the insinuation that God, although the Creator, was the transgressor, who desired to hinder their best and truest advancement and prosperity. The Lord had placed our first parents in the Garden of Eden, which was highly favored every way, and entirely fitted for the perfect pair to enjoy their human perfection to the full. In it were all kinds of trees, some beautiful to look upon and some good for food – trees of life – the eating of whose fruit would perpetuate life in full degree. But amongst the trees of life in this orchard was one tree of very marked peculiarity, which our Lord had called the tree of knowledge and of whose fruit he forbade our parents to eat. This restriction would not necessarily have been perpetual. In due time, after the test of obedience had demonstrated the loyalty of our first parents, no doubt they would have been granted full liberty in the use of the tree of knowledge, but partaking of it before the Lord's time would mean not only their disobedience but their injury, and would bring upon them the divine sentence, "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" – margin, "Dying thou shalt die."
This restriction on the tree of knowledge became the channel of temptation. Satan was aware of that trait of nature which leads everyone to be interested in and to have more or less desire for anything that is forbidden – to wonder why it is forbidden, etc. Such thoughts had undoubtedly passed through the minds of Adam and Eve, and had been set aside as improper, because surely their Creator, who had done so much for their blessing and joy, would not withhold from them anything really to their advantage; hence in appreciation of his goodness they settled the matter [R3925 : page 23] that they would be obedient to the Lord and would not taste the forbidden fruit. Now came Satan's attack: posing as their best friend he intimated selfishness on God's part as the basis of their restriction. More than this, he suggested that they never could be happy without the valuable knowledge which the fruit of that tree would bring them, and, further, that God had lied to them in saying that death would surely follow the eating of the forbidden fruit.
Had Satan appeared and held personal conversation with them directly or through the serpent, they seemingly should have been on guard, and would probably have wondered why any of God's creatures should speak disparagingly of his wisdom and his love. Our conjecture is that the whole matter was done by signs – that under Satan's guidance the serpent partook of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and when mother Eve saw that no harm came to the serpent, but perceived that it was one of the most cunning of all the animals of the earth, the operation of her mind was, "Has God deceived us? Has he an object in deceiving us? Why did he tell us that we should die if we ate of that fruit, whereas we see that the serpent eats of it and does not die? Quite probably it is because of the partaking of this fruit regularly that the serpent is the wisest of all the living creatures under our control." And when the woman perceived by this process of reasoning that the tree was good to make one wise, her desire for wisdom entrapped her into disloyalty to the command of her Creator. She ate, and as a result did indeed get a great increase of knowledge, with condemnation, sorrow, pain, tears – because the knowledge came not in God's time and order, but in violation of his command.
In thus entrapping mother Eve, and through her bringing upon Adam and his race the death penalty, Satan became the great murderer of the race, as our Lord Jesus declared, "He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth." His counsel, and indeed the counsel of all who are out of harmony with God is evil, injurious, and whosoever heeds or agrees therewith is not wise. The Apostle says, "The serpent beguiled Eve," and this is his general procedure in all of our temptations. He does not come out into the open, but everywhere seeks to put darkness for light – to deceive, to mislead. We are to remember, too, that mother Eve had no experience with sin, nor with any adversary of God and of righteousness, and hence was the more easily misled in this temptation. Coming from her the temptation was an hundred-fold what it otherwise would have been, for we are informed by the Apostle that "Adam was not deceived." He was aware, fully convinced, that death would be the penalty for his partaking of the forbidden fruit, irrespective of its effect upon the serpent. His temptation, however, touched him upon his most vulnerable point – his love for his wife.
There are intimations that the fall took place one and a half years after father Adam's creation, but for what portion of that time he had his beautiful and loved companion, Eve, we are not informed. It is clearly intimated, however, that he was alone for a sufficient period to realize that there was no companion suitable for him amongst all the beasts, cattle and creatures under his dominion; and when, finally, the Lord gave him a wife of his own flesh and bones, of his own nature, he evidently found in her that complement to himself for which he had so greatly longed. And now, when he perceived that Eve had eaten of the forbidden fruit and that she must die, the poor man evidently felt that without her life would lose its charms, and determined that whatever the cost he would share it with his bride – therefore he partook of the fruit at her instance, with the full knowledge that it would mean his death. He not only knowingly [R3926 : page 23] and willingly disobeyed the divine command, but did it intentionally – he suicided.
We must not censure our first parents too severely, but remember that, although they were perfect in their capacities, created in the image of God, they were not perfect in knowledge. They should have been wise enough to know, to realize, their limitations of ignorance and to have trusted to the Lord. Lack of faith was mother Eve's difficulty, and had father Adam possessed a sufficiency of faith and maintained his obedience no doubt God would have arranged some way for the recovery of his companion, but for their undeveloped condition the trial was too strong; they succumbed, as no doubt nearly all of their children would have done under similar circumstances. We blame them not, yet we see that God, foreknowing what course they would take, preferred to allow them to take that course rather than to interfere with them, intending to ultimately overrule their disobedience for a higher and wider development of his own gracious purposes through the redemption and ultimate blessing which the divine plan centers in Jesus.
