| VOL. XXVIII | AUGUST 1 | No. 15 |
'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.
A STRIKE at the bindery which does our work has delayed shipment of MANNA to Great Britain and also the orders of some colporteurs. It is over now, and all orders will soon be filled.
This year's Volunteer tracts are going out very rapidly. We are doing our best to keep up with the increased demand and rejoice that an increasing number of the Lord's people are appreciating this privilege and will gain a spiritual blessing therefrom. We request that all who send in orders specify particularly the quantities they can and will use judiciously and promptly. We will be glad to double the shipments.
These two beautiful chromos, considerably delayed, are now in good supply and should be in all of our homes – to remind us of their glorious antitypes, of which we have been studying for some time past in our "Berean Lessons."
By getting them out in large quantities we can supply them at 30c per pair, or 4 pairs for $1.00, post or express prepaid by us. They are very handsome and easily worth several times the price. We merely aim to meet the cost. The foreign shipments will go forward at once. We regret the delay.
Some people by nature have so little combativeness that they lack strength of character, are too pliable, "wishy-washy": they lack the qualities of an overcomer, and need continually to seek grace and help from on high to take a stand for the truth and for righteousness. Otherwise they surely cannot be expected to come off more than conquerors. The Lord is seeking for his little flock those who have character, firmness, strength, as well as gentleness, meekness, patience, love. The happy combination which the Lord seeks is not found anywhere, however. All who come to him need to be refashioned in some respects to make them acceptable. Consequently on the other side of the question we find that some who have strong characters naturally have such strong combativeness that it is continually bringing them into trouble and needs to be curbed, brought under restraint.
It is difficult to say which of the two classes referred to has the advantage over the other. The one class must cultivate what the other class must restrain, and probably, all things considered, their chances are about equal in the matter of winning the race. However, those who have large combativeness, who are aggressive, forceful, usually attract more attention in the Church by reason of these qualities, and usually awaken more opposition even though they do not make enemies amongst those who love one another. The too pliable and docile are apt to think of themselves too favorably, and are very likely to be too favorably thought of by others as respects their qualifications for the Kingdom. Those who are strong and forceful are apt to be too roundly censured by others and to be too blind to the fact themselves. Oh, that we all could have sound minds! but since this is impossible, Oh, that we all could have a large measure of the spirit of a sound mind, and the ability to weigh ourselves according to the divine standard!
These words are specially intended to assist the dear brethren and sisters troubled with too large a degree of combativeness, disposed to be too aggressive. The Lord certainly showed markedly, particularly, his love for the strong characters when from amongst the twelve he selected Peter, James and John, the three most radical and aggressive of the apostles, as in some respects his favorites. So, then, those who have the aggressive quality by nature must not feel that it is a bar to their attainment of the Lord's "Well done," but rather that it is a good quality of itself if only it can be restrained and brought within proper bounds. They should see, as Gamaliel did, the danger of using their combativeness and aggressiveness against the Lord, against the Truth, against the brethren.
Our Lord says, "His servants ye are to whom ye render service." (Rom. 6:16.) The question is not, To whom do we profess to render service? nor, To whom do we think we are rendering service? but, Whose cause do we actually serve? From this standpoint, looking out over Christendom today, we ask ourselves, How many are serving God? and How many imagine they are serving him while they are really serving the Adversary? – really "fighting against God"? Serving Christendom [R4033 : page 228] we find hundreds of thousands of professed ministers of the Gospel, and millions of professed Christians fighting under various banners, Methodist, Baptist, Catholic, etc., – but whom are they fighting? Satan? Error? Like Saul of Tarsus many of them will shortly have their eyes opened to the fact that, so far from being soldiers of the cross, they are fighting against God, against the real soldiers of the cross, the followers of the Lamb. What a bitter disappointment will be theirs! how we wish that we could awaken them now to an examination of the commands of the great Chief Captain, that they might see that they are working and fighting under orders and directions not from him, but from human leaders and captains, some of these from the "dark ages," dead and buried.
We are glad to hope that if the Truth could be flashed from heaven many of these strong characters that are now fighting for sectarianism, and some of them for Antichrist, would fall astonished, humiliated, at the Master's feet, crying, "What wilt thou have me to do?"
Let us remember the Lord's words through the Apostle: "The Lord resisteth the proud but showeth favor to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time." These verses, we believe, are a key to much of the error along the lines we have indicated. A strong character affected by a measure of pride is apt to take a wrong course from which it is almost impossible for him to recede. But if humility be there the strength, the combativeness, will be under proportionate control, and that much easier will it be for the individual to receive the proper instructions from the Lord, and to follow them, and to be fitted, polished and prepared for a place in the Kingdom. This same principle applies amongst those who have already received as a blessing from the Lord the light of Present Truth. We still need the humility that will enable us, if too lacking in character, strength, to acknowledge the same and seek it from the Lord. And we still need the humility which will keep close watch upon every word and act and thought, even with a view to having all in complete subjection to the will of the Lord that we be found not fighting against the Lord or against the Truth or against the brethren. How careful we should be to watch for the leadings of the Lord's providences, not only in our own experiences, but also in the words and experiences of others, and particularly to measure everything by the divine standards and not by our own opinions and preferences!
It would be well for visiting friends to come expecting to take their meals at a restaurant, and if they lodge with others, to do their share or a little more in the way of lightening the home burdens, that all may rejoice together and have a spiritual feast. At an economical restaurant dinners need cost little more than they cost at home, and that little is more than offset by the increased rest and peace which this method affords. "Whether we eat or drink, or whatsoever we do, let us do all to the glory of God." – I Corinthians 10:31.
1. To what time do the sacrifices of the children of Israel, offered after the Day of Atonement, apply? T.93, par. 1 (first five lines).
2. Is there any sense in which they apply to any other time? Luke 16:1-8; Matt. 10:42. T.93, par. 1 (commence 5th line).
3. Why do the Day of Atonement sacrifices precede all others? T.94, par. 1 (down to sixth line).
4. After the sacrifices of the Gospel Age have brought the world into a justified condition (justified to life-rights) will there still be need for further reconciliation? and why? T.94, par. 1 (6th line down).
5. Explain the difference between the Atonement Day sacrifices, offered during the Gospel Age, and the "trespass-offerings," or "sin-offerings," of the world during the Millennial Age. T.94, par. 2.
6. Will "consecration" be in order during the next age? and if so how will it differ from consecration now? T.94, par. 3. page 229
7. How will the fact be shown in the next age that the people recognize the sacrifices of this age as the basis for the forgiveness of their sins? and how was this indicated in the type? Lev. 17:1-9; see also Lev. 1-5. T.94, par. 4.
8. Will all the blinding influences of the present be done away with during the next age? I Tim. 2:4; Isa. 29:18; 25:6-8; 11:9; 42:6,7,16; T.95, par. 1 (1st three lines).
9. What is included in the term "Adamic death"? T.95, par. 1 (4th line to 9th).
10. Will each one of the world be required to cooperate in his own salvation? T.95, par. 1 (9th line on).
11. When will the people be able to offer "bullocks" to the Lord? Psa. 51:19; Lev. 1:3; T.96, par. 1.
12. Were the "burnt-offerings" of the people, in the type, offered only occasionally? Lev. 6:9,12,13. T.97, par. 1.
13. What did this represent to the mind of each offerer? Lev. 1; T.97, par. 2.
THE PEOPLE'S PEACE-OFFERINGS
14. What was the "peace-offering"? and what did it typify? Lev. 3; 7:11-18,30-34; 7:19-21; Rev. 20:9,13-15; T.98, par. 1 and 2.
15. What other offering accompanied the "peace-offering"? and what did this signify in the antitype? Lev. 7:11-13; T.98, par. 3.
THE PEOPLE'S MEAT-OFFERINGS
16. What were the "meat-offerings" of the people? and what did they represent? Lev. 2:1-11; 7:9,10; Eph. 3:21; T.98, par. 4.
17. What were the "sin-offerings" or "trespass-offerings" of the people? and what did these typify? Lev. 5:15-19; 6:1-7; T.99, par. 1 and 2.
18. Show the difference in the treatment of these "sin-offerings" and the "sin-offerings" of the Day of Atonement, and apply it to the antitype. T.99, par. 3, and 100, par. 1.
19. State in what manner this "ministry of reconciliation" can be applied during the present age. T.100, par. 2.
20. In what further particular did the treatment of the Atonement Day sacrifices differ from that of the people's "sin-offerings"? Lev. 6:24-26,29,30; Heb. 13:11; T.100, par. 3.
21. Are the distinctions of "male" and "female" always to exist? T.100, par. 4.
22. If not, why and when will such distinctions cease? T.101, par. 1.
23. Is the Church the Bride of the man Christ Jesus? Rom. 7:4; T.102, par. 1.
24. Will these distinctions of sex cease both with the human race and with the glorified Church? Jer. 33:16; 23:6; Isa. 9:6; E.44, 45; T.102, par. 2.
25. How is this thought shown in the type: that when the Church is glorified all sex distinctions will cease? T.102, par. 3 (1st four lines).
26. Do the teachings and example of Christ and the Apostle show that woman in the Church in the flesh is not to be a public teacher or leader? Eph. 4:11,12, Diag.; I Tim. 2:11-13; I Cor. 14:34,35; T.102, par. 3 (from fourth line down).
27. Are the sisters, equally with the brethren, prospective members of the Body of Christ? 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 3:28,29. See F.491, 492. T.103, par. 1.
28. How has the Adversary entrapped and deceived the world along this line? T.103, par. 2.
29. Has this unscriptural course been a real advantage to women? T.103, par. 3. [R4034 : page 229]
If we could always feel each little thing
We do, each hour we spend
Within the presence of the King,
What dignity 'twould lend!
If we could realize our every thought
Is known to him, our King,
With how great carefulness would it be fraught,
And what a blessing bring!
If, when some sharp word leaves a cruel sting
Our faith could know and feel
'Twas heard within the presence of the King,
How soon the wound would heal!
Oh, when the song of life seems hard to sing,
And darker grows the way,
Draw nearer to the presence of the King,
And night shall turn to day!
To fleshly Israel God appointed five great festivals, all [R4034 : page 230] typical. (1) The Feast of Trumpets – welcoming the new civil year on the first of Tizri (September, October), one day only. The feast was of special significance every fiftieth year, when the blowing of the silver trumpets announced the jubilee – typical of the "times of restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all the holy prophets since the world began." – Acts 3:21.
(2) The Passover on the 15th of Nisan or Abib (April) – the first month of the sacred year. It lasted seven days.
(3) The Feast of Pentecost (in Sivan, end of May) – the first-fruits of the harvest.
(4) The Feast of Tabernacles, in Tizri (beginning the 15th), – the Feast of In-gathering or thanksgiving.
(5) The great Day of Atonement (the 10th of Tizri) lasted one day only. While it is named as one of the enjoined festivals it was not a joyous one, but was observed with fasting, mourning (for sin) and prayer, and was esteemed a time for reformation and good resolutions, and a desire for divine favor for the year in advance. It is the work of this day which constitutes our present lesson. Its sacrifices and offerings were not in respect to the sins of the preceding year, as some have suggested. Each Atonement Day made reconciliation for the sins of the people for the ensuing year, and under its arrangement they were God's people and treated as though they were free from original sin, the sacrifices of the Day of Atonement being reckoned as covering the Adamic condemnation. At the close of each year, therefore, the people were reckonedly back again under Adamic condemnation, and fresh offerings, sacrifices, were made to bring them again into God's favor for another year. The Apostle points out that these remembrances of sin every year – "year by year continually" – (Heb. 10:1), evidenced the fact that the Adamic guilt was not actually cancelled, but merely temporarily covered. But he also points out that the better sacrifices, the real sin-offering which God has ordained and which will be effected through the Christ, will need no repetition, because its cancellation of sins will be forever, – "For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified" – set apart as members of his Body. – Heb. 10:14.
The sin-offerings of this Day of Atonement were two – a bullock and a goat – the "Lord's goat" as in contrast with the "scape-goat." Our lesson should properly have begun with the opening of the chapter, had those who arranged it studied the "key of knowledge" respecting the anti-typical meaning; for the bullock of the sin-offering was by far the more important of the two. Not only did it take precedence, but it was a larger and better sacrifice. The bullock, as we have shown,* typified our Lord Jesus in his person, the great sacrifice for sins. The application of the atonement made by the sacrifice of the bullock – the sprinkling of its blood upon the Mercy Seat – was specially stated to be for the Priest and his house.
The Apostle frequently refers to the "mystery" hidden from past ages and dispensations, but now made known unto the saints, namely, "Christ in you, the hope of glory." (Col. 1:27.) Only those who discern this "hidden mystery" (see "The Divine Plan of the Ages," Chap. V.) can appreciate the meaning of the statement that the atonement made by the blood of the bullock was for the Priest and his house. The majority of readers would get the thought that it was made for the High Priest's own sinfulness, and constituted his cleansing and the Lord's blessing upon his home. But those who understand the "hidden mystery" perceive that the High Priest himself represented Jesus, the Head, and the Church, his Body – in another figure Jesus the High Priest and the Church the under-priesthood – the "little flock." And these understand that his "house" refers not to his abode, but to his family or household, which in Aaron's case was the tribe of Levi, and antitypically represents the household of faith, related to Christ, the Head of the Church, his Body. From this standpoint of appreciation of the "hidden mystery" we perceive that the killing of the bullock represented the sacrifice of our Lord as the man Christ Jesus, and that the benefit, the result of that sacrifice, applied to the entire household of faith, especially the Church, which is the Body of Christ – the Head not needing the atonement, as indicated by the fact that the head of the High Priest was uncovered.
