THE HERALD
of Christ's Kingdom

VOL. XXXVIII March 1955 No. 3
Table of Contents

"The Cup Which My Father Hath Given Me"

"My Beloved"

Zionist Leader Sees Interesting Parallels

A New Israel Tract

Half Hour Meditations on Romans

Wise Counsel from a Faithful Pastor

Sacred Songs

The Question Box

The Beauty of Jesus in Me

Jesus

Excerpts From Interesting Letters

Distinguishing Marks

Recently Deceased

"The Cup Which My Father Hath Given Me"

"The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?" - John 18:11.

AS THE disciples were leaving Gethsemane with Jesus, Simon Peter possessing a sword, drew it, and struck the High Priest's serv­ant, Malchus, cutting off his right ear. Whereupon, Jesus said, "Put up thy word into the sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?" thus indi­cating that the cup was an experi­ence he as called upon to encoun­ter. The cup, then, to which he re­ferred was figurative. Quite a few Scriptures use it in this way; and to drink of this cup, signifies accept­ance of, and willingness to endure certain experiences as Christians.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CUP

It is figuratively applied to na­tions and to the wicked. (Psa. 75:8.) "In the hand of the Lord there is a cup, . . . the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out and drink them." (Psalm 116:13.) Speaking prophetically of the Lord, the Psalmist said, "I will take the cup of salvation [redemption]," I will offer the sacrifice of praise. (Matt. 20:22.) Jesus asks the sons of Zebedee, "Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of?" They reply, "We are able." Jesus says, "Ye shall indeed drink of my cup," that is, they should taste of inward affliction and desertions, and have their share of outward afflic­tions. During the Passover Supper, Jesus said: The cup is the New Cov­enant in my blood. At Christmas­tide we commemorate the Lord's birth. So also, in this pre-Memorial season, * it is fitting for us to consider, to meditate to upon, those experiences Jesus encountered which constitut­ed the cup he was invited to drink, culminating in his death on the cross. It is significant that the shad­ow of the cross had fallen upon Je­sus as he sat with his little company around the table in the upper room.

---------------------------------

* As announced in the February issue, the appropriate time for the Memorial celebration this year will be after sundown, Tuesday, April, 5th. See also the article caption, "This Do in Remembrance of Me," scheduled to appear in the April "Herald."

As we read the account of some of those events leading up to this time, we can discern something of what Jesus endured. For instance, he had "stedfastly set his face to go to Je­rusalem," and his brethren suggest­ed that he go up openly and with them. His reply was "My time is not yet come. Your time is alway ready." Then the public excitement of his entry, riding upon an ass, and the multitudes shouting Hosan­na. Later the denial by Peter. The washing of the disciples' feet as a lesson for them and for us. His con­cern to clarify as much as possible that which he must suffer, and to prepare his disciples for the worst. One cannot help feeling something of the anguish of soul he bore, and sharing with him in that exceeding sorrow he expressed. - Matt. 26:38.

It was as he sat in the upper room with his disciples, that he symboli­cally gathered up the meaning of what he had been and would be do­ing for them, as taking a cup, he thanked God for it, and gave it to them. The wine thus representing or symbolizing what he was giving to them: participation in his experi­ences-his cup. The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the com­munion of the blood of Christ? - 1 Cor. 10:16.

LIFE OF THE VINE IN THE CUP

Now let us for a moment turn our thoughts to the vine. Into that cup which Jesus held in his hand had gone all the experiences of the vine in the past. We could say the soul or life of the vine was there in the cup, that is, the kind of soil upon which it grew, the prunings and the storms that beat over it, the sun­shine, the rain, the crushing of the grapes in the winepress. All these had gone to make up the quality of the wine Jesus was giving to his dis­ciples. Change that past, and you change the quality of wine. Every­thing of the past in the growth and development of the vine had gone into the cup.

Jesus was putting to their lips an invisible cup of which this material cup was a symbol into which the ex­periences of the whole of his past life were gathered. All Jesus had said and suffered and prayed and done and was, went into the chalice which he was putting to their lips. They drank of his life, they accepted the invitation to follow him, they identified themselves with him in its acceptance. How impressive must have been the words of Jesus short­ly after, when they were walking to­gether through the vine fields to Gethsemane

"I am the true vine, my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he tak­eth away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. Here­in is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit. " - John 15.

ALL LIFE'S EXPERIENCES IN THE CUP

Now let us try to trace the experi­ences of Jesus that made up his cup. In those silent years at Nazareth, when Jesus, as a lad, lived in ob­scurity, working perhaps at a car­penter's bench, his hands rough with toil, dealing with the common­place, maybe with the hardship of poverty, with the dull and narrow life of a country village, and with the responsibility of helping to sup­port a family, after the father had died, with the vision all the time in his heart unuttered, he conquered the commonplace. So all these things, both the battle and the victory go into the cup.

When many of us, perhaps most of us, have to live out our lives in that same dull obscurity, battling with the business of making a living, toiling in mine or factory, field or office, dealing with the sordid and the scarring, while all the time there is a vision of something better and nobler held in the heart unexpressed, Jesus has put the chalice to our lips and we drink of his victory over the commonplace and pass along, realiz­ing that this is only the beginning of our all upon the altar with him.

Jesus laid aside the carpenter's tools, and went out to proclaim his message, and to enter more deeply into the soul of the people. "Then cometh Jesus," we read, "from Gal­ilee to Jordan unto John. " (Matt. 3:13.) He had been baptized into the world's toil. (Heb. 4:15.) Now he would be baptized into the world's sin. - Isa. 53:4, 5, 6.

John the Baptist was calling a na­tion to repentance. His throbbing words smote the very being of the people, and they came to his stream for baptism of repentance. Jesus entered the stream. He, with a con­science unstained, and with a char­acter untarnished; he who needed no repentance, who was holy, harm­less, undefiled, separate from sin­ners; he, the sinless, enters that line or queue for baptism. (We read Matt. 21:32: "The publicans and the harlots believed.") It may be a harlot ahead of him, a publican be­hind, and he became one of them and was baptized into a baptism of repentance. The identification is complete-he took the sinner's place. "He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." (2 Cor. 5:21.) All this was a portion of the cup.

Then came a reaction against this identification. Jesus left men, and the struggle continued in the wilder­ness. Was this the way to complete, absolute identification? Yes. This was the poured cup that the Father handed. "He was led of the spirit." Jesus being full of the holy spirit returned from Jordan (Luke 4:1) and for forty days he faced the is­sues, and then came hunger. He must go back to men and eat.

You need not go back. You are the Son of God. That is enough, stay out here, feed yourself by miracle, and live as the miraculous Son of God. It is the voice of the Tempter. The temptation to live apart, and live on spiritual miracle is one of the most real temptations of the spiritual life. Jesus brushed this aside. He would not be content with being the Son of God. He would be the Son of Man. He would live by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of the Father, and that meant for him, identification with men and redemp­tion for them at deep cost. This was the cup.

Then the Tempter suggested oth­er means of proving his authority. If you must go back, why stand down with the people? Why not rise to a pinnacle? Your way is too cost­ly. Why not worship me and take possession now? Jesus said: "It is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve." Jesus again brushed these suggestions aside, though he knew that the way he had chosen would drive him into identification that would finally mean crucifixion. He had been baptized between two sin­ners. This choice meant that he would be crucified between two thieves. He would be the Son of man and bear all that man bore and more.

