THE HERALD
of Christ's Kingdom

VOL. XV. May 1, 1932 No. 9
Table of Contents

Value of the Knowledge of the Divine Plan of the Ages

Living Waters

Half Hour Meditations on Romans

Letters of Encouragement

The Institute's Annual Meeting

VOL. XV. May 15, 1932 No.10
Table of Contents

The Church's Inheritance in the Apocalypse

Living Waters

"A CRY O F THE SOUL"

The Man of Sin

The Evil Heart of Unbelief

Interesting Memorial Reports

VOL. XV. May 1, 1932 No. 9

Value of the Knowledge of the
Divine Plan of the Ages

OUR OBLIGATION TO GIVE THE "WATER OF LIFE"
TO ALL WHO THIRST CAN WE DO MORE TO
FURTHER THE MINISTRY OF THE TRUTH?

September 1, 1921, there was laid before the readers of this journal a suggestion that had for some years prior to that time been under advisement-that of printing the "Divine Plan of the Ages," Volume I of Scripture Studies, by Brother Russell. Realizing that it was considerable of 'a proposition, the project was not hastily undertaken. Hence it was thought best to lay the matter before the "Herald" readers, that we might have the advantage of the judgment of many we might have the advantage of the judgment of many to ascertain their mind, we published at that time in these columns under date of September 1, 1921, an article the response to which resulted in our issuing an edition of the "Divine Plan of the Ages," early in 1922.

Now at this time the edition of the volume that was published then, is nearly exhausted, and there is now brought to our attention another suggestion with the request that it be given careful considerations. In connection with presenting this late suggestion it is thought well to republish the article which appeared in September 1, 1921, and the same is submitted below under the above caption, "Value of the Knowledge of the Divine Plan of the Ages." The suggestion is that a special ninety-six page edition of the "Herald" be gotten out containing the reprint of the "Divine Plan of the Ages," this to be practically a reproduc­tion of the ninety-six page issue or edition of the Watch Tower that was published by Brother Russell and was gen­erally designated as the "ZA," meaning the Divine Plan of the Ages in Watch Tower form. The thought primarily in this proposed publication is that it can probably be placed in the hands of our readers at ten cents per copy, or in lots at the rate of five cents each, for general dis­tribution. We suggest therefore that the article below be carefully and prayerfully read and considered, after which it is hoped that we shall hear from our readers very gen­erally expressing their opinion and wishes as to the ad­visability of issuing the "Divine Plan of the Ages" in "Herald" form. Please note also other suggestions at the conclusion of this article. Editorial Committee.

UNSPEAKABLE indeed have been the blessings of light, joy, peace and fellowship with God, experienced by those who have beheld the vision of the Divine Plan of the Ages­ God's purpose for the removal of the curse from the earth and the bringing in of eternal righteousness. Yea, it would truly be impossible to estimate the blessed results that have come to those who, out, of consecrated hearts, in these days have earnestly sought, and have been given to know "the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven" as contained in the revelation of the Divine program. Probably chiefest among these results is the realization of the sanc­tification of the spirit and of the transformed life--a state  in which the heart can rejoice with unspeakable joy and confidently exclaim, "Old things have passed away, and .behold all things have become new.'' As is well recog­nized by earnest students of the Sacred Word, the great center of the Divine Plan is the only-begotten Son of God, declared to be the First and the Last, Jehovah's Chief Representative in the execution of His purposes. The consecrated Christian soon learns, therefore, to sing:

"My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus' name.
On Christ, the Solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand."

It was the Savior Himself who announced that the truth concerning God's character and Plan, and the knowledge of His righteous requirements, was to constitute the sanctifying power in the lives of His followers: "Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy Word is truth." In other words, the knowledge of God is necessary for those who would build character acceptable to Him. The true foundation upon which we should build, is faith in the righteousness of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; faith that His sacrifice for sin was once for all a complete and full ransom price for Adam and all his posterity. It is those who build upon this foundation that may hope to multiply their grace and peace "through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord." To the advancing Christian the knowledge of God means far more than merely to know that there is a God and that there is a Lord and Savior; to him it means an acquaintance with the Father and with the Son, a knowledge of the mind of Christ, which is a full and clear representation to us of the mind of the Father.

As our intimate knowledge of the Divine Plan and character increases, so must also our grace increase; for those who do not attempt to come into harmony step by step with that which they see of the Divine character, will soon lose interest in such knowledge, while those who have the interest which leads to further and further study, must of necessity be growing in grace continually. As they grow in grace, so, also will they grow in peace; for peace also is a progressive thing. Those who have made progress in the knowledge of the Divine Plan and character, have found their peace to be an ever-increasing one, and those who have advanced some distance in the good way, can speak of it in the language of the Apostles and realize it in their hearts' as being "the peace of God, which passeth all understanding."

"THE SWEETEST OF ALL STORIES"

Let us at this point pause to take at least a cursory view of those essential truths of the Divine program, even though we have already considered them many times -- truths that have an important bearing upon our progress in faith, hope and love, and in the production of the fruits of the spirit.

First of all we are given great assurance, particularly in the New Testament, that our Lord Jesus is the Head of an Ecclesia, a body of specially called-out ones. (Eph. 1:22, 23.) There can be no question that the different members of the Church are being called, drawn by a selective process, from the world of mankind. The testimony of the Scriptures as to the object of the call seems also to be clear. The Apostle Peter says that the Church is a people for a purpose; i.e., God -has a special object or purpose in selecting the Church--they are to "show forth the praises of Him who hath called them out of darkness into His marvelous light," and "that men may see their good works, and glorify their Father which is in Heaven." -1 Pet. 2:9; Matt. 5:10.

God has purposed to make a New Creation in connection with the redemption of the world, and He calls the Church to be associated with her Lord in the Divine nature, "far above principalities, and powers, and every name that is named;" and as soon as the Church, this New Creation, I shall, have been completed, mankind will have an opportunity to learn the lesson of righteousness, to come to a knowledge of God, and will be raised up out of sin and death, out of the weaknesses that have come to them through sin. This uplifting time is definitely marked out in the Scriptures as "times of restitution"--the restitution of that which was lost. Since that which was lost was human perfection and Edenic bliss, mankind will not get heavenly things, such as the New Creation, the Church, inherit, but they will receive earthly blessings. God's will shall be accomplished. The world will be brought to perfection during the thousand years of Messiah's reign. The most important piece of, restitution work relates to man. The hard, stony, selfishness of heart which is worldwide is neither Godlike nor to God's glory.

"Man's inhumanity to man,
Makes countless thousands mourn."

Nineteen centuries of preaching show that the cure for this malady is not in our power, and that only. the few even desire to seek for the Lord's spirit of gentleness and tenderheartedness. But the Great King of Glory is also the Good Physician. He alone can cure the disease of sin and its results. Through Him God's promise to Israel will be fulfilled: "I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh." (Ezek. 36:26.) This work will proceed from Israel to -all the families of the earth, uplifting all of the obedient out of sin and death to all that was lost in Eden and redeemed on Cal-vary.

Before sin entered the world,, the Divine provision indeed for our first parents was the Garden of Eden. The Scriptures tell us that after God had created various orders of spirit beings, He made man, "a little lower than the angels." (Psa. 8:5.) The human race began with Adam and Eve, who had ability to grasp and appreciate the Divine arrangement, as the brute creation have not. God made man in His own likeness. The fact that sin came in and brought father Adam under the sentence of death does not signify that the Heavenly Father had changed His arrangement. The purpose which He had in the beginning has never changed. Therefore, as we read, the promises of restitution, our minds turn to the future, guided by the Word of God, and in mental vision we see Paradise restored-not a garden merely, but the entire earth made beautiful, fruitful, sinless, happy. Thus, we recall the inspired promise so familiar to us--"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain;" for the former things of sin and death will have passed away and all things will have been made new.-Rev.. 21:4, 5.

PARADISE, HOME OF REDEEMED WORLD

We can now see why the entire world was not made an Eden in the beginning, namely,, God intended to give the race a trial, and according to the record of the Scriptures, if the first pair had maintained their righteousness, their holiness, -they would have continued to be perfect and would have propagated a perfect race; and' if sin had not come in,, God would have been responsible for their Maintenance; but foreseeing that sin would come in, He merely made Eden perfect and allowed the remainder of .the earth to continue in an unfinished condition. Consequently God said to Adam, "Cursed is the ground for thy sake; In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field: in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou, return unto the ground."--Gen. 3:17-19.

God foresaw that if the earth had been originally perfect, the death struggle would be longer and the degradation of man greater. 'The poverty of the world has assisted in keeping mankind back from greater depths, of iniquity. The sentence, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread," was evidently intended as a blessing; that man might learn lessons-the experience of battling with the earth for his living. As the Creator said to the man regarding the curse of the earth, it was "for thy [man's] sake." So man has learned that "the wages of sin is* death." Had mankind remained perfect they might have learned the lesson of the sinfulness of sin in the same way that the angels have learned; but hastening to commit sin, they have learned evil first, and have been subject to all the vicissitudes of sin and death. The angels have learned the other lesson-what righteousness is, what God is, not merely in the abstract, but in an appreciative sense. The Heavenly Father has not, however, changed His original Plan. When the Kingdom is set up, "the earth shall yield, her increase," and God assures us, "I will make the place of My feet glorious." The evidences are that that time is near at hand. We see signs of the promised blessings coming. What are our vast irrigation schemes by artesian wells and by. aqueducts, but fulfillments of the prophecies pertaining to the reign of Christ, and the blessing of the earth? "In the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert." "The wilderness, and the solitary place, shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose."--Isa. 35:6, 1.

"I SEE A NEW CREATION RISE!'

But, we ask at this point, where comes in the portion of the New Creation-the Church, of whom Jesus is the Head? The Scriptures answer that the Church is called out to be a. privileged people and to become joint-heirs with our Lord in His Kingdom. We ask further whether He is really to have a Kingdom. The Scriptures answer, Yes, at the end of the Gospel Age, He appears not as a sin-offering, but as a great King, Prophet, judge, to dispense the blessings procured by His death. We ask respecting the share of the Church at the present time. The answer comes that those who faithfully follow the Lamb through good report and evil report, who take up their cross and follow Jesus, will be accounted worthy to be His associates in the Kingdom. We ask if the Church in the glorified state will be able to combat the evil tendencies of the world. The answer is, Yes; Satan will be bound for a thousand years, that he may deceive the nations no more till the thousand years have been fulfilled. During those years , the Savior's mission will be to bless mankind as the "Sun of righteousness," with "healing in His beams," and His Church is to have -a share with Him in the blessing of the world. Neither is this some new proposition, for we learn that this was God's plan and purpose from "before the foundation of the world." This is verily the Gospel, or Good Tidings, first declared to, Abraham: "In thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed."--Gen. 12:3.

God intended to bless all the members of the human race, all nations and kindreds and tongues, and purposed that the blessings should come to them through the seed of Abraham. The Jewish nation was merely the typical seed; the antitypical Seed is The Christ (Jesus the Head, and the Church,. His Body) who will bless all the families of the earth: but the earth must wait for its blessing until the Church shall have been completed, shall, have passed beyond the veil, and shall sit with Christ in His throne.

Asked as to the success of the blessing which will attend the work of Christ and the Church, the Scriptures -answer that "every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess," and that the knowledge of God shall fill the whole earth." As to whether this means universal salvation--that everybody will be saved: the answer is, that as all die in. Adam,, so all are to be revivified-brought back to the privilege of attaining everlasting life, through the merit of Christ's sacrifice-but that the attainment of everlasting life will depend upon the manner in which the privilege is used. None will be coerced or compelled.

The majority of mankind have such respect for righteousness that if its rewards were as sure and as desirable as are those of sin, unquestionably they would prefer to do right. Our observations reveal that many have been almost forced to do evil. Only the very few are willing to renounce sin and walk in the "Narrow Way". of obedience and self-sacrifice. While those who do so in this Age are to have a very special reward, others who love righteousness and hate iniquity will, under the rule of Christ's Kingdom, have every assistance, without compulsion. They will have co-operation in their endeavors for righteousness. The Scriptures, however, with equal force declare that as death was the original penalty of sin in Adam's case, so it will always be the penalty for sin, and that whoever during the future Age persists in willfully sinning shall die the "Second Death," from which there will be no resurrection, no redemption, no hope of recovery. Thank God, the unwilling and disobedient will not be consigned to endless torture, but to an everlasting cutting-off.

The perfected earth will then abide forever for the ,glorious being, man, restored to God's image and likeness. Thus eventually, when all wilful sinners shall have been blotted out, we find the Scriptures state that "every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and such as are in the sea," will be heard saying, "Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever." (Rev. 5:13.) Thus the Lord will gather together all the faithful, both in heaven and earth, under the headship of Christ,, whose head is Jehovah. (-Eph. 1:10.) How grand the consummation!

The foregoing is surely the sum of the Divine Plan in brief. The contemplation of these messages of God's Holy Word cannot but have an ennobling and sanctifying effect. All who have truly caught this vision of the Divine Plan of the Ages have felt the impulse to go forth bearing it to others. Such have realized their commission, that they have been anointed to preach. First of all our Lord Jesus, then the Apostles, and subsequently a goodly number of others have throughout the Gospel Age been faithful to the call to "bear testimony to the truth," and, as expressed in the language of St. Paul, have not been "disobedient to the heavenly vision."

Nor have the closing years of this Age witnessed any less of privilege and opportunity, nor found those less zealous or faithful in the ministry. To the contrary, we may safely say that during the past fifty years most wonderful opportunities have been before the consecrated, and a goodly number have quickly responded and have entered upon the greatest of all privileges-that of proclaiming Glad Tidings of Great joy.

IS THE CHURCH'S MISSION HERE FULFILLED?

During the past five years, following the death Of PASTOR RUSSELL, certain unexpected developments, changes and innovations have come, and many of the brethren of the Truth have realized the opportunities for spreading the Truth greatly curtailed. This in turn has caused some to show weariness in well doing, while others have concluded that the Church's mission in the flesh is finished; that the time of her ministry is over; that the Church is complete, even though some are still in the flesh; and that we have reached the time for standing in idleness. Still others of the brethren seeming disposed to drift listlessly along with the tide, have realized a cooling of their spiritual ardor, and are reclining more or less in lethargy and in idleness so far as spiritual energy and activity are concerned. However, we are happy to observe that in the midst of all of this grave and unhappy situation, there are those who have kept the fires of their Christian faith, love and zeal burning, and have all along been inquiring, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?"