Had God so pleased he might have had only the one sacrifice on the Day of Atonement – the sacrifice of the bullock, [R4035 : page 230] representing the death of our Lord Jesus. But it pleased God to arrange otherwise in the ceremonies of this Atonement Day. God purposed, as the Apostle declares, not only to accept the consecrated believers as members of the Body of Christ, but to give them a share with the Lord in his suffering as his members, and ultimately to give them also a share as his members in the glory that should follow – the glory, honor and immortality of the Kingdom. The New Testament abounds with exhortations to the Lord's disciples to make a full consecration of themselves, even unto death, to be baptized with Christ's baptism unto death, to suffer with him that they might also reign with him, to be dead with him that they might also live with him. The Apostle also declares that we fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ – suffering for the sake of being members of his Body, the Church.
It should not surprise us to find that this sacrificing on the part of the Body of Christ, which has been in progress for more than eighteen centuries, and which is so prominently marked throughout all the exhortations of the New Testament, is also marked with prominence in the type. Many have treated lightly and as hypocritical language the words of the Apostle, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies living sacrifices unto God, holy, acceptable, your reasonable service. (Rom. 12:1.) But as we look into the typical picture of this Gospel Age – the Day of Atonement – we find the sufferings of the Body of Christ clearly set forth, represented in the sacrifice of the Lord's goat. The leanness of the goat as compared with the young bullock fitly represents the inferiority of the Church and anything she has to offer unto the Lord in sacrifice, as compared with the riches of grace which reside in her Lord, who gave the important sacrifice, the basis of our offerings, [R4035 : page 231] without which nothing that we could offer would have any value or be at all acceptable before the Father. The fat of the sacrifices was offered to the Lord upon the altar, and represented the love and zeal of the sacrificer. In the case of the bullock there was much fat, in the case of the goat little, representing that the followers of Jesus have by nature comparatively little that they can offer to the Lord at all.
The type also shows that until the bullock was offered the goat's sacrifice would count as nothing, because it is distinctly stated that everything was to be done to the goat that had previously been done to the bullock, just as we are told by the Lord that we must walk in his steps, must suffer with him, must take up our cross and follow him, must go to him without the camp bearing his reproach, so the hoofs, hides, etc., of the goat were burned without the camp, in the place and after the manner that the hoofs, hide, etc., of the bullock had previously been burned. (See "Tabernacle Shadows.")
Both sacrifices – that of the bullock and that of the Lord's goat – were requisite to complete the atonement for the sins of the people. The Body of Christ and the household of faith have imputed to them the merit of Jesus' sacrifice for sins, and they are thus counted as justified freely from all things through faith in his blood. And before our sacrifices could have any value in God's sight it was necessary that first we should be adopted or accepted as figurative members of the High Priest. Thus the Apostle declares, "Ye are not your own, ye are bought with a price," and recognizing this we have given over our wills, ourselves to the Lord, agreeing to be dead to self and alive only as his members, and as his members we suffer under his direction as our Head. From this standpoint the sufferings of the members of the Body of Christ are the Lord's own sufferings. From this standpoint the prophets speak of the sufferings of Christ – Jesus, the Head, and the Church, his members – and the glory that should follow. The revelation of divine glory and the blessing of the world do not follow the sufferings of Jesus alone, but will follow the completion of the sufferings of Christ when all of his members shall have been offered – presented as living sacrifices.
Looking at the type we see the clear distinction between the result of the sprinkling of the blood of the bullock on the Mercy Seat and the result of the sprinkling of the blood of the Lord's goat upon the Mercy Seat. When the former was accomplished it meant the forgiveness and reconciliation of the members of the Priest's body and all of his household, the household of faith. When the latter was accomplished it meant the forgiveness of the sins of all the people – the taking away of the sin of the world. It was the Lamb of God which was to take away the sin of the world, and our Lord Jesus was that Lamb of God; and it is through his merit that Adam's sin, the sin of the world, shall be forgiven, blotted out, set aside. He was in a particular sense the Passover Lamb, not one bone of which should be broken; but the little flock, his members, are in a larger sense his flesh and his bones, and are never to be separated from him, but to be forever with the Lord in heavenly Kingdom and glory. From this standpoint it will be seen that the antitype of the Day of Atonement is the entire Gospel Age – in which from first to last Jesus and all the members of his consecrated "little flock" will suffer, and by the end of which all sin atonement will be completed and the blessing of the divine forgiveness be extended to all the families of the earth, in harmony with the Abrahamic Covenant – "In thy Seed (the Christ, Head and Body) all the families of the earth shall be blessed."
The two goats standing at the door of the Tabernacle represent all of the Lord's consecrated Church at this present time, but show us that it consists of two classes. Both classes were consecrated alike, but both do not go through the same experiences. The one class follows precisely the experiences of the Lord, as the goat's experiences corresponded to those of the bullock; but the other class, typified by the scape-goat, is the Great Company, who, while making a full consecration of self-sacrifice in the same manner as do the little flock, hold back, neglect to lay down their lives sacrificially and experience therefor the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. (1 Cor. 5:5.) These two classes, we remember, are distinctly shown in Revelation 7. The little flock – 144,000, the Spiritual Israelites – represent the faithful members of the Body of Christ glorified; the other, a great multitude whose number was not fixed or predestinated by the Lord, which will come through tribulation and receive palm-branches as servants before the throne, rather than crowns as overcomers in the throne.
The casting of lots as between the two goats seems to have been intended to signify that the Lord does not arbitrarily determine which of the consecrated shall go into either of these classes, but rather that he leaves the matter to us, accepting whomsoever manifests the proper zeal in sacrifice and thus attests his loyalty, showing that he is a copy of God's dear Son. This shows that it is not sufficient to make consecration to the Lord, but that we must proceed to fulfil the terms of our covenant if we would belong to the Lord's goat class – we must suffer, we must sacrifice, and thus make our calling and election sure as members of the Body of the Priest.
We shall not go into all the details of this Day of Atonement, surmising that all of our readers possess the little pamphlet, "Tabernacle Shadows of Better Sacrifices," in which the matter is treated in considerable detail. In harmony with the arrangement of the lesson we are giving special prominence to the two goats.
In the Hebrew, when the lot had been cast upon the goats, one was declared to be for Jehovah and the other for Azazel. The significance of the word Azazel is not very clear, but according to the majority of modern scholars it stood for the prince of darkness; and in Milton's "Paradise Lost" Azazel is represented as the standard-bearer of the infernal hosts – the prince of devils. We agree with this interpretation because it corresponds well with the expression of the Apostle, who – when referring to one class of the consecrated members of the Body of Christ who had not been living up to their privileges – declares, "Absent in body but present with you in mind, I have delivered over such an one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." (1 Cor. 5:3-5.) [R4035 : page 232] Similarly we understand that the Great Company, those who have consecrated but failed to sacrifice voluntarily, will be delivered over to Satan for his buffetings, and pass through a great tribulation, with a view to effecting in them by this means a proper penitence for sin and a proper appreciation of the divine standard of truth and righteousness. The majority of this neglected class the Scriptures seem to intimate will be found in the end of this age – though doubtless there have been some of the same class throughout the age.
The scape-goat does not represent a sin-loving class nor a class which has denied the Lord, but a class of consecrated believers overcharged with the cares of this life and the deceitfulness of riches, and not sufficiently loyal to the Lord and their covenant to forsake all and walk in the footsteps [R4036 : page 232] of the Master in self-sacrifice. This class, particularly large in the present day, will be delivered over to the Adversary – to suffer in a time of trouble such as was not since there was a nation – the great time of trouble with which this age will end. Such of them as fail to respond to those tribulations and to seek the Lord will die the Second Death, but such as respond faithfully and loyally will be counted as overcomers, and be granted the palms of victory shown in Revelation 7, and be privileged to a share at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb and the glories and honors of that occasion. It is only their failure to appreciate their present privileges in voluntary sacrificing that will deter them from gaining membership in the Bride class, and their highest position of honor will be as the "virgins, her companions, who follow her [the Bride.]" – Psalm 45:14.
This scape-goat is not sacrificed, does not come upon the Lord's altar, but is sent away into the wilderness for the "destruction of the flesh." The wide difference between sacrifice and destruction must be observed and appreciated. The Apostle reminds us that the bodies of those beasts (whose blood was brought within the vail to make atonement on the Mercy Seat) were burned outside the camp, and then he urges the faithful, "Let us go to him without the camp, bearing the reproach with him." (Heb. 13:13.) Thus the Apostle shows that our Lord Jesus was represented in one of those animals and that we were represented in the other – if we are willing to go with him outside the camp into disrepute, bearing his reproaches and sharing them as members of his Body.
Let us notice the two classes of sins referred to in our lesson, the one propitiated by the blood of the bullock and the goat in the Most Holy, and the other confessed upon the head of the scape-goat, which bore them away. The propitiated sin is the Adamic sin, on account of which the sentence of death passed upon all and weaknesses and imperfections have thus come upon all. This is what is termed original sin, whose curse or blight rests upon the race as a whole. But there are other sins than the original one and its weaknesses and imperfections which we inherit, and which the Lord has cancelled so far as the household of faith is concerned, and which he has arranged to cancel so far as the world is concerned. The other sins are stipulated as iniquities, transgressions – in fact, embrace all sins not included in those atoned for by the blood of the bullock and of the goat.
We have not far to look if we would see these iniquities or inequities of the world, especially of "Christendom." There is today considerable light shining upon the whole world, especially on the civilized portion. The principles of righteousness set forth in the Jewish Law and subsequently amplified by the Lord and the apostles, have enlightened the minds of the public in general in respect to justice and injustice, right and wrong, good and evil, so that there never was so responsible a generation as the one now living. Notwithstanding this increase of knowledge, and notwithstanding that there are gross iniquities prevailing throughout the world, we find comparatively few willing to do anything toward a readjustment and equalization of the world's affairs, financial, social and religious. Rather it seems that the majority of those possessing advantages are quite willing to hold to them even though recognizing that they are inequitable, iniquitous.
Meantime, the light of the morning is also awakening the masses, who are more and more crying out for their rights and against the inequities. The Lord is not only permitting this condition of things but is favoring it and helping it along, and informs us that the result will be a time of trouble such as was not since there was a nation. He tells us that in that great final struggle the kings of the world – financial, social, religious and political – will with practical unanimity be found on one side of the question, and that on the other side will be the Lord's "great army," the people for whose equities and for whose rights he will plead, will contend. True, the common people will not realize that the Lord is on their side, and many of them will even ignore him and trust simply to their own contrivances and devices, socialistic and otherwise. Similarly those who are on the side of the kings and princes of earth and their armies will not recognize the kind of battle they are engaged in, that it is one in which the Lord is taking a hand, with the view to the overthrow of present institutions and the preparation of the earth for the rule of righteousness – the Kingdom of God's dear Son – the Millennial Kingdom.
Look now at the scape-goat class: Not faithful to their covenant of sacrifice they are not counted worthy to escape those things coming on the world, and hence will have their portion with the hypocrites and with the world in that trouble, notwithstanding the fact that they are God's sincere children, but overcharged with the cares of this life and not properly zealous for the fulfilment of their covenant and a share in the Kingdom. It is in mercy for this class that the Lord consigns them to that trouble, that in its bitter experiences they may learn the necessary lessons and attest finally, under stress, their loyalty to him and to righteousness. They are represented as having confessed upon them the iniquities of the people – this is from the standpoint of divine justice. Their own sins were forgiven through Christ, as they were reckoned in as members of the household of faith. Hence their sufferings must be for the sins of others; and as they did not suffer as willing sacrificers they are then made to suffer unto death – that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
Let us not forget our Lord's words respecting a somewhat similar class which suffered in the time of trouble at [R4036 : page 233] the end of the Jewish Age. He said that all the righteous blood shed from Abel's time down to the death of Zacharias should be required at the hand of that generation. In one sense of the word this has the appearance of injustice. We are inclined to ask – Why should that generation be penalized for the transgressions committed centuries before their day? The Lord does not particularize – does not explain the operation of divine justice in the matter, but we may reasonably infer that the answer to the query lies in the fact that the generation of our Lord's day had so many more advantages than all the generations preceding that it deserved severer penalties. As our Lord points out, they had the experiences of the past and disapproved the doings of their fathers who slew the prophets; nevertheless with greater light they did worse, they slew the Son of God and persecuted the members of his Body – his Church.
Similarly the Scriptures indicate that in the end of this age the Lord will require of the living generation a penalty for much of the unrighteousness of the past – and especially for the blood of all the saints shed throughout this Gospel Age in civilized lands. We perceive that much of the evil done against the Lord's holy ones of the past has thus far failed of punishment. Great systems which, in the name of the Lord and in the name of religion, persecuted the true Church have practised and prospered and not yet received their just recompense of reward. Some of these martyrs of the past are pictured to us under the fifth seal as inquiring, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth." This is a symbolical picture of justice long deferred crying for vengeance, representing those who are actually dead and know not anything, and cannot know anything until the resurrection. The answer to this query before the seat of Justice is given. We are told that it would be but a little while until others are similarly maltreated, and the intimation is given that then the judgment will come which will compensate for the whole. This is the awful trouble of the near future, when great Babylon will go down as a great millstone into the sea, when every man's hand will be against his neighbor's in anarchy, when there will be no peace to him that goeth out or to him that cometh in – a time of trouble such as was not since there was a nation nor ever shall be afterward.
It is that trouble which the little flock, the Lord's goat class of faithful sacrificers, will escape directly or indirectly, and that the Great Company class will not escape – but on the contrary share. They will come up out of this great tribulation with washed robes, made white in the blood of the Lamb. Not that their sufferings will wash their robes, but that in their sufferings they will learn to appreciate as never before their relationship to the Lamb of God and to his atoning merit, and by faith will be permitted to apply the same to their own cleansing.
These words represent the Calvinistic sentiment that whoever the Lord accepts into his family and begets of the holy Spirit will somehow or other, sometime, in some way, gain the heavenly estate. There is more of truth in this sentiment than some of the opposers of Calvinism realize. It is true that whoever draws back from the Lord, either in repudiation of the atonement sacrifice of our Lord Jesus or by a repudiation of the narrow way and a turning like the sow to wallowing in the mire, goes into the Second Death, "the blackness of darkness" – utter extinction; yet these, we [R4037 : page 233] have every reason to hope, will be few in comparison to the whole number begotten of the holy Spirit during this Gospel Age.