What do we see today but similar disobedience, notwithstanding the fact that we have larger experience than our first parents as respects contact with sin and its penalty? In how many instances today does ambition, love of knowledge, lead to disobedience of divine restrictions to the serious injury of the disobedient one? One would think that the lesson before us would be so powerful, so convincing, that all who have a knowledge of it would flee from temptation in such directions and resolve that at any cost they would be obedient to the Word of the Lord. How many today, like Father Adam, would be willing to sacrifice their eternal interests for the joys and pleasures of earthly companionship, even to the extent of disobedience to the divine requirements.
Whoever may be inclined to condemn mother Eve for hearkening to the voice of the serpent should reflect that the great majority of the world today are believing Satan's lie, rejecting God's message. The heathen, numbering 1,200,000,000, almost without exception believe Satan's lie, "Ye shall not surely die," so that when their friends die they claim that they are not dead but more alive than ever. Nor is this the worst of it: so-called Christendom, representing 400,000,000 of our race, have very generally accepted the same lie, and similarly believe that none are dead – that all in the moment in which they appear to die really become more alive than ever before. How can we blame mother Eve on this score while we see the deceptions spread abroad far and near, notwithstanding all the lessons [R3926 : page 24] which she learned and which her children should have learned through her example. As to believe God always leads us in the right direction and brings blessings, so to reject God's counsel, to receive the serpent's counsel, always means to bring injury in some sense or degree.
Look about over the world today – see the heathen worshiping their ancestors, and imagining that they hold communion with those whom the Scriptures declare are dead and know not anything, and never would know anything had it not been for the redemption accomplished at Calvary by Jesus, and who would not in any sense of the word be conscious until awakened by our Lord at his second coming in resurrection power. Look at Christendom, and perceive that two-thirds of these believe in the doctrine of a present purgatory, in which their relatives and friends are suffering from the moment of death. See them praying for the dead and paying for masses for their relief from pain. Think of the thousands of injurious superstitions that are built upon this error, and reflect that Spiritism, which is already having a great influence and, according to the Scriptures, will shortly have still wider and more baneful effect; and note how it has all its power from this false doctrine which the Adversary originally started in Eden – that the dead are not dead, but alive, and ready to communicate through mediums, etc. Consider how Satan has used this error all the way down through the ages, and how, through the fallen angels, the demons, he has personated the dead and sought thus to entrap the living. Let us learn the lesson; let us say, with one of old, "Let God be true, though it make every man a liar." – Rom. 3:4.
Let us realize that every one who opposes or denies the divine testimony is a liar and the truth is not in him; but let us set to our seal that God is true, and realize that the penalty of death is real, that the redemption price paid by our Lord Jesus was his death, also real, and that the blessed provision of the divine plan for the future is the awakening of mankind from the sleep of death, from the unconsciousness of death, for the very purpose of bringing them to a clear knowledge of God and his truth and releasing them from the superstitions and evil influences, degradation, etc., which came upon them through disobedience, through the fall, through the following of Satan's original lie.
The curse that rests upon the race, upon the earth itself and upon the serpent and Satan is a condemnation, a penalty, a reprobation. The serpent, under divine reprobation, experienced some kind of a change of form and locomotion, and became to mankind a synonym, a representative, of everything evil, loathsome, vile – the synonym of sin and Satan. Not only in our lesson is this brought to our attention, but also in the typical system of natural Israel. Fiery serpents were sent upon Israel as a curse or penalty for sin; and when, through their doubts, the people were perishing, under the Lord's instruction Moses raised upon a pole a copper serpent, looking to which in faith the Israelites were recovered from the poison of the serpents. Thus the Lord early intimated that Christ would be made a curse, a sin offering for us, and that we would be healed through looking to him in faith.
In pronouncing the curse against the serpent – against evil – the Lord declared, "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel." The Scriptures show us clearly that this divine prophecy is to be fulfilled, that our Lord Jesus is the seed of the woman through whom the blessing shall come, and that his Church, his Bride, is to be joint-heir with him in the suffering incidental to the attainment of the honorable position of joint-heirs with him also in the great work of delivering mankind from all the evils that have come upon us through Satan, through the serpent. The head and the heel are referred to symbolically as representing vital and non-vital portions of the body.
Thus the Christ, Jesus the Head and the Church his members, throughout this Gospel age have all suffered something from the serpent, from evil, from Satan, but under God's providences their sufferings are not serious, not deadly – they are wounded in the heel, so to speak. This seed class is begotten of the holy Spirit, New Creatures; hence nothing that can come to them in their earthly, human experiences can prove injurious to their spiritual welfare. All the bruising of the heel, under the Lord's supervision, shall work together for good to the development of character, to the preparation of the injured members for the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory by and by. Thus it has been with our dear Redeemer, who being wounded for our transgressions has been highly exalted of the Father. We also who are sharers with him in his sufferings, ignominy, death, are to be sharers in his glory.
As for the serpent, his head shall be crushed, all evil shall be utterly destroyed in God's due time. Not yet, however; evil is still rampant, not only as much as it has ever been in the world's history, but more so, and this is in full accord with the divine record that "evil men and leaders astray shall wax worse and worse," and a few short years ahead will fully demonstrate the power of Satan over and in those who are his subjects. But victory is coming to those who are now wounded. The Christ shall by and by bind that old serpent, the devil, Satan, and cast him into the abyss and set a seal over him that he may deceive the nations no more until the thousand years of the Millennial reign of Christ be passed – until all mankind shall have had a full opportunity of coming to a true knowledge of God and of accepting and using the grace provided through the great Redeemer's sacrifice.