Jesus went straight to the syna­gogue at Nazareth and announced his program. (Luke 4:16-21.) This is the Son of Man speaking. This an­nouncement of his program brought surprise and delighted wonder from his townsmen until he went on and told them how wide his message was. It was as wide as the human race. God cares as much for the Gentile as for the Jew. (Luke 4:26, 27.) There were many lepers and widows in Israel, but the Prophets were sent outside Israel to Gentiles. When they heard this, matters changed. People are willing to listen to any amount of truth provided it does not cut across their class or race prejudices. They had no room for this young dreamer. They arose in anger and led him to the brow of the hill to cast him headlong, but he passing through the midst of them went his way. - Luke 4:29, 30.

All this also went into the cup, and when we too are called and com­missioned, and the cold prejudices close in and try to quench our spirit, let us, brethren, drink of his calm and his courage, and pass through the midst of them to go our way to fulfill the heavenly vision at any cost. Let us, like the Apostle Paul, press toward the mark. - Phil. 3:14.

Then Jesus became immensely popular. The multitudes hung upon his words that fell like dew upon their thirsty souls. The healed went everywhere telling of the compas­sionate Prophet. The people found in him a new authority, the author­ity of reality, and when they found him breaking bread to the multi­tudes in the wilderness, they came and tried to make him a king by force. (John 6:15.) Jesus perceiv­ing that they meant to make him a king, withdrew "alone" to the hills. He would hold to the high purpose of the Father's will for him, even though it meant crucifixion.

The easy, dazzling way to power was put away. He would take the long way to his Calvary. All the de­cisiveness and the consecration when he turned down a throne for a cross went into the cup. When these mo­ments come to us, brethren, the easy and dazzling way to shine, instead of the struggled, demanding way that leads to our crucifixion upon some cross of chosen pain, let us drink of the chalice into which this trial has' gone, and surely we will find we are ready for any further trials with him.

Think of Jesus on another occa­sion, when beholding the city before him, he paused on the side of the Mount of Olives and wept over the city. (Luke 19:41.) And then all the courage of that hour, when he bade them "take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise," and drove them forth. (John 2:16.) And then after the cleansing had taken place and the storm subsided, he was found seated in the Temple teaching and healing the blind and the lame and welcoming the children that came to him there. (Matt. 19:14.) All this went into the cup.

There have been those who have strongly objected to these storm sides of Jesus' nature, the woes pro­nounced upon the Pharisees, the doom announced to fall upon the city, the cleansing of the temple. It does not fit in with spiritual calm and poise, the marks of a perfect man. But no one can question that what he said about the Pharisees was true to fact. Consider the alter­native: Suppose Jesus had passed by the blindness and ignorance with­out reproof and cleansing-cleans­ing-storms. Spiritual indignation for wrong is sometimes necessary to cleanse physical and spiritual at­mospheres. But we, brethren, must see to it that it is done in meekness. The force Jesus used to cleanse the Temple was not physical force, but the force of authoritative personal­ity-"My Father's." "Make not my Father's house a house of merchan­dise. " We see the same quality of mind in the Apostle Paul in his epistles. Paul found it necessary to reprove the Corinthians. He was astonished that the Church at Gala­tia had so soon fallen from faith; and he denounced strongly the Cre­tians. (Titus 1:12.) Yes, the true Christian needs the stout heart and gentility. We too may yet be called upon to strongly reprove evil and misrepresentation of God and of Christ. Let us drink of these qual­ities and be strong in the Lord. We need to be bold as a lion, meek as a lamb.

MAJESTY OF SOUL LINKED WITH LOWLY SERVICE

As Jesus sat with his disciples in the upper room, knowing the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he came from God and was returning to God, riseth from supper, laid aside his outer garment, took a towel, girded himself and be­gan to wash the disciples' feet. (John 13:4-15.) He was so conscious of greatness that he dared to be humble. Into this cup had gone not only majesty of soul, but it was linked with lowly service, and, dear brethren we who share the dignity and honor of sonship with him, have need to earn that kingliness really is the power to bend and serve. (1 John 3: 6.) Humble yourselves in the sigh of God, and he will lift you up. (James 4:10.) It is in the cup.

Then came the hour of Gethsem­ane. All he pain and agony and the spiritual loneliness of that hour go into the cup. Was he afraid to die"? Hardly, for he came to die, to lay down his life for you and me. He came to save men from sin. On the next day he would arouse men to greater sin, for they would put him to death. The Redeemer, by his de­termination to go on, seemed to be loosing in men their worst. A little later he asked that if it be possible this cup might pass, nevertheless, not my will but thine. But there is no other way. This is the cup poured. The tragedy and the triumph is not in the agony, but in the result. Calm and collected, Jesus said (Matt. 26:46) - "Arise, let us be going [to meet tomorrow and its Calvary]; behold, he is at hand that betrayeth me." It all went into the cup. Those of us who drink of that chalice into which the richness of that hour had gone, we too can say, Arise my soul, let us be going to meet our cross, and hav­ing drunk, we meet it with calm and rest of faith, with confidence in our heavenly Father's grace.

Then they came to take him. Pe­ter, the aroused disciple, rushes forth, and with his sword strikes off the ear of the servant of the High Priest. Jesus rebukes him saying, put up thy sword, and reaching forth his hand, touches the ear of Malchus, and says, "No more of that! and cured him. " (Luke 22:51, Moffatt. ) That beautiful act of healing an en­emy who had come to put him to death goes into the cup. "Bless them that curse you, do good to those that hate you," said Jesus. (Matt. 5:44.) And then when his hands were no longer free to heal, for they were nailed to the cross, he would still say, "Father, forgive them, them, they do not know what they are doing." (Luke 23:24, Moffatt. ) When we are tempted to be resent­ful towards spite and hate, and we drink of his triumph, the triumph of persisting love that would allow nothing to turn us aside, or quench our spirit of mercy, we shall be able like Jesus to say, "Father, forgive," and like Stephen, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge."

There stood Jesus before Pilate, arrayed in mock royalty. The Ro­mans had heard that he was king of the Jews. Always contemptuous of the Jews, the soldiers felt this was a supreme opportunity to show their contempt for the race, so they plait­ed a crown of thorns and put it on his brow, thrust a stick into his hand as a sceptre, put a purple robe around him, and said, "Hail King of the Jews." They spat in his face. They had often wanted to do that to the Jews, and now they would do it to their king. The racial contempt directed towards them fell on Jesus, and he bore it on behalf of the men who were crying for his blood. All of that went into the cup.

There he stood before Pilate ac­cused of many things. He heard his words twisted and tortured to other meanings. He said, "I will destroy this Temple that is made with hands and in three days I will build an­other made without hands. " He was being crucified on misquotation, and he was not anxious to explain. He let it go. He could wait. He knew that every lie would break itself on the truth of things, and he answered not a word. The Governor marveled. Here was greatness that could wait for final verdict. All this also went into the cup, and those of us who have witnessed our work misquoted, our best actions misunderstood, our best motives misinterpreted, and have suffered, if we drink of this cup into which patient triumph has gone, and share with Jesus this poise of heart and resignation to our Father's will, we shall say, Am I not to drink of the cup my Father has handed me?

Now lies and hate have prevailed. He is nailed to a tree, his good name taken away. He is a malefactor. His disciples have fled. He is alone in his agony, beaten back into the dark until it seems that God too has gone, for from his lips comes the cry, "My God, My God, Why hast thou for­saken me?" Everything has gone. But not quite-two words remain. "My God." They could not snatch these from his lips and heart. In quiet confidence at the last, he says,

"Father, into thy hands I com­mend my spirit." Nothing more bit­ter can go into the cup. Forsaken by God and man! The cup has every­thing in it, and when we have these moments of forsakenness, when it seems that everything has gone, we can drink of the chalice and find that nothing is gone while one thing re­mains-"My God." With that fact within our hearts, we can go back to everything, anything, recalling in our minds and hearts, "Though he were a son, yet learned [acquired] he obedience by the things which he suffered. " - Heb. 5:8.