Of the whole number of Spirit-begotten ones only a "little flock" gain the prize, and the others, failing of compliance with the terms of their covenant, might be utterly repudiated of the Lord, but he will not do this so long as they do not entirely repudiate him. Their failure to sacrifice willingly will not debar them from his care so long as they are at heart loyal to him. Since the seat in the throne provided for the "little flock" of sacrificers (represented by the Lord's goat) cannot be theirs, it is in mercy that the Lord permits them to become the scape-goat class, and to be driven into the wilderness and severely tried in the great time of trouble – that all faithful at heart may be delivered from the bondage of fear and share a heavenly estate on a lower plane than the Bride. Let us, nevertheless, so far from taking advantage of the Lord's grace and goodness in this manner, feel all the more love for him, so that we will the more valiantly and the more faithfully seek to lay down our lives in divine service and in behalf of the household of faith.
Their organization now was a combination of political and military arrangement under judges and officers over thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens. (Ex. 18:25; Deut. 1:15.) Besides this they had a general council of seventy – supposedly the original Sanhedrin. – Exodus 24:1; Num. 11:16. [R4037 : page 234]
During this stay at Sinai the priesthood was organized, also the Tabernacle constructed and its religious services instituted, with the outlines of the feasts and fasts appointed of the Lord for perpetual observance throughout their generations. That certainly was a year of great advancement with them as a people – a year of great accomplishments in making them ready for the land.
The wilderness of Sinai possessed rich though small valleys, and while there the people and their flocks and herds evidently prospered. The census according to Numbers 1:2 showed their enumeration to be 603,550 men of twenty years old and upward, besides 22,273 Levites. This would imply a total number of about 2,000,000.
When the time came to journey the Lord intimated it by causing the cloud to rise from the Tabernacle. It preceded the people, indicating the way in which they should go and guiding them into the desert of Paran, referred to in Deut. 1:19 as "a great and terrible wilderness." It must have seemed great to the people after traversing it hither and thither in the wanderings of their forty years. Amongst its terrors were the fiery serpents and the insufficient supply of water for so great a host. Remembering that the Israelites were only natural men, we cannot wonder at their murmurings against Moses and thus against the Lord in respect to many of their experiences. From our knowledge of humanity today we would be inclined to say that the murmuring disposition must be much greater now than it was then, for it is our opinion that no such host could be led for such a time under such conditions without the interposition of divine power. To have avoided murmuring and to have taken patiently all the wilderness difficulties would imply on the part of that people a faith greater than the natural man manifests anywhere today.
The fact that they were led by the Lord Jehovah – that the pillar of glory guided their journeyings by day and the pillar of fire marked and enlightened their camp by night – would indeed be a continual reminder to them of the Lord their God, of his covenant with them and of their covenant with him. The daily portions of manna would remind them also of his watchful care of their interests. The smitten rock and the waters therefrom, refreshing them in the journey, would indeed speak of the power of God enlisted on their behalf, and afresh mark Moses as the divine representative and appointed leader in the right way. All this, however, would hardly account to them for the fact that the route chosen was far from the most direct one, and that the judgments visited upon them for their murmurings, etc., were severer by far than were those experienced by other nations round about them who worshiped idols and practised all manner of sin and contumacy.
The only explanation of the whole matter and one which the Israelites could not themselves understand, because the time for its manifestation had not yet come, is the one given in the New Testament; – that the Israelites were used of the Lord as a typical people, whose testings for good and for evil were made to picture forth in advance the corresponding experiences of Spiritual Israel. As the Apostle points out, their rock and its water typified Christ and the water of life flowing from him. Their manna, our Lord indicated, typified the Bread which came down from heaven, of which if a man eat he shall live forever. The fiery serpents which harassed them and guided the eyes of the suffering to the brazen serpent raised upon a pole, symbolized sin and its injurious effects, which cause the sin-bitten to look unto him who was made a curse for us in that he hanged upon a tree. The murmuring of Aaron and Miriam against Moses was made the occasion of divine displeasure, typifying God's indignation against those who fail to recognize him as the leader of Spiritual Israel, and who fail to honor those whom he uses as his mouthpieces and servants.
"The gainsaying of Korah" and his associates, claiming that they were just as well qualified as were Moses and Aaron to represent the Lord and his people in all religious functions, was punished severely, because of representing in the antitype those who would fail to recognize divine institutions in Spiritual Israel. The perishing of some for despising Moses' Law was intended to be a type or picture of the everlasting destruction of those who would despise the antitypical Moses and the redemptive work accomplished through him, and who consequently shall be destroyed in the Second Death. Their Mount Sinai represented as a type the Kingdom of God. The giving of the Law therefrom represented the promulgation of the divine Law at the institution of the New Covenant at the hands of the antitypical Mediator, the Christ of glory, in the end of this age. The quaking earth and lightning flash and trumpet voice connected with that inauguration of the Law Covenant typified, says the Apostle, the great time of trouble and complete shaking of everything with which the new dispensation, the Millennium, will be ushered in shortly.
The Apostle, after pointing out that the Law Covenant to Israel made nothing perfect for them, brought in no glorious kingdom and rewarded with no eternal life, but rather condemned them all, shut them up to the hope that should afterward come to them through the Gospel, tells us nevertheless that the Jews had "much advantage everyway – chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God." (Rom. 3:2.) What does he mean? What advantage did they have? We reply that all of their difficulties in the wilderness and subsequently were profitable to them as a nation, and individually profitable also to those who were rightly exercised by the tests and thereby drawn near the Lord.
Those experiences brought Israel at the time of our Lord's first advent into the first rank amongst the nations as respects holiness, godliness, righteousness; and Jews scattered all over the world at that time had a large influence in shaping whatever was good and noble amongst the most civilized, preparing the world in general for the Gospel message in its due season. We have the evidence of this in the fact that the earlier converts to Christianity were nearly all from the Jews and from those Gentiles who had previously had contact with the Jewish religion and more or less faith in the true God. Not only so, but the trying experiences to which those people were subjected developed in some of them grand qualities of heart and of mind, as is witnessed in King David and all the prophets, as well as in many of the less notable ones, the faith of some of whom is attested by the Apostle. – Hebrews 11.
Some may be inclined to say, How could those blessings, [R4038 : page 235] coming to a few of the Israelites and to some of these centuries after, compensate them for their experiences, as, for instance, those who perished by the bite of the fiery serpents, and Korah and his band, whom the earth swallowed up, and others who died summarily for their violation of Moses' Law? Were not these irretrievable injuries, whatever the blessings of their trials to others of their people at the time, or to us the antitypical Israelites now? We answer, No! they were not irretrievable injuries. Like all the remainder of Adam's race they were under sentence of death because of original sin, and it mattered little whether they died in war or from pestilence or from serpent bites or by the earth opening beneath them, swallowing them up. They still have a share in the great blessing which God has provided through Jesus and through Spiritual Israel, whose difficulties and trials and testings they were illustrating as types. "Jesus Christ by the grace of God tasted death for every man," and this redemption included those we have enumerated. The time is coming when all the families of the earth shall be blessed through the Redeemer, and this will include those whose cases we are considering. The Master declares that the hour is coming in the which all that are in their graves shall hear his voice and come forth, either with the Ancient Worthies of the Jewish epoch or with the overcomers of this Gospel Age to the resurrection of the blessed and holy, or otherwise to the general resurrection of all those who have thus far failed to please God and to be accounted worthy of eternal life.
The latter class will include the great majority of humanity, and their awakening will be with a view to giving them a most favorable opportunity to learn of God's grace in Christ, to accept of the same, and to gain eternal life in the Paradise of God. We see then that no injustice was done to the Jews, though the Lord treated them in some respects more severely than the heathen nations. Though they suffered under divine judgments, no loss or injury was done to any of them, as all will yet have a full opportunity of coming to a knowledge of the truth and to eternal life through the Redeemer and his Spiritual Israel. We see also that in an educational way the experiences given to that people lifted them out of the degradation in which they had been almost slaves to a foremost rank in the world. We can agree with the Apostle that Israel had much advantage every way, being accepted of the Lord and used of him as types and shadows in connection with the preparation for his Spiritual Israel, the true Seed of Abraham, through which all the families of the earth are to be blessed.
If it was blessed to be associated with the Lord as members of the house of servants under Moses, how much more blessed is it to be now associated with the Lord as members of the still higher house of sons under Christ! If the performance of the types and shadows was honorable and brought blessings, how much greater must be the favors and blessings and honors attaching to those who serve the antitypical altar, the antitypical temple, as members of the Royal Priesthood, the Body of Christ! It is when we begin to see something of the lengths and breadths and heights and depths of the divine plan, and the glory that will surely attach to the ministers of divine grace when the reign of sin and death shall be ended, when the time of sacrificing shall be over and when the time of glory and blessing shall be ushered in – that we appreciate the situation, and be, Oh, so thankful, for the privileges we have as Spiritual Israelites, as members of the Royal Priesthood, in attesting our loyalty to the Lord and his Word and his people, that we might be accounted worthy of a share with him and with our Redeemer in the glory, honor and immortality of the Kingdom.
We have previously seen that Moses spent forty years near the Sinai wilderness in the family of his father-in-law, Jethro Raguel (Jethro is supposed to have been the title and Raguel the proper name). This lesson introduces Hobab, supposedly Moses' brother-in-law, who belonged to what is known as the Kenites, an Arab tribe of Midian, east of Sinai. Hobab had been with the people of Israel, but now upon their start on the journey for Canaan he contemplated returning to his own people, and our lesson sets forth two arguments on the part of Moses to influence him to remain. He said: –
(1) "We are journeying into the place of which the Lord said, I will give it you. Come thou with us, and we will do thee good, for the Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel."
What words of faith, and how humble a statement from the leader of 2,000,000 of people. We note the utter absence of reference to himself and what he would do, or of his authority and power. Only the Lord's power and the Lord's blessing were either invoked or mentioned. Very properly we may regard this as a suggestion for ourselves in connection with our journeying toward the heavenly Canaan. Those who are with us, friends or neighbors or kindred, should be invited along these lines – lines of faith: "Come thou with us and we will do thee good, for the Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel." Whoever comes with us receives a blessing, and in urging any to come with us we receive a blessing because our own faith is encouraged, stimulated, and our own obedience also to the Lord; for shall we say to others, The Lord will do thee good, and not experience good ourselves and not realize the blessings we are receiving day by day from the Lord's hand? And if they do come with us how the fact that we have suggested the matter and promised them a blessing would help to keep us from murmuring and complaining, and from manifesting anything else than the good we are continually receiving from the Lord. We do well, then, as Spiritual Israelites, to follow Moses' example in our appeals to those who are under our influence – we do well to quote to them the promises of the Lord, and to show our faith in the same.
But these arguments failed to influence Hobab, just as similar arguments on our part have failed to influence our friends. But, like Moses, we should not be ready to give up our endeavors to do good to others. We should bring forth other arguments, as he did. He urged Hobab further: –
(2) "Leave us not, I pray thee; forasmuch as thou knowest how we are to encamp in the wilderness and thou mayest be to us instead of eyes. And it shall be if thou goest with us, yea, it shall be that what good soever the Lord shall do unto us, the same will we do unto thee." [R4038 : page 236]
Applying this argument to our friends it would seem to imply that we should help to make a place for them in connection with the Lord's service, again assuring them of a share in the reward. This argument did appeal to Hobab, and he went with the Israelites, and we have records of the Kenites amongst the Israelites for centuries, down to the time of Saul. (Judges 1:16; 4:11; 1 Sam. 15:6.) The intimation that he could be of service to the Israelites attracted him from his own country and people. Similarly some may be attracted to the Lord's people by opportunity for rendering service. It should be remembered, however, that there are varieties of service, and that the Kenites were never invited to minister as priests at the altar. And so the Lord's people should not feel it to be appropriate that they should elect to places of prominence in the Church those who have not fully and completely made a consecration to the Lord; neither should they repel them, but rather be willing to use each and all to the extent of their willingness to serve and cooperate in the Lord's work.
Hobab, more familiar with this trackless wilderness than Moses and the Israelites, could give them many suggestions that would be helpful respecting water courses, pasturage, wells, etc. And here we see the appropriateness of all the Lord's people following a similar course to that of Moses. Notwithstanding his appreciation of the Lord as a leader of the hosts of Israel and the pillar of fire by night and the cloud by day, notwithstanding that he gave all honor for blessings past and those expected in the future to the Giver of every good, nevertheless he was ready to make use of every human instrumentality that would aid in the carrying out of the divine program. He did not expect of the Lord miracles in respect to matters that would properly come under human judgment and foresight. And so it is with us in all of the affairs of our earthly and spiritual interests: in all our ways we should acknowledge the Lord as the author and finisher of our course; but we should also, while seeking the wisdom from above for ourselves and for the work, do everything within our power, use every human agency and means in cooperation with the Lord and his mighty power. His proposition is that we may do all things through his strength – that he [R4039 : page 236] will use and bless our humble efforts for the carrying out of his great purposes. Some of the Lord's people seem to lack a proper judgment along these lines – some of them are even disposed to criticise as lacking in faith those who, like Moses, seek to use human instrumentalities in cooperation with the divine service and guidance.
Our lesson informs us that every morning in their services, when in obedience to the movement of the cloud they started forward in their journey, there was a simple religious service, Moses proclaiming in the ears of the leaders and through them in the ears of the people, –
In the evening, when the camp settled from the journey of the day, again Moses' voice rang out in the words, –
What was thus done every day by the Lord's direction in Natural Israel surely takes place with equal regularity in Spiritual Israel. All who will be found faithful, all Israelites indeed, as they go forth every morning to the journey of life, to the battle of life, to the trials and testings by the way, must surely learn to look unto the Lord as the Captain of their salvation, as the one through whom alone Satan and his hosts can be defeated, through whom alone we can have the victory. "Rise up, O Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered; let them that hate thee flee before thee," and let us who love thee and abide in thy love and under thy protecting care, be safe-guarded from every experience that would do us real harm, and be "kept by the power of God through faith."