As for the Church, we also will have to do with this work of crushing evil – as the Apostle expresses it, "The very God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly." – Rom. 16:20.
Our Golden Text fits the subject well, especially in the better translation which we have given. All of Adam's posterity, all who are in him, are dying as a result of his disobedience. Failing to maintain his hold upon the gift of God, eternal life, he has also failed to transmit that character and degree of life to his children. The six thousand years of crying and dying have been an awful lesson to the world of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, but thank God the [R3927 : page 25] time of this groaning of creation is nearly at an end, the new dispensation is near at hand. He that gave himself a ransom for Adam, and who thus incidentally purchased not only him but all of his race who had lost life in him, this great Redeemer is about to establish the rule of righteousness in the world and to inaugurate that era of blessing, the Golden Age, for which the whole creation waits and longs, whether intelligently or unintelligently.
The blessing of life in its full, everlasting, complete sense is coming to "all in Christ" and to none others. Now is the opportunity for coming into relationship with him as his Bride and joint-heir. Blessed are we whose hearts of understanding and ears of appreciation have recognized this grand opportunity, so that we have been glad to accept the Lord's proposition at the cost of every earthly interest. Surely the faithful shall be like him and see him as he is and share his glory. Then in the time of his presence the world of mankind in general will be granted an opportunity to see and to hear and to accept of divine mercy in him – not by becoming the Bride, for that class will have then been filled, but they will be granted the privilege of coming into relationship with the Christ as children, receiving of his life, being begotten again to restored life – to a restitution of all that was lost in the first Adam and restored in the second Adam. He that hath such a hope in him may well purify himself and strive to come into relationship with Christ, and thus to as quickly as possible attain to the joys and blessings of the divine favor. He that hath the Son hath life, he that hath not the Son shall not see life eternal. – 1 John 5:12.
At what particular time our lesson dates we may not surely know, the chapter in which it occurs passing over centuries of time. In the first verse it tells of the birth of Cain, in the next verse he is a full-grown man and has a full-grown brother Abel, and quite probably they both had large families, though through neither one is Adam's genealogy reckoned, and Abel's children, if he had any, are not mentioned at all. The third verse, with which our lesson opens, intimates a considerable period of time after Abel was a keeper of sheep and Cain a tiller of the ground, saying, "And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord, and Abel an offering of the firstlings of his flock."
Nothing either good or bad is recorded of either of these men, Cain and Abel, up to the time of this lesson and their presentation of their respective offerings before the Lord. It was but natural, and we might say proper, that each should present to the Lord an offering representing his own industries, and the Lord's acceptance of Abel's offering and failure to accept Cain's should not be considered as any slight upon the latter, but rather as a lesson of instruction, a leading of divine providence, indicating the character of offering that would be most acceptable and pleasing to the Lord. The reason for the acceptance of Abel's offering is apparent – God desired that all offerings from his creatures should recognize original sin and the necessity for a great sin-offering, the sacrifice of the life of the Redeemer. Thus early did God begin the lesson of instruction emphasized by the Apostle that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins. – Heb. 9:22.
So near to perfection, the first-born son of the perfect Adam, Cain had undoubtedly inherited a fine human organization, [R3928 : page 26] nearly perfect in all of its parts, comparatively well balanced; but as Adam, who was perfect, could allow love for his wife to misguide him into disobedience of his Creator, so Cain allowed the wrong view of matters to enter his mind, to have control and ultimately to bring forth its evil fruit, murder. We can sympathize with him in his grief that his sacrifice was not acceptable to the Lord: we can appreciate his surprise that the offering of his younger brother, a blood offering, should be more acceptable. But here we who have the new mind, begotten of the holy Spirit, can see that he took the wrong course in allowing envious, angry feelings against his brother, whereas he should have gone to the Lord in supplication to know why his sacrifice was not acceptable. Had he done so the Lord would undoubtedly have told him that his desire to worship and serve were appreciated, but that it must be a divine regulation amongst men that all sacrifices, to be acceptable to the Lord, must be those which would typify the death of a ransomer and atoner for sin.
Here we see the fine, subtle, entering wedge of sin, and who that has had experience may not trace analogies in his own experience and note when and where the wrong thought was permitted to have control of his mind and the proper thought was not entertained? Many of us can perhaps see by how narrow a margin we have escaped a wrong course, it may be, on various occasions. It is in such respects that the New Creatures in Christ have much advantage every way over natural men, however well disposed they may be; for, as the Apostle explains, as New Creatures we have the "spirit of a sound mind," which enables us to think calmly, dispassionately, temperately of our own experiences and those of others, and leads us to look to the Lord for the wisdom from on high as a guide in the interpretation of our daily experiences. Whoever learns to look to the Lord in all his sorrows and disappointments, as well as in his joys, has learned a valuable lesson, which Cain had not yet learned, and which he never learned, because none were begotten of the holy Spirit or permitted to receive the new mind of Christ until after the real atonement had been made and Pentecost came as a result of the acceptance of that atonement on our behalf by the heavenly Father.