Now, Jesus having tasted death for every man, a tomb holds him, but not for long. The most glorious fact of human history was yet to go into the cup. Out of the tomb he arose, laid aside his grave clothes and came forth triumphant and re­splendent. He is risen! If into that cup has gone everything that life can possibly meet-its commonplac­es, its toils, its obscurity, its tempta­tions, its blind prejudices, its lonely determination, its bid for compro­mise, its Gethsemanes, its hours before unjust judgment seats, its mock­eries and racial wrongs, its cross and its forsakenness, its death -- never­theless, there has also gone into its most complete triumph that can pos­sibly come, the glorious truth­ --

HE AROSE!

Nothing now matters, if God's last word is resurrection. Let life do its worst or best. This saving fact will be at the end for each one shar­ing with Jesus in this cup. The life of Jesus, and especially his cross, raises every question about life that can be raised, and raises them in the acutest form. The word "Why?" upon the lips of Jesus as he hangs upon the cross, epitomizes all the questions that ever tremble upon the lips of perplexed humanity. The Resurrection answers them all. God's last word is Resurrection, and it is in the cup. And when he had taken the cup, he thanked God for it. He took it all as from the Father's hand, thanked him for it, and lo, every­thing was transformed. All of us have to bear our cross. Let us do so thankfully, for only those who have learned triumphantly to thank God for it all, can turn life from a suf­fering one into a sacrament.

- George A. Ford, Eng.

"My Beloved"

Song of Solomon 5:9.

Oh, what is thy Beloved?
They oft inquire of me; 
And what in my Beloved
So passing fair I see.
Is it the heavenly splendor
In which He shines above, 
His riches and dominions,
That won my heart's best love?
 
Oh no! 'tis not His glories­ -- 
He's worthy of them all­ --
'Tis not the throne and scepter,
Before which angels fall. 
I view with heart exulting
Each crown His head adorns; 
But, oh! He looks most lovely,
Wearing His crown of  thorns.
 
I'm glad to see His raiment, 
Than snow more spotless,white,
Refulgent with its brightness, 
More dazzling than the light;
'But more surpassing, lovely 
His form ':appears to me,'
When, stripped and scourged and bleeding, 
He hung upon the tree.
 
With warmest adoration
I see Him on the throne, 
And join the loud hosannas
That His high virtues won; 
But, O most blessed Jesus,
I must confess to thee, 
More than the throne of glory
I love that sacred tree.
 
I joy to see the diadems
Upon Thy royal brow,
The state and power and majesty
In which Thou sittest now; 
But 'tis Thyself, Lord Jesus,
Makes heaven seem heaven to me -- 
Thyself, as first I knew Thee,
Uplifted on the tree.
 
Though higher than the highest,
"Most mighty Ding Thou art, 
Thy grace, and not Thy greatness,
First touched my rebel heart.
Thy sword it might have slain me, 
Thine arrows drunk my blood; 
But 'twas Thy cross subdued me,
And won my heart to God.
 
Thy scepter rules creation;
Thy wounded hand rules me: 
All bow before Thy footstool;
I but the nail-prints see. 
Aloud they sound Thy titles,
Thou Lord' of lords most high;
One thrilling thought absorbs me­ --
This Lord for me did die!
 
Oh, this is my Beloved!
There's none so fair as' He; 
The chief among ten thousand,
He's all in all to me.
My heart, ,it breaks with longing
To dwell' with Him above,
Who wooed me first, and won me
By His sweet dying love. 

-- J. G. Deck.,

Zionist Leader Sees Interesting Parallels

Between Early History of the United States

And That of the New State of Israel

Mr. Mortimer May, a distinguished citi­zen of Nashville, Tenn., is president of the Zionist Organization of America. A large dinner honoring him was held in New York City on November 18, 1954.

At this dinner, Mr. May delivered a thoughtful address on the progress and continuing problems of the State of Israel.

This address so impressed Senator Estes Kefauver, who was present, that he asked and secured the unanimous con­sent of the Senate of the United States to have it printed in the Congressional Record-Appendix, Tuesday, November 30, 1954.

We take pleasure in, reprinting it here for the benefit of our readers.

A REPORT ON ISRAEL OUR dinner tonight, at which we are honored by the pres­ence of two distinguished United States Senators, illustrates once more the bipartisan support that our movement has always received; one can well say that we have consis­tently enjoyed the solid backing of America.

The reasons for this run deep in the common heritage of the Ameri­can and the Jew. The early arri­vals in our own country were large­ly motivated by considerations of their faith and of the -precepts of the Bible, so that the sacred history of Palestine was in a real sense as close to them as that of the lands in which they had lived and would become part of the environment of the new land, our own America. One can point out too so many kinds of parallelism in the history of the United States, and the new State of Israel.

In the first place, both were pio­neering ventures and appealed to men of extraordinary courage and vision. In particular, the urge was toward leaving an older civilization, which restricted and confined the thinking of men or their religious observance; and to go to a new land for conscience sake and to found a better and freer way of life. The motivation in both was not material gain. The pioneers in our own United States had to face a wilder­ness primeval; and in the case of Israel to wrestle with a waste and desolation made so by man's im­providence and neglect. Only the resolute would be attracted to sit­uations of this character.

In the second place, -'both were confronted with native elements which presented grave problems and further tested the mettle of the colonists. There are some very sa­lient differences but the similarity, nonetheless, is quite real in the psy­chological and moral situations in­volved.

Thirdly, each was to gain final freedom by the arbitrament of the sword and against odds that were overwhelmingly heavy.

Fourthly, each had to contend with capital shortages, as is usually the case in new lands. Perhaps in this situation the lot of America was somewhat easier because of the large area involved, and, particular­ly, the unlimited extent of virgin soil. Israel with a small land rela­tively thickly settled has borne a greater, brunt of economic insuffi­ciency and the necessity of financial help from the outside, although in the case of our own Colonists loans from abroad were part of their experience for almost three centuries.

Fifthly, it should be pointed out that both grew very rapidly and had all the problems that a rapid ex­pansion produced. Here once more, the rate of increase of the little State of Israel has outrun that of our own United States in its early days, but, again, parallelism pre­vails.

Then finally, and in this we al­most return to the idea thrown out in the very beginning, the lands were settled by people whose spir­itual, ideological, and moral back­grounds held much in common. The Bible was their common heri­tage; democracy was their way of life; rigorous religious devotion and observance had been part of their inheritance for many generations. They came close to sharing the sacred tongue, which both vener­ated and respected. We need only recall that the study of Hebrew in the earliest colleges founded in. the Colonies ranked on a level with that of Latin and Greek, and one can note that in the seals of sever­al of our oldest institutions of learn­ing, Hebrew mottos are included. Indeed in one of the Continental Congresses, when antipathy toward Great Britain and even its language ran high, a motion was introduced that the language of the new nation about to come into being should be that of Hebrew.

All of this must be regarded as basic in any interpretation of the American friendship and support which, throughout the years, has come to the Zionist movement, and to the State of Israel. There have been times when official policy has departed from this line but it has always roved to be transitory. Frankly, recent events have caused us great concern, and we have man­ifested that concern in a number of directions; but I am of the over­whelming conviction that this is but for the moment. It is but a small, eddy in a great stream which has moved consistently in one direction and toward one common purpose because, of an identity of thinking, interests, and background that dom­inate in both people.