Which Spiritual Israelite can afford to retire at the close of the day without retrospectively calling to mind the goodness of the Lord and desiring his continued favor and protection in the shades of night? Which true Israelite will long be an Israelite indeed if he fail to acknowledge the Lord in all his ways, in his downlyings and his uprisings? As the Apostle says, whether we eat or whether we drink or whatsoever we do all should be done to his glory, and if in all our ways we will acknowledge him let us at the close of each day employ language somewhat similar to that of Moses and say to the Lord, Abide, O Lord, with all the thousands of thy true Israel everywhere. Keep us, guard us, according to thy wisdom and thy love in Christ Jesus!
The spirit of faith and reverence which runs all through the divine Word attests most grandly to the characters of those whom the Lord has used prominently in his service in the past, and gives even to the babes in Christ a confidence and assurance lacking in words from other sources not inspired nor infused by the Spirit of the Lord. As a grand example of these Biblical benedictions note that of the high priest, wherewith he was accustomed to bless the people, saying, –
Sunday, June 30th: Dear friends awaited our arrival at the Chicago depot, and we were soon at Handel Hall. A praise and testimony meeting came first. It was truly a season of refreshing. At its close the Editor gave a brief address.
None of the sessions was for the public, nor advertised, except in the WATCH TOWER. There was a fine attendance nevertheless, not only of Chicago friends but from nearby places as well. The attendance at the [R4039 : page 237] afternoon session was the largest – about 550. Closest attention was given to a discourse on "Gather my saints together unto me, those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice." (Psa. 50:5.) This discourse has already been reported in the Dispatch and News.
The evening meeting was not quite so well attended, because some had home duties and our stay for a late train was not anticipated. About 300 stayed during a hot evening for a Question Meeting, which lasted two and a half hours. Then, accompanied by some of the dear brethren to the depot, we started for Denver, weary from the work but full of joy in our privileges of serving so grand a cause.
Denver, July 1st: Friends from Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Colorado, to the number of about 200, had been in session two days before our arrival and seemingly had enjoyed themselves greatly.
As our stay was limited to the one day, a Question Meeting was considered one of the most desirable; and the questions themselves showed that the dear friends had been thinking quite a good deal along very important features of the divine plan. We have concluded to reproduce many of them for the general interest of all in the WATCH TOWER columns. Here also we spoke on the text, "Gather my saints together unto me, those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice."
Again we were obliged to say, Good-bye! with the thought that we should never all meet again this side the vail, but hoping to meet many of the dear ones in the Kingdom, for the attainment of which hope we urged faithfulness even unto death.
At Ogden, Utah, some of the dear friends, having learned of our time of arrival, met us at the station. We had a pleasant interchange of greetings and good wishes and promises of prayers for one another, and soon were again speeding on our way to Los Angeles, via Salt Lake City. A wait of two hours at the latter place gave us a chance to see this thriving city, whose population now is about one-half Mormon.
Our train reached Los Angeles too late for the evening meeting of July 4th, but we had a most enjoyable season of refreshing on the 5th. We greeted the dear brethren from various cities and villages for miles about. These personal greetings seem to us and to many to be one of the chief blessings of these Conventions. In speaking we can add but little to what we have already published in the DAWNS and TOWERS and printed discourses, but as iron sharpeneth iron so doth the countenance and word of Christian fellowship and the hand-grasp cheer each other on the narrow way toward the heavenly Canaan.
The morning service for two hours was devoted to the answering of questions – this being esteemed the best way to serve the largest number, considering the brevity of our stay. In the afternoon for an hour and a half we discoursed to the dear friends along the lines of our mutual hopes and prospects and the imminence of the gathering of the last members to the Lord – beyond the vail. Incidentally we showed that our gathering must not be to human sects and parties, nor to human leaders, great or small – but to Christ, our Lord and Head; that the "harvest" work is his; that he is doing the gathering into his "garner," and that human helpers at very most are to be esteemed as his servants and channels and not otherwise heeded or honored. We left the dear friends still in session and took the 5.30 train for Oakland, Cal., where we arrived safely and on time the next morning.
Oakland, Cal., July 6: We were warmly received by Bros. W. and E. Bundy, Sexton and Andrews, and after cleaning up went to the Hamilton Auditorium, where services were already in progress – Bro. E. Bundy having just delivered an address as per the program. Bro. Russell spoke to the Colporteurs and Volunteers, setting forth how the Lord seems to be specially using these two branches of the service in the present "harvest" time for gathering his saints. He announced that Vol. I of DAWN-STUDIES had already reached the 2,000,000 mark and was advancing despite the efforts of preachers and others to misrepresent its teachings and hinder its circulation. Although they have influence to hinder its sale in book-stores and to hinder its advertisement in religious journals this opposition is evidently overruled by the Lord for the good of his people, for it opens the way to colporteurs, who are themselves being blessed both by the service and the consecration it inculcates, regardless of the number who are thus led to accept the Truth. The great blessing afforded by the Volunteers' distribution of the tracts was also pointed out.
The fact that these volunteer tract distributors include people of refinement and education and business standing gives weight to this literature which is going out this year more freely than ever. The subject matter this year is considered excellent, and more of the friends of the Truth are realizing that they consecrated to service and until death, and that the time is short in [R4040 : page 237] which they may labor in the vineyard. The fact that these tracts are supplied free and freight paid was also noted, and how this leaves no excuse for idleness on the part of those who are stewards of time and opportunity. To this service of the Lord and the Truth and the "Brethren" still in Babylon the speaker attributed much of the growth in grace and knowledge so noticeable in the gatherings of the past few years.
Brother Russell spoke again in the afternoon from 3 to 4.30 on, "Gather my saints together unto me, those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice." And in the evening he conducted for two hours a Question Meeting.
The Sunday morning session opened with a praise and testimony service, following which Bro. R. preached from the text, "If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you." This discourse many of you have already seen in the Dispatch and News.
The service for the public was held in the First M.E. Church – the topic being, "The Overthrow of Satan's [R4040 : page 238] Empire." An audience estimated at 1100 gave profound attention, and our hope is that some were blessed. Accompanied to the depot by a committee of the Church and with happy recollections and prayers we started northward for Portland. Delayed, we were two days and two nights in reaching Portland; but in the Lord's providence and by the forethought of the brethren in providing a cab we reached the First Christian Church edifice just in time for the appointed services, which had been widely advertised. The Church was crowded with intelligent hearers (about 600 – probably one-third of whom were interested friends from the city, and some came 400 miles). The service lasted two hours, and following it we had an hour of very enjoyable greeting and fellowship with the friends.
At 11.45 p.m. we started for Seattle, Wash., where we arrived safely Wednesday morning, July 10 – two of the dear friends of the Portland Church accompanying us. The fact that the Christian Endeavor Society opened its session the same day in the same city did not hinder "the brethren" from having a blessed season of refreshing. First, last and all the time we exchanged greetings, and wished each other divine guidance to the end of the journey and our hoped-for reunion in "the General Assembly of the Church of the First-Born, whose names are written in heaven."
Our opening service was a praise and testimony meeting led by Brother Acheson. It was good to be there. The testimonies as usual were from hearts full of praise to God for deliverance from darkness into his marvelous light. All of our hearts were surely encouraged. Those in attendance were chiefly from the surrounding country within a radius of 400 miles, also from points in British Columbia, and even Alaska had a representative.
The Seattle Church had provided a splendid dinner for the entire company – about 175. We feared at first that this meant that some of the dear sisters were deprived of the privileges of the meetings and fellowship; but were assured that the advice given in the TOWER that the spiritual privileges be considered paramount had been concurred in, and that six helpers not interested in the Truth had been secured for the day. An equally substantial supper was provided, and was enjoyed by all the dear friends, who thanked the Lord, the Giver of all good, and rejoiced in the fellowship of kindred minds, so like to that above.
At the afternoon session there was a discourse for the interested, and it was listened to by about 200, and following it for an hour we answered a number of interesting questions propounded by the audience. After the splendid supper already mentioned came the discourse to the public on "The Overthrow of Satan's Empire." Brother C. A. Wise, our companion in travel, opened the meeting and introduced Brother Russell, the speaker. This discourse had been well advertised and the attendance was estimated at more than nine hundred. Close attention was given to the end, a little after 9, when an automobile took us quickly to the 9.30 train of the N.P.R.R. En route ten dear friends met us at the Spokane depot and told us of others of their number who were not present owing to some misunderstanding respecting our train time. The loving greetings refreshed us, and we trust that the Spokane friends were also refreshed. We did not fail to send greetings to the disappointed ones.
A journey of three days and nights under divine Providence brought us safely to St. Paul on Saturday at 2.30 p.m. There Brother John Hoskins and others awaited our arrival and took us at once to the 3 p.m. meeting, for which the friends had already gathered. Our discourse was to the interested and dealt with our privileges and responsibilities as the Lord's stewards. We answered a number of very intelligent questions with profit, we trust, to some. After this service we had a delightful season of fellowship with the dear friends of St. Paul and Minneapolis as well as with about 60 from more or less distant points. We had supper with a party of forty as the guests of Brother J. Hoskins.
The evening session was for the public – and notwithstanding it was the busiest night of the week (Saturday) we had a fine audience numbering between 700 and 800 very intelligent people, who heard with closest attention what we had to tell regarding "The Overthrow of Satan's Empire."
We left St. Paul about 11 p.m. for our next appointment, and notwithstanding the rain a dozen or more of the friends sang us adieu in the words of the sweet hymn,
The night was stormy and our train lost time until we missed connections, obliging us to change our route and causing us to miss our appointment for a Sunday morning service in the First M.E. Church of Appleton. However, under divine providence we finally reached the Chatauqua grounds just fifteen minutes before the time appointed for our discourse on "To Hell and Back." A grand audience awaited us, large in numbers and very intelligent, estimated at between 2000 and 3000. For two hours we had profound attention, and hope that some blind eyes were anointed with the eyesalve of divine Truth, so that henceforth they will see more distinctly the Justice and the Love of our God, as revealed in his Word – rightly understood.
After the discourse we were cordially greeted by quite a large number, many of them TOWER readers from various adjacent localities. In the evening we had a most enjoyable season, and addressed the friends on "The True Vine and the False Vine." The next morning (Monday) about sixteen of the friends gathered at the depot and bade us goodbye; and then when we went aboard the train they sang, "God be with you till we meet again."
On arrival at Chicago Brother Jones, M.D., met us at the depot to urge that between trains we visit two dear brethren at the Home for Incurables. We did so and were well repaid for our trouble. The dear brethren, [R4040 : page 239] unable to walk, had shining faces and told of their joy in the Lord and in his glorious Truth. They even declared that notwithstanding pains which they endeavored to forget in their joy in the Lord, they esteemed that their afflictions were blessings in disguise, because they thereby got time for study and prayer which they never had before. Our visit ended with a prayer and we returned to the depot, where others joined our company for goodby greetings – there were seven in all. Here we parted also with dear Brother Wise, whose company for the two weeks had been so helpful. We parted with mutual expressions of love and prayers and hopes for meeting at the Niagara Convention – and above all at "The General Assembly of the Church of the First-Borns."
Without further incidents of note we arrived safely at Allegheny on July 16 and had a joyous meeting once more with the Bible House family.
Looking back over our hasty journey of approximately 7,500 miles, and remembering the hundreds of dear friends greeted – many of them for the first time – we render fresh thanks to God for the wonderful possibilities of our day. How evidently the wider "harvesting" of this Gospel Age has made necessary the peculiar preparations of this time as compared with the "harvesting" of the Jewish Age – seeing that the same length of time is allotted to each.
The lasting impression of this trip as a whole, you may be glad to know, is this: that love amongst the brethren is broadening and deepening. Contrasting recent experiences with those of years ago, we note less of a spirit of boastfulness and belligerency as respects a knowledge of the Truth, and a greater humility and spirit of thankfulness to God for deliverance "out of darkness into His marvelous light," and a greater desire to render the service of love. Thus the various degrees of love are more clearly manifested and we trust will continue so to be until the end of the pilgrim journey to the heavenly city – meekness, gentleness, patience, brotherly kindness, Love. As these graces more and more abound and display themselves, they give evidence that larger and yet larger numbers are being polished and "made meet for the inheritance of the saints"; for an abundant entrance shall be ministered unto such into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Savior.
Question. – Please explain Romans 6:7: "For he that is dead is freed from sin."
Answer. – The Apostle is not here speaking of original sin – the transgression which brought the death penalty upon the race: he is addressing those who had passed from death unto life through Christ, and who now, at the time of his writing, were New Creatures in Christ Jesus. He is representing sin as the great taskmaster which previously held them in slavery to wickedness, and he exhorts them now to consider themselves as though they had gotten free from that slavery to the taskmaster in as full and complete a sense as a slave would be free from his master if he died. You will notice this thought running through the discourse of this chapter, as for instance in verses 12,14,16,17,18, and this is explained to be figurative language in verse 19.
It will be noticed that this is not a question of sin having dominion over the New Creature, but a question of sin still having dominion over the flesh, the earthen vessel. Carrying on the same argument, the Apostle says (8:10), "If Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is alive because of righteousness." Then he exhorts that it be not satisfactory to us merely to count our bodies dead to sin, so that we will not permit them to serve sin, but that the new mind in us shall take control and actuate these mortal bodies, and make of them servants of the new mind, servants of righteousness, servants of Christ. He assures us that the Spirit of God which was powerful enough to raise our Lord Jesus actually from the dead is powerful enough, if we lay hold of it properly, to permit such a quickening of our mortal bodies to newness of life.
Man can pay his penalty in death; but when the penalty has been inflicted to the full there is nothing of man left: hence it means his utter and everlasting destruction. To suppose anything left after the penalty had been inflicted, would be to suppose some part of him that had not been condemned; but we know that the language of Genesis is, "Thou shalt surely die," and that the law was stated to be, "The soul that sinneth it shall die." We see, then, that nothing of the man, nothing of the being, is exempted from the penalty, and so long as the man lay under the penalty he could have no right to life to all eternity.