The power to be angry, the power to be wroth, is not a result of the fall nor an evidence that Cain was bestial. The Lord uses these same words in reference to his own attitude of mind at times, declaring that he was wroth under certain conditions and that he is angry with the wicked every day. (Psa. 7:11.) The force of character which permits of anger is the very same force which otherwise directed signifies intensity of love: the inability to be angry under proper cause would imply imperfection, blemishes, just as inability to love strongly would imply similar defects of character. To be perfect implies a full-rounded capacity in every direction. The perfectly shaped head would not be a bumpy one representing some of the organs large and others small, but would be a well-rounded head in all particulars. In such a perfect organization, while every power would be there, the higher powers of veneration for God, spirituality, conscience, etc., should be in control and indicate when combativeness, destructiveness, should and when it should not be exercised. It is a mistake to suppose that a perfect being would be deficient in combativeness: on the contrary, every Christian must have this quality of mind, otherwise how could he become an "overcomer"? how could he "fight the good fight"? The desirable thing is that every organ of our heads should be perfect, and that these all shall be under the perfect control and regulation of the higher reasoning faculties.
Cain was not rightly exercised by his experiences. He went about sullenly for a time, brooding over the fact that God had not recognized his offering and had recognized Abel's. He was angry – it seemed to him an injustice on God's part: he had been as faithful in his department as Abel had been in his.
God did not leave him to himself, but considering the fact of his inexperience and that there were none others to give him proper counsel, the Lord admonished him with the query, "Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well sin lieth at the door." This suggestion should have been sufficient. Cain should at once have appealed to the Lord, and having learned God's will, should have prepared himself to offer such a sacrifice to the [R3928 : page 27] Lord as would be pleasing to him. The inference that he was not now doing well, not now pleasing the Lord in his wrath and sullen attitude, was a reprimand; and the suggestion that sin was lying at the door, or (revised version) "crouching at his door," should have suggested to him the danger of a misstep. Nothing is intimated of a wrong condition prior to this sacrifice, and the sacrifice itself was not wrong – it was merely that Cain was ignorant. The wrong began when he became angry and sullen instead of applying himself to learn the lesson of the Lord's providences. Sin was now crouching at his door like a wild beast, ready to spring upon him and devour him. And, alas for him! he failed to heed the Lord's warning and allowed the crouching enemy, sin, to enter into his heart and to make of him a murderer. It was the spirit of Satan that entered into him, taking the place of the spirit or disposition of the Lord, which was his originally as one closely in the likeness of God, not greatly marred as yet by the fall. This the Apostle intimates, saying that he was "of that wicked one" – he partook of Satan's disposition, spirit. (1 John 3:12.) And as Satan was a murderer from the beginning, so his spirit in Cain was a murderous spirit. – John 8:44.
Here we have the vital point of this lesson as respects the household of faith, especially the New Creation. We who have been begotten of the holy Spirit and who thus have the "mind of Christ" (1 Cor. 2:16), have the mind or disposition that is loving, generous, kind, forgiving toward our fellows and that is reverential and obedient toward God. This is the spirit or disposition that is of the Father and of the Son: the opposite disposition or spirit is of the Adversary. The two spirits or dispositions are so opposite that we cannot have both at once – we cannot serve God and Mammon, Christ and Belial.
The Lord lays down his regulations in this matter in most positive terms, telling us in the Golden Text of this lesson that "he that hateth his brother is a murderer" – telling us also that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him, and assuring us that the spirit or disposition of murder is the spirit or disposition of the Adversary, who was the first murderer. If we resist the devil he will flee from us, but if we allow anger and a souring disposition to take possession of our minds, the Adversary comes closer and closer until he crouches at the door of our hearts, ready to leap in and have possession at a favorable opportunity. In Cain's case, he was not counted as having sinned at the time he thought of his brother in angry mood – his sin was in the outcome of that angry mood – murder itself.
With us the matter is different, because the Lord is not dealing with us according to the flesh but according to the spirit, the will, the intention. Our flesh is reckoned as degenerated, hopelessly dead, and we are accepted of the Lord purely on the basis of our new minds, our faith in Christ, and our consecration to walk in his steps. For all such New Creatures murder would be an impossibility. How could one who has the Spirit of the Lord commit murder? It would be impossible for him to desire or commit murder under any conditions. It would imply that he had lost the Spirit of the Lord entirely; and since under the Lord's Covenant he would not be permitted to do this ignorantly and without reproof, it would imply a wilfulness in the sin. Still stronger is the statement that hatred would be murder for the New Creation. The angry thought might be suggested through the imperfect, fallen brain, but the mind, the will, must be so loyal to God and so well instructed respecting his will that it would repulse such a suggestion as that of hate. The New Creature, the New Will, the New Intention, cannot deliberately entertain a feeling of hatred toward a brother – it would mean the spirit or disposition of murder, and thus the reverse of the Lord's Spirit.
Another Apostle, in cautioning the Church, assures us that the works of the fallen flesh and of the devil are manifestly different from the works or operation of the Spirit of the Lord in his people. The latter he tells us brings forth the reverse, or the fruitage of gentleness, meekness, patience, long suffering, brotherly kindness, love, etc.; the former, the spirit of the fallen nature, the Adversary – anger, malice, envy, hatred, strife, backbiting and slander.