If we look a little bit ahead we may catch glimpses of other reasons why our American scene remains steadfast in its affection for the new state. In the first place, we have in Israel an outpost of the West in a vast area of what we sometimes call the unchanging East. Here a little country is setting an example in in­troducing for, the weal of the peo­ple modern technology and medi­cine and western way of doing things. It is not only in the ma­terial but it is providing an example likewise in the interpretation of great moral concepts. Here in Israel is a democracy that its neighbors may observe. Basic are the ideals of universal suffrage and the right of your vote to be properly cast and counted. Universal and free education in Israel stands out prominently in an area where illit­eracy runs into unbelievably high figures. The rights of labor and a living wage is but again another western interpretation presented to neighboring lands where abject pov­erty is the constant lot of the over­whelming majority of the people. It might be pointed out in addition, that the State of Israel has given to women a status of equality un­known in that segment of the world. All these, both the practical and the philosophical, are but the ways of the West-almost identical in operation and in interpretation with what we would find in our own United States.

Secondly, and still looking ahead, America realizes that the State of Israel represents a very strong force for a better world order. For the Jew is the veteran of history; his ex­perience goes back to its dim begin­nings, and as it has been long, so pit has been broad; 'extending to nearly all the great civilizations both ancient and modern. No people have known more suffering, from world disorder than has the Jew. Here in Israel ate gathered Jews from so many backgrounds and ex­periences and racial origins, that though it be a small land, visions extend far beyond its frontiers and there is and should be a. strong sense that something must be done to bring law and order and organ­ization into the world community; lest we all perish for its failure to be instituted.

Third and finally., we share as Americans and Jews, the unfor­gettable memory that this is the Holy Land. Of yore there came forth the three great faiths that have dominated our Western think­ing and our Western. way of life. There is the knowledge that the ancient State of Israel, while it nev­er attained military or economic might, exercised its influence through the spiritual, moral, ethical, and religious values that it gave to mankind. Al of us here -- all of us everywhere realize the great strides that man has made in. the recent past in the mechanical, the materi­al, and the scientific, but we are affrighted when we realize that these may be used for our destruc­tion and not for our salvation. May we not turn our hearts, hopes, and thoughts to the new State of Israel and may we not believe, and be­lieving affirm, that this new state has not come into being by histor­ical accident, but that it represents the will of Providence; that in our own day and our own time new spiritual and moral messages may come from this land that will be for our blessing and will enable us to use the great gains we have made in the material for our salvation, not for our destruction. Yes, Israel is a secular state with all the economic and political and social problems that beset others. It has, however, a history and a memory and a tradition like no other. Here we were told that no word of the Lord returns void un­less it 'shall have accomplished that which He intended. Thus we as Jews and Zionists and with the help of our America shall resolutely maintain our courage and our faith and our conviction that great mor­al, spiritual, and ethical truths are going to come from this land in the days that lie ahead.

Scripture asserts: "The Lord was passing by and a great and mighty wind was rending the mountains and shattering the rocks, but the Lord was not in the wind but in the sound of a still small voice." May we not believe that this small voice, the voice of the Lord, shall in our own day and our own time be heard coming from Jerusalem. The world awaits this voice; it will surely hear it when it comes forth. Let us then rededicate ourselves to all the various material tasks involved; let us too believe that Israel will once again in good character vindicate the ways of God to man.

A New Israel Tract

By P. L. READ

Those of our readers who have been long in the way; will recall that when, in 1910, Brother. Russell addressed some 3,000 Hebrews in the New York Hippo­drome, he did so in a non-proselyting ap­proach.

Some friends who today are working closely with Jews, noting that this same approach was used by Brother P. L. Read in his recent Chicago discourse* have urged that the substance of that address be issued in pamphlet form, for private circulation amongst our Hebrew friends.----------------------------------

* Published in installments in the December and January "Heralds."

Timing, too, is important, and therefore, the suggestion has been offered that, if possible, such a pamphlet be made avail­able in time for the coming Passover sea­son, commencing April 5th.

With these considerations in mind' we are now preparing a booklet which will combine material from Brother Read's talk with paragraphs from the address of the noted Zionist Leader, Mr. Mortimer May, reprinted on page 39 of this issue.

One copy of the booklet will be sent by first class mail to each "Herald" sub­scriber, without charge, on or about March 1st, Additional copies will be supplied free on request.

Half Hour Meditations on Romans

No. 2

Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ. - Rom. 1:1

The Power of St. Paul's Life

EVEN if the Apostle had not been led to commence his Epistle with the words above, we should nevertheless have felt constrained to devote this "half hour" to a brief review of his life. For it will be found that the key to a proper grasp of the Epistles teachings lies in the life experiences of its author. As Godet has well said: "St. Paul's other Epistles are fragments of his life; here we have his life itself."

It is well known that abstract truth discussed from an academic standpoint might result in very exact theology but only "truth through personality" gets very far in the remolding of lives. One whose life is not in harmony with his teachings, even though his theology might be excellent, is apt to remind us of sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. So also will another who speaking beyond his depth talks parrot fashion of things of which he little knows the meaning. But when one has had written in his own life and experience the truths the Apostle brings to our attention in this Epistle, he suggests to us the spirit and power of God. Thus it is that while truth written with merely pen and ink may mean much, truth writ ten in the lives of men and women means much more.

Once it was that God wrote his law on tables of stone; in a day not far distant, if we understand the signs of the times correctly, the writing is to be done in the hearts of the people with gloriously different results. Jesus himself not only preached important truths he personified truth. "I am the way, the truth, and the life."

So in our Epistle. When the Apostle appeared before men he narrated the outward facts of his con version (Acts 22:6 11; 26:12 18). He told them of the light he had seen above the brightness of the noonday sun; he mentioned the voice he had heard speaking with him: "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" But here, in Romans, we find the inner life of the Apostle laid bare -- lived over again for us and brought before our minds eye in a word picture. We have here not merely instructions from the Apostle on how to live the Christ life; we have a cross section of life as he lived it, which is of still more value to us. It is of course not possible, but if we could without violating confidence "listen in" on the private prayers of one who walks close to the Lord, it would mean infinitely more to us than any discourse such an one might give us on "How to pray." But in this Epistle we may actually "listen in" to the heart struggles of the Apostle as he grapples for himself with the problems that for ages had baffled mankind. Here we see this great seeker after righteousness discovering through personal experience how God could be "just, and yet the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus." We are given an opportunity to see how the Apostle became a "new creature" and how that "new creature" grew. Here we have his thought processes and may see not alone the happy conclusions he reached but, what is of equal importance, how he reached them. For example, when he bears witness as he does to Israel that they have a zeal of God but not according to knowledge, the mere statement of this fact might leave us measurably unmoved. However, when we realize that he is speaking of the zeal he himself used to have, we begin to understand his earnestness and his words take on a new significance. When he discusses the believers baptism and likens it to a burial of the old life now to be reckoned dead, we find ourselves admitting that the pictures is well drawn and the doctrine sound. But as the thought comes to us that the writer is one who has given proof after proof that he himself had died and that his life since then had been hidden with Christ in God; that he personally had been crucified with Christ and that what life he lived henceforth was as though Christ lived in his stead, we find ourselves occupied more with him than with his argument, masterly though it be. His words backed by his life catch fire in our hearts, causing us to long to share his rich experiences of fellowship with the Master and to determine that by Gods grace we will so do, cost what it may (Col. 3:3; Gal. 2:20). Sailer has said: "O Christianity, had thy one work been to produce a St. Paul, that alone should have rendered thee dear to the coldest reason." Let us then review his life experiences. We shall find that no only was he "in the truth" but what was of far greater importance the truth was in him, and it is this which makes the Epistle pulsate with the throb of life.

Saul, Afterward Called Paul

He tells us he was born at Tarsus in Cilicia, on the confines of Syria and Asia Minor (Acts 21:39; 22:3).