There is no provision for a second life except through a redemption accomplished by our Lord Jesus – the work being finished at Calvary, and subsequently accepted of the Father, and his acceptance manifested by the outpouring of the holy Spirit at Pentecost. But God did not deal with the man to acquit him. God merely passes the man as a purchased possession over to the care of his Redeemer, Jesus, – Justice giving to Jesus a full title to the man, and all the rights, etc., which he ever enjoyed.
You will perceive that this gives the man no rights of his own, but commits all things to the Son. We must therefore inquire of the Son how he proposes to deal with the purchased possession. Briefly we understand the testimony of the Word to be that the Son, during the Millennial Age, will judge the world by, through and in conjunction with his elect Church, and that all shall have the opportunity of coming up to human perfection under the chastisements and disciplines of the Millennial Age, and that failing to improve these blessed opportunities they will be cut off in the Second Death. Some of the Scriptures bearing upon the subject would seem to imply punishment for misdeeds of the present life – but we believe only for such misdeeds as were committed against some degree of light, or against some of the children of light. Those who had no knowledge whatever of the divine arrangement in Christ could have no responsibility in the sense of meriting special punishment, because they were under the original condemnation, and their personal responsibility under the New Covenant could only begin when they came to some degree of knowledge respecting it. However, we can readily see that to whatever extent any violate the laws of nature, they degrade themselves; and that every step downward in the present life, will require effort to retrace it during the Millennial Age.
page 241
August 1st
| VOL. XXVIII | AUGUST 15 | No. 16 |
'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.
page 242
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.
A STRIKE at the bindery which does our work has delayed shipment of MANNA to Great Britain and also the orders of some colporteurs. It is over now, and all orders will soon be filled.
This year's Volunteer tracts are going out very rapidly. We are doing our best to keep up with the increased demand and rejoice that an increasing number of the Lord's people are appreciating this privilege and will gain a spiritual blessing therefrom. We request that all who send in orders specify particularly the quantities they can and will use judiciously and promptly. We will be glad to double the shipments.
These two beautiful chromos, considerably delayed, are now in good supply and should be in all of our homes – to remind us of their glorious antitypes, of which we have been studying for some time past in our "Berean Lessons."
By getting them out in large quantities we can supply them at 30c per pair, or 4 pairs for $1.00, post or express prepaid by us. They are very handsome and easily worth several times the price. We merely aim to meet the cost. The foreign shipments will go forward at once. We regret the delay.
THE American conception of a missionary is "a man with a book, going out among the natives, preaching, preaching, always and everywhere preaching, 'as a dying man to dying men.'" So says Mr. William T. Ellis, who is at present engaged in looking at the transplanted preacher with unemotional eyes. His present field of observation is China, which, he says, "furnishes the greatest variety of missionaries." This prevalent idea is a misconception, we are told, for "there is probably as little of accosting wayfarers in China on the subject of religion as there is in America." The missionary is a man not different from those who preach at home except as, in the minds of his supporters, a kind of religious romanticism has invested him with a halo. "The man or woman who engages in foreign missionary work," says Mr. Ellis (in the New York Tribune, May 26), "is commonly regarded as a person of peculiar sanctity, chivalry, devotion, sacrifice, and courage." The "real" missionary is described in these words:
"Occasionally I have met a missionary, usually young and second-rate, who takes himself quite as seriously as his friends at home take him, and who, well aware that he is one of the noble army of martyr spirits, goes about wearing his halo with all the self-consciousness of a girl with a new Easter hat.
"Most missionaries, on the other hand, feel foolish because of the false attitude in which they are placed by their idealizing admirers at home. Some of them have used quite unmissionary forcibleness of speech on this point. They say that they are neither extraordinary saints nor heroes, and that they are not living lives of physical hardship and sacrifice; those who really have hardships say nothing about them. That, in reality, they do not correspond to the image of themselves ever being held up in sermons, speeches, and articles no one knows quite so well as themselves. If permitted to speak frankly, they would say, as many have said to me, that they have fewer material discomforts than the average home missionary or country pastor."
The missionary himself may have shared the romantic views of the home people before he entered upon the work of the foreign field; but Mr. Ellis shows how his change of view comes about through perfectly natural causes. Thus:
page 244"The recruit reaches the field in a state of spiritual exaltation. He has renounced home, friends, country, and worldly prospects, in order to preach the Gospel to the heathen. Fully expectant of hardships and self-denial and possible martyrdom, he has nerved himself to the worst. His first shock comes when he finds a welcome awaiting him in a comfortable American home, possibly better than the one he has left. He looks about in vain for the crosses that he has strengthened his shoulders to bear. Then, instead of life on the qui vive for the conversion of the heathen, he finds existence quite a hum-drum matter. He discovers that he is not to preach to crowds or to converse by the wayside upon salvation, or to teach the ignorant or to heal the sick; two solid years must be devoted to the deadening duty of learning the language. Not romance, but routine, such as schoolboys know, is his lot. There is no glamour about mastering Chinese characters and Chinese pronunciation; it is all grind, grind, grind, until the poor student wonders whether, after all, missionary work is worth while.
"During these first years, which plane off the corners of the soul's enterprise and initiative, the new missionary becomes adapted to his environment; the heathen are no longer a novelty; they are everywhere – in his kitchen, in his study, in every highway and byway. He meets them whichever way he turns. Soon the missionary discovers that the heathen half a world away are far more interesting than the heathen swarming about him on every hand. In this latter fact is a depressing power difficult to define or describe, but tremendously real in experience. The atmosphere of a heathen land seems to steal a man's enthusiasm. It reins the war-horse, chafing at the bit, down to the dog-trot of the livery hack. So the ordinary missionary finds himself plodding [R4042 : page 244] along established lines and living not at all the life he expected to live when he sailed from his native shores.
"My own judgment has affirmed the criticism made to me in numerous specific cases that the dwellings of the missionaries are entirely too sumptuous for persons of their vocation. Rightly or wrongly, the Church and the world associate the idea of sacrifice with the missionary's calling; the natives, too, quickly come to see the apparent discrepancy between the preaching of self-denial and the practise of material luxury; some of the most serious strictures upon the missionary's style of living have come to me from native preachers. Often, I am convinced, the fault lies directly with the boards at home; some missionaries have lamented, in my hearing, the elaborateness and impressiveness of their residences. They deplore the contrast between their houses and those of the wealthiest natives. The missionary, they reason, should be the last person conspicuous for evidences of worldly position. The theory that it is necessary to 'impress' the heathen is utterly fallacious; the disciple cannot improve upon the spirit of his Master, the lowly Nazarene."
This Convention is timed to take advantage of the "TORONTO FAIR" excursion rates. Besides, there are special excursions to the Falls every year from many large cities and intermediate places. Inquire of your railway agent for particulars and judge what will suit you best.
WATCH TOWER B. & T. SOCIETY'S EXCURSION
A rate of one-way fare, plus one-third, is granted by the railroads to our Society for the round trip. Remember this and use it IF YOU CANNOT DO BETTER. This is known as the Certificate Plan. You pay one full fare and get a Certificate which entitles you to purchase your return ticket for one-third the regular fare.
CHICAGO CLASS EXCURSION
There will be a special excursion train of Truth people from Chicago. They have a round trip rate of $14.05 to Toronto, Canada (via Niagara Falls), and return. They will be glad to have the company of any of the friends to whom their arrangement would be a convenience or a saving. Address, Dr. L. W. Jones, 2024 Washington Boulevard, Chicago.
TOLEDO CLASS EXCURSION
The Toledo, Ohio, friends have secured a very favorable rate via the Lake Erie night steamers to Niagara and return, $4.00 (stateroom berths, 75c extra). They, too, will welcome any to whom their arrangements may prove convenient or economical. Address, C. H. S. Kuehn, 620 Chestnut St., Toledo.
CLEVELAND CLASS EXCURSION
Cleveland, Ohio, on Lake Erie, also has fine night steamers for Buffalo and Niagara Falls. An excursion rate of $3.00 has been secured (single berths, 75c extra). Friends from other places will be welcome to join on same terms. Address, John G. Kuehn, 922 Prospect Ave., Cleveland.
ALLEGHENY-PITTSBURG CLASS EXCURSION
The WATCH TOWER CONVENTION EXCURSION Certificate tickets will be the cheapest for the friends in this vicinity – round trip, $8.87. Consequently arrangements will be made for two first-class cars specially reserved for their use, starting from here at 9 a.m. Central time (10 o'clock Pittsburg time), Thursday, August 29. Friends from neighboring places may be provided for by advising W. D. Witt, 612 Arch St., Allegheny. Such should see that their tickets read via the Pittsburg & Lake Erie R.R., and do not forget the Certificate.
Those desiring to go in advance will find a $7.45 rate on Tuesday, Aug. 27.
SECURE YOUR LODGINGS
Those who desire hotel accommodations can readily be accommodated on arrival, for Niagara's fine hotels are numerous. But not many of our readers can afford $3 to $5 per day for this item.
Those desiring $1.50 to $2 per day hotels, or lodging only at 50c. to $1 per night (taking meals at restaurants), will do well to let us secure accommodations for them in advance through brethren of that vicinity.
Write of this to the WATCH TOWER, Allegheny, on separate letter sheet, indicating sex (and if colored), stating the number of your party, and which two would occupy same double bed. The 50c. lodging is usually for several in a room and two in each bed. Separate bed and room $1 and up each night. Add on envelope the words Convention Department.
COLPORTEURS AT THE CONVENTION
A dear friend of the Truth is desirous of helping any of the Colporteurs who may need his aid to attend the Niagara Convention. Accordingly he has placed in the Society's treasury a sum of money to be thus used to the extent of one-half the expenses of any Colporteur now on our lists as such, and from whom we have had book orders and sales reports during July and August.
It rejoices us to believe that this worthy generosity will enable quite a number of our dear Colporteurs to attend the Convention and profit by the Colporteur fellowship and instructions who otherwise might not be able to do so. We urge such to accept the offer.
The Jamaica Mission prospers finely; but the African work has not amounted to much yet. We are not without hope for it in the future, however. Brother Booth surely has considerable zeal.
Meantime we have some news from China. We [R4042 : page 245] learn that the Truth reached a lieutenant in the British forces there, who, full of zeal, interested others of his fellow-soldiers, of whom four symbolized their consecration by water baptism. His activity, we learn, made him obnoxious to the missionaries, and it is supposed that the latter secured his removal from China.
This surely means the carrying of the good tidings to still another foreign field, and seemingly under the Lord's direct providence: for we cannot doubt that the noble brother, the lieutenant, will let his light shine out in his new environment. We hope for a report from him ere long.
And now what! The Lord, we believe, is preparing a chosen and already prepared vessel for China – to bear the water of life to probably a very few there also. He is well qualified for the work – better than we could have expected.
This opening of foreign doors to the harvest sickle seems to imply that the harvest work nears its close – possibly four years may see the open doors closing, because "the harvest is past and the summer ended." It has been a surprise to us all around. We had little thought of foreign fields, so busy have we been in the harvest fields of "Christendom."
By the way, Russia may well be styled a foreign mission field also. The DAWN is prohibited there, or was until lately. A few copies, however, were sent in fragments by letter-post by some of those who had feasted and desired to bless their brethren. As a result fifteen members of a German Baptist Church were excommunicated and suffered considerable ostracism, until now the majority of them have reached the United States and more liberty, – and the message continues to spread. Wonderful to relate, the very minister who opposed them and led them out of the meeting has since been convinced of the Truth and is rejoicing in it. How many who were most ardent opposers of "this way" are now colaboring with us! Let us think kindly of those who for conscience sake (misguided) oppose us and the harvest message.
Another thought: As we see so much fresh interest springing up and new believers making rapid progress in grace, knowledge and zeal, we note with pain that some once zealous colaborers are less so, and given rather to criticising those who are filled with the Spirit. We fear for these lest they lose their "crowns" to others. Nor dare we say much to them, for critics are very sensitive and easily offended. Evidently the thrashing and winnowing of harvest time are upon us. "Who shall be able to stand?" Let us fear and watch and pray, lest we enter into temptation.
But even if we knew a great deal, if we knew twice as much as we now know, we should understand our acquisition of knowledge merely to correspond to the finding of the armor mentioned by the Apostle in our text. We should notice that he does not merely say that we should find the armor, but, much more to the point – he declares that we should put it on. The Lord's object in providing us with the knowledge was that thereby we might grow in grace. Knowledge, then, is merely a means to an end desired. Well does the Apostle say, "Knowledge puffeth up, but love buildeth up." (I Cor. 8:1.) If we could get love alone without getting knowledge it would be very much to be preferred above getting knowledge alone without getting love, but God has otherwise arranged, namely, that we must have knowledge as the basis for love, and that we must have love as the outgrowth of the knowledge if we would be acceptable to him as members of the Elect Church. Hence, we are to grow in grace, and to this end incidentally we must grow in knowledge, because how could we love God if we knew him not, and how could we develop his character-likeness except as we would be sanctified through the truth?
The Apostle, in enumerating the blessings that are ours through Christ and the attainments possible in faith, knowledge, hope and love, declares that the [R4042 : page 246] greatest of these is love. He points out that present faith and knowledge will be dwarfed and entirely lost sight of in the perfection of knowledge into which we shall be ushered in our glorious change in the First Resurrection, and that our present hopes will then expire because the realization will have come, and will so far transcend our expectations. But he argues the superiority of love in that it will endure throughout eternity: "Love never faileth," "God is love," "Love is the fulfilling of the law"; the new commandment is that we love one another with a pure heart fervently. Oh, how much room there still is for progress in this direction, in the putting on of the whole armor of God!