It is only as we get this matter well before our mental vision that we have the proper conception of the Spirit of the Lord in contrast with the spirit of error, the spirit of the Adversary, the disposition of sin. Whoever gets such an opening of the eyes of his understanding will be assisted, quickened thereby to fresh zeal in his opposition to sin in its every form. And the wider the eyes of his understanding open to a discernment of God's character and the beauties of his law of love and justice, the more vigilant will he be in his opposition to the downward tendencies of his own [R3929 : page 27] flesh – the more on guard lest he should be overtaken in such faults.
We read, "Lust [desire] when it has conceived bringeth forth sin, and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death." (Jas. 1:15.) Here we have a suggestion of the insidious character of sin; it does not stalk about openly in its horrible aspect, rather it starts in desire: it is prompted by selfishness of some kind, either in envy as in Cain's case or in ambition as in Satan's case. Small, refined, insidious are the beginnings of such desires, with no suggestion whatever of disloyalty to God or murder of our fellows. It is when these selfish desires and envyings, being unrepulsed, have gradually grown stronger and stronger, that, as the Apostle suggests, they conceive and bring forth to fruition, where they have life actually. Then the course is longer or shorter according to the individual or the circumstances, but the tendency of a desire that has conceived is to bring forth – to have the desire, the ambition, the envy, reach a consummation, and such a consummation is always sin. Such sin continued in, unrepented of, cherished, would surely lead on to death – the Second Death. How important, then, it is that we keep a close watch upon the desires of our hearts, and remember that out of the heart, out of the desires, proceed not only the good, kind, loving, generous sentiments, conceiving and bringing forth good deeds, kind words and proper conduct, but also out of the heart desires proceed the envyings and wrong and selfish ambitions which lead farther and farther away from the Lord and nearer and [R3929 : page 28] nearer to that condition which he would ultimately declare worthy of the Second Death. How appropriate the words of the poet: –
After cautioning Cain that sin crouched at the door of his heart, the Lord added, "Unto thee shall be his desire and thou shalt rule over him;" that is to say, Satan desired to have Cain, but the latter's proper course would be to resist the devil, to rule over him by keeping his heart in tune with the Lord and the recognized spirit of righteousness, justice, love. St. Peter found the Adversary desiring to have him, to sift him as wheat, to get him out of the discipleship of which he was one of the strongest characters and leader. We have all seen how nearly the Adversary succeeded in Peter's case as he entirely succeeded in Cain's. Peter had the advantage of the Lord's prayers and of his contact with him and of the lessons he had learned as his disciple, and in his case a victory resulted, even though for a time he was overcome.
Is it not the same with all the Lord's true followers? Is not Satan desiring to have us to sift us – to hinder us from being garnered amongst those who shortly will shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of the Father. (Matt. 13:43.) Assuredly this is the case, and our experiences today are in full accord with the testimony of the Scriptures that we are now in a very trying time – subject to the special temptations of the Adversary, but succored of the Lord in a special manner through his Word, through the brethren, through the various helpful instrumentalities which the Lord has provided for this harvest time for those who look to him for assistance and who are willing and glad to accept those aids which he proffers them. Yea, we see that we are living in that particular time which the Scriptures designate the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all them that dwell upon the face of the whole earth. – Rev. 3:10.
Temptations, trials, there must needs be: without these there would be no such thing as demonstrating or perfecting character, and the Lord proposes that only overcomers shall be joint-heirs with his Son in the Kingdom. Instead, therefore, of temptations being a sign of divine displeasure they should be regarded by us as evidences of the Lord's favor – that he still considers us worthy of being further proven; that he still has us in hand with a view to our preparation, chiseling, polishing, making ready for places in his glorious heavenly Temple. Let us learn, therefore, to rejoice in tribulation and, as the Apostle urges, let us also fear. (2 Cor. 7:4; Heb. 4:1.) Thus between the rejoicing and the fear, and carefulness and watchfulness and prayerfulness, we shall be in that attitude which will assist us in the knowing and doing of the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
How long Cain brooded over his trouble, how long it took for his wrong desire, his envy, to conceive and bring forth the sin of murder we are not told – merely the fact is stated that this was the bitter fruit. The Lord did not hinder the murder, and even dealt most generously with the murderer, to whose attention the matter is called by the inquiry, "Where is Abel, thy brother?" As the question implied ignorance on the Lord's part, Cain may have wondered to what extent the Almighty was omniscient, all-seeing, and his answer was in line with this. "I know not: am I my brother's keeper?" This question continually recurs, not only amongst the members of Adam's natural family but also amongst the brethren of the Lord's family, the New Creation. To what extent is one his brother's keeper? how far does our responsibility go?
Let us look first at the spiritual family: Its members are declared to be bounden or holden one to another by the cords of love, by membership in the body of Christ, so that if one member suffer all the members suffer with it, and if one member be honored all the members are honored. (1 Cor. 12:26.) The Apostle, expatiating on the importance of the various members of the body, declares that even the humblest is necessary – that the hand may not say to the foot, I have no need of thee; and that as in our natural bodies we take the greatest care of those members which are least pleasing, so in the spiritual family those which are least attractive of themselves need our attention and sympathy and covering with the garment of charity more than do others. The new commandment which the Lord gave to his disciples was, "That ye love one another as I have loved you." We cannot love the world with that deep, intensive love – it is not incumbent upon us to sacrifice our own interests for the world; but it is made obligatory that we have the Lord's Spirit toward all the household of faith, so that, as he did, so shall we rejoice to lay down our lives for the brethren, serving them with our moments and our hours at the cost of our own self-denial.