He was of the tribe of Benjamin (Rom. 11:1; Phil. 3:5). The following account of his early life and con version is taken from Godet, to whom we feel greatly indebted: "His parents belonged to the sect of the Pharisees; compare his declaration before the assembled Sanhedrin: I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee (Acts 23:6; Phil. 3:5). They possessed, though how it became theirs we know not, the right of Roman citizens, which tends perhaps to claim for them a somewhat higher social position than belonged to the Jews settled in Gentile countries. The influence which this sort of dignity exercised on his apostolic career can be seen clearly in various passages of Paul's ministry (comp. Acts 16:37 et. seq., Acts 22:25-29; 23:27).

"Perhaps he was destined early to the office of Rabbin. His rare faculties naturally qualified him for this function so highly honored in Israel. There is connected with the choice of this career a circum- stance which was not without value in the exercise of his apostolical ministry. According to Jewish custom, the Rabbins required to be in a position to gain their livelihood by means of some manual occupation. This was looked upon as a guarantee of independence and a preservative from sin. The received maxim ran thus: The study of the law is good, provided it be associated with a trade. . . . Otherwise, it is useless and even hurtful. Saul's parents chose a trade for him that was probably connected with the circumstances of the country where they dwelt, that of tentmaker (Acts 28:3). The term denoted the art of making a coarse cloth woven from the hair of the Cilician goats, and used in preference to every other kind in the making of tents. The term used in the Book of the Acts thus denotes the work of weaving rather than tailoring. . . .

Saul's Early Training

"He went through his Rabbinical studies at the school of the prudent and moderate Gamaliel, the grandson of the famous Hillel. Taught, says Paul, at the feet of Gamaliel according to the perfect manner of the law of our fathers (Acts 23:3). Gamaliel, according to the Talmud, knew Greek literature better than any other doctor of the law. His reputation for orthodoxy nevertheless remained unquestioned. Facts will prove that the young disciple did not fail to appropriate the spirit of wisdom and lofty prudence which distinguished this eminent man. At his school Saul became one of the most fervent zealots for the law of Moses. And practice with him kept pace with theory.

He strove to surpass all his fellow disciples in fulfilling the traditional prescriptions. This is the testimony he gives of himself (see Gal. 1:14; Phil. 3:6).

The program of moral life traced by the law and elaborated by Pharisaical teaching was an ideal ever present to his mind, and on the realization of which were concentrated all the powers of his will. He resembled that young man who asked Jesus by the doing of what work he could obtain eternal life. To realize the law perfectly and to merit the glory of the Kingdom of Heaven by the righteousness thus acquired was his highest aspiration. Perhaps there was added to this ambition another less pure, the ambition of being able to contemplate himself in the mirror of his conscience with unmixed satisfaction. Who knows whether he did not flatter himself that he might thus gain the admiration of his superiors and so reach the highest dignities of the Rabbinical hierarchy? If pride had not clung like a gnawing worm to the very roots of his righteousness, the fruit of the tree could not have been so bitter; and the catastrophe which overturned it would be inexplicable. Indeed, it is his own experience Paul describes when he says, in speaking of Israel: I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they, being ignorant of Gods righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God [that which God offers to the world in Jesus Christ] (Rom. 10:2,3).

"Saul had reached the age which qualified him for entering on public duties, at his thirtieth year. Distinguished above all his fellow disciples by his fanatical zeal for the Jewish religion in its Pharisaic form and by his hatred to the new doctrine, which seemed to him only a colossal imposture, he was charged by the authorities of his nation to prosecute the adherents of the Nazarene sect and to root it out if possible. After having played a part in the murder of Stephen and persecuted the believers at Jerusalem, he set out for Damascus, the capital of Syria, with letters from the Sanhedrin that authorized him to fill the same office of inquisitor in the synagogues of that city. We have reached the fact of his conversion.

His Conversation

"In the midst of his Pharisaical fanaticism Saul did not enjoy peace. In chapter 6 of the Epistle to the Romans he has unveiled the secret of his inner life at this period. Sincere as his efforts were to realize the ideal of righteousness traced by the law, he discovered an enemy within him which made sport of his best resolutions, namely lust. I knew not sin but by the law; for I had not known lust except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. And thus he made the most important discovery of his life, expressed in these words: By the law is the knowledge of sin (Rom. 3:20). The painful feeling of his powerlessness to realize virtue was, if I may so call it, the negative preparation for the crisis which transformed his life.

His soul, hungering and thirsting after righteousness, found the attempt vain to nourish itself with its own works; it did not succeed in satisfying itself.

"Another circumstance, fitted to prepare for the change in a more positive way, occurred at this period. An inactive witness of Stephens martyrdom, Saul could calmly contemplate the bloody scene -- see the brow of the martyr irradiated with heavenly brightness and hear his invocation addressed to the glorified Son of Man, in which was revealed the secret of his love and triumphant hope. His soul was no doubt deeply pierced in that hour; and it was with the view of cicatrizing this wound that he set himself with redoubled violence to the work of destruction he had undertaken. The hour shall come, Jesus had said to his Apostles, in which whosoever shall kill you will think that he renders God worship. It was really with this thought that the young persecutor raged against the Christians. Nothing but an immediate interposition on the part of him whom he was thus persecuting could arrest this charger in his full career, whom the sharp prickings by which he felt himself inwardly urged only served to irritate the more.

His Damascus Experience -- Death and Resurrection

"With Saul's conversion a supreme hour struck in the history of humanity. If, as Renan justly says, there came with the birth of Jesus the moment when the capital event in the history of the world was about to be accomplished, the revolution whereby the noblest portions of humanity were to pass from paganism to a religion founded on the Divine unity, the conversion of Paul was the means whereby God took possession of the man who was to be his instrument in bringing about this unparalleled revolution.

"The moment had come when the Divine covenant, established in Abraham with a single family, was to extend to the whole world and embrace as God had promised to the Patriarch all the families of the earth.. . . But there was needed an exceptional agent for this extraordinary work. The appearing of Jesus had paved the way for it but had not yet been able to accomplish it. The twelve Palestinian Apostles were not fitted for such a task. We have found in studying Paul's origin and character that he was the man specially designed and prepared beforehand. And unless we are to regard the work he accomplished, which Renan calls the capital event in the history of the world as accidental, we must consider the act whereby he was enrolled in the service of Christ and called to this work as one directly willed of God and worthy of being effected by his immediate interposition. Christ himself, with a strong hand and an arm outstretched when the hour struck, laid hold of the instrument which the Father had chosen for him. These thoughts in their entirety form precisely the contents of the preamble to the Epistle we propose to study (Rom. 1:1-5).

"What passed in the soul of Saul during the three days which followed this violent disturbance he tells us himself in the beginning of Romans 6. This pas sage in which we hear the immediate echo of the Damascus experience answers our question in two words: a death and a resurrection. The death was that of the self idolatrous Saul: death to his own righteousness or, what comes to the same thing, to the law. Whether had he been led by his impetuous zeal for the fulfilling of the law? To make war on God and to persecute the Messiah and his true people! Some hidden vice must certainly cleave to a self righteousness cultivated so carefully and which led him to a result so monstrous. That vice he now discerned clearly. In wishing to establish his own righteousness, it was not God, it was himself whom he had sought to glorify. The object of his adoration was his ego, which by his struggles and victories he hoped to raise to moral perfection with the view of being able to say in the end: Behold this great Babylon which I have built! The disquietude that had followed him on this path and driven him to a blind and bloody fanaticism was no longer a mystery to him. The truth of that declaration of scripture, which he had till now only applied to the Gentiles, was palpable in his own case. There is not a just man, no, not one (Rom. 3:10).

The great fact of the corruption and condemnation of the race, even in the best of its representatives, had acquired for him the evidence of a personal experience. This was to him that death which he afterwards described in the terms: I through the law am dead to the law (Gal. 2:19).