Were we to analyze the armor we would find it not merely an armor of knowledge but very largely indeed an armor of faith, an armor containing love as one of its chief elements, and surely in every part riveted together with love. What would our breastplate be worth without this love element? Ah, we see that our dear Redeemer's death constitutes our breastplate, that his love provided the redemption which covers us and protects us, and that it is our appropriation of his love and our reciprocating love for him and for the Father and for the divine law that led us to a full consecration of ourselves to his service. It is behind this breastplate of righteousness – of which the love of God [R4043 : page 246] and our love for God and for the Lord Jesus are the chief elements – that we are secure, justified through faith in the precious blood, counted righteous through the love and mercy of God.
And our helmet, does it signify an intellectual knowledge of the Lord? Yes! and yet it is a knowledge based not upon the things that are seen but upon the things that are unseen. Our helmet is a faith-knowledge, and the basis of this faith is an appreciation of the love of God which passeth all understanding, which has begun the good work, not only in our redemption, but in the sanctification of our hearts. The love of God for us and our love for him are most intimately related to this helmet, and whoever would put it on, whoever would be protected by it, must surely recognize the divine law and be responsive in love himself.
And what of our shield of faith? Is not the love of God, the mercy of God and of our Lord Jesus, the basis of our faith? We are not trusting either to our works or our knowledge for salvation, for both of these prove to us that we are unworthy of divine favor. We are trusting in God's love and in the loving sacrifice of our Redeemer, and this shield can be appreciated and will be thoroughly used only by those who have received of the love of God as well as of a measure of knowledge.
The sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, is a part of this armament. But do we not see that many who have the Word of God are holding it by the blade and not by the hilt? Do we not see that a failure to appreciate the love of God has been their difficulty, so that the study of the Word and the knowledge gained respecting the Word have been comparatively valueless to them, misleading – injurious – because they received not the Truth in the love of it. Most evidently some have received the Truth in large measure and some in lesser measure, in proportion as they had the right or the wrong kind of love. Pride and self-love have hindered many from taking the sword of the Spirit in the proper manner; pride and denominational love have hindered others; and we are safe to say that all who handle the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, are in great danger of doing injury to themselves thereby, except as they speak the Truth in love – "in the love of it" – in appreciation of it as God's great revelation of himself and of his purposes. If selfishness to any extent combines with this love, to that extent the sword is dangerous to the one who wields it. Love out of a pure heart is the only proper, the only safe condition.
The sandals of preparation for contact with the world and the ruggedness of the way are very necessary. Pride and ambition may enable us to pass over a considerable stretch of rough roadway without discouragement, but we may be sure that the Lord has so arranged the narrow way that selfish ambitions will never carry us to the end. On the contrary, the divine order is that only love for the Lord and for his flock and for his Truth will so protect us that we can go onward and upward in the narrow way clear to the end of the journey without discouragement that would turn us aside.
We are assured that the above words represent the sentiments of a considerable proportion of the readers of this journal. We are claiming nothing for the Editor, but freely admit that all the blessings are from the great Fountain of blessing, from the Lord himself. We are glad to be recipients of these bounties in common with you all, and glad to have been used of the Lord as a broken and emptied vessel to bear to his dear ones some of the refreshments he is now so bounteously providing. And we have a deep concern that the Lord's grace be received not in vain by any of us – that we should all be profited, strengthened by the meat in due season which our present Lord is dispensing to the household of faith as never before. How else could we understand the light that is now shining upon the divine Word? And is not this understanding of the matter in full accord with our Lord's precious promise that at his second coming, when he would make up his jewels, gather his very Elect, his Bride, he would first knock? and then to those servants who would open immediately and show their faithfulness, he would come in and sup with them? More than this, he would become their servant and gird himself and bring forth from the storehouse things new and old. (Matt. 13:52.) How wonderfully, how accurately, [R4043 : page 247] this matter is being fulfilled before us today! It is the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our sight. The eyes of our understanding discern clearly and we rejoice therein.
These blessings of divine truth and grace consist not only of new features but also of old features. Do they not? How many years have many of us studied God's Word, heard preaching, read commentaries, etc., to very little account? Indeed our confusion seemed to increase rather than diminish, so that the most studious were often most confused. But now, the due time having come, our present Lord having come in to sup with us, having girded himself as our servant, having brought to our attention the things both new and old, we are feasting. All the precious food has a richer and a better flavor. It is cleaner, sweeter. For instance, setting aside those special features of the Truth which belong to the harvest time, respecting the reaping, the presence of the Lord, the fulfilment of the prophecies, etc., etc., look again at the old things that God's people have recognized as true for centuries, and note how appetizing they are to us now, how strengthening to faith, how refreshing!
Take, for instance, the "precious blood." From infancy we heard of the death of Christ, of its necessity, of its value. We read the Scriptures, yet we saw not the beauty and the grandeur, until now in the harvest time the Lord himself has disclosed the real significance of the word ransom – a purchase price – and shown us just how our Lord Jesus left the glory and became holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, the man Christ Jesus, and how then he "gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time." Ah! what a store of gracious knowledge, mingled with precious love, is opened to us by this appreciation of how Jesus Christ by the grace of God tasted death for every man. Now we can see, as we could not previously, the meaning of the word propitiation, satisfaction. Now we can see that he was the propitiation for our sins – the sins of believers of this present time.
We can see, too, how the satisfaction which he has already rendered to Justice is the ground or basis of our acceptance with the Father, and that now we are justified through faith in his blood, and correspondingly our peace with God has a firmer foundation and is every way more satisfactory. But still more, we can see the further value of the precious blood when we understand the Apostle's declaration – "He is a propitiation for our sins [the Church's sins, now], and also [through the Church, his Body] for the sins of the whole world." Now we can see how and why the gracious New Covenant will be introduced at the close of this Gospel Age – a New Covenant with Fleshly Israel, which ultimately will include all the families of the earth, signifying to them a complete release from Adamic condemnation, and a taking away of the stony heart out of their flesh and the renewing of a heart of flesh – during the Millennial Age – bringing them up from the degradation of sin and death back to all that was lost in Eden, during the times of restitution of all things. Oh, what the Atonement signifies to us now and how little it signified before! how incomprehensive it was before! Praise the Lord for the old things as well as for the new.
Take another illustration out of many: we knew something of what the Scriptures taught respecting justification, we knew something of how faith was related to this justification, but we comprehended it not, and but imperfectly realized that this justification by faith, this imputation of righteousness to believers, was merely the divine method of putting them on a plane where they could be acceptable sacrificers, and present their bodies, already acceptable to God, as living sacrifices, their reasonable service; nor did we see clearly either that this consecration to sacrifice, this setting apart or sanctification of life and heart and all to the Lord, is the condition upon which we may hope to share with our dear Redeemer in his glorious Kingdom. How real these matters become as the Lord brings to us the meat in due season, things new and old.
To illustrate further: A dear brother recently said to the Editor, "Oh, Brother Russell, I was an Evangelical Christian for years, but it seems as though I had been asleep all that time so far as Christian knowledge and experience go. How I wish I had known some of the things that are presented in the sixth volume of MILLENNIAL DAWN when I was rearing my family! How I wish that I had realized my personal responsibility as a father, and had brought my family up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord – had realized my home duties, my proper relationship and obligation to my wife, children and neighbors! Everything in the divine arrangement seems so simple and so beautiful now that I wonder how I was blind to these things for so long; and evidently others were similarly blinded, for our teachers might, at least, have told us how to live the godly life, the Scriptural life; [R4044 : page 247] they might have drawn our attention to these things which so greatly make for our peace, and which are so eminently our proper course of conduct in life; but we were held in a maze, we were all as it were asleep. And it seems peculiar that we are able to awaken so few even now; that so many prefer to slumber on, and have no ear to hear, and manifest only opposition to these glorious things in which they should delight." Very true, we agreed.
This is our Lord's complaint through the Prophet against many whom he has favored both in Natural Israel and in Spiritual Israel – that they do not exhibit the wisdom of even the brute beast. One would think after the experiences above narrated, after our blind gropings in the past, after our failure – our failure to find anything in the Bible that would satisfy our reason and our heart – that we all would know assuredly that the present satisfaction and blessing and enlightenment [R4044 : page 248] and refreshment are from the Lord himself. As the ox would be able to know his owner, we surely ought to be able to know our God and to recognize his supervision in our affairs. But not so with all. Some, we are sorry to say, seem to overlook the divine supervision of the Church and the divine arrangement respecting this harvest time and the present development of the Truth. The miraculous supply of manna to Natural Israel in the wilderness was not in our estimation more wonderful nor a better foundation for faith in the divine providences than is the present supply of spiritual manna to the Spiritual Israelites. Nevertheless some know not the Lord as their owner, but still "belong to" various sects and parties and denominations.
The Lord attaches no blame whatever to the wheat on account of the tares being mingled, but explains that in the time of harvest they are to separate. Neither does he express disapproval that his people were in "Babylon" for centuries – confused, bewildered by "traditions of men" and "doctrines of devils." But he does tell us that he does expect that, when the true light shines upon the path of the just in the harvest time of this age, all who are awake and loyal will see the Day Star and the dawning Millennium, and that they will hear as the voice of God the message of Present Truth, and that they will be strengthened and energized by his Word as meat in due season; and that, if then thus energized and awake, they are loyal to him and to the principles of his government and to the honor of his name and to their privileges of service, they will promptly recognize the Truth as the voice of God, saying to them, "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins and receive not of her plagues. – Rev. 18:4.
The ass knoweth her Master's crib: She knows to look for her food as of her Master's providing, and goes again to the same crib, where she receives his bountiful supply, that she may be again and again refreshed and nourished. But our Lord intimates that the stupid ass could give pointers to some of his people. And how true this is! Here and there we find some who, after feeding at the Master's crib, practically say to themselves and to others, "Yes, there was good, clean provender in that crib; it tasted good, I feel refreshed; but it was not specially of the Master's providing; it was a happen-so; let us browse and wander about – we may come across another crib containing still better provender; let us nose about the various creeds, let us try Christian Science, let us try faith cure, let us try to make a crib of our own, and to fill it ourselves and eat therefrom. The Lord intimates that the ass is not as foolish as this; but if we could find one thus disposed we would say, Poor, foolish donkey, you do not know a good thing when you have it – you do not realize your Master's care.
Turning from the Lord's parable of the ox and the ass, we find the Apostle's direct statement respecting the trials and difficulties sure to beset the Lord's people along this line of forgetting who is their owner, who began the good work in them, and who it is that proposes, if we are faithful, to complete his work in us in the day of Jesus Christ – early in the morning of the Millennium. As the Apostle intimates, we find that some of the elders in the Church of Christ, instead of feeding the flock of the Lord and pointing them to their owner, to the food which he has provided, the meat in due season, are on the contrary seeking to turn the flock away – to draw disciples after themselves. Taking for granted that some of the Lord's people are more stupid than the ass, they do their best to turn them from the Master's crib – his provision for the necessities of his people in this evil day. Take an illustration of this: We heard recently from a little congregation of the Lord's people, who for years have been feasting upon the things new and old from the storehouse of truth and grace provided now by our present Lord, that their Elder had admonished them that he would preach to them, or, if they wished a Bible study, he would make one for them, but that he did not wish that they should have "Dawn-Scripture Studies," and hoped that none of them would refer to nor quote from those six volumes of "Scripture Studies" or other of the WATCH TOWER publications. He evidently desired to make them a new crib, into which he would put some new fodder, perhaps attractively topping it off with some of the kind from which they had gotten spiritual refreshment. The old crib he wished them now to entirely forget and go to no more for food. We have not yet learned to what extent those dear people have the common sense of the donkey; but we presume, in harmony with the Lord's suggestion, that some of them will show themselves lacking even donkey sense.
But what motive could any professed servant of the Lord have in such a course? The Apostle explains the motive in the text above, saying it is to draw away disciples after themselves. The desire for leadership, for prominence, to be chiefest, has seemingly been the besetment and difficulty of the Church from the days of Jesus until now. On no other score did our Lord so often warn his disciples as upon this one of a desire to be chief. Whoever manifests such a spirit should be firmly, kindly dealt with, to the intent that the flock might be preserved from such a pernicious spirit, and that the leader himself might be recovered from this snare of the Adversary. Selfishness is the opposite of love, and self-seeking is an evidence of selfishness. Hence, even if the foundation of doctrine, the ransom, be adhered to for a time, let us make no mistake that selfishness would sooner or later lead into outer darkness and thereby many be defiled – injured. The love which the Scriptures set before us as being the proper growth and development of the knowledge received from the Lord – seeketh not her own, is not puffed up – is solicitous chiefly for the glory of the Lord and the good of his flock.
Failure to recognize – or, if recognized, failure to remember – that the Lord is the Chief Reaper in the [R4044 : page 249] harvest work and has full supervision of it, is a fruitful cause of error. All who are in full accord with him, fully submitted to his will, wholly desirous of having his will done in their affairs and in the affairs of the Church, should look well to it that his will shall be fulfilled in every particular: in their thoughts, their words, their deeds, as these relate to their private affairs and to the interests of the Church. His servants we are to whom we render service: and this implies that we are either serving the Lord in connection with the reaping of this harvest time or serving the Adversary, who seeks to oppose this reaping work. Where are we? What are we doing? Are we gathering with the Lord or are we with the Adversary scattering abroad? There can be no doubt as to what the result will be. The harvest work will be accomplished and every true grain of wheat will be garnered; the important question to each of us is respecting our particular share in the matter. What is our attitude in this work? To what extent are we co-laborers and under-reapers? What may we hope for at the close of the harvest, when to the faithful laborers the Master shall say, "Well done, good and faithful servants?" Can he class us with those faithful ones who have sought not their own name or fame or glory or honor amongst men, but by the sacrifice of these have sought to do the will of the Father in heaven? This is a personal matter – each must answer to his own heart as best he may be able to see it.