According to this, the law of our Head, the terms and conditions of membership in his body, we are our brothers' keepers: each one has a responsibility for his fellow – not to intrude upon him as a busybody, but to look out for his interests, his welfare, and to do all for that brother that he would have that brother do for him – yea, more than this: that he would lay down his life for his brother, as Christ loved the Church and gave himself for her. If all the Lord's brethren could realize this to be the divine rule governing the New Creation, and realize that only those who do live up to this rule are making their calling and election sure, what an awakening of zeal amongst the brethren for the service one of another would result, and what a blessing would come to all of the Lord's dear flock! Let us take heed that no man take our crown – that we be found possessors of the Master's Spirit toward the fellow members, and thus be accounted worthy of a share in the Kingdom class.
As for the world: We are to remember that while there is a wide gulf between the natural man and the New Creature [R3929 : page 29] in Christ, nevertheless according to the flesh there is a brotherhood which we are not to disdain or overlook. The entire groaning creation are our brethren according to the flesh, and have claims upon us that the Lord would have us recognize. They are our "neighbors," and according even to the Jewish letter of the Law the neighbor must be loved as one's self – his interests are to be safeguarded as we would guard our own interests. Hence, in the whole world of mankind, this question, "Am I my brother's keeper?" would properly be answered, Yes, each one should be on the lookout for the interests, the welfare of others as well as his own, and so doing would not be disposed to override or cheat his neighbor, but, according to the Golden Rule, to do unto others as he would have them do to him.
We cannot hope that the world, blinded by selfishness, and devoting all the energies of life along selfish lines and ambitious channels – we are not to expect the world to appreciate this high standard of the divine Law. But surely all who are New Creatures in Christ should appreciate it, and in their dealings with the world, therefore, should not only be just, but more – loving and generous and kind, unwilling to injure but willing to bless. Thus the Lord's people are to be peculiar people in that they unselfishly will seek to be their brother's keepers, looking out for the interests of others as well as for their own interests. Not necessarily [R3930 : page 29] laying down their lives for their neighbors, but ready to do good unto all men as they have opportunity, especially to the household of faith. – Gal. 6:10.
Putting the matter in figurative language, the Lord declared to Cain that Abel's blood cried from the ground for vengeance. It was another way of telling Cain that the Lord was omniscient, knew everything that transpired, knew that his brother had died at his hand. In this figurative sense all sin cries for the punishment of the wrong-doer – it is the voice of justice. The Apostle Paul, referring to the death of our Lord, who similarly was murdered by his brethren, and whose blood might be expected to cry out against them, against the whole world of mankind, tells us that, instead of crying for vengeance, our Lord's blood – shed as a sacrifice on our behalf, as an atonement for our sins – cries out not for justice but for mercy! O, how gracious that our dear Redeemer, laid not the sin to the charge of those who crucified him and despitefully used him, but that in his generosity he is willing to make an appropriation of his precious blood on behalf of the sinners, to effect their reconciliation to God by the blood of the cross – by his death on the cross.
The Apostle's words are that the blood of Jesus speaketh better things for us than the blood of Abel. (Heb. 12:24.) Let us not forget that blood stands for or represents something higher than itself – that when we speak of the blood of Christ we are not referring merely to that which coursed his veins and arteries and which flowed from his wounded side, but we are speaking of that which the blood represents, namely, the life: as the Lord said, "The life is the blood." Hence, whenever the shedding of blood is referred to, the giving up of life, the death, is the main thought – thus the passage, "We are not redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ," signifies that we are redeemed with the incorruptible life of Christ – the life which was not under penalty, not forfeited, not condemned, but approved, and which was yielded up as a sacrifice, a corresponding price, a ransom, for the forfeited life of Adam and his race.
The curse of God was upon Cain, the murderer – divine condemnation rested upon him; he was cut off from communion with God, previously enjoyed, and according to his own language felt his condemnation and outcast condition severely. The Lord declares through the Apostle that no murderer hath eternal life. This signifies that anyone having the spirit of murder in his heart is unfit for eternal life, could not, according to divine arrangement, be granted that great boon or blessing – he himself must die, because unfit for life. This does not mean that there will be no hope for Cain in the future: we know not to what extent he may have repented of his crime before he died. But we are sure that he, as well as all mankind, not only will receive a just recompense or punishment for their sins, but also secure a measure of the blessing which God has provided for every member of the race through the dear Redeemer, who bought us with the precious blood.
On the other hand, for one of the Lord's consecrated ones, begotten of the Spirit, to commit murder intentionally, willingly, in the first degree, would undoubtedly mean his Second Death; because it would signify that the spirit of love, the Spirit of God, must have entirely perished in his heart ere such a deed could be deliberately and intentionally committed. We would have no hope for such an one. More than this, for wilful and deliberate hatred toward a brother to be engendered in the heart would seem to mean the perishing of the spirit of love there, and if so would mean the Second Death. However, because of the weaknesses of the flesh it would be very unsafe for any of us to attempt to judge closely upon this point. But it would be well indeed that we should be fearful along these lines, as the Apostle suggests, "Let us fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest any of us should seem to come short of it." (Heb. 4:1.) Let us fear, therefore, any approximation of a feeling of hatred, anger or malice against a brother in the Lord or against anybody. Let us strive more and more that the new mind shall control positively in our thoughts and intentions, and so far as possible in our outward deportment.