"But, simultaneously with this death, there was wrought in him a resurrection. A justified Saul appeared in the sphere of his consciousness in place of the condemned Saul and, by the working of the spirit, this Saul became a new creature in Christ. Such is the forcible expression used by Paul himself to designate the radical change that passed within him (2 Cor. 5:17).

How He Regarded His Baptism

"Accustomed as he was to the Levitical sacrifices demanded by the law for every violation of legal ordinances, Saul had no sooner experienced sin within him in all its gravity, and with all its consequences of condemnation and death, than he must also have felt the need of a more efficacious expiation than that which the blood of animal victims can procure. The bloody death of Jesus, who in his glory as the Christ had just manifested himself to him, then presented it self to his view in its true light. Instead of seeing in it as the justly deserved punishment of a false Christ, as hitherto, he recognized in it the great expiatory sacrifice offered by God himself to wash away the sin of the world and his own. The portrait of the Servant of Jehovah drawn by Isaiah of that unique person on whom God lays the iniquity of all . . . he now understood to whom he must apply it. Already the interpretations in the vulgar tongue which accompanied the reading of the Old Testament in the synagogues, and which were afterwards preserved in our Targums, referred such passages to the Messiah.

In Saul's case the veil fell; the cross was transfigured before him into the instrument of the worlds salvation. The resurrection of Jesus, which had become a palpable fact since the Lord had appeared to him bodily, was henceforth the proclamation made by God himself of the justification of humanity, the monument of the complete amnesty offered to our sinful world. My righteous Servant shall justify many, were the words of Isaiah after having described the resurrection of the Servant of Jehovah as the sequel of his voluntary immolation. Saul now contemplated with wonder and adoration the fulfillment of this promise, the accomplishment of this work. The new righteousness was before him as a free gift of God in Jesus Christ. There was nothing to be added to it. It was enough to accept and rest on it in order to possess the blessing he had pursued through so many labors and sacrifices: peace with God.

"He entered joyfully into the simple part of one accepting, believing. Dead and condemned in the death of the Messiah, he lived again justified in his risen person. It was on this revelation, received during the three days at Damascus, that Saul lived till his last breath.

"One can understand how, in this state of soul and as the result of this inward illumination, he regarded the baptism in the name of Jesus which Ananias ad ministered to him. If he has presented in Romans 6 this ceremony under the image of death, burial, and resurrection through the participation of faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, he has in so expressing himself only applied to all Christians his own experience in his baptism at Damascus.

Reached the End of Mosaic Discipline

"To the grace of justification, of which ths ceremony was to him the assured seal, there was added that of regeneration by the creative operation of the Spirit, who transformed his reconciled heart and produced a new life within it. All the energy of his love turned to that Christ who had become his substitute, guilty in order to become the author of is righteousness, and to the God who had bestowed on him this unspeakable gift. Thus there was laid within him the principle of true holiness. What had been impossible for him till then, self-emptying and life for God, was at length wrought in his at once humble and joyful heart. Jesus, who had been his substitute on the cross in order to become his righteousness, was easily substituted for himself in his heart in order to become the object of his life. The free obedience he had vainly sought to accomplish under the yoke of the law became in his grateful heart, through the Spirit of Christ, a holy reality. And he could henceforth measure the full distance between the state of a slave and that of a child of God.

"From this experience there could not but spring up a new light on the true character of the institutions of the law. He had been accustomed to regard the law of Moses as the indispensable agent of the worlds salvation; it seemed to him destined to become the standard of life for the whole race, as it had been for the life of Israel. But now, after the experience that he had just made of the powerlessness of this system to justify and sanctify man, the work of Moses appeared in all its insufficiency. He still saw in it a pedagogical institution, but one merely temporary. With the Messiah, who realized all that he had expected from the law, the end of the Mosaic discipline was reached.

Ye are complete in Christ (Col. 2:10). What avails henceforth that which was only the shadow of the dispensation of Christ? For him it could no longer avail anything (Col. 2:16, 17).

"And who, then, was He in whose person and work there was thus given to Him the fullness of Gods gifts without the help of the law? A mere man? Saul remembers that the Jesus who was condemned to death by the Sanhedrin was so condemned as a blasphemer for having declared himself the Son of God.

This affirmation had hitherto seemed to him the height of impiety and imposture. Now the same affirmation, taken with the view of the sovereign majesty of him whom he beheld on the way to Damascus, stamps this being with a Divine seal and makes him bend the knee before his sacred person. He no longer sees in the Messiah merely a son of David but the Son of God.

The Light of Pentecost Also Upon Him

"With this change in his conception of the Christ there is connected another not less decisive change in his conception of the Messiahs work. So long as Paul had seen nothing more in the Messiah than the son of David, he had understood his work as the glorification of Israel only and the extension of the discipline of the law to the whole world. But from the time that God had revealed to him in the person of this son of David according to the flesh the appearing of a Divine being, his own son, his view of the Messiahs work brew with that of his person (Rom. 1:2,3). The son of David might belong to Israel only, but the Son of God could not have come here below save to be the Savior and Lord of all that is called man. Were not all human distinctions effaced before such a messenger? Paul himself has indicated this result in those striking words of the Epistle to the Galatians: When it pleased God, who separated me from my mothers womb and called me by his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen. . . . (Gal. 1:16). His Son. The heathen. These two notions were necessarily correlative! The revelation of the one must accompany that of the other. This relation between the divinity of Christ and the universality of his kingdom is the key to the preamble of the Epistle to the Romans.

"The powerlessness of the discipline of the law to save man, the freeness of salvation, the end of the Mosaic economy through the advent of the Messianic salvation, the divinity of the Messiah, the universal destination of his work -- all these elements of Paul's new religious conception of his gospel, to quote the words twice used in our Epistle (Rom. 2:16; Rom. 16:25), were thus involved in the very fact of his conversion. They became more or less directly disentangled as objects of consciousness in that internal evolution that took place under the light of the Spirit during the three days following the decisive event. What the light of Pentecost had been to the Twelve as the sequel of the contemplation of Jesus on the earth, which they had enjoyed for three years, the illumination of those three days following the sudden contemplation of the glorified Lord was to St. Paul."

Wise Counsel from a Faithful Pastor

"Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free,
and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." - Gal. 5:1.

FROM time to time the question is raised: Would it not be pos­sible to formulate a list of elementary, fundamental truths, the acceptance of which would be all that was necessary to enable followers of the Master to attain and enjoy Christian liberty, unity, and fellow­ship? To such a question I reply It surely is possible. As a matter of fact it has been done for us. The list was compiled many years ago, and consists of seven foundation truths of our "most holy faith." A wise and faithful Pastor furnished this list, and, did so, I am persuaded, under the guidance of the holy spirit of God. These seven vital truths are grouped together by none other than the great Apostle to the Gen­tiles himself, in Ephesians 4:2-6; as follows:

"One 'body, and one spirit,, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

Here the Apostle mentions:

1. The Author of unity - "One God and Father.

2. The Center of unity - "There is one Lord."

3. The Door of unity - "There is one baptism."

4. The Kinship of unity - "There is one body."

5. The Nature of unity - "There is one spirit."

6. The Goal of unity - "There is one hope of your calling."

7. The Creed of unity - "There is one faith."

WHAT IS THE "ONE FAITH"?