It will be remembered that our INSTITUTE was called into existence some three years ago by the brethren in different parts of the country in order that they might assist and encourage one another in holy things, and in order that they might unite their efforts in some general ministry. While there have been hindrances and discouragements of one kind and another, and while the efforts have seemed feeble, it has been plainly manifest that the Lord has blessed the arrangements made, and some splendid opportunities have been opened up for witnessing to the Divine Message. Addressing the brethren the world over in this message, we desire to say that while all along we have been endeavoring to be watchful, to note the Lord's providences and to observe any opportunities for service that He might present to ourselves or others, it has been especially upon our hearts recently to inquire if we are doing all we can in the Master's service in these last days, and if we may not reach out and lay hold of certain opportunities for giving the blessed "Water of Life" to others around us more than we have been doing. We cannot believe that the ministry of the Church in the flesh is at an end. Most assuredly there are, still members of Christ on earth "filling up that which is behind of His afflictions," and as there are still opportunities for sacrificing and serving, the inevitable conclusion is that the mission of the Christ in the flesh is not yet entirely fulfilled, and surely will not be until the last member has passed beyond. In preceding issues-of this journal we have presented the evidence which to our minds is convincing that the door into the "Narrow Way"--the door into the Church militant is not yet closed. We conclude, therefore, that the commission given by Jesus in the beginning of the Age, to bear the Message of the Gospel to others, is still ap­plicable, and for those, His consecrated Body members. More than this, experience convinces us that zealous ac­tivity in the ministry of the Truth produces most whole­ some results in the hearts of those so engaged, provided the service is rendered with, the right motive and from the true viewpoint-that of offering a message of comfort to others, and that of a desire to spread the name of, and to glorify our Father in Heaven.

THE TIME NOT YET, BUT DRAWING NEAR

We believe that none can say just when the career of the Church in the flesh will end. So far as anyone can know, it may be for some years yet. We cannot know just how long. To our understanding there are several events of vital importance yet to come to pass before the Kingdom is established, events that for all we know may require several years. Amongst these is that of the restoration of the Jews and their establishment in a state of independence in their own land. We may truth-fully say that much progress has been made in that direction in recent years, but there is room for much yet before that nation is ready for the Divine government, Messiah's Kingdom.

Another feature is that of the Triple Alliance. We believe there are certain plain statements in the Old Testament prophecies, as well as in the Book of Revelation, that indicate that it will be a still closer drawing together of the two great ecclesiastical powers--that of Catholicism and Federated Protestantism--and some sort of co-operation with the civil government in an attempt to hold the present order of things together. Considerable, has transpired looking in the direction of the fulfillment of this matter in recent years, but there are still important developments to be expected before the results will be realized that we have reason to look for.

Another matter: The kingdoms of this world are still intact and exercising dominion of human affairs, and hence the old order of things presided over by the "prince of this world" still exists--"the present heavens and earth" have not passed away. These, the Scriptures tell us, must be "dissolved," before "the new heavens and new earth" appear--the establishing of the Kingdom.

WATCHING AND WAITING,
YET ATTENTIVE TO OUR FATHER'S BUSINESS

We believe that none can say how many years may be required for the developing of any of the foregoing features; nor is it necessary for us to know. During the past few months we have been discussing in these pages. in more or less of a general way "the times and seasons.," feeling sure that this is a subject fit and proper for us to consider together, especially as it is a theme that is given considerable prominence in the Bible. We have endeavored to note ,that the failure of some of our cherished expectations really form no grounds whatever for discouragement with regard to our real hopes and expectations. The disappointments that have come have indeed proven tests of faith; and under the Lord's providence, if our hearts remain true and loyal to Him, what we have experienced along this line will Surely result in further spiritual good and not in any real loss. We have considered it proper to endeavor to see and to point out to others what has seemed to us to be a discrepancy of nineteen years in our chronological system, and by which we account for the failure of some things that we supposed would be in evidence long before this; and we have suggested, in view of our recent chronological deductions, which we still feel are well grounded, that it could not be unreasonable for us to think that there might be a culmination of matters and a climax reached in the passing away of the present order of things approximately around 1934: but we had not thought, to place any halo around that or any other year as marking beyond peradventure the exact time of the last end of this order of things and the conclusion of our. earthly pilgrimage; for we still feel that the evidence is not of that conclusive character that we would be warranted in laying plans for any particular year. This was not our thought at all in presenting the suggestions that we. did bearing upon the extension of the time. Our thought merely was, and still is, that by an examination of the chronological lines we might see something of a reasonable Solution to the present situation in which many of the Lord's people have realized themselves in more or less of a maze on account of their unfulfilled hopes and expectations; and we believe that we will be pleasing the Lord if we continue our investigation and look to Him for guidance, in obedience to His command to "watch," to note whatever further evidence and light upon this matter He may be pleased to bring to our attention. Meantime it seems to us that the course of wisdom for all the brethren is, not to insist that we must locate some particular year and positively settle upon that, for so far as we know, it may never be given unto us to have such positive knowledge in advance as to the exact time. We think the important lesson to be observed and followed is, that whether we remain in the flesh one year, five years, or twenty years, we should be concerning ourselves with regard to our Father's, business--the adjusting and keeping spotless of our own robes, and persevering in the spread of the Truth concerning our Father's character and Plan.

CAN WE DO MORE TO COMFORT THE SORROWING?

What we now desire to bring before the consideration of the brethren is that of instituting some more effectual as well as substantial means of reaching other hearing ears and others who thirst;, for surely there are some yet to be found, and who, for all we know, may be fully in line to be members of the Bride class. All about us are sights of wretchedness and sorrow, and vast numbers to whom we may offer assistance and the message of comfort contained in the Good Tidings. Some recent public meetings have made very evident that there are those hungering and thirsting for the Truth. More than this, but recently certain cases have come under our observation, some who have just accepted the Message and are delighted to meet in regular study of the Plan, and give evidence that they have full acceptance with the Lord and the blessing of the Spirit. All of these manifestations seem to speak to us of the Lord's will that we become more exercised and, active if -possible in the promulgation of the Message.

And in response to the question, What shall we do? we are impressed that there is no better or effectual means of bearing testimony to the Truth today than that of plac­ ing in the hands of others the First Volume of Studies in the Scriptures--THE DIVINE PLAN OF THE AGES, which we' have briefly reviewed in this article. We can think of no better, nor as good and substantial a statement of the Truth as is contained in this Volume. to this we believe all the brethren will agree. It may be truthfully said that in the First Volume of the Studies we have all the substantial and essential features of the entire six books so far as the foundation features of 'the Divine Message of truth and grace is concerned; all the necessary and important doctrines are thoroughly treated, with accompanying Scrip­ ture testimony bearing thereon. In the Chart of the Ages with its complete, explanation in the Volume, what a mar­ velous mine of Truth is opened up. We see truly the Stately steppings of our God throughout the Ages. The doctrines of conversion, justification, sanctification and glorification are fully and most satisfactorily explained. The hope of the Church and of the world is clearly set forth. The Scripture teaching concerning the object and purpose of our Lord's Second Advent is exhaustively ex­ plained. The chapters treating the permission of evil­ the world's judgment Day-the Church's change of na­ ture, together with the Three Ways-the Narrow Way, the Broad Way, and the High Way-and the subject, the Kingdom of God-all of these themes so beautifully explained are indeed rare gems of Truth. The closing chap­ters of the Volume leading down to the close of the present dispensation and dealing with the Scriptures that show the change of dispensation' from that of the present to "the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times," are also of great interest and importance.

BROTHER RUSSELL PRESENTS QUESTIONS OF SOLEMN IMPORT

Finally, in the closing pages of the last chapter we have a rare and beautiful statement bringing home to the reader and making practical application of the lessons contained in the preceding pages of the Volume. Let the reader ponder well the following lines:

"A knowledge of these things, and the evidences that they are nigh, even at the door, should have a powerful influence upon all, but especially upon the consecrated children of God, who are seeking the prize of the Divine nature. We urge such, while they lift up, their heads and rejoice, knowing that their redemption draweth nigh, to lay aside every weight and hindrance, and to run patiently the race in which they have started. Look away from self and its unavoidable weaknesses and imperfections, knowing that all such weaknesses are covered fully by the merits of the ransom given by Christ Jesus our Lord, and that your sacrifices and self-denials are acceptable to God through our Redeemer and Lord-and thus only. Let us remember that the strength sufficient which God has promised us, and by use of which we can be 'overcomers" ,is provided in His Word. It is a strength derived from a knowledge of His character and plans, and of the conditions upon which we may share in them. Thus Peter expresses it, saying, 'Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge, of God, and of Jesus. Christ our Lord, according as His Divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of, Him who hath called us to glory and virtue; whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the Divine nature.'--2 Pet. 1:2-4.

"But to obtain this knowledge and this strength, which God thus proposes to supply to each runner for the heavenly prize, will surely test the sincerity of your consecration vows. You have consecrated all your time, all your talents, to the Lord; now the question is, How much of it are you giving? Are you still willing, according to your covenant of consecration, to give up all?--to give up your own plans and methods, and the theories of yourselves and others, to accept of God's plan and way and time of doing His great work? Are you willing to do this at the cost of earthly friendships and social ties? And are you willing to give up time from other things for the investigation of these glorious themes so heart-cheering to the truly consecrated, with the certain knowledge that it will cost you this self-denial? If all is not consecrated, or if you only half meant it when you gave all to the Lord, then you will begrudge the time and effort needful to search His Word as for hid treasure, to obtain thus the strength needful for all the trials of faith incident to the present (the dawn of the Millennium) above other times.

"But think not that the giving will end with the giving of the needful time and energy to this study: it will not. The sincerity of your sacrifice of self will be tested in full, and will prove you either worthy or unworthy of membership, in that 'little flock,' the overcoming Church, which will receive the honors of the Kingdom. If you give dili­gence to the Word of God, and receive its truths into a good, honest, consecrated heart, it will beget in you such a love for God and His Plan, and such a desire. to tell the Good Tidings, to preach the Gospel, that it will become the all-absorbing theme of life thereafter; and this will not only separate you from the world and from many nominal  Christians, in spirit, but it will lead to separation from such entirely. They will think you peculiar and separate you from their company, and you will be despised and counted a fool for Christ's sake; because they know us not, even as they knew not the Lord.--2 Cor. 4:8-10; Luke 6:22; 1 John 3:1; 1 Cor. 3:18.

"Are you willing to follow on to know the Lord through evil and through good report? Are you willing to forsake all; to follow as He may lead you by His Word?--to ignore the wishes of friends, as well as your own desires? It is hoped that many of the consecrated who read this volume may by it be so quickened to fresh zeal and fervency of spirit, through a clearer apprehension of the Divine Plan, that they will be able to say, 'By the grace of God, I will follow on to know and to serve the Lord, whatever may be the sacrifice involved."'

How plainly evident it is in the above lines that our beloved Pastor was endeavoring to impart to the consecrated a sense of their responsibility, inasmuch as they were given to know these blessed Truths set forth in the preceding pages of the Volume, that a proper sense of gratitude and appreciation of the Lord's goodness would lead them to seek to impart the blessing of the Truth to others. We believe it would not be overestimating the matter to say that we have in this Volume a quite complete presentation of the Gospel theme.

Shall We Publish the Divine Plan of the Ages in Magazine Form

The foregoing review published in these columns in September, 1921, presented to our readers what we believe to be the Scriptural attitude and outlook with regard to the spread of the Truth as contained in the volume, the "Divine Plan of the Ages." Though we are now eleven years nearer the con­summation of all things, we know of no reason for any change from the position assumed at that time. And now as the edition of the "Divine Plan" pub­lished in 1922 is practically exhausted, the sugges­tion appeals to us strongly to get out an inexpensive edition of the volume in magazine form as suggested at the head of this article. Our thought is that while the magazine or "Herald" form would really contain six complete issues of the "Herald," we would allow this special ninety-six page issue to take the place of two months or four regular issues of the journal; in other words, each "Herald" subscriber would receive this special ninety-six page copy as instead of four regular issues. A goodly supply, of several thousand extra copies, could be published so that it could be furnished to all at probably ten cents for single copies and five cents a copy in lots. In this inexpensive magazine edition the brethren could have once more the privilege of spreading the Truth more freely as contained in the "Divine Plan of the Ages," at such a time as this when on account of the perplexity, distress and suffering in the world, more people are in a favor­able attitude and are of inquiring mind with regard to the import of these days and their events.

We trust not to be misunderstood by any in this connection: it is not in the spirit of any "big work" idea or of a propaganda, nor yet with the thought that there is some symbol, type, or picture to be ful­filled through human energy and effort; rather, wt are encouraging the brethren in this ministry purely from the standpoint: that faithful servants of God have gone forth all along through the Age from the Apostolic period, namely from the evangelical viewpoint of letting our light shine, of bearing testimony to the grandest of all messages, and announcing to men that the night is passing and that the morning cometh.

After the brethren have carefully reviewed the foregoing article and given these suggestions pray­erful consideration, we shall be glad to hear from all our readers as to their opinion bearing upon the suggestion of publishing the "Divine Plan of the Ages" as above, and in that connection, if such a publication is favored, please state about how many of the magazine Volume I you would hope to order. We merely now desire to ascertain the view of the brethren, and if they approve of the sug­gestion, to learn about how large an edition of the magazine "Herald" we should publish. We rest the matter with the Lord, asking the prayers of all for His guidance and unerring wisdom.

Living Waters

"And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb."-Rev. 22:1.

THE TERM "Living Waters" is used in the Scriptures as descriptive of the Word of God. And how apt is this description!

Everywhere the value of pure water is ap­preciated. While life is capable of being sustained without food for weeks, this is not possible without water. A few days at most, and death results when the body is denied water. Yet gift of God though water is, and as such it was appreciated in the parched and thirsty lands of the East-the water-carriers of Palestine actually call­ing it by that name as they sold it-it does but symbolize the refreshment which comes from that still greater gift, the living, life-giving, life-sus­taining, life-transforming, Word of God.

By the Word of God, however, we are not to understand the paper and ink with which the Bible is printed, but the thoughts and purposes of God conveyed to our minds by these means. The print­ed page may and indeed does perish, but God's thoughts will not perish, nor will His purposes fail. At the first the Gospel was proclaimed by word of mouth only, but it was none the less the power of God unto salvation to believers; it was just as much water of life to thirsty souls; just as much the Word or God, as later, when it came to be expressed in written form. When, therefore, we speak of the Word of God, and say that the term, "Living Waters," aptly describes it, we have in mind the gracious message of the Gospel of God, wherein is revealed His plans and purposes for our salvation, such message being based on the redemption work accomplished by our dear Redeemer; the message, moreover, being energized by the Spirit of God, its Author, whom it reveals, and from whom it derives the power it imparts to us to lay hold on its promise of eternal life.

The expression "Living Waters" and words of similar import occur in several places in the Scrip­tures. Perhaps the most familiar is John 4:10, where are recorded the words of our Lord to the woman of Samaria : "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give Me to drink, thou wouldst' have asked of Him, and He would have given thee Living Water."

Of Living Water Jehovah Himself is the Foun­tain. Speaking by the Prophet Jeremiah (Jer. 2:13) He says: "My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me the Fountain of Living Waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water." In harmony with this passage the Apostle John, in the glorious vision, saw a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. (Rev. 22:1.) No such river flows today, but in that day, the great Millennial Day of Christ, after the chaste virgin shall have become the Bride, the Spirit and the Bride will say, Come, and whosoever will shall then take the water of life freely. (Rev. 22:17.) The prophecy of Isaiah will then meet fulfillment. "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." - Isa. 55:1.