There are three churches quite close to us, Free Methodists, United Brethren, and Methodist Episcopal. We were not here very long before they found out that Bro. Wagner knew something about the Bible, and the Free Methodists came and asked him to come to Sunday School and teach their Bible class. He told them if they would let him teach the way he understood the Bible he would teach, and that he would not teach anything or accept anything without a direct proof from the Bible. "Yes," they said, "he could teach that way," and he has taught it that way ever since. While some did not altogether agree with what he taught they could not find anything to disprove it and had to let it go. [R3930 : page 30] A short time after he started teaching there the United Brethren asked him to take their Bible Class also, because they heard he was so "wonderful" on the Bible, and as their school was in the afternoon and the other in the morning he could do it. He accepted on the same terms as with the Free Methodists. One of the class leaders of the M.E. Church heard so much that he came to our house to investigate, and Brother Wagner gave him a brief outline of God's plan. We gave him some tracts and he soon came back to hear more and get more to read. We gave him Vol. I. in "Scripture Studies," and he told us on Sunday night he wanted us to send for the TOWER, Diaglott and a set of the "Studies." Last Sunday, when he got his quarterly to look at the lesson he said the explanation was too "rank," and he would not go to Sunday School at all, as he said he did not have enough of the Truth to teach yet and would not teach error.
The Free Methodist minister said Sunday before last that he thought this was not suitable doctrine to teach in the Sunday School, which this M.E. class leader found out, and immediately came to ask Bro. Wagner if he would take charge of a Bible class if he started one, and teach the Truth. Bro. Wagner consented and he arranged one for last Sunday night. His brother class leader became alarmed and decided to come also and show his brother his foolishness, but after the meeting he came humbly forward and shook hands with Brother Wagner and said he had never heard anything like it and begged for permission to come again. There were fourteen at the meeting with their Bibles and all thoroughly interested. The interested had not all been notified, as the time was too short, and we expect many more next Saturday night at our house. The membership of either of these churches does not exceed twenty, so you see there is a good percentage interested in the Truth.
Your sister in his name,
page 30
MY DEAR BROTHER RUSSELL: –
As such I am indeed glad to address you. I am a stranger to you in the flesh, but am of "the household of faith." You have not the time to listen to my experience, for it is but one of many that you have heard and of which I trust there shall be many others. Yet it differs in many particulars. For perhaps nine years I had been seeking the truth; had seen it as a land afar off. I came up closer to it, however, after coming to this place in May, 1905, where I have been as pastor of a Baptist Church. Before coming here for a number of years I had been a student of the subject of the Lord's return, and before coming here I had come upon the first volume of MILLENNIAL DAWN. I did not get interested in it until some time about September or October of last year, when a Pilgrim brother came and I happened in, as it seemed, being attracted by the advertisement of the meeting. There the seed was sown. I had come so far that I have concluded to resign my pastorate here. I have done it really, though unknown to all the Church, and have been for nearly two months working at my old trade, carpentering, and on the Lord's day ministering in the Truth to the people here. Circumstances are such that I cannot locate elsewhere until about the middle of November, so I shall resign here to take effect then. I am really out of Babylon, and the satisfaction is simply indescribable. I am glad to have obeyed the Master's voice.
Yours in the common faith,
[R3930 : page 30]
DEAR BROTHER RUSSELL: –
The Pilgrim service continues a source of great blessing to me, and where a request for Pilgrim visits was sent to the TOWER office I believe the visits are especially refreshing to the friends of the Truth in that locality. There, too, the spirit of love and good fellowship is more pronounced, and generally there is manifest a greater degree of zeal for the service of the Truth. Indeed, how could we expect it to be otherwise? And where Pilgrim visits are requested I find more hungering for truth, and of these it is written, "They shall be filled." They seem to show more the disposition of self-sacrifice and less inclination to criticize each other. The characteristic of contentment dominates more largely, while at the same time they deplore their inability to do a great deal more for the Master.
Some are disposed to think their accommodations for entertaining a Pilgrim are not good enough. But I assure them to the contrary, for so often they are much better than we deserve. Our service is so easy, so devoid of weariness of mind and body, and withal so blessed and spiritually uplifting that anything the dear friends have to offer is good enough for us, and "our cup runneth over" with joy continually.
There seems one thing, however, that needs to be corrected, so far as my observation goes, and that is the bringing to the meetings of small children, who cry and fret and talk aloud and thus disturb others who are present, as well as distract the attention of the speaker, so that he cannot do justice to the occasion. Many of the friends tell me they cannot get from the service the good they would like to have gotten, because some infant or small child present drew their attention despite their effort to keep the mind on what the Pilgrim was saying. And I find, too, that the fretful child impairs the service in that the speaker's attention is drawn from his subject, and causes more or less of rambling talk and disconnected sentences, and an extra effort and weariness. [R3931 : page 30]
While personally I have not been troubled much in this respect, the friends tell me of many instances where the service of other Pilgrims (and in one instance your own talk) was spoiled by a fretful child.