What is the "one faith" mentioned as item 7 in the list? Ah! it is here, very often, that our wily adversary is successful in ensnaring those not on the alert. All the more impor­tant that we should be as was the case with Jesus, of "quick under­standing" in the reverence of Jeho­vah, that we should be fully in­formed as to just what the faith is, quick to detect the counterfeit from the true. What, then, is the "one faith"? Let a wise and faithful Pastor, who labored long and earn­estly in our own times, make reply. I quote:

"The one faith, which all should hold, was a very simple one; one so simple that all, the learned and the unlearned alike, could grasp it and comprehend it, and be fully persuaded in their own minds' con­cerning it. It was not a dose of incongruous mysteries, inconsistent with themselves and inharmonious with reason as well as with the Bible, to be swallowed by the ig­norant with credulity, and by the learned with hypocritical mental reservations. But it was so simple, so clear, so reasonable, that any and every honest follower of Christ could be fully persuaded in his own mind regarding its truth. What is this one faith? The basis of it is stated by Paul, thus: 'I delivered unto you first of all, that which I also, received first of all -- as a foundation truth or doctrine, upon and in harmony with which all other doctrines must be built], how that Christ died for .our sins, according to the Scriptures; and that he was buried; and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.' (1 Cor. 15:3, 4.) 'There is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.' - 1 Tim. 2:5, 6.

"This, in a word, confesses sin and utter helplessness; it acknowl­edges God's loving plan for our redemption; it owns that our Lord's death was our ransom price; and that forgiveness (justification), and reconciliation to God, and the resti­tution of believers, come as a result of faith in this Redeemer, when in due time that plan is made known to each and all.

"These brief statements contain the whole Gospel, in the same sense that an acorn contains an oak tree. Without this Gospel kernel, the true Gospel can never be possessed; hence this must be insisted on as a test, of Christian fellowship. This must be received, else the Gospel is not received. When it is received, the Gospel is received....

A PERFECT BASIS OF UNION

"This true Gospel, this simple faith, easily understood and con­fessed by the weakest babe in Christ, must also be, and always, and equal­ly the faith of the most developed sons of God. This one faith (and not the endless ramifications and details of faith which lead out from it) Paul placed -- as a standard or test of all claiming the name Chris­tian. All the consecrated who agreed on this one standard, or foundation truth, Paul counted as in and off the one Church. While each, member was to grow in grace, knowledge, and love, there would always be harmony and oneness in the faith and fellowship of the Church, if all growth were kept in line and harmony with this foundation truth.

"Here was a' perfect basis of union, which allowed for all the various stages of individual development in the truth, and which most effectually guarded against errors. For if this simple creed were today made the standard by which all doctrines should be tested, it would speedily lead to the discarding of every error, and to the true union of the Church in the 'one Lord, one faith, and one baptism.'

"'The endeavor to Compel all men to think alike on all subjects, cul­minated in the great apostasy and the development of the great Papal sys­tem; and thereby the 'gospel, the one faith,' which Paul and the, oth­er Apostles set forth, was lost­ -- buried under the mass of uninspir­ed decrees of popes and councils. The union of the early Church, based upon the simple Gospel and bound only by love, gave place to the bondage of 'the Church' of Rome -- a slavery of God's children, from the degradation of which multitudes are still weak and suffering.

THE TRUE BIBLE STUDENT'S PLACE

"The Reformation movement of the "sixteenth century, came as an ef­fort to regain liberty of conscience; but, deluded by the idea of an elab­orate creed, insisted upon for so many centuries, the reformers and their followers formed other systems of bondage very similar to that of Papacy, though slight modifications gave liberty to fuller ideas on some subjects. And so it has been ever since: each new reform movement has made the failure of attempting to make a creed just large enough for its prime movers." - Reprints R1572.

One very subtle device of these latter, days is to profess that a large measure of liberty may properly enough be enjoyed by those mem­bers, of an ecclesia who are not el­ders, but that such liberty must be denied those members who are el­ders. This leaven has permeated many Classes of Bible Students in recent years. For this season we reprint again a paragraph from the' "Wise Counsel" of February. There­in it will be noted that not only the place of the true Bible Student, but that of the true teacher is clearly in­dicated:

"The true teacher's place, and the true Bible student's place, is outside of all human bondage, free to examine and feed upon all por­tions of the good Word of God, and untrammeled to follow the Lamb' whithersoever he leads." - S.S. Vol. III, p. C145.

- P. L. Read.

Sacred Songs

By JOHN T. READ

To identify our records and to distin­guish them from those sold for profit un­der the names of the well-known compa­nies, they will carry the trade name­ -- PASTORAL.

A list of Song titles, together with order information, will be published in the April "Herald."

In response to many requests, Brother John has had R.C.A. Victor phonograph records made, which will be offered to "Herald" readers at cost.

They will include such well-known favorites as "Great is Thy Faithfulness," "Gathering Home," "The Ninety and Nine," and several others.

The Question Box

"Selah!"

Question:

What is the meaning of the word "Selah" which appears many times in the Psalms?

Answer:

The scholars do not agree as to the meaning of this word. The best dis­cussion that has come to my attention appeared in the magazine Bibliotheca Sacra some years ago, as follows

"The translators of the Bible have left the Hebrew word 'Selah,' which occurs so often in the Psalms, as they found it, and of course the English reader often asks his minister, or learned friend, what it means. And the minister, or learned friend, has most often been obliged to confess ig­norance, because it is a matter in re­gard to which the most learned have by no means been of one mind. The Targums, and most of the Jewish com­mentators, give to the word the mean­ing of eternally forever. Rabbi Kimchi regards it as a sign to elevate the voice. The authors of the Septuagint translation appear to have regarded it as a musical or rhythmical note. Hender regarded it as indicating a change of the note; Matheson as a musical note, equivalent perhaps, to the word repeat. According to Luther and others, it means silence! Gesenius explains it to mean, 'Let the instru­ment play and the singer stop.' Wocher regards it as the equivalent to sursum corda -- up, my soul! Som­mer, after examining all the seventy ­four passages in which the word oc­curs, recognizes in every case 'an ac­tual appeal or summons to Jehovah.' They are calls for aid and prayers to be heard, expressed either with entire directness, or if not in the imperative, 'Hear, Jehovah!' or, 'Awake, Jehovah!' and the like still earnest address to God that he would remember and hear, etc. The word itself he regards as indicating a blast of the trumpets by the priest. 'Selah,' itself, he thinks an abridged expression, used for Higgaion Selah -- Higgaion indicat­ing the sound of the stringed instru­ments, and Selah a vigorous blast of trumpets."

-P. L. Read

The Beauty of Jesus in Me

My life touched yours for a very brief space, 
And what, oh what did you see?
A hurried, a worried, an anxious face?
Or the beauty of Jesus in me?
Was I steeped so deep in the ways of the world
That you couldn't detect one thing 
That would set me apart and show that my heart
 
Belonged to the Heavenly King?
Did I carry no banner for Jesus my Lord?
Not one thing at all that could show 
Whose side I am on in the glorious fight?
I am His! But you wouldn't know. 
Forgive me! and if we should e'er meet again
 
Upon earth, oh I pray you will see
No mark of this world, but His banner unfurled,
And the beauty of Jesus in me! 

- Alice Hanshe Mortenson.

Jesus

The gentle sighing of the wind among the pines,
The joyous singing of the lark at break of day, 
The rippling of the water-brooks through cooling shade, 
The patter of the softly falling rain at night,
Are sounds less sweet by far than His most precious name.
 
No Art can show a form so gracious and so fair,
No Master's hand hath drawn a smile so wondrous sweet, 
Nor could depict the majesty of that pure brow; 
No canvass ever glowed with such a holy light 
As shines from His most radiant image in my heart.
 
The dearest earthly, friend may fail in time of need,
The sweetest and" the loveliest grow' cold at heart,
The nearest may not heed the ;throbbing heart's sad cry, 
The gayest throng may hold the loneliest solitude, 
But Jesus, Jesus never fails my call to hear.
 