Our Present Privilege

Meantime consecrated believers of this Gospel Age have a blessed privilege extended to them now, before that river flows. These having sat down and counted the cost, and having realized that all they have, and all they are, and all they hope to have or to be are as loss and dross compared to the fellow­ship of Christ are invited to drink of the Living Waters now. As Jesus said in His further words to the woman at the well: "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again : but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water [or as the Diaglott renders the passage, "shall become in him a fountain of water"] springing up into everlasting life."

In another place our Lord said: "This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." (John 17:3.) In other words, eternal life will result to those who, having heard the gracious message brought to them concerning God's character and purposes, embrace its teachings.

Again, "Then said Jesus unto the twelve: Will ye also go away? Then. Sin^-ion Peter answered Him, Lord, to whom shall vie go? Thou hast the words of eternal life." (Thou hast Living Water.) - John 6:68, 69.

In Phil. 2:15, 16 the Apostle exhorts believers that they should be as lights in the world holding forth the word of truth. Holding forth Living Water would be an. expression having the same significance.

With these preliminary remarks let us notice four characteristics of the 'Word of God which cause it to be justly described as Living Water. It is (1) living, (2) life-imparting, (3) life-sustaining, (4) life-transforming.

The Word of God is Living

First, then, let us consider the remarkable fact that the Word of God is alive, or living. The Apostle Peter speaks of believers as being begotten again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the Word of God which liveth and abideth for­ever. Quoting from Isaiah he goes on to say: For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flow­er thereof falleth away, but the Word of the Lord endureth forever. Arid, he goes on to say, This is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you. - 1 Pet. 1:23-25.

Again in Hebrews 4:12 we find another state­ment to the same effect: The word of God is quick and powerful-living and energetic, as the Diaglott translates the passage.

In these passages, the one from First Peter and the other from Hebrews, the Word of God is spoken of as living. Why is the Word of God thus spoken of? It is because in the Scriptural sense of the word "life," the Word of God is the only thing in the world that is truly living. To quote from an­other:

"In the world around us the beings and things which we call 'living' may just as appropriately be spoken of as 'dying.' What we call 'the land of the living' might better be described as the land of the dying. Wherever we look we see that death is in possession and is working according to its in­variable method of corruption. . . Death is the real monarch of this world, and we meet at every turn the gruesome evidence and results of the uni­versal sway of him who has 'the power of death, that is the Devil.' (Heb. 2:14.) . . . The mighty and awful power of death has made this earth of ours a great burying ground - a gigantic cemetery.

"Can it be that there is an exception to this ap­parently universal rule? Is there, indeed, in this world of dying beings, where the forces of corrup­tion fasten immediately upon everything into which life has entered, . . one object which is really living, an object upon which corruption cannot fasten itself, and which resists and defies all the power of death? Such is the assertion of the pass­ages of Scripture which we have quoted."

Jesus and the Written Word

Before we test this assertion let us note one of the many points of resemblance between Jesus and the written Word. When Jesus, the personal Word, was made flesh and dwelt among us, there was nothing in His appearance to show that "in Him was life." "That fact was demonstrated, not by His blameless and unselfish behavior, nor by His incomparable teachings and discourses, but by His resurrection from the dead. The only power which is greater than that of death is the power of life." Raised from the dead by the power of the Father, Jesus is manifested to us as the Living One, the One who became dead, and who, behold, is alive for ever­more, having the keys of death and of hades. - Rev. 1:18, R. V. Margin.

"Similarly, there is nothing in the appearance and behavior (so to speak) of the Bible to show that it has a characteristic, even Divine life, which other books have not. It bears the same resemblance to other writings that Jesus, the son of Mary, bore to other men. It is given in human language just as He came in human flesh. Yet there is between it and all other books the same difference as between Him and all other mien, namely the difference be­tween the living and the dying. 'The Word of God is living.' "

How Shall We Define Life?

With all the wisdom and learning of our times men have not yet succeeded in furnishing a satis­factory definition of life. "But if none of us can say what life is, we can all distinguish between that which is living (even' in the ordinary sense of the word) and that which is not living; and our best idea of the meaning of life is obtained by comparing that which has life (whether animal or vegetable) with that which has not life, as minerals, or any non-living matter. We know that between the two there is a great gulf, which only Divine power can span; for it is only the Living God who can impart life to that which is lifeless.

"We look then, at the written Word of God to see if it manifests characteristics which are found only in living things, and to see if it exhibits not merely the possession. of life of the perishable and corruptible sort with which we are so familiar by observation, and which is in each of us, but life of a different order-imperishable and incorruptible.

The Power of Discernment

"The power of discernment belongs only to in­telligent living beings; and the power of discern­ment possessed by man does not go beneath the surface of things. Yet the passage in Hebrews already quoted (Hebrews 4:12), asserts that the Word of God is a 'discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.'

"This is a very remarkable statement, yet it is true, and millions of men have felt and recognized the searching and discerning power of the Word of God. We go to it not so much to learn the thoughts of other men, as to learn our own thoughts. We go to other books to find what was in the hearts and minds of their authors; but we go to this Book to find what is in our own hearts and minds. To one who reads it with ever so little spiritual in­telligence, there comes a perception of the fact that this Book [that is to say, its Author] understands and knows all about him. It lays bare the deepest secrets of his heart, and brings to the surface of his consciousness, out of the unfathomable depths and unexplorable recesses of his own being, 'thoughts and intents' whose existence' was unsus­pected. It reveals man to himself in a way difficult to describe, and absolutely peculiar to itself. It is a faithful mirror which reflects us exactly as we are. It detects our motives, discerns our needs; and having truthfully discovered to us our real selves, it counsels, reproves, exhorts, guides, refreshes, strengthens and illuminates."

Scholars have pointed. out that the Greek word rendered "discerner" in Hebrew 4:12, means literal­ly "critic" (kritikos), and that this is its only oc­currence in Scripture. How very significant is it that the designation "higher critics" has been as­sumed by some who, compassed about with in­firmity as all men are, claim to be critics of this "Critic." The time is near at hand when the haughtiness of men shall be brought low, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. Then the Word of God shall judge the "higher" critics.

"Meanwhile the Living Word shall continue to be the discerning companion of all who resort to it for the help which is not to be had elsewhere in this world of the dying. In going to the Bible we never think of ourselves as going back to a book of the distant past, to a thing of antiquity; but we go to it as a book of the present-a living book. And so indeed it is, living in the power of an endless life, and able to build us up and to give us an inherit­ance among all them that are sanctified. - Acts 20:32.

Fresh and Refreshing

"The Bible differs radically from all other books in its perpetual freshness. This characteristic will be recognized only by those who know the Book in that intimate way which comes from living with it, as with the members of one's family. . . . It is a remarkable fact that the Bible never becomes exhausted, never acquires sameness, never dimin­ishes in its power of responsiveness to the quick­ened soul who comes to it. The most familiar passages yield as much (if not more) refreshment at the thousandth perusal, as at the first. It is indeed as a fountain of living water. The fountain is the same, but the water is always fresh, and al­ways refreshing. We can compare this to nothing but what we find in a living companion, whom we love and to whom we go for help and fellowship. The person is always the same, and yet without sameness. New conditions evoke new responses; and so it is with the Bible. As a living Book it adapts itself to the new phases of our experiences, and the new conditions in which we find ourselves. From the most familiar passages there comes again and again a new message; just as our most familiar friend or companion will have something new to say, as new situations require it. . . .

"But while the Bible resembles, in this important respect, a living person, who is our familiar, sympa­thetic, and responsive companion, it differs from such a human companion in that the counsel, com­fort, and support it furnishes are far above and be­yond what any human being can supply; and the only explanation of this is that the source of its life and powers is not human, but Divine.

The Bible is Always Up to Date

"One of the most prominent characteristics of books written by men for the purpose of imparting information and instruction is that they very quick­ly become obsolete, and must be cast aside, and re­placed by others. . . . In fact, every book which is written for a serious purpose begins to become obsolete before the ink is dry on the page. This may be made the occasion of boasting of the great progress of humanity . . . but the true signif­icance of the fact is that man's books are all, like himself, dying creatures.

"The Bible on the other hand, although it treats of the greatest, and most serious of all subjects, such as God, Christ, eternity, life, death, sin, right­eousness, judgment, redemption-is always the la­test, best and only authority on all these and other weighty matters whereof it treats. Centuries of 'progress' and 'advancement' have added absolutely nothing to the sum of knowledge on any of these subjects. The Bible is always fresh and thoroughly 'up to date.' . . . Generation succeeds genera­tion, but each finds the Bible waiting for it with its ever fresh and never failing stores of information touching matters of the highest concern, touching everything that affects the welfare of human beings.

The Bible is Indestructible

The Bible manifests the fact that its Author possesses inherent, imperishable life in that it sur­vives all the attempts that have been made to destroy it.

"The Bible is the only book in the world that is truly hated. The hatred it arouses is bitter, persist­ent, murderous. From generation to generation this hatred has been kept. alive. There is doubtless a supernatural explanation for this continuous dis­play of hostility towards the Word of God, for that Word has a supernatural enemy who has personally experienced its power," when, as the Sword of the Spirit, it was wielded so skilfully by our Lord when tempted.-Matt. 4:1-10.

"But the natural explanation of this hatred is that the Bible . . . gives no flattering picture of man and his world, but just the reverse. The Bible does not say that man is a noble being ever aspiring to­wards the attainment of exalted ideals. It does not describe the career of humanity as 'Progress' as the brave and successful struggle of man against the evils of his environment; but quite the contrary, declares it to be a career of disobedience and de­parture from God, a preference for darkness rather than light.

"Nor does the Bible predict the ultimate triumph of 'civilization.' It does not say that human nature shall improve under the influences of educa­tion and self-culture, even with that of Christian­ity added. On the contrary it declares that evil men shall wax worse and worse.' - 2 Tim. 3:13.

"Even of 'this present evil Age' (Gal. 1:4). . . . during which-the world has had the enormous bene­fit resulting from the light of . . . . an open, Bible, it is not predicted that man and his world would undergo any improvement, or that the devel­opment of the Age would be in the direction of bet­ter conditions on earth. On the contrary the Bible declares that 'in the last days perilous (or difficult) times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, lovers of money, vaunting, proud, evil speakers, disobedient to parents, untruthful, unholy, without natural affection, implacable, slanderers, in­consistent, savage, not lovers of good, betrayers, headlong, puffed up, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; having a form of piety, but denying the power of it.' - 2 Tim. 3:1-5, Gr.

"Such is the character of man, and such is to be the result, as Scripture foretells it, of all his schemes of betterment, education, development, self-culture, and civilization. . . . And because of this the Bible is heartily detested. Men have sought noth­ing more earnestly than they have sought to destroy this appallingly accurate portrait of themselves and their doings. . How astonishing it is that any intelligent person should^, suppose that man drew this picture of himself, and predicted this as the outcome of all his own efforts! No wonder the Bible is hated. and for the simple and sufficient reason that it de­clares the truth about man and his world. The Lord Jesus set forth clearly both the fact and its explanation when He said to His unbelieving breth­ren, "The world cannot hate you; but Me it hateth, because I testify of it that the works thereof are evil.'-John 7:7.

The Bible's Destruction Sought at First by Violence

"Other books arouse no such hatred. There may be books which men dislike, and such they simply let alone. But the Bible is, and always has been, hated to the death. It is the one book that has been pursued from century to century, as men pursue a mortal foe. At first its destruction has been sought by violence. All human powers, political and eccle­siastical, have combined to put it out of exist­ence. Death has been the penalty for possessing or reading a copy. . . . No expedient that human ingenuity could devise, or human cruelty put into effect, has been omitted in the desperate attempt to put this detested book out of existence. But the concentrated power. of man utterly failed in the attem­­pt. Why?"

Attempts to Make Void the Word of God by Tradition

Moreover, "violence having failed to rid man of the Bible, other means have been resorted to in a persistent effort to accomplish that object. To this end the intellect and learning of man has been en­listed. The Book has been -assailed from every side by men of the highest intelligence, culture, and scholarship. Since the art of printing has been de­veloped, there has been in progress a continuous war of books. Many books against the Book-man's books against God's Book. Its authority has been denied, and its veracity and even its morality im­pugned, its claims upon the' consciences of men have been ridiculed; but all to no purpose, except to bring out more conspicuously the fact that 'the Word of God is living,' and with an indestructible life."

Then, too, men have sought to make void the Word of God by their traditions. Perhaps this was never more true than amongst those who have been enlightened with a knowledge of 'present truth.' But it refuses to be made void. It will not die. Why?

If it were a man's book, it would be unnecessary to take any measures for its destruction. "A book produced by dying men need only be let alone to die of its own accord. The seeds of death are in it from the start. But all attempts to destroy the Bible have utterly failed. Why? "How can this fact be explained except by the statement that the 'Word of God is living,' and that the source of its life is beyond the reach of man-in the very being of the Living God?"

"Sweetly echoes the Gospel call,
Wonderful words of life!
Off'ring pardon and peace to all,
Wonderful words of life!

Praise the Lord forever
For these words of favor­
Beautiful words! Wonderful words!
Wonderful words of life!"

(To be continued)

Half Hour Meditations on Romans

No. 27
"God commendeth His love toward us . . . while we were yet sinners." - Rom. 5:8.

WITH THE twentieth verse of chapter three, the Apostle, we have seen, brought his long argument in proof of the world's need of salvation, to a close. Before proceeding to the next division of the Epistle, which extends from Romans 3:21 to Romans 5:11, it will be well for us to review the ground we have covered, re­minding ourselves again., as we do so, of our pur­pose "not to analyze only or explain, but to submit and to believe," convinced, as we are, that the Epistle is not only Pauline but Divine. (Medita­tions No. 1.)

As we saw in our "Outlines" (Meditations No. 8), the Epistle to the Romans, like St. Paul's other letters, begins with a preface (Romans 1:1-15), which in­cludes a greeting (Romans 1:1-7), and a thanksgiving. (Romans 1:8-15.) Next St. Paul introduces "his" Gospel, the great theme of this Epistle, namely the right­eousness of God by faith, and then, knowing that such a theme will make its special appeal to those only who realize their need of it, he proceeds, in the passage we last considered (Romans 1:18 3:20), to es­tablish the fact that the whole world is in need of such a righteousness.

The argument of the Apostle in this last men­tioned passage, has been interestingly and instruc­tively paraphrased by another as follows:

"Failure of the Gentiles" - Romans 1:18-32

"This message of mine is the one ray of hope for a doomed world. The only other revelation, which we can see all around. us, is a revelation not of ... [a righteousness of God by faith] but of the wrath of God . . from heaven . . upon all the countless offenses at once against morals and relig­ion of 'which mankind are guilty. They stifle and suppress the truth within them, while they go on still in their wrong-doing. . . . It is not merely ignorance. All that may be known of God He has revealed in their hearts and consciences. For since the world has been created, His attributes,, though invisible in themselves, are traced upon the fabric of the visible creation. I mean, His Power to which there is no beginning and those other attributes which we sum up under the common name of Di­vinity.