There is a depth of meaning in our Lord's parable in which he represents one as desiring to take a mote, a small speck, out of another brother's eye, whereas he had a beam, a larger matter, in his own eye. The import of the parable is that each of the Lord's followers should look critically to himself and sympathetically at others of the household. This is the spirit of love; whoever lacks this spirit is in danger: hence we all should seek to cultivate this quality. Where an opposite spirit is entertained, encouraged, the beginnings may be small but the tendency is toward outer darkness. This spirit, we regret to say, manifests itself occasionally in various little companies of the Lord's people – a factional spirit – a fault-finding spirit. The proper spirit, on the contrary, [R4045 : page 249] should be loving consideration for one another, a gladness to see each other developing, and a willingness to assist in as kind and gentle a manner as possible. Any other spirit is sure to bring injury, and we urge all of the Lord's faithful to stand fast by the principle which the Lord enunciates on this subject and to cultivate in the heart the loving generosity which thinketh no evil, but, on the contrary, seeks to rightly understand and excuse an apparent error, especially if it be not along an important line of doctrine.
Such criticisms sometimes extend to the Editor of this journal, who, by the way, has never claimed infallibility, and who does not expect to reach that which is perfect until his change in the First Resurrection. As an illustration of this wrong principle we note the fact that a typographical error crept into a recent issue of the TOWER and made us appear to teach that it was the body of Jesus which was resurrected on the third day, whereas all of our readers know that our teaching in the DAWN-STUDIES has been that not the body but the soul of our Lord was quickened in his resurrection, in harmony with the statement of the Prophet and the Apostle, "Thou wilt not leave my soul in hades" – in the grave. We are glad that the dear friends generally read so critically that the mistake was noticed; but were sorry to learn that one, "who for the time ought to be a teacher" and helper of the flock, improved the opportunity to speak slightingly of this journal, and risked the interests of the flock through a shaking of confidence by remarking that here is the best of evidence that ZION'S WATCH TOWER is not reliable in its instructions on Scriptural themes. What object he had in making the remark only he and the Lord know; we judge him not. We suggest, however, that a different course would undoubtedly have been more to the Lord's glory, more to the good of the little company to whom the brother ministered, and more to his own credit and influence with that little company as a leader. He might have said: "This is a peculiar statement and I think must be a typographical error. This must be so, for it was the Editor himself who first drew the attention of all of us to the fact that our Lord was not raised from the dead a human being but a spirit being – that it was not his body that was resurrected but his soul, as a New Creature. When we come to understand this matter we shall surely find that a typographical error has crept in."
As a matter of fact the Editor dictates his matter to a stenographer, who takes it down in shorthand and then writes it out on a typewriter; the copy thus furnished then goes to a proof-reader and subsequently to the compositor, and the printer's proof is read by two different proof-readers. How in this case the word "body" instead of "soul" could have slipped by the attention of all the dear friends who are thoroughly versed on the subject, none of us understands. Perhaps the Lord allows such blunders for the very purpose of keeping us all very humble, and also to the intent that we all may be on the alert to note carefully what we read, and to square it all with the divine plan which we all now have so clearly in mind.
While at it, we will refer to another criticism – not, however, that the matter is of any special value, but by way of correction. In referring to the wafers which constitute a part of the offerings to the Lord on the Day of Atonement, we explained that they contained a mixture of honey, basing this explanation upon the fact that in Exodus 16:31 we are told that wafers were made of fine flour mingled with honey. Another Scripture, however, forbade that honey should be burned in any sacrifice to the Lord. There then arises a seeming conflict. If the wafers offered on the [R4045 : page 250] Day of Atonement contained honey, then that sacrifice was peculiar and different from the other sacrifices subsequent to the Day of Atonement. If on the other hand the prohibition of the burning of the honey be understood to apply to the Day of Atonement sacrifices as well as to others, then the specified "wafers" could not have contained honey, but if they did not contain honey, in what respect were they different from the other cakes mentioned in the same connection is not very apparent. So far as we can see the question is not a momentous one, but to avoid confusion or dispute, in our future editions of the Tabernacle Shadows we will omit the reference to the honey as a component part of these wafers.
The true spirit of brotherhood amongst the Lord's disciples is most necessary for them individually and collectively. Our Lord declared, "Hereby shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one for another." By these words he evidently meant us to understand that the rules and customs to prevail amongst his dear people should not be after the standards of the world but of a much higher, much nobler, much more generous standard. To the extent that we are able to keep this in memory and to live according to this rule will be our joy in the Lord in the present time and our prospect of being joint-heirs with him in his glorious Kingdom. Let us remember his words to the disciples on the subject of self-seeking – Except ye become as little children ye shall in no wise enter the Kingdom of heaven. – Matt. 18:3.
The request of the people that the land be spied and reported on before its conquest was begun was acceded to by Moses. Twelve spies were selected, representing the twelve tribes – prominent men in whose judgment the people might have confidence. Apparently these went forth in two companies: one under Joshua made a tour of the entire country from the southern part to Jericho at the north, some 300 miles. The other band under Caleb made a shorter journey, going only so far as the valley of Eshcol near Hebron. Caleb was accordingly the first to report (Numbers 13:30; 14:24), while Joshua's report came in later (Numbers 14:6,7). The spies were commissioned to gather information respecting the fruitfulness of the land and the desirability of the country and the character of its inhabitants, and whether they dwelt permanently in walled cities, or in movable camps like the Arabs. Two reports were returned, and in most particulars they were very much alike, telling that the land was good and fruitful and desirable, but that it would be difficult to conquer; that the inhabitants dwelt in high-walled cities, which were well nigh impregnable, and that some of the people were of great stature. Although there were but few of these giants, their fame was evidently far reaching, and the spies declared with exaggeration that in their presence they felt like grasshoppers. The majority advised against any attempt to take possession of the land, and discouraged the people, leading them to believe that it would be an utterly hopeless task for them to undertake to drive out the Canaanites, the Amalekites, the Amorites, the Hittites and the Jebusites, who had thorough possession. The minority report by Caleb and Joshua differed little from the other, except that they expressed full confidence that Israel under divine guidance and by divine aid would be fully able to conquer all the difficulties of the situation.
We cannot wonder that the people were greatly disheartened from the very beginning: they were not a warlike, but a pastoral people. Indeed with the exception of the battle which Abraham waged for the recovery of Lot and his family, and the battle a year before in the wilderness with the Amalekites, the Israelites had no experience in war and quite evidently were unprepared for such a contest as lay before them if they entered Canaan and attempted to take possession. We must admit, therefore, that the report of the ten spies that the Israelites were not capable of taking possession was in many respects a wise and just one, and the people apparently were justified in accepting it. The thing lacking was faith. They should have believed God, and have followed explicitly his leading; they should have said, Greater is he who is on our part than [R4046 : page 251] all they that be against us, and while we are under his direction we are able to do all things through his strengthening power. However, it should not surprise us that this people under all the circumstances were unable to exercise such a faith in God. Rather we might say that antitypical Israel alone might be expected to have such a triumphant faith – nor do we find that very many Spiritual Israelites today possess faith to such a degree. Indeed we should not forget that the failure of Natural Israel and the divine dealings with them in consequence were more in the sense of typical illustrations for Spiritual Israel than as real condemnations of Natural Israel. We cannot think that God expected much more of those people than was manifested in their course. Of Spiritual Israel, however, much may reasonably be expected.
How did the people receive the two reports? Almost unanimously they decided that they had been misled, that their best course was to return to Egypt and proffer their services again to the Egyptian taskmasters. They decided that their coming out of Egypt was a mistake, that the journey through the wilderness was wasted time, and that they now stood in a hopeless position, a people without a country. They proposed to select a leader to lead them back to Egypt, and threatened Caleb and Joshua with stoning for trying to perpetuate the misleading of Moses, which they seemed to have been willing to forgive as an error of judgment. At this juncture, however, the Lord intervened, and from the bright display of his presence over the Tabernacle there went forth a judgment against some of the leaders, especially the ten spies who gave the faithless report and stirred up the people to resent the divine leading which they had previously followed. The lesson was a severe one, a plague amongst the people evidencing divine disfavor, and they were turned back again to wander in the wilderness for the remainder of forty years, a year for each day consumed in the spying of the land. The divine decree was that all the men of Israel over twenty years of age were to perish in the wilderness during those forty years of national disfavor – that not one of them was ever to enter the promised land except the two who gave the good report, Caleb and Joshua.
The commotion amongst the people incident to this report must have been great. Moses himself endorsed the report of Caleb and Joshua, and urged the people to obedience to God, as we read: –
"Then I said unto you, Dread not, neither be afraid of them. Jehovah, your God, who goeth before you, he will fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness, where thou hast seen how that Jehovah thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came into this place. Yet in this thing ye did not believe Jehovah thy God, who went before thee in the way, to seek you out a place to pitch your tents, in fire by night to show you in what way you should go, and in the cloud by day." – Deut. 1:29-33.
But the people in bitterness of disappointment cried out, "Would to God that we had died in the land of Egypt, or would to God that we had died in the wilderness. Wherefore hath the Lord brought us into this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey. Were it not better for us to return to Egypt?"
Then Joshua and Caleb exhorted the congregation, saying, "The land which we passed through to spy it out is an exceedingly good land. If the Lord delight in us, then will he bring us into this land and give it unto us; a land which floweth with milk and honey, only rebel not against the Lord nor fear ye the people of the land."
Applying the lesson to Spiritual Israelites we find many correspondencies: First, we have leaders of the people, corresponding to the spies, on whose report much will surely depend as to the courage of the people in going forward with the divine arrangement. Some of these ministers so magnify the difficulties of the way that the people are discouraged and go not on, while others giving a truthful report encourage their brethren with assurances that the Lord's grace is sufficient for all who are his. Perhaps indeed it would not be amiss to suppose that the twelve spies represent the whole number of the Lord's people who in the present life enter into covenant relationship to the Lord and experience a measure of his rest. All agree that the rest of faith is a glorious one, that its fruitage is grand, and samples are presented to the people. A small minority, however, give a proper report of the possibility of Christian living – the possibility of being overcomers of the world, of fighting a good fight in the name and strength of the Lord, the possibility of entering into all the glorious things which God hath provided for them that love him. The majority, the Great Company, hold back, fail to appropriate the promises, fail to trust the Lord, and their influence is proportionately an evil one upon others with whom they have influence. Thus at the present time few by faith enter into the blessings and privileges that belong to the Spiritual Israelite, and these few are the only ones who will enter into the heavenly Canaan to take actual possession by and by; the others fail of the blessing and joy of faith in the present time, and will fail of the highest blessing in the future, whatever portion they may obtain under the Lord's grace.
Mr. Spurgeon told a story of a man who was invited to come into his orchard to eat some of his fruit. He declined because he said he had picked up some apples from the roadside that fell from those trees, and they were poor and bitter. The owner replied that those trees were there on purpose, so that the boys would not be attracted into the orchard to steal, but assured him that in the orchard proper to which he invited him were delicious apples. As those apple trees on the outside gave not a proper sample or representation of the orchard, so many Christians give to the world a very unsatisfactory sample of the blessings of the Lord and [R4046 : page 252] the fruits of the Spirit, and in some respects bear false witness and hinder the outflow of the blessings of the Lord toward mankind in general during this age. Thank God that the time is coming when under the leadership of the Joshua and Caleb class the whole people – all who will accept the Lord and have confidence in him – may be brought into the antitypical Canaan and assisted to take possession of all the rich favors which God has promised to them that love and obey him.
"Unbelief never gets beyond the difficulties, the cities, the walls, the giants. It is always preferring them, dwelling on them, pitting them against its own resources. Faith, on the other hand, though it never minimizes the difficulties, looks them steadily in the face, turns from them and looks into the face of God, and counts on him. This is what the people failed to do, and for this they lost Canaan."
– F. B. Meyer.
There are two important lessons for Spiritual Israelites to learn: (1) Their own inefficiency – their own inability to meet the trials, the difficulties, the hindrances in their way. As the Apostle says, We cannot do the things that we would. But our extremity is God's opportunity, and his encouraging words are, "My grace is sufficient for thee; my strength is made perfect in your weakness." The Lord could have armed and equipped the hosts of Israel in some miraculous manner, making them invulnerable to the attacks of their enemies, and giving them courage for their ordeal; but this was not his plan. He wished to develop in them the necessary faith, trust, obedience, for, "without faith it is impossible to please God." Thus in Natural Israel was illustrated the divine proceeding in Spiritual Israel. God could miraculously give us powers of mind and of body which would make us superior to every outward circumstance; but instead of so doing he merely justifies us by faith, and tells us to reckon ourselves as complete, perfect, because of the imputation of our Redeemer's merit. From this standpoint of faith all the battles of Spiritual Israel are won or lost. "According to thy faith be it unto you." Those, therefore, who can and will exercise full faith, full confidence in all of the divine promises may go from victory to victory, from blessing to blessing, from joy to joy, from one attainment to another, and have a glorious victory in the end over the world, the flesh and the Adversary, through the imputed merit and continued assistance of him who loved us and bought us with his precious blood.
To this class the giants of opposition and despair lose their power, even as did Goliath before the sling-stone of David. The pebble from the brook – the message from the divine Word – vanquishes the enemy's power to those who have the sling of faith. To these the fortresses of sin are not so strong as to be invulnerable, unassailable; entrenched depravity is recognized as being subject to divine power, and when attacked in the name and strength of the Lord and encompassed repeatedly with prayer, finally its strong walls fall down as did those of Jericho. So may depraved [R4047 : page 252] appetites and sinful desires be thoroughly conquered so far as our hearts are concerned, though the traces thereof may continue to some extent in our mortal flesh – reminders not only of the weaknesses of the fallen nature, but also of the triumphs of the New Mind under the leadership of Jesus.
As these victories of faith progress the fruits of the victory become ours. The grapes of Eshcol, the figs, and all the plenty of the land flowing with milk and honey but feebly picture the riches of grace and fruitage of the Spirit which accrue to those who in the name of the Lord gain the victories of faith over the world, the flesh and the Adversary. Of these fruits and graces the Apostle speaks, naming meekness, gentleness, patience, longsuffering, brotherly kindness, love. And the assurance of the Word is that if we do these things, if we maintain this good fight of faith as New Creatures, we not only shall enjoy the spiritual refreshment, but eventually "an entrance shall be administered unto us abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." – 2 Peter 1:11.