Wherever I go, dear Brother, I hear expressions of sympathy for yourself and deep appreciation of your work and the Truth in general. I think the Church is drawing together more and more closely in bonds of love and Christian unity.
Faithfully in Christ, your brother,
DEAR BROTHER RUSSELL: –
Knowing that you would be specially interested in having a more particular account of the condition of the harvest work in the Maritime Provinces than could be possible in our reports, I have thought that a letter to this end would be acceptable.
One of the most significant things noted, as contrasted with last visit, was that there seemed to be a [R3931 : page 31] greater desire to look into what, to many there, seems to be a "new doctrine." This was manifested in an increased attendance of Church members at the different meetings, who had been reading to some extent the harvest literature. The meetings were held in Presbyterian, Baptist, Unitarian, Disciple, and MacDonalite churches; also, in two instances, in Y.M.C.A. halls.
In H__________ we had quite an interesting time. The friends secured a Disciple Church for the meetings. The minister and some of the members of the committee having in charge the leasing of the Church were out of town when the permission was granted, but on the evening of the first meeting all the members of the committee were present.
I spoke on God's Plan of Salvation and was listened to very attentively, and before the close of the meeting announced another meeting for the next evening. After the close of the meeting I noticed several of the audience, who I afterwards learned comprised the committee, gathered together and conversing very earnestly. Then I saw them call the brother who had secured the hall, and begin conversation with him in a very animated manner. I scented trouble of some kind, and when it seemed opportune approached them and enquired what was the matter. One of the committee replied that in the absence of their minister they did not care to assume the responsibility of allowing us to hold another meeting, and also said that if all the members of the committee had been at home when the application was made we would not have been permitted to have the use of the Church at all. I told them that the meeting had been announced for the next night, and that I did not see who could assume the responsibility if they did not. Then one of the committee asked why we had come to them to secure their Church – why we had not secured one of the several halls in the city. I answered that I had nothing to do with that matter, but that the reason doubtless was because our brethren were aware of the fact that the Disciple Church professed to be an unsectarian Church, having no creed, and held that all who believed in Christ as Savior and Lord were their brethren in Christ; and as their Church was the only Church of this character in the city, it was quite natural for them to ask this favor of their brethren in the cause of Christ. This had the effect of silencing the brother, and appealed to the "Disciple pride" of the others.
I then said that we recognized the peculiar circumstances under which they were placed and that possibly under similar circumstances we might act as they were doing, and on this account, to avoid getting them into difficulty, we would relieve them of any responsibility by giving up the use of the Church and would try to secure another place.
Just at this point in the conversation a man who had been listening very attentively stepped up and said, "I think you are all wasting time. The meeting has been given out for tomorrow night, and there were quite a number of strangers here who will come tomorrow expecting to hear this man, and I can't see any reason why this committee can't let the meeting be held as announced. I am not a member of the committee, but I am of the Church, and have a voice in the matter. I myself was interested in the discourse, and I want to hear the brother to a finish." This had an instantaneous effect upon the committee, who then, after a few moments consultation, decided to let us have the Church for the next evening.
On leaving the building, a sister, who was a member of the Disciple congregation, approached me and said, "The committee did not tell you what their chief objection was to your having the use of the Church. The fact is that you are under the bann. It is reported that some time ago you spoke at a Disciple Church at P__________, and were instrumental in splitting the Church there." I told her I did speak in P__________ two years ago, but that it was in a private house, and that it was at the invitation of the President of the Women's Foreign Mission Society who had previously been reading the literature of the W.T.B. Society and had, three months before the time of my visit, withdrawn from the Disciple Church. Further, that the minister of the Disciple Church was present with several of his congregation, but that they came of their own free will. I told her further that our work, which had been going on for years, did not have the object of establishing a new sect, but simply to bring the truth within the reach of all lovers of Christ and his Word.
The next evening quite a number of the Disciple Church were present at the meeting, including all the committee. We spoke on "How to Study the Bible Intelligently," giving an outline of the ages, dispensations, etc. The interest was much deeper than on the previous evening, and I have learned since that it had the effect of awakening an inquiry concerning what was to become of those who have never had a full opportunity to be saved in the present life. The literature was taken quite freely and is being read.
At our visit to P__________ after this we found a Methodist minister who had been obliged to give up his labors in his Church on account of physical weakness, and had on this account found time to read the DAWN series and had come into the Truth. He attended all the meetings, and expressed a desire, if his health was restored to him, to engage in some active part of the harvest work – the colporteur work preferably.
In S__________ we found a Presbyterian minister who had read all the DAWNS, and was so favorable to the teaching that he allowed us to have the use of his chapel for a public meeting. We had a very good hearing, and trust the results to the Lord's keeping.
At S__________ J__________ at one of the meetings six ministers were present. They doubtless were stirred to look after their flocks.
We found the friends in all the places were more zealous in their efforts to bring the Truth within the reach of the people, and had advertised the public meetings quite extensively. They were all very demonstrative in expressing their appreciation of the efforts of yourself in ministering to their spiritual needs; they also expressed their deep sympathy for you in your trials, and desired that we convey to you an expression of their complete confidence and full sympathy for you in all your work and labor of love. There is a great desire in all the different places to see and hear you. It would be of great help to the furtherance of the harvest message.
With Christian love to you and all the dear friends, I am, as ever, yours in Christ,