"So plain is all this as, to make it impossible to escape the responsibility of ignoring it. The guilt of men lay not in their ignorance; for they had a knowledge of God. But in spite of that knowledge, they did not pay the homage due to Him as God: they gave Him no thanks; but they gave the rein to futile speculations ; they lost all intelligence of truth, and their moral sense was obscured. While they boasted of their wisdom, they were turned to folly. In place of the majesty of the . . . [incor­ruptible] God, they worshiped some fictitious representation of weak and perishable man, of bird, of quadruped or reptile.

"Such were the beginnings of idolatry. And as a punishment for it God gave them up to moral cor­ruption, leaving them to follow their own depraved desires wherever they might lead, even to the pol­luting of their bodies by shameful intercourse. Reprobates, who could abandon the living and true God for a sham divinity, and render divine honors and ritual observance to the creature, neglecting the Creator (Blessed be His name forever!).

"Because of this idolatry, I repeat, God gave them up to the vilest passions. Women behaved like monsters who had forgotten their sex. And men, forsaking the natural use, wrought shame with their own kind, and received in their physical degra­dation a punishment such as they deserved.

"They refused to make God their study: and as they rejected Him; so He rejected them, giving them over to that abandoned mind which led then into acts disgraceful to them as men: replete as they were with every species of wrong-doing; with ac­tive wickedness, with selfish greed, with thorough inward depravity their hearts brimming over with envy, murderous thoughts, quarrelsomeness, treacherous deceit, rank ill-nature; backbiters, slanderers; in open defiance of God, insolent in act, arrogant in thought, braggarts in word towards man; skilful plotters of evil, bad sons, dull of moral apprehension, untrue to their word, void of natural duty and of humanity: Reprobates, who, knowing, full well the righteous sentence by which God de­nounces death upon all who act thus, are not con­tent with doing the things which He condemns themselves, but abet and applaud those who prac­tise them.

"Transition from Gentile to Jew-Both alike Guilty" - Romans 2:1-16

"The Gentile sinner is without excuse; and his critic -- whoever he may be -- is equally without ex­cuse, even though (like the Jew) he imagines him­self to be on a platform of lofty superiority. No such platform really exists. In fact the critic only passes sentence upon himself, for by the fact of his criticism he shows that he can distinguish accurate­ly between right and wrong, and his own conduct is identical with that which he condemns. And we are aware that it is at his conduct that God will look. The standard of His judgment is reality, and not a man's birth or status as either Jew or Gentile. Do you suppose-you Jewish critic, who are so ready to sit in judgment on those who copy your own example -- do you suppose that a special exemption will be made in your favor, and that you personally will escape? Or are you presuming upon all that abundant goodness, forbearance, and. patience with which God delays His punishment of sin? If so, you make a great mistake. The object of that long-suffering is not that you may evade punishment but only to induce you to repent. While you with that callous impenitent heart of yours are heaping up arrears of Wrath, which will burst upon you in the Day of Wrath, when God will stand revealed in His character as the Righteous Judge. The principle-of His judgment is clear and simple. He will render to every man his due, by no fictitious standard ('such as birth or status) but strictly according to what he has done. To those who by steady persistence in a life-work of good, strive for the . . . [incor­ruptible] glories of the Messianic Kingdom, He will give that for which they strive, viz., eternal life. But to those mutinous spirits who are disloyal to the right and loyal only to unrighteousness, for such there is in store anger and fury, galling, nay crushing, pain: for every human being they are in store, who carries out to the end his course of evil, whether he be Jew or whether he be Gentile-the Jew again having precedence. On the other hand the communicated glory of the Divine Presence, the approval of God and the bliss of reconciliation with Him await the man who labors on at that which is good-be he Jew or Gentile; here too the Jew hav­ing precedence, but only precedence: for God re­gards no distinctions of race.

"Do not object that the Jew has a position of privilege which will exempt' him from this judg­ment, while the Gentile has no law by which he can be judged. The Gentiles, it is true, have no law; but as they have sinned, so also will they be punished without one. (See ver. 14, 15.) The Jews live under a law, and by that law they will be judged. For it is not enough to hear it read in the synagogues. That does not make a man righteous before God. His verdict will pronounce righteous only those who have^, done what the Law commands. I say that Gentiles too, although they have no written law, will be judged. For whenever any of them in­stinctively put in practice the precepts of the Law, their own moral sense supplies them with the law they need. Because their actions give visible proof of commandments written not on stone but on the tables of the heart. These actions themselves bear witness to them; and an approving conscience also bears them witness; while in their dealings with one another their inward thoughts take sometimes the side of the prosecution and sometimes (but more rarely) of the defense. These hidden workings of the conscience God can see; and therefore He will judge Gentile as well as Jew, at that Great Assize which I teach that He will hold through His Deputy, Jesus Messiah.

"Failure of the Jews" - Romans 2:17-29

Do you tell me that you bear the proud name of Jew, that you repose on a written law as the charter of your salvation? Do you boast that Jehovah is your God, that you are fully acquainted with His revealed Will, that you adopt for yourself a high standard and listen to the reading of the Law every Sabbath-day? Do you live yourself out with so much assurance as a guide to the poor blind Gen­tile, a luminary to enlighten his darkness? Do you call your pupils dullards and yourself their school­master? Are they mere infants and you their teacher? You, who have all knowledge and all truth visibly embodied for you in the Law? Boastful Jew! How does your practice comport with your theory? So ready to-teach others, do you need-no teaching yourself? The eighth and seventh com­mandments which you hold up to others-do you yourself keep them? You profess to loathe and abhor idols ; but do you keep your hands from robbing their temples? You vaunt the possession of a law ; and by the violation of that law you af­front and dishonor God who gave it. As Isaiah [and Ezekiel] wrote that the Gentile held the name of God in contempt because they saw His people oppressed and enslaved, so do they now for a differ­ent reason-because of the gross inconsistency in practice of those who claim to be His people.

"True it is that behind the Law you have also the privilege of circumcision, which marks the people of Promise. And circumcision has its value if you are a law-performer. But if you are a law-breaker you might as well be uncircumcised. Does it not follow that if the uncircumcised Gentile keeps the weightier statutes of the Moral Law, he will be treated as if he were circumcised? And uncircum­cised as he is, owing to his Gentile birth, yet if he fulfils the Law, his example will (by contrast) con­demn you who with the formal advantages of a written law and circumcision, only break the law of which you boast. For it is not he-who has the outward and visible marks of a Jew who is the true Jew; neither is an outward and bodily circumcision the true circumcision. But he who is inwardly and secretly a Jew is the true Jew ; and the moral and spiritual circumcision is that ,which really deserves the name. The very word 'Jew'-descendant of Judah-means 'praise.' (Gen. 29:35.) And such a Jew has his 'praise,' not from man but from God.

Objections Anticipated and Answered - Romans 3:1-8

"If the qualifications which God requires are thus inward and spiritual, an objector may urge, What becomes of the privileged position of the Jew, his descent from Abraham, and the like? What does he gain by his circumcision? He does gain much on all sides. The first gain is that to the Jews were committed the prophecies of the Messiah. (Here the subject breaks off; a fuller remuneration is given in Romans 9:4, 5.)

"You say, But the Jews by their unbelief have forfeited their share in those prophecies. And I ad­mit that some Jews have rejected Christianity, in which they are fulfilled. What then? The promises of God do not depend on man. He will keep His word, whatever man may do. To suggest otherwise were blasphemy. Nay, God must 'be seen to be true, though all mankind are convicted of falsehood. Just as in Psalm 51 the Psalmist confesses that the only effect of his own sin will be that (in forensic metaphor) God will be 'declared righteous' in His sayings (the promises just mentioned), and gain His case when it is brought to trial.

"A new objection arises. If our unrighteousness is only a foil to set off the righteousness of God would not God be unjust who punishes men for sin? (Speaking of God as if He were man can hardly be avoided.) That too were blasphemy to think! If any such objection were sound, God could not judge the world. But we know that He will judge it. Therefore thee reasoning must be fallacious.

"If, you say, as in the case before us, the truth­fulness of God in performing His promises is only thrown into relief by my infidelity, which thus re­dounds to His glory, Why am I still like other of­fenders-brought up for judgment as a sinner?

"So the objector. And I know that this charge of saying 'Let us do evil that good may come' is brought with slanderous exaggeration against me -as if the stress which I lay on faith compared with works meant, Never mind what your actions are, provided only that the end you have in view is right.

"All I will say is that the judgment which these sophistical reasoners will. receive is richly deserved.

"Universal Failure to Attain to Righteousness"­ - Romans 3:9-20

"To return from this digression. What inference are we to draw? . . . [Have we Jews a defense? No, in no wise.] The indictment which we have just brought against both [Gentiles and Jews]' (in 1:18-32; 2:1-29) proves that they are equally under the dominion of sin. The testimony of Scripture is to the same effect. Thus in Psalm 14 (here with some abridgment and variation), the Psalmist com­plains that he cannot find a single righteous man, that there is none to show any intelligence of moral and religious truth, none to show any desire for the knowledge of God. They have all (he says) turned aside from the straight path. They are like milk that has turned sour and bad. There is not so much as a single right-doer among them. This picture of universal wickedness may be completed from such details as those which are applied to the wicked in Psalm 5:9 Just as a grave stands yawning to receive the corpse that will soon fill it with corruption, so the throat of the wicked is only opened to vent forth depraved and lying speech.- Their tongue is practised in fraud. Or in Psalms 140:3 . . : the poison 'bag of the asp lies under their smooth and flat­tering lips. So, as it is described in Psalm 10:7: throat, tongue, and lips are full of nothing but cursing and venom. Then of Israel it is said (Isa. 59:7, 8) : They run with eager speed to commit murder. Their course is marked by ruin and misery. With smiling paths of peace they have made no ac­quaintance. To sum up the character of the un­godly in a word (Psa. 36:1) : The fear [reverence] of God supplies no standard for their actions.

"Thus all the world has sinned. And not even the Jew can claim exemption from the consequences of his sin. For when the Law of Moses denounces those consequences it speaks especially to the peo­ple to whom it was given. By which it was de­signed that the Jew too might have his mouth stopped from all excuse, and that all mankind might be held accountable to God.

"This is the conclusion of the whole argument. By works of Law (i. e., by an attempted fulfilment of Law) no mortal may hope to be declared right­eous in God's sight. For the only effect of Law is to open men's eyes to their own sinfulness, not to enable them to do better. That method, the method of works, has failed. A new method must be found."

Letters of Encouragement

Dear Brethren:

The friends, located in southern California, gathered in convention at Los Angeles, April 3. The total number of friends was 290.

The chairman was Brother R. G. Osborn. His opening remarks seemed to be the voice of the Lord speaking to us, and directing us to the words of promise, "Lo I am with you alway, even unto the end of the age." The thought was emphasized by the chairman that it was most pleasing to the Lord for His people to meet together in convention in order that our hearts might be warmed by the spirit of the truth, and it was a day of great re­joicing.

After the devotional service led by Brother H. V. Warren, we sat at a feast of fat things. I do not mean to convey the thought that we did not enjoy the devo­tional period when the brethren were expressing their love and joy, for we surely did, but it seemed to prime us, so to speak, for the three very able talks which fol­lowed.

The first lecture was delivered by Brother E. P. Talia­ferro on the subject of "Christ the Advocate, Mediator, Testator." Following this, Brother Robert E. Nash spoke on "Christian Warfare." Then followed the public ad­dress on the subject: "A World Empire at Hand" by Brother G. R. Pollock. These talks stirred the friends to renewed zeal. The spirit of the Lord was upon the convention, and the friends are rejoicing now as in days gone by. This was indeed a reunion convention in every sense of the word. The total number attending the pub­lic meeting was 375. Those who heard the truth for the first time were made glad; and so were we.

We received a great blessing from Brother McCoy's visit and I think he was specially used to help draw the friends together, and manifest more of the spirit of love for the brethren, not only here, but also love for our brethren in the East.

Wishing you the continued blessing of the Lord, I am,

Yours in His service, E. J. W.-Galif.

Dear Brethren in Christ:

I am writing to thank you for sending to the little group of Associated Bible Students in S -, our dear Pilgrim Brother C. W. McCoy.

We are only three or four elderly sisters, and circum­stances are such that we do not meet regularly or often, but perhaps these things make us more appreciative of a visit from the dear earnest Brother, whose service to the friends here is made possible by the-publishers of the "Herald."

We felt immediately that in Brother McCoy we, had with us one on whom we could safely depend for counsel and advice in those things of importance to the Church of Christ at this time. The 28th of March, the date of Brother McCoy's visit here, was a beautiful day. Three sisters, two of them elderly and not strong, were happy to be able to come to thee home where this letter is being written, to meet Brother McCoy, and all were here during the afternoon, and till 9 p. m., when the Brother had to leave to go to the hotel for the night. I wish that we could do something for him to express our appreciation of. the inspiration and help he gave to us in the few hours he was with us.

Brother McCoy sought to impress upon our minds that this is a testing time for the Church, and that each one who hopes to win the prize of the high calling should judge himself, or herself, and be on guard against temp­tations from without and from within. I have been so much alone for years, without even - a ten-minute con­versation with any member of the I.B.S.A. (those with whom I was once associated) that I have not fully realized what a "confusion of tongues" there is today among those who once seemed to understand and love "present truth."

Recently I met two who once seemed to be earnest: consecrated Bible students. One brother is all taken up with "Unity" and wanted to send me a book,. "In Tune with the Infinite." A sister who passed from Catholicism through Christian Science, and the I.B.S.A., was telling how inconsistent and contradictory the Bible is, and I judge from things she said that she thinks there was no need of a sacrifice for sin.

"It must needs be that offenses come, but woe to him by whom the^-offense cometh." I know I need to pray, for help that I may judge myself and not others. I think we will need the help given by the "Herald," more and. more as time passes.

I am sending you a money order for $_____. It is just a mite to help in the work you, are doing for the' Lord and for us. And will you kindly send me some extra, copies of the "Herald" if you have-them? I will, send a list of those I would like, if you can furnish them. I have the "Heralds" for the past' four years, on file, and as I read them over I seem to appreciate them better than when I read them first. It is my prayer that the Lord may give you all that you need to finish the work He has given you to do.

Your sister in His name, H. M.-Calif.

The Institute's Annual Meeting

Brethren cooperating in the capacity of this association known as the Pastoral Bible Institute, are again reminded of the Annual Meeting of the Institute. According to its constitution this meeting is due to be held on the first Saturday of June each year; but this year, on account of the Institute having arranged for a General Conven­tion to be held in Brooklyn over the 30th of May holiday season, the members of the Institute at a special meet­ing called on Saturday evening, April 2nd, took action whereby the date of the Annual Meeting is transferred from the first Saturday in June to the last Saturday of May, in order that the Annual Meeting might be held in connection with the General Convention that has been set for Brooklyn covering the dates, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, May 28, 29, and 30. Hence the announce­ment now that the Annual Meeting will this year be held at 2 p. m. on Saturday, May 28, at the offices of the Institute, 177 Prospect Place, Brooklyn.