Oh, may the music of Thy name more clearly fall 
Upon my ears attuned to catch that sweetest sound! 
Oh, may Thine image, in my heart so bright become 
That I by gazing may be changed into the same,
Oh, blessed Jesus, let Thy presence ne'er depart, 
Oh, come and reign forevermore within my heart! - 

 Gertrude W. Seibert.

Excerpts From Interesting Letters

The writer had heard Brother John Read's discourse on Love some time ago, and was most happy to have it in print in the article "The Golden Rod Given to John" in the November "Herald." Several in our Class have so expressed themselves and with that in mind we are enclosing our check for $----- and a list of those who we hope will equally enjoy and profit by this fine issue of the "Herald." We are casting our bread upon the waters,' and should the Lord be so dis­posed, we shall rejoice in any return there may be.

May the Lord richly bless and comfort you in all your labors for Him.

(Mrs.) R. R. H. -- Dayton, Ohio.

Just received and read the last "Her­ald." Noting that my subscription has expired, I hasten to renew. The "Her­ald" is one magazine I, want to continue to get, with its sound, edifying, inspiring, wholesome, and Scriptural articles, one could hardly find any where else. Be as­sured I am in the class' agreeing with the article on "Wise Counsel," etc., on page 174 of the December issue. I have always held to this independent, free attitude here set forth not to be in bondage or tied up with any sect, or Truth faction, but follow the Bible liberty.

F. R. -- La.

Greetings and love in the name of our God and Savior. Am constrained to write a few lines. As I have sold my little place in the country near here -- getting too old for its care -- I wish to have its little tithe to help in the spreading of the truth, so am enclosing part in this letter. I haven't much, but would like it to accomplish its maximum of work. I will be 78 years old the 18th of December. Now I would like you to send me the "Herald" for the rest of my life, and use the balance where most needed. Have been receiving the "Herald" a. number of years, and don't want to miss it. Will close, praying God's help and blessing on you all, and that the work may prosper and grow until our Lord's due time to finish.

J. S. J. -- Wis. 

Please send me one, copy of the Reve­lation Vol. II, as per your announcement in the current issue of the "Herald." Your announcement was the most pleasant news I had heard for a long time, as I had been wanting a copy of Rev. Vol. II for many years.

H. J. H. -- Minn.

I want to thank you for sending me the November issue of the "Herald." I be­lieve I have never read a better lesson, poured out of the heart, with as broad an understanding of the standards, prin­ciples, set before us in the Holy Scrip­tures, as children of God pressing toward the mark for the prize of the High Call­ing of God in Christ Jesus, as was the article written by Brother John Read, The Golden Rod Given to John."

The St. Louis convention in October was wonderful-the sincere and joyous praises to God in the testimony period by those who had recently come into "pres­ent truth," and the helpful, encouraging discourses, and above all, the high stand­ards of fellowship in which love was in evidence as a principle of action toward all in attendance.

I pray for you continually.
(Mrs.) G. T. C. -- Ill.

As secretary of the Milwaukee Ecclesia it becomes my duty and pleasure to report to you that the Ecclesia at its annual meet­ing passed a motion requesting me to write to you and request the services of the 'Pilgrim brethren for the coming year as we have in the past. The visits of the various brethren in the past have been very much appreciated, and we hope that our fellowship together has been a means of blessing to them as their ministrations have been to us.

M. C., Sec. -- Wis.

"The, Golden Rod Given to John" is exceptionally good. It is so practical yet so clearly- and beautifully stated. It should be much easier to measure our­selves after a reading of it. I found it so.

(Mrs.) E. W. -- Ont.

We appreciate very much the articles in the "'Herald, the work of the Directors and of the Editorial Committee, and the service of the Pilgrim brethren -- all co­workers in the greatest of all labors on behalf of the sheep of His pasture -- sure­ly a Pastoral work indeed.

At our annual meeting, the Appleton Class instructed me as Class Secretary to send a vote of thanks to the Institute for the good services rendered to the Class here during 1954, through the "Herald" and the Pilgrim Service, and to ask that these services be continued during 1955. With much love from all,

F. W. Petran,* Sec Wis.

-------------------------

*As will be noted in the "Recently Deceased" column, Brother Petran ended his labors here since sending us this encouraging message.

Greetings of love in Christ our dear Redeemer. Enclosed you will find our subscription to the "Herald for another year. We would be pleased to have, you send the extra copy as you have been doing.

The October and November issues were truly inspiring and uplifting:- We were deeply impressed by the article, "Be­hold the Bridegroom," by Brother Alibon. Brother Siekman's article in the Novem­ber issue was so timely and helpful; and we were greatly helped by the heart searching and enlightening article by Brother J. T. Read, "The Golden Rod Given to John." We read and re-read them over and over again.

These dear, brethren will never know how much good they have done, how much encouragement they have given us as we endeavor to earnestly and sincere­ly walk in, the footprints of our Lord.. How the Lord must love them. Pray for us as we do for you all.

Brother and Sister W. H. G. -- Pa.

I just received my copy of the "Herald and read with interest Brother P. L. Read's article on "God's Plan for Israel" which is very timely. The "Herald," in my opinion is very outstanding. I like the way you have your publication set up, that is, with the, brethren signing the articles they write. It makes your pub­lication more personal, and adds interest to the articles.

J, W. B. -- Texas.

I hope you will not stop the paper. Sis­ter B. and I were very eager to have our sons right-minded. You have helped dur­ing many years. Please stay as you are. 'It may not be too much longer.

H. B., Sr. -- Fla
.

It was a great privilege to have Brother Alex Gonczewski with us and the Class enjoyed his message: As usual our family received the most blessing for it was our privilege to have him in our home.

T. H. M. -- Term

We are continuing to enjoy the deep­ly spiritual articles in the "Herald." They are a. source of blessing and encourage­ment; also the visits of the Pilgrim breth­ren are much appreciated. Their min­istry of fellowship is certainly a blessing.

A. M., Sec. -- Montreal, Que.

Distinguishing Marks

What are the distinguishing marks of a ripe character?

One mark is beauty. Ripe fruit has its own perfect beauty. As the fruit ripens, the sun tints it with surpassing t loveliness, and the color deepens until the beauty of the fruit is equal to the color of the blossom, and in some respects superior. There is in ripe Christians the beauty of realized sanctification, which the Word of God knows by the name of the "beauty of holiness."

Another mark of ripe fruit is tenderness. The young, green fruit is hard and stone-like. The mature Christian is noted for tenderness of spirit.

Another mark of ripeness is sweetness. The unripe fruit is sour. As we grow in grace, we are sure to grow in charity, sympathy, and love. We shall, as we ripen in grace, have greater sweetness toward our Fellow Christians. Bitter spir­ited Christians may know a great deal, but they are immature.

Those, who are quick to censure may be very acute in judgment, but they are as yet immature in heart. I know we who are young beginners in grace think ourselves quali­fied too reform the whole Christian Church. We drag her before us, and condemn her straightway; but when our virtues become more mature, I trust we shall be more tolerant of infirmity, more hopeful for the people of God, and cer­tainly less arrogant in our criticisms. Another and a very sure mark of ripeness is a loose hold on earth. Ripe fruit easily parts from the stem.

- Spurgeon, Reprints, page R1317.

Recently Deceased

Sister Dora Borst, Albany, N. Y. - (December). 
Sister A. A. Hart, Sydney, Aus.-formerly Sister
Georgina Anderson, Glasgow, Scot: - (January).
Sister Caroline Kisker, Chicago, III. - (January). 
Sister Ruth V. Klak, Covert, Mich. - (January).
Sister Ethel Louise McCoy, Belleville, Ont. - (January). 
Sister Minnie Moore, Columbus, Ohio - (January). 
Brother F. W. Petran, Appleton, Wis. - (February).
Brother John C. Strickler, Parkersburg, W. Va. - (December).

1955 Index