We see such a spirit today amongst some who are disposed to ignore our Lord Jesus, and to talk about the general brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God, declaring that all men have access to God as his children – that sin and atonement are unnecessary – that without special call or divine appointment anybody and everybody is privileged to become a priest and to enter into any and every part of the divine service. This thought is in direct contravention of our dear Redeemer's words, – "No man cometh to the Father but by me," and the Apostle's words, "Neither is there salvation in any other." The Apostle also points out the exclusiveness of the priesthood, saying, "No man taketh this honor to himself but he who is called of God, even as Aaron." Thus we see Christ was the one called of God to be the great High Priest, and that he in turn is calling, not all mankind, but a special class of believers under special limitations and conditions to be his members, or the under-priesthood. We do well to keep this in memory and to profit by the lesson of Korah's wrong course.
Another connected thought is that the recognition of Moses and Aaron implied a recognition of the entire arrangement of which they were the heads. This arrangement in the Church the Apostle points out, saying that the Lord hath set in the Church the various members as it hath pleased him. (I Cor. 12:18.) We are not to forget that he does the setting; we are not to ignore it, we are not to set ourselves. The Apostle illustrates this matter of the setting of the various members of the Body of Christ, that some are hand-members, others eye-members, others feet-members, etc. He points out that there is plenty of service for each member of the Body, but not all the same service. We do not hear with our feet, and although the hands assist in talking by illustrative motions, and although they assist in discernment by feeling that which the eyes see, nevertheless it would be a mistake to suppose that God set the hands in the Body to see and to talk and the feet to hear. For the members of the Body of Christ to leave their positions in the Body to which they are adapted and for which they are set, to use some other place in the Body, is sure to bring serious confusion to themselves and to other Spiritual Israelites.
It was during this interim of waiting that Moses committed the sin which hindered him from entering the promised land. (Num. 20:2-13.) Peculiarly enough his sin was along the line of his principal excellence of character. When he was chosen to be captain of the Lord's hosts, one of his special qualifications was declared to be, "Now Moses was the meekest man in all the earth." (Num. 12:3.) Yet it was because of a lack of meekness that eventually he failed to reach the promised land. We may surely sympathize with Moses; we may well realize that had he not been the very meekest of men he would have been unfit from the very first for the great service entrusted to him. And is it any wonder that with the great responsibility resting upon him and all of the people looking to him for nearly forty years, he gradually grew less humble, until finally at Meribah, instead of speaking to the rock as the Lord directed, he exclaimed, "Ye rebels, must I bring you water out of this rock?" We have no thought that Moses on account of this transgression has lost his standing as one of the honorable members of the company of Ancient Worthies, but we observe in his experiences a typical lesson for all the members of the Body of Christ.
We do see that the Lord has indicated that humility is one of the chiefest graces amongst his people, and that without it we would be unfit for the Kingdom. We do see that even though the Truth appeals chiefly to the humble-minded, even though the Lord favors these alone in connection with his work, nevertheless they are in great danger of stumbling along this very line. At no time has there been greater danger than at present. The feet-class will need to be specially upheld by the Lord that they stumble not through pride or boastfulness or self-conceit. So many and so great are our privileges in connection with the knowledge of the Lord and his glorious plan, that if we for one moment think of these as being in any sense of the word our own, we begin to lose our humility and to be in danger of the sin of pride and self-assertion. Our only safety is in continually watching and praying lest we enter into temptation – lest we should think of the truths we are honoring as being in any sense our own. Surely we have nothing that we have not received of the Lord – nothing, therefore, of which we ourselves could boast. Appropriately, then, let our boast be of the Lord and his greatness and his goodness to us and to all. Humbling ourselves thus under the mighty hand of God we shall be kept from the self-assertion which was Moses' sin, and which typified a difficulty and cause of rejection in some of the Lord's prominent ones of Spiritual Israel. "Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he might exalt you in due time," that you may be permitted to enter with the Lord's hosts into the glorious Kingdom in due time. – I Pet. 5:6.
When finally the time arrived in the last of the forty years of the wilderness experience for the people to move forward and to enter into Canaan they essayed to go by the nearest route, through Edom. But the Edomites – descendants of Esau – forbade this and threatened them with war. Next they thought of the route pursued by the spies through Southern Palestine; but the Canaanites were prepared and fought them off and captured some of the stragglers. This seemingly [R4048 : page 254] greatly discouraged the Israelites, who supposed that because the Lord's time had come they would have no difficulty in entering in and taking possession. They lacked faith thirty-eight years before when they should have exercised it, and now instead they had come to have a kind of credulity that was unwarranted.
So it is with Spiritual Israelites; sometimes credulity is accepted and cherished as instead of faith. Many Christians, for instance, seem to expect that they will be carried to Canaan on flowery beds of ease, without any fighting, without proving their courage, without demonstrating their faith by overcoming various hindrances and obstacles. Let us not make such a mistake; let us understand from the first that God is seeking a class of overcomers, and that there could be no such class unless there were difficulties to overcome, and that it is the patient perseverance in well doing that demonstrates true character.
Israel's credulity shattered, they began their journey to the eastward of Edom through a dense wilderness, "and the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the way" – their hardships, especially their disappointed hopes of an easier route. Here a rebellious spirit again broke out and they murmured, as did their fathers thirty-eight years before, against Moses and against God, declaring that their condition of bondage in Egypt, severe as it was, was preferable to the experiences they were having. Had they possessed a proper faith in God, in his wisdom, love and power, and a proper resignation to the same, their difficulties would have been lightened, their bitterness all have been sweetened. And so it is with those of Spiritual Israel who do not exercise the proper faith in the promises of God. To them the trials by the way and the disappointments are most discouraging, and "hope deferred maketh the heart sick." (Prov. 13:12.) Here again we see necessity for faith and proper devotion. With these we can endure all things; yea, and take adversities joyfully, as the Apostle explains, "Rejoicing in tribulation." (2 Cor. 7:4.) Hope and courage, inspired by the divine promises and strengthened by the experiences of the way, alone will keep us joyful while we are still in the enemy's country.
The Israelites murmured against the whole divine arrangement, especially complaining that there was no water, and that the manna that they gathered daily was too light – not strong enough for them; they craved the flesh-pots of Egypt. Similarly some of Spiritual Israel, not properly grasping the hopes and promises, not sufficiently living by faith on every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God, find themselves in a half-starved condition because unable to appropriate a sufficiency of the spiritual food from lack of spiritual faith and hope. They crave the worldly things, and long to satisfy the carnal appetite, and feel themselves in a measure of bondage under the antitypical Moses. As a punishment for this rebellious condition the Lord permitted to come upon them a host of fiery serpents, the particular kind of which is not certain. They are supposed to have been called the fiery serpents because of red streaks upon the head, and because of a glistening of the skin in the sunlight. Such serpents are found in those desert parts and are very ferocious, very poisonous. Their bite so inflames the body and nervous system as to cause the feeling of fire throughout the entire body, often resulting in death in a very few hours. Such serpents are said to be numerous in those parts, but the "plague" of these seems to imply that they were present on this occasion in vast numbers as a scourge to the rebellious Israelites. Their agonies were increased by the bites of these serpents and by the dying of the members of their families. They began to realize that the chastisement of the Lord was upon them, and they cried to Moses for help, saying, "We have sinned because we have spoken against the Lord and against thee; pray unto the Lord that he take away the serpents from us." And Moses prayed for them.
How often it is thus with Spiritual Israelites. It seems in many instances to require several adversities to awaken them, to cause them to appreciate the great antitypical Moses, the Christ, and to come unto the Father through him for relief. In this connection we remember the words of the Prophet, and see that they well apply to the experiences of many of the Lord's spiritual family, "Before I was afflicted I went astray." – Psa. 119:67.
By divine direction Moses erected on a pole a serpent made of brass, apparently of immense size and capable of being seen by the Israelites from quite a distance. By this means God would teach Natural Israel a lesson of faith. They had sinned, the punishment of their sins was upon them, but his mercy was extended to those who would recognize it by faith. We can well imagine the credulity of the people at first, and how they would say, What benefit could come from looking at a brass or copper serpent on a pole? How could that affect the wounds? How could that heal the dying ones? Is not this a fraud upon us? What does Moses, our great captain, think of us? Why does he thus trifle with us, and why does he not prepare some special balm? However, as the news would circulate that those who looked upon the serpent were healed, we can imagine the spread of the message among the people and their efforts and zeal to help one another to look and live. We can imagine parents pointing their dying children to the serpent, others helping themselves and being helped to the doors of their tents or other points from which the serpent might be seen. We can imagine better than describe the commotion experienced throughout so large a camp by this arrangement, and we can see that it was not only a penalty for their transgression, but incidentally it became a valuable assistance to their faith. Henceforth they might more clearly than ever realize that God was their leader, that through him they could do all things, and that murmuring against him would bring divine displeasure and some unfavorable punishment. [R4048 : page 255]
We might not have discovered without divine aid the antitypical signification of this incident. But our Lord himself directs our attention to the fact that the Israelites bitten by those serpents represented or typified sinners bitten by sin and suffering from the consequences thereof – the fall. He calls our attention to the fact that he himself was the great antitype of that brazen serpent lifted in the wilderness – that by his crucifixion he who knew no sin was made a curse for us who were transgressors. From our Lord's explanation we perceive the great truth taught by this type, namely, that in no other way has God provided for eternal life for the people than by the acceptance of Christ – yea, more than this, the acceptance of Christ crucified.
How plainly does this show us that it is not sufficient for us to believe in Jesus as the great teacher, classing him with Plato, Zoroaster, Confucius or others, nor even by himself as a teacher above all other teachers. The lesson was that there was a redemption accomplished by our Lord in his crucifixion, which was necessary for us and without which we could not have eternal life.
And further, the lesson outlined in the type is that not only was it necessary that Christ should die for our sins, but that none could be saved through his death except by looking unto him, exercising faith in the merit of his great atonement-sacrifice. It is in harmony with this that we, seeing, look and live. It is in harmony with this that we are looking unto Jesus, the author of our faith, until he becomes its finisher. It is in harmony with this that we are exhorted to look away from our own imperfections and dying conditions to the perfection of life in the Son of God, who gave himself our ransom price, and that we realize that through faith in his blood we have forgiveness of sins, reconciliation to the Father, and thus eternal life through him.
But alas, says one, if it be true that there is no salvation except through faith in Christ – faith in his blood, faith in his sacrifice, faith in the redemption accomplished thereby – then how few will be saved! Some tell us that they cannot accept so narrow and limited a Gospel, that they believe that the heathen are saved without looking with the eye of faith to the crucified one, that they are as much saved as we who do look. We answer that we must not be wiser than the great Teacher himself, that we must not claim to have a greater benevolence than he who gave his life as our ransom price, and who declares that no man can come unto the Father but by him, and who points out that faith in him is necessary to such an approach to the Father and the getting of life eternal.
But while looking to him from the standpoint of faith and accepting his Word, we hear from him a blessed message, which comforts our hearts and bids us rejoice. He assures us through the prophets that the hour is coming when all the blind eyes shall be opened and all the deaf ears shall be unstopped. He assures us that every eye shall see him, including those who pierced him.
Those "eyes of understanding" now blinded, as the Apostle declares, by the god of this world and the cares of this life, will all be opened wide, in God's due time, to see the lengths and breadths and heights and depths of divine love and provision of grace in Christ. Our Lord informs us that the power of his cross is not limited to the present life. He declares, "I am the Resurrection and the Life." He declares that the hour is coming in the which all that are in their graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth. Those who have already seen and already been cured come forth to the resurrection of life, resurrection of glory and blessing and cooperation in the great work of blessing the remainder. [R4049 : page 255] Others will come forth to judgments, disciplines, corrections in righteousness, either that they may learn to look and live, or that, persistently refusing divine favor, they shall ultimately be destroyed from amongst the people. – Acts 3:23.
As soon as the Israelites began to realize the divine power behind the brazen serpent they began to respond. Similarly our Lord informs us that as a result of his being lifted up at Calvary he shall ultimately exercise a drawing power upon all mankind. Not that he is exercising this drawing power now, however, for he declares respecting those who now come unto him that they are drawn of the Father. He says, "No man cometh unto me except the Father which sent me draw him." (John 6:44.) Thus the little flock, the Royal Priesthood, the members of the Body of Christ, are now being drawn. But the great mass of mankind are not drawn of the Father, but will be drawn by the Son, as we read, "And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me." (John 12:32.) Thus we see that the drawing of all men is a future work, and to be accomplished by the Christ, while the drawing of the little flock in this present time is the Father's work through various agencies. Let us rejoice in the divine plan, which is so complete, so harmonious, so satisfactory. Let us not mar in our minds the beauties of that plan by any false theories of our own or of other men, but let us receive with meekness the heavenly message that we may be wise, for our own benefit in making our calling and election sure now, and be prepared for a share in the heavenly Kingdom and its work of blessing all the families of the earth under the promise made to Abraham's Seed, the heirs according to the promise. – Galatians. – 3:29.
Our Lord, we are told, was actually holy, harmless, undefiled and separate from sinners. (Heb. 7:26.) Thus, as God's holy one, he took the sinner's place. As the representative of Adam (and the race in his loins) Jesus tasted death for every man, – paying the sinner's penalty. He was made sin for us, he who knew no sin. He was treated as a sinner in order that we might be received by the Father and treated as righteous through the merit of his sacrifice. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. Let us learn well the lesson, let us dread the bite of the sin-serpent and its death penalty, let us flee from this and let us receive the healing full and free; let us abide in his love. More than this, let us who at the present time have heard of the grace of God – which invites us not only to be justified through the precious sacrifice of Christ, but also to be adopted by him figuratively as members of his Body – accept the glorious proposition that we may thus become dead with Christ, that we may thus share with him in his sufferings as his members, that we may thus be members in him in the uplifted condition of the future, the glorious condition, and that from him and from us as members of his Body in glory may proceed the blessings of the Life-Giver to all the families of the earth, who will then be invited to look and to live.