The purpose of the meeting is the election of directors for the ensuing year, as well as the consideration and transaction of such other business as may properly come before it. On such occasions opportunity is given the members to freely discuss the various features of the work, and suggestions calculated to improve the ministry of the Institute are invited. It is therefore hoped that all members who find it possible will be present at this meeting, which is designed especially to accelerate the service of the Lord and His people.

In this connection a cordial invitation is again extend­ed to all of our brethren who can make it convenient to attend this meeting regardless of whether or not they hold membership in the Institute. Reports will be sub­mitted covering various features of the ministry of the Lord's people, which we believe will be of interest to all who are bearing the welfare of the Church upon their hearts.

In harmony with a. resolution adopted by the mem­bership at the Annual Meeting held three years ago which gave opportunity for the members of the Insti­tute to place the names of brethren in nomination in ad­vance of the Annual Meeting, a reminder of this was given in the announcement. of the Annual Meeting which appeared in the' March 1 issue of the "Herald," and we there stated that "if after careful and sober deliberation the members feel led of the Lord to place in nomination other brethren and will forward the names and addresses of such to this office immediately, such names will be pub­lished in the May 1st issue of the 'Herald,' so that all the members will have an opportunity of knowing what brethren in addition to those now serving, are candidates for election and may cast their votes accordingly."

Up to the present time one nomination has been re­ceived, that of C. P. BRIDGES, Lynn, Mass.

The names of the brethren who have been serving the past year were given in the announcement that appeared in the March 1st issue of this journal.

In drawing attention to this coming Annual Meeting we desire once more to urge upon^- the brethren the importance of this obligation resting upon each individual interested in the activities of the Institute. To this end we are hopeful that the Annual Meeting will be well at­tended this year, and we are anticipating also real active interest on the part of many who are hindered by distance and other circumstances from being personally present. For the benefit of these, arrangement is made; whereby all the members may have a voice in the election by indicating on a proxy form the names of those whom they desire elected as directors for the coming year. These proxy forms will be mailed to each member before the election and those who do not expect to be present at the Annual Meeting should fill out the form and return to this office before the election date.

Realizing the carefulness that should characterize all our efforts to carry on the Lord's work, we do well to re­member that the needed wisdom is promised to those who take full advantage of the privilege of prayer. We there­fore entreat all the brethren to keep these responsibili­ties much before the Lord that thus we may enjoy the fullest^' possible measure of Divine guidance and blessing in our united efforts to serve Him and His people.

VOL. XV. May 15, 1932 No.10

The Church's Inheritance in the Apocalypse

"Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand."-Rev. 1:3.

SURELY ALL Bible students admit the prophetic character of the Book of Revela­tion. Its opening statement announces that it is a Divine prophecy, "which God gave unto Him [Jesus], to show unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass." Again the text quoted at the head of this article sets forth the Lord's pronouncement of His blessing on him "that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy." Since, then, it is clearly evident that the Apocalypse is a Divine prophecy, it is deserving of a place not only amongst the sacred and inspired writings, but it should also be regarded as a portion of the more sure word of prophecy, to which we do well to take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until the day dawn.

Blessed is He that Readeth

Other considerations that are of much importance in connection with this question of the value of the Apocalypse are to be noted in the Master's own statement, "I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches"; and "he that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." And we observe further in this connection that the Savior's words already alluded to, "Blessed is he that readeth," etc., are intended to be of special encouragement and inspiration to those who "keep those things which are written therein"; as though to impart the idea that there were to be various things set forth in this Divine prophecy that would convey to the mind of Christ's true disciples something of what God's will is con­cerning them-things, therefore, that they should keep, in the sense of observe and obey, and thus prove to Him the sincerity and genuineness of their relation to Him as His children.

Again we have the solemn warning given in the closing passages of the Apocalypse against any at­tempt to prevent an investigation and study of the Revelation: "Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this Book: for the time is at hand." Surely these words have in them the significance that the Apocalyptic messages set forth important truths valuable for the Lord's people; hence the .warning against any attempt to discourage or hinder the study and ap­preciation of this Divine symbolic prophecy. Surely we could not hope for. any stronger encouragement to examine and study the Revelation than that rep­resented in the above line of reasoning. We are confident the facts will show that as God's people have given heed to this admonition all down through the Age, and have studied the marvelous symbolic visions of the Revelator, they have realized a corresponding blessing, a strengthening of their faith and hope.

Reveals God's Providential Care

As many of the visions of the Revelation describe the faithful, passing through scenes of great suffering and persecution, the knowledge represented in the visions was doubtless intended to supply a special need; for the Church always has needed the help and blessing that accompanies a knowledge of the "more sure Word of prophecy." We believe that it will be acknowledged by all Bible students that there is no portion of the Bible that to so great an extent as the Revelation reveals God's providen­tial care and overruling of the events of history, both good and evil, for the Church's development in grace and knowledge. There is no doubt that the faithful who down through the Age have studied the Revelation, have been helped to discern the Divine overruling in connection with the affairs of the Church. On this point the facts have been well expressed by Brother Russell:

"During the Christian Age, some of the saints sought to understand the Church's future by exam­ining this symbolic Book, and doubtless all who read and understood a part: of its teachings were blessed as promised. (Rev. 1:3.) The Book kept opening up to such, and in the days of the Reformation was an important aid to Luther in deciding that the Papacy, of which he was a conscientious minister, was indeed the 'Antichrist' mentioned by the Apostle, the history of which we now see fills so large a part of that prophecy."-Vol. I, pp. 27, 28.

If it is reasonable to suppose that Luther derived important aid in deciding issues of great magni­tude in his day, it is equally reasonable to suppose that other reformers derived benefit and help from the same source. Yea, verily, it is most evident that these wonderful prophecies were given for the counsel, assistance, and protection of the Church through the long, dark centuries of her pilgrimage and of, her witnessing to the Truth. As. we read the writings of God's faithful ones of the past, we learn-,that the Revelation visions have proved to be a mighty power in the Church's history and that they have served to preserve the faith of the Church in times of peril and general apostasy. We have found that the knowledge of some of them and the testimony thereto have given birth to great refor­mation movements,; and they have inspired con­fessors and supported martyrs to the cause of Christ, some of whom sealed their faithfulness at the stake, while others suffered dreadful deaths in other ways. A knowledge of some of these marvel­ous prophetic photographs has been largely in­strumental in breaking the chains of priestcraft, superstition, and tyranny and has brought multi­tudes out of bondage to the same.

Foretold and Fulfilled

In the light of a number of considerations it is our conviction that by far the larger part of the Apoca­lypse may be at least in a general way clearly un­derstood, and that the Lord's people today may read so clearly the fulfillment of the symbols of Revelation in the historical record, as that by far the interpretation of the greater portion of the Book need not be doubtful but fully established. We do readily concede that there are portions of the Reve­lation that have not yet been fulfilled, particularly the last four chapters of the Book; but with comparatively few exceptions the fulfillment of the first eighteen chapters is in the past, and who of us would assume the responsibility of saying that we cannot understand an-y of the last four chapters be­cause their fulfillment is still future?' To the con­trary, we believe that all will agree that in the light of other portions of the Bible, even though the fulfillment of the last four chapters is still future, it is easy to understand very much of their significance which brings special consolation and profit as they do clearly reveal to us the consummation of the Di­vine Plan in the deliverance and glorification of the Church, the resurrection of the dead, the restitution of all the willing and obedient to human perfection and life, Paradise, with perfect harmony and peace reigning everywhere. Thus while the full signi­ficance of the last four, chapters will be realized more fully when those symbols have been fulfilled, it is surely to our profit to study them now in the light of history and other portions of God's Word.

"The Revelation of Jesus Christ"

For the benefit of a considerable number of new readers as well as a reminder to old readers, we may profitably make reference in this con­nection to the exposition of the Book of Revelation that was published 'by our Institute some ten years ago; an exposition in two vol­umes, consisting of about 600 pages each. These studies in the Apocalypse were published in the confidence that they would prove a rich blessing to many of the Lord's people particularly under the present circumstances of, crucial testing and trial through which they were passing. During the years since, hundreds of letters from friends in all parts of the world clearly reveal that a goodly num­ber have been deeply interested in the study, and their testimonies give assurance that they have been richly blessed in contemplating the truths set forth. These results are as we, had anticipated, and we have no doubt that there are still others at this time who realize the force of the Master's words, "Blessed is he that readeth."

In publishing the exposition of the Revelation, our Institute was highly favored in having asso­ciated with us in the ministry the late Brother R. E. Streeter, of Providence, R. I., a brother of large ex­perience in the ministry of the Divine Word. More than twenty years prior to his death in December, 1924, he became closely associated with Brother Russell in public work. In fact it may truthfully be stated that for the last forty years of his life, Brother Streeter had been well known to many Christian people in various parts of the world as a result of his extensive travels and the prominent part he took in the ministry of the Truth. Our Brother's sterling Christian character, his piety and deep consecration to the will of God could not be questioned by any who had been brought in close contact .with him. Very early in his Christian ex­perience he became an earnest searcher and student of history as well as of prophecy; for truly, he who would understand prophecy must become informed respecting many details of history. Brother Streeter devoted long years to the study of both of these branches, as a result of which he was peculiarly fitted and qualified to speak and write along the lines of prophetic truth to the people of God.

Gathered together the Rays of Light

Being of humble, Christlike mind, Brother Streeter shrank from attempting an exposition of the Rev­elation, and it was only after being urged by the publishers of the "Herald" that he consented to present the result of the long years of his study;, and since now his writings have appeared in print and come before the eyes of hundreds of the Lord's peo­ple, the conviction of many is that our Brother has in a remarkable manner gathered together the rays of light and focused them upon the two prophecies of Daniel and the Revelation in such a way as to enable the truth-seeker to clearly discover much of their real import. In fact we may safely say that the preparation and publication of the expositions which we have issued, "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, and "Daniel the: Beloved of Jehovah," rep­resent many years of the most painstaking effort and careful research; many of the Old Testament prophecies are exhaustively treated. Careful con­sideration and due weight have been given to the able, worthy and scholarly expositions of the Apocalypse that have been put into the hands of the truth-seeker by godly men throughout the Age, and particularly those that have been written during the past century-men whose writings give evidence of soundness of mind and of a large measure of the Lord's Spirit by which they have discerned deeply of the Divine truth regarding the meaning of the Apocalyptic visions. Many of the friends who have studied the Revelation expositions by Brother Streeter assure us that they have been very largely relieved of confusion and perplexity and have been enabled to maintain a balance and poise of mind that has kept them free from the spirit of fanati­cism, and of fanciful speculation so prevalent at this time.

Predictions Grandly Fulfilling before Our Eyes

Realizing, as all the faithful watchers must, that the remaining members of the Church of Christ in the flesh, have been undergoing the severest trials and are perhaps passing into the most crucial tests of their earthly career--possibly their Gethsemane experiences-we regard it as most pleasing to our heavenly Master to avail ourselves of all the provi­sions in the way of truth and grace that are repre­sented in His many messages. It is surely in sea­son that the brethren everywhere make a careful, sober study of the Book of Revelation. Living as we are in a period when some of the events pre­dicted in the Book are grandly fulfilling before our eyes on a most gigantic scale, events too of vast magnitude that mark the overthrow of Satan's em­pire and the ushering in. of the long promised reign of righteousness, the Kingdom of God, surely it is appropriate for us to inquire and to be prepared to receive whatever our Master may be pleased to say unto us at this time, especially as He has promised to be with His faithful people even unto the end and has admonished, saying„ "Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this prophecy."

In presenting us with an exposition of the Revelation, Brother Streeter did so in the spirit appropriate to one who would properly handle the holy things, namely that of making no claim of Divine inspiration and infallibility, but as that of appealing to the brethren to exercise their own' personal liberty in the acceptance or rejection of what is presented, and to use the spirit of a sound mind in receiving only that' which appeals to them as being established by Scripture and the facts of history. So now we, in again bringing this exposi­tion to the attention of our readers, desire to do so in the same spirit. We merely say to all, that these expositions appeal to us as being sound and reasonable and we invite the brethren to give them careful consideration.

Relationship of Daniel's Prophecy

Closely related to the Apocalypse in the New Testament is the prophecy of Daniel in the Old Testament; and similar to the Book of Revelation, the Book of Daniel is recognized to be largely a forecast of history, an announcement of future things-future from the day in which Daniel lived. Indeed none can read carefully and critically the prophecies of St. John and Daniel without observ­ing a most remarkable resemblance between- the two, and the impression is common among writers and students that no matter what interpretation or construction is placed on the two Books, it is diffi­cult to expound or write on one of them without carefully considering the other and without sub­stantially producing to a considerable extent an explanation of the other.

Surely there is a special value and importance at­tached to the Book of Daniel appertaining to the Lord's people at the present time: devout and spir­itually minded students of prophecy stand in this early portion of the twentieth century, in much the same position as did the Prophet Daniel as he neared the end of the seventy years of servitude in Babylon, when his prophecies were written. He recognized that the servitude in 'bondage to Baby­lon was drawing to a close; and he "understood by books" that deliverance and the return of his people to their own land was very near at hand. However, Daniel's request for a fuller understanding of the communications made to him was refused and he was told that the prophecies were not intended for the benefit of the generation of that time but rather for those of the then far distant future. He was instructed to shut up the words and seal the book; that the significance of the prophecies or the revelation of their meaning, was reserved to "the time of the end." The language clearly indicates that even in the time of the end none of the wicked should understand, but it was said to him that "the wise shall understand."

There is in the mind of the true watchman in Israel today, from various signs and predictions, a conviction that the long reign of sin and death is about to draw to a 'close ; that the times in which we live have about them a "character of finality"; that the bondage of humanity to the great task= master, Sin, is soon to be broken; and as the days go by this conviction deepens. In other words, the watchers of today, like Daniel of old, "under­stand by books," especially the Books of Daniel and the Apocalypse, that the days are about ful­filled and that the Word of God permits of no room for doubt that we have reached the last days of this dispensation, and that we have well nigh come to the end of the present order of things.

These Expositions Made Possible to All

The two volumes of the exposition entitled "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, comprising 1200 pages, and the volume entitled "Daniel the Beloved of Jehovah," of about 500. pages, are bound in good substantial imitation leather and cloth bindings; and the cost of the production of these volumes, owing to the limited edition, was approximately $1.25 per copy, the price at which they have been distributed since their original publication. However, in con­sideration of the stress of the 'times and the value that we believe both of these expositions are to the Lord's people at this time, arrangements have been made whereby we will now distribute each of the two volumes of the Revelation at 90 'cents per copy, or $1.80 for the set postpaid; and 90 cents per copy for the volume on Daniel's prophecy. At this low figure it is hoped that many of the friends who have not yet had the advantage of these exposi­tions, will avail themselves of this privilege of se­curing these books. We would add that any whose circumstances do not permit them to afford the price above mentioned may have the loan of either or both expositions if they will so state their wishes.

A further item is that the two volumes of the Apocalypse have been translated into and pub­lished^, in the German language by Brother S. Lauper, Degersheim, Switzerland, and any who desire may send direct to this Brother and secure the volumes; or if any prefer, they may send direct to us and we will take care of the order.

Living Waters

(Continued from last issue)
"If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious."- 1 Pet. 2:3.

IN THE previous article of this series, we noted that the Word of God is properly described as "living" because it manifests characteristics which are found only in living things. We were reminded of the resemblance which the written Word bears to Jesus, the personal Word of God; that it possesses the power of discernment; that like a living companion it is always fresh and refreshing; that unlike the books of dying men, this Book does not become obsolete, and that neither violence nor more refined methods have sufficed to render it void, or to abate or diminish in any degree its abundant vitality.

The Word of God is Life-imparting

"We come now to something higher and deeper. The great mystery of a living thing is the power it. possesses of propagating its kind ... We may ask then, Is the Word of God a living Word in this particular sense? Does it have the mysterious power of imparting life; and if so, is the life it imparts of the same sort as its own?" Does it repro­duce in accordance with the formula nine times stated in the Book of Genesis, namely "after its kind?"

"This brings up the great subject of spiritual conception and generation, concerning which the Scriptures give not a little information. Into this highly interesting but difficult subject we will not now enter. Even the beginning and maintenance of physical life in plants and animals (including man) are great and inscrutable mysteries. This is true in all stages of the process, particularly in the initial stage of germination, which is the beginning of a new individual existence from a previously existing individual of the same: species. How much more mysterious, then, must be the process of spiritual generation! The Lord Jesus, in His conversation with the learned and intellectual Pharisee, Nicodemus, indicated that the subject was a very mysteri­ous one by the words, 'The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth : so is every one that is born [or begot­ten] of the Spirit.'

"Therefore, even after we have learned all that is given us to know concerning the beginning of physical life in the naturally begotten, and spiritual life in the supernaturally begotten, the subject re­mains as mysterious as ever, since the Author of life has reserved it among the 'secret things' which 'belong unto the Lord our Go_ld.' - Deut. 29:29.

"But the fact of natural generation cannot be questioned, though the process be involved in un­fathomable mystery. The fact of spiritual genera­tion is equally sure to all who believe the Word of God. The Bible plainly declares it, and those who believe on the Christ of God know also by experi­ence the beginning of a new kind of life.

"For present purposes it is sufficient to point out that spiritual generation is analogous (as might be expected) to natural generation, being effected by means of a seed, which having been deposited in a prepared place, is quickened by the Spirit of God, and becomes itself 'spirit,'-that is to 'say, a new nature which is spiritual in its character; for 'that which is born [or begotten] of the Spirit is spirit.' - John 3:6.

"The fact of spiritual conception and the nature of the seed whereby it is effected, are plainly de­clared in 1 Pet. 1:23: 'Being born [or having been begotten] again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word, of God which Liveth and abideth forever.'

"There is an immense amount of truth of the highest importance contained in this passage; but the statement which especially concerns us is that the seed of the new birth is from the living Word ('the Word of God which liveth'). This statement plainly teaches that the Word of God possesses the highest endowment of a Iiving being, namely that of imparting life. And with. this agrees the teaching of our Lord Jesus in the par­able of the sower, that greatest of all parables, that parable without the understanding of which we can understand none, in the explanation of which He said: "The seed is the Word of God."­ - Luke 8:11.

In harmony with our Lord and with St. Peter, St. James declares : "Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth." Yet another Apostle, St. John, in speaking of the spiritual conception of the sons of God declares that they are begotten not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:13.) "Except a man be begotten of water (that is to say, of Liv­ing Water, the water of life, the Word of God; except a man be begotten of this water) and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God." (John 3:5.) "Though. the process be inscrutably mysterious there can be no doubt as to the fact. When the Word of God is truly 'heard' and thereby received into a prepared heart, that Word becomes truly a seed, spiritual and incorruptible in nature, which, when quickened by the Spirit of God, be­comes the life-germ of a new creature-a son of God.

"The same truth is very clearly taught in our Lord's explanation of His parable of the sower, to which reference has already been made. . . . 'That on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the Word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.'

The Word of God is Life-sustaining

We have seen that the Word of God is Living. We have. seen that it is Life-imparting. The third characteristic we wish to notice is that it is Life ­sustaining. "Man shall not live by bread alone [that is to say, man shall not have his life sustained by bread alone], but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." - Matt. 4:4.

"The life possessed by human beings is not only a derived life, that is, life obtained from an external source, but it is a dependent life, requiring contin­ual sustenance. It must be sustained by constant and suitable nutrition, received into the body at short intervals. Man's strength whereof he boasts, and indeed his very existence-are dependent on food." Furthermore this food which man requires, lie is unable to produce, even though all the materi­als are at hand of which it is composed. For the food' which will sustain his life "must itself be organic matter, that is to say, matter which has once-been living.' The humble vegetable organism ... extracts the nitrogen from the earth, and the carbon from the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and combines these, in exactly the proper propor­tions with the oxygen and hydrogen in water, and with traces of lime and other elements, and forms with the aid of heat and light from the sun, living tissue, suitable and necessary for. food." Man is un­able with all the skill and learning of all the chem­ists of the world to turn any of the minerals of the earth and air, inert, lifeless elements, into living tissue, capable of nourishing living creatures. Only God can do this. As the Psalmist says: "He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man; that He may bring forth food out of the earth." - Psa. 104:14.

Again, "if the conversion of minerals into food­stuff by the members of the vegetable kingdom is a process displaying the marvelous wisdom of God, the process of digestion and nutrition is not less so." Nothing is more wonderful than that food, taken into the body by way of the mouth, should, without any supervision or further attention "be digested, the valuable parts separated from the worthless, the latter discharged from the body, the former converted into tissue, muscle, bone, sinew, nerve-cell, blood-corpuscle, hair, nails, etc., and distributed automatically throughout the body, each to the place requiring it, and all in due pro­portion. . . .

Feeding on Christ by Faith

"As with the physical life, so it is with the spirit­ual life of those who 'have been begotten again of the "incorruptible seed of the Word." These new creatures require appropriate food; and God has abundantly provided for this need. We have al­ready noticed a resemblance between our Lord Jesus, the personal Word of God and the written Word. Now, as we come to consider the impor­tant subject of spiritual sustenance this relation­ship is again brought to our attention. Both are spoken of as food for the children of God.

The third, fourth, and fifth chapters of the Gos­pel by John treat of the imparting of eternal life through Jesus to those who believe on Him; the sixth chapter treats of feeding on Him by faith. In the sixth chapter, "after feeding the multitude mi­raculously, thus showing Himself as the One by whose power food is multiplied on the earth, He reveals Himself as the 'Bread of Life.' Twice He says, 'I am that bread of life' (verses 35 and 48) and in verse 33, 'For the Bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.' He who gives the life is the One also who sustains it. Again He says: 'I am the living Bread which came down from Heaven.' (Verse 51.) And of His words He says: 'It is the spirit that quickeneth the flesh profiteth nothing; the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.'-Verse 63.

"The importance of nourishing and sustaining the new life received upon coming to Christ, and the unhappy consequences which always result from neglect of the appropriate diet, have been so often and so forcibly stated by the servants of Christ, that it seems hardly necessary to dwell upon this matter. What our subject specially calls for is to note the correspondence between God's way of sustaining man's physical life by food derived from a living source, and His way of sustaining the believer's spiritual life by food from a living source, that is to say from the living Word."

St. Peter reminds t is that the proper condition of a child of God when first-brought into relationship with Christ is that of a new-born babe. "Where­fore," says he, "as new-born babes desire the un­adulterated milk of the Word of God that ye may grow thereby." Except. when it is asleep, a new­born babe seems to have only one interest in life, namely that of imbibing milk. How earnestly it desires milk! And this is a good illustration of the spiritual appetite which newly-begotten Christians should manifest for the Word of God. And then, to show that even the written Word of God is of value to us only as it brings us into vital relation­ship with Jesus, the personal Word of God, St. Peter, instead of saying "If so be ye have tasted that the Word is gracious," drops the figure of speech, and says instead, "If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious."

"Break Thou the bread of life, dear Lord to me As Thou didst break the loaves beside the sea; Beyond the sacred page I seek Thee, Lord, My spirit pants for Thee--Thou Living Word."

Nourished Up in the Words of Faith

Moreover there is not: only milk for babes, but strong food for those who are mature. "And there is the penalty of arrested growth paid by those who remain content with the relatively weak diet suit­able for infants . . .  [such] are unskilful in the word of righteousness. Infants cannot do any­thing for themselves, much less can they prepare food, or render any other service to others. Hence the Apostle . . . writing to the Hebrews, up­braids some of them because, at a time when they ought to have been teachers, they had need to be taught again the first principles and were become 'such as have need of milk and not of strong food. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness; for he is a babe. But strong food belongeth to them that are of full age.' - ­Heb. 5:12-14.

"Jeremiah says, 'Thy words were found and I did eat them.' (Jer. 15:16.) Thereby he . . . found strength to sustain him in his most difficult and trying ministry, from which, because of his timid and sensitive disposition, he shrank back in agony of soul. To be a good and effective minister of Christ it is necessary that one be well nourished through partaking largely of the abun­dant spiritual food which the Living Word supplies. Thus Paul admonished his child in the faith, Timothy, to whom he wrote, 'If thou put the breth­ren in remembrance of these things thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine.' -- 1 Tim. 4:6.

A Practical Lesson

"One practical point with reference to the process of nutrition should be noted. While the living crea­ture cannot comprehend the process, and has no part whatever in supervising it, or carrying it on, and while he is therefore not responsible for the re­sults, the process cannot be carried on unless he takes the food into his being and properly masti­cates it. Therefore, tip to the point of swallowing the food, the living being is responsible, and his volition is exercised. After that, the process passes beyond his knowledge and control. Food may be of the best quality, and may be in greatest abun­dance, but it imparts no nourishment while it re­mains in the pantry, or on the table.

"In like manner the responsibility is with the child of God to partake of the spiritual food so plentifully provided, and to meditate therein day and night. (Psa. 1:2.) Meditation upon what is read is to spiritual nutrition what mastication is to physical nutrition, and it takes time. The result, however, is ample compensation for time so occu­pied." It means a fruitful life, a vigorous and healthful life in Christ, for godliness hath promise of the life that now is, as well as of that which is to come.

"I heard the voice of Jesus say,
'Behold, I freely give
The living water; thirsty one,
Stoop down, and drink, and live!'

I came to Jesus and I drank
Of that life-giving stream;
My thirst was quenched, my soul revived,
And now I live in Him."

(To be continued)

"A CRY O F THE SOUL"

"O God of truth, for whom alone I sigh,
Knit Thou my heart by strong, sweet cords to Thee.
I tire of hearing; books my patience try.
Untired to Thee I cry;
Thyself my all shalt be.

"Lord, be Thou near and cheer my lonely way;
With Thy sweet peace my aching bosom fill;
Scatter my cares and fears; my griefs allay;
And be it mine each day
To love and please Thee still.

"My God! Thou hearest me; but clouds obscure
Even yet Thy perfect radiance, truth Divine!
Oh for the stainless skies, the splendors pure,
The joys that aye endure,
Where Thine own glories shine!"

The Man of Sin

"Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first. and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition." - 2 Thess. 2:3.

NO CAREFUL and devout student of the sacred Word can have failed to observe the prominence given in the Scriptures to a certain notorious character styled "the Man of Sin" or the Antichrist. And the fact of its prominence is sufficient reason why it is a subject proper and profitable for careful consideration by the faithful truth-seeker. In fact the Apostle's argument in his second letter to the Thessalonians clearly implies that an understand­ing of who and what: constitutes the Man of Sin was to be of signal importance to the Lord's people in enabling them to recognize something of the time when the day of the Lord's second presence should be expected. The Man of Sin is distinctly noted throughout the sacred writing' not only in the clear description. of his character, but also in the plain indication of the times and places of his beginning, prosperity, and decline.

Many Shall Come in My Name

Whatever may have appeared on the scene prior to our Lord's First Advent, "the Man of Sin" must be located at a point subsequent to that time, inas­much as its appearance and revelation in power is distinctly referred to in the New Testament Scrip­tures as a thing future from the Apostolic period. Truly, Jesus in His sweeping prophecy covering in a general way the entire history of the Gospel Age, declared that from time to time various deceivers would appear and lead, many astray. His words are, "For many shall come in My name, saying, I am Christ [or I represent Christ and the true mes­sage]; and shall deceive many." (Matt. 24:5.) And in fulfillment of the Master's forecast there have been various false teachers, deceivers, and many imitations of Christ throughout the Age; and the time in which we live is no exception in this regard. Buy while there have been false Christs and false teachers all along throughout the Age, we do not find the prophetic Man of Sin, or Antichrist, amongst any of these individual impostors or false teachers, inasmuch as none of them really meet the requirements set forth in the prophetic description.

It will be of advantage in identifying the Man of Sin or the Antichrist, to keep clearly in mind the various titles by which this notorious character is designated, for he is otherwise called "that wicked one," "the mystery of iniquity," and "the son of perdition"; the Prophet Daniel called it also "the abomination that maketh desolate" (Dan. 11:31; 12:11) ; and our Lord refers to the character as "the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the Prophet." (Matt. 24:15.) These various titles or designations used in description of this prominent evil power prepare us to look for some very un­usual and outstanding character, superabounding and exercising power and influence far above and beyond any of these individual impostors, or false christs of the past or of the present.

Where Shall We Look for Antichrist

The question properly intrudes itself, When and where in history or in the fulfillment of prophecy should we logically look to locate this evil charac­ter whose sweeping influence and power for evil affects the affairs of the Church and the world in such a way as to deserve such prominent mention by our Lord and the Apostles? We believe we shall find our answer to this question only as we follow the guidance of the Spirit and carefully examine the various pieces of information that set forth the description of the Antichrist's revelation. Some have attempted to fix the time of the development and manifestation of the Man of Sin in connection with the last days of the Age; and in this time of the Lord's second Presence, and their conclusion is that certain brethren and confessors of Christ, styled "false brethren" and deceivers, constitute the fulfillment of the prophetic description. While, as we have freely admitted above, there are false brethren and many deceivers and false teachers at the present time, yet we know of none who have appeared in modern times that at all approximates the requirements of prophecy with regard to this evil character. In the first place St. Paul's descrip­tion of the Antichrist necessarily forbids any at­tempt to fix the rise and manifestation of the Man of Sin in the closing days of this Age or in connec­tion with Christ's Second Coming, for says the Apostle, "that day shall not come, except there come -a falling away first, aid that Man of Sin be revealed, the son of perdition. In this connection we cannot do better than quote extensively from Scripture Studies, Volume II, by Brother Russell:

Before the Day of the Lord

"It is clearly stated, not only that this Man of Sin must first rise, but that he must develop and prosper before the Day of the Lord comes. Before Christ's day the prosperity and influence of this power will have reached their climax and will be on the decline; and it is, to be by the bright shining of the Lord's presence at His Second Advent that this Man of Sin shall be utterly destroyed. These fore­told circumstances we must observe, in order to see whether this caution to the Church in Paul's day is still applicable in our day. Now, after eight­een centuries, the claim is again made that the day of Christ has come; and the important question arises, Does anything which Paul said in correct­ing the error of the Thessalonians stand as an ob­jection to this claim now?

"From the Apostle's exhortations to the Church, to watch for the Lord's return, taking heed to the sure word of prophecy, and from his care in point­ing out the signs of Christ's presence, the character of His work at that time, etc., it is evident that he was quite as anxious that the Church should be able to recognize the Lord's presence when He should come, as that: they should not be deceived into the error that He had come before the time of His presence. A fall into the latter error, in the early part of the Age, exposed those who embraced it to the deceptions of the Antichrist principle which was even then working; while a failure to recog­nize the Day of the Lord, and His presence in the day when His presence is due, exposes those fail­ing to recognize Him to the continued deceptions and false doctrines of Antichrist, and blinds them to the grand truths and special privileges of this day. Hence the Apostle's anxiety for the Church at both ends of the Age, and his warning -- 'Let no man deceive you by any means.' Hence also the exact description of the Man of Sin, in order that he might be recognized in his time.

"While Christians in this end of the Age are in­clined to forget even the promise of the Lord's re­turn, and, when they do remember it, to think of it only with dread and fearful forebodings, the early Church looked for it anxiously, and with joyful anticipation, as the fruition_ of all its hopes, the re­ward of all its faithfulness and the end of all its sorrows. Consequently, the believers of that day were ready to hearken diligently to any teaching which claimed that the Day of the Lord was either very near or present; and hence they were in danger of being deceived on this point unless they were careful students of the teachings of the Apostles on the subject.

"Let no Man Delude You

"The Church at Thessalonica, impressed with the erroneous teachings of some, to the effect that the Lord had come again, and that they were living in His day, evidently supposed that the idea was in harmony with Paul's teaching in his first epistle to them, wherein he said (1 Thess. 5:1-5) that the Day of the Lord would steal on quietly and unobservedly, as a thief in the night, and that, though others would be in it unawares, the saints would be in the light concerning it. Learning of the seri­ous error into which they had fallen, of supposing the day of the Lord's presence to have already come, Paul wrote them a second epistle, the central thought of which was the correction of this error. He says :-'Now we beseech you, brethren, con­cerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together unto Him, that ye be not readily agitated in mind nor troubled; neither by spirit, neither by word, neither by letter as from us, as though the Day of the Lord [enestemi.] is present. Let no man delude you, by any means; because the falling away [apostasy] must first come, and there must be revealed that Man of Sin, the Son of Destruction, the Opposer, exalting him­self above all, being called a god [mighty ruler] or that receives homage-so as to seat himself in the Temple of God, openly displaying himself that he is a god. Remember ye not that while I was yet with you I told you these things? And now ye know what interposes, in order that He [Christ] may be revealed in His own [due] season. But in­subordination [to Christ] is already working, only as a secret thing, until the now hindering one shall be out of the way; and then shall that insubordi­nate one be revealed, whom the Lord shall kill with the spirit of His mouth and annihilate by the bright shining of His [parousia] presence.' Paul could write thus positively of the development of the Man of Sin before the Day of the Lord, because of his study of Daniel's prophecy, to which our Lord also, referred (Matt. 24:15) ; and probably because Paul himself, in his 'visions and revelations,' had been shown the great havoc which this character would work in the Church.

The Man of Sin and the Revelation of Christ

"It should be observed that Paul did not use ar­guments such as some today are disposed to use against the claim that the day of the Lord has be­gun. He did not say, 0 foolish Thessalonians, do ye not know that when Christ comes your eyes shall behold Him, and your ears shall hear a dread­ful sound of the trump of God? and that you will have further proof of it in the reeling tombstones and the rising saints? Is it not evident that if such a criticism had been proper,, Paul would have been quick to avail himself of an argument so simple and so easily grasped? And moreover, is not the fact that he did not use this argument a proof that such an argument is not, and could not be, founded on the truth?

"From the fact that Paul, in his energetic effort to correct their error, offered but this one objec­tion to their claim, he thereby evidently endorsed as correct their general ideas of the Day of the Lord -- that it could be commenced while many might be in ignorance of it, that it could come without outward demonstration to mark it. But the only ground of his objection was, that there must first come a falling away, and, in consequence of that falling away, the development of the Man of Sin -which, whatever it may be (whether a single in­dividual, or a great Antichrist system which he thus personifies), must rise, flourish and begin to decline-before the' day of the Lord's presence. So, then, if this one objection which Paul offered be no longer in the way-if we can clearly see a character in actual existence whose history corresponds in every particular to the prophetic description of the Man of Sin, from the beginning of his existence down to the present time -- then Paul's objection, which was well taken in his day, and his only one, is no longer a valid objection against the present claim that we are living in the Day of the Lord, the day of the Lord's presence."

Not Some Literal Super-Man

Nor can we credit the views of some who claim not only that the Second Coming of Christ is still future and is to be a manifestation of the literal body of Christ, but that the Man of Sin is some one individual man that is to exalt himself in the earth and exercise superhuman power in such a way as to have the entire world at his feet in a brief space of time. The various descriptions of the Antichrist, we believe, definitely forbid such a lit­eral interpretation; in fact, no one individual could possibly fulfill what the various prophecies call for in this regard. Let. us note again the clear, lucid statements of Brother Russell bearing upon this particular matter:

"Without any desire to treat lightly the opinions of others, .we nevertheless feel it necessary to point out to the reader a few of the absurdities connected with the common view concerning Antichrist, that thereby the dignity and reasonableness of the truth on this subject may be properly estimated, in con­trast with the narrow claim that all which the Scriptures predict concerning this character will be accomplished by some one literal man. This man, it is claimed, will so charm the whole world that in a few short years he will secure to himself the homage and worship of all men, who will be so easily imposed upon as to suppose this man to be God, and, in a rebuilt Jewish temple, to worship him as the Almighty Jehovah. All this is to be done at lightning speed,-three and a half years, say they, misinterpreting the symbolic time, even as they misinterpret the symbolic 'man.'

"Tales of fiction and the most absurd imagina­tions of childhood furnish no parallel to the ex­treme views of some of God's dear children who are stumbling over a literal interpretation of Paul's language, and thereby blinding themselves and others to many precious truths, which, because of error on this subject, they are unprepared to see in an unprejudiced light. No matter how much we may sympathize with them, their 'blind faith' forces a smile as they seriously tell over the various sym­bols of Revelation which they do not understand, misapplying them literally to their wonderful man. In this, the most skeptical age the world has ever known, he will,, they claim, in the short space of three and a half" years, have the whole world at his feet, worshiping him as God, while the Caesars, Alexander, Napoleon;, Mahomet and others sailed through bloody seas and spent many times three and a half years, without accomplishing the one thousandth part of what is claimed for this man.

"And yet those conquerors had all the advantages of dense ignorance and superstition to aid them, while today we live under conditions most unfav­orable to such a development of deceit and fraud -in a day when every hidden thing is being mani­fested as never before; -in a day when fraud of the sort claimed is too preposterous and ridiculous for consideration. Indeed, the tendency of our day is toward a lack of respect for men, no matter how good, talented and able, l' or what offices of trust and authority they may Occupy. To such an extent is this true, as never before, that it is a thousand times more likely that the whole world will deny that there is any God, than that they will ever wor­ship a fellow human being as the Almighty God....

The Man of Sin and the Apostasy

"Strangely enough, too, they who take this lit­eral view of the Man of Sin are generally those who are believers in the Lord's Pre-millennial coming, who are looking for and expecting the Lord to come 'at any moment now.' Why cannot all see the Apostle's meaning, when he positively declares that the Day of the Lord (the Day of His presence) cannot come and should not be expected until after the Man of Sin has been revealed? .It required over forty years to build the former Jewish temple, and it would surely require at least ten to twenty years to build, with more than former magnificence, the new temple at Jerusalem, where they expect a liter­al Man of Sin to be installed and worshiped as God. Why then should those who believe thus expect the Lord to come at any moment now? Such a view is out of harmony with reason as well as with the, Apostle's prophecy. Consistency demands that they should either give up looking for the Lord at any moment, or else give up their expectation of a future Man of Sin; for the Day of the Lord's pres­ence cannot come until the falling away (the apos­tasy) has taken place, and until the Man of Sin has been developed and revealed out of that apostasy.

"But when we get a correct view of the Apostle's words, together with correct ideas of the manner of the Lord's coming, we find no such discrepancies and contradictions, but a convincing harmony and fitness. And such a view we now present. Its Scripturalness the reader must prove.

Man of Sin Professedly Christian

"The various titles applied to this system are evidently symbolic. They do not refer as names to a single individual, but as character delineations to a corrupt religious and civil combination, developed within the nominal Christian Church, which, by its subtle opposition to Christ, the Head, and His true Church, His Body, well earns the name Antichrist. Such a system could fulfil all the predictions made concerning the Antichrist, or Man of Sin, though an individual could not. It is evident, moreover,. that this Antichrist system is not one of the heathen systems of religion, such as Mohammedanism or Brahminism; for the Christian Church has never been under the control of any such system, nor did any of these systems originate in the Christian Church. They now are, and always have been, in­dependent of the Christian Church.

"The system which fully answers the description given by inspiration must be professedly Christian, and must contain a large majority of those who claim to be Christians. And it must be one having its start as an apostasy, or falling away from the true Christian faith-an apostasy, too, which was secret and stealthy, until circumstances favored its assumption of power. Its stealthy beginning was in the days of the Apostles, in the desire of some teachers to be greatest.

Counterfeit of the True Church

"We need not look long to find a character fitting all the requirements perfectly; one whose record, written by secular historians as well as by its own deluded servants, we shall see agrees exactly with the prophetic delineations of Antichrist. But when we state that the one and only system whose his­tory fits these prophecies is Papacy, let no one mis­understand us to mean that every Roman Catholic is a man of sin; nor that the priests, nor even the popes of the Church of Rome, are, or have been, the Antichrist. No man is 'the Antichrist,' 'the Man of Sin,' described in prophecy. Popes, bishops and others are at most only parts or members of the Antichrist system, even as all of the Royal Priests .are only members of the true Christ, under Jesus their Head, and in the same manner that these in their present condition are together the antitypical Elijah, though no one of them is the Elijah or the Christ foretold. Notice, further, that the Church of Rome as an ecclesiastical system only is not the 'Man of Sin,' and is never presented under any fig­ure of a man. On the contrary, a woman is always the symbol used for a church separate from its head and Lord. The true Church is symbolized by a 'chaste virgin,' while the apostate church, which has fallen away from ;primitive purity and fidelity to the Lord, is symbolically called 'a harlot.' As the true 'virgin' Church continues to be such to the end of the Age, when she is to be united to her Lord and take His name-Christ-so the apostate church was not the Antichrist, or Man of Sin, until she united with her lord and head, the pope, the claimed vicegerent of, Christ, and became a re­ligious empire, falsely styled Christendom, which signifies Christ's Kingdom.

"Papacy is the name of this false kingdom; and it was built upon a misapplied truth-the truth that the Church is called to be kings and priests unto God and to reign on the earth. But the time for reigning had not yet come; the Gospel Age was not appointed for that purpose, but for the selection, development, discipline, humiliation and sacrifice of the Church, following in the footprints of her Lord and patiently waiting and enduring until the time appointed for the promised exaltation and glorious reign-the Millennial Age.

False Teaching Led to Antichrist

"The Lord foresaw that nominal Christianity would spread over the world, and that, becoming popular; it would be embraced by many who would appreciate the form without entering into the spirit of its institution. He foresaw that as numbers of this sort would identify themselves with the Church, the worldly spirit, which is the opposite of the spirit of self-denial and self-sacrifice, would come in with them; that selfishness and a desire to be great and to rule, thus coming in, would not have long to wait until they could seize an oppor­tunity, and that thus the Church would seek to dominate the world before the time-or, rather, that the worldly element which would enter the Church would make its influence felt, and in the name of the true Church would grasp the civil power of earth which God had given over to the Gentiles, and which cannot pass fully into the hands of the true Church until the close of the Times of the Gentiles, A.D. 1914.

"And thus it actually transpired; the nominal church began to fall away as it increased in num­bers under the teaching and example of ambitious men whose ideas grew more and more favorable to the power and worldly influence which numbers and wealth brought with them. Gradually the spir­it of the Church became worldly, and the things of the world were coveted. The suggestion of am­bition was, 'If the great Roman Empire, with all its power and influence, its armies and wealth, were only to support the Church, how honorable and noble it would then be to be a Christian! How speedily then would heathen persecutions cease! Then it would be in our power not only to overawe them, but to compel their adherence to the Church and cross and name of Christ. It evidently is not God's design that the Church should forever be subject to the world and persecuted by it; the Apostle's words, 'Know ye not that the saints shall judge the world?' as well as our Lord's promises that we shall reign with Him, and the many proph­ecies which refer to the reign of the Church, in­dicate clearly that such is God's Plan. True, the Apostle wrote that our Lord would first return and exalt the Church, and exhorted that we should 'wait' for the Lord; but several centuries are now past, and we see no sign of the Lord's coming. We must understand that the Apostles were to some extent in error. To us it seems clear that we can and should use every means to obtain a hold upon civil government and conquer the world for the Lord. It must be, too, that the Church should have a head -- one to represent the absent Lord and to represent the Church before the world-one who would receive the homage of the world, exercise the authority of Christ, and rule the world with a rod of iron, as the Prophet David predicted.'_. Thus grad­ually by a slow process of reasoning covering cen­turies, the real hope of the Church for exaltation to rule and bless the world-namely the Second Coming of the Lord -- was lost sight of, and a new hope took its place -- the hope of success without the Lord, under the headship and lead of a line of popes. And thus, by collusion, intriguing and ex­change of favors with the world, the hope of the Church became a false hope, a delusive snare by which Satan led from one evil and error to another, both of doctrines and of practice.

All the World Wondered

"The point at which the apostasy developed into the 'Man of Sin' was when the Papal hierarchy ex­alted itself under the headship of an arranged line of popes, and claimed and attempted the rulership of earth in the name of, and pretending to be, Christ's Millennial Kingdom. It was a false, fraud­ulent claim, no matter how thoroughly some of its supporters believed it. It was a fraudulent, counter­feit kingdom, no matter how sincere some of its organizers and supporters may have been. It was Antichrist's, no matter how much they claimed and believed it to be the true Christ's glory and kingdom and power upon earth. It is a mistake to suppose that to be conscientious is always to be right. Every system of error doubtless has as many con­scientiously deluded votaries as it has hypo­crites, or more. Conscientiousness is moral honesty, and it is not dependent upon knowl­edge. The heathen, misinformed, conscien­tiously worship and sacrifice to idols; Saul, misin­formed, conscientiously persecuted the saints; and so, too, many papists;, misinformed, conscientiously did violence to the prophecies, persecuted the true saints and organized the great system of Anti­christ. For hundreds of years Papacy has not only deceived the kings of the earth as to its power and claimed Divine authority, and ruled over them, but even in the Church, God's Temple, where Christ alone should be recognized as Head and Teacher, it has seated itself and claimed to be the only teach­er and lawgiver; and here it has deceived all, ex­cept the few, by its phenomenal success and boast­ful claims. 'All the world wondered'-were aston­ished, deceived, bewildered -- 'whose names were not written in the Lamb's book of life,' and many whose names are written as saints of God were. seriously perplexed. And this deception is the stronger be­cause of the very gradual formation of these ambi­tious designs and their yet more gradual realiza­tion. It extended over centuries, and, as an ambi­tion, was already secretly at work in Paul's day. It was a process ;of little by little adding error to error, the supplementing of one man's ambitious declarations by those of another and another far­ther down the stream of time. Thus, insidiously, did Satan plant and water the seeds of error, and de­velop the greatest. and most influential system the world has even known -- Antichrist.

Falsely Bears Christ's Name

"The name 'Antichrist' has a twofold signifi­cance. The first is against (i. e., in opposition to) Christ: the second significance is instead (i.e., a counterfeit) of Christ. In the first sense the, expression is a general one, which would apply to any enemy opposing Christ. In this sense Saul (after­ward called Paul), and every Jew, and every Mo­hammedan, and all the Pagan emperors and people of Rome, were antichrists -- opposers of Christ. (Acts 9:4.) But it is not in this sense of the word that the Scriptures use the name Antichrist. They pass over all such enemies, and apply the term Antichrist in the sense given above, as now its sec­ondary meaning, viz., as against in the sense of misrepresenting, counterfeiting, taking the place of the true Christ. Thus John remarks, 'Ye have heard that the Antichrist shall come. Even now there are many antichrists.' (1 John 2:18, 19.) [The Greek distinguishes between the special Antichrist and the numerous lesser ones.] And John's subsequent remarks show that he does not refer to all opposers of Christ and the Church, but to a certain class who, still professing to be of the Christ Body, the Church, had left the foundation principles of the Truth, and were therefore not only misrepre­senting the Truth, but were, in the eyes of the world, taking the place and name of the true Church-hence really counterfeiting the true saints. John says of these, 'They went out from us, but they were not of us': they do not represent us, even though they may deceive themselves and the world on this subject. In the same epistle John declares that those he mentions as many antichrists have the spirit of the Antichrist.

"Here, then, is what we should expect, and what we do find in Papacy: not an opposition to the name of Christ, but an enemy or opponent of Christ in that it falsely bears His name, counterfeits His Kingdom and authority, and misrepresents His character and plans and doctrines before the world -- a most baneful enemy and opponent indeed­ worse far than an outspoken foe. And this is true, be it remembered, even though some of those con­nected with that system are conscientiously astray -- 'deceiving and being deceived."'

(To be continued)

The Evil Heart of Unbelief

"Little children, keep yourselves from idols."-1 John 5:21.

THE SIN of unbelief is back of all unfaith­fulness and disobedience. It was that which caused Israel of old to run after idolatry. They were ever inclined to mistrust Jehovah and thus failed to endure as seeing Him who is invisible. Their un­believing hearts desired the gods of the heathen round about, of wood and stone, such as their eyes could see and their hands could handle.

The creation of the golden calf in the wilderness was one of the outstanding examples of the idola­trous heart: "And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me. . . And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf; and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up^, out of the land of Egypt." It showed that they had abandoned all idea of the presence and character of the true God. How quickly they must have turned aside out of the way to have made such a gross, terrible mistake!

The Christian, though living under the greater advantage of this Age, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, and taught to look away unto Jesus, is not immune from this evil of allowing the affection to become fastened upon some golden calf of his own making, upon some object or thing, to at least the partial exclusion of the things of the Spirit; and a state of idolatry has set in.

Idolatry in the Heart

"The human heart loves something that can be seen," says another, "it loves that which meets and gratifies the senses. It is only faith that can 'en­dure, as seeing Him who is invisible.' Hence, in every age, men have been forward to set up and lean upon human imitations of Divine realities. Thus it is we see the counterfeits of corrupt religion multiplied before our eyes. Those things which we know, upon the authority of God's Word, to be Di­vine and heavenly realities, the professing Church has transformed into human and earthly imitations. Having become weary Of hanging upon an invisible Arm, of trusting in an invisible Sacrifice, of having recourse to an invisible :Priest, of committing her­self to the guidance of an invisible Head, she has set about 'making' _these things; and thus from age to age, she has been busily at work, with 'graving tool' in hand, graving and fashioning one thing after another, until we can, at length, recognize as little similarity between much that we see around us, and what we read in the Word, as between a 'molten calf' and the God of Israel.

"'Make us gods!' What a thought! Man called upon 'to make gods, and people willing to put their trust in such! My reader, let us look within, and look around, and see if we can not detect something of all of this. We read, in 1 Cor. 10, in reference to Israel's history, that 'all these things happened unto them for ensamples [or types], and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come,' (Ver. 11.)- Let us, then, seek to profit by the 'admonition.' Let us remem­ber that although we may not just form and bow down 'before a 'molten calf,' yet, that Israel's sin is a 'type' of something into which we are in dan­ger of falling. Whenever we turn away in heart from leaning exclusively upon God Himself, wheth­er in the matter of salvation or the necessities of the path, we are, in principle, saying, 'Up, make us gods.' . . . Our only safeguard is to be much in the presence of God. . . . When we get out of the Divine presence, there is no accounting for the gross errors and evils into which we may be be­trayed."

The Golden Calf of Human Leadership

One of the most glaring demonstrations of idol­atry and apostasy amongst God's professing people throughout the Age, and one of the most fruitful sources of evil in the Church has been along the line of setting up a human headship, a man-made authority in the Church. The invisible Christ and the guidance of His Spirit have been repeatedly re­jected as insufficient and unsatisfactory. The boast­ful and blatant claims of a fellow mortal or of a number of, fellow mortals who assume superior prerogatives in the Church are soon recognized and they are preferred as teacher and authority, displac­ing Christ.' The people must have some literal sys­tem that they can "belong to," some man-made in­stitution with its head or authority setting aside Christ, and with its machinery, its creed, its tests of fellowship; and so this golden calf becomes to them their ark of safety, their Divine channel, "God's organization," through which they receive instruction and through which they offer them­selves and their service to God. And they will hear nothing but the boasts, warnings, and threats of man's authority, while the Master with His Spirit and His gentle voice of entreaty are lost to their ears.

No such human system or channel did Christ and the Apostles set up. They constantly pointed to the work of the invisible Spirit, and admonished that all believers rest in the unfailing headship of Christ's authority alone. All who are following the Divine instruction shall never be misled by the perversions of truth, or the subversions of the Word of God that come from the golden calf of human authorities.

Christ Our All-Sufficient Leader

"We are called to live by faith; we can see noth­ing with the eye of sense. Jesus is gone up on high, and we are told to wait patiently for His ap­pearing. God's Word carried home to the heart, in the energy of the Holy Spirit, is the ground of con­fidence in all things, temporal and spiritual, present and future. He tells us of Christ's completed sac­rifice; we, by grace, believe, and commit our souls to the efficacy thereof, and know we shall never be confounded. He tells us of a great High Priest, passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, whose intercession is all-prevailing; we, by grace, believe, and lean confidingly upon His ability, and know we shall be saved to the uttermost. He tells its of the living Head to whom we are linked, in the power of resurrection life, and from whom we can never be severed by any influence, angelic, hu­man, or diabolical; we, by grace, believe, and cling to that blessed Head, in simple faith, and know we shall never perish. He tells us of the glorious ap­pearing of the Son from heaven; we, through grace, believe, and seek to prove the purifying and ele­vating power of 'that blessed hope,' and know we shall not be disappointed. He tells us of 'an in­heritance, incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us, who are kept by the power of God,' for entrance thereinto in due time; we, through grace, believe, and know we shall never be confounded. He tells us the hairs of our head are all numbered, and that we shall never want any good thing; we, through grace, believe, and enjoy a sweetly tranquilized heart.

"Thus it is, or, at least, thus our God would have it. But then the enemy is ever active in seeking, to make us cast away these Divine realities, take up the 'graving tool' of unbelief, and 'make gods' for ourselves. Let us watch against him, pray against him, believe against him, testify against him, act against him. Thus he shall be confounded, God glorified, and we ourselves abundantly blessed."

Interesting Memorial Reports

From reports received from various parts of the coun­try it is evident that there has been a general observance of the Memorial of our Lord's death on the evening of April 19, which, according to the Hebrew reckoning in the Jewish calendar, marks the beginning of Nisan 14. It has been very encouraging to hear from a goodly number of Classes who report that they experienced richly of the Lord's blessing in memorializing afresh the great event which is always a reminder of the abounding love of God and of His dear Son. Submitted below are some of the reports received which we doubt not will be read with interest:

Dear Brethren:

On the evening of April 19th our Class of Associated Bible Students met and observed the Memorial of our Lord's death. Fourteen partook of the symbols of His broken body and shed blood. We all felt that He was present with us in spirit on this solemn occasion and that it was a blessed privilege to be members of His true Church.

With much Christian love,

T. E.-Ohio.

Dear Brethren in Christ:

Believing you will be interested in knowing how many of the Lord's dear ones partook of the emblems of the broken body and shed blood of our dear Redeemer, whether they be few or many, I herewith report that I was privileged to serve a small Class of 4 at W-. Al­though there were but 4, still we feel sure that our dear Lord_ was there while we were renewing our contract with Him with the symbols of unleavened bread and wine, saying in our hearts that we are still willing to be broken and suffer with Him, for we know that He has done the same for us....

With Christian love from all who were there, and pray­ing that you may be blessed in your efforts to serve Him faithfully,

S. H. M.-O.

Dear Brethren:

Greetings in the name of our Lord..

The Class of Associated Bible Students here wish to report the celebration of the Memorial of our Lord's death on the evening of April 19th. Twenty-three were served in the Class, with six additional being served in their homes later; a total of twenty-nine.

We rejoice at this evidence of the Lord's blessing on our efforts here in less than one year. Brother H. conducted the service in a reverential and holy manner. We all felt the blessed presence of the Holy Spirit; grant­ing each a blessing.

Faithfully, your brethren in the best of bonds, Phoenix Ecclesia, Ariz.

Dear Friends:

Greetings in our Redeemer's Name.

I was asked by the brethren in our little Class here to express our appreciation of the visit of our Brother Blackburn, whom we all love so much. We had two ^.meetings and both were most helpful.. We shall be glad to be remembered in the future, if it is the Lord's will.

I would also mention that we had a. real impressive evening, April 19th, at the Memorial. Three of the friends came over 40 miles. In all, we were 10 conse­crated. One sister has lately consecrated and partook with us....

With deepest Christian love,

Your brother by His grace, O. C.-Tex.

Dear Brethren

We are pleased to report that 58 were with us and partook of the Memorial last Tuesday evening, April 19th. Our Elders served two who were unable to get, out because of illness, making a total of 60 participating. Brother B- of R--- was with us and remained here until Thursday. We were glad to have this privilege of fellowship with the dear sincere brother.

Brother Zink has been with us for the past few days and has given us several talks. We have enjoyed his service very much. . . . The "Herald" has been a great source of blessing to us and we wish to express our grati­tude to you for your labors on our behalf. May the Lord's blessing attend you.

Sincerely,

Minneapolis Ecclesia, Minn.

Dear Brethren:

I write you to tell you that Sister H. and Sister C- were with me in my home for the Memorial, and we three had a blessed little _.service together, and were indeed thankful that our dear Lord permitted us to ob­serve the Passover once more together, since we were not situated so we could meet with a Class anywhere. We remembered. His promise that where two or three are gathered in His name He would be with them. We also appreciate very much the help we get from the "Herald."

With Christian love,

Mrs. A. H. C.-Mo.

Dear Brethren:

Last night 6 consecrated brethren, the Class of As­sociated Bible Students, met and celebrated the Memor­ial of our Lord's death, as instituted by our Lord Him­self, in appreciation of His ransom sacrifice. Four other brethren from a- distance who had notified us by letter and word of mouth of their intention to take Memorial with us failed to come for reasons we know not as yet. Also Brother H.-sent us word by last mail that he would be unable to attend.

One dear Brother, Perry Tout, of. our midst, finished his race course with^- joy this year. He died in March very :suddenly, . . . just a week after the visit to our Class of Pilgrim Brother C. W. McCoy, whom he as well as all of us did appreciate very' highly. We were greatly refreshed and strengthened by Brother McCoy's visit and feel very thankful to our Heavenly Father as well as to the Pastoral Bible Institute for such helpful and upifting provision in a spiritual way. We are also glad to' give the same testimony of the regular visits of the "Herald," loaded with spiritual food in due season for the house­hold of faith.

With much Christian love from the Class, In His name,

J. D. W.-Calif.

Dear Brethren:

Please send me six copies of the "Divine Plan of the Ages." Enclosed herewith is my check for $3.00 in pay­ment for same. . . . Also the Class could use about 500 assorted tracts if you have them on hand and we will try to use them judiciously.

We had a very sweet Memorial service and about 82 partook of the emblems here, and about 35 in D . Have not heard from the other Classes.

With Christian love,

Your brother in Christ,

J. C. J.-Pa.

Dear Brother:

First I want to thank you for your -efforts in sending Brother Blackburn to us for the Memorial. As a result we had two wonderful days of sitting together in heaven­ly places in Christ Jesus. We do appreciate your kind­ness in the matter.:.. Brother Blackburn arrived -early the 19th, and gave a sweet and inspiring talk on the 23rd Psalm. Ten of us gathered in the evening to commem­orate our dear Redeemer's death, feeling quite strongly that it might be the last time we would so celebrate. Next year we may be drinking it new with Him in the Kingdom. A dear .sister who has gotten free from the I. B. S. A. was with us, which increased our joy; ... He talked to us earnestly of the deep things and of the meaning of our covenant to be dead with Christ that we may also live with Him. Our dear Brother J- came from Topeka to be with us at that time, which filled our cup of joy full.

On the 20th we had a splendid sermon on consecra­tion, and two symbolized their consecration. . All these things did our hearts good. . . . I thank Him and you all for sending Brother Blackburn to us just when I. was specially needing a good stirring up and putting in remembrance.... I hope and believe the time is very' near when "This mortal shall put on immortality" and "death be swallowed up in victory."

Brother and Sister P.- came over and a dear sister who came out -of the Society and seems to have gotten very clear on its issues. It seemed like old times when our home was the gathering place for the friends from all around. But these years of trial and difficulty have brought us a holier, sweeter fellowship and friendship than we ever knew in the old days.

With our warmest love_. and many prayers on your behalf,

Your sister by His kind favor,

E. M. A.-Kans..

1932